Season 8 Goals And Dreams Blog 23: Cousin Simple+ Nimba & Lexi

 Cousin Simple + Nimba & Lexi

Cousin Simple has been around since 2017, my junior year of high school (Ewww). In those 8 years, my cousin Lexi has never been to a show! On Saturday, September 6th, 2025, Cousin Simple was playing at Ace Of Cups again. I texted Mom to ask if she had gotten tickets. When she told me that she had, she informed me that Nimba and Lexi were also coming!

At 6:00 p.m., Paige and I walked to a local restaurant called Hound Dogs Pizza. Mom and Dad were already there with one of Aunt Shana’s best friends, Angie, and her sister Heather. When Nimba and Lexi arrived, we all greeted them, and then we ordered our food. About an hour later, after we had finished, we walked to Ace Of Cups, which was not too far away. 

Now, Cousin Simple is releasing their Newest EP over the course of the rest of the year. The first song on this new EP is called 011, it's about pickleball, and it was released at the beginning of the summer. The night before this show, they released the second song, Back In Style. While this Ace of Cups show was headlined by another band, Cousin Simple used it as their Back in Style release show. 

Almost as soon as we walked in, I ran into my music teacher from OLP, who I referred to in my books as Mrs. Millington. I haven’t mentioned Mrs. Millington by name in Rules for a Greattastic Life, though I have run into her a lot over the last few years. A big reason for that is because she married a good friend of my public speaking mentor, Dr. Brooks, and she lives relatively close to my parents. After we talked about Paige and my wedding plans, we talked about the engagement of my friend and former classmate Anna, and the three pregnancies from my class that have happened this year. “This is so strange for me,” she said, “I've known you all since you were like five or six, and now you’re off getting married and having babies!”

After we talked to the other family and friends of Cousin Simple, the band got on stage and started to play. Now, in the installment Ace Of Cups 2: PTJ, I said that Mitch Whittaker, a member of the band from the very beginning, left the band at the end of summer 2024, to go to school in Chicago to be an optometrist. Over this last summer, however, Mitch appeared in the music video for 011 and has played with the band a handful of times. I bring this up because he played with them at this show.

As I watched him play with the band, I thought back on Mrs. Millington‘s nostalgia for myself, Anna, and our three other classmates, and I looked over at Lexi. Lexi was the first baby that I ever held, and I’m so proud of how far she’s come, especially over this very difficult year for our family. I’m glad that she finally got to see Cousin Simple after eight years!

Have a Greattastic day and be safe!

J. Mitchie Ulibarri

Season 8 Goals And Dreams Blog 22: Pokémon

 Pokémon

On Friday, August 22nd, 2025, one of Paige’s childhood friends, let's call her Miranda, texted her and asked if she wanted to hang out that night. While that night didn’t work out, they scheduled a hangout for the following Friday. Not wanting to intrude, I reached out to my friend Clo and asked her if she wanted to hang out.

Now, for her own personal reasons, Clo moved in with her grandma a few months back. At 6:30, on August 29th, I left the apartment, got some bubble tea, and arrived at Clo’s grandma’s house around 7:15. What I thought was going to happen was, we would drink our Boba, maybe go on a walk, and talk about an installment I want Clo to write about her experiences as an autistic woman. Clo had other ideas.

“So,” Clo explained almost as soon as I was inside, “over the last year or so, I have been collecting a group of other autistics-”

“We’re not Pokémon,” I interrupted.

She laughed and continued, “I really think you’ll like them.”

Always wanting to meet new people, I agreed to go out. Before we left, Clo gave me an extra pair of noise-canceling headphones for me to keep. Clo’s grandma lives in an area that I am not used to, so Clo drove my car to where we were going. After driving for about 15 minutes, I asked where we were going, and she replied, “The Convention Center.” 

After we parked, we walked up to the convention center, and the door was locked. Someone saw us, opened the door, and dramatically hugged and greeted us as if she’d known us for years. It wasn’t until we walked away from her that I realized we had snuck in. As we walked around, I saw a ton of people cosplaying as comic book, movie, and anime characters. I do, in fact, consider myself a nerd, but I have never been a cosplayer, so while walking into that world was a bit overwhelming, I definitely had fun.

