Season 9 The Age Of Weddings Blog 4: Swimmer’s Ear Update 2

 Swimmer’s Ear Update 2

Growing up, I was notorious for getting ear infections. I probably had one every couple of months, and it got so bad that I needed to get tubes put in 3 times. In 2019, my immediate family and my cousin’s family, the Mitreys, went on a vacation to Hatteras, North Carolina. At one point, Ryan, Nicholas, Josh, and I had a chicken fight. Nicholas and I were the tops, and as we were roughhousing, Nicholas grabbed my head and slammed it into the water, right ear first. After that, I had complications with my right ear whenever I went into the water.

In the summer of 2022, my family went on a trip to the Mitrey's Lake House in Norris Lake, Tennessee. On the first day, I went tubing and fell off the tube. A wave crashed on the right side of my head, and you guessed it, my ear filled up with water. I ended up getting an ear infection, and I was miserable the entire week. Everything I have just explained was in the original Swimmer's Ear installment.

In November 2023, I had surgery with the doctor who had given me tubes when I was a kid because it turned out the tubes were the reason my eardrum was weak enough to explode in the first place. For all of 2024, in the first half of 2025, my check-ups were normal.

Around the time Paige and I got engaged, my ear felt very clogged up. My sister-in-law (is she my sister-in-law?… she’s my brother-in-law’s long-term girlfriend… not the point… anyways…), my sister-in-law, Yvanna, who is in PA school, checked my ear out, and there was an unnatural amount of earwax and fluid in there. I set up an appointment with Dr. Blaze, and he cleared my ear and scheduled another check-up. 

On Tuesday, January 20, 2026, I walked into Dr. Blaze‘s office at 7:30 am for my 7:45 appointment. I got checked in, Dr. Blaze checked me out, I opted for a hearing test (just to be safe), and then Dr. Blaze told me, “Well, everything‘s looking good. I don’t think you’ll need to see me anymore!” 

As I turned on my car and pulled out of the parking lot on my way to work, I looked at his office in my rearview mirror. I knew eventually my ear would be fine enough that I wouldn’t have to see Dr. Blaze again, but I genuinely didn't think I would do a second Swimmer Ear Update. Swimmers Ear Update 1 was necessary because the story that I followed from the original Swimmers Ear was my breakup with Gabby, so I had to go back and explain, “hey, my ear is still messed up,” before I wrote the installment about the surgery (Out Of My Mind). This epilogue, from a narrative perspective, isn’t necessary; it is implied by Out Of My Mind.

I still wrote this installment because I feel like it fits the theme of this season very well. 2019, the same year that my ear busted the first time, was when I started Rules for a Greattastic Life. In other words, even though I didn’t mention it until season 5, it has been something that I’ve been dealing with my entire young adult life, and I think that it’s fitting that this all wrapped up right before I transition into married life. 

Have a Greattastic day and be safe.

J. Mitchie Ulibarri, SBT

Season 9 The Age Of Weddings Blog 3: Best Man

 Best Man

Paige and I bought our books from Barnes and Noble and walked to the car. Once the car was on, I pulled up detections to Ryan’s apartment. As I began to drive, I thought back to last November. On Saturday, November 22, 2025, Paige and I got up and got ready for a pretty big day. First, we were going to meet with the priest, who is going to marry us, Father David, and then we were going to go down to Cincinnati for a Friendsgiving with my “sisters” (False Safety or Right Where We Left Off (Refresher)). 

This was the first meeting we had with Fr. David, so it was mostly just him getting to know us as a couple and getting some preliminary information about the wedding. “Who are the Best Man and Maid of Honor going to be?” he asked during the meeting.

Now, there have been many different iterations of what we thought our wedding would/should look like. In every single alternate, the only constant was that Ryan was going to be my best man, and her best friend Nicole would be Maid of Honor. We were planning on not telling either of them until we had a solidified date, which didn’t happen until this meeting. On the drive to Cincinnati, Paige and I decided that we would talk to Ryan after my Florida family went home after the holiday.

The next day, Sunday, November 23, at around 4:40 p.m., Paige and I drove to my parents' house, because Pop-pop, Sara, Eva, and Zach were already in town. When we walked into the living room, Ryan was sitting on a couch talking to Pop-pop, who was on another couch.

“Fancy seeing you here!” Pop-pop said to us. We laughed at Pop-pop‘s reference to him and Sara saving Paige and I when we got stuck in Orlando a month prior, and we hugged him. We ended up both sitting down on the couch with Ryan, and he was between us. As Paige and I had been engaged since May, the topic of the wedding came up. Once all the details that we knew about the wedding at the time were discussed, there was about a 15-second break in the conversation. At about second 11, Paige sent me a text, and it pinged my Apple Watch around second 14. It read: Maybe ask him today? At second 15, as I was still trying to process what Paige was saying, Pop-pop asked, “So who’s the best man and the maid of honor?”

