So, To Recap

I promised you a recap of what I’ve been up to in the nearly 3 years I’ve been hanging out with the crickets, and I promised it wouldn’t be very much.

But I lied! So much has happened!

When Covid started I was just starting to crawl out of a 2-year stage of introversion and thinking it would be nice to see people again. So, when we were told to not be around other humans, I cracked my knuckles and said “let’s do this.” Of course by ‘do this’ I meant do nothing and see no one and, friends, I’m proud to say I nailed it. To borrow a quote from my dad when asked how he was surviving Covid amid a recent retirement and solo living: “I’ve been training my whole life for this.” Not all Janiks are lazy sloths who can sit around reading or staring at the walls for hours at a time, but those of us who are…we are champions.

Sure, I did the typical things, too. I learned to make sourdough bread and gained 10 pounds as a result, I reupholstered our dining room chairs, I drank too much too early in the day until I realized that was a bad idea and then took a 6-month break from booze because damn, that shit sneaks up on you! And I of course became a plant lady.

Thanks to a combination of a nasty case of writer’s block and the fact that all of my paid writing gigs were tourism based, I found myself mostly unemployed, and so I decided to do the logical thing for someone with laughable short-term memory; I went back to school. My plan was a degree in Creative Writing, but I ended up with Psychology. Long story.

School was harrrrrrd! I cried and felt like a dummy and discovered a lot about myself and the world (all of which I promptly forgot) and didn’t sleep much and, finally, I got a BS in Psychology. Which I have done zero with and frankly have no idea what to, so, fun.

CIIS Graduation — Real-time picture of me ‘attending’ my graduation ceremony.

I don’t learn well on screens and the classes were all online (thanks Covid), so it was an incredibly underwhelming experience and a massive struggle. Some fun takeaways though:

I got diagnosed with Inattentive ADHD!

I learned even more about how trauma in childhood can have lasting affects on the brain, wheeeee!

I started a nonprofit based on everything I wish someone had told me when I was younger! This with the encouragement of a professor who loved the idea, helped me get it set up, and with which I have done almost nothing since. Because, in case this isn’t clear about me yet, I have no idea what I’m doing most of the time.

While all of this was happening, I spent almost every two weeks of 2021 in Hawaii. Paulie’s Hawaii-life dream continues but migrated slightly from Hilo to Kona-side (that’s a whole other story but in a nutshell: mold vs beaches), so I did my part to help out while he was detained on the mainland with actual-work. Turns out having a whole empty house on an island where you don’t know anyone is great for focusing on schoolwork, who knew?

Let’s see…what else? Ah! One of my kids came out as trans, then the other came out as gay! Needless to say I immediately went out and bought a rainbow doormat to show that I am a true ally because everyone knows the best way to show this is through the usage and display of rainbow merch. (Side note I was in the Rainbow Club in 4th grade so I guess you could say that, ahem, I’ve been training my whole life for this.)