Here we are at the end of 2022, and wow, that year went by fast! Let’s do the thing again and look back at last year’s goals. I already know this is a special year for marking progress.

Last Year’s Goals

The Year of the Build

1. Lots of R2-D2 Progress - Unparalleled success!

This is, no contest, the best goal achievement of a planned goal to conclusion. I started the year with a pile of parts and as of literally December 30th, I have a functional, working droid. Almost the entirety of my free time was dedicated to this project, and I could not be more proud of my accomplishment. I learned so much and am now addicted to building. I’ll be sharing build log and photos soon.

2. Two Complex Cosplays - Fail

While I failed at this goal, I don’t necessarily think of it that way. The reason I failed was because my focus was on R2-D2. Had I divided my attention, I don’t think that project would have gone as well as it did. What I really learned here is how much effort I have to give in a year and what my time limits really are.

3. Build that Tricorder - Fail

This is a similar case to goal #2. I had the best of intentions here, but I ended up just not having enough time to do this one given the amount of effort involved with goal #1.

The Year of the Long Term Plan

4. Have an answer to where I'll live long term - Success, but potential mixed answer

I spent a bunch of time, money, and energy on this goal this year. I traveled to countries to see how I felt about them, and in some cases, spending a longer period of time there. I’ve also spent time assessing my immediate personal needs and how it relates to these possible moves. I think I’ve settled on an answer that works. The caveat here is that who knows what politics will change causing me to have to make another difficult choice. If somehow I lose my rights and freedoms / have to flee to live, which is possible, that will obviously change things. And if you’re looking for the answer: I’m moving back to Boston. My immediate problem is isolation causing extreme depression. California is beautiful, but turns out it’s not where my heart is.

5. What are my long term goals and desires? - Mixed

I still don’t know what my long term goals are beyond a few years. I have ideas. I have some answers in some areas. I don’t have all the answers. I think things are clearer for me than a year ago, but I still have some exploration to do here.

6. How do I get from there to here? - Mixed

I mark this one as mixed because I do know how I’m going to get to my new location. That’s going to happen around mid 2023 and is pretty straightforward. I’m looking forward to it. However, the path forward on long term goals is unclear yet. Still TBD.

The Year of Mental Health

7. Focus on my overall mental health and wellbeing - Mixed

Lots of mixed results on these goals. Honestly my mental health has always been a challenge. This year is no different. It’s been a bit more stable than it was towards the end of 2021, but it’s still not particularly wonderful. Lots of anxiety, worry, and depression, but especially anxiety. The depression has been a bit more controllable since deciding to never attempt dating again. I know isolation has played a big part, too. I’m hoping moving to Boston again helps eliminate that concern.

8. Take PTO and Vacations - Success

Though I could definitely take more PTO, I did take a number of trips this year. In fact, I traveled so much that I got burned out on it and also now have status with an airline. My traveling took me to 5 countries (Ireland, United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, and the US, of course) and 7 US states (Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Utah, New York, and California). I stayed in Ireland for 3 weeks. This holiday season I’ve taken a two week staycation. So it’s definitely a success.

9. See family and friends - Success

With all my travels this year, I saw so many friends, some of which I hadn’t seen in 5 years, and some I’d never met before in person. I visited family in Wisconsin twice. I saw great friends in Minnesota and Iowa that I hadn’t seen in years. New York had me reconnecting with some folks I met years back, too. It was a great year for seeing people.

10. Be kind to myself - Mixed

I don’t want to say I failed here, because I know there were times I was kind to myself. However, I am really not very good at being nice to myself. This is an area of improvement that will always be present, I think.

Final Verdict on 2022 Goals

2022 has been a special year. I have only 2 outright failures, 4 mixed results, and 3 successes and 1 unparalleled success. So if I grade these (0 for fails, 1 for mixed, 2 for success, and 1 bonus for unparalleled success), that’s 13 / 20. That’s a 65% rate, which is probably my best success rate overall. For comparison, 2021 had a 20% rate. Crushed it!

2023 Goals

We’ll be breaking these up into categories again, since that really works well.

Growth

1. Master pie crusts

Every holiday season pie crusts are my baking white whale. I want to get it right finally and to not make the same mistakes every year. The only way I’m going to do this is by making a lot of pie crusts. So this year will have a lot of sweet and savory dishes that require crusts.

2. Learn Electronics

This may seem counterintuitive because I built a functional R2-D2 that involved electronics. I worked my way through that, but I don’t really understand all the nuances. I want to really get down to the nitty gritty of it and understand it really well so I can build stuff without having to ask for help all the time. So I’ve looked at a Coursera course on electronics that I’m planning to take.

3. Learn CAD

Here’s another one where I can do basic work in CAD now, but there’s so much I don’t know. I’d like to sign up for an online course here, too. I think it would be great for improving my making skills overall.

Making

4. Improve R2 and add gadgets

R2-D2 is currently in a working, but rough state. Electronics need to be cleaned up. Battery plates need to be designed. I need to figure out how to add in the lifeform scanner and periscope. I need to get all the hinges working, etc. There’s a lot of work yet, and I’d love to have him in a more polished state by EOY 2023.

5. Make more droids

I’ve been bitten by the making bug, and now I want to make more. So my goals here are to build 2 more droids this year, a mouse droid and BD-1. Both are much smaller with a lot less involved. So this should be doable.

6. Simple Cosplays

Last year I wanted to do complex cosplays. This year, I just want to do some simple ones. I have a jedi cosplay that’s half done. I want to finish that. I also want to literally just buy some Trek uniforms that fit me. That’s easy enough. Additionally, I have a unique idea that would be simple and hilarious: a Twi’lek smuggler juggler. I’ll post more about this idea as I go along.

Happiness

7. Execute on living plans

Now that I know where I want to be, I need to actually follow through. I’m looking at home prices, but I’m holding off on making any offers until they drop a bit in value with this potential recession coming. So we’ll see, but the plan is for mid 2023.

