Hi Friends – It’s always nice to hear from you on this day or any day, really. I realize I am ambivalence itself when it comes to the personal-life channel, but it does serve a certain broadcasting-happenstances-place in our days. And to that end – here are my big headlines for the last year and heading into my next, so we’re all up to speed on yours, truly.

I don’t live on Vashon and I never did – but the farmhouse is finished (and that’s kinda HUGE).
This seems to be a popular misconception about the last 5 years of my life. In 2015, I moved from my beloved Capitol Hill house of 20 years to West Seattle for a few, totally sensible reasons. In 2016, barely a year later, I bought an unlivable, dilapidated farmhouse with acreage and outbuildings on Vashon for a few, totally nonsensical reasons. I named it “Black Sheep Farm” (Aka: BSF). I proceeded to undertake a “2-year Restoration” that went absolutely never to plan and featured every kind of obstacle and misstep. For a time, I was good about writing about the project in the name of sharing learned experiences and maybe saving someone some headaches. Then I got overwhelmed. However, I do plan to finish writing all the epic stories next. I’ve got easy 5000 words on f*ed up floors and how to deal with that alone. While never having lived at Black Sheep Farm past the occasional weekend stays (you’d be surprised how infrequent those were), it sure took up a lot of my bandwidth. In this moment, and breaking out the “sensible reasons” again — I just finished up the restoration, rented the house and intend to take a year off from it all, other than inventorying the takeaways (literally and figuratively – all the tools came back from BSF and are currently packed in an impenetrable mass in my utility room).

I’m working — But, I could work more (Especially Now!)
You should know I’ve been a ninja tech & copy writer/content manager pretty much all along, but definitely since 2011 and “officially” since 2015 (A lot of big life stuff happened in 2015 – I’m only just now realizing the impact of that year). I craft words (writing, editing, proofreading) for achieving goals – to inform or educate or inspire or entertain or all of the above – and I’m fairly good at it. After arguably too many years working with a darling little wellness-program company and by extension – their behemoth business clients, I’m back to freelancing and it’s great! I’m busy writing up training documentation for heavy-hitter shipping logistic technology smarty-pants and fielding all kinds of word requests from my most favorite creative agency wonder kids. Those things take up a good deal of time AND allowed for the time-freedom to work on Black Sheep Farm Vashon. I bet you see where this is going, right? In the fresh new absence of the constant demand and tiresome ferry to-and-fro, I have time now. Considerably more time, actually, than I had realized. So, what the heck – I’ll put it out there. I need to pursue working more. You hear of anything writerly, or need anything writerly, hit me up! Here’s my portfolio if you want to see it: https://julianneandersen.wixsite.com/writer

I do live in West Seattle and that’s a whole thing now.
See again: Sensible reasons. My cool niece and nephew live here, and by extension so do their parents, one of which I’m reportedly related to. There remain open questions in regards to that. Anyhoo, back in 2015, there was a dowdy but affordable rambler on a big lot in a sleepier neighborhood and I grabbed it. To this day, the house (aka the “Hobbit House” – ask me if you want to hear that story) and I are still working things out – there is some personality conflict between us but you know I’m always grateful for this steadfast low-profile homestead. And, well, stuck. Now we’re stuck with each other, too. The main escape route, aka the West Seattle bridge, is closed and we’re basically an island now. By extension, fully embracing life constrained to here (and White Center, Burien, Tukwila) is the only way. I do make a weekly effort to break out from West Seattle island and enjoy the exotic locales of the U. District or Bellevue, but for all intents and purposes – this is my here and now for maybe ever, actually. Oh sure – and I garden. So there’s that.

Pandemics Suck and They Told Us So.
In another great global episode of we-should’ve-been-listening, Covid-19 was foretold and is just as nasty and incomprehensible as one could’ve imagined. The infuriating and unpleasant laundry list about why this pandemic sucks starts with – we were cautioned about the inevitability of this. So, the unpreparedness just compounded the shock and dismay to unfathomable degrees. For all the hard and awful things — I am beyond grateful that my busy and sometimes reckless 81-year-old Mother of a million vulnerabilities stayed the course of staying home and that my sister (Michelle Andersen-Norsen, maybe you’ve heard of her) and I are able to tag-team support efforts over there in Bellevue. As such, she has stayed safe, knock on wood, from a virus that would’ve have absolutely toppled the house of cards that is her health. All things considered – my tiny circle have all weathered the storm reasonably well. My niece and I made A LOT of masks. While not feeling heroic about it in any way, I’m in vaxx process for all the (here it is again!) sensible reasons. I also find myself actively recognizing and acknowledging the silver linings of this global paradigm shift, be they few and far between. One of which is that I no longer have to side-step or otherwise avoid the hugging because now you people know hugging for the deathtrap that it is. I *may* be overstating that, but I’ve never liked hugging nor is that bound to change. To be clear, absence of hugging overtures is hardly worth the massive and crushing loss of life and livelihoods, but I think we’re all in a place where we’ll take the few and far between upsides when we can get ’em.

Giving it all away (or otherwise getting rid of it) – hit me up!
All of above combined equal a massive and curated purge of my belongings. Starting with the rock*roll ephemera and now working my way through the vintage clothing and collectibles. Also divesting self of general, “how/why is THIS here” clutter. The goal is to reduce my personal stuff inventory by at least 33%. Between the free stuff online options and the do-gooder charities, I’ve got a good start on keeping stuff out the landfills and avoiding Goodwill, which as you may know is basically the same thing now (due to being pandemic-purging overwhelmed). I know I’m not alone in this and I know many of you are undertaking similar clearinghouse efforts – but at the same time, I probably have a “These Arms Are Snakes” or “Hell’s Belles” or “Supersuckers” tee-shirt (just as examples, the band-tee list alone is epic) you’ve always wanted to have or need to replace and I’m willing to part with. High-five to all the good people that I’ve managed to meet or catch-up with along the way of giving things away. I’ve been frequently surprised how emotional this has all been – not always in a good way – but I know it’s a “needs to happen” event for all the………sensible reasons.