State of the Schafer: Deep in gratitude

Friday marked a public holiday in New Zealand to celebrate Matariki, which in Māori tradition signals winter taking hold of the land. It's marked by the rise of the star cluster Matariki (also known as the Pleiades) in the nighttime skies, and begins a time for reflection as one cycle draws to an end and another begins. I figured that was a good reminder that I ought to post one of my "Yes, I'm still alive" missives here, complete with reflection on the months past. 

2024 has certainly been a busy year, I started my new role as Head of Data Science over at MetService, and wow there's been so much to learn about forecasting models and extreme weather events, plus all the ins and outs of how the company operates. (Unlike many countries' main weather forecasting services, MetService is not a government department, but a "state owned enterprise", run as a separate company expected to make profit as well as provide weather information and warnings to the New Zealand public.) 

I love the challenge of the job, the strong sense of purpose, and I'm working with a great team. The only downside is that using so much brainpower at work means I feel like I don't have much left after hours! I'd say my writing pace has slowed to a crawl, but it was already a crawl, so...a glacial creep, perhaps? 

That said, I'm delighted to tell you I finally (FINALLY!!) finished the last edits on The White Serpent. The final version clocks in at ~66K words, still in that awkward realm where it's too long to be called a novella, but seems short for a novel. I'm thinking I ought to finish the Ruslan short story and include them together in one volume. Given my glacial pace, I do worry how long that will take me. If I can't finish the Ruslan story in the next few months, then I might go ahead and publish without it. Either way, I need to start looking for a cover artist. 

One of my other goals for 2024 was to seek out some new adventures, and happily, that's been going to plan. I started off the year with an overnight trip to Mueller Hut, which I'd been wanting to visit for ages. 

Mueller Hut

Aoraki (Mt. Cook) looming over the morning fog layer

Mueller Hut, with Mt Sefton behind, and Aoraki in the distance

Right after that, we headed off for our first-ever trip to Japan. Ever since seeing footage in old Warren Miller movies of skiers floating through bottomless powder in scenic forests, I've wanted to try skiing in Hokkaido. This year, I finally got my wish - and yes, the powder is as epic as those movies made it look. We didn't take many pics while skiing because we were too busy enjoying it! 

Tree skiing heaven

Winter wonderland in Rusutsu

We also did a bunch of sightseeing in Tokyo and Kyoto. I'm not that big of a city person, but I did love the Ghibli Museum and the teamLab Planets interactive art installation in Tokyo, and the bamboo forests and shrines of Kyoto. Plus, we were joined on the trip by friends from Colorado, and it was really great to spend time with them again.  

Robert and I at the Ghibli Museum

Alien eggs at teamLab Planets (or at least, they look like alien eggs to me!)

Bamboo forest

Torii gates at Fushimi Inari

After returning from Japan, I started at MetService, spending the first week up at their main offices in Wellington so I could meet everyone. Wellington is famous for terrible weather, but every time I visit, it's gorgeous. I mean, look at this:

Wellington Harbour from the observation deck of Te Papa museum

In the evenings after work, I had a grand time wandering the botanic gardens and hidden pockets of green scattered throughout the city. My favorite of these is probably Bolton Street Cemetery. It's a historic cemetery where the graves are tucked in amid trees and flowering plants; the greenery is so thick you'd never know that the bustle and traffic of the CBD is right next door.

One of the many quiet niches of the cemetery

Not too long after returning home to Hawea, I celebrated my birthday with a climb up New Zealand's only operating via ferrata route. Via ferrata routes use cables and iron rungs to make it possible to climb cliffs that would otherwise be too difficult, at least for a cautious climber like myself. A local company called Wildwire created a route near Wanaka that climbs up past several long waterfalls. It was really fun! 

The kiddo and I, ready to tackle the route. (Yes, he really has grown that much taller than I am!)

