Okay, here’s where the comics start to get meta… a comic about comics. Well, sharing comics to be exact.
I’ve kept my personal art life compartmentalized from my library writing group for 6 years! I just felt compelled to take off my librarian hat and share during this meeting. Everyone was really positive, to be honest. But this exchange really made me laugh.
Well, well, well. Everyone wished away January and by the time you read this, it’ll be practically mid-February. Are you happy now?
I did not get to participate in Hourly Comics Day this year, but this serves as my little recap. It turned out to be a pretty busy day at work!
I made it through one month of making comics every day!
Some of my takeaways:
There is time to be creative. Most of the time, I spent around 30 minutes making my daily comic. That time added up to around 30 pages of comics!
Keep your supplies handy. Having my sketchbook, paints, and pens close by on the coffee table made it that much easier to reach for them.
Making and sharing art feels good! I heard so many sweet and supportive comments from people this month as I started sharing my art and it felt really good! The best part was that these were my friends and neighbors, people I interact with in real life.
Overall, this habit has been easier to maintain than I thought it would be. Plus, it feels good— just like eating right, exercising, drinking water, and all of those things they tell you to do! Cheers to another month of making comics.
First of all, I heard on NPR is what I meant to say. Second of all, does this page give you emotional whiplash? Imagine how tired I am living like this. One second, I’m writing about bug pee and the next it’s about our sacred right to self-expression and how I will never let that be taken away.
Although I’m being glib, this dream was disturbing. I hope that my intuition about everything that’s happening in our country is wrong. All that I know is that I have to keep going. I’m not sure if I will continue at this pace all year— this is a project that I’m holding loosely. I don’t want it to become something mired in obligation and guilt. As I said on Jan. 1, self-expression is a gift, so it’s my intention to keep giving this time and space to myself. Ta-ta for now, February comics to start soon!
I had a really good birthday this year. The weather was beautiful, I had some friend time and some alone time to recharge. I got a lovely massage from my friend and neighbor over at Southern Pines Massage.
I definitely have a lot of “It’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to” type birthdays. When I was younger, there were many years when I felt disappointed that some sort of unarticulated expectations weren’t met. Now that I’m 36… the only time I teared up was when my dad did his traditional reminiscing about the day I was born: “It was a Sunday afternoon…”
Sometimes it’s overwhelming to feel loved!
I do not take very good care of my car. It is covered in sap (which will act as a protective coating when the acid rain begins). I actually don’t know why my car is more covered in sap than anyone else I know when we all live in the land of the pines. Okay, I guess some people have garages. But what’s everyone else doing? Running out to scrape off the sap before it hardens into an immovable splotch? Anyway, I don’t have a car payment.
These comics really have nothing to do with one another, thematically, except that they both involve planning for the future. I’m imagining a future in which I have both a car that still works and a body that is skin cancer-free! I went to the dermatologist in the fall of 2022, concerned about a tiny little dot on my upper right arm. It turned out my instincts were correct and it was a melanoma that, fortunately, had not spread beyond the surface. One excision and some very uncomfortable stitches later, it was gone. But, if I hadn’t gone to the doctor, it would have eventually spread. Recognizing that something was wrong has become a weird point of pride for me. Now, I go back to the derm every 6 months for a skin check and brag about wearing sunscreen and my doctor indulges me by saying good job.
Just think— this was written BEFORE Elon took over our coffers. Hopefully by the time this posts, that will no longer be the current reality.
On a positive note, this has been my life philosophy for a while. I wish I could retire now but until then, I’ll just act retired as often as I can.
I’ve gotten a lot better over the years, I really have.
My screentime was down, wayyyyy down. The it was back to staring at the medium screens with intermittent breaks to stare at the small screen.
One of the hardest things about coming home with trips from friends is… living alone. It can be jarring to go from being in a gaggle of friends 24/7 to being by yourself. Having a get-together with some of my library friends a couple days later made the transition much easier.
Okay, so it was only about an inch of snow. But that still qualifies as a snow day! I stayed at my friend Taylor’s house rather than driving all the way home after my trip. This turned into a treat for me because I got bonus time with Taylor and her daughter, Avery.
When kids are intersted in my art, that is the biggest compliment to me! I want to show them that you don’t have to stop being creative and having fun when you grow up.
On the way to Mexico, I finished Ina Garten’s memoir, which I really loved. But it was The Lost City of Z that I could not stop talking about! There were so many parallels to things we learned about on the trip, including how the “explorers” aka colonizers fundamentally misunderstood the native people and their way of life. Percy Fawcett was interesting because I do think he had more curiosity and understanding of the indigenous Amazonians. But he was obsessed with discovering this storied “lost city,” which, much like the Maya, never really disappeared and was surrounding him the whole time.
I could not stop thinking about how, just over 100 years ago, there was so much of the world that wasn’t mapped yet. Now, we can travel from Mexico back to North Carolina over the course of several hours and I can zoom in on the world map and navigate through the snow with a computer in my pocket. Percy Fawcett’s head would explode.
