It's over, and I can finally breathe again.
There are still a few days left in May, but the absolute crunch I've been facing ended yesterday. It was more physically punishing than I expected, but nothing I couldn't handle, but that's thanks to my two best friends in the world being by my side.
Let me get back to the start though. May would be intense, I knew. My every weekend plus Memorial Day were to be spent working at the TN Renaissance Festival. Long days outside, being a social draw, performing the whole time, being enthusiastic and all... it's a lot. It was a ton of fun and a great challenge, but I feel like I needed it quite badly. I am, at my core, an entertainer. I live to put smiles on people's faces, which is what I was doing all month. But not really getting to be "off" is exhausting, especially when you're out of practice. It's been at least 10 years since I got to be on stage or in any real acting capacity.
Every night, I went home mentally and physically fatigued and crashed pretty hard. I loved it, honestly.
But it's not something I can keep up indefinitely. I'm grateful for a break now. But more than anything, I'm grateful for my aforementioned two best friends, who were right beside me the whole time. Erin and Theo, I love you guys more than anything, and I couldn't have done any of this without you guys by me.
Aside from the Renaissance Festival, this was also the final wind down for my local Joann store. I spent my last couple weeks there cashiering, which is a whole other social demand that I'm glad is over. Getting constantly misgendered (I think largely because people assume only women work at craft stores) is a drain. Plus the dumb customer questions that come with a closing store... it's a trial. As sad as it is to see craft stores dying, I'm glad my experience there is over. It became a job I dreaded in the final days, but I got through that as well. RIP Joann Fabrics.
I'm about to get thrust into The Chain Nerd convention season, but that's a very familiar job and one I thoroughly enjoy. We've got two conventions coming in June (Nashville Comic Con and Metrotham Con), one in July, and one in August. That will be a totally different kind of drain while also being a different kind of recharge. I'm eager to get back behind my own table, selling my own products.
In the meantime, I'm going to get back to pushing hard on my gig life, trying to crack out more writing, voice auditions, and D&D study and work. It's fallen by the wayside this month, but I've managed to at least eke out some progress on all fronts. This past Friday, my D&D Bard campaign group got to play, and it was one of the first adventures I did with them with the new planning method I'm refining. It went UNBELIEVEABLY well. The players and I all really enjoyed it, which was a huge brain boost.
But the last change that will affect things is that also in the insanity of last week, I trained for my new weekend part time job. I'll be leading party events at my local climbing gym! I shadow a party this coming weekend, but after that, I'm free to pick up parties on my own! Along with that, I have a membership to the gym now, so I'm going to be doing more climbing and getting some much needed exercise again.
May was a huge challenge, but it's past, and I can breathe again. I'm ready to sink into my projects again and really start cracking out new writing. Look out for next week's monthly progress update. I have something new to go into!
There are still a few days left in May, but the absolute crunch I've been facing ended yesterday. It was more physically punishing than I expected, but nothing I couldn't handle, but that's thanks to my two best friends in the world being by my side.
Let me get back to the start though. May would be intense, I knew. My every weekend plus Memorial Day were to be spent working at the TN Renaissance Festival. Long days outside, being a social draw, performing the whole time, being enthusiastic and all... it's a lot. It was a ton of fun and a great challenge, but I feel like I needed it quite badly. I am, at my core, an entertainer. I live to put smiles on people's faces, which is what I was doing all month. But not really getting to be "off" is exhausting, especially when you're out of practice. It's been at least 10 years since I got to be on stage or in any real acting capacity.
Every night, I went home mentally and physically fatigued and crashed pretty hard. I loved it, honestly.
But it's not something I can keep up indefinitely. I'm grateful for a break now. But more than anything, I'm grateful for my aforementioned two best friends, who were right beside me the whole time. Erin and Theo, I love you guys more than anything, and I couldn't have done any of this without you guys by me.
Aside from the Renaissance Festival, this was also the final wind down for my local Joann store. I spent my last couple weeks there cashiering, which is a whole other social demand that I'm glad is over. Getting constantly misgendered (I think largely because people assume only women work at craft stores) is a drain. Plus the dumb customer questions that come with a closing store... it's a trial. As sad as it is to see craft stores dying, I'm glad my experience there is over. It became a job I dreaded in the final days, but I got through that as well. RIP Joann Fabrics.
I'm about to get thrust into The Chain Nerd convention season, but that's a very familiar job and one I thoroughly enjoy. We've got two conventions coming in June (Nashville Comic Con and Metrotham Con), one in July, and one in August. That will be a totally different kind of drain while also being a different kind of recharge. I'm eager to get back behind my own table, selling my own products.
In the meantime, I'm going to get back to pushing hard on my gig life, trying to crack out more writing, voice auditions, and D&D study and work. It's fallen by the wayside this month, but I've managed to at least eke out some progress on all fronts. This past Friday, my D&D Bard campaign group got to play, and it was one of the first adventures I did with them with the new planning method I'm refining. It went UNBELIEVEABLY well. The players and I all really enjoyed it, which was a huge brain boost.
But the last change that will affect things is that also in the insanity of last week, I trained for my new weekend part time job. I'll be leading party events at my local climbing gym! I shadow a party this coming weekend, but after that, I'm free to pick up parties on my own! Along with that, I have a membership to the gym now, so I'm going to be doing more climbing and getting some much needed exercise again.
May was a huge challenge, but it's past, and I can breathe again. I'm ready to sink into my projects again and really start cracking out new writing. Look out for next week's monthly progress update. I have something new to go into!
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