#it has been Some Time since i had to write an academic essay on dracula so please forgive me for this GCSE-esque breakdown

[princepestilence]

NYR: September in review.

Post-September horoscrope: “The only way out is through.”

And baby we got through... And to continue to go through. Turns out all things are endless until they're not. Here's some of the things that happened in September:

Dissertation revision! Huge amount of work went into getting the thesis to this point in September, which is now one week away from finished. I'll be handing it in officially in less than four weeks. .

Work. A huge amount of work went into getting everything ready for our season launch in November. October will also be busy on this front, but in some ways less so since the majority of work I have to do is in the next week or so and then it'll be relatively relaxed. .

Celebrated my mum's birthday. It was her first birthday without her, and would have been her 60th. Despite how deeply sad that is, we had a lot of fun and genuinely enjoyed our time together talking about her and our favourite memories. We did all the things she would have loved, that we'd intended to do with her, so in some ways things continue on the same. .

Saw Alphonse Mucha's work in person. And it was beautiful. It's been decades of loving his art by this point, so getting to see it in person was kind of a bucket list event I didn't realise I had until the opportunity came up. It's got me thinking about what else I'd want to do if I could.

Lots of theatre. Goes without saying at this point, but I am going to say it because it's fun and also does require something of me (i.e., I have to make myself go out and see it even though I am so tired and my time is so limited) so I am counting this as an achievement. The favourite was absolutely Dracula's Cabaret. I am still thinking about the blacklight skeleton puppet band. .

Trivia with Clair's coworkers. It took the best part of the year to actually get me there but we managed it in the end. Lucky for them they'd already decided to double the points for the last category, which was animals, and I got the ponderous puzzle on the second round, so, needless to say, we missed first place by only one point. No-one appreciates autism more than people who just scored free drinks at the pub because of it.

In October, I will:

Submit my dissertation. It will be over. I will be free. .

Go to our friends' wedding. Our friends are getting married (two days ago at time of writing). There's increasingly few unmarried friends in the circuit now, and we all know who's next anyway. .

See Frankenstein at Theatre Royal. It was so good. I absolutely loved it. It feels very fitting this timing as well, since some of the first academic essays I wrote on monsters -- in my Year 12 HSC, if I'm remembering correctly -- were on Frankenstein and also How To Train Your Dragon, and I've now seen both productions right before handing in my PhD. The more things change, the more they stay the same. .

Celebrate my nephew's first birthday! I can't really believe it's come up so fast. This year has been a blur. .

Proofreading gig. Going right from final edits of my thesis into edits of someone else's work. It's good timing, though, since November and December I want to spend doing very little but entertaining myself -- but also the pay from this gig will more than cover my trip to Japan next year, so very happy to be setting that up.