8. Travel a bit less

I seriously got burned out on being in hotels and planes this past year, and especially the latter half of the year. I was just too much. I would like to limit my travel to what work requires, seeing family, and one big vacation to either Iceland or New Zealand, plus heading out to house hunt. 

9. More time with friends

I’ve felt so isolated with where I live. While I have a few friends here, I really only have like…one or two friends that I’m closer with. I don’t see them often. I just need to spend more time with people I care about.

10. A new pet

I don’t know that I posted about this, but in January Scarlet passed. She was not well. She had a persistent respiratory illness, her kidneys were failing, she had a vestibular issue that was suspected to be a stroke, and there was a strong likelihood of cancer. I got to say goodbye to her in my arms in my house, and I deeply miss her. It’s taken me a while, but I’m finally ready to have another fur baby. I’m not going to do so until I move, but I can’t wait. I may not limit myself to one fur baby, either. We’ll see.

Closing thoughts

2022 was really an unprecedented year for goals. I don’t know that I’ll ever do better than that, but with each year, I feel like I’m at least learning to approach these with better scope, grace, and achievability. I hope that 2023 proves to be another successful year!

October 2nd, 2022 marks officially 20 years of this blog existing. That's amazing! It's been quite a journey. This blog started as a way to share what I was going through back then so that others knew they weren't alone. After a time, it morphed into something else. It's really been a place for me to cope, to process, and to vent. On top of that, it's become a way of marking time and improving myself. I'm proud that I've continued to write, even if infrequently, over the years. It's been a helpful way to see just how far I've come in life.

Looking back, those early posts are pretty cringeworthy now. It's amazing to see what was important to me then. Language has changed so much. I used terminology then that is not something that folks would or should use now. And of course, if I were to tell myself then that in 20 years I'd be where I am in my career, I'd definitely be in disbelief.

I can say that I do miss the hopefulness I had then. I was far more of an optimist, and I truly believed I could change the world. My goals are significantly different now. I focus more on helping folks on an individual level and keeping my energy focused where I think I can use it best. A lot of the effort is focused also on personal growth and healing. I don't know if I'll ever be through that.

In honor of my earlier posts in this blog, I'll keep this brief. Thanks for reading and being a part of this with me. It means a lot that you care and continue to follow my life updates, albeit infrequent as they are. Here's to the past 20 years! and to another 20 more!

We're coming up on the new year again, and you know what that means! At least...wait...do you know what that means? You do? No? Yes? This is a one way system, you say? Ok well, it means it's time for my annual goals post! Here goes!

Last Year's Goals

Oh yeah, last year I did this whole goal category thing. I remember now...

Wellbeing Goals

1. Cut back on social media / YouTube / couch time or at least manage it better - Fail

I need to be kind to myself and just admit that this was a hard year. There was still a lot of isolation and we're still in a pandemic. I would say I got out more often than 2020, because we had vaccines this year. I got to go do things like go to Las Vegas for the first time and see family after 1.5 years. I also got to do a number of social things that were great, but when I was home, I was often still potatoing the couch, because it's hard when you live alone during a pandemic.

2. Continue: crush my physical fitness / health with an emphasis on body positivity - Sigh, fail

This was a tough year. I discovered I had a persistent ankle injury that required a lot of healing time. That's now better, but because of it, fitness was difficult. Plus, I'll be honest. It's been hard to get motivated this year. I would really like to change that, because being fit for me is actually super helpful for mood regulation. At least I've stopped weighing myself though. So...small wins.

3. Run in an actual 5k race - Again, fail

It's hard to run when you have tendonitis in your ankle. It took about 6 months to recover and I can only now safely run again. So, this was a fail, but there wasn't much I could have done to change it other than what I did.

Creativity Goals

4. Take a ton of photos and share my photography - Success

I took a lot of photos this year and it was great. Replacing my camera equipment for up-to-date, professional gear was a huge factor in making this fun for me again. I still have a ton of photos to go through that I've taken over the year, and I hope to get to that soon. I'm quite proud of what I've taken this year though. I expect this to continue.

5. YouTube Channel - Make 10 videos over the year - Hard Fail

Lots of ideas, but little energy. I did get to help produce two videos for work, which did allow me to express my video interests a bit. However, it's just tough to find the energy to work on heavy projects like this when I already have a demanding full time job. So we'll see. Maybe this coming year.

Challenge Goals

6. Be bold with makeup, clothing, activities - Fail

I would love to say that I did a lot with this, but COVID has really limited activities still. So makeup has not been frequent. There's been no real need for fun clothing except on rare occasion. I've gotten to do a few fun activities, like friend parties, the redwoods, some hikes, and I visited Boston. But not on the regular.

7. Continue: Pare down stuff including clothing - Fail

I didn't do much of this at all. I haven't grown too much in my collection of stuff aside from what I needed to acquire when I moved. I still don't collect trinkets, but I haven't put direct effort into paring down much. I really would like to go through my closet though. So maybe soon.

8. Throw out less food - Mixed

I'll be honest here. My behavior hasn't changed much. I would say I've gotten a bit smarter about what I buy, food wise. So I'm throwing out less in that regard, but I still waste a lot. Not much else to say.

Ambitious Goals

9. Get going with the Amazons...after COVID - Mixed

COVID is still going. So I've held off. However, I can say the business entity exists and is fully tax exempt now. So that's a success. Otherwise...things haven't really gone anywhere.

10. Write Book One - Fail

I didn't.

Impossible Goals

11. Fall in love again - Fail

I'm trying, but I'm not in love yet. I've dated / am dating. In truth I've actually put a lot of effort into this, but I'm not yet in a place where I can call this a success.

Final Verdict on 2021 Goals

It's been a tough year. There's not much more I can say about it, really.

2022 Goals

This year I'm creating different categories to have goals fall under.

The Year of the Build

1. Lots of R2-D2 Progress

I've been working very very slowly on R2 since 2015. The past few years have seen marginal progress, and I made the decision recently that by the end of 2022, I want a mostly functional droid. So to that end, I've already started buying more parts. I have a plan to pick up a bunch of what's remaining in January. So I see a lot of progress ahead.

