Living the Dream
Christmas Is Coming
AJ has a rule: no Christmas anything before Thanksgiving. I’ve never had Thanksgiving before, so it struck me as a rather late embargo. My rule is it’s Christmas when I smell Christmas, be that the beginning of October or 24th December (and yes, smelling Christmas in the air is totally a thing). (more…)
Living the Dream
Happy Thanksgiving
This is my first Thanksgiving, and I’m going for total immersion, visiting the in-laws and eating them out of house and home. I’ve got my sights set on a whole series of pies AJ’s mom has already made. Heaven. Wherever you are tomorrow, eat lots, be happy, and take a minute to Read more…
Living the Dream
On Living the Crockpot Life #recipes
I’d never used a crockpot before last month. *gasp* When I moved Stateside, one of the first things I set my sights on was AJ’s. I have issues with the food in America: if it isn’t restaurant quality (and I mean the sort of restaurant where they make stuff from scratch with actual ingredients rather than the sort of restaurant where they serve you plastic food-ish through your car window) then I become a very sick puppy. As I’m mostly pathetic when I’m feeling sick, it’s for the good of everyone (and my bank account) I make my own food.
Enter the crockpot. It promises so many things. Delicious, healthful, simple (cheap!) meals, thrown in early and forgotten about until my stomach’s ready to digest itself. Om-nom-nom. (more…)
Living the Dream
Big Brother Is Here
Run, the machines are coming. Creepy, insidious little boxes are turning up on dining tables in restaurants across America, and I for one hate them. (more…)
Living the Dream
On Paperwork
I was going to take my driving test today. AJ’s been grilling me on all the rules of the road, I’ve been zooming around the streets like a local (or better: I actually use my blinker), and I was all psyched up and ready to go. I’d got my social security number, my UK licence, my passport, one piece of mail with my current address on it, and AJ to sign her life away by swearing I lived with her. (more…)
Queer Stuff
Sexing Queer Bodies
I write gay romance. By which I mean, I write love stories. Boy meets boy (or occasionally, boys), there’s lots of angsty goodness, then they all live happily ever after. Sometimes there’s sex, but sometimes there’s not. Yet I am classified as an erotica writer with alarming regularity. (more…)
Living the Dream
On Solidarity
The world woke up this morning to devastating scenes from Paris. I watched them unfold last night with my heart in my mouth. The reports were garbled, bits and pieces of news coming in from Twitter users and the odd reporter who happened to be on the ground as the attacks took place. Stories were published, corrected, and amended in moments. Chaos reigned. (more…)
Queer Blogging
Dropping the T from LGB
It’s the last point on which the legislation died. The right wing whipped up a frenzy about “men” being allowed into women’s bathrooms, and that was all the general public heard or knew about the amendment. Even Wikipedia describes the ordinance solely as a bill which “gave transgender women the right to use women’s restrooms.” (more…)
Living the Dream
The FedEx Debacle
One of the biggest dramas of moving to the U.S., after getting all my paperwork sorted, was what to do with my stuff. I narrowed it down over the months before the move (thank you, eBay!) but I still had rather a lot; yet not enough to make shipping it over cost- or time-effective. So I started looking into sending it by post. I managed to get about fifteen packages shipped over in twos and threes, but in order to send the bulk (and the more expensive items) I needed to have the right customs paperwork or I’d have to pay import duty on the lot. (more…)