To celebrate last night’s insomnia, I updated the cover image for WHO YOU GONNA BELIEVE and posted an epilogue for closure. It’s funny, because I remember when Hank Green was promoting his first book, he said in a video something like, “You can just end a book wherever you want.” It seemed kind of obvious to me at the time. Like, of course you can end a book however and whenever you want. But then I also stressed over wrapping up this memoir for months. So it’s also an epiphany. I get it now. I couldn’t just say “the end” and wave my proverbial wand at everything. I had to come to term ..read more

I spent most of my weekend tinkering with my website (even though I told myself I’d give my brain a break) and watching SEO videos on YouTube.  Also spent it wondering if Trump is going to be able to sit quietly through his election interference (aka the Stormy Daniels hush money) case that starts today.  His arrogance, drug addictions, and particular brand of hyperactivity, won’t serve him well in the courtroom, and I’m not above being entertained by it. But back to my website. I’ll be honest, there isn’t a lot of useful information in those YouTube videos for me, because most of th ..read more

I was supposed to have my first appointment with the new rheumatologist tomorrow, but the maintenance light came on in the Corolla, and it needs to be taken in. It’s one of those 100,000-mile deals where we knew the car was going to start needing money and attention, but we were hoping the Universe would give us a break for a few more months. That’s not all that’s going on, either. Dan’s rheumatologist is leaving—he got the letter yesterday. I still need to sort out his insurance situation since Medicaid says we make too much money. (That’s laughably absurd.)  And … wait that might b ..read more

I spent the entirety of this weekend working on my website. Things went well until I broke a couple of pages, including my How to Draw Zentangles: One Zentangle a Day page. Luckily (or not) I had a single small cup of coffee yesterday morning and was awake all freaking night anyway. So I fixed it. And by fixed it, I mean I started over from scratch. I’m slow and inefficient, but I didn’t want the page to be down longer than necessary. I’m trying to pay bills, and I need search engines to send traffic my way. Hopefully How to Draw Zentangles: One Zentangle a Day (yes, that’s a clunky sentence b ..read more

I’m sharing personal anecdotes along with these 7 signs of a bad doctor for a few reasons. First, I want you to know that if you’ve got a crummy doc, you’re not alone. So many people can relate. (The hashtag #DoctorsAreDickheads existed on Twitter for a reason!) Second, it might help you see warning signs in your own care. Maybe you just don’t like your doctor; maybe your doctor is genuinely terrible. Remember: doctors, like anyone else, are not good just because they chose a profession of prestige and authority. They still have to be competent at what they do—just like the rest of us. 7 Sign ..read more

I don’t know if anyone here remembers the time I spent railing against the deceptive and predatory practices of self-pub companies iUniverse and Author Solutions years ago, but it made me some pretty good friends along the way. One of them was Philip J Reed. Phil reached out to me after I posted to Help A Reporter Out (HARO) for interviews with anyone willing to talk about their experience with self-publishing. He shared his story back when I was still Two Write Hands. Over time, he revealed himself as kind of brilliant, full of humor, and very upfront about and aware of his mental health. He ..read more

I have decided to pivot! to spending more time on my website. It started with more frequent blogging. But those more frequent updates made pages like How to Make Crock Pot Cannabutter, How to Get Your Doctor to Listen, and How to Draw Zentangles more relevant to search engines, and I think it’s in my best interest to pivot and go where this increased site traffic is taking me.  Lamenting the stagnation of my Zentangle channel on YouTube while I can’t hold a pencil, control my pen strokes, or see clearly when I look down at my paper isn’t doing anything for me. It’s depressing to dwell, an ..read more

My Dad used to say, “a likely story” a lot in response to me saying something that sounded fishy coming from a small child. For example: “Kids with puppies do better in school, I swear, Dad!” “A likely story.” He’d lower an eyebrow and give a scrutinous look. I hear him in my head now as I am writing this, and it makes me laugh, but here I go anyway:  Guys, I think I’m allergic to spinach. I should qualify that by adding I like spinach, but—as they say—spinach does not like me. Remember the veggie blend Cheerios I was so excited to try? They tasted fine, good even, but within minutes I wa ..read more

(placeholder photo from Pixabay until Dan gets me one) Pardon me for another post about birds so soon, but there are Eurasian Tree Sparrows in St. Louis. I repeat: there are Eurasian Tree Sparrows in St. Louis. Merlin identified this non-native species on Day 1. I didn’t initially confirm it. I figured Merlin was probably confused or high and skipped it, not recognizing the species packs I’d installed in the app were actually for North America and the Midwest and so something else had to be going on. Ignorantly, I did a quick—not thorough—Google search, because: confirmation bias. The map on W ..read more

I had a rough few days, which is why I haven’t been blogging at my usual clip. But I’ll get to all that another day. Maybe. Instead, let’s talk about why I didn’t post anything yesterday: because the weather was fabulous, and I had better things to do. On social media, an academic follow from the University of Illinois (I always follow some local people if I can find them, and I used to live in Champaign-Urbana) who is into birds (like PhD-level into birds) shared about birding with the Merlin bird app. That app is like a real-life Critterpedia. I’m hooked. You can ID birds by photo, but ..read more