Long Time No See…

Been a while, hasn’t it?

Man, the end (or you know, the totality) of 2017 was a bit of a nightmare. I’ve completely fallen off the horse in a lot of ways, both online and offline. And as is so commonly the case, I’m going to try and take the start of 2018 to rebook myself. So here’s what’s been going on, and what I’m hoping to do in the future.

So in the first quarter of 2017, I lost my job. Given that this now put 2/3rds of my family unemployed, it became massively stressful for all of us. I didn’t know where to be looking. This was the third job in a row to drop me unexpectedly, and the second in a row where they actively told me that I would know if I was going to be in trouble–and then didn’t when it hit. Needless to say, that doesn’t do much for the depressed person’s psyche.

Luckily, I caught a break and at the beginning of June I was offered a position at a local independent insurance agency to work as an admin assist. I was thrilled; I’d been in insurance before and really enjoyed it. It’s a small family-oriented office, very LGBT friendly (the owners are two wonderful women married to each other), and they were happy to see an environment where I could grow. That’s really all I’ve wanted in a job for a while now. Something stable, where I could grow.

January will be the start of my 8th month with the company, and it will see me licensed as a personal lines insurance agent myself. I passed the licensing exam just after Christmas, and will submit the paperwork for all the necessary background check stuff soon. I’m excited; it lets me do a lot more to help the office, and with luck it will mean more ways for me to grow. I can also, of course, work on getting other licenses in the future as well and spread into commercial lines or something if I’d like. It’s good, and the longer I’m there the more comfortable I am with my future there. It’s a nice feeling, not thinking that at any moment I’m going to get tossed back out again.

But all this has meant that my life outside of work has been a little scattered. As much as I like to think that the time off and return to a normal schedule would mean that I have more time for things that I want to do, it’s never the case. I fall away from my writing. I fall away from my reading. I fall all over the place and don’t take care of the things I truly need to.

Like you all.

Now, if I’m being completely fair, I fell away from my Youtube videos because when I got my new computer, it didn’t want to cooperate with my camera or software or anything, so I’m still working on that. Youtube needs to be on hold for a little while anyway, just so that I can try and get the rest of my life put back together.

On that note, while I’ve been paying for a gym membership, I haven’t been to the gym in months. This is another thing I’m going to work on again. My doctor is unimpressed with my weight, and I am as well, given that most of my clothes don’t fit me particularly well anymore. So that’s something else to work on.

It’s nice to have a plan though. I’ll take this week to get into the swing of the new year, and hit the ground running next Monday. So in terms of the blog, I’m starting out a little slower than I have in the past. I’m only going to shoot for two blogs a week: one on Monday, letting you all know how the week has been and what I’ve been thinking about, that kind of thing. The type of post you’ve been seeing from me on Mondays for a while now.

Then later in the week, likely Wednesday or Thursday (but I make no promises) will be a book review. That helped me keep on top of my reading a lot last year (before the fire nation attacked) so I’m hoping it will help again now. I’ll be kicking off the new year with a review of an ARC I read and wanted to get a review of it up sooner but…life. Yeah. Better nate than lever?

In any event, that’s what’s been going on, and that’s what I’m shooting for as we move forward. Hopefully in a month or two I’ll be into a swing where I can add the fiction Friday posts back up, because I enjoyed doing those as well.

Thank you all for your patience all this time. Let’s make this year great, ah?