Hello, All.

Yup, last week was my first blog post back in over a year because, holy crap, I don’t even know where the last year escaped off to.

I’m gonna make a greater effort to check in on blogs I follow more often—I hope everyone is doing well out there, or at least as well as can be expected.

I still live in Florida, although I plan on moving in the next year or so. The plan is for four of us (my bro Anton and his fiance, my bff Megan, and me) to rent a house together. When that cross-country road trip finally happens, I’ll definitely document the adventure. Ah, a major road trip. It’s been a while. I’m stoked.

Currently, I rent with Anton, his fiance, and my niece (my nephew/her brother was our former roommate while he was a student at USF and worked at Tampa General Hospital but now he’s engaged and has a new job; *sniffle* they grow up so fast). My niece is staying with us because she’s now attending USF as well (studying psychology; she gives me updates on all the nerdy stuff she learns, annoying group projects with group members who procrastinate and slack off, heehee, oh undergrad, I don’t miss that part). When she gets confused about how to use the school portal or resources, she checks in with Anton who still teaches at USF (in addition to a new job as an inspector for the Florida Department of Health in Pinnelas County) and knows those systems inside out.

Nerds and Birds

My other niece helps out twice a week at my dad’s dental office. She’s so much fun to have around (I also work with my dad). Also a university student but at UCF, I get to hear her nerdy update about linguistics and education. I also get updates about birds of prey due to her volunteering with birds at one of the Audubon rescue locations.

Here, have some bird pictures:

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Pet Updates

December 2022, our 2 lb rabbit tyrant Loki (aka Gigi) crossed the rainbow bridge at 11 years old. Gigi was basically bonded with my dad and so, when I moved to Tampa, he stayed with my parents and ruled the house as a free-roaming menace as their one pet. He only started slowing down after turning 10 when he started going blind (he knew his way around the house and knew exactly where to find his Bro/my dad in the evening to demand pets). He was spoiled rotten; the house was his kingdom and he knew it; we were all a wreck but he lived a good long life of snacks, freedom, love, and mayhem.

A few months after Gigi passed, my other rabbit Asahi also crossed the rainbow bridge (from illness rather than old age). Acquired as a rescue from Seminole County Animal Services, Asahi was a beautiful plushie sweetie, inside and out, with his gigantic donkey ears and goat-like climbing abilities. He preferred people to toys but he certainly liked to challenge the vertical limits and roll/chase my water polo ball all over the place.

It took nearly six months for us to even think about any new additions to our apartment family (I was scrolling through tears just looking up these pictures of Gigi and Asahi for this post, geez; had to pause to blow my snot.)

Our recent family additions are a female leopard gecko named Mob (aka Ms. Mob and Queen Mob) and a male mixed breed rabbit (mixed Dutch rabbit and single-coated Lion head) named Bagel (aka Mr. Bagel, Mr. Emo Hair, and A**hole). Mob is technically Anton’s and Bagel is mine, however they’re both just kind of one of us now and we all take care of and interact with them.

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Hiking: Florida and Georgia

We’ve had adventures here and there that I have neglected to tell you all about. I’ll inundate you with anecdotes and pictures from those excursions another time but let me just say that Stone Mountain in fog is a scene out of a zombie movie (but if you don’t think about zombies, it’s an amazing nature experience).

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Christmas Promises

A few months ago, the subject of being able to afford getting Christmas gifts came up when I was talking to my university nieces. We proposed handmade/homemade gifts because they’re strapped for spare cash paying for school, etc. and can’t spend a lot.

To give a little backstory: When I was working at Tampa General Hospital over Christmas in 2020 and didn’t make it back for festivities, they and their three other siblings had drawn on/decorated a foldable box that they put their little presents for me; and they had signed their artwork (I still have the box lid; the only place where that piece of history belongs is in a frame). When I told the girls about how much I appreciated the box drawings, they became thoughtful. They’re both artsy and have random art supplies. I think that puts them at least a little at ease about feeling pressured about giving gifts—at least in regards to me.

And then one of them asked what I was going to make for everyone. On reflex, I blurted that the only thing I’m any good at creating is fiction. I could always give everybody a short story. Unfortunately, they got really excited about that.

So. Guys. I actually need to finish writing and polishing some short fiction by the end of this year. Several short fictions. And, I guess, since those things will be finished anyway, you all will be able to read them, too.