a little more juju

Shit. I thought I had posted more recently than February, and here we are, already in August.

Whoops.

Well, a lot has changed over the last six months. To summarize: bought an RV, did two more travel nurse contracts, accepted a permanent position in Michigan and moved up there (yes, in the RV), adopted another kitten, sent Nelson back to Tennessee, started dating again … and that’s just off the top of my head.

It’s been lonely; not entirely unexpected, but I wasn’t fully prepared for how deeply sad I would feel. It wasn’t quite depression? But it was close. I did pretty much nothing but sleep and work, and on the occasion I would venture out, I would never stay away from my RV for very long. For example, I attended Ferndale Pride, but after wandering around for about thirty minutes and noticing that everyone was in groups or paired off, I put my head down and went back to the campsite. Granted, my animals were there, but still. Once, I was at a hair appointment, and when my sister called to see how I was doing, I just started crying without any real reason (at that moment, she decided to come visit a few weeks later, for which I was thankful).

Although I can’t say that I’m completely adjusted now, things have gotten easier. I met a fellow nurse who is also a transplant from Nashville and has only her boyfriend as an anchor here, and I’ve been on a few dates here and there. Instead of living in a KOA, I now have my RV parked on a coworker’s land, and they invite me to dinner and the lake and everything. My work schedule makes extracurricular activities a bit more difficult, but I’ve got a few groups, like writing and book clubs, that I’m planning on attending. So I’m making a nice little life up here.

It’s … refreshing.

Now, the winter will be here before I know it, so we’ll see how I feel about this part of the country then, but for now, I’m just looking forward to the fall. My sister is coming up here again the first full week of September so we can go see Practical Magic 2, and I’m already compiling my list of books and movies to consume in October for a revamped Horrorpalooza 2026 (more on that in a later post). And there are so many fall festivals and free events that are popping up on the various town calendars*!

As far as writing goes, I’ve not been doing a ton of it. Obviously. Well, until recently. The loss of community and a strange sleep schedule (I’m back on nights #cries) kind of killed my creativity, which should have been a huge clue that I wasn’t okay. But I’m getting back to it. I painted a few portraits recently, and I’ve started using my film camera more, although I need to find a good place to get the photos developed. You know that “nature is healing” meme? My life is kind of like that right now.

Anyway, I’m going to be doing a bit of cleaning house over the next couple of days, so this site will probably look a wee bit different soon. I’ve got a few other posts scheduled for later, and I’m considering resurrecting my “On Rotation” posts, since that’s one of the only creative things I’ve been doing recently – I compiled some pretty great little playlists that I’m excited to share.

But yeah, this is kind of a proof of life post, I guess. I can’t guarantee that I’ll be as prolific as I want to be, but I’m going to try. A little harder now that I’m not in the pit of despair I was a few weeks ago.

* I live in a little town that’s close to a lot of other small towns, and so there’s a lot of crossover when it comes to this sort of thing.