#so reassuring that there is at least one person online who will read my 10k chapter after my 2 year hiatus

[bodysharing]

MILK TIME!!!!! :DD

milk time :^)

[sunmontuewrites]

Fic snippets and summaries...

Because last night I found 79 fics... but here are the top five which I read and now want to finish after I have finished F&F (which finding these has lit a fire under me to get that fic done this weekend - I’d like to say today but real life things are happening too...) (I’ve included F&F below...)

Kurtofsky - 10k written so far - Dave is a famous actor who goes by the name of Dave Falcon, and Kurt is a super-outdoors fan (and paramedic). Due to a little stealth planning from Finn they meet...

         He’s not tanned at all, which sits at odds with his whole perception of Kurt being an outdoorsy person, but he supposes if anyone is as careful as Kurt in putting on sunscreen then they wouldn’t be tanned either. He’s sort of waiting for Kurt to ask him to do his back and he has to shake himself out of it, because he can see Kurt’s got it perfectly under control, obviously used to putting it on himself. It’s thicker, and there are some streaks, but he can tell Kurt got good coverage before he’s pulling the shirt back over his head. He wants to tell him not to bother but he can’t, years of practice of watching what he says keeping his mouth firmly closed.

         They keep walking, and he tries to pay attention to their surroundings rather than Kurt’s ass in front of him. Surely he can at least act suave and in control? It’s his profession after all. Except he doesn’t really want to act with Kurt. He wants to snap and be himself, grumpiness and everything. Fuck he’s a mess. Kurt stops again, bending over to place his tackle box on the ground and he swallows. In control. Right.

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Dave/Mike Chang - 6k written so far - Dave is a part-owner of a bar and the whole premise is alarmingly similar to Tale Feather except I had completely forgotten about this fic.

           They end up talking for nearly three hours, Neil bringing out a plate of food for them to nibble on and making semaphore signals at Dave with his eyebrows. He just rolls his eyes and makes a shooing gesture with his hand. Mike eventually starts making noises about having to leave and he notes the stab of disappointment in his gut, it quickly turns to anticipation with Mike’s next words.

           “I’ll be back later. You’ll be here right?”

           “Yeah, I live above the bar so there’s no getting away,” he jokes and there’s a spark of something in Mike’s eyes and he swallows, wondering if he’s reading him right. When Mike leans forward, definitely putting himself right in Dave’s personal space, lips not even an inch from his own and he knows he’s not reading it wrong. Fuck.

           “Do you want to get away?” He swallows and shakes his head, not trusting himself to say anything. “Good.”

           “I’ll see you later then,” he manages to croak out, not wanting to seem like a complete idiot and Mike grins.

           “I look forward to it.”

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Kurtofsky - 6k written so far - Sequel to Surf and Sand in which Kurt is a Hollywood A Lister and Dave is an oceanographer with a love of surfing.

           He doesn’t expect to see or hear from Kurt again while he’s in Hawaii, and the newspaper article the following day pretty much knocks the final nail in any hope that maybe he and Kurt would see more of each other. He gets an apologetic text, followed by another telling him he’ll see him state side, and he supposes that’s good news. However it leaves the rest of his short holiday as a chaotic shit storm.

           Despite Kurt’s sudden departure, the paparazzi don’t all leave, and both he and Neil are followed and asked questions… fortunately all his friends take it in their stride, finding the funnier side, which he’s eternally grateful for. And they all just continue to be themselves, which turns out to be incredibly boring all round and they soon stop being of interest after a couple of days. Trish informs them that pictures of them all do appear online, but that the accompanying articles and comments are all outlandish.

           “I’m just flattered they think Neil is hot enough to snag someone as stunning as Kurt Hummel.”

           “Hey! I’m a catch!” Neil protests and Dave and Trish both snort.

           “You keep telling yourself that honey.”

           “What! I am! Tell her Dave!”

           “Uh yeah, you’re a real catch,” Dave says placating, sharing a knowing look with Trish and they both grin. He has three more days of his break before he heads back to work, and he can totally handle the lame, repetitive questions aimed his way. His final night in Hawaii he gets a text, the first since Kurt left, and he figures he must have been really busy, although he hasn’t sent him any messages to respond to, unsure whether he should make the initial gesture despite not being back on the mainland.

