I'm not sorry for just being me, but if you look past the past you can see...

Hi. Name's Al. Short for Alicia Marie Bernadette Columbia Scholastica McEvoy-Snavely.

In case you hadn't noticed, I was raised Catholic. I'm (mostly) over it.

You should never let all the god parents each get to choose a name for the kid.

I still love Scholastica. Even cooler when an ex-Jesuit gifts you with that name. <3 It's like a license to be extra nerdy, with the Pope's stamp of approval!

I lost both of my grandparents in 2015. I never thought there would be something harder than losing custody of my kids. The Universe proved me wrong. They more or less raised me. Everything good in me came from them and growing up with my two great grandmas.

Losing them is part of the reason why I find myself working as a personal care aide in an assisted living facility, specifically the memory care unit. And part of the reason I occasionally find myself trying to flee back to food service as fast as I can. Too many memories, as well as too many things I wish I had known how to handle more effectively when my grandparents were still alive.

My spousebeast works at the same facility as the head dietary technician/kitchen manager. It makes for interesting dynamics both at work and at home.

I have two boys (okay, men. I'm still in denial). Liam is 19 and going into nursing. He's also a bartender, which doesn't make sense to me. How can you serve alcohol and not be old enough to drink? New Jersey laws, I guess.

Ashe will be 18 soon and is a blacksmith. No, really. He's also building a tiny house for one of his coworkers who is a homeless vet. And raises chickens and ducks.

The spousebeast and I live in The Glass Asylum. We saved each other in improbable ways. Our friend Mark (frequently referenced) basically set up an arranged marriage and freaked out when it just was a hookup. It's just lasted fifteen years. Now he takes all the credit. We're a bi poly kinky household that tends more towards heternorminative monogamy lately...mostly because we're tired at the end of the day and have discovered the addictive power of Munchkin.

If you're along for the ride after all that, welcome aboard!

And, yeah, this is still the theme song hereabouts. Please rise if you feel like it:


Defying Gravity (edit)
from Wicked


Something has changed within me
Something is not the same
I'm through with playing by the rules
Of someone else's game
Too late for second-guessing
Too late to go back to sleep
It's time to trust my instincts
Close my eyes and leap

It's time to try
Defying gravity
I think I'll try
Defying gravity
And you can't pull me down...

I'm through accepting limits
'Cuz someone says they're so
Some things I cannot change
But 'till I try, I'll never know
Too long I've been afraid of
Losing love - I guess I've lost
Well, if that's love
It comes at much too high a cost

I'd sooner buy
Defying gravity
Kiss me goodbye
I'm defying gravity
And you can't pull me down...

So if you care to find me
Look to the western sky
As someone told me lately -
"Ev'ryone deserves the chance to fly"
And if I'm flying solo
At least I'm flying free
To those who'd ground me
Take a message back from me -

Tell them how I
Am defying gravity!
I'm flying high
Defying gravity!
And soon I'll match them in renown
And nobody in all of Oz
No wizard that there is or was
Is ever gonna bring me down!


"The only things you find in the middle of the road are yellow stripes and dead armadillos." Steve Fisher

"Nothing provokes speculation more than a woman enjoying herself." L.M. Alcott

"Live hard, work hard, play hard." KRS

"Sometimes life takes you where you weren't expecting to go." Firefly

"I think there's a lot to be said for contentment." Billy Joel

"Half of life is fucking up. The other half is dealing with it." Henry Rollins

"No shame, no guilt, no day but today. That is how we live in the Glass Asylum." KRS

"Tramps like us, we were born to run." Bruce Springsteen

"If I'm the voice of reason, something is horribly wrong." Stephanie Miller

Any more questions? RTFJ.