Hi and hello! Don’t worry guys, I am still here, doing everything I can to get ready for the pod release in March, but this has been the BUSIEST month for me. Why, you wonder? My brother is getting married!

So at the beginning of October, I drove with my amazing cousin from Nashville to Richmond, VA for the bach/bachelorette party. It was really fun, and even though I am a self described introvert, meeting a lot of my brother and soon-to-be sister-in-law’s friends was really nice. It was a group of fifteen new strangers for me to hang out with, get to know, and pretend to be an extrovert for almost seventy-two hours.

The following weekend, I packed my trusty backpack and hopped on a plane to DC for the bridal shower. A quick thirty hours of several very good meals, a little roadtrip through Maryland to a couple breweries, walking to multiple coffee shops and I was back home to complete a midterm paper and back to work the next day.

Work has been particularly hectic with multiple people being out of town and a lot of responsibilities falling into my lap. When most of my team is missing, I tend to take on a lot of the extra work since I am the lead in our group, but I guess all the travel, extra work, and stress from school has caught up with me. Not only have I been sporting a low grade sore throat for the past two weeks, but my psoriasis has been creeping over my hips which I just don’t appreciate. My genuinely good intentions to actually record the first of a few trailers for the pod have been thwarted with the slow loss of my voice. It is supposed to be probably the last nice weekend weather-wise in St. Louis this week, and I think all I will be able to do is squeak unfortunately.

I did get the chance to read a particularly interesting book this week called Interrogating Motherhood, which talks heavily about the intersection of single motherhood, living below the poverty line, the effects of mental health challenges on mothering, and the outcomes of children who grow up living below the poverty line. It was for my midterm paper, and it really opened my eyes to more nuanced way to talk about some the issues that face women on a daily basis in this country. It’s these kinds of literature I am interested reading/listening to because I really do want to learn how to talk about important issues in an educated way.

I guess this is just a general update about life has been bringing me, and I do apologize for not being able to bring you guys a trailer just yet, but my growling, croaking voice isn’t the one I want to showcase as my first impression! Hopefully I’ll get to kick this sore throat before the first weeding I am going to with James (my man <3) and record something after Nov. 6 (that’s my brother’s wedding!!). I might even post some pictures from the wedding(s)! I am so excited for these next few weekends of life that is going to be happening, but I am ready to sit down, batten down the hatches and really get to work.