⛤ February Q&A (Patreon)

whoa, what a month it's been. I thought I was doing alright (tired but alright) and then in the span of two weeks I had the most baking orders I've ever gotten, put my mother in law in the ground and Jack has started his new job as a mechanic. things fell into place but not without losses. suddenly having to plan a funeral on top of everything going on really threw us for a loop with both the funeral costs and the fact that it was the first and last time I met my mother in law. she had been residing in an assisted living facility in Florida (by her own choice) for the entire time I've lived here. that means her passing involved transporting a body from Florida back to Missouri which, ladies and gentlemen, is wildly expensive (keep that in mind if you have elderly parents in another state!). funeral homes will really try to take you for all you're worth so that was one big financial setback for the year. we're on a payment plan now and father in law is helping us pay it off. so things fell into really weird places while also nuking themselves for no apparent reason. how has your year been? it's so funny how things can seem alright one day, completely out of order the next, alright again for a brief period, then absolute horseshit again for no reason, then alright shortly after and that has been the past six weeks for me and I am exhausted. not enough sage in the world for this shit.

What are your plans this month? my plans do not matter. only the universe's plans seem to matter lately. my plans include do the shit I have to do and hope I don't drown in shit I have to do. the usual manage the household and edit and work on content and care for a senior kitizen and work on recipes and odd jobs and stay reasonably active on discord if nothing else are all part of my daily tasks. right now is a time for just getting through the daily tasks. no room for big plans that take significant time and energy.

Have you ever been to a drive-in movie and if so, what was your experience like? I have heard the stories of old, but have yet to witness such marvels!

You and Jack got any restaurant or elaborate home cooked meal plans? I assume you meant for Valentine's. We got sushi and watched a movie at home. I almost started crying when I read "elaborate home cooked meal" lol I have cooking burnout. it's funny how even when you enjoy cooking, it's only fun if it's an option. if you have to put food on the table every day it stops being a "fun thing you do cause you love it" and starts being an "advanced math equation involving nutrition, time, coordination, ingredients, serving sizes, perishables, planning, shopping, prioritizing, waste reduction, dish washing and stock rotating". I watch some vlogs where people cook 5 course Japanese meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner and wonder when they find the time to do anything? I'm happy any day I can skip that ordeal and sit down with eel pressed torch from Kenko's.

What is a recipe you’d recommend anyone to try? homemade bread. try the linked recipe. anyone can make this and it's one billion trillion quintillion zillion times better than store bought.

Any sage advice for ASMR creating you’re willing to share? that depends on what your goals are and how you prefer to work. if you just want to create good sounds, definitely do your recording work at night. even the quietest days have a significant level of ambient noise. at night you get much cleaner results. do not overload your soundscape. you do not have to fill every single second of silence with some kind of noise. the space between sounds is actually important to let the brain decompress and resensitize to the triggers. stay true to what you love. if you've made ASMR for any amount of time I'm sure you've been bombarded with requests. but if you want to keep making ASMR and not dread every minute of it, make what you truly want to make. even if people don't appreciate it or are mad that you're not prioritizing their demands. hate speaking German? don't make videos in German (no matter how much the small but yappy German crowd harasses you about it if you haven't posted a Germany video in one whole week). above anything else, you must preserve your passion. if you fail to do that, your ASMR legacy will be short lived.

How's the financial situation? same old, but with new catastrophies! I mentioned it in the intro. but hey, give it up for my husband the mechanic! I'm so proud of him for learning new skills. his new job has higher earning potential in the future but he still has a lot to learn. we are currently in the middle of the transition from his old google contract job to the mechanic job. he has been apprenticing for several months now and sadly this opportunity came at the expense of a friend who can't work this job anymore due to health reasons. everything in life is bittersweet. but he looks so happy and fulfilled every day coming home from the shop and that is a far cry from constantly being stressed and frustrated that there's no work available and being on the clock 40 hours just to get 20 hours of work so I'll take it. his hours are still long as he's usually at the shop hours before they open and still has his side gig but 2 jobs is less time than 3 jobs.

How are your resolutions coming along? - My big one was getting into a better financial state. Cue immediate, expensive financial problems :’) I like to think we’re just getting them out of the way now and the rest of the year will be smooth sailing. Same, brother! :’) never stop believing! one day we will be able to thrive, not just survive. My resolutions are going ok. I admit that I haven't had all satisfying meals this year. Sometimes you have to use up leftovers so all meals can't be deliberate and sometimes you don't have time so you have to get sonic and be disappointed that their jalapeno poppers have gone from whole jalapeno with creamy cheese filling to half a jalapeno with waxy processed cheese filling (still cost the same tho!). Very bad executive decision to ruin the one thing people come to your restaurant for. But given the circumstances I am living as deliciously as I can. I made 45 cake pops today (follow my baking account on instagram) and have to take pictures in the morning. I only have about an hour and a half of good lighting in the morning for food photography so anytime I have fresh goodies my life kinda revolves around that. they're so good they make you wish cake was healthy! still gonna have it for breakfast, tho.

now that you've all been filled in on what I've been up to, there will be another question dump available here for march. you better come up with some within the week lol. I'll be here trying not to lose my mind or whatever. 🍸