The GYST
Sweary support for the burned out, stressed and weary. Join the free weekly newsletter and let's get your shit together.
You don’t have to do it all.
Hey Reader, Saturday night, TGIC (my weekly kids’ art club) ran a Halloween craft table at the comic shop’s Trunk or Treat — and it was a night. All week I’d been prepping, trying to pull together enough craft kits for a few hundred kids while juggling work, parenting, and a suspicious lack of sleep. I realized early on that I couldn’t do it alone — or at least, I shouldn’t. So I asked for help. At Wednesday's craft night, parents and kids jumped in. We made sample crafts, assembled packets,...
There's magic in thinking for yourself.
Hey Reader, Halloween is my favorite season — obviously. The costumes, the creativity, the weird little rituals that let us play with mystery and magic. But for a long time, I didn't care for Halloween, Tarot, and all this spooky stuff. I grew up being taught that Tarot, astrology, and witchy stuff were the devil. And I believed them. It wasn’t until I got curious that I started asking questions. What’s actually behind these traditions? What do they mean, where did they come from, and why...
Choose before it's chosen for you.
Hey Reader, I might have a bunch of different skills, but the most handy one lately is how I control my work calendar. I say no to meetings I don’t need to be at (or straight-up ask the organizer "do you need me?"), protect chunks of time for work that matters, and claim the authority to decide how my hours get spent. It feels powerful. I have shit to do that needs focus, priorities that can’t wait, and the ability to decide what actually deserves my time. If someone gets huffy about it?...
Even dragons need a soft place.
Hey Reader, This week, I stepped back into something I didn’t realize I’d been missing: volunteering in the school library. I skipped it last year because life was full of other changes, but walking back in reminded me why I love it so damn much. My favorite task? Being a book doctor. That’s right — Ally, CBD (Certified Book Doctor) at your service. Not an official degree, but pretty sure it should be. I patch up aggressively loved books that land in the book hospital, anxiously awaiting...
Psst... the answer's inside.
Hey Reader, You know how people say moms have eyes in the back of their heads? Yeah, that’s not it. What we really have is High Priestess energy. For example (in my best Hermione Granger voice): my kid skulks into the hallway before dinner, hands hidden like a cartoon villain. I’m across the house juggling work, dinner, and crafts… and I still know. That’s not eyesight. That’s intuition. Call it mom radar, instinct, whatever. That, my friends, is some High Priestess shit. Weekly Tarot Card....
Use what you’ve already got.
Hey Reader, Sometimes when I’m too busy (read: lazy) to go to the grocery store, I end up playing my own version of Chopped in the kitchen. You know how it goes - Ted Allen’s voice in my head, a fridge with random leftovers, and the challenge: what can I make with frozen shredded chicken, a can of green beans, and some about-to-exp heavy cream? You must use all the ingredients. And somehow, it works. I get scrappy, I get resourceful, and dinner comes together — with a little help from...
Be the Fool.
Hey Reader, As you might remember, I set out to build my son’s Mandalorian Halloween costume from scratch — EVA foam, glue, spray paint, thrifted clothes and belts, and a whole lot of “well, let’s hope this works.” Did I have experience making cosplay armor? Nope. Did I have a YouTube degree and blind optimism? Absolutely. When I started, I had zero clue what I was doing. Blissfully ignorant, totally unprepared, and wildly optimistic. But here’s the thing: as I cut, glued, cursed, and re-did...