So, full disclosure, I am not dead. Over the last few years there have been a few points where I did wish I was dead, but overall, nope; not dead, just having a complete life upheaval.

In 2021 both my parents had a stroke; my father in January of that year, and my mother the following December. It’s been a weird transition since then. I am now taking care of them full-time, and we spent most of 2022-23 moving to and settling into our small cabin near Yosemite and the Sierra National Forest.

Between the medical appointments, the rehabilitation, processing the trauma of watching my parents go through their respective medical emergencies, the daunting task of and the extremely difficult act of moving I have been a complete and utter mess. I probably need therapy, but blogging is the next best thing. I watched both of my parents die and be resuscitated, and I feel so stupid now thinking I could have just brushed it off and gone back to blogging about screenwriting. It was an ugly few years if I’m being brutally honest; in the end, one of my brothers moved to Germany to get away, and the other brother is not speaking to me (is that too personal? Oh well), and I am about 60 lbs heavier and might have PTSD. It’s mostly under control now, but I have nightmares where I am stuck in a hospital that is also my high school trying to find a doctor as well as not miss a French test (brains suck, don’t they?)

It’s because of this that this site has not exactly been active. It wasn’t intentional obviously, but it does suck a little bit. I got an email about a month ago saying my subscription to WordPress was renewing and was faced with a dilemma; should I shut this blog down? Honestly, if I were advising someone else in the same boat as me, I wouldn’t blame them if they wanted to drop something like this. It costs money to host this blog, and I haven’t made any significant posts since 2020. That was four years ago, which doesn’t feel real at all. The last few years haven’t felt real in a way that I cannot describe in any meaningful way.

But I am so proud of the work I did for this blog.

And I still get hits on some of my more popular posts each week; my writing about writing has helped people. I want to keep it going, and I want to add to it. I want to help people still, but also expand on what this blog is.

So here is the new and improved Betsy the Gremlin, now to have posts about life taking care of parents who had strokes, and also selling on Etsy. I’m working on getting a few posts lined up, and hoping I can have something once every two weeks or so.

Oh, and I’m working on the layout. It’s been a mess trying to figure out the block editor from WordPress, but I think I’m getting the hang of it.