Well, well, well internet. We meet again.

I’m working on a project that was due July 1 and I’ve been dragging my feet on it. I told the organizers I would have it to them shortly, and well, that hasn’t happened yet. The plan is to just bite the bullet and get it done today with no later than tomorrow.

Do you like my email banner? That quote has been on the landing page of my website since the late 1900s or early 2000s. I have Canva and I’m not afraid to use it.

Hearing I was born in the later half of the 1900s makes me feel old as fuck.

I also, somehow, got new subscribers on the newsletter sabbatical. Hello new people!

In my going on a sabbatical newsletter letter in April, I mentioned a lot of stuff was upcoming from then until July and here are the updates:

• My heart ablation was a massive success. No more meds or cardiologist appointments. Huzzah!

• Since I’m no longer on drugs for my heart, I can take ADHD meds now and that has been amazing.

• I did not promote the 12-days of Lisamas before my birthday and that was fine. I was feeling quite quiet this year so I turned off all mentions of my birth date across social media but still a lot of people remembered to wish me well. Kristin came to visit which I adored.

• Mr. Lisa had transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) for several of his neuro disorders such as constant tremors. He is drug resistant so this was a last attempt (of sorts) at managing it. They stuck a specially designed cap on his head and zapped his brain using magnets for 30 minutes each treatment. Treatment was five days a week for six weeks. The treatment was a great success and he’s in maintenance mode now.

• I read a lot of books while he was getting treatment done

• I resigned from my library job but picked up a job working at a local bookstore as a fill-in.

• Mr. Lisa and a few of his friends are working on a book tracker app that takes everything that is good about Goodreads, The StoryGraph, Pagebound, and others and puts it into one app. No corporate overlord here! I’m doing community management, marketing, and communications for the app. We hope to make millions!

• I’m working on getting my project management cert.

• Mr. Lisa got a new remote job that makes a lot more than what he was making at his old job. We’re making it rain over here.

• Nerd Girl Industries continues to thrive. I’m still booking workshops and selling products.

• But, NGI still doesn’t generate a livable income so I’ve been applying for jobs in four different professions. All remote as N. Michigan cannot support my education, expertise, and skill set. I have five resumes and I can write a cover letter like no one’s business.

• We still have the rental car from the car accident when Mr. Lisa hit a deer at the end of March. After the body work was done, turns out there needs to be engine work so we had the car towed to the house since the next opportunity to get into the mechanics is the end of July. We’ve been driving a Nissan Sentra since early April and I must say, not a fan as it drives like shit. The only plus side, if you want to call it that, is that it takes regular gas so I’m not selling my kidneys to fill up the tank.

• Thursday the Pug went to a specialist animal hospital as they found several lumps on her liver. We go back to the hospital tomorrow for another ultrasound to see if the lumps have grown and if so, next steps.

Lastly, a person in my life who was ride or die for nearly 30 years started slowly ghosting me in early 2025. Texts and visits came to a full stop in early 2026 and they didn’t respond to my texts when I tried to find out why they were ghosting me. At some point they even unsubscribed from AMUN and I hadn’t notice. Anyway, that last time I talked to them was January 2026 on the anniversary of Brendan’s death and when I didn’t hear from them on my birthday, I pulled the plug and unfriended and unfollowed them across the socials. I also blocked them on all my accounts as they are nosy and they don’t deserve to know anything about my life. I also blocked their phone number. I reached out to their ex-partner, who I’m relatively close to and known just as long, and said hey, your ex is a coward and an asshole. They didn’t disagree. I guess my ex-friend changed their lifestyle, friend group, and job 180 degrees. According to their ex-partner, the new friend group is “interesting.” It was so weird that this person knew everything about me, we would talk all day every day, and we would visit each other regularly. I even gave them several thousands of dollars when they couldn’t afford to get their HVAC fixed even though they made twice as much as I did. I told them not to pay me back nor should we talk about it so I’m not going to demand the money back. I’ve stood by this person for everything they went through, and they went through a lot of shit, so in the beginning when the ghosting began, and the lack of response to my reach outs, I was hurt, for sure. But as time went on, I realized I didn’t really miss them as much as I should with the longevity and closeness of our relationship. I do occasionally think about it because I want to know “Why?” and I may never get an answer.

This got me thinking about all the people in my life with whom I have varying degrees of relationships. People like Erika, my college friend (not Erika the librarian), whom I haven’t seen in a decade but we keep in touch and reach out that we miss each other or it’s a holiday or birthday. Or Ben in Belgium whom I’ve known for nearly 30 years and I haven’t seen in 16 years, we still keep in touch on the reg via WhatsApp. Then there is Lee, whom I’ve known since the mid-1990s when we found each other on LiveJournal and we’re in touch all the time sending memes to each other. Then we can go on the other end of the spectrum with people I talk to all day, every day like Kristin and Erika the librarian.

There are dozens of others like this with all different levels of closeness and yet, we keep each other in our lives. All of these relationships are important to me and I know they love me and think I’m swell but if we were to grow apart, I would be sad. But with the ex-friend? Just annoyed they didn’t have the tenacity to own up why our lives have clearly gone in different paths and they don’t want to hang out with me anymore. They are a fucking coward and honestly, I’m a grudge holding bitch so I’ll never forgive them about this.

I have run a few theories with Kristin as to “why” but those theories are just that: theories.

Jesus, this clocked in at over 1400 words.

It’s time for me to stop procrastinating and get back to my project. With that, I send woo and love and I’ll see you in a few weeks.

(Note: It’s July 10 and the project is done and turned in. Thank. God.)

lisa x

P.S. Over at Nerd Girl Industries Presents, NGI’s newsletter, I do a deep dive on website and SEO audits and applying those techniques to my own site. You can read that issue here.

It’s that time of year again for the American Foundation of Suicide Prevention fundraiser!

I’m fundraising for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention for the Out of Darkness walk again with the walk on September 19, 2026. As most of you know, a very beloved person in my life, the selfish bastard Brendan McAdams, killed himself on January 10, 2025. He would have been 47 this year.

(Note: Last year they had bibs for your back for you to write down who has suffered or died from suicide. I had ten people written down including me, my mom, and others I knew. This is a fucking epidemic.)

My goal is to raise $1250 USD. I’ve got around a lot more more to go as I’ve been a lazy git and haven’t been fundraising as I should have been.

This year I’ll be wearing my Team Otter Lee Ridiculous (name of Brendan’s Corgi) in solidarity. I’m also walking in N. Michigan rather than in Grand Rapids (if you’re in the area and want to come say hi!).

Even if you only have $5, please consider donating via ASFP’s website or Facebook (if that’s your jam). Since AFSP is a non-profit, you can write this of on your taxes if you itemize.

Note to Lee: You’ve already donated. Twice! Put the credit card down.

And in the grand words of Bartles & Jaymes, thank you for your support.