|˶˙ᵕ˙ )ﾉ Arden | 37 | they/them | California i'm in burnout recovery as a former English professor and trying, in part, to heal my relationship to read...
Whether you call it nosiness or curiosity, I have always been interested in peeking into what other people carry around with them on a regular basis. From backpacks, purses, makeup bags, to art bags, I love a good video, photo, or blog post that let's me snoop through what other people find precious enough to keep on their person. I even peruse the What's In My Bag subreddit where people regularly…
Thankfully, since I last checked in, my back has been doing much better, though sometimes my bad posture still gets the best of me and I need to be more consistent with preventative stretches. A lot happened in July. Pumpkin is still having ongoing health issues, but she has a new primary care provider. She was seemingly on the mend with her second course of steroids, but the periodically vomiting…
Despite having to go in for work, this is the first birthday I haven't been flooded with anxiety for a long time. It's not about getting older as I have felt relatively neutral about aging compared to many of my peers. But I have spent the last few years in a depression fog that intensifies around my birthday. This isn't where I thought my life would be at this point: leaving teaching behind (for…
In second grade, I borrowed The Tale of the Two Bad Mice by Beatrix Potter from our library and was utterly enchanted by her darling watercolor animals. Ever since then, I had a deep desire to write and illustrate my own stories; however, even though I had plenty ideas for characters and plots, I did not have a knack for art. I still gravitate toward illustration and animation, including reading a…
It's not that I fell off reading so much as blogging. Reading will always be an activity part of my daily routine whether I'm reading a short article online or diving into a long novel. While I have slowed down compared to last year, there have been a few gems (and a lot of total misses) that I want to reflect back on before heading into the second half of the year. February 1. Sibley's Birding…
When people ask me what got me into writing poetry, I always say Emily Dickinson. She awakened my love for poetry, and I carry many lines from her pieces in my heart (and plan to have one inked on my clavicle hopefully later this year in a blend of our handwriting), but it would be more honest to add “… and Conor Oberst.” Even though I don’t believe in guilty pleasures or problematic faves, I do…
So, where have I been? Two of my poems were published in Mouthful of Salt's Spring 2026: Savory issue. These are my first publications since getting back into writing and I am hoping to continue revising my other drafts to shop around for the latter half of the year. The rest of the issue is also fantastic . I'm delighted by the company of writers and artists. My cat, Pumpkin, has had some ongoing…
At the beginning of the year, I set out to complete a curriculum designed around Birding in my Backyard. As a long-time animal lover, and someone living a relatively sedentary life, I wanted a mindful activity to do outdoors to be more present and unplugged. As mentioned in a previous post, I got burned out about halfway through my curriculum plans (anticipated due to big life events and my work…
As anticipated, March was a fraught month for me. Not only was work relatively busy, but it was even more emotionally taxing than I anticipated it would be. There were a lot of projects that I needed to set down, but I have also been fairly creatively engaged even if what I have been writing isn't quite ready to share yet. Many bloggers I follow regularly do monthly recaps and looks forward and I…
When I was a kid, music was given to me by my parents. This meant "dad rock" on cassettes when my dad was driving and K-Earth 101 oldies rock and pop music with my mom. The latter definitely left a bigger lasting impression on me (though I can't unhear Weird Al's lyrics when listening to the original songs he parodies thanks to many road trips.) As a teenager, a lot of my music came from my older…