           Sorry. Cleared up the mix up about Neil. Said I had just bumped into an old school friend. My apologies to Trish.

           Not your fault. They think it’s funny. Hilarious even.

           Depending on the sleuthing skills you might want to unlist your number. They have my senior year book. They won’t rest until they figure out who you are.

           I wasn’t at McKinley for senior year remember? Don’t worry about it.

           He’s not sure what more to say, because if he’s going to be friends with Kurt then the publicity and paparazzi are part of the package. It’s not Kurt’s fault, and there’s nothing he can do about it, except control some of what they know. He doesn’t mind if he tells them he’s a friend, because as much as they might stalk him, his life really isn’t that interesting.

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First & Foremost  - Sebkurtofsky - currently at 94k - just a snipped from the last chapter.

           He just nods, a little afraid to talk with how tight his throat is feeling. Sebastian pulls out a pair of sweat pants and shirt and he doesn’t bother worrying about modesty, the changing rooms and showers at NYADA have made him a lot less self-conscious. He undoes his belt, pulls off his jeans and laughs a little wetly when Sebastian help him pull the sweats up, tying them efficiently, because it should be undressing, not the opposite. He catches Sebastian’s eye and he seems to be amused by the same thought. Dave has been undoing the buttons on his shirt and he shrugs it off, sticking his arms into the arms of the red and black flannel that Sebastian is holding up.

           He feels a little floaty, and he wonders if he’s just that tired. Dave’s doing up the buttons and he’s pretty sure Dave and Sebastian are somehow having a silent conversation with their eyes, because he’s gently shuffled toward the bed and Sebastian is at his back, just a warm presence and he reaches out to grab his hand, squeezes it to try and give him some form of reassurance, because this isn’t exactly what he imagined when he was first going to be in bed together, but maybe it’s better.

           Sebastian moves to sit on the bed, his back against the headboard and cushions, motions for Kurt to sit between his spread legs. He crawls into the open space, presses his back against Sebastian’s chest, feels Sebastian wrap his arms around him and just hold him, chin hooking over his shoulder and he murmurs ‘you’re okay’ under his breath and Kurt lets himself relax back into it.

           “You’re a good cuddler too…”

           “I had a good teacher,” Sebastian says softly, giving him a light squeeze.

           Dave is sitting at his feet, a warm hand settling around an ankle and then his socks are being pulled off, and his feet will get cold, he’s about to complain when Dave’s thumb presses against the ball of his foot and oh… he lets out a little hum of pleasure.

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Kurtofsky - 4k - Kurt moves to London after 4 years in New York and gets his first proper job and there’s this guy on the same tube as him every morning... (spoiler, it’s Dave.)

           Of course his little holiday is over before he knows it and his first day of work he leaves ridiculously early. The tube ride takes over an hour, but there’s a paper he can read and it’s interesting looking at the people. Although none of them look back. When he eventually gets to work he ends up sitting on a cold bench, waiting for someone to come by and let him in, realizing about five minutes before someone shows up that he could have gone and got coffee while he waited. There seem to be enough of them. Regardless he lets himself listen to the instructions of his job, the information, break times and the exhibitions and products they have for sale. He’s told to explore the museum and become familiar with it and he can’t believe how lucky he is.

           The novelty wears off in the second week, and once he starts knowing the tube more reliably he starts leaving a bit later, more sure of the fact he won’t be late for work. If everything was running smoothly (which he soon found out wasn’t always the case) he could catch the 7.04am train. Of course it could arrive anytime between 7.02am and 7.20am. The first morning Kurt sits next to him he really doesn’t notice. He sits there, earphones in his ears, intent on the free METRO paper. Kurt has figured out that this carriage places him the closest to the escalator that would make it easier to change onto the District Line where he had to change at Embankment. He has a pattern.

           The guy wore the disinterested and detached gaze of many Londoners, particularly the ones who had a long commute. The gaze that said “Don’t bother me, don’t smile at me, do not start a conversation with me unless you already know me, and even then I might not reply…” That suited him and left him to daydream and plan out his day in advance.