Clo introduced me to her friends. There were about 10 of them, and we spent the rest of the night wandering around, and it was so overstimulating that I can't remember all of their names. But that’s kinda the point… they didn't care. Now major disclaimer: What I am about to write is NOT a dig on any of my friends or family. I would say that, generally speaking, I’m a very confident person. But I have cultivated that confidence, over the course of my life, as a way to help mask my autism. I work at a school for kids with autism that I went to as a kid, and I'm very comfortable around Paige (I mean, I ought to be, I'm marrying her). My point is, I don't mask my autism as much as I used to.

I love being confident, and it's a huge part of who I am. But because it is so tied to my mask, it can get tiring being the most outgoing, confident person in the room all the time. In almost every relationship, there are expectations, and that's not a bad thing. But the beauty of Clo and my friendship is that because she is autistic, and she understands masking, she has no expectations about me doing it! I don’t have to be overly confident all the time when we hang out. After we left the Convention Center, I thought about my Pokémon joke. I realized that in the Autism community, generally speaking, friends are like Pokémon. Because we crave connection, there is this desperate desire to “Catch ‘em all,” and sometimes it’s really exhausting. I’m thankful that Clo introduced me to a group of friends that understand how that feels and were very accepting because of that.

Have a Greattastic day and be safe!

J. Mitchie Ulibarri

Season 8 Goals And Dreams Blog 21: Mitchmas (28) Part 2: Lost At Deer Creek

 Mitchmas (28) Part 2: Lost At Deer Creek

Now, as you know, I usually go on a Mitchmas trip with my “sisters,” the weekend after my birthday.  Arden has always been the planner for group outings, but in her happily ever after with Marshall, she has retired from that role. While I am going to start planning things for the group, even though Arden arguably gave me enough warning, I was not prepared.

On Saturday, August 23, 2025, at 1:00 pm, I went to Noah's house and, after picking him up, we drove to my old Kroger. After being stopped by at least 5 of my old coworkers, we finally got all of our snacks and were on our way. Now, a couple years ago, Noah and I went canoeing together, which in and of itself is a very funny story that I would like to tell at some point in the future. We drove from Kroger all the way to Trapper John’s in Grove City, which is just south of Columbus. 

We pulled up to Trapper John’s at around 3:00. When we walked into the welcome center, there was a group of employees playing cards. “We would like to rent a canoe, please,” I said.

“Unfortunately,” an employee said, “the river is too low, so there are no more groups going out today.”

“Well, that was a bust,” Noah said as we walked back to my car. I agreed. Despite that, we were both determined not to waste the day.

Deer Creek State Park is about an hour and a half away from Columbus, and another 20 minutes or so from Trapper John’s. We were already in our bathing suits, so we decided to go to Deer Creek Beach. We got to Deer Creek at 4:00. The State Park has a ton of trails and campgrounds, on top of having the beach. It is no surprise then that I got lost!

After another hour of driving around and a very sarcastic camper who told me, “Maybe you should follow the signs,” (which I would have done if I had seen them), we finally found the beach, and we proceeded to have an amazing day!

Like I said, usually my sisters and I do something to celebrate Mitchmas. While I am currently looking for something for us to do when all of our busy schedules line up, again, as Noah and I had our fun beach day, I realized I want to expand my Mitchmas celebrations. I love the Andersons, and I love spending my birthdays with them. But at the same time, we don't live next-door to each other anymore, and I have more friends than just them. I said in part 1 that my birthday has become more about celebrating with my friends and family than being narratively important to my overall life story. I would like to expand that to more friends in the coming years!

Have a Greattastic day and be safe!

J. Mitchie Ulibarri

Season 8 Goals And Dreams Blog 20: Mitchmas (28) Part 1: The People In Your Corner

 Mitchmas (28) Part 1: The People In Your Corner

I woke up on my 28th birthday, at 6:00 a.m. After greeting our cat Charlie and saying good morning to Paige, I got ready for work. As I walked out of our apartment, I opened the Starbucks app and ordered my summer drink (a vanilla sweet cream cold brew). Usually, I get a Grande, but because it was free, I got a Venti. When I got to work, I got out of my car and pulled up the time clock app on my phone, so that I could clock in as soon as I was in the building. I put my coffee on the top of my car, where I always do, but because it was a bigger size, it was a little more weight than I was used to, and I didn’t balance it right. As my coffee poured down my car, a coworker yelled, “Merry Mitchmas!”