2. Two complex cosplays

I enjoy cosplay a lot, and I haven't really put enough effort into it lately. So my plan is to build out two new cosplays this year that are more on the complicated side. I'm hoping to do a Samus Aran cosplay and a Mass Effect N7 armor cosplay, but really as long as I get some cosplay done this year, I'll be satisfied.

3. Build that Tricorder

I bought a Tricoder prop replica kit that arrived early in 2021. I didn't touch it most of the year. However, I'm excited to make it happen. So I want this project to be finished by next New Year goals post.

The Year of the Long Term Plan

4. Have an answer to where I'll live long term

I live in California right now, and it's very expensive. I really want to own a house again, but I just cannot afford it here. I have a lot of ideas of potential moves, but I really don't have a solid plan. I would like to know this answer by the end of 2022.

5. What are my long term goals and desires?

I had this seemingly unachievable, aspirational goal of getting to work at Google. That was a background goal for me, and I viewed it as impossible, but something to work towards. Well...now I work there and it's left me with...well...what's next for me to work towards? What do I want for my next 10 years? I have had a hard time trying to figure this one out and I'd like some answers also by the end of 2022. It may even inform the previous question.

6. How do I get from there to here?

This goal is breaking a bit of a rule since I normally don't like dependent goals, but this section is about long term plans. So with that in mind, when I have the answers to the prior two goals, this goal is to lay out what my plan is to get there. That seems a reasonable ask. I'll accept even the start / framework of a plan for this one.

The Year of Mental Health

7. Focus on my overall mental health and wellbeing

I'm not going to lie. This has been my worst mental health year in recent memory. Particularly over the last half of the year, my mental health took a dive. It's been fluctuating a lot between ok and really not ok. So I want to find good ways to solve that. I would love to learn to be kinder to myself.

8. Take PTO and Vacations

I've been really bad about doing this throughout my entire professional career. I'm starting to get to the point where I have enough PTO to take real vacations, and as long as COVID does not prevent me, I'm going to take trips this year. I plan to travel every month, as long as it's safe to do so. I've already got January booked, and I'm going to start looking at Birthday trips for February. So we'll see what happens.

9. See family and friends

This goes along with the prior goal, but I've been feeling so isolated. I need to feel connection regularly again. I want to visit family and friends regularly this year. So I'll be including that in my travel plans. Another trip to Boston is in order. I want to visit my friends in the Twin Cities, too. Hopefully it's safe to do so.

10. Be kind to myself

Regular readers of this blog will know how mean I am to myself. It's been an ongoing struggle to change my mental narrative about myself. I see a therapist regularly and I do my best, but gosh, it's hard. I don't know how other people do it. I will do my very best towards this goal.

Closing thoughts

It's been a long road getting from there to here. I hope by the end of 2022 I'm no longer mentioning COVID in my goals. I hope things improve. I hope I improve. See you all soon. <3

We’re just past mid year, and I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about writing a blog post update but not a lot of time actually writing. So there’s a lot here. It's well over 5000 words. I've put an index up top. Sorry sections aren't linked. The HTML sanitizer stripped my anchor ids. Feel free to jump around, but the last two topics is really beefy and core to what’s going on in my head these days.

Index

• Mental health (700 words)
• Las Vegas (421 words)
• Sweets and Diet (569 words)
• Project and Goal Progress (296 words)
• Dating and Romance (1101 words)
• Housing (936 words)
• Cynacism and the Future (1036 words)
• Conclusion (79 words)

Mental Health

My mental health has been vacillating a lot lately between pretty decent and pretty depressed. Before you get concerned, yes, I have a therapist, and yes I’m seeing them regularly. Let’s talk about the highs first.

When I’m in good spirits, I think about how happy I am with my career, my accomplishments, and my own personal confidence growth in myself. I never saw myself getting to where I am right now. I’m working at a company I thought unreachable on a team I looked up to years before ever joining the company. I now call these folks my colleagues and teammates, and that’s crazy to me. It’s also a place of discomfort as I feel like there’s a ton to learn from these folk, which is exactly where I should be. It’s exciting and I enjoy my time at work.

I compare this to where I was a back over a decade ago at my first job, when I was deeply struggling with making ends meet and completely unsatisfied with my career and job. It’s truly night and day. While I definitely miss the creative place I was shooting towards with a career in video production, I don’t think it’s impossible for me to get that experience now, too.

On the personal confidence side, I’ve found myself gaining a sense of self confidence in who I am and even how I look, which long time followers will know has been extremely challenging for me. It’s taken 40 years for me to finally be able to look in the mirror and see myself, and not some distorted, weird looking person. Although to be fair, I’m probably still seeing some body dysmorphia that will always be there, but I’m seeing through some of it now, which is a huge win. I’ve never been in this place before, and I need to take advantage of this somehow. More on this later.

OK, and now to talk about the lows. I’m feeling a deep sense of isolation and loneliness. While the COVID restrictions have lessened and I’m fully vaxxed, life is not back to normal. My circle of friends in the Bay area is significantly smaller than my circles when I was in Boston. I haven’t really been able to grow that at all during this time, and I honestly think it’s really getting to me now. I really miss seeing people regularly, and now with delta and lambda variants rising, I expect this won’t change any time soon. I live alone, and that compounds these feelings.

Aside from that, there’s some family health related stuff happening that has me thinking a lot about life, mortality, and the fact that I live so far away from my family as a whole. There’s been a lot of existentialist thoughts going on in my head during this time, and I feel so powerless to do anything about it because...there truly is nothing I can do.

Scarlet has had some health scares, too. She just turned 13 years old, and I suspect something is going on in her brain. She recently had a potential seizure and issue with her inner ear that had me thinking she had a stroke. I’ve noticed issues with her right eye that suggest more serious problems. So I expect I likely have less time with her left than I had hoped.

