Ohio Lets Me Officiate Weddings Now

Life updates, words, and general chit chat from the week

This past weekend, my husband and I made the drive to my hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio for my little brother’s wedding. I still call him that even though he is a) much taller than me and b) a full-on adult. My brother and his now-wife asked me to officiate the wedding, which was a huge honor and also something that stressed me out because with great power comes great responsibility.

(You’ll be proud to know I referenced Spider-Man 2002 zero times during the ceremony, although now I’m a little bit sad I didn’t…)

Anyway, I did the thing, and according to the state of Ohio I can in fact legally officiate weddings, so my brother is now allegedly married in the eyes of my home state. Sometimes I think about how I could make a side gig out of officiating weddings now, but then I remember that I am full-up on side gigs at the moment.

What I’ve Been Up To

Work/Writing

Frankly, I remain a smidge on the overwhelmed side. I am counting down the days until the end of the semester when I’ll no longer be driving to campus once a week to teach two classes. That hour-long drive doesn’t sound too bad until you realize that’s a two-hour round trip and you have to wake up at 4am to get there on time because of traffic.

I love teaching college first-year students, but I very much need one less thing on my plate and this is the one I’m most ready to let go of, at least for now.

General Life Updates

My little brother got married, and I helped. That’s more or less it, unless you want to hear about my first trip to the dentist in 3+ years as well.

Okay, maybe I’ll share a bit about that. I went to the dentist on Monday and had a super-deep cleaning because apparently not all was well in the state of my gums. I now have some fancy after care stuff I have to keep up with for the next few days, and frankly I’m still just relieved I managed not to have any cavities.

Current Obsessions

Gaming

I got a new gaming laptop so I can keep up with new game releases that are only available on platforms like Steam. We spent all of one day together before I ran off to Ohio, so I’m looking forward to diving in to see what this thing can do.

So far, I can tell you it runs Dave the Diver without sounding like it’s on the verge of heat death, which is more than I can say for my beloved older laptop.

Food

I got a new cookbook a few weeks ago called Plant You and it has so many great breakfast recipes! Cookbooks really sleep on breakfasts that are practical and lean into brunch-style complex recipes, so I get excited when I find one that has a ton of great make-ahead options for my favorite meal of the day.

Words on the Web

Nothing major to report, except that I kept on chugging along with my gaming articles and barely giving anything else any attention. One of these days, I’ll get back into the swing of a little more balance.

I did have the honor of placing an essay about life as a witchy woman who accidentally failed to hide her magical side, which came out last week in Open Secrets. I’m so happy to have placed the essay there, as it reflects a pretty big bit of growth in my spiritual life (such that it is) over the last few years.

That’s more or less it from me this week, my friends! Happy Monday, and I hope your week is off to a great (or at least okay) start!