Update from the cave

It’s been a while since I’ve updated here, and for that I’m sorry. I wanted to let you know how the social media hiatus was going, since I’m most of the way through the time I’d planned to be away.

While I have not yet found the rhythm with my work that I’d hoped for—thanks, pandemic!--, I find that being off social media for the most part has the great benefit of providing greater calm, clarity, and even some little bits of time to try new things. I am indulging as I can in my great new love of K-pop and K-drama, while learning Korean along the way. I’m thinking more deeply and intentionally about my work. I’m far more present with my family and have accomplished a few (not all, alas) of some home management tasks I never seemed to get to before.

You can do some things with six hours a day, I’ve found. And sometimes that six hours gets re-allocated in ways you weren’t expecting—namely remote school and helping with all the needs there. Spending time assuaging your kids’ fears about the virus and school. Etc.

That’s not to say I don’t miss things—namely the people I love being in touch with, some of whom I am only in touch with through social media. I really miss those connections, and while I’ve tried to keep up some of them privately, I’m sure I’m failing at most of them because I simply need to focus more on my family right now. I’m working on a few projects here and there as I can.

Today, after three months of physical therapy and podiatry appointments, I discovered that I do in fact have a tear in one of the tendons of my ankle. I’m not sure what’s next on that score, but when I made the mistake of googling, I found that surgery is often the only remedy, though sometimes a cast or boot can be used to immobilize the ankle and allow the tendon to heal naturally. No matter what, I would guess work will go even slower, as this will take months to heal.

I therefore don’t really expect my hiatus to end in January. I’m still on Instagram and enjoying that for its windows on the world, but the rest may have to wait indefinitely, and that will have to be just fine for the moment. I will still update my Patreon and newsletter—hopefully I will not get any slower, as I’m already slow enough!

I miss everyone and hope I’ll have better news in the coming months. If anyone has suggestions for things to binge-watch or –read during recovery, I’m all ears!