I haven’t been forthcoming with the internet world about some recent medical things going on with me that I’ll be intentionally vague here about, but I had some things happen recently that did not go as expected and have left me a bit frustrated and depressed. If you’re curious and you know me well, you can ask me directly via messenger apps, and I’ll talk about them. I’ll leave it at that, but it’s definitely had an effect on my mental health overall.

There’s also some very dystopian feelings going on in my head that I will share more about later in this post, but they are certainly making things far far worse for me when I’m in my lows. Hope is at a minimum these days, and it’s not great. For now, let’s move on to other topics.

Las Vegas

I very recently took a trip to Las Vegas on an invite from some bay area friends for a birthday. The company was great, but I have to say that Las Vegas as a whole isn’t for me. I wrote down some of my thoughts as I was sitting in the Vegas airport waiting to fly back to the bay area. Here’s what I was thinking at the time.

I’m writing this from the Las Vegas airport, after 2.5 days in Vegas for the first time, and I have thoughts and feels. Vegas is not for me. I struggle to figure out why people like it, honestly. I went to several different casinos and hotels while here from Paris Las Vegas to Mandalay Bay to the Luxor, and every single one of them had the same exact looking room with the same machines and same people staring at them with no smiles repeatedly pressing a button. The games don’t even have followable rules. No one really pays attention to what’s happening. They just press, and when it blinks that they won some paltry amount, they immediately push the button to get that dopamine hit again. It’s just so exploitative and catering to addicts.

I have very little to say about the sex industry here. I have zero problems with sex work as long as it’s not also exploitative. I have friends that do sex work. I fully support their career choices as they have shared with me that they have full control over how they run their business and feel empowered by it. The group I was with went to a fancy burlesque show, and the performers flat out said they loved their work during the Q&A session at the end. So as long as that’s legit, I think it’s fantastic.

Everything else in Vegas was mostly shut down. No shows to see, unfortunately. It was mostly tourist trappy, chotchkies, trinkets, and overpriced food and drink. Don’t get me wrong. The food was good and the drinks were too, but worth the exorbitant price? Debatable. Oh and also, Vegas smells like a bowling alley. The lingering scent of cigarettes is disgusting. I have mostly lived in a time when smoking is not allowable inside any establishment, and I bet this is just how everything smelled back in the early 80s and before. So gross.

I will only ever go back to Vegas for specific events, like Star Trek: Las Vegas, for example. Otherwise, it’s a no go for me.

Sweets and Diet

Let’s talk about diet. I have experimented several times over the past couple of years with periods of no added sugar. I have a huge sweet tooth, as I was raised on American foods in the 80s. Through those experiments, I’ve broken the addiction, but also learned that the sugar addiction isn’t why I eat most sugary things. It’s because the flavors are familiar and part of my culture growing up. So it’s incredibly tough to just be like “Nope...no more.”

I’ve managed to cut out a few things fully from my diet over the past decade. Soda, for example, is something I used to drink every day, and now I really only drink coffee and water, with the very rare instance of some alcoholic beverage. I also very rarely touch pure sugar candy, though many other sweets have been a part of my diet.

The truth is that I know that sugar is one of the worst things for health, and I really need to do a better job of cutting back. I had a realization maybe a month back that if I really wanted to be healthy, I needed to make permanent diet choices and not temporary ones. Diets are not something you do for a month and stop. So I’ve made some choices.

I had a fruit snack thing going on, where I always had some form of fruit snack brand in my pantry as my go to snack. Fruit snacks, despite their marketing, are just sugar and candy. So I no longer buy them. I also don’t buy candy with one exception: dark chocolate. Dark chocolate doesn’t seem to make me want to binge sugar like other sources of sweet. So I’ve made that exception because cutting things out entirely is very hard.

So, I go for natural sugars, like fruits. I also allow myself a few exceptions. I can’t buy sweets, but I’m allowed to make them and eat whatever I make. This is because I love baking and don’t want to remove that hobby from my life. I also acknowledge that all things must be done in moderation, including moderation. So once in a while anything is ok. Also holidays, special events, and when I’m out with friends...these are times where restrictions are out the door. This also applies to intermittent fasting windows.

A lot of my lazy lunches and dinners over the past several years were honestly...breakfast cereal. Most breakfast cereal is trash for health. So I’ve also made the decision to cut that out of my life, too. I’m trying to eat more thoughtfully at lunch. Salads are delicious. I’ve been making things like eggs for lunch, which I never used to do. So much better for me and filling than cereal.

Also, I’m trying to add more whole grains, meaning less grocery store shelf, sugar laden “breads” and more real breads. I’ve even considered baking my own breads again, because it’s just so much better for me than the stabilized garbage on store shelves.

I also recognize that all of this is a lot of change. So I’m trying to be forgiving for any mistakes and slippage that happens here and there. I’m not doing this to lose weight. I just want to be overall healthier. So far, it’s gone very well and I think the earlier experiments in no added sugar have made this much easier.

Project and Goal Progress

Looking at my annual goals, very little progress on all fronts is being made. I have had tendonitis in my right ankle all year, which has hampered my fitness goals, though not stopped them. I don’t think I’ll be running any time soon, unfortunately. My YouTube plans have been hindered by a number of factors, like what’s going on in my family and well...the fact that it’s just hard to do stuff as involved as video production outside of a full time job.

Photography was going well at the start of the year, and I’m looking to do more of it soon. I need a good storage solution, though, which I’ll be hopefully building in the next few months. I have made progress on the Amazons, but not enough. I also have been remiss at doing any of the things with clothing, makeup, and everything else in the challenge goals section.

What have I been doing? Well, oddly past goals have been surfacing. I’m working on a sewing project right now. I’ve also worked on my R2-D2 a bit and have plans to do more of that since I can work on it now in my current space. I plan on spending a bit of money to get some more parts soon, and I was lucky enough to recently snag a pile of another builder’s parts that saved me a bunch of money on the final project. So it’s been fun to see that moving forward.

