It’s been ages since my last update. I’m truly sorry for that. Life has, at times, been a whirlwind of responsibilities, job changes, relationship changes, medication changes, and more, but truth be told, the longer I went since the last update, the worse I felt. I want to get back to updating here, and maybe this will be the catalyst for that.

I’m married now, to the same guy I was dating when I first started this site, and we’re nearing our first anniversary. We were supposed to go on honeymoon to Italy in a few weeks, but… well… you know.

I’m working at basically my dream job, one of the best preschools in Seattle, and I’m thrilled to be at a place where I see a real future for myself. Just have to wait until another teacher quits so I can snag a classroom position, and things will be perfect.

I’ve been struggling through depressive episodes, though I can’t pinpoint why like I usually can. Maybe it’s because the world is so scary and strange right now, it doesn’t take much to set off my situational depression. That’s part of why my output not just here, but in all my outlets, has been so low lately.

My city, like so many others, has been rocked by Covid-19. In an unprecedented way, my preschool is closed for at least two weeks. Luckily, they’re paying us, as long as we work in some way that benefits the school community for 75% of our usual hours. I’m far better off than a lot of people that way.

There’s no mandatory quarantine going on here, and the shelves of my local grocery store are still stocked except for a few key categories of item. My husband works in a supermarket, and unlike me, he’s probably going to be expected to keep showing up to work. That puts him – and thus me – at major risk of contracting the disease. Because of this, I want to avoid being a link in that possible chain and I’m choosing to self-isolate as much as possible.

I want to use this space as a diary of sorts – to record my experience for at least the next two weeks. It’s probably not going to be particularly interesting or profound, but I want to remember what I think and feel at this strange moment in my life. Something longer-form and less transient than social media. Or maybe I’ll get bored of it after a couple days and leave this blog to lay fallow for longer. We’ll see.

Sorry about that radio silence, everyone! As promised, I’ve been super busy preparing for Sakura Con, which is coming up in just two days! This weekend, I’ll have not one, not two, but three panels, all about women in anime. They are:

More than Strong Female Characters: Women-Driven Anime will be the first up on Friday at 2:00. Join me and Jared, editor of Heroine Problem, as we discuss what goes into making a great woman-driven show.

If you’re curious about some real-life women behind some excellent (and some terrible) shows, come see my panel about Female Anime Directors on Friday at 9:00 pm. I will be joined by my friend Michelle, who knows way more than I do!

Finally, I will be flying solo on Saturday at 2:15 as I discuss abusive relationships at You Only Hurt the One You Love: Mechanics of Abuse in Shoujo Manga. This was probably the hardest one to put together and definitely the most important of the group.

Come if you can, and make sure you come say hello while you’re at it. If you can’t, I’ll have audio/transcripts posted in not too long.

The groundhog known as Punxsutawney Phil, Seer of Seers, Sage of Sages, Prognosticator of Prognosticators, and Weather Prophet Extraordinary (no seriously, that is his full title) has declared winter to be over, and I am simultaneously thrilled, skeptical, and trying desperately not to think about the terrifying changes in our global climate.

I love spring. Spring brings t-shirts and eventually tank tops, trips out to Seattle’s beautiful parks, and the start of convention season. Convention season brings cosplay, (hopefully) press passes, and (again, hopefully) panels! And all of those mean prep work. Lots and lots of prep work. I’ve submitted three panels for Sakura Con – one about abuse in shoujo manga, one about female directors, and one about strong vs. complex female characters – and each one requires a metric fuckton of research. I won’t know for another couple weeks if they’ve actually been accepted, but I figure at least I have a decent shot of getting at least one or two of them in and I won’t get done in time if I wait to hear back before I start work.

So what does this mean? You may have noticed the title of this post: semi-hiatus. That means I’m not going to be keeping up with the twice-weekly update schedule while I work on these because I’m a pretty slow writer and trying to do con prep and write a few thousand words per week is too much for me. I’ll still update when something piques my interest – I have a post about Read or Die in the pipeline – but maybe more like one every two weeks.

Thanks for reading, and I hope to see some of you at Sakura Con!

Posting on Tuesday and Thursday until I run out of backlog!

After that, just hopefully posting more often than I have in the past!