It’s been years since I’ve made a proper post to this website, but that’s not going to stop me from posting something new right now. I’m not saying “I’m back!!” and that I’ll be posting again on a regular basis, but yesterday as I was reviewing the month of January 2026, I realized that despite the month’s many ups and downs, it was not entirely irredeemable, and that in fact a lot of good things did happen for me.
So! Feeling compelled to share some of those things, here they are, in no particular order:
I read the book Quit Like a Woman by Holly Whitaker. On the surface, about “The Radical Choice to Not Drink in a Culture Obsessed with Alcohol,” but oh…it’s so much more. Focus on the word “Radical.” The entire tone of the book is revolutionary and feminist, encompassing what is wrong with both history and the current culture, and also suggesting ways to overcome and stand firm against all the BS.
I am only a casual drinker, but lately I’ve been wanting to cut back even further, recognizing that there is nothing “healthy” in alcohol that you can’t get somewhere else with less detriment to your body. So the “health” aspect of being sober greatly appeals to me, but what probably appeals to me even more about this book is the in-your-face recognition that the entire belief system about not only alcohol, but also so many other things, is completely screwed up. Holly Whitaker has given me an extra boost of courage to buck the system, to stand proud and tall as a person who is not afraid to buck the status quo. So this is not just a book for people who want to stop drinking, but also for anyone who wants to improve their autonomy and life from the inside out. This book can give you the push you need to quit hiding behind alcohol, or whatever other “drug” of choice you use to help deal with the disaster that is the modern world.
Now, having said all that…this doesn’t mean I will never drink alcohol again. I find there is too much danger and drama in the word “never.” I’ve already pretty much cut down my drinking to two to three times a year and currently have no plans to drink again…until a certain big, beautiful event arrives, sometime in the near future. I am so looking forward to a toast and an alcoholic buzz as part of my celebration when this particular moment happens. But when I imbibe, my imbibing will be all the more special, because it happens at a unique moment, for a unique event, not just “It’s Saturday night, let’s get loaded!” So I have blended Holly Whitaker’s call to out-and-out “Quit” with my own personal philosophy and intentions, to form a plan that works best for me.
I have been fairly consistent with my new gym habit. Last summer, some back issues sent me to Physical Therapy for eight weeks, and ever since I’ve been working much more intently on keeping my body in better shape. I can now feel that my muscles are stronger than before, and overall I am simply more comfortable in my body. Last November I joined Planet Fitness, just to use the cycle and treadmill. Let’s see…November, December, January…at this point, I think it’s safe to say I’ve developed a HABIT. I don’t go every day, but at least four or five times a week, and for the moment, that’s good enough, until I’m ready to slowly take the next step in improving my health, whatever that might be.
I took my blood pressure a few times in January and the readings were not too bad. Borderline high blood pressure has been an issue for me for several years now. I used to take readings all the time, but somehow fell out of that practice. But now that I am exercising, and committed to eating healthier, I am also committing to lowering my blood pressure as well. Starting from a place of “not too bad,” rather than, “oh, this is a problem…” makes me less anxious about the whole business. And being less anxious, of course, lowers my blood pressure! A win-win!
In January, I started a daily practice of circular breathing. I try to do it every morning upon waking, a few more breaths before each meal, and also at bedtime. I figure if I just remain consistent , eventually it will become a habit. The thinking is that deep breathing activates the vagus nerve, which is good for the parasympathetic nervous system. Breathing is so essential to life, and a healthy parasympathetic nervous system so essential to a good life. This practice is so easy, so organic, it just seems a complete no-brainer to work it into my schedule.
On January 1st, I cracked open the book A Year with C.S. Lewis. I first met Lewis in college, and he quickly became one of my favorite authors. Even now, I frequently go back to re-read his books. A few years ago, I found this daily devotional guide at the local library bookstore, read a few passages here and there, yet somehow never took up the task of reading the book, day by day, cover to cover. Well, now is that time. Most of the readings are extremely clear and comforting. So far, I’ve found a few that feel more challenging. But even when challenged, this is a lovely way to come into the presence of God. I’ve just made it through the entire month of January and hope I can find the quiet time each morning to make it through the rest of the year.
I have found several new local charities for my donations. I read recently that large centers like Goodwill sometimes throw your donations in the trash. I don’t know how true this is, or how much of an issue it might be in my area, but since I’ve been trying lately to think more locally, I’ve identified a couple of smaller area thrift stores, with hopes that my items will actually make it to the shelves. At the same time, I’ve also identified some consignment shops where I might take some nicer, higher-valued items. I still have more research to do on all this, but I’ve made the first moves in potentially a new direction.
