2023
... Has been a long hard trip. I’ve had … other years as challenging as this one. 2001 when I left Texas, 2004 when I had to leave university (and San Angelo, where my kid was) as I had no where else to live, and of course 2008 when I moved to California and lost my fucking mind. All of these, rough, some voluntary, some not, hard times of ungentle transition. Many bridges are burning, even though I did not light them. All I had to do was insist on my boundaries and my needs, and let those who would not – could not – respect this, find the door out of my life. And like some of those years, this has been among the worst years of my life. It wasn’t *all* bad of course. I’ve grown, tremendously, I’ve done actual metric fuckloads of self-work this year. (You may not think it but it takes quite a bit of self-knowledge and even more courage for the Queen of Excess to admit and acknowledge when she is overstimulated.) I published my second collection, this one a CNF/Poetry/