Hi everyone! Hope the holiday season is treating you well. Thought I'd write a quick journal cause I've got some free time, and it's been forever (and also, I deleted a huge chunk of my journals a while back for some silly reason, which I now regret).

Where to begin! Let's make this a proper journal and get a bit personal, huh? Things have been pretty good for me recently. I've been on new medication for depression in addition to my usual non-stimulant ADHD meds and it's been helping tremendously. Feeling much better in general, I figure I've been struggling with pretty severe depression in waves off and on for many years now heh... Other than that, in terms of health, I've been going to a very good Physical Therapist after having gone to a very bad one for a couple months. I'm already feeling a lot better with the exercises I'm doing. Having pain is pretty annoying, I don't recommend it (and condolences and best wishes to any friends who might deal with chronic pain. That shit sucks, I'm sorry)! I've also been working on watching what I eat so I can lose some weight. Health reasons. I don't want to go into my 40s with chronic back pain, arthritic or otherwise! >_<;;
It's been feeling good to slim down a bit, and I can tell my back pain has been getting better as a result- already lost about 20 pounds, I think, or thereabouts. Oh! Also, I have a CPAP machine now, and sleeping has been much nicer and also much more quiet because no more snoring! Fuck I was a loud snorer.

Life has been pretty good otherwise, working consistently at a job with lovely people, really enjoying myself. I get to knit and crochet a lot at work, even game a bit here and there when we don't have customers. At home I spend a lot of time hanging out in my room with gaming and watching our dog who is getting up in years. I tend to gravitate to the easy reliable source of dopamine, which means video games and lots of em-- when I was unmedicated for depression it was just about all I COULD do... But hey, like I say, I'm doing a lot better. Over the pandemic, I've even gotten into soulslike games, which was something I never anticipated. Got Nioh 2 and got obsessed, then dove into Fromsoft titles too. Elden Ring is really good. Hard games can be fun! Of course, relaxed chill easy games can be sooooo nice too. ANYWAYS.

We'll see how much art stuff and drawing stuff I do going forward. Hopefully I will find a way to make a routine that includes an hour or two of drawing a day. I do want to keep at it! In October I did a really fun daily drawing challenge that really stretched my drawing muscles and made me feel good-- but most of it isn't really of interest to the furs, so that's on my personal "person" instagram. And you know the way those social media sites work. They LOVE to show your friends your secret account you're trying to hide, so I don't have a naughty funtime finsta account just now.

With Twitter on the decline, or rather, my interest in continuing to use Twitter on decline, I've been feeling much more relaxed and chill. Worrying about likes and numbers of favorites and watchers can really put a damper on one's spirits, and they design it to be that way too, right? So it's been good to get away from all that, and take some time to just be me and exist, you know? I might try some of the other sites like Mastodon or Itaku or whatever at some point, but for now, this is the main place you'll be able to find and contact me, unless I've shared my private telegram or discord info with you. I prefer to keep that between me and folks I know for the time being, thanks.

In terms of usernames and keeping this page, I think I'll keep this FA as my main, I have a Steakkums account, which has been my newest moniker. I kinda like it, made me feel fresh and different for a while, but I know to most folks, especially on here, I'm always Red Rodent and that's that ;P Maybe someday if FA implements name changing, I'll give that a go. I don't feel like dumping this page and starting new. That's a lot of work! I don't need that. I hardly upload as it is. And speaking of. What's that site, postybirb? I need to check that out, huh? Is it pretty easy to use?

Thanks for reading my ramble! Hopefully my high spirits showed through, and I wish you a warm and cozy holiday season. Thanks all! I will be around.