😻 Living with 3 cats

My partner and I love living with our 3 cats: Xena (adopted in February 2021), Sophie (adopted in October 2022), and Midna (adopted in August 2023). Their presence in our household brings a lot of joy, comfort, and laughter.

🗣️ Staying in touch with family & friends

I was born in California, but I live in Iowa now, so I have to be intentional about staying in touch with loved ones who still in California (or elsewhere). Even though I'm introverted, I try to prioritize keeping in touch with family & friends, and I definitely prefer chatting on the phone to texting!

🦉 Working at KnowledgeOwl

I'm grateful to be able to serve as the Executive Assistant to the CEO & Friend of Felines at KnowledgeOwl, a small team with a big heart. Hoot!

🌲 Trying to overcome lifelong allergies

I've been highly allergic to pollen and many other things for as long as I can remember. Thankfully, there are two things that I believe have helped to reduce the prevalence and intensity of my allergy symptoms:

I first purchased this supplement in July 2023 on a day when I was having a terrible "allergy attack". On that day, I was willing to try almost anything in order to reduce the prevalence of unpleasant allergy attacks. While correlation does not prove causation, it does feel like consistently taking this supplement helps to reduce my allergy symptoms somewhat.

Even though taking the Histamine & Immune supplement seems to help reduce my allergy symptoms, it doesn't completely get rid of them. In early March 2024, aspects of the changing season (increased pollen counts and wind) catalyzed some unpleasant and severe allergy symptoms for the first time since I started taking the Histamine & Immune supplement in July 2023. I searched online for potential long-term solutions, which led me to learn about sublingual immunotherapy allergy drops. They’re basically allergy shots without the shots. I got a prescription from a company called Wyndly (but there are other companies that offer allergy drops) and I’ve been taking the allergy drops every day since 3/18/2024. The drops contain some of the main things I’m allergic to, and the purpose of taking them every day is to gradually condition my body/immune system to stop responding strongly to those allergens. Here's Wyndly's description of how sublingual immunotherapy works: "By routinely exposing your immune system to your allergy triggers, over time, you will become tolerant. This leads to natural, long-lasting relief."

🎮 Enjoying being a Nintendo fan

I got back into (mostly Nintendo) video games in early 2021 after taking a long break from playing video games (more on that here). Now Nintendo Direct presentations feel like how Christmas morning used to feel when I was a kid! 😄

Check out what I'm currently playing here. Also, for more video game content, see the "🎮 Video Games" header on this page.

🎧 Listening to lots of podcasts

I love listening to podcasts for entertainment and education. They've introduced me to a lot of cool people and ideas, and they make doing dishes and other chores more bearable! Here are some of my favorite podcasts.