I’m trying to ride this feeling of productivity in areas like this, because it feels nice. It’s ok that I’m not making progress in areas I had planned. Things rarely go as planned. I’m making progress in other places, and progress doesn’t have to be the goal in life.

Dating and Romance

As per usual for me, I’m doing none of this, but I’ve thought about it a lot, especially lately. As I mentioned earlier, I’ve had a lot of newfound confidence, and I feel like if I’m ever going to meet someone, it’ll be now with this confidence. Of course COVID is still in the way, but I think it’s not out of the question, if I put effort into it. I’m just not sure what that effort looks like right now.

Speaking more specifically about that confidence, I’m seeing through a lot of my former dysmorphia and feeling actually like I like my body now. What a thing that is! I’ve also shared some things people have said to me that have been very far from my own self identity re: attractiveness before, but some recent experiences have been interesting too. Like, one of my friends at work said to me recently that whomever I’m attracted to and express interest in must be like “Sure, yes. Absolutely!” just on my attractiveness alone. And I’m like...whoa...that’s what this person thinks of me. Wow! Before you go telling me to ask them out, they’re in a committed, long term relationship. I’m also monogamous. I also recently was making jokes with other friends in a random environment that implied “I’m a snacc!” and their response was essentially “Yes...everyone knows that, Jess” in a very dry, matter of fact way, which took me aback. I’ve also gotten the occasional drunken DM from friends on Facebook that clearly just saw a photo of me and want to get to be more “friendly” with me. So I’m doing my best given my recent confidence to try to integrate these statements while not letting them go to my head.

I want to talk a bit about some frustrations though. Since discovering the fact that I’m somewhere on the asexual spectrum, it’s been tough for me to figure out how dating will work or even what my attractions are. There are different kinds of attraction, platonic, aesthetic, romantic, sexual, and a few others. The big question for me is what actually are my attractions? I know aesthetically what attracts me (feminine, nerdy women), and of course there’s nuance there. I often find myself now thinking “is this romantic attraction or still just aesthetic attraction?” which...let me tell you...is hard to tease apart and very confusing. As someone who is not driven by sexual attraction, it’s really quite challenging.

If you’re curious, I do experience sexual attraction sometimes. It’s just rare and never the first thing I experience with attraction. I’m not sex repulsed, like some folks in the ace spectrum. I just need it to happen organically and not be expected of me all the time. Expecting and demanding sex is a quick way to get me to lose interest in someone. Also, I separate things like kissing / making out from full on sex. I like kissing and other PDAs. If there’s one trend I’ve noticed with me and sexual attraction is that it seems to be at its highest during the honeymoon phase of any relationship and then wanes as the romantic attraction takes over. At that point I want closeness and strong emotional connection over anything else. In all the ace labels I’ve seen, I’ve not found a label that applies this way. Demisexual doesn’t work because that implies sexual attraction after getting to know someone. If anyone knows of an ace label that my pattern fits, please share it with me. I’d like to know.

For me, I seem to be initially drawn to a person by aesthetics, then I seek emotional connection. Similar interests will make my interest pretty strong and will make or break a relationship for me.  Romantic feelings will come along with those two things, and that’ll make me want to continue with a relationship. If we have nothing in common, I’m going to lose interest. If we have lots in common, I’m in it to win it.

The complicating factor is that as an introvert, I need space. I also have PTSD and abandonment issues. So I need someone who understands these things and is willing to be patient with me on that front. Of course, it also goes without saying they have to be ok with the fact that I’m trans.

So with all that in mind, I’m thinking about attempting dating again soon, but I just don’t know where to begin. I don’t really want to be on the apps. No one likes them, and they’re just such a terrible way to meet people. I just don’t see an organic way to meet folks right now just yet, as the COVID risk is rising again. I welcome suggestions.

Also...quick rant. I’m so tired of attractive straight women in relationships sharing with me their “girl crush” on me. 1) “Girl Crushes” are just crushes, and it’s just a way of phrasing a crush in a way that makes a person who identifies as straight feel a bit more comfortable with having feelings towards someone who is of the same gender identity. Instead of telling me you have a girl crush, dump your partner and ask me out instead. Is that too much to ask? Yes, it is. They’re almost always married. 2) It’s really unkind to say such things to a single, queer girl. No one likes being teased.

Also, another quick rant. I’ve realized recently that many queer women over the past years have been interested in me, but have been unwilling to actually ask me out. I’ve gotten many compliments. We’ve hung out as friends. I’ve gotten DMs, but I am pretty sure they’re always either thinking that I’m not interested back or they’re waiting for me to ask them out somehow? In truth, I’ve just been very similar to what Neil Gaiman has said about writers and flirtation in that I’ve just been clueless in the moment. I hate that women are often too shy to ask a girl out. I’ve probably missed the opportunity to date several folk I’ve been attracted to because I thought they just wanted to be friends with me and were being kind. What’s worse...I’ll probably be just as blind in the future. They’re better off sending me a note that says “YOU ARE INVITED TO A SEDUCTION”. Ugh…

Also to add to this confusion is just how many times I’ve actually misread those cues and thought they were interested when they weren’t. That’ll make things awkward really quickly...and it has in those situations.

Housing

I’m 40. I want to buy a house. I can’t afford one where I live right now. The Bay Area is absurdly expensive. Unless you had some sort of fancy exit out of a startup, started working here back 20 years ago, or have a partner in tech after multiple years, even the crappiest house here is far out of reach. In the area I live, I get mailings about houses for sale and the smallest of these are over a million dollars. I feel like anywhere I’ve ever lived, the idea of owning has always been out of reach for me at whatever stage of life I’m in at the time, and it’s just extremely frustrating. I’m tired of moving, dealing with landlords, having to worry about rent increases, and not being able to do what I want with my own home.

