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That is where Mike and I live. All by ourselves, all on our own. heart

September of 2012 we moved out of the studio apartment in Stockton and back in with my parents. I rented a storage unit (Las Palmas Self-Storage!) and almost exclusively took charge of the move. With the move I was also able to sell a lot more of my Sonic the Hedgehog collectibles, the funds from which helped us pay bills and loans while Mike searched for a new job.

It took a long while. About eight months, in fact. A lot happened during that time.

To begin with, Chevy (who I'd formerly known at a distance through the L4D fandom) hopped on the Science Bros ship and he and I began writing a highschool AU together using Googledocs. We are still writing it as of this update; it's over 46 chapters long, 305k words. While at first I was hesitant to become too close of friends with him (preferring to stay writing partners), I slowly opened up; we shared phone calls and Skype calls, and just last month he got on a plane and came to visit me in person, just to visit me. We had a fantastic week of sight-seeing, roller coasters, DDR, and chit-chatting late into the night. He is truly a good friend.

After Christmas, I took my parents aside to inform them of my intention to legally change my name, and that I would be going by Diedrich socially in 2013. Neither took it well, and I was emotionally torn for weeks stretching into months after. My father went to the pyschologist with me and we had a few talks and I shared some transgender information with him; he will refer to me as 'Deedz' now, but continues to use female pronouns. My mother chooses willful ignorance. Thankfully, the physical distance I've gained from them by moving 'out of the nest' has helped me disassociate from the complex feelings I have regarding them. Until (or if) they accept me, I will never be as close to them as I was ever again.

I got my 2nd Dan in Tang Soo Do. cool Another two years and I'll be eligible for promotion to 3rd.

My brother gave college a shot. By that I mean he attended Pepperdine for a single semester, before taking a leave of absense that is still on-going. There was a fair amount of family drama regarding that. He secured himself a night-shift at Wal-mart over summer, but has since quit and is currently unemployed.

Mike meanwhile, got a job at Nvidia, which is why we now reside in Santa Clara. smile I really like it here. It's a nice part of town, we have a walking/running route, almost anywhere you could want to go is convenient, and people are mostly friendly. It's expensive to live here, but Mike pulls in enough that we still have extra for a few nice things. whee Upon settling in, I applied to Great America (only fifteen minutes away) and got a job as Talent for their Haunt. I start scaring next Wednesday (been to a few orientations) and I am very excited. I'm hoping I can get a job with them next summer, perhaps operating a coaster. Finally, a job I want.

So really, a lot of things are going great. To my future self, who will undoubtedly catch the referrence:

Goodnight, journal. Goodnight.