AIMING to try one new crafty, creative thing each month this year. I missed January (oh well), I crocheted a small basket in February, I ordered and completed a custom puzzle in March, and I plan to tackle this paint-by-numbers this month. What comes after that, I don’t yet know.  

CUTTING back on what and how often I buy from Amazon. I’m doing my best to buy local when possible, and to limit ordering from Amazon to once a week at most.

DEBATING whether to invest in a Skylight (or similar) Calendar. While my household consists of just two of us—my son and me—there is a lot of friction between us. We both struggle with executive function-heavy tasks, and my autism and his ADHD clash to near-death daily, especially over household chores and responsibilities. I think having a centralized, always-visible, clear display of our schedules and chores would help dissipate some—enough—of said friction and clashing.

DUSTING off the pile of memorykeeping projects that fell victim to my autistic inertia and spent the winter in a bin in the basement, and hoping that bringing them back into my daily field of vision will somehow be enough to coax my brain out of the prison of itself and make progress on at least one of them.

FINDING so much inspiration in Uzo Njuko—in her creativity and vision and dedication and determination, in her confidence in herself and her work, in her openness in sharing her creative and business processes and experiences on Twitter. 

HYPERFIXATING on preparing for the triple-digit heat later summer will bring, as a heat-intolerant renter living in 85-year-old apartment with large, single-pane, south-facing windows and no AC. 

LISTENING to (and loving!) the Obitchuary podcast. I started from the very beginning in January and just finished the 100th episode over the weekend, which means I’m still two years behind, which means I still have so many episodes to listen to, yay! Spencer and Mr. Eyes’s friendship brings me so much joy—theirs is the type of companionship I yearn for. 

LOOKING very forward to the first batch of big-bouquet gym flowers of the year. The other week the flower farmer and florist who goes to the same gym as I do brought in the first batch of small bouquets of the year—the most airy, delicate, and softly colored daffodils I’ve ever seen. I cannot wait for the bigger bouquets.

MAKING this year’s summer bucket list, which so far includes a lot of the same (or similar) items as last year’s. 

MOURNING the sudden and unexpected loss of the only planner I’ve ever loved and actually consistently used (I used it every single day for more than FOUR YEARS), after the brand recently completely changed the design and layout and content of said planner’s pages so significantly that they essentially created a new product—one that is not compatible with my brain—without any notice or explanation! I found out only when my most recent shipment arrived. I was, without exaggeration, devastated. I’ve been looking for an adequate replacement for weeks and have yet to find anything that will do. Sad! (I’m autistic! I’m not good with change! Especially unexpected change! And extra especially unexpected change to a tool I’ve used daily for nearly five years to help me manage my extremely fucked-up executive dysfunction.)

NEARING the end of my Portland Movie Theater Project, with just a few theaters left on the list. I’m not sure yet how I’ll document this project, or if a physical memorykeeping project will even come of it. We’ll see.

OBSESSING over my fresh-off-the-press Betty White stamps—and inventing reasons to send happy mail to the three friends I have, all of whom live thousands of miles away, so I have a reason to use—and brighten someone else’s day with!—them. I’m also in love with these forthcoming Goodnight Moon stamps. 

READING the essay collection Y2K: How the 2000s Became Everything (also sometimes (?) titled Y2K: A Witty and Poignant Reflection on Recent HistoryThrough a Contemporary Lens, See How Y2K Shaped Our Past, Present, and Future) by Colette Shade and…

REMINISCING about Orbitz soda and Fruitopia “juice” and dELiA*s and Alloy and inflatable furniture and Afterthoughts and the Icing and Claire’s and Donkey Kong and A/S/L and TRL and Nokia phones and cucumber melon everything and boy bands and spaghetti strap tank tops and frosted wet n wild makeup and Special K cereal and Beanie Babies and boomboxes and Sam Goody and Border’s and Dickies and studded belts and puka shell necklaces and black Steve Madden platform wedge sandals and butterfly clips and translucent electronics and the cool S and dial-up and the magazine aisle at the grocery store and a million trillion other turn-of-the-century relics. 

SPENDING as much time outside as possible before it becomes too hot to breathe. On the days it’s nice out, I live my quiet little life in the patch of grass in front of my apartment, and, in the evenings, on the steps out back—soaking in the sun, reading books, listening to podcasts, working out, eating lunch and dinner, scrolling Twitter, watching YouTube videos, watching the birds and sometimes the bugs, simply existing, etc. 

STOCKING up on puzzles from the Portland Puzzle Exchange so that when, come July and August and several random days in September and October, it’s too damn hot to do anything except stay inside and lie on the floor and barely move, I have something low-commitment, low-pressure, and enjoyable to help me pass the time. 

THINKING a lot about how grateful I am that my kids had the privilege of living the vast majority of their childhoods pre-COVID, and that I had the privilege of parenting them through that phase of life pre-COVID. As someone who is still-COVIDing, I have so much empathy and compassion for everyone else who is also still-COVIDing, especially the parents of younger kids. 

WATCHING (finally! (for the first time ever!)) Grey’s Anatomy. I’m roughly halfway through season 12 (I finally made it to the infamous Elisabeth Finch storyline last night) and, frankly, surprised by how much I like the show. Lucky for me, I’ve got at least 10 more seasons to enjoy.

