Well…

It’s pretty obvious I haven’t published here in a while. Oops?

Let’s talk about what’s going on and where I’ve been. My life since February 2024 has been a whirlwind.

Let me catch you up. There are Projects™ involved!

This is pretty off-the-cuff and is more “let’s hurry up and get this written and out so you can finally hit ‘send’,” so no apologies for the casual tone.

THE GOOD:
I traveled! I saw Paris, revisited London somewhat unexpectedly*. I took on a lot of creative work that’s been really fulfilling and scratches the writer itch with livestreaming. In the past few years I’ve established a cherished community in the space I stream in. However, I decided some years ago to keep the livestreaming and writing life (in this realm) entirely separate. It’s tough, because streaming has been so fulfilling and has really opened up my creativity in ways I’m always eager to talk and write about, but there have been some significant challenges in me keeping up with both realms. It doesn’t mean I won’t ever, it’s just not something I can bridge right now.

That being said… if you are a writer, consider streaming. There’s a space for you if it sounds interesting!

*the only reason I am not including photos at this moment is that I’ve been working on this for about a week now and it’s the very last thing to do! So if you see this, I just wanted to publish before I added anything else. Might see a sneaky edit soon ;)

THE BAD:
My health is a bit of a question mark at the moment. Overall, I’m well, but I believe that since late 2023 after a brief bout of COVID that I may have developed ME/CFS or triggered another similar autoimmune condition. I’m working on getting it diagnosed. The exhaustion has been a primary factor in where I’ve been. I have significantly less energy than I used to and it waxes and wanes dramatically.

There were a few other significant challenges as well; I was unemployed for over a year and once I did get hired, as a job does, it consumed a lot of my energy.

The stress of work plus the chronic fatigue basically means that when I am not working, I have only a little bit of energy to do a few basic things; I spend most of my days off recovering. I recently coordinated a 3-day event and over a week later, I am still feeling its effects, and knowing how it goes with me, I don’t anticipate feeling better for at least another week.

After dealing with this for the past few years, and all the surprises of life in the interim, I think I am finally getting a grasp on how to manage what precious little energy I have, but that’s really where it’s all left off. It’s not just “I’m tired” but a level of constant exhaustion that sleep can’t touch and once it decides to strike, can take up to 2 months before I even come close to feeling better. Which then, of course, triggers a whole catch-up process which, if it isn’t managed carefully, sends me right back into square one.

A really long-winded way of saying “I didn’t forget, lose interest, or quit writing, I’ve literally just been tired. In a way I’ve never been tired before.”

PROJECTS! Plural!

As I mentioned, we now have established Projects; aka new ventures I have established.

Something I’ve come to understand about myself is my need to create. I want to write about so much, how do I possibly wrangle it all here? Music, travel, life, California, politics… I have an opinion about everything, and few ways to organize it all.

The same goes for visual art and any kind of self-expression. Whether or not artistic skill is genetic, environmental, or something in-between, the one positive of being my father’s daughter is that art and creative expression was instilled in me from a young age. More than once I considered art school or graphic design as career choices. I couldn’t narrow it down, so I went with something else more hands-on.

In the past few years, I’ve learned to embrace pulling whatever thread my ADHD dangles in front of me and trust the process. That’s led to a few pretty apparent things and I just went with it.

I’m opening a small-batch stationery business, Paper Saxe Studio, and have formally soft-launched Tell Me Twice, a Michael Jackson blog.

Both have been in development for awhile and are still getting things worked out. If you have previously read my writings on Michael, they have all been migrated and re-archived there. If you have a need for something made but traditional print shops intimidate you or you just need something custom-made like a single greeting card, sticker, or label set – the shop and catalogue will launch by 2027, probably sooner!

Rest assured, this platform isn’t going anywhere, but I don’t anticipate regular updates for the time being. Previous projects, no matter how old, are still somewhere in development but are not prioritized right now.

Thank you!

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