Thanks for all your patreon content! I love the short stories<3 (especially the library one) Side note- are you still enjoying Japan? I think it's been a few years so I'm curious if you have changed careers or thought about moving...

Thanks for your note! I appreciate it. I really hope people like my original writing. Writing it makes me feel a lot more fulfilled and I can do things that didn’t necessarily fit in the framework of any ff. A lot of time it’s me processing various personal issues or exploring themes I’m preoccupied with, so it’s personal to me.

As for Japan- I’m still here! I’m working on a move to (probably) Korea in a little more than a year, though. My life is going alright, but I’m putting a lot of my mental and other energy into studying Japanese. I’m trying really hard to get my language certification in a level/timeframe that’s kind of a reach for me. I feel both really satisfied with my progress and preemptively defeated and bummed out that it really seems like I can’t do it in time. I’m studying out of 6 textbooks at the moment and I spend maybe 15-30 hours per week on it, but it’s just not enough. Japanese language is a huge time sink.

The other main priority in my life is my sport. I’ve picked up some judo and yoga to supplement my BJJ training. I’m going to compete in June and judging by the fact that I got a concussion the last time I sparred with someone new, I really ought to develop Some Chill and figure out how to not go 100%.

On the other hand, I want to fight.

(Oh! I have a daughter. A high school girl joined my gym and she is smol and adorable and she is always So Enraptured by my violence and tbh it kinda spurs me on. Every girl deserves a role model who shows her it’s possible for a woman to be better than men who are bigger and I want to be worthy of her admiration. I’m learning gentleness when I work with her though, it’s probably good for me to have a training partner who I am teaching instead of smashing through the floor. I love her so much. my babyyyy)

Work is like, a distant fourth priority (1 BJJ, 2 Japanese language, 3 pursuit of breakfast, 4 work) but it doesn’t take much energy because I’ve done the same job for 4 years now and I pretty much have it on lock. I do feel better there sometimes in that people trust me and like me more than they used to, as evidenced by giving me responsibility for things and going out of their way to talk to me.

I absolutely failed this week at flirting with a handsome coworker, though. He was trying to flex by dramatically carrying something heavy? and he implied that maybe I couldn’t do it. I cannot resist a challenge. On one hand: victory! On the other: onlooking coworkers cackled and handsome man was mildly deflated.

In retrospect, I realized I was supposed to go, “oh no, you are so strong, I could never ever.”

…but I could. :3