WORKING on establishing a consistent practice of genuine gratitude, which does not come to me naturally or easily or comfortably. I’ve started by making a list of the things I like about my apartment, the place I spend most of my time and the thing about which I spend much of my time complaining. This apartment is tiny and ancient and not my ideal home. This apartment is also a blessing, and there are plenty of things I like and love and appreciate about it. The list I’m drafting is meant to help me remember—and focus on—the latter perspective more often than the former.

WRITING this post on my phone in the middle of yet another sleepless night. Such is the burden of the autistic brain. Woof. 

Back in the olden days of the internet, “currently” and “around here” posts were popular with us personal bloggers. Many of us published one (or both) of these posts once every month or two. Sometimes these posts were used as filler when we didn’t have anything else to blog about at the moment, or when a more meaty blog post wasn’t ready yet.

A lot of us also used “currently” and “around here” posts to document the details of our daily life at that point in time—many of us were moms with babies and toddlers and used our blogs as a creative outlet and a documenting/memorykeeping tool. These posts were also a way to connect with each other and share things we were excited about or inspired by before social media and influencing took over and diluted the experience.

I loved reading other bloggers’ “currently” and “around here” posts, and I loved sharing my own. Now that I’m back to personal blogging à la the olden days of the internet, I figured it’s time to reintroduce the “currently” genre/series here. Here are some things currently happening in my life.

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COUNTING down the days (210) till season two of Severance. 

DELIGHTING in a Lindt LINDOR dark chocolate truffle before bed every night. 

DREAMING of living in a home that has laundry and a dishwasher and an HVAC system. Or even just one of those things. Imagine how much money and time and how many (metaphorical) spoons I’d save if I didn’t have to (1) wake up before sunrise every Sunday to make sure I get to the laundromat early enough to snag a washer and dryer and (2) fork over $10.25 per a load of laundry. Or if I didn’t have to wash every fucking dish and utensil by hand. Or if my home had heat and/or air in every room instead of only one (heat (which have only in the living room) or none (AC). A DREAM.

ENJOYING the few weeks of regular weather and temperatures Portland will get after a scorching-hot summer and before it turns wet and cloudy and cold for months and months on end. (For those who are unfamiliar: the 11 seasons of Oregon.)

EXPERIMENTING with drying bouquets. The internet told me to tie the stems tightly with twine (check) and hang the bouquet upside-down (check) in a dark space (check). The dark space, the internet says, is essential to keeping color. This bouquet is one I made at a flower arranging class over the summer. I tied it tightly with twine and hung it upside-down in our very dark and very tiny coat closet that’s home to many things, none of which are coats. This photo was taken several weeks later. I love how vibrant the colors still are.

FINISHING up my first-ever block of conjugate training. Given how incredibly boring I generally find powerlifting to be, I’m surprised by how much I’m enjoying. I think the variability and the novelty that it adds are keeping me interested.

LISTENING (again) to the podcast I Said No Gifts, which might just be my all-time favorite podcast, from the beginning. Bridger is so fucking funny.

LOOKING for a local shop to buy an old-school (and functional!) Walkman from. It’s the only thing my ninth-grader asked for for his birthday—I can’t not come through. (I’m also looking for at least one local repair shop that would be able to fix the thing if it broke.)

LOVING the end-of-summer bouquet I bought myself this week. (The flowers in this bouquet were grown and arranged by the same flower farmer and florist who grew and arranged the flowers in the gorgeous bouquet I brought to the Howells a few weeks ago. (Yes, I plan to dry this bouquet, too.)

MISSING running and hiking. Still/always. I recently found all my old race bibs while digging through boxes looking for something else, and I’ve been working on finishing up a hiking-related memorykeeping project, so that feeling has been especially acute lately.

MOURNING the hours of daylight fall has stolen (stolen!!!) from us (me, personally!!!). 

PREPARING to add weightlifting back into my training beginning Monday. I’m so goddamn excited. (This means I’ll have six barbell sessions a week—four powerlifting sessions and two weightlifting sessions. Mondays and Thursdays will have both a powerlifting and a weightlifting session. Tuesdays and Fridays will be just powerlifting.)

REALIZING that bouldering is much more challenging and difficult than I thought it was going to be. Am I even cut out for it? TBD.

STRESSING about—what else?—the election. 

TAKING photos for a new project I’ve dreamt up that was inspired by two different projects by two fellow local Redditors.

TRYING to get back into a regular memorykeeping routine with a weekly-ish Project Life album. 

WAITING (very impatiently!) for the two rolls of film I dropped off last week to be developed. Both rolls were from disposable cameras—one from nearly 20 years ago when my oldest was a toddler (the waterproof one) and another shot by my youngest a few summers ago. Will any of the photos on the oldest roll turn out? Who knows! I can’t wait to find out.

WANTING to visit Hopscotch Portland. 

WONDERING who will headline Warped Tour 2025. My vote always and forever is for blink-182. 

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Of the bloggers I used to follow and admire and find inspiration from, Elise is the only one who’s kept her blog up, though she no longer blogs (she fully quit the internet last year). To get a better idea of these types of posts, you can browse through her old “currently” and “around here” posts here (click or tap “older posts” at the bottom of the page to keep browsing).