52 Weeks. 52 Frames.

It’s the start of the third week in January – 16 days into 2023 to be exact. In the spirit of trying to reclaim my own creativity, which I’ve been trying to do for a while now, and inspired by a friend of mine who has a daily art practice, I’m going to give a photo challenge a try. The premise is easy – take one photo based on the prompt every week. It doesn’t have to be perfect.

Continue reading

The End of a Year Without Her

“Another morning comes. It always does. Time always moves at the same rate, only feelings have different speeds. Every day can mark a whole lifetime or a single heartbeat, depending on who you spend it with.” – Fredrik Backman, Beartown

A year ago today I dropped everything around 3PM in the afternoon, grabbed my keys and purse, and with my husband in tow, drove as quickly as we could to Baltimore. Specifically to Franklin Square Hospital where my mother had been taken. It didn’t end as we all hoped. We lost her.

Continue reading

2020: A Year I Could Do Without

It’s finally here! The end of a year that I thought was supposed to be an amazing one. 2019 set it up to be great. The plants of an epic plotline for 2020 were placed. There were supposed to be big trips, big work events, and more character development! But it only took a few days, six to be exact, for that illusion of a better year to come crashing down. There were five days of happiness, of pure bliss, of spontaneous decisions, and then it became about surviving.

Continue reading

How I Ended Up a Hockey Fan and How It Doesn’t Feel That Different

Yep. That’s me. The one in the backward hat taking this photo. I’m sure you’re wondering how I got there…which is the Washington Capitals Stanley Cup Parade and Rally weeks ago and why it’s taken me so long to write this blog.

Why it’s taken so long to write this is the easy answer, so I’ll start there. I’ve been struggling to put into words exactly what I wanted this blog post to really say. I knew it should be something about how I’ve been in many fandoms and how they all feel somewhat similar, but that’s as far as I originally got. As for how I found myself at the parade, well, it’s a funny story really.

Continue reading

Good Bye 2017 and Good Riddance

2017 had to be what felt like the longest year I’ve ever been through. I was thinking about it the other day and literally, I realized that Sherlock Series 4 premiered at the beginning of 2017…I couldn’t believe that when I realized it was true.

This year has been a roller coaster in so many ways and as per the course of 2017, I’m late on writing my end of year review…even if this one is going to be a bit different from past years.

Continue reading

A Last Huzzah?

I’m getting ready to leave for the past – 1864 to be exact as I’m a Civil War Re-enactor. I have been since I was 16 and a friend came into class, handed me a permission slip and told me to have my mother sign it and that on Saturday I was going with her to Gettysburg to get something to wear.  I had found a fascination in the American Civil War when I was 13 and going out to do this peaked my interest in a way the same way that dressing up for the Renaissance Faire or Wild West Re-enacting (which I also occasionally do) did. History fascinated me and I wanted to know every little detail from all sides of the story and every single person. I didn’t ask any questions. I was just excited. That’s how I came to join the Chesapeake Signal Detachment with the Provisional Army of the Confederate States (PACS).

Continue reading

Coming Full Circle, Or How 28 Feels Really Similar To 13

This blog post was originally written as part of a series for The Welders. It was posted to their blog on July 25, 2017. 

I am 28 years old. I graduated from high school ten years ago, graduated from undergraduate six years ago, and graduated from graduate school four years ago. When I was 11 back in 2000, I had a love for all things anime and Japanese. It was the thing to be into for me and my group of friends. We weren’t the most popular kids in school. No, we were the kids who were spending our weekends at the mall buying model Gundams, figuring out how to convince our parents to make us Sailor Scout costumes, finding new music genres in J-Pop and J-Rock, and reading and writing fan fiction on the internet back when you had to label things “lemon” to indicate explicit content.

Continue reading