Ascending the route

Enjoying the view (me in the middle, the kiddo below)

This was my favorite part of the route

Having a great birthday

Another great milestone came when husband finished all the paragliding flights needed to get his paraglider pilot's license. (You have to take two courses, an exam, and complete something like 40 flights under supervision of an instructor before you can get a license to fly solo.) Paragliding, if you're not familiar, is where you raise a big fabric wing like a giant parachute kite tied to your harness, run off the mountainside, and then float around on air currents until you land. I haven't tried it myself yet - maybe once Robert gets experienced enough to safely take me tandem - but I'm delighted he's found a new sport to love.

Robert making his run off a launch site on the side of Coronet Peak

Robert in the air after taking off

The huge geomagnetic storm that hit in May gave me the chance to achieve a lifetime dream: seeing the aurora australis. Where we live in New Zealand is far enough south to get occasional sightings of the aurora, but seemed like every time it was strong enough to see, either the sky was cloudy or I was too tired to get up and look for it. This time, the conditions lined up perfectly. The sky was wholly clear, and the aurora was bright right after sunset. And boy, talk about bright! Friends who've seen the aurora in NZ had talked about diffuse glows and muted colors often only visible through a camera lens. This time, the colors were vivid with the naked eye, beams of pink and green covering the entire sky. I was in absolute awe. I never thought I'd see an aurora on this scale unless I somehow managed to get to Norway or Antarctica. 

I took these with my cellphone, and haven't enhanced the pics at all

Now in June, the ski season has begun, and this year there's actually snow on the ground, woo hoo! (Last year the ski fields had to delay their opening for weeks.) Climate change is hitting NZ ski fields pretty hard - the season gets shorter and shorter, and the snow line higher and higher - so I treasure any days I can get. My favorite local area, Treble Cone, opened this weekend, and while they only had about two runs open, they were allowing hiking access to the terrain above the chairs. I'm willing to walk for my turns, especially when the views are stupendous. 

Rest stop

Earning my turns

Not everything's been great about 2024, of course, and I don't just mean the state of the wider world (which continues to dismay and sadden me). My first follow-up scan after last year's breast cancer treatment picked up some more areas of concern, which has meant a round of several painful biopsies and a lot of stress and uncertainty. One spot turned out benign, whew, and I certainly hope the rest will too, but the doctors aren't done checking. The uncertainty is hard, but all I can do is put it out of my mind as best I can. 

Comet's exuberance as he races around on a walk always reminds me that life is for living

I've had a lot to be grateful for so far in 2024, and not just in terms of adventures. One of my favorite authors, Janny Wurts, published the big conclusion to her 11-volume mega-epic Wars of Light and Shadow series. She's been writing this series since the early 90s, persevering through all kinds of publishing hurdles, and I can't even tell you how awesome it is to see her masterwork completed. (Why do I love it so much? Janny is one of those authors like Dorothy Dunnett who can pull off intricate, careful plotting through a multi-volume series without sprawl and with multiple layers of reveals. I can't get enough of "board to the head" moments when a later scene opens the reader's understanding in a whole new way and prior scenes are cast in a totally different light. I'm always in awe of authors who can pull that off well.) 

Re-reading the whole series so I can best appreciate the final volume has been a terrific way to escape worries (whether over my own health or the state of the world). Thank you to Janny and every author out there creating worlds that give illumination and comfort. 

The better half of 2023

2023 has been a rough year for the world, from wars to extreme weather events. Yet for me, the latter half of the year has certainly been a better experience than the first. It's been such a relief to have a relatively clean bill of health. I know some women really struggle with anxiety in the aftermath of treatment, worrying about recurrence. That hasn't been my experience--perhaps because I've always been good at procrastination. I've been able to shove off worries to the future. Probably I'll be a mess when it's time for a follow-up scan, but until then, I've been able to throw myself headlong into enjoying adventures again.

View from the summit of Treble Cone. NZ did not have a great ski season this year, but I enjoyed the heck out of the mountain anyway. 

