Check in with me.

It's almost October. 🍂

I am now settling into a house near my parents. My kid is in school, and after a wild week of new school jitters and the whole family getting sick (thankfully not COVID, I checked). The dust is finally settling, and I am putting my schedule back together in a way that makes some sense. The last few weeks were me throwing myself at projects and deadlines and seeing what stuck as I packed up my family and life and moved to a better community.

As some of you have probably heard me venting over the last few months, the area my family was in was becoming increasingly right-wing, and I was entirely uncomfortable starting my kids in a school district that was causing me almost daily panic attacks. I decided to move this summer when I saw a small window of opportunity with the shop's success. I managed to find a small house to rent and could pay for the whole move thanks to the help of our internet community. The hardest part was letting go of Pippin in the midst of it all. He had become so sick, and his kidneys weren’t returning to manageable levels. We knew that a move was going to be too much for him. I am still so sad, but I am thankful that he is no longer in pain or sick. Thank you to everyone who assisted with his treatment and allowed him a little more time with us.

In the community where we moved, I have experienced multiple moments that have made me thankful to my core that I made this incredibly stressful move. My son’s teacher is spectacular. The elementary school staff is kind and celebrates diversity. The school district has developed even more tools and systems to support kids from different backgrounds. There is a woman who stands outside of one of the schools with a sign. I was initially nervous, but when I got close enough, I saw it read, “No whitewashed history is taught here” and “BIPOC history matters” on the other side. I had to pull over and cry. After partnering for the last year with Popular Information and filming videos for their TikTok, I have learned a lot about how far conservative interests have gone to force right-wing control over education, the visibility of entire communities, and information about history. It’s been eye-opening in the most nightmarish ways. It partly drove my urgency to move to a community where I had support and knew it was mainly left-leaning. We are here now, and I feel like I can finally breathe.

What’s next for us is to have a little peace through the holidays. Let the kids spend time with their grandparents and enjoy the quiet woods. I am still working full-time, creating content. As I mentioned above, I have a partnership with Popular Information, where I film and edit four videos a week for them. I have my shop and a rotating range of clients I now work with and consult for regularly. My YouTube channel is becoming active again, but I have multiple videos on a range of subjects in development that will be coming over the next few weeks. I aim to work in more Twitch and TikTok live streams. I try to sneak on when I can, but it’ll take time to have a proper schedule again.

Thanks again to everyone who has supported me and my family on this journey. The following months will be… interesting as we get closer to the elections. There will likely be more scandals and “aliens” as more information about investigations on Trump and his allies comes out. Our task will be to stay focused on learning who is running in our local elections and what their financial backers are. Elections are not where this ends but should be viewed as another form of protest. Conservative interests are working overtime to convince liberal/left voters that their vote doesn’t matter. We need to anticipate that they will cheat the system (as their behavior has already demonstrated), and we need to make them exert all of their resources to do so.