Just wanted to give a quick update about what's been going on these last few months and why I've been silent. I posted a little on the facebook page a while back, but I, like many, was laid off from my job during Covid. The shipping store I was at was in the process of downsizing, and with the sudden drop in business after the outbreak, the owner reduced staff down to just himself and the manager. Long story short, I was unemployed.
This also hit at the same time my grandmother started taking a turn for the worse. She had been dealing with memory loss and Alzheimer’s for a couple years at that point, but the winter of 2020 thru spring of 2021 was the beginning of the end with increased hospital visits due to diabetes, liver, and gastric complications. In some respects, being unemployed during that time was a boon since it allowed me to stay with her and support my family through that time. She passed March 11, 2021 surrounded by her family.
I can't express how thankful I am that Oregon's unemployment/Covid supplements allowed me to stay home through this time. Not only do I have high-risk family members at home, but it also allowed me time to grieve.
I kept up with posting for the most part through all of that, using my weekly reviews as a focal point. You may have noticed the audiobook reviews returned throughout 2021, as being at home full-time allowed for me to return to listening while I read. Audiobooks really are great, huh?
But that brings us to fall 2021 when the Covid boosts expired along with my 6 months of unemployment benefits. The family had a little stored up that got us through the winter, but job-hunting was in full swing for me. Unfortunately, there weren't any hits for a long time, slowly draining that buffer.
Finally, in March of this year (shortly before my Blue Exorcist review went up) I got the good news. I'm currently working as an office manager at a local church, and am enjoying it immensely. It's so nice to be able to work in an environment that allows me to help people and use my computer skills without suffering through the toxic retail environment. My sympathies go out to everyone struggling through retail jobs, especially right now.
The downside, of course, is trying to re-establish balance between working and blogging again. It took me nearly 5 full years last time, but I'm hoping to be able to cut that down to just a couple months this time. My first goal is to get back into reading, period. Obviously I can't listen to audiobooks at work, so I'm bumping up some of the non-audio books I had planned for this year—namely, manga & comics.
I continued the Blue Exorcist series and have found re-reading the first couple Avatar: The Last Airbender stories pretty doable at work (lunch & breaks). So next on the list will be continuing and concluding my reviews of the Avatar books. Then, once I get a feel for how much time I have reading & writing, I'll see if I want to try tackling the few audiobooks I'd checked out. I know Perfect Lies is only a couple hours to read, so that'll at least give me a feel for it. Then...I guess we'll see where it goes from there.
Hope this brings everyone up to speed. I'll be trying to get The Rift review up next week. Until then, all the best!
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