“You like horror movies?” I heard when I told a few old friends that I now review horror movies for a podcast and YouTube channel. To my newer friends and coworkers, not a shock at all. They know me as the goth chick who loves horror. The people in my life who knew me back when, not so much.

Do you ever wish you could create an avatar version of yourself only to play out normal everyday things on a computer or game console? Like going to work, cooking and cleaning, making new friends and WooHooing with romantic interests? Then The Sims is the game for you.

I’m not sure exactly what stage I’m in, but here I am. It’s a weight, like a weighted blanket over my whole body. It’s a grey looming puffy cloud full of rain. It’s the incessant buzzing of electricity in the background somewhere. It’s the base note of a cello resonating in my core.

We didn’t know it at the time of the breakup, but we both realized afterwards that we should have broken up months -if not years- prior. When I say I was in a toxic relationship, I was part of that toxicity.