Revisiting Nugget Point in the Catlins

Walking a wintry beach near Toko Mouth

Glorious coastal sunrise

View of Lake Wanaka from Roys Peak

Mt. Alpha and the Skyline track

It's also been great to spend some quality time with family, starting with a trip back to the U.S. to see my mother and brother (plus meet my new sister-in-law for the first time, since I wasn't able to make my brother's wedding due to the pandemic). Boy, I could write an entire post about the weird reverse culture shock of visiting the U.S. after 4 years away. Suffice it to say that it was a surreal experience, and confirmed that there's not much I miss. But I do miss my family, so it was lovely to see them again after so long apart. 

Hiking with my brother near Harpers Ferry in West Virginia

The kiddo and I hanging out with my mom

My husband's mother, father, and sister came over from Australia to visit us, and that was wonderful too. 

Family dinner at a local restaurant

Best of all, I got to take my Aussie sister-in-law hiking in one of my favorite areas of New Zealand, Aoraki Mt. Cook National Park. No matter how many times I visit Aoraki, I can't get over the mountain's beauty.

Ideogram cloud over Aoraki

Aoraki at sunset

Nothing like the blue of a glacial lake

My sister-in-law on the trail to Red Tarns

We've also enjoyed plenty of family fun closer to home, in the local rivers and lakes.

Playing in Lake Hawea's waves on a windy day

Tubing on Lake Hawea

Bodyboarding in the Hawea River

A local guy built a surf wave machine on his farm, and holds occasional open sessions for the community. Now there's a good use of Kiwi ingenuity!

All this adventuring and playing outdoors does have one downside. I haven't been doing much writing. I've got the professional edit in hand for the Cara story, The White Serpent, and I just need to sit down and push through the last changes. I think maybe in a way I've been scared to finally finish it, because then I'll need to publish it, and after everything I went through to get out the third book in the original trilogy, I associate publishing with stress. The last thing I've wanted in these past months is anything stressful, I suppose! But I think it's time to push past that ambivalence and get this story out into the world, in case there's anyone who'll enjoy reading it. So that can be one goal for 2024.

I do have other goals. One big one has to do with my day job. I have said farewell to my role at Narrative Muse, after accepting an offer to be Head of Data Science for a new Research and Innovation Hub over at MetService, New Zealand's major weather forecaster. I hope to help them improve their forecasting with machine learning and AI, especially for extreme weather events. As the climate changes, New Zealand will be particularly vulnerable to heavy rainfall events and high winds, and it'll be vital to predict dangerous weather in time to save lives. Prediction here is pretty challenging due to limited data and convoluted topography, but it's a challenge I'm eager to tackle. (I still wish Narrative Muse the best, though! I loved my time there and I still 100% believe in what they're trying to do with content-based recommendation. They've got a great team and a good foundation, so I hope they'll be tremendously successful.) 

So yeah, I have lots of plans for 2024. But I'm also trying to embrace flexibility and resilience, because you never know how life will go. I do know that regardless, I want to savor the good things. The world may be a mess, but there is still love here, and kindness, and quiet moments in the sunshine. May we all enjoy as much as we can of those. 

State of the Schafer: Starting a new chapter

More happy news to share! I am all done with treatment and have a clean bill of health. The results of the DCISionRT test done on my samples from surgery came back saying my risk of recurrence was very low and radiation would make no difference. Whew! That meant I got to avoid radiation, which was quite a relief. No more worries over risks of heart and lung damage, plus I didn't have to temporarily move to Dunedin or Christchurch. (Radiation has to be done every day for many days, and the nearest center is 4 hours away from where we live, so the logistics were a bit daunting.) 

Back when my initial biopsy was performed in February, the nurse assured me that "all this" would likely just be a "blip in your rearview mirror" by July. I don't know if blip is quite the right word, but I am definitely delighted to be done with everything medical and back to more or less normal life. 

First ski day of the season!

This isn't the only big milestone I'm celebrating. Last week, my husband and son and I all officially became citizens of Aotearoa New Zealand. Now I truly get to call New Zealand home! 

At the citizenship ceremony presided over by the local mayor, we came onto the stage in groups of 10 to receive our official citizenship certificates and a native plant. The ceremony invitation said we were encouraged to wear attire from our birth country. My Aussie husband joked he should wear an Akubra hat. Even so, he couldn't have outdone the Scottish guy in kilt and gumboots.