I picked Paige up from work at 4:15, and when she saw my back car window, mocking me, she laughed and bought me some replacement coffee. At around 5:45, Paige and I got dressed up and drove down to Barnes & Noble. Now, because I do so much writing, I can't read anymore. What I mean is, if I'm reading something that I personally have not written, I feel like I'm being lazy because I “should” be editing. When I was a kid, my neighbor Greg got me into Harry Potter, but Goblet of Fire was too long and a little too political for my third-grade self to wrap his head around. When Paige and I started dating and I told her I only got through year three (the third book), she convinced me to try again, and by October of ‘23, I had listened to all seven on Libby. Ever since then, I have listened to countless books in the car, on my way to and from work. Despite this, I do want to start getting books that I've read in physical copies to build a collection.

Paige ended up getting me two books that I've read before. All Good People Here, By Ashley Flowers, and Dracula. What's really cool about my Dracula book is, Barnes & Noble has a line of specialty prints of books called Barnes & Noble exclusives, and they can only be described as bible style bindings. They're huge books and they're very ornate. Barnes & Noble’s Dracula is a bright red, and the edge of the pages are lined with black.

Another bible-style binding that they have, though it's not necessarily a Barnes and Noble exclusive, is Les Mis. Everyone who was cast in the 2012 adaptation (Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway, Eddie Redmayne, etc.) has a theater background, except for Russell Crowe. So while his singing in the movie isn't terrible, in comparison to everyone else, it's not great. While I was trying to decide what bible-style book I was going to get, a couple of guys walked in and made comments about how cool these books looked, and I laughed at a couple of their jokes. They saw Les Mis, and one guy said to the other, “Does this sing if you open it?”

Before I could stop myself, I said, “Yeah, but it's just Russell Crowe!” Instant best friends.

After we bought the books and a candle, we went to Bravo, which was in the same parking lot as the Barnes & Noble. Noah and the rest of my family were in attendance. After dinner, we went back to my parents’ house, and the boys went back to Ryan's apartment to get his new cat, Alfie. I opened presents, thanked everyone, had ice cream cake, tried to get our family cat Sammie used to Alfie, and just enjoyed everyone's company. 

Since Mitchmas (24), I have done multiple part stories about my birthday. Part 1 is almost always this exact installment. It's about my family going to dinner with Noah (and in later years, Paige), and going to my parents’ house afterwards. While this installment is in and of itself repetitive, over the years, the lesson has become more concentrated. Let me explain.

A few weeks before my family and Noah went to dinner in part one of Mitchmas (24), I broke up with my crazy ex-girlfriend, and during the dinner, I was in the middle of getting a restraining order. The entirety of Mitchmas (25) was built around a date that I had right before my birthday, that bled into the celebrations, and that led my ”sisters” to convince me to work on myself before I started dating again. Since both of those examples are about failed relationships, it is not lost on me that being in a stable relationship with Paige is the reason for the last three Mitchmaes being calm. But my point is, Mitchmas has become less connected to my overarching life story and more about celebrating with friends and family. And honestly, isn't that what it's all about?

To Be Continued…

Season 8 Goals And Dreams Blog 19: The Other Side Of Fear

 The Other Side Of Fear

After we got off the plane, Dad and Josh (who had driven down) picked us up, and we went to my cousin Paige’s house to celebrate my Grandma’s birthday. At that party, we met her second child, Piper. After that, we drove down to Cocoa Beach for a week. During that week, we spent a lot of time swimming in the ocean and visited a tiki bar on the pier a few times. One night while walking back from that pier, Dad and I saw a lady sitting in the ocean, but it was pitch black… she was either a mermaid or a demon… not sure which.

When our week was up, we returned to Orlando and stayed in a hotel there. Paige and I only stayed for two days because I had to return to get ready for school. On our second-to-last day, after Mass, my family dropped us off at a Starbucks. Paige attended middle school with a boy named Jack. Jack moved down to Orlando some time ago to work at Disney World as a roller coaster engineer. Because he works for the company, he’s able to get up to three people in for free. After Jack picked us up from the Starbucks, we went to Hollywood Studios. One of the first rides we did was the Tower of Terror.

