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This storm is wild, everyone. It’s shaken the building in just the right way to make me think a window or door has slammed open, all night long.
The snowball fight tomorrow is gonna be epic, though!
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Someone left googly eyes behind yesterday at my favorite tea shop. The staff knew what to do!
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The FreakQuencies open with a new cover song and a full house!
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After half a week of what felt like nothing but pointless meetings, I have two days when I can just focus at work and get projects finished.
The empty stretch on my Outlook calendar stares back at me, as if daring me to take action. As if it knows how to parry any attack I make. The catch-up-on-documentation pose? How quaint, when it has the layout-updates and queue-cleanup riposte. I can’t counter without leaving my documentation exposed, though!
Well, I’m gonna get cut no matter what I do. Might as well get started.
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I was worried the book club would be sparsely attended tonight, or that I might be the only one. I’d messed up the date in the announcement, and didn’t realize my error until sending the reminder.
It ended up being one of the better attended ones, and with a great discussion too. It was less about the book and more what defined “psychoanalysis”, but aren’t some of the best discussions borne of tangents from the topic?
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Snowmageddon 2026!
Drove around Providence on a last minute errand before the snow, and the streets were eerily empty. Other than the middling streetlights, beaurocratically working as if it were a sunny Sunday, I could drive freely and without the usual traffic. It reminded me of the beginning of the COVID lockdown, only with an air of anticipation and expectation, not hesitation. During COVID, the people didn’t know what the air would bring; this morning, the only uncertainty was how much of a workout the shoveling would be.
Businesses are handling this in stride. My favorite tea shop decided to open for as long as they felt like it. But now I’m home, cooking a stew and doing some laundry, before I settle in for some tea and a good book.
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There is a woman catching up with a friend at this cafe, with an amazing laugh. I don’t want them to think I’m eavesdropping, because I’m not, but every time she laughs it takes effort for me to not join in.
And she just left, off to make someone else’s day brighter, I hope.
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This month just continues to get worse and worse. Now my DnD campaign lost a decisive battle. Heck, our efforts to stop the BBEG ended up helping him.
Remind me to hibernate for January of 2027, would ya? 🎲⚔️
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Between sickness, allergies to medication, isolation, cancelled plans and ruined routines, January has turned into the kick in the butt I needed to get working on moving out of Providence. All the comforts that kept me complacent faded, and what’s left shows me I’m not where I’d like to be.
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There comes a point where people will take advantage of the standards you hold yourself to.
I’m still learning how to take the L to my pride, and take the W to my self respect.
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Becoming the Coyote: Lessons from a Year of Survival
Annalise’s photography is even better than her writing. This essay reflecting on some hard times and hard lessons in 2025, and connecting them to her encounters with coyotes in her wildlife work, is a statement about resilience and adaptability, and a plan for a path forward we call can learn from.
I’ve followed Annalise for a very long time, since we were mere acquaintances in early aughts blogging networks. We’ve never been close in any sense of the word, never more than very distantly engaged with each other through the pre-web2.0 era and that only briefly, but I’ve always enjoyed following her, as she’s claimed her life and followed her passions. She’s one of the people who, just by living her life, inspires me to keep trying in mine. It’s good to have such people tangentially in your life, not as a replacement for real and in-person connections, but as a source of admiring inspiration, someone who makes your heart say, “Good, I’m glad they’re doing well and still going, good on them,” and raise a glass in distant salute.
If you have such people in your life, who you’d never talk to but feel inspired by, raise a glass in their honor today and consider how they can inspire your life. It’s a good way to spend a Sunday morning.
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Why I did not go into medicine.
Recently, a two-day flu has been going around my part of the globe. It sucks for 48 hours, then you feel better. I didn’t think much of it at first, just made sure to stock up on medicine, soup, and tea.
A week later, and I was still suffering. My chest was tight, my throat raw and inflamed, my coughing irrepressible. Why? Was it something more? A COVID test came back negative, upping the medication did nothing. Only last night did it hit me: all my cough suppressants and over-night flu medications were cherry flavored. I’m allergic to stone fruit.
Half a day after replacing my medicine, and I’m already feeling 1,000% better.
I am a smart person. I promise.
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