The elusive Eclectic Miscellanea
Eclectic is back, and there was much rejoicing.
I’m back to posting regularly on my blog. Guest-blogger and friend Yuliana called me “Elusive Eclectic” in her post. It’s true that since I go by a pseudonym online, it can be hard to figure out some things about me — some people still think I’m a woman or she/her, my guess is because Miscellanea ends with an -a, but I’m a guy.
So why did I get behind again in work, volunteering, actually replying to people on Twitter, and my blog? I was less hard on myself than I normally am when I get overwhelmed and behind with things. Now that I’m hopefully in something resembling a routine again, I did a personal stock-taking this weekend and realized I’ve had several major events in the last six months.
The answer is No.
Major events can take a toll emotionally and psychologically on people, and by the middle of last week I was feeling the full force of it.
September: In the hospital for 6 days for a rash that kept spreading, covered a large part of my left arm, leg, and chest and which they never did find the cause of.
November-December: Some friction at home between my wife and me, partly over amount of time spent, and different thoughts about, my online volunteering, blog, and whether or not people I don’t know in real life are “friends”. But that’s a whole other story.
December: Catching covid and isolating from my family in a room on a boat for several days, including Christmas, on a cruise that I was (apparently somewhat justifiably ) stressed about due to omicron
December-January: A major change at my job, switching the system we use for our daily work, transferring over my stuff, and 16-18 hour days for several days to try to fix a technology-related mess a colleague caused by knowingly doing what he wasn’t supposed to do.
January: A major change in childcare responsibilities and schedule, with my wife and I pulling our daughter out of afterschool care and extracurriculars to lower her possibly exposure to covid, I now leave home at 2:45 to pick up my daughter instead of my wife picking her up at 4:30. Followed by a several-day saga of pulling our daughter out of class and then putting her back in because of the high number of absences in her classroom, which we later found out was precautionary quarantining and not any active cases.
I stress, you stress, we all stress and eustress! #dadjoke
I also had some eustress, stress that generally was positive but is still stressful
November: Traveling to see my wife’s family. We had a great time, but anytime I’m with a big group, around 15 people including kiddos, it causes me stress. What’s great though is partly thanks to live-tweeting and friends I’ve gotten to know better online recently, I actually tell jokes in person, and people laugh! I think it’s partly because they’re not expecting it.
November and January: Two major online presentations for my job, and a third one coming up shortly. It’s exciting to meet people and talk about my work, but talking to dozens of people you don’t know and knowing it’s being recorded for other people to watch later is pretty intimidating.
December: Launching my guest post series! All three guest bloggers wrote amazing posts, and they got a lot of traction online. I’m very grateful to them for doing it and that, and a couple of posts getting 100+ likes, also helped reassure me that what I do online does matter, both to me and at least in some small way to my followers and my TYT fam.
January: Getting to talk for several minutes to Ana Kasparian. Yes, the executive producer and host of The Young Turks! One of the people I most admire for her willingness and ability to go up against corporate politicians and the capitalist system in such a passionate and informative way. She talked to about 15 mods (chat moderators) at a recent meeting and took time to talk to each of us, in addition to fielding several questions. I somehow managed to not sound like a complete idiot (I hope!) and she even said it was great to finally hear my voice after reading comments from me for years now.
January: My relationship with my daughter which was already very good has gotten even closer thanks to picking her up from school and us spending more time together. She sometimes does things on her own, but we play games, listen to music, watch cartoons, etc. together.
So anyway, that’s a LOT of new stuff going on in very little time. I know I’m not alone — a lot of people are dealing with a lot of change, and even grief in many cases due to the pandemic and changes it’s brought, not to mention already trying to find a way to get by financially and emotionally.
Relaxing a little — what could possibly go wrong!
The moral of the story is that now that there are urgent, in some cases unpreventable, things I’ve successfully gotten through, I need to take time to do activities I enjoy, including online but also reading, music, and exercising. I’ve had a lot on my plate, but feel positive going into this week and the rest of the year personally. Now if we could just get some sign of hope in Washington, I’d be all set!
🚨Please make sure to vote in the monthly poll to help me decide which progressive-friendly cause or organization will get a $50 donation. The poll closes Jan. 31 at 11:59pm Eastern. Thanks!
🚨 If you’re interested in doing a guest post (blog post, video, sharing something you’ve done, etc.), here’s more info on how and some previous ones that have been done! Guest post series.