Happy new citizens!

All 100 new citizens celebrating together. 

I do retain my U.S. citizenship, as both NZ and the US are fine with dual citizenship. (The U.S does not care what oaths you might swear to other countries--you'll stay a U.S. citizen and continue paying U.S. taxes unless you pay big bucks to officially renounce. On the upside, staying a citizen also means you still get to vote in U.S. elections, which I certainly plan to do.) But I love New Zealand so much that I am delighted to be more than just a resident, now. I hope I can give plenty back to my new country. 

I'll never get over NZ's beauty

So! Onward to a new chapter of life, which hopefully will include a lot more writing as well as a return to fun mountain adventures. I've got edits in hand for the Cara story, The White Serpent--thanks to the ever-awesome Mazarkis Williams for the keen editorial eye. No major changes are needed, just some smaller fixes, so hopefully those won't take me too long.

And hey, in the meantime, if you're looking for something great to read, check out Martha Wells and Ursula Vernon (a.k.a. T. Kingfisher). They are both incredibly talented authors whose work I adore, and both are now facing their own battles with breast cancer (see here and here). 

Martha Wells's latest release Witch King was one of the books that kept me sane during the agonizing wait for my results after my 2nd surgery. If you love fantasy adventures with interwoven timelines, complex cultures, lots of magic, and great friendships, I highly recommend the read. Or if you're into SF and haven't yet tried her highly-acclaimed Murderbot series, you're definitely missing out. 

As for Ursula Vernon, when I was waiting for results on the DCISionRT test, I re-read The Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking, because it had just the sort of wit and warmth and empathy that I needed. My absolute favorites of her work are probably Summer in Orcus (so imaginative!) and Swordheart (so funny!), but honestly, every one of her many, many novels are delightful. 

I want to do a longer post about more of the books that proved to be excellent and enjoyable distractions while I was in treatment, but between work, my final pass on The White Serpent, and my delight in returning to the mountains, I dare not make promises about finding time. We shall see...

Comet is as excited for a new chapter as I am

State of the Schafer: Celebrating good news

Got some very good news last week: the pathology report for the tissue excised in my 2nd surgery came back clean, no evidence of cancerous or abnormal cells. WHEW. It was such a relief, it honestly took a little while to sink in. It wasn't until many hours later that I shed a few happy tears. I think I've been so braced against the possibility of bad news, I had all the emotional walls up high and tight. 

But now I can relax a little. No more surgeries! Chemo officially off the table! That is very good news indeed. I may still need radiation treatment--my surgeon will be discussing my case at a tumor board meeting tomorrow, plus he'll have my cancerous tissue from the first surgery sent off to an overseas lab for a special test that examines the cell characteristics and estimates risk of recurrence with and without radiation. 

Most women who have excision/lumpectomy surgery do go for radiation, but in my case, the cancerous area was deep in my left breast, close to my chest wall, which means an increased risk of heart and lung damage from radiation treatment. So, I will need to weigh the risks: potential damage to heart and lungs vs. risk of cancer recurrence. Having a really good estimate of that recurrence risk will be a big help in deciding, so hooray for modern medicine. (The test my surgeon has ordered is an example of AI used for good, in fact. My personal risk based on my tissue characteristics will be estimated by a model trained for accuracy on medical datasets. Note the part about "trained for accuracy"...as opposed to "trained to sound like a human", like ChatGPT. There's a tremendous difference there.)  

So....still a bit of waiting and uncertainty to go, but with far less worry and stress. That's a win in my book! Especially because now I can start planning to get out in the mountains again. The recovery from the 2nd surgery has been faster and easier than the recovery from the first, so I'm raring to go. Even if I do have radiation, it wouldn't happen until a month or more from now, because they'd want the tissue to be completely healed from surgery. That means I've got 4-6 weeks with nothing medical planned, woo hoo! It's not quite ski season yet, but the mountains are still looking mighty fine. Time to enjoy them.

On the Mt Iron trail overlooking Wanaka

Lake Hawea, with Mt. Maude behind