Now, I'm not a big roller coaster guy. One of my biggest fears, in fact, is heights. However, Jack explained how that coaster works explicitly, and that there is some forced perspective that makes it appear taller than it actually is. Despite that, the ride in and of itself was terrifying. We spent a few more hours at Hollywood Studios before park-hopping to Epcot. Upon entering the park, Jack said, “We need to go on the Guardians of the Galaxy ride.”

Paige and I were both excited about that, but we kept pushing it back. For those who are unfamiliar with Epcot, the concept is that it is an educational theme park. One of its main attractions is the World Showcase featuring 11 countries. While each is relatively realistic, parts of each country have connections to Disney. We ended up “drinking around the world,” and around 7:30, we finally got in line for the Guardians of the Galaxy ride.

We were only in line for about 20 minutes before the ride shut down. Some people in the front of the line started to leave, but at Jack’s suggestion, we decided to wait. The park closed at 9, and by 8:45, the ride was still not back up. None of us communicated this, but we were all obviously thinking, if it doesn’t open in another minute or so, we should just call it a day. Almost as soon as we collectively had that thought, the ride reopened. And let me tell you, it was the best ride of the day! The best way to describe it is like surfing through space with 80s music!

Will Smith has a quote, “The best things in life are on the other side of fear.” The context of that quote is that he went skydiving, and it was the most “blissful experience” once he was out of the plane (even though he was terrified up until that point). As Paige, Jack, and I exited the park, I said, “I think I got over my fear of roller coasters today.”

“I mean,” Jack said, “these are Disney coasters. They aren’t the most intense.” He’s not wrong. But roller coasters are not something I would usually spend a day doing (even if they are at Disney). I'm not saying that I’m going to start riding all these really intense roller coasters. Still, if I hadn’t gotten over my fear and gone on the Tower of Terror, I wouldn’t have been able to experience all the other fun roller coasters that day, especially the Guardians one at the end.

Have A Greattastic Day and Be Safe

J. Mitchie Ulibarri

Season 8 Goals And Dreams Blog 18: Plane Old Friends

 Plane Old Friends

For those of you who aren’t reading and/or listening to this live, this installment is one of five that came out on Saturday, August 16, 2025 (Give Me Fireworks Or Give Me Death 2 Parts 1 & 2, Giving Hamilton, this installment, and The Other Side Of Fear). There’s a reason for this. I have been on summer vacation since the end of June, and without having to go to work every day, I kind of lost track of any sense of routine. School officially starts back up on Monday, so I decided to do a summer dump.

On Saturday, July 26, 2025, at around 5:00 a.m. Paige and I finished packing up, said goodbye to our cat, Charlie, grabbed some stuff from her parents’ house, and got coffee. We then went to my parents' house and waited with Mom until it was time to Lyft to the airport for our 10 o’clock flight to Orlando.

Now, no matter what, I always write on the plane. On the day of the flight, I was already planning on doing the summer dump, but I had only written Give Me Fireworks Or Give Me Death 2 Part 1. Since I didn’t want to dig through my bag and get on my computer, I created the document for part two on my phone and wrote the first paragraph while waiting for Ryan and Luke to arrive. While I’ve described the covers for Greattastic Adventures 1 and 2, I don’t think I’ve ever focused on the cover of my second book, Once In A Lifetime: A Song For Sam. On the front cover, there is an image of S.M. and me above the title. I chose that image because it’s the image that people who know us generally think of when they think about me and S.M. The back cover is an image of Elizabeth that her sister thought would be nice. Ryan wrote some of the chapters in Greattastic Adventures 2 (specifically the ones about Cousin Simple). While the boys have read parts of my books and most of my blogs, they haven’t read all the way through the books. Ryan’s authorship encouraged them to do so.

None of our seats were together. Paige sat toward the front of the plane, and while I could see the rest of my family, none of us were in the same row. Luke and I were the closest. I had an aisle seat, and he had the window seat, the row behind me. After we had boarded, a group of ladies who were probably in their 60s boarded. They were clearly on a girls' trip. I noticed that one of these ladies, who sat a few rows diagonal from me, was missing one hand. Two of these ladies were in my row. 

