Since the last Discerning Deviant entry, way too long ago, I have been going through a whirlwind of major life changes. It’s all been very exciting but it’s also been extremely distracting. I’ve been way off track on my writing projects, including the articles I’ve been working on for Discerning Deviant, while I try to tie together all the crazy plot threads that have entered my life.

The biggest thing I’m dealing with right now is that this Spring I’ll be relocating from Atlanta to New York City. This is an extremely daunting transition for me, having spent all my life living in the south. I’ve spent the last dozen years in Atlanta and there are numerous people and places that I love here that I’m going to miss.

It’s long past time for me to move on, though. I’m an adventurer at heart. While that doesn’t have to mean roaming geographically for me, I’ve not been satisfied with what Atlanta has had to offer in terms of opportunities for growth for quite some time. That’s why I’ve been planning my Ephemeral Journey (in which I intend to spend 2018 traveling all over the country living in a van for a year), but when it was clear that neither my housemate nor I felt especially inclined to renew our lease in the house we’re currently living in, it seemed like a good time to take up an old friend’s offer to come stay with him a while in NYC.

I only plan to be there about eight months before heading off for my Ephemeral Journey, but I’m eager to spend a fair bit of time immersing myself in a new city. Not just any city, either, but the most populous and legendary city in America. While I’ll be staying with one of my oldest friends, and one of my loves will be a borough away, pretty much everything else about living in New York will be a fresh experience for me. I am giddy with anticipation.

That’s not the only big news in my life, however. I was also recently invited to be a presenter at Frolicon, a convention in Atlanta that is a fantastic mashup of geek culture and alternative sexuality. While Frolicon caters more to the kinky crowd, they’ve been growing their selection of polyamory related content and I’m happy to throw my hat into the ring as a presenter on not one, not two, but three panels relating to ethical non-monogamy.

I don’t think I could have asked for more fortuitous timing. One of the things I intend to do on my Ephemeral Journey is host talks about polyamory in any city that I can find a venue in, because there’s nothing I love talking about more than ethical non-monogamy, particularly the polyamory flavor. However, I’ve engaged in many panels about ethical non-monogamy as a participating audience member, but I’ve never actually hosted one before. Now, on a silver platter, I’ve been handed an opportunity to get my feet wet at the convention I have the most familiarity with (this will be my 10th year attending) and to boot it will sort of make Frolicon my goodbye party since it will be the last Atlanta sees of me for an indefinite period of time.

Those are the two main things that have been occupying my time and attention of late, so I wanted to give my readers a heads up about what’s been going on to stall Discerning Deviant updates lately. I’ve joined the “habit-building and productivity app” Habitica in the interest of getting my shit together so that I’ll stop letting my writing time get crowded out by all the other things going.

If nothing else I see at least a few major articles coming out of all the research and preparation I’ll be doing for my Frolicon panels. Then when I get to New York and start trying to find my way around the various communities of personal interest to me there I’ll be getting plenty of inspiring stimulation. Not that I lack things to write about now…I have a whole list of things I want to write about…but writing for me requires a mental energy and focus that tends to be drained quickly when life feels like a repetitive grind and adventure is one of the best ways to refill that reservoir.

There is a lot of adventure ahead for me, and I can’t wait to share what I discover with you.

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