My therapist has discharged me, because I’m keeping anxiety at bay and don’t need therapy anymore. As I’ve said, I didn’t have any major trauma to work through, no big issues that I feel like I need to hash out. While I feel like the majority of the improvement came because of the meds, she did give me some helpful guidance and direction, and was generally a kind, engaged listener while I was still having some difficulty. She says I’m welcome to make an appointment with her again in the future if I feel like I need to.
I never really did talk about gender identity stuff much with her. It was sort of peripheral to other things. It’s not the source or a trigger of my anxiety, and it’s not something I feel like I need help figuring out at this point. Yes, things like Rubio delaying and vandalizing my passport card, and being indirectly accused of “nihilistic violent extremism” (along with Teen Vogue, the Girl Scouts, several churches and teachers’ associations and medical associations) got to me. But shit like that would bother me anyway simply because I am a decent human being.
Also behind me: my yearly performance review. It went very well as always, but in previous years it’s always been something I found myself worrying about. This year, I didn’t notice any particular stress leading up to it, but it still felt good to get it done. I was amused and gratified to find out that my supervisor was in the mood to spill a little tea, and he doesn’t really like the format we’re using either. It’s probably better suited to a larger company with more turnover. But we make it work. Now I’m just hoping for a nice raise.
Bandcamp might be in trouble. I haven’t seen this reported anywhere else yet, but the source does seem trustworthy. Laying off a majority of the engineers — after the 50% layoffs Songtradr already did when they completed their acquisition in 2023 — does not bode well at all.
That said, the “RIP Bandcamp” thread at KVR is now 4 years and two acquisitions old, so maybe it’ll make it through this too. Maybe they’re preparing to sell it off to someone else, and maybe that someone else will be better (I won’t hold my breath) but I’m not going to assume it’s all going to go away and start the hunt for an alternative. Still, if you have bought music there, it might be a good idea to make sure to download it just in case.