Emily English's Blog

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Welcome to 2026.

It felt like 2025 went faster than previous years. Mark read that time appears to go quickly when you are doing the same routines day in and day out. As I reflected on the year, we were definitely stuck in the daily rut. However, a peek through my journal showed we did have several adventures!

I was going to start talking about how much I love my new Hobo...

I’m always on the hunt for different gifting options and I try to purchase gifts throughout the year. I’ll stumble upon that perfect something, buy it, and hold on to it until Christmas. They’re usually small tokens that made me think of someone, but I find these things very special. This takes away the online shopping aspect and allows me to spread the costs of Christmas throughout the course of a year instead of all at once.

If you’re looking for the hottest gadgets or the most-wanted luxe bran...

Earlier this year, Mark casually mentioned that Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter are performing Waiting for Godot on Broadway and that tickets were going on pre-sale in April. I non-chalantly replied that I would love to go see that if we could make it work, but that tickets were probably too expensive.

In April, I snagged 3 tickets. Because KEANU REEVES and ALEX WINTER. Of course we were going to see this play!

We high-fived, reminisced about how much we love Bill and Ted, then went about our lives u...

It’s taken me a full week to recover from Once Upon a Convention. The mess in my office tells me I’ve still got a ways to go.

I went into this con with certain expectations based on the information from the con chairs through various meetings and Discord chatter. Those expectations were not exactly met, but I don’t believe anyone did anything with ill intent. Poor planning and terrible communication is what it seemed to boil down to as far as my experience with this con goes. Others were much mor...

The ridiculously adorable Penelope the Fairy Penguin, one of three OUAC mascots by The Porcelain Lace.

I never hea...

I certainly did PERSEVERE through 2024 as I intended, but I admit that I fell into quite a few slumps along the way. I could easily go into all the ways I “failed” but since I no longer have that outlook, we’re going to celebrate everything that was amazing!

We spent our week-long summer break at Kure (pronounced CURE-ee) Beach in North Carolina. If you know where the Outer Banks are—Kure is further south, almost at the southeastern tip of NC. For those that use Myrtle Beach, SC as a reference point, Kure is about 90 miles northeast. It’s only 18 miles from Wilmington and it’s sandwiched between the Atlantic on the eastern side and the Cape Fear River on the west.

I guess that makes it more like a hot dog…which is technically a sandwich as well?

I turned 50 this month and part of me thinks it’s just a number. I mean, I still wear anime tees, fangirl like a prepubescent, adore my plushies, and play video games. So despite the graying hair, aching joints, and being tired ALL THE TIME, aging is just a state of mind.

But 50 is actually a badge of honor, and I’d be selling myself short if I didn’t look at it that way. Getting to this point wasn’t easy. I can’t even begin to count the number of times I have stumbled, fallen, and refused to get...

I never knew there was a term for the negative voices in our head. I thought it was all just THE INNER VOICE, that internal, non-stop monologue that keeps you company—especially when you’re trying to sleep. It is constantly speculating, offering ideas, questioning what you just did, planning what you should do, explaining why you enjoy a banana with Hormel’s chili, etc.

The inner voice is supposed to be helpful. I imagine it’s supposed to be like brainstorming with yourself in order to move forw...

Y’all it’s January and I’m working on my New Year blog post! It’s like I’ve made progress or something! Believe me, it’s not easy for me to focus—even when I’m stuck on the sofa. I get easily distracted by books and games, and after Christmas there are so many books and games! There’s also fancy cheese from our New Year’s Eve celebration which Mark set out in front of me…mmm…cheese…

Over the years I’ve found that I really love spending NYE at home. We make a nice dinner and there’s no rush to be ...