End of the year

2025 has been a bit of a mess. I tend to prefer odd years, but the current administration, my father's health challenges and an exploding freelance business made the year exhausting. I'm blessed by where we are ending it today, but I'm truly tired typing this annual note. 

According to the blog views, we had a bunch of hits. I have no idea how, honestly. I didn't even post here in July. I'm guessing LinkedIn helps drive traffic, but this is all accidental. I should be better at pretending I'm a social media savant, but these posts are just for me I think and I find them amusing. But hello if you're real and not a bot! 

Social media wise, I'm still on Facebook (but muting people and blocking trolls), and regularly using LinkedIn, Tumblr and BlueSky (under the cpd623 handle). Zips drives me to LinkedIn daily, so if that helps this engagement over here that's really funny. 

Even with the chaos this year, I finished 52 books (see me at StoryGraph). In full disclosure mode I'm almost done with one more book but I'll wait until tomorrow to finish it :) 

My husband and I purged another 50 boxes after finally clearing out the storage unit. There is still so much to clear out of the house, but I can see pathways now. Will continue to try to make the house more functional, less messy and better for my kids to deal with someday. I have about 30 years left to fix my piles if the family life expectancies run true. 

My obsession with Polin continued this year. It was the only consistent fun in the midst of a lot of sadness. I'm up to 18 stories now, including the first ever original cross-over piece putting Penelope and Colin into Narnia based on a prompt challenge. I have three more stories started and I hope to be able to finish them. I can see myself sticking in this world for my own amusement, although I know the fandom will shift with Bridgerton Season 4 coming out soon. 

Bridgerton (TV)

• Filling in the gaps (20,397 words)
• Subscriptions: 51 Hits: 12,392 Kudos: 551 Comment Threads: 74 Bookmarks: 169
• Fever Dreams (6,565 words)
• Subscriptions: 55 Hits: 7,050 Kudos: 239 Comment Threads: 14 Bookmarks: 66
• Just What The Doctor Ordered (13,955 words)
• Subscriptions: 41 Hits: 3,781 Kudos: 159 Comment Threads: 17 Bookmarks: 35
• Polin Bees (3,029 words)
• Subscriptions: 30 Hits: 3,745 Kudos: 151 Comment Threads: 34 Bookmarks: 16
• Follow You, Follow Me (3,363 words)
• Subscriptions: 7 Hits: 3,426 Kudos: 149 Comment Threads: 4 Bookmarks: 42
• It's A Date (5,344 words)
• Subscriptions: 10 Hits: 3,314 Kudos: 217 Comment Threads: 9 Bookmarks: 49
• Christening the Library (100 words)
• Subscriptions: 5 Hits: 2,679 Kudos: 82 Comment Threads: 2 Bookmarks: 10
• Impure Thoughts (100 words)
• Subscriptions: 5 Hits: 2,653 Kudos: 108 Comment Threads: 2 Bookmarks: 16
• What Kind of Game is This? (3,764 words)
• Subscriptions: 14 Hits: 2,624 Kudos: 274 Comment Threads: 16 Bookmarks: 49
• Lady Whistledown’s Secrets (10,625 words)
• Subscriptions: 32 Hits: 2,157 Kudos: 78 Comment Threads: 5 Bookmarks: 24
• Time Moves in Mysterious Ways (15,441 words)
• Subscriptions: 42 Hits: 1,489 Kudos: 93 Comment Threads: 21 Bookmarks: 23
• Invisible (200 words)
• Subscriptions: 5 Hits: 1,449 Kudos: 100 Comment Threads: 7 Bookmarks: 16
• Waking Up With You (2,581 words)
• Subscriptions: 2 Hits: 1,356 Kudos: 82 Comment Threads: 3 Bookmarks: 16
• That One Time (500 words)
• Subscriptions: 2 Hits: 1,343 Kudos: 63 Comment Threads: 4 Bookmarks: 14
• The Spelling Bee (500 words)
• Subscriptions: 4 Hits: 453 Kudos: 77 Comment Threads: 8 Bookmarks: 6
• Quiet in the Storm (2,919 words)
• Subscriptions: 3 Hits: 174 Kudos: 24 Comment Threads: 3 Bookmarks: 7

Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis

• Time Moves in Mysterious Ways (15,441 words)
• Subscriptions: 42 Hits: 1,489 Kudos: 93 Comment Threads: 21 Bookmarks: 23

Original Work

• A Green Leaf in Winter (1,941 words)
• Hits: 56 Kudos: 8 Comment Threads: 2 Bookmarks: 1
• Memories (100 words)
• Hits: 52 Kudos: 5 Comment Threads: 2 Bookmarks: 1

Year end data dump

 

If you write a blog but don't share it anywhere, will people find it? Apparently yes. That "big" spike is when I wrote about leaving Twitter. Guessing this was all bots, but who knows, maybe a real person snuck in there too. Hello if yes! 

Social media wise, I'm still on Facebook (but muting people), and regularly using LinkedIn, Tumblr and BlueSky (under the cpd623 handle). 

Next stop today as 2024 comes to a close is to pull data for my clients, but overall, I'm pleased that I hit all of the goals I set and will kick off 2025 with a "new" client. I'm still stressed a bit about time management and getting everything done, but overall, the first year of "retirement" was good. And full-time caregiving went well. E is gaining skills as my dad is losing his and so there is some balance during the day. 

On the other data points that I like to track. I read 52 books (and moved to StoryGraph). In full disclosure mode I'm almost done with three more books, but won't finish them til after tomorrow so I can start 2025 off strong :)

We managed to get sort the equivalent of 54 boxes of stuff (and donated a bunch of that away) just in time to finally close the storage unit we set up when Dad moved in. So, all good news, but I still have piles all over my house!!! 

My biggest engagement of the year happened on AO3. As I posted earlier in September, I fell into the Bridgerton rabbit hole and wrote some stuff about Polin. It started with one story but then I got pulled into the Flufftober challenge on Tumblr and well... I wrote some more. Eight stories in all and two of them are original pieces. 

There is a part of me that wishes I'd tracked things better and watched if I posted something someplace how engagement changed, but then I realized I don't need to do that and I should just enjoy the fact that other people might be enjoying my work. Today I learned that my Reddit group's reading club picked my first story for this week and I'm freaking out a bit about the fact that everyone will be invited to read it. A lovely way to start 2025. 

Bridgerton (TV)

• Filling in the gaps (20,397 words)
• Subscriptions: 45 Hits: 8,191 Kudos: 300 Comment Threads: 55 Bookmarks: 124
• Fever Dreams (6,565 words)
• Subscriptions: 61 Hits: 4,935 Kudos: 170 Comment Threads: 6 Bookmarks: 42
• Impure Thoughts (100 words)
• Subscriptions: 5 Hits: 2,173 Kudos: 93 Comment Threads: 1 Bookmarks: 13
• Follow You, Follow Me (3,363 words)
• Subscriptions: 4 Hits: 2,049 Kudos: 93 Comment Threads: 4 Bookmarks: 25
• Christening the Library (100 words)
• Subscriptions: 3 Hits: 1,763 Kudos: 47 Comment Threads: 1 Bookmarks: 4
• Invisible (200 words)
• Subscriptions: 5 Hits: 1,041 Kudos: 75 Comment Threads: 4 Bookmarks: 14

Original Work

• A Green Leaf in Winter (1,941 words)
• Hits: 52 Kudos: 7 Comment Threads: 2 Bookmarks: 2
• Memories (100 words)
• Hits: 36 Kudos: 3 Comment Threads: 0 Bookmarks: 1