California is really pretty, and there’s definitely some upsides to being here. It’s a very diverse area and it’s obviously a queer centric area. But despite that, so many downsides, I’ve already mentioned cost of living, but combine that with drought, ongoing fire risk, and the transient nature of the community here, it’s really questionable about how long I want to be here. By transient, I mean a lot of people come here for work and don’t stay after they’ve been here a few years. The age of the community skews younger because of that. I may look like I’m in my 20s, but I’m not. So I will slowly relate less and less to those that live here.

Now that we’re entering a world where full remote or even working from offices in the world not tethered to one area is an option, I’m starting to think about where I could potentially live that isn’t here where I could also buy and settle. It’s a really difficult thing, because I no longer know where “home” is.

I do know what my dream home looks like. So let’s discuss that quickly. I imagine in my head a home that’s surrounded by wooded nature. I don’t want a city home. I want to see birds, deer, and other animals. I want to hear leaves blowing and not traffic noises. I want to see the stars at night, and not deal with light pollution. At the same time, I don’t want to be so far removed from a city that fun activities are hours away and no one will come visit me. I want to see hills and mountains, and I don’t want to hear my neighbors. I basically want an affordable alcove in the forest.

My house itself would be contemporary / modern. I’ve never been fond of old, so called “charming” houses because they just scream at me as requiring a lot of work to get simple, modern amenities like decent electrical, insulation, and what not. I’ve always gravitated towards modern, clean, etc. I want probably 4 bedrooms, 2+ baths, a big kitchen with an island, a comfortable living space, and a great entertaining space that allows me to have parties and friends over easily. I also want techie things like ethernet wiring and smart home stuff. I want lots of windows, an easy look out into nature from inside the house, an attached garage, and all that. In my home state, this is all easily achievable, but….well let’s talk about that.

I grew up in Wisconsin, but I can’t live there anymore. Politically it’s a mess. I just don’t feel safe there, and I’ll never find a partner there. I’ve thought about maybe going back to Boston, where I have a giant set of friends, but then I’m back in New England, which has so many aspects about it that are really frustrating (driving sucks, general rudeness, ancient homes, lack of Krispy Kreme, Patriots fans, etc).

I’ve considered Minneapolis, as I have family and friends there, but it’s also a place where I just don’t know. The midwest is politically all over the place. It would be more rebuilding, and I’d also lose a lot of acceptance and diversity that I have been surrounded by since moving to each of the coasts.

I’m starting to look at other parts of the country that I’ve never lived in before, too. I’ll be visiting Portland, OR soon, since I have a number of friends that live there, and it offers a lot of what I love about the west coast with less of the downsides of the Bay Area. For example, I love mountains. The landscapes out here are just stunning. Portland has a lot of the same kinds of landscapes with less of the concerns about drought than CA has. It’s much more affordable, has a climate that’s less static than CA, which I’ve learned does matter to me. I actually miss rain and snow. I like living where there’s actual seasons. Who knew? I’ve also thought about Colorado, Tahoe, Seattle, New Hampshire, Maine, and a few other places, but they have to be genuinely queer friendly no matter where it is.

Aside from that, I genuinely have no idea what the plan will be. The only thing I have set in stone is that I’ve given myself just under 2 years to make a decision and move. I’ll renew this lease one more year. The only exception will be if they jack my rent, I’ll step the decision up and go sooner, which means I have to figure things out in the next 6 months, or so. No pressure…

But there’s more to this story, which brings me to my next topic.

Cynacism and the Future

Weird topic title for really what is the meat of this entire post, but here it is: I’ve been really struggling with feeling positive about the future. Not just my future, but the future in general. I know I’m not alone in this, too. My home country of the USA feels like it’s headed downhill. The current administration is fine, but I don’t expect it to last. Fascism in the US, and I guess other parts of the world, is on the rise. I expect in the next set of major elections, based on current goals of the far right, we’ll see more fascists elected. I think we’re going to see significant backsliding of progress in the country and long term...I’m not sure what will happen here. It does not feel like a safe place to be in the long term, and I’m honestly not sure what to do about it. I know many of my queer and non-white friends are all feeling this, too.

For those of you reading this that fall in to the cis, white, and straight category, many of us queer folk have been discussing the future and the fact that we have to make contingency plans for our safety. With the overall direction of the far right, we’re not just concerned about our rights and freedoms, we’re concerned about our lives. And it’s scary! In fact it’s the most scared about my personal future I’ve really ever felt.

So that brings me to the question: Do I stay here?

I’m more and more disappointed with my home country. We have a lot of people with dangerous mentalities. So much blind patriotism that says shit like “this is the greatest country in the world” and other nonsense. To me, patriotism is totally different than that. Seeing flaws and wanting to fix them is a part of what patriotism means to me. I’m also looking at the levels of extreme selfishness and lack of empathy towards those less fortunate, and it just makes me genuinely angry. People saying shit about “but my freedoms” drives me mad. We’re a country that prides ourselves on freedom while being significantly less free than other countries.

I do not see any of the issues we truly face here getting resolved. I see more division, violence, and inequality happening here. I expect that this country is on its way to falling apart in the next couple of decades, and I also see it as a direct result of division fomented by far right propaganda. The country the USA is today is not at all in alignment with my own values and beliefs. I want to be in a place that aligns with my values, and that’s been on my mind a lot.

I’m seriously considering emigration, but I’m not 100% sure where or what that would look like for me career and family wise. I’ve thought about Canada many times over the past decade or two. I’ve been thinking a lot about New Zealand, but there’s some challenges there. Namely, it’s SO far away and remote from everything I know. Still, I feel that NZ aligns most with my beliefs and values. I plan on checking a lot of options out once travel restrictions are lifted. New Zealand, Canada, Ireland, Iceland, Denmark, Sweden, and I guess...I’ll look into others.

One of the things that’s been on my mind with emigration though is this thought in the back of my mind of “Am I willing to say goodbye to everything I’ve ever known?” I think the answer is yes, but it’s been tugging at me. Sights, smells, cultural things like food, sports, etc. Holidays… and to add to that, if anything would require rebuilding friend circles, emigration definitely does. I’d be more removed from friends and family than I’ve ever been. I may be happier with my safety and values, but I’ll also be the most alone I’ve been in my life, at least for a time. It’s much harder making friends as a 40+ person than in your 20s. So I’m not sure what to do yet.

