Well friends, this is it! Last newsletter of the year! And the last few days of 2025. How shall we spend them? Mayhem? Revelry? Cozy isolation?

As I mentioned last week, 2025 has been a challenging year for me. But it’s also been a valuable year, as I’ve instituted new habits and systems for maintaining my life. Maybe even learning a few small lessons along the way. I don’t really feel like I met a lot of my goals for this year, and that’s okay. Though tbh… I’m not even sure what my goals were? so maybe it’s a moot point. Life certainly threw me a few unexpected left hooks (albeit not nearly as many as the years prior; oof) and I think I dealt with them well; at least that’s how I’m choosing to view things.

There were certainly many positive highlights! Getting back into camming has been a lot of fun albeit not without its challenges. While it was exhausting, I’m glad I got back into the dentist and got all those small repairs done before they turned into bigger problems—and I’m glad I got Irma in to get her teeth cleaned as well. And of course, this year I started this newsletter-slash-blog! To date I’ve sent out 33 separate emails (including this one), with a total of 83k words written. 😊 And only one of them was sent out late; otherwise I’ve managed to write to you every week.

It was also a banner year for attending arts and culture events… I saw a bunch of burlesque and vaudeville shows with friends, hit up some stellar concerts ranging from indie musicians in dive bars to bands I’ve been listening to for decades in big event venues; I even saw a couple of stage plays! The social times went beyond the venue as I reconnected with folks I’ve not seen in years, hit up a few solid dance nights, and even travelled a few times to have good visits with family out of town.

I think the biggest and hardest part of my year wasn’t the illnesses nor injuries that slowed me down—though, those were certainly annoying to say the least—but was realizing that I’ve hit a wall on my personal growth. Not just acknowledging that, but “saying the quiet part out loud” about what I need to change in my life to get things moving again. I am certainly stubborn to a fault, especially when it comes to disrupting my personal comfort and routine. But I’d rather grow through a challenge that’s undertaken by my own hand, than sit stagnant due to challenges foisted upon me. Big things coming in 2026 lfg??? 😅

But, let’s not get into all that New Year planning and vision boarding juuuust yet! That’s a 2026 problem. 🙃 For now, I’m still in liminal calendar space coast mode, taking it easy while I count down the final days of the year. Next week, we’ll start getting serious about things again (but not too serious).

☑️ Done and Done - Played a lot of Diablo IV, did some light work checking in on my sites and socials through the slow holiday week (I think I finally figured out the rather oblique Fansly For You Page promo process), cooked some good foods, shared good foods with good people, then played some more Diablo IV. Basically, a big ol’ slack off week.

📋 Coming up - Honestly, I have no idea. Probably some streams? Maybe a NYE party? I need to trim my bangs, and get my manicure freshened up. Mostly my plan for the week ahead is to do some chores and home resets and even some journaling to help set the mood for the new year. Also acquiring and setting up a new bullet journal for said journaling.

👾 Gaming - With no functional TV and no desire to spend relaxing “downtime” watching movies at my desk, my only choice (woe is me!) was to play Diablo IV. I started on Sunday and by Tuesday my Paladin was level 60. At that point I finally spent some time reading about the current season and the Paladin mechanics, did a respec of skill points, and now the dang thing is so overpowered I walk into a room and everything explodes. I’m not even kidding; it’s delightful. Currently working on reaching Torment Tier 2 and Seasonal Rank 5.

🎵 Listening - If and when I’m playing Diablo, odds are I’m listening to music by Danish composer Jesper Kyd. The Warhammer 40k: Darktide albums are my favourite for augmenting this specific video game, but honestly you can put any of his scores into a big ol mix and anything that comes up will probably feel perfectly timed and aligned with what’s happening in the game. Unfortunately, Spotify seems to be the best place to access a good cohesive amount of the music under his name.

🍊 Drinking - I stopped at the bougie neighborhood grocer a few days before Christmas to grab some extras for the holiday dinner, and decided to get a bottle of fresh-squeezed orange juice for myself. They have one of those machines that presses the juice right there in the produce section! Stupidly expensive but worlds apart from any other bottled orange juice you could get in a market. Instant pick-me-up.

👕 Wearing - And ollllld friend of mine from waaaay back founded the music label STYLSS over a decade ago, and I finally snagged a hoodie from him during the lockdown years. It’s my biggest, thickest, warmest hoodie, and to me wearing it denotes when winter has finally truly hit. I will basically live in this thing until maybe mid-March.

These two weeks leading to the end of the year are always, always the weirdest. Apologies to anyone who had to go into work on Friday and didn’t just get a long weekend! Incredibly rude. Even for me, trying to get any actual work done just feels… futile. Some people manage to push through and in The Before Times, I certainly did. But now it’s pure coasting from the 23rd on. And that’s fine. I’ve learned to relish it, rolling around in the opportunity to check out like a pig who’s never seen a mud puddle before.

And so. End of year blessings unto you and yours! The days are starting to get longer now, and though we’re all burnt out on a rough year of existence, I know we’re going to come back stronger and continue to face our opponents head-on in the fight for what’s good. Rest now, for we ride at dawn. Or, eh, maybe more like… noon, if that’s good for you?

Cheers,