This month, I cut my hair into a bob. YES! I’ve always loved the bob. Whenever I look at hairstyles, my heart is always captured by the bob. It’s timeless, classic, and low fuss. (I’m all about low fuss.) The longer my hair got, the more unruly, the less attractive. I was also feeling like I needed to go back to bangs, but long hair with bangs simply doesn’t look good on me, so I finally decided to take the plunge back to a full banged bob. And now I am so much happier.
I’d recently seen some You Tube videos encouraging older women to not buy into the assumption that as you age you have to wear your hair short. Defy the status quo! I’m all about defying the status quo and would love to wear my hair long, like some of these women on You Tube…but the truth is, I don’t have thick luxurious hair that looks good that way. So I finally decided to defy the “defy the status quo” attitude by doing what actually works for ME. And I repeat: And so much happier.
We finished watching What We Do in the Shadows. OMG! LOVE this show! We’ve been watching it season by season over the last couple of years, and finally got to the end a couple of weeks ago, and overall, this is one of my all time favorite comedies. Now I’m free to look online at interviews and commentary, without having to worry about being spoiled. So a whole new chapter of my enjoyment of this show has just opened up. Not to mention, I’ve just started re-watching it, with captions on, so I don’t miss any of the jokes. And jokes there are!
I recently saw an interview with actor Matt Berry (which unfortunately I can’t find now) but basically he said he signed onto the project because he recognized that the show was absolute escapism, total “tomfoolery.” And that about sums it up. Non-stop humor and tomfoolery. I’m on board. Just what the doctor ordered.
I am currently in the middle of editing a fan fiction to be posted at AO3. I go through phases where I am very active in writing creatively and also reviving my old stories to add to AO3, and then there are times when I simply am not. I wish I had more consistency in my creativity, I wish in January I had written a completely new story. But I didn’t, so right now, I am simply celebrating my efforts to tweak an existing story in hopes of making it better than before.
Finally, I made the decision to stop posting to The Marvelous Zone. For the past 14 years, I’ve kept a blog called Adventures in the Marvelous Zone: A Modern Girl’s View of Marvel’s Silver Age. Even though I’ve contributed to this blog only sporadically over the years, the site now boasts 193 posts. This retrospective had just begun to explore the comics of February 1966, but alas…I’ve run out of steam. My hope had always been to continue the journey to the end of the Silver Age, which is approximated to be in 1970, but I finally decided the logistics of keeping up this endeavor could very well take me another 14 years, and with so many other things going on in my life right now, I’ve had to prioritize, and sadly I’ve decided this blog does not make the cut. It’s been a good run, and I’m proud of the work I’ve done, but it’s time to move on.
I haven’t announced an official end on the website itself, because it’s always possible I’ll get re-inspired to post a few more entries now and then. If that happens, great! But if not, I don’t want this to feel like another obligation hanging around my neck. So it’s settled…but not really settled. But I need to think of it as settled, so that mentally I can get on with other things.
And with that said, I will mention again that I feel no particular compulsion to start posting here again regularly. Though I might. But in this moment, I am simply reveling in the fact that despite its many low points, there was still a silver lining peeking out around the edges of January.
On Friday, March 31, 2023, I worked my last day in the office. There was a nice little party for me, with cake and gifts, and though in some ways it was sad to leave my co-workers, in a much bigger way, I was already looking forward to getting up on Monday morning and not having to go in to work. Let me say at the outset, quitting work was never traumatic for me. For one thing, I had spent at least a year counting down the months, then weeks, then days, in great anticipation. And as I counted, 
was also preparing an extensive list of all the things I hoped to enjoy and accomplish in retirement. I was NOT that person who wakes up on that first morning of retirement, makes their cup of coffee, looks at the morning news and suddenly thinks, “Oh Cuss! What the cuss am I supposed to do with the rest of my life?” (Note: I recently watched the charming little move Fantastic Mr. Fox and have since adopted the wonderful habit of using the word “cuss” as a substitute for every actual cuss word—a practice I hope to continue here in this blog, as the need arises.)
Really. The first thing that happened to me in my retirement was getting Covid. Actually, the very first thing that happened was Russ picked me up at work, we loaded up the trunk with my gifts, some cake, and the last of my personal possessions, and decided to get takeout from Captain D’s to enjoy at home while watching a movie.
Eventually, Covid waned, and slowly we began to catch up with “real life.” After a few weeks, Russ went back to work, and I began to deal with the house. Every day got a little better, but still I was moving very slowly for quite a while. But that was fine, because, after all, I was RETIRED, so TIME was no longer the pressing issue it had once been.
Moving on into May, we finally felt well enough to take a little vacation and did the third of our “Alabama Circuit” trips. This time we visited the Southeast corner of Alabama, which, to tell the truth (and no offense to anyone living in SE Alabama) was the least favorite of our trips so far. I probably enjoyed the Northeast (two years earlier) because it was our first trip, and we got to visit the 
slot machines as much as I had hoped I would. In fact, I would say this visit “cured” me of my desire to play the slots. So in a backwards kind of way, it was a good experience. Not the one I had been hoping for, but perhaps the experience I needed.
added up to less than $100. So this was a good start to my Medicare experience (unless some late bill for $1,000’s of dollars come in next month??)
