27 & Belated

It's a Birthday Blog!

A very belated birthday blog. Every year on July 21, I write a birthday blog, generally celebrating my milestones over the last year and looking at what's ahead. This year, I missed the tradition by about a month. I sat down at the end of August to write this- and as you might have noticed, it is no longer August.

On September 1 I got a call that my mom had been airlifted to a hospital in Reno. I spent the next two weeks in a casino hotel (the only modestly priced hotels in the city), dodging Burning Man tourists, and ubering to her hospital everyday. It was brutal, but despite a pretty horrific crash, my mom was okay. I spent the first couple of days trying to catch up with what happened, track down her personal belongings, and get a prognosis from the nurses that were in and out of her room. Within a couple days, my mom was up and moving, albeit slowly. The doctor's were happy with how quickly she was recovering. Unfortunately, because Burning Man had just swept through Reno, the hospital was at capacity, so despite my mom's improving conditions, she was kept in the ER. There simply were no beds in general admission to move her to. So, eventually they released her from the ER directly into my care.

We had a couple of tests, and follow up visits scheduled before we could leave Reno, and my Mom wasn't in the condition to live on her own again for awhile. So, while my mom and I sat in a hotel room, waiting for appointments, my fiance Syd, and sister Sunshine drove out from Colorado.

The plan was simple, they'd meet us in Reno, drive an hour away to my mom's house, and pack up all her belongings, then drive back home to Colorado. Mom would be moving in with me, or my sister for the time being. There were a couple of hiccups, which felt world ending at the time. At one point my mom's cat ran off, at another we thought we'd have to stay in Reno an extra week. But eventually everything was packed, cat was captured, and mom was given a good bill of health. Finally, we flew home.

By the time we'd returned, September was almost over, which meant October was beginning. October's are always my busiest time of year. This year I was returning to edit another 31 Days of Horror on Creepy's feed, I was planning on doing a daily art challenge, and Terrifier 3 was releasing soon, which meant it was all hands on deck at Bloody Disgusting. And that's on top of my usual commitments, like SCP Archives, Mayfair Watchers Society, and managing our ever growing podcast network!!

I really wasn't sure that I could do it.

I wasn't sure I'd have enough time for my mom, for me, for everything I wanted to do. Needed to do. I had come into September feeling refreshed, and confident - ready to attack another October - and now, I was anxious, and exhausted.

October Begins

I'm incredibly fortunate to be surrounded by people I love. My family, my friends, and all my teammates. Where I fell short, everyone else stepped in to help. My sister took time off work to care for our mom, my fiance was a constant source of inspiration and hope, and my friends encouraged me, consoled me, and pushed me to create.

Daisy had already stepped up to manage SCP Archives while I was away, Lauren handled our podcast network, and a dozen other people filled in to keep the show going.

I say all of this to try an explain one thing: I can't do this alone. 

It takes a small village to make this podcast- just this one- and we make like five other podcasts too! But everyday I get to wake up and work with some of the kindest, and smartest people. I get to share our art with you, and I couldn't be happier. So, with a lot of help, I started work on everything.

And y'know what? October was a success, this month I...

• Edited all 31 Days of Horror. You can binge all 32 days over on Creepy (yes 32 days)
• Drew something new every day of October, you can see all my silly little illustrations on my Instagram
• Wrapped SCP Archives' Alphabet Anthology (with a lot of help)
• Directed Poe: Evermore (also with a lot of help)
• And threw a pretty good Halloween party dressed as a devil (see below)

Wrap Up!

Now it's November- Time for my favorite holiday, Thanksgiving!

My mom's doing a lot better, and I'm thankful for that. October was a rush, but I came out the other side, and I'm really proud of the work I did. I'm really thankful for everyone in my life who helped out, filled in, and encouraged me. I really do mean it when I say "none of this would be possible without you."

Honestly, I always feel a little embarrassed being vulnerable - especially in a blog - but if you made it this far, thanks for reading. I promise I'll write another blog soon all about SCP, our upcoming schedule, cool podcasts to listen to, and everything else. But seriously, thanks for listening.

Sappy feelings out of the way, I'll leave you with my most "popular" drawing from October.

If you want to see some other pieces that I'm proud of, check out this out the Slime or Infection prompts! They're some of my favorites :)

Happy (Day After) Halloween!

-- P