2026.

That still feels weird for me to say, and we’re already five months in. I don’t know where the time has gone – I guess I’ve been so busy and so out of it, that I just kind of spaced.

Truth is, life has just been so full. Every time I think to sit down and type something up, I just don’t have the mental capacity. Between work, kids, and school… I’m lucky if I have energy for anything at the end of the day.

So, good news and bad news.

So, the first good news is that I will finally be done with my transcription course at the end of the month. I’ve been busting my ass nonstop, and I am finally almost done. I have my second PIE exam tomorrow, then my practicum, then my third PIE exam, and then I either graduate or I don’t.

Second good news… I wrote my learner’s theory exam last Friday, and I successfully obtained my learner’s licence. Once the van is fixed up (which will hopefully be the end of this month if things go well), Charlie is going to help me learn to drive. I am looking into schools, too, just to maybe get a few lessons. I’m pretty excited, though I would be lying if I said I wasn’t absolutely terrified.

Onto the bad news… DreamHost sent me an email today. This place is up for renewal at the beginning of June. Unfortunately, DreamHost has doubled the price of my plan to $504 USD, which works out roughly to about $689 CAD. There is just… absolutely no way that I can afford that. I don’t know why they’re raising the price as they have; there was no explanation in the email. My plan was pretty basic to start, as the only add-on I got was for site security, and even if I downgrade my space and get rid of the add-on, there is no way I can continue with a price like that. Some nice gentlemen on Threads made some suggestions for new hosting providers, but a lot of what was recommended to me was for business professionals with multiple websites and people who do commerce and such. Which… I don’t do that, and I only have this website, so it was just a little too much. I still have a lot of thinking to do… but I think what I am going to end up doing is reviving my old WordPress.com blog and just buying a new domain, or figuring out how to get this one to redirect there. I’m going to give myself a few days to decide, weigh the pros and cons.

I will definitely update this space when I decide.

Now, I am off to bed, but I want to share a little earworm that I have been listening to nonstop since I “rediscovered” it:

Life has been life-ing, let me tell you.

With Kirby’s passing in May, I had to give myself space and time to grieve. Which, of course, is when things started getting crazy at work (and it still hasn’t stopped).

I admit now that I fell off. Everything else kind of took a backseat. On my days off, I found myself bedrotting more than anything. Not the most productive of things to do, but I couldn’t seem to get myself out of the funk. Took me a minute, but I finally was like, “Hey, maybe I’m depressed?”

Turns out, acknowledging The Thing helped me deal with The Thing. The last few weeks, I’ve been feeling much better. I’ve been doing a lot of talking, lots of writing, pulling cards, and making plans. Samhain was peaceful, and I’m looking forward to Yule with a renewed vigour. I am bound and determined to get my course finished, finally get my transcription certificate and look for a side hustle.

In October, I got to do something amazing, courtesy of my sister. She surprised me with tickets to see Lorna Shore. My Charlie and I got to go, and the entire experience was amazing. I filmed their set because my oldest couldn’t come, and she’s in love with Will Ramos. Here is the video:

Shadow of Intent and The Black Dahlia Murder also performed, and were incredible. It rained in Vancouver the entire time that we were there, but we did manage to fit in a trip to the Aquarium, and I got to spend time with the jellyfish. I didn’t get to see the otters too much because of the rain, but I did get some nice photos and videos, which I may share at some point.

It was nice to get out of town, despite the weather and Google Maps sending us on a weird route down there through Whistler. I hadn’t gone through Whistler since early high school. It was weird to see Whistler without the blanket of snow I’m familiar with.

Speaking of snow… I hope the snow shows up soon. I’d hate to have a brown Yule like last year. This is Canada, for Ba’al’s sake. No snow for Yule makes no sense, and I get depressed if I think about it too hard. Some of my friends on Facebook have been posting pictures of their first snowfalls, and it’s making me jealous.

Anyhow. I’m all over the place today. And it’s my bedtime. Feels good to be back in the swing of things a bit.