           It wasn’t his fault the gentle jostling of the train made him fall asleep most mornings.

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[maia]

A Complete History of My Salary & Wages

A few months ago, I listened to a podcast interview of Ashley C Ford where she laid out the details on how much money she makes, and from which sources. I’ve thought about it a couple times since then and found it very grounding and reassuring whenever I did, even though I am not on the same career path as Ford, and I had never heard of her before the interview. (I have since started following her on twitter though and highly recommend it).

If you follow me on twitter, you know I am brutally honest on all kind of intimate topics. It’s because I believe in the strength behind transparency and the impact it can create. Transparency is particularly powerful with salaries and compensation, and that is why we had transparent salaries at Pinch. Well, that’s my motivational vibe.

So I am posting my complete salary history here in the hopes that it is interesting or helpful to other people.

2007: ~$25,000 in wages

Spock hired me as a summer marketing intern: $2,500/month salary (with potential for a $1,500 bonus at end of summer).

I was 18 when I started at Spock and had my 19th birthday there. I adored working for Spock — it taught me that being excited about the internet could be a career. And my boss Jay was the first person who really believed in me, and was willing to give me enough rope to hang myself. He told me not to tell people I was 18 because they would underestimate me, that I should tell them I was 27. I told most people I was 27 until I actually was. At the end of the summer I decided to take time off from college and continue working for Spock. They brought me on full-time, at a $75k salary.

I had spent the summer living in Redwood City (where Spock’s office is) and renting a room for $800. After the summer I moved to San Francisco and sublet at different places, paying between $600 for a room and $1000 for a studio apartment.

2008: $28,307 in wages

Most of my friends left Spock, so it seemed like the right thing to do. I emailed SeeqPod because I thought they had the coolest product in all of tech at the time — a web app that streamed music from the internet on the iPhone! (this was before there were 3rd party apps on the iPhone). I told them I was really excited about what they were building and would love to contribute however possible and would come on as an unpaid intern. They interviewed me and I did a take-home project: writing a Product Requirements Document for a Hi5 App (Hi5 was the third largest social network after Myspace and Facebook at the time). SeeqPod hired me as a product manager, I think with a $60k salary. My boss Mike was the second person (in an infinite stream) to believe in me and take a big chance on me.

I didn’t have an iPhone, just a flip phone, but I was so excited about the idea of posting photos on the internet from a mobile phone that I set up a tumblr called https://www.maiaeats.com/ that would post new entries every time I texted it a photo or text. I recorded everything I ate in this way.

I went back to college for my sophomore year in the fall. When I left, the CEO of SeeqPod said “Maia, you are the most diplomatic person I’ve ever had work for me. I watch you in meetings help people take their foot out of their mouths and start espousing your idea as if it was their own”. SeeqPod said they would keep my equity vesting over the school year, and we planned for me to transfer to Berkeley the next year as a college junior, to keep working for them. SeeqPod got sued out of existence though, so I stayed on at Olin.

2009: ~$10k in wages

In summer 2009, one of my former colleagues had been impressed with my work at Spock and wanted me to run marketing at his startup, Archivd. I did, but unfortunately his company went under about a month after I started when his cofounder couldn’t get a work visa.

For the rest of the summer, I picked up a half-time job running social media at a startup called NationalBLS in San Francisco. I got another half-time job doing front-end web development for Sprowtt, in Palo Alto (like Kickstarter + AngelList). I lived in a basement in Oakland and had a terrible commute.

That fall, I lived in Cambridge and got a part-time internship at HubSpot while in college. It was magical to live in Cambridge and work for HubSpot… the best time I had during college. I think they offered me $14/hour and I surprised them by negotiating to $15/hour.

2010: $1,800 in wages

I worked full-time for Hubspot ($15/hour) for the month of January before I went to study abroad in Copenhagen for Spring semester. I stayed in Europe that summer and did not work the rest of the year.

2011: $0 in wages

I graduated college in May 2011, sort of… having spent the spring busy trying to convalesce from a horrible car accident in January 2011, I was behind on my school work and so I walked on stage at the ceremony in May but technically hadn’t graduated yet. My generous professors let me make up the work in summer/fall, and I got my diploma at the end of the Fall 2011 semester.