Once we were in the air, I pulled my tray table down and opened my computer to continue working on Give Me Fireworks Or Give Me Death 2 Part 2. But since it hadn’t been connected to Wi-Fi since my parents’ house, the document that I created and started working on at the airport didn’t exist on my computer. “Well,” I said out loud, but mostly to myself, “I guess I’m actually not going to write.” 

“What do you write?” The lady in the middle seat asked. 

Once I (briefly) explained the books and this series, the lady in the window seat said, “Oh my gosh, our sister also wrote a book! It’s about her life with only one hand.”

We continued talking, and I learned a few things about them. 

1. They were on their way to Florida for a Baptism.  

2. The one in the window seat lives relatively close to Paige and I. 

3. While the two sitting with me were biologically related, most of the group are “sisters” in the same way the Andersons are mine. As the conversation continued bouncing back and forth, I slowly explained the concept of all the books. Specifically, I spent a lot of time on Once In A Lifetime.

At some point during that part of the conversation, I turned around in my seat to stretch and saw Luke reading his copy of Once In A Lifetime. Now, what actually happened was that my brother, who was coincidentally reading my book, heard me talking about the same book, and was completely prepared when I snatched it out of his hand. This is what my new friends saw: a nearly 28-year-old author turn around, and with way too much confidence, pluck a book out of a random stranger's hands, and it just happened to be his own!

When they recognized the third-grade version of me on this cover, I could practically hear their inner voices screaming, How famous is this guy? Obviously, after I played it up just a little bit, I explained our relationship. As we got off the plane, we exchanged numbers and made plans to meet up when we were all back in town.

To Be Continued…

Season 8 Goals And Dreams Blog 17: Giving Hamilton

 Giving Hamilton

Back in 2022, Hamilton came to Columbus. I went with Kid, Marshall, and his Granny (Wait For It). While Paige did in fact want to go then, at the last minute, that plan fell through. Back in March of 2025, after I picked Paige up from work one day, I saw on Facebook that it would be coming back to town in July. I immediately bought two tickets for July 9th. I chose that date since I was already planning to propose on May 9th, and the show could count as a two-month “engage-iversary” gift. This gift became even more poignant when Paige’s exact quote when she  saw “The scroll of proposal” was “It’s giving Hamilton.”

As I said in the previous installment, on the 4th of July, my car broke down. From that Friday (the 4th) to Wednesday (the 9th), I used Veo bikes to get around. On the 9th, Paige had a girl brunch with both of our moms and went shopping with her mom for my family's upcoming Florida trip. Meanwhile, I was at the library working on a writing project that I will not disclose at this time. 

Around 5:30, I got on the Veo bike that I rode to the library. I rode back to Summit Crest Apartments and started getting ready. Then Luke and Josh brought my car back after Dad‘s car guy had fixed it. 

The show started at 7:30, and Paige and I were in the Ohio theater by 7:15. Now, even though Paige had not seen the musical when it came to town, she has seen it on Disney+. I don’t wanna act like I wasn’t excited to see it again. Lynn Manuel Miranda is a genius; I’m convinced he’s this century's Shakespeare. But writing Rules for a Greattastic Life has had at least one negative impact on my psyche.

I don’t like to repeat an experience more than once. Obviously, there are traditions that I am okay with (the Red White & Boom party, Mitchmas, Holidays, etc), but typically with those, there are some new experiences that (usually) happen. Hamilton is a musical. And a very popular one at that. I’ve already written an installment about Hamilton. It would be redundant to do a second because the play will never change (outside of the cast itself).

 Boy, was I wrong! For legal reasons, I don’t think I can actually describe to you what happened. And as I previously stated (repeating it again as a disclaimer for what I’m about to say), I love Lynn Manuel Miranda. But this cast is so much better than the cast I saw back in 2022, and in some very specific ways (please don’t kill me), the original. I think the reason is because now that it’s on Disney+ and practically everyone has seen it, you think you know what to expect going into it, and when this cast changes up a few tiny little things, it elevates the entire experience! I guess what I’ve learned is, don’t go into any situation expecting to know how it’s going to “play” out. You could be surprised!

Have A Greattastic Day and Be Safe!

J. Mitchie Ulibarri