I expect everyone has heard about the latest news from Zuck and Meta, which sounded to me like another nail in the coffin of my time on facebook. For quite a while now, existing there has felt wrong and gross for reasons relating to the relentless reinforcement of ideas belonging to capitalism, heteronormativity, and neuromajority. I’m not aligned with any of those things, and I have become increasingly resentful of the fact that local events and community groups are just easier on that platform.

So I updated my privacy settings, deleted the app from my iPad (it has already been absent from my phone for at least a year), and looked into how to batch delete older posts. No longer possible. Not even with a browser extension. Almost like they’d prefer I just shut my profile down; and believe me, I will once I find a suitable alternative for those community features. Maybe something like blogs and newsletters?

I pay real money to have this underused space, and over the years my silences have come from a lack of working on something, but I have been working hard. Just haven’t been in the habit of coming here to write about it. Thanks, Zuck, for inspiring me to come to a corner of the internet that isn’t riddled with ads pushing crypto, or the best marketing strategies, or some miracle cure that will make my life easy and endlessly joyous.

What have I been up to, then?

In November, I told a story for Confabulation: The Song That Saved My Life at La Sala Rossa. This collaboration with the Volume Knob has become an annual tradition, and in this third edition I was privileged to share the story of receiving my divorce judgement in the mail, living in my first home after marriage, and coming to terms with the end of that relationship. As I started working on it, I also began outlining a memoir of the years right after my divorce in an attempt to answer the question, “What am I doing here?”

Apart from the memoir, I am working on smutty stories and perhaps a longer work, which has taken back-burner status relative to the memoir. I have a domain name registered to house these erotic fictions, and I mean to come here with an update before too long. I am also doing story coaching as a member of the Confabulation team, and I will be telling a story at the Blue Metropolis literary festival in April.

And for earning a living, because we still live in capitalism after all, I am working as a massage therapist. I don’t know how I got to Year 3 of this job so quickly, but it is my favourite thing. I work for myself, I deliver a service directly to my clients for which I am paid, and I value and respect my clients. When I am sick, I call them to reschedule, and I rest. When I make a scheduling error, I can offer them extra time or a discount without having to check with some tightass manager scrutinizing my every decision.

It also gives me ample time to work on my writing, which is what I love the most.