The Year of the Spiders

got bit, phished, and rendered spiritually deaf for a bit sorry

Dear friends,

Yesterday I almost got phished. After a job pursuit went dry, I received a mysterious email with a link asking for a signature from the company. And for a moment, I genuinely thought “oh they still want to hire me!” I almost gave up my gmail password until two-factor authentication saved me with a location access code of Las Vegas, Nevada. I do not live in Las Vegas, Nevada, and Dave was not actually trying to hire me via an unlabelled link with no explanation. 

It is easy to get tricked when you’re focused on the wrong things, and this very obvious piece of knowledge is what I come to you all with after my hiatus. 

Last year was the year of the spiders, and this year will not be the one of phish (even the band, sorry). Last year I was bitten every which way, and this year I will not be tricked. 

My apartment was infested with spiders for the majority of the summer and like all good writers, I took this as a sign. I would wake up every day with fear in my chest and sure enough, there’d be two near my bed and three in the kitchen sink. I would listen to a rap song to exaggerate my confidence, I would cry a little bit, and then I would kill them. Despite months of anointing my door frames with peppermint oil and spraying my poorly ventilated bedroom with plumes of Raid (this bottle was confiscated from me by a visitor), they kept appearing. 

I almost swallowed a bloated earwig that climbed into my reusable straw. I got bit by a tick the month after.

It got to the point where I was looking over my shoulder in my own house. I had specters everywhere, eight-eye beasts watching me shower and sleep and read and talk at my computer. My audience was omnipresent and malevolent, waiting for opportunities to bite and space to curl up under my pillows.

This is how my life has felt over the past year or so, and much of it is my fault. I am thinking about too many of You — the spiders and the phish, but also the beloved ladybugs and grasshoppers. I haven’t been able to truly listen, to new music or to my own voice as a writer, in a long time. I’m in the process of re-tuning my ears.  

May I present the updated blog site as well as two reviews of new releases I wrote about The Lumineers’ “Automatic” (not very good)  and Bon Iver’s “SABLE, fABLE” (I rocked with it). 

I’ve got some good music up my sleeve and perhaps even an interview. But for now, I hope this will suffice.
Rocka out,

Ally