On the cynicism side, I used to think that in this country, people would do the right thing when faced with a big, giant problem, because we’ve done that in the past. For example, I expected that when a global pandemic hit, people would be responsible. I expected people would follow safety protocols, quarantine, and get vaccinated, because that’s how we solve that problem. Instead we have *gestures vaguely* this bullshit from the right wing. Anti-science and far right propaganda has brainwashed such a large swath of the country, and it’s destroying us.

I’ve also been seeing reports of the 1970 MIT study about the future, and the predictions of when society would collapse. They predicted the mid-21st century, and based on recent evaluations, we’re on track for that, closer to the 2040s. That’s 20 years from now. We have 10 years to change course. Blunt honesty...we won’t change course. With this in mind and that future ahead of us, it’s hard to think positive thoughts about the future. I truly don’t believe humanity will act to do anything about climate change until we’re well past the point of no return, if we’re not already there already. I’ve lost faith in humanity, and I honestly am uncertain whether we really deserve to be here as a species. There’s also the whole reality of what any of this current existence matters if it’s all going to shit in 20 or so years.

Acknowledging this fact has put me in a very unpleasant mental state.

So...what does this all mean? Where do I go from here? How do I cope with these feelings? I’ve been struggling with answering these questions for a while now. I’m not sure how to move forward, and certainly being alone sitting with these thoughts has not been good for me. I really do welcome your thoughts and suggestions, but please leave the toxic positivity off the commentary, as it doesn’t help me. If anything, it just adds to my frustration. I just hate feeling isolated and alone while sitting in these thoughts and feelings.

Conclusion

So that’s where I am right now. It’s a weird mix of feelings that are all over the place. If you read this far, you’re a champ, and also, I love you, truly. You’re a wonderful friend, and I don’t say it enough. Thanks for being you. If you want to comment or discuss any of this, feel free to do so on socials, or just send me a message, and we’ll chat. Until then, stay safe and healthy.

Here we are finally in 2021 after a year that everyone has agreed was The Worst™. I'm going to be very kind to myself with the assessment of last year's goals, because with a global pandemic, most of my goals, and probably everyone's goals, were tossed. Let's just get right to it.

Last Year's Goals

1. Get rid of half of my stuff - Mixed

I actually got a solid start on this, but of course the pandemic got in the way. I donated a bunch of stuff at the beginning of the year, and I went through and identified all the stuff I want to eliminate. Unfortunately with stay-at-home orders and businesses being closed, it just was impossible to take any of it anywhere. So I've essentially just put this goal on hold for now.

2. Do a big planned thing once a month - Obvious Fail for Obvious Reason

I was so ambitious with this goal. I started a meetup. I actually planned out the full year of events. I put together a shared Google calendar and invited people to each of the events. I actually ran my meetup's first event, and it was a great time! This goal was well on it's way to success, and then it hit the pandemic wall. I think this is the goal I'm the most sad about, because it was going to be amazing! I know that the pandemic isn't even over yet, and I can't really even consider this a 2021 goal. So I'm hopeful that this might end up a 2022 reboot.

3. Improve my relationship to food - Uncertain

It's really tough to say that this has failed or passed. Over the course of the pandemic, I feel like my food habits did change a lot. I didn't actually drink that much and my food intake was pretty consistent. Consistency doesn't necessarily mean quality though, and I know that there's a ton of room for improvement yet. I cooked nice meals on the weekend, but during the week I was often quite lazy. There was also a period of a couple of months that I had to eat terribly for reasons I shant get into here. Yes...I said shant.

4. Break my sugar addiction - Mixed

I started the year pretty strong with this and went all in on the no sugar diet. I lasted 2 weeks before I couldn't do it anymore. That might seem like a fail, but...I noticed that as the pandemic set in, I largely wasn't eating as much junk as I used to. While I think the sugar addiction is still present, it's not quite as strong as it once was. I feel like if I attempted the no added sugar diet again, I'd succeed. I know the addiction will probably never be fully gone, but I think it's more acheivable than it used to be.

5. Maintain a healthy weight - Unexpected Success

Weight is a very interesting thing for me. As I mentioned last year, body dysmorphia is a constant in my life. I just don't really know how I actually look. I relied on a number on the scale to tell me, and in 2019 I was obsessed with making that number lower thinking I looked better thinner. I now look back on those photos and am like "Wow...I look unhealthy." This year I gained weight. In fact, I'm 20 lbs heavier than I was when I moved to California. However, my fitness level is in a really great place, and that weight has moved around for a number of reasons. I actually am finding that I am pretty happy with my current weight as is. So I'm now maintaining a healthy weight for me, which is a different weight than I thought it would be when I started the year. Not what I expected at all.

6. Find a fitness buddy - Mixed

It's hard to have a fitness buddy at all with stay-at-home orders. Over the course of the year, I've had multiple folks that I've either checked in with or regularly reported my daily fitness to. I had a physical therapist for a few months that I worked with to resolve my knee issues. I have had a couple of friends that have checked in via socials to see how I'm doing. One of my colleagues has been remotely been fitness buddying in the last quarter of this year. I also have been posting some info out to facebook via a fitness buddy list and twitter just in general at certain points with updates on fitness. I don't have a singular fitness buddy. I have a few folks, but I largely have been doing a decent job of keeping myself motivated on this, which is something I'm proud of.

7. Reduce my spending - Meh

This is one of those things that's just hard to criticize myself for when I live alone during a stay-at-home order from a global pandemic. I spent money on things that made this time bearable. I have zero regrets about that and I'm not going to judge myself on this goal.

8. Learn a language - Hard. Fail.

There's not much more to say. I didn't.

9. Solve my loneliness - Meh

This is another one that just involves kindness to myself. A global pandemic is what it is. I've found some great online groups that have helped with loneliness, but despite many attempts, I cannot change reality. So being stuck at home alone has been my experience most of this year, even during big holidays. My hope is that this changes as we approach the reality of vaccines and the end of this pandemic.

