22DoubleTake

#22DoubleTake is a tag originating from the Three Fat Readers youtube channel. I don't see why I'd ever vlog if I can blog instead, so here's my 2022 retrospective, picking out two favorites in each category:

1. 2 Most Used Decks in 2022 (Tarot or Oracle)

I spent a lot of time with decks I studied but it didn't exactly translate into using them for readings. Whenever I was discouraged or frustrated with any of the focus decks, I found myself reaching for the Crow Tarot, my kind of most neutral RWS (aside from the old yellow box RWS itself). The art style is a little busy and I don't really love-love it, but my trimmed version is very comforting to handle and none of the cards really irk me too much to grab my attention away from the reading itself. So kind of – favorite by being inoffensive/unobtrusive.

Other than that it's hard to say, it could be that I attained a pretty long streak with the Thoth, when I was pulling a card twice a day along with my Stoic Journal entries? I jumped betweem decks a lot, trying to engage with my collection while bringing in as little as possible.

2. 2 Fave New Decks from 2022 (Tarot or Oracle)

I brought in so few and yet it's difficult to choose – what makes a favorite? Do I automatically disqualify the ones that have a paper/finish I don't like? Do they have to be most-used or just most exciting to get? I'll go with the Playful Heart, because it was both my first deck of the year, opened when spring was coming in, really matching the mood, and my first indie in a long long while. It was such a fun time, reading with it on the balcony, in the sun, making my inner child happy using the colorful notebook I made for it. Maybe I'll swing back around to it next spring/summer.

The second fave would be the Kawaii tarot because it was a surprise from my partner. As stated in the previous post I didn't really spend much time with it, but it still gave me the fuzziest feelings. Haven't read much with it, but I flip through it occasionally and have a good time just taking in the images.

3. 2 Fave Books from 2022

There were two books I found really hard to put down. “Piranesi” by Susanna Clarke – I read it at least three times. It's so cool – philosophically, linguistically. Very re-readable. The second one would be “Station Eleven” by Emily St. John Mandel. I did re-read it but it didn't quite compare to reading it for the first time. If you have it on your TBR – savor it!

4. 2 Fave Movies or TV Series you watched in 2022

I am so bad at movies and tv. Don't have the focus. But I did jump on the Our Flag Means Death bandwagon. What's not to love about a gay pirate comedy show? Excited for the second season, I read way too many fics speculating how the hell they're going to get out of this one. Interested to see what canon has in store. And screw it – Knives Out 2. Yeah, it only just came out, but I can appreciate a movie that makes 2+ hours go by in a flash. Lots of fun, great actors, great costuming and cinematography, would recommend.

5. 2 Craft/Hobby Related from 2022

I am so proud of myself for my art explosion. I finished two sketchbooks – one thick, one thin. I've started two others. I've been very experimental with my media. Tried gel printing, drawing with dip pens, playing around with acrylic inks, pencil colors, collage. Bookbinding tarot study journals. I think it came about via not-creating-for-content. As in: I wasn't at all times thinking about needing to feed my art blog something, because I stopped posting on it at all. And I was free to just follow anything I was curious about, and do it as badly as I wanted.

Also pretty satisfied with my expanded fiction intake. Dropped off a bit towards the end of the year there, but definitely read more original stories this year than I had in a long while. Happy to have fed my brain like this.

6. 2 Splurges from 2022

Gods, the biggest purchase was the bass guitar. It's entry-level so I suppose the price was reasonable, and it's very pretty. The best thing about it was jamming with my partner, but ultimately it's very stressful for now and I haven't picked it up much since that first month. Kind of feels like... I have to make the most of it to justify the expense, and so it paralyzes me. I'm sure I'll get over it and approach it more lightly some time in the future. It also doesn't help that I can't just pick it up and practice – there's always the plugging in of stuff that's not permanently set up just ready and waiting.

As I was personally on a low-buy, the second biggest splurge that could be considered “mine” is a piece of furniture. One of those square-cubbies-bookshelves that lives near my desk, so that I can keep at least some art supplies out in the open/close to hand. Definitely helped with the art explosion! And with more fiction book purchases I had to shuffle some other shelves around and my collection of in-use tarot decks has also found a home there. Trying to whittle down the “active” decks to a number that will fit in only one of the cubbies, to reclaim some space.

7. 2 Things most excited for in 2023

I'm not sure. Hard to really plan for anything with Covid still going on. I'm excited not to have a rule-heavy year-long project anymore, let's go with that. (My year-long project is going to be very simple!)

And maybe... moving to a better apartment? Not looking forward to the process, but hoping for a good result. This place is a little too small for all our interests, it would be nice to spread out a bit. Also there's like zero insulation and the windows are single-pane? I didn't know that was a thing anymore. Always fighting condensation and mold is killing my autumn and winter vibes. New place by next cold season would indeed be very exciting!

I'm going to add: 2 things most excited about from 2022:

That's it! This is the last post of this year, so here's hoping 2023 brings us all more joy and healing.