*blows dust off DA account*
So, some lovely anonymous person gifted a three month premium membership to me, and I thought I should use the opportunity to post a few new things to show my appreciation, since I'm kind of a DA bum now. I also just realized that I've reached my eighth year on this site last month (three day's after my kiddo's sixth birthday). 
(Wow, my DA is older than my kid. OK, ok, back to things I was saying before--)
My personal life has been rather hectic over the last many months. I've suffered quite a bit from a broken heart, that was then kicked while it was down. I've had to deal with threats from my ex in regards to custody of my kid. All in all, I've been doing a lot of drinking and crying, all while trying to complete the first arc of Lifrasir Wars (which was done way back in January) and the critical portion of my thesis, teaching two classes of students who would have rather been at the dentist than in my classroom, and then editing, defending, printing, and sending off my thesis to be bound. Honestly, if anything at all came up ever this semester I've just felt the need to screech BUT MY THESIS! and run away.
Now that the whining is out of the way, the good news:
I now have a MA in English. Well, I don't have the sheet of paper that says that yet, but I have completed all of my requirements and I have my fancy velvet hood so if I was the pretentious type I can start adding " , M.A." after my name every time I sign it if I wanted to.
I've also been accepted into the MFA Creative Nonfiction program at The New School in NYC. So, I'll be starting out this crazy academic journey all over again (maybe I'm a glutton for punishment) BUT WAIT. Did you get the part where I'm moving to NYC? FINALLY?!
In all honesty, I started out my journey in Graduate Study with the goal of getting to NYC. I didn't do too well in my undergrad, so I was determined to prove myself during my MA studies in order to get there. I've been saving every spare penny I have and working my butt off, sacrificing so much of my life in order to achieve that goal. But I managed to wrangle a 4.0 for my MA and got accepted into a rather prestigious arts school (IN NEW YORK CITY. ART SCHOOL. WRITING. NEW YORK CITY. I HAD TO BEAT OUT THOUSANDS UPON THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE.) in order to study the art form that I love and to which I have devoted my entire life thus far.
In addition to that, I've also gotten published! Actually, you can read the story that was published here on DA now since the journal was released last month:
I was futzing around with some formatting and got the message that it received a DLD, as well. This story, by the way, is also the one that got me to NYC. It is also about my Dad, who is the best human being I have ever met. I guess that makes it the most special thing I've ever written so far.
I've also, at the urging of a couple specific individuals, posted the critical portion of my thesis. For those academically inclined who want to read what ended up being about a 30 page critical introduction all about DA (THERE ARE PICTURES, IT'S OK), you can go ahead and check that out:
This thing was a beast in and of itself. Mostly because it isn't something that has necessarily been written on a whole lot (well, at all really, not from the viewpoint of an active participant). Most of my research ended up getting squirreled out of communications and sociology databases. So, I'm actually pretty impressed with myself for writing on something that hasn't necessarily been written about through this type of lens and at this level of focus, at least not that I know of and I researched it for about a year or so.
All in all, everything seems to be smoothing out for now, but I'm still on edge waiting for it all to blow up once more. I got some new tattoos and I have the rest of May to breathe, just wrapping up odds-and-ends, and then the crazy hits. My parents are moving to Florida, and we'll be trying to shift the eighteen years of STUFF they've amassed in their 3000 sq. ft house and on their 5 acres of land to their new 4000 sq ft. house with, I think, more land, three states away. THEN, in July I'm headed to NYC all on my lonesome to, hopefully, finally find my own way.
Don't worry, folks. You know me. I'll still be ghosting around these parts.
-Lina