(When we “do the beach” in the future, as described in my plans above, we will do it on our OWN terms.) 
I crave a simple, happy, orderly life. And with that in mind, I can also report, with great contentment, that while I have spent the better part of these first six months getting my literal house in order, I now feel ready to begin thinking about getting my metaphorical house in order as well. Now that Autumn is officially here, there’s a true buzz in the air, and I’m feeling so much more enthusiastic about all my projects.
practically dissolving before our eyes. That was bad, but now it’s over, and now we go on.
that it was only a very short time that he was SO sickly. The hyperthyroidism sapped his weight and his energy, but not really for that long a time. The worst of it came on fairly rapidly, towards the very end. Most of his life he was very healthy. And very happy. So I feel good about that.
I will never forget Squee, or any of my pets that have gone on ahead of me to the other side. But I know from experience that it becomes easier and easier to think of them with less sadness, to only remember the good stuff. That’s the natural progression. So we go on, and embrace a “new normal” that eventually seems more normal than new.
Squee lived with me his entire life. Well, he spent the first six weeks at a cat shelter, but after that he came into my family for sixteen and a half years. In 2002, while Mary was doing her high school community service at Cats Exclusive she fell in love with a little black kitty named “Zoro.” Mary managed to convince me that we needed to add this little guy to our home, which already contained two cats and one dog. 
Only Squee and Boogins came with me to Alabama and we formed a new family with Russ. After Boogins also departed this world in 2012, our family dynamics changed again. Before that, Squee had always been a bit aloof. Boogins, as the older brother, was so confident and personable and adorable, he tended to suck up all the oxygen in the room. Though the two were buddies, there was also an undeniable sense of sibling rivalry on Squee’s part. When Boogins was around, Squee was always only “the other cat.”
This is what Squee had always longed for, to have his Mommy’s complete attention, and I’m very glad that in the last years of his life I had the opportunity to give him that. And even though he never really “bonded” with Russ the way he did with me, I feel confident in saying that Russ did not mind it when I talked to Squee about all the things “Mommy and Daddy” were planning to do for him.
We found a good vet who, unlike some other vets I’ve known, really actually cared about cats, rather than just viewing felines as a necessary annoyance in an otherwise canine practice. Of course Squee never much enjoyed going to the vet but merely endured the poking and prodding every six to eight weeks, when I took him for a nail clipping and B-12 shot.
Then last week I began to notice him stumbling around a bit, his back legs going out from under him. I didn’t say anything about it, but on Wednesday Russ mentioned that he had seen the same thing. And then it hit me. It was time.
And then when I got to Alabama, I had Russ. And I also still had Boogins and Squee. And when Boogins died, I still had Squee to take care of. But now I have no one to take care of. Russ is telling me I can take care of him, but I think he’s being “tongue in cheek,” just trying to make me feel better, because he doesn’t need taking care of, at least not the same way a pet does. So at last I have no one to take care of. At last I truly have an Empty Nest.
Now, after Mom died in January 2016, I made several trips to South Florida to see my dad, and each time I came back with quite a bit of sentimental stuff that was my mom’s. I probably took more than I should have, as I was just trying to hold on to her. Every item seemed infused with meaning, even though it may not have been particularly valuable. Since then, I’ve been able to let go of a completely ordinary letter opener from her desk, and some decorative little pill cases that don’t really stay closed very well. But I’m keeping the porcupine pen holder/pencil sharpener, which I think may have originally belonged to me, maybe twenty or thirty years ago.
Right now, though, I’m struggling with some lace curtains. Mom always loved to decorate in what I call “cottage style,” which includes white furniture, and lots of bright pastel fabrics, and of course lace curtains. Nobody else wanted these panels upon panels of white lace curtains, so I stuffed them in my suitcase, even though I really don’t have anywhere in my house to put them. 
honor her with the idea of lace curtains. They don’t have to be the exact same curtains, do they?
Just digging all this stuff out of my files and looking at it again has really helped me re-connect with who I was…and who, in many ways, I still am.
Does that make me a Control Freak? If so, so be it. Gaining a greater sense of control in a world gone out of control helps me feel more centered and more certain. And it certainly makes me feel calmer. I need these clearly defined boundaries between my own stuff and my own responsibilities…and everything else in the world, over which I have absolutely no control.
After that, I began to wonder if the Soup Gods had turned against me. How could I have gone wrong with the carrots? Eventually I decided it wasn’t me, it was, in fact, the carrots, that maybe they simply weren’t fresh. Won’t be buying that brand of carrots anymore!
