On the First Quarter of 2026
Be careful what you wish for. You just might get it.
I’m not going to mince words here. This year sucks. I don’t know how many people read this or who cares about what I have to write, but it seems like 2026 should quit while it still has a chance. The first three months, while not entirely over (I’m writing this a touch early. Maybe we’ll win the lottery and the pendulum will swing), have been a real nightmare. My goals for the new year were really straightforward:
Read 30 books - I’ve barely read
Visit a new state or NHP - Very funny. No time so far.
Spend more time with family - Even funnier. I’m just going to preemptively cross this off now. DONE
Catalog all the board games - and see how close we are to 100 - Maybe over spring break.
Finish the D&D campaign I started - That’s on hiatus for the moment.
Bake more often - I did bake 2 cakes in under 24 hours.
Do something for Dad - Not yet.
So. Let’s recap. In January, Brian’s mom Kathy passed incredibly suddenly. It was totally out of the blue. She was “feeling a little funny” for so long (maybe a few hours, maybe a weekend) that she asked Bill to take her to the hospital. She woke Dan up before they left to let him know they were going, but nothing seemed serious. They even stopped at Wawa for a coffee and some snacks on the way. And by the end of the morning, she was gone. Cardiac tamponade. So sudden that nothing could be done. But they tried. All of the siblings rushed out to Jefferson Torresdale. Dropped everything at work. Got there as fast as they could. Brian and Dan and Meg thankfully got there all at the same time. More of us, myself included, trickled in as fast as possible. And there we were. Left with shock and confusion and anger. No idea what to do or how to do it. We scrounged up enough money and held a funeral. Family connections worked in our favor and even though we didn’t have life plans and for the most part were too stunned to process it all, we planned a funeral anyway. For those of you who were there for mass, for the most part Brian and I were not hysterically crying up front. But we were trying to contain raucous laughter as thee priest was chewing the host (*cronch*cronch*cronch*) or when Brian was complaining about their microphone’s audio quality.
So yeah. Since the end of January, life’s been busy. Trying to figure out finances and passcodes and paperwork when you’re left no clues is hard. Dan’s been cleaning and packing and searching. Meg’s been helping too when she could. Brian’s taken a trip to city hall for paperwork and their Aunt Patti and Uncle Mike have been helping with trips to doctors and banks. We recently coordinated enough of an effort to move Bill and Dan out near us, where they’re all on one floor and can start over, but also be closer by to have more help from Brian and Will. So much of February, once the funeral was over, centered around putting the pieces together and setting Dad and Dan up as much as possible in the new place. Now that they’re here, I can confirm I’ll be seeing family a lot more often. It’s nice, but I worry for how it’ll impact Brian’s free time in the future. Since we’ve been so busy, both of our D&D campaigns are paused. We barely have game nights with Chris and Matt. We did, especially during the two massive snowstorms immediately after Kathy passed, start playing more video games. We started a guild in BCC Classic and have over 130 characters to hang out with. We’ve both gotten Nintendo Switch 2s in the past month, because when your credit card is already really high because you’re helping out other people, making it a little higher to reward yourself is sometimes justified, so we’ve been playing Pokemon FireRed and LeafGreen, Pokopia, and some GameCube classics. I haven’t been reading as much, but I’ve taken it upon myself to try to read a chapter or two a night when I can. This year I’ve finished the following:
The Grimmoire Grammar School Parent Teacher Association (Caitlin Rozakis); 12/15/25 - 1/1/26 (Rating: 5/15)
The God of the Woods (Liz Moore); 1/1/26-2/3/26 (Rating: 15/15)
Twelve Months (Jim Butcher); 2/3/26-2/15/26 (Rating: 15/15)
The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys (Gerard Way); 2/16/26 (Rating: 8/15)
The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys: National Anthem (Gerard Way); 2/17/26-2/19/26 (Rating 6/15)
All Bones Considered: 52 Laurel Hill Women (Joe Lex); 2/20/26-CURRENT
So realistically I’ve only finished 5 books this year. Not exactly on pace for my 30. But we’ll see. Two series I quite enjoy, Komi Can’t Communicate andLore Olympus, finish this year and I’ve been purposely holding the last few editions to read when they’re all published. We had a birthday party for Kathy at the start of March, and I baked both a delicious pineapple upside down cake and her infamous kitty litter cake, so I guess that’s helped me bake more often. I’d still like to try to bake once a month if I can.
And that’s about it. Life has me tired. Work is hectic as always and refuses to settle down, though taking so much time off doesn’t help. I’m having a hard time finding the happy and the calm in life. Bad and sad things keep popping up everywhere; both in my personal life and in the world news. My anxiety, which I always knew I had but has never been an issue, has been crippling in the past two months. I blame this on the constant feed of “what if something bad happens and I can’t do anything” that’s now running through my head and the inability to turn it off. Sleep alludes me. Both chores and fun are hard to pursue. But I’m pushing through as best as I can for now. It’ll get better. Life finds a way.
-G