1. My goal for this year was to blog once a week, so I would have 52 blog posts by the end of the year. We can all see how that’s working out. (This is the first time I’ve posted so far this year and also I never finished my end of year wrap-ups. Huzzah.)

2. I convinced myself that I could still meet that goal if I signed up for this year’s slice of life challenge. I mean, I could but that would mean going from zero to a hundred (or thirty-one) and so I challenged myself to sit down and write this post.

3. I almost didn’t do it.

4. But then I said to myself, “Self, which would make you feel better: writing the post or not writing the post?” So here we are.

5. I think it’s possible I’m having a depressive episode because I had to force myself to go to the gym today, I’m forcing myself to write this, and also my place is a mess. I have also been having weird pangs in my arm, which is apparently where I feel my sadness. (Thanks, therapy!)

6. School started last week, and my on ground schedule got completely changed. I was supposed to teach one hybrid and two face-to-face and comp classes along with my online creative writing and children’s lit classes. Now, I am teaching one face-to-face comp class, one hybrid lit comp class, and one eight-week online comp class during the second half of the semester. So I went from having three preps to five.

7. This is my fault for wanting to teach an overload.

8. No it’s not.

9. Anyway, I had been keeping an eye on enrollment (which I usually don’t do) so had a feeling my classes would probably get switched. The good news is that my old comp class and my lit comp class basically start the same way, so I went back to the old comp syllabus since there wasn’t much to change there. The bad news is that means I can’t do my picture book class that I was really looking forward to. It needs substantial reworking, and I just didn’t have the time what with all the other stuff going on. The other bad news is that instead of doing EXACTLY what I did before, I am still me and switched books. Behind on everything doesn’t even begin to cover it.

10. You know, like spending an extra five days in northern California and an unexpected three weeks in Florida because of the fires that happened in Los Angeles. One of them was very close to me so much so that my family and friends were, understandably, freaking out. I was driving to northern California the day the Eaton Fire started and had a ton of texts when I finally got to where I was going from said friends and family checking on me to make sure I was okay. Because I had been driving and therefore had no clue what was happening, I texted everybody back with “I’m fine! The Palisades are way far from me.” But then when I kept getting texts, I decided that mayhaps I should check the news/socials to see what was going on. Turned out…well, you know the rest. Eaton Canyon was on fire. Thankfully, my daughter had left to go out of town for work the day before so neither of us were home. We’re fine and our place is fine, but I do know at least ten people who lost their homes and/or their homes are inhabitable because of smoke or fire damage. So…yeah. It’s a weird time and also every time I run into someone or have lunch/dinner with someone to catch up, we all tell our fire stories.

11. Huh, maybe the reasons for the depressive episode are becoming clear. Although, maybe I should just say sadness episode instead of depressive episode. But, no, the not wanting to do things and looking at the absolute disaster that is the loveseat in my room is making me think it’s a little more than sadness.

12. I have been limiting my time on social media so haven’t really been on Instagram or even Facebook that much. (This is another one of my goals for the year–one I’m actually having some success at, so yay for that.) That means stress at the news isn’t as high as it could be. That said, I have been shouting into the void on Bluesky about TV and other nonsense, which is just the way I like it.

13. I think I’ll stop there. I do love a good thirteen random things post (shout out to LiveJournal). The last thing I’ll say is that I did jump on the Bingoals (Bingo card for the year’s goals) bandwagon and because I’m me, I also planned to do one for each month to celebrate smaller goals in service of the big goals. I made one for January but not February, so maybe March is just where it all happens. Zero to thirty-one, baby.

14. Oh, and I tweaked my knee which means that not only was I unable to participate in the tap show that I was actually looking forward to being in but I also HAVEN’T BEEN TO TAP SINCE SEPTEMBER. And also I was in so much pain at the end of the first day of classes that I had to have a lie down. So yeah, the reasons for the depressive feelings are becoming clear. This is what journaling does! Scrubs the brain!

15. I’m hitting this without proofreading so I apologize for any typos but also if I spend much longer on this, I won’t post it at all. Maybe tomorrow I’ll give it another pass…