Who am I?

I’m trying to figure that out, myself.

I’m Crystal.  I’ve got some shit to work out.  Stick around long enough and we’ll see just how hot this dumpster fire can burn.

The Basics

I’m 40-ish, and married since 2002.  If I had to sum up our relationship in Facebook terms, it’s complicated. We live in TinyTown, a little place surrounded by Saskatchewan’s prairies. I moved up here from the New England area, after taking the scenic route through Florida.

I’m artistic. I love to bake. I spin poi and collect hobbies, probably to an unhealthy extent.  Throw in some depression, anxiety, a lot of ADHD, a touch of an eating disorder, and garnish with a sprinkle of PTSD, and you’ve got a recipe for disaster.

A little about this site

I’ve been blogging in various forms since about ’96, starting with hand written HTML hosted on a local BBS, switching to LiveJournal later, before moving to self-hosted blogs using things like GreyMatter, pMachine, and finally WordPress.  This blog is my place to just work through things in a bit more depth than I do in my paper journal.  My 15 year-old self would have probably described this as “my place to scream into the void”.

Outside of this place, my social media presence is limited to TikTok, Instagram and Threads, and a couple of small Discord servers.

Wanting More?

I love music of all kinds.  During the summer, I can frequently be found in my backyard with my headphones, spinning poi and looking ridiculous. I make ridiculous pants.

So what did he do?

Shawshank cheated on me, both online and off. In 2016 I discovered physical evidence of infidelity. We were working through our problems. In 2018, he was arrested; I won’t get into the details about the case – that’s his business.  He took a plea deal in 2019 to avoid going to trial and potential jail time. Unfortunately, his public defender wasn’t aware of how a plea deal would affect his immigration status in the US. The lawyer told him he’d be fine. Spoiler alert: he wasn’t.

In February of 2020, he was picked up by ICE and held in a detainment facility. After 105 days, he was officially removed from the US and deported to Canada.