SPRING HAS SPRUNG it's ✨MJC-mail!✨
Moving house, meeting the family & french toast
Hello my gorgeous sugar poppets! 🌞
I am sitting outside in the sun (spf on!) hoping my laptop doesn’t overheat as I write you the first proper MJC-mail since my book announcement! It feels good to be back 🥰
April was all about getting back into the swing of work/life after being a book-writing recluse for the first few months of the year, and it has been mainly glorious 💮 a lot is happening!! So I’ll fill you in and then maybe you can update me on what’s going on with you, too! 💖
WE ARE MOVING IN TOGETHER! Char has kinda sorta been living at my place for a good while now, but we’ve decided to properly dive in and get a new place that is ours (and we’ve waited multiple years, which is very un-lesbian of us!).
Lots of my time has been taken up with frantic flat-hunting, going to see places that look nothing like the pictures, panicking that we’ll be kicked out before we find somewhere etc.etc. BUT it’s looking hopeful, so fingers crossed we’ll be somewhere new this time next month!
I am, of course, low key devastated to be leaving the best four-legged neighbour a girl could ask for. I hope whoever lives here next is ok with daily cat visits and appreciates Gilbert as much as we have! 🐱
We had a delightful Easter up north with Char’s family and tried to make our annual egg hunt even bigger and better than before.
I wore a crop top one of the days and Char’s youngest niece screamed and pointed to my stomach, I asked why she was screaming and she said ‘because I can see your BELLY!’, I said ‘that’s okay, I like my belly!’ which she accepted and went about her business. I love being a fun bopo auntie!
I’ve had some lovely friend dates this month including a cute lil art afternoon:
Plus a catch-up with Joeley where I ate possibly the BEST thing I’ve ever put in my mouth:
It’s been back to non-book related work events as well! A highlight has been getting to co-host the DIVA awards with Char 🥹 it’s a night that celebrates the amazing achievements of queer women and non-binary people and I LOVED getting to announce the winners and feel how happy they all were to have their work recognised.
I also spent an afternoon with Threads celebrating my friend David's wonderful new book, Frequently Happy:
David is such a good egg (if you don’t follow him already, you’re welcome!), he led a poetry-writing workshop, we ate drool-worthy food and left believing in our own creativity, which I really need in the run-up to book promotion!!
And to finish the month off, the absolute best bit:
Char’s mum and step-dad travelled down to meet Gemma and the rest of the family for the first time 🥹 and it went so well. So much laughter and ease. Gem and Kam (Char’s mum) got along so well you’d think they’d known each other forever, absolute partners in crime.
Feeling very very grateful for the amount of love that’s been present and also very aware that this is the point - not the shiny career moments, number of book sales, or any other external ‘achievement’. Being in the love is the point. 💜
And that’s a wrap on April! Wish us luck with the flat move… hopefully we don’t need it but 😅 as always the comments are wiiiiiidddeeeee open and I would love to know how YOU are doing!! Recent highs/lows? Realisations? Any songs stuck in your head? Share if you wanna 😘
Take care of the one and only precious you,
Love,
MJC 💜
Good luck with flat hunting! I hope you find a wonderful cozy place with new furry neighbors (Also, yay for art and poetry workshops!)
It's a bit rough out here in the US, as you might imagine, but I'm continually taking comfort and inspiration in all the people who are doing wonderful things despite the current administration. Now that the springtime is here, I'm back to hiking in the mountains and doing daily walks, and that boosts the serotonin, too (there is NOTHING like a friendly cursing match with a squirrel as you climb up a rockslide). I've been writing a lot and actually letting my words see the light of day/be heard by other people, which is miiiildly terrifying but also kinda cool, so here's an across-the-ocean fist bump for letting our words be heard!
I'll join everyone with a big congrats on the move! Though honestly I too am devastated to no longer be getting pictures of the goodest boy kitty!! And hahah Gemma is a star wherever she goes!
I'm in a BIG transitional moment right now. I'm about to go on a trip to Europe to visit friends (leaving tomorrow) and this is the first time I'm doing an international flight since becoming disabled 5 years ago, so I'm very excited but also nervous to see how it goes, especially since I'll be solo. I've also been on a job hunt, and the market here in Canada is not great, especially since I have more restrictions on the jobs I'm able to accept given that I need accessibility accommodations.
So, as I continue to look for jobs to pay the bills, I also have finally started a new venture that I've been dreaming of, which, if it works out, might give me the freedom that I need around work. I HAVE STARTED MY OWN SUBSTACK!!! My page aims to make academic research more accessible, more understandable, and more fun! I write articles on relevant, cool, whacky, or interesting topics, and also I'll be doing a paid series of strategies for taking control of your research consumption.
I think the MJC community might like some of my content???!! Here's my latest post, which explores academic research on JoJo Siwa and how her fashion is reflective of her behaviour and her life as a child star and 'fan object.'
https://open.substack.com/pub/theresresearch/p/bows-and-rhinestones-what-jojo-siwas?r=pm4cz&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
I also have an instagram that I just started for the page as well (@researchonthat). Admittedly, it's been hard to post sometimes, because I don't love how my body looks in some of the videos, BUT i'm also not willing to do a whole makeup routine and change just for a video that is supposed to be about the content anyway. And I hope that me just showing up looking REAL (no filters no nothing) is in some ways powerful???!! who knows lol.
Anyway, thanks MJC for the updates, and thank you to everyone in the comments for this community. And if you'd like to check out my content on substack or instagram I would be so grateful! I hope I'm not being delusional, but I feel like this substack career could maybe work out???? XO