10. Take a real vacation - ಠ_ಠ

*sigh*

Final Verdict on 2020 Goals

There's not much to say here other than everyone's world was not normal in 2020. I hope we never see another global pandemic in our lifetimes. I hope this new year is going to be a better year and a better world for everyone.

2021 Goals

This year I've decided to create categories that may or may not help me. We'll see how it goes.

Wellbeing Goals

1. Cut back on social media / YouTube / couch time or at least manage it better

I have made goals like this in the past. In fact, this kind of goal is what triggered the R2-D2 project. I know I need to be kind to myself during the remainder of this pandemic, but I just don't enjoy how much I sit and watch a thing or doom scroll on social media. I know that we all need time to relax. So I need to keep that in mind. I think my biggest concern is the addictive nature of social media algorithms with searching for that next dopamine hit. I'd like to find ways to address that in my own life. I don't want to not engage in socials at all, because there's a lot of people I stay in touch with via social media only. I just don't want the socials to control me. This is a tough to measure goal, but there's data I can analyze to assess this at the end of the year. Plus, I believe I'll know definitively even just on my own if this has changed.

2. Continue: crush my physical fitness / health with an emphasis on body positivity

I was honestly quite surprised at how awesome my physical fitness and health was in 2020. I honestly don't think I've ever been in as good of shape as I was around June. I had to take a fitness break for a while for reasons, but I'm back to it now. I honestly never thought this was the person I would be, but it really does improve my confidence and happiness. So I'm going to stick with it. Plus, it makes me feel like a badass, which is nice.

3. Run in an actual 5k race

I also never thought this would be me, either. I used to hate running with a passion. I have never once ran in an actual race, and I would like to. I want it to be an in person event, and that likely means waiting until much later in the year. However that's perfect, because I had to take a cardio break. So I need to train back up before then. I look forward to reporting on this goal at the end of 2021.

Creativity Goals

4. Take a ton of photos and share my photography

I love photography, and I think a number of things have made this hobby a stale one for me over the past several years is the fact that where I live makes it hard to get me interested in it. I love nature photography, and apartments / urban areas just make that hard. Furthermore, my camera is just old. I have plans to replace it very soon, which I know will spike my interest again, and I'm also planning on moving to a new place that isn't an apartment. So, I'm hopeful I'll have more things to photograph, which I'm going to share regularly via several social media channels. Watch for that.

5. YouTube Channel - Make 10 videos over the year

I have an idea for a YouTube channel that I think will help me acheive many of my goals over the year. I don't want to burn myself out. So I'm keeping my count of videos produced to 10. That's under one a month, which should be doable. I don't want to share too much about the idea, but watch for it. I've really missed video as a creative outlet. So I'm excited to do more of it again.

Challenge Goals

6. Be bold with makeup, clothing, activities

If there's one thing that I've always been too shy to do is to approach my appearance in the ways that I've always admired. I'm pretty sure this is due to growing up in a more conservative midwestern town, but I aim to change that. I know that I gain confidence when I feel like I look good. So I want to make bolder choices that make me feel good about myself. This might be something like wearing crop tops or more revealing outfits. With makeup, I shy away from bold colors thinking it's too much. Or sometimes I'll be like "this is very bold" and then put on my eyeliner and realize it's not bold at all. I want to be more adventurous. It's hard to do this when I live alone during a pandemic, but as the COVID restrictions lift, I intend to make it happen.

7. Continue: Pare down stuff including clothing

Last year I made a list. I need to follow through on eliminating the rest of that list. I have regularly pared down clothing over the years, but I need to be more aggressive with it. There's still a bunch of clothing that is either old, falling apart, or I just don't wear. I need to toss or donate a lot of it, and I just need to do it. As I get more bold with my prior goal, I'm going to have to make room in my closet anyway. So let's make it happen.

8. Throw out less food

As someone who worked for a company entirely focused on food waste reduction, I'm embarassed to say I throw out more food than I'd like. As a single person, it can be hard to cook when recipes are designed for 4 people, usually. Sometimes it's as simple as I buy fruit and veg that just goes bad before I get to it. That will probably always be a risk, but I just want to do a better job of this so I don't throw out as much as I do.

Ambitious Goals

9. Get going with the Amazons...after COVID

The Amazon group is something that I've been slowly working on for years. It's shown up in prior years' goals before, and I've not made as much progress on it as I'd have liked in the past. This time is a little different as I've officially created the non-profit organization now. I have federal 501c3 status, and while there's still some paperwork yet to do, the only thing stopping me from getting this going now is COVID and my own effort. So as this pandemic winds down, the Amazons should be able to wind up. 

10. Write Book One

I don't recall if I've ever mentioned this before in this blog, but I've had an idea for a fictional superhero type story for over a decade now. I've slowly developed it in my head and in some writing. I've written out several scenes and I've gotten nothing but positive feedback, to put it mildly, about these writings. So I want to make this a fully realized story. My plan is to dedicate blocks of time throughout the year to just write. I know what I need to do. I just have to do it.

Impossible Goal

11. Fall in love again

This goal again?!! Yeah, I know. I'm the only person in my way here. It would seem that despite how I think about myself, other people seem to think I'm pretty cool and attractive. It's weird and I don't understand it. You'd think my treatise on why I'm an ugly, awful, garbage person (aka this blog) would be enough evidence for them, but they keep telling me I'm wrong. Also friends, please know I'm saying this in jest... or am I? Anyway, I just need to find the right one for me, which is always the hard part. I also need to make room in my life for love and allow myself to be vulnerable again. That's also a very hard thing. So we'll see how it goes.

 

Closing Thoughts

2021 is finally here after what can easily be called the worst year in most of our lives. Let's never talk about 2020 again. We have so much to look forward to right now. There's finally some hope. Let's focus on that and make some cool shit happen. Happy 2021, all!