I sold stock I had bought during college with my income from my year off to pay for my life this year.

2012: $61,988 in wages

Desperate for a job, my friend Richa helped me find a role at the consultancy she worked for in January 2012, where I wrote XSL-T (it’s like CSS, for XML documents). I made $60k salary (less than I had made when I was 19), but I was grateful for the opportunity (and for the health insurance!). They originally offered me $55k, and I negotiated up a smidge.

At the end of the summer, I met Meg who was starting a new company, Rocksbox. She hired me as her first employee, a UX designer. I think Meg asked me “What do people like you make?” and I said “Something like $75k,” and she said “Ok, that seems fine.” My salary was $72k.

2013: $22,416 in wages

Meg invited me to join on as cofounder & CTO of Rocksbox. As a cofounder, I took no salary for much of the year.

I lived in a two bedroom apartment with several other people — my friend Katie and I technically shared a bedroom together with one queen bed and both spent most nights at our respective boyfriend’s apartments. The household hosted people from Airbnb in our dining room and I made an additional $5k on top of my $22k salary to put towards my rent.

I remember being exhausted, flipping Airbnb rooms. My boyfriend asked “This seems really terrible, why do you do it?” I said “…. for the money, obviously.” He said “Oh but you don’t need the money,” and I sat there quietly, thinking, what does it mean for one to need the money?

2014: $66,323 in wages

Meg raised $1.5M for Rocksbox, and I was able to take a higher salary — I think back to $72k!

We still hosted Airbnbs in our dining room from which I made an extra $3,300.

My lawsuit against the guy who hit me with his truck settled for $100k. My lawyer took 1/3 and transferred me $66,000: the most humiliating, exhausting, painful, least worth it money I have ever “earned” in my entire life.

2015: $84,725 in wages

I was making more from Rocksbox — my salary increased from ~$72k at the beginning of 2015 to about ~$150k towards the end of the year.

My roommates and I moved to a big fancy house with a separate bedroom where we could host people on Airbnb. Technically my rent was $2,400/month but with the Airbnb it usually netted out to $1,400. I made $2,400 from Airbnb this year.

2016: $67,769 in wages

I left Rocksbox (and my $150k annual salary) to start Pinch, where we paid ourselves $50k. Rocksbox bought back my unvested equity for $780.

This year, with the separate bedroom on Airbnb, I made another $9,220. In September my roommate and I moved to a different apartment and stopped hosting on Airbnb. My rent was $1,500.

2017: $58,686 in wages

Towards the end of 2017, our $50k salary at Pinch was really starting to hurt. We raised a bit more and upped our salaries to $100k. The money from my car accident dwindled. I moved to my own apartment for the first time, and my rent was $2,000/month.

2018: $121,277 in wages

In summer 2018, we sold Pinch to Chime. My job offer at Chime was for $175k.

Some of our offers for Pinch came with a signing bonus. I wanted to evaluate offers based on the people and the culture, so I told myself I would act as though I had received a signing bonus even if I technically hadn’t. When we joined Chime (no signing bonus), I bought myself a scooter online. It never arrived, and I eventually did a chargeback on my credit card.

2019: $195,834 in wages

My salary at Chime was increased to $200k early in 2019 as a market adjustment, where it remains today. In October 2019 I moved out of my $2,000/month apartment to couch-surf with plans to eventually move to New York.

Conclusion

I was really excited about the idea of writing this post and bringing transparency. The process of writing it out and reliving it all though… it feels bad. I think of myself as a happy person, but when I read this now, I feel for my younger self. I worked and scrambled and stressed out about everything.

I’ve tweeted before that my biggest regret of my 20’s is that I didn’t spend more money. It wasn’t received well by the financial responsibility crowd on twitter, but my guess is that they’ve had a different (and more stable) career history than I have. I do regret that I saved any money in my 20's — I should have spent it all, spent freely on frivolous creature comforts, used money to make my life easier whenever possible and worried less about the future. But of course, hindsight is 20/20.