Parque del Jaguar is a huge nature preserve encompassing beach and jungle along the coast of Tulum. We, once again, set out very early in the morning to meet our tour guide who explained the significance and history of this Mayan site. I think one of the most important ideas that was reiterated throughout our trip is that the Mayan people did not disappear! They are the indigenous people of Mexico and they still exist today. Our guide, Joel, shared that his son’s school teaches the Mayan language, which was a huge change from just a generation ago when people were ostracized for having Mayan facial features or names.
Since it was also the day of the presidential inaguration… it was hard to ignore the news. However, our tour guide’s stories about Mexico’s new appreciation and respect for Mayan culture made me think about how quickly things can change. Yes, that means negative change can happen quickly, but so can positive change. Societal norms that were seen as unchangeable CAN shift and I have to have hope that we will continue to move forward.
I have to also mention our beautiful dinner at Arca, Tulum. We had the most amazing cocktails and share plates of traditional Mexican foods and flavors. Some of my favorites included a trout tostada, a whole squash with a salad of squash leaves and toasted squash seeds, and grilled mushroom tlayuda— a little crispy and savory chicharron. This special night was a tradition that my friend Alex started, the “Nana Dinner,” in honor of her grandmother. Nana was always so generous and loving to Alex’s friends and she loved taking us out for some fine dining. It’s a beautiful tradition to share and I think it tickles us all to know how pleased Nana would be by our travels and adventures together.
Around 600-900 AD, there were thriving Mayan cities including settlements at Coba, Tulum, and Chichen Itza. In 2025, we traveled to Coba to learn more about life there.
Pok-a-Tok is the game that was played by the Mayans in the arenas we saw. Seeing the angle of the walls and the height of the hoops really drove home the strength and technical ability needed to play the game, which sometimes resulted in the death of the losing team.
Finding Beesencial was kind of a happy accident, and getting this behind-the-scenes look at the hives was an immense treat. If you visit Tulum, you can book a whole experience with Janely that includes a meal and sampling the many different types of honey. Her passion for what she does was so evident and we were so grateful that she shared her knowledge with us.
Our Airbnb was within walking distance of a national park with beach access for snorkeling. Akumal is known for its sea turtles. You can rent snorkel gear and go solo, but we chose to book a tour through Airbnb experiences, which I think was a smart choice. We set out early before it got too crowded. Our guide was very kind and extremely helpful when our goggles got foggy or we had other technical difficulties.
I think my favorite part was seeing these fish swirling around one of the turtles, nibbling on it and cleaning its shell.
I thought, “My nose piercing is so healed! It’s fine without a ring in it for a few days.” But let me tell you— it was painful replacing it when I got home. Hope the turtle enjoyed it.
When we were planning this trip, I knew that I wanted to do a tour of some of the amazing cenotes that are everywhere in the Yucatan.
Sarah noted that if you’re going to fall off your bike, it’s best to do it before you go swimming so that the cool cenote water can heal your wounds.
We swam in four cenotes total. At the end of our tour, we rode our bikes back to Gilmer’s house and ate tacos made with the delicious pork we prepared! It was the perfect end to a day of swimming and sun. We ate and chatted for the rest of the afternoon. There were two women on the tour in addition to our group, and they told us that we really needed to visit Merida, which promptly was added to our travel wishlist.
On January 16th, I set off from RDU veryyyyy early in the morning where I met my friend, Sarah. It was very cold and dark.
When we came down the escalator on the way out of the Cancun airport, a huge line awaited us at immigration. I think that every plane that was going to Cancun landed at the same time. It was chaotic because people kept trying to make new lines and then little skirmishes would break out as other people tried to enforce the “rules,” which were not being enforced by staff. The whole thing was kind of funny. I just kept thinking “Well, if this is our only travel friction, it’s really not so bad.”
This meager comic cannot describe the feeling of walking out onto our terrace after what turned out to be a 15 hour day of travel. The ocean, the salt air! I went to bed thinking about how I couldn’t wait to wake up and see the sunrise over the water.
The NYT word games are my little escape from the world.
Felix always knows what the suitcase means… Charlie is not quite as quick on the uptake.
This was subtle foreshadowing for what’s to come… luckily it did not hinder my enjoyment of my travels.
I know this should be a no-brainer, but making food that I like to eat, in small batches, but enough to be prepared for the week… has made my life more enjoyable and less stressful. I resisted for so long, but now it’s the way I have to live. This was also kicked into motion by switching to a gluten-free diet. My doctor thought I might have celiac, which thankfully I do not! But going gluten-free has made me feel immensely better. Here’s the link to the gluten-free biscuits I have been making and enjoying for breakfast!
Snow days in the south rarely involve snow, and this was no exception. I really wanted to wake up and see a beautiful blanket of soft, white snow! But it wasn’t meant to be this time. The ice was pretty in its own way and we didn’t lose power, which was the most beautiful thing of all.
The older I get, the more I struggle in the winter. I think part of it is that we have to live so out of rhythm with the world— we’re supposed to be hibernating, right? I also get really tired of having to walk the dogs in the morning and the evening in the dark. I’ve been trying to make a point to get a lunchtime walk in so that I can at least glimpse the sunlight. The light is coming back!