2025 is the year of the Snake.

2025 is a big, scary year of new old changes.

2025 is expensive and strange and so far off - and one month over.

I've been sewing and drawing for over 40 years. I feel like I have so much more to learn and improve.

I have been at conventions since 1997, and I feel like I'm starting from scratch, sometimes.

I've been teaching workshops and hosting panels and MCing auctions and competitions since 1999. I am doing my best to bring NEW content, while still perfecting the old.

I've been glass etching since Y2k. As my arthritis advances, I am less and less able to do bulk work. I have to use what Good Days I have, when I have them.

I don't know -when- I started making license plates. I'm not going to stop. MOIST is _still_ my best seller.

In 2020, we got our first house. We have no idea what we're doing when it comes to repairs and maintenance, still. We both grew up without strong male role models, and that's... very apparent, now more than ever. Both of our mothers knew how to fix -some- things the right way, a lot of things the wrong way, and neither believed in TEACHING those skills to the next generation.
3
In 2020, we had our WORST funeral.

In 2020, instead of giving each other Christmas gifts, we adopted Tony and Ellie from our local shelter. Life is better with cats.

In October 2023, we rescued (family) from an abusive household. It was cramped. We were suddenly twice as many humans, and twice as many cats, with one tiny bathroom and not enough bedrooms. It was a hard few months, but a lot of good came out of it.

At AnthroCon 2024, I very suddenly became walks with a cane years old. I am -so- glad Butch was vending that year. I now have a beautiful cane with a huge chunk of polished labradorite in the handle. I'm still learning the -right- way to walk with it.

In December 2024, Tony died, suddenly, of a random blood clot. I've never had a cat die YOUNG.
I have to be glad that he never got old enough to know the pain of cancer, kidney failure, blindness, arthritis, senility, and the other common break downs of elder felines. He never had fHIV or even worms. He never went hungry, or cold, in our care. He was fat, and he was HAPPY.
He was not with us for a long time, but it was a very, very good time.

It was out worst December ever.

It was hard to let January be better. In some ways, it was. In others..

2025 will be hard for everyone, no matter what 'side' they're on.

Today the Doomsday clock moved.

Today another airplane crashed.

Today I had to fight multiple doctors and multiple pharmacies to get a single, simple correct answer. I was lucky to have help from unexpected sources.

Today I finally got a correct answer.

Today I have confirmation of future tables, and future panels, and future friends-gatherings.

Anthro New England was actually very good, when I needed it to be very good.
Workshop attendance was TOO HIGH! (Thank you, Dino Nuggie students!) The Loot Brawls went off GREAT! (Thank you to all of my Brawlers!!!)

Fur the 'More is going to be good. Panels and Brawls, and looking at how the -cost- of the con looks, without a Dealer's table, even though the option to have one was there. I need to know how the numbers balance out, without a table. Next year? Probably back to a table.

Anime Boston is always good! I hope to have a table in the AA as usual. I will have many, many sewing workshops, and they -should- take two or three jewelry classes, and I have the Charity Auction, as I have every year since the start, when AB was -just- the dream of entertaining 500 or fewer local nerds. (OH BOY was it so many more than that, the first year!!)

I've been accepted to AnthroCon's Dealers' Den once again. I am grateful, every year, to have been with them for so long. It's over 20 years now, and I still love it.

FurryDelphia is still a warm and cozy home con with a wonderful nightlife.

FSC and NekoCon shimmer on the distant horizon of the year, tempting us to keep going. 11 months more. 10 months more. Three seasons more. Keep going. Keep traveling. Keep teaching. Keep learning.


2025 is the year of the Snake. I am the Snake. This is my year.