I immediately got awkward, I’m pretty sure Paige started laughing, and Ryan started side-eyeing both of us. And that’s how Ryan found out that he was going to be my best man!

Paige and I parked outside of Ryan’s apartment. We walked in, played Blokus, and talked about plans for the wedding and my bachelor party, and I couldn’t help my smile. Ryan is someone who I have always looked up to, despite some weird Cousin Simple insecurities I used to have. I am happy that on Paige and my big day, Ryan will be standing next to me.

Have a Greattastic day and be safe!

J. Mitchie Ulibarri, SBT

Season 9 The Age Of Weddings Blog 2: Date At Barnes & Noble

 Date At Barnes & Noble

My former coworker, Clo, and I had a falling out a couple of years ago, due to her ex. This same ex always made her own birthday a huge deal, and kind of ignored Clo’s. Clo’s birthday is January 16, and last year, Paige and I celebrated Clo's birthday with her, as kind of a way to make up for the fact that I had never celebrated it when she and Lucy were dating (They Grow Up So Fast).

Usually, Clo, Paige, and I do see each other between installments, but between her previous appearance in Pokémon and Christmas, Clo had gone dark. I texted Clo Merry Christmas, and she told me that she is going through a little bit of burnout because she went back to school for engineering! As we continued talking, we made tentative plans to hang out on her birthday, which didn’t exactly pan out.

On Friday, January 16, 2026, I lost track of time after work. See, Paige had been working night shifts basically that entire week, so I got in the habit of staying a little later. Paige called me around 4:45 and asked me when I would be home. I left shortly after and asked her if she wanted me to get any drinks from the store.

When I got to the store, I called her, and we remained on the phone the entire time. At some point during this conversation, she asked, “Well, since things with Clo clearly aren’t going to come together, what do you want to do tonight?”

We went back-and-forth before eventually I suggested, “Why don’t we use some of the Christmas money to go to Barnes & Noble, and then see if Ryan’s available to hang out and talk.” 

Paige liked the idea, so I texted Ryan, picked her up, got a little snack, and then we drove to Barnes & Noble. Now Paige and I are both book nerds. Last year I read 47 books (by this date I was starting my 3rd book for ‘26) and Paige can usually get through a book in a day.  I read most books via a book on tape because if I try reading a physical book that I didn’t write, I feel like I’m being lazy because I should be writing/editing. So the books that I buy are usually ones that I’ve already read to build up my collection physically.

I wanted to write this installment because autistic people are people of habit. Paige and I have lived together for almost 2 years now, and sometimes it’s easy to just spend time with each other at the apartment and get stuck in the habit of counting that as a date. With all the stress of wedding planning, on top of regular life responsibilities, it has been difficult for us… okay fine me… to initiate dates. I’m glad that going into our marriage, we have begun to once again go on dates! 

Have a Greattastic day and be safe!

J. Mitchie Ulibarri, SBT

Season 9 The Age Of Weddings Blog 1: The Age Of Weddings

 The Age Of Weddings

The age of weddings is a term that I came up with early in my adult life, but I first referenced it in the Season 3 Premiere, Hope In Crisis. That installment was my aunt Eva’s wedding, the first wedding installment I wrote. This was the explanation I wrote: “Most people in their life experience something that I call the age of weddings.”  You know, that period of time when all of your friends are getting married. Eva is 27, and I'm about to turn 23. Because we are relatively close in age, and because I'm old enough to really enjoy weddings now, Eva and Zach’s wedding was going to kick off my “age of weddings.” 

Two housekeeping things before we continue. 1. Just as a refresher, I was talking about Eva and Zach’s wedding in the past tense because the wedding that happened was a Zoom wedding since it happened in April 2020. 2. Something that I hadn’t noticed, until I lifted that quote was I’m only going to be a year older than Eva was at her wedding at mine… which is crazy conceptually.

Expanding upon the Age Of Weddings concept a little bit, at the time of Hope In Crisis, I believed that while everyone’s personal Age Of Weddings doesn’t necessarily end with their own wedding, it is the crown jewel of their personal Age Of Weddings. As a result, I have always planned on calling the season that I get married in The Age Of Weddings.

Now, despite there being about 5 years between Eva and Zach’s wedding and Paige and my engagement, my view of weddings didn’t really change. While I like the concept of the Age Of Weddings, its simplicity left me a little ignorant to how complicated wedding planning can be. 

While Paige was/is the definitely more aware of the reality of the situation, I think heading into my proposal, I believed that I was prepared for the shift from Paige's boyfriend to her husband, and I was viewing fiancé life as a kind of an in-between phase, as opposed to an entirely new relationship dynamic. So when the time came for us to actually start planning a wedding in early June, I became very overwhelmed as the reality of wedding planning hit, and as a result, we got very behind with planning.

I stood at the altar, and Paige walked down the aisle. Our priest said, “If anyone objects to this marriage, speak now or forever hold your pe-“ Before he had finished, my ex, who I got a restraining order against, ran through the door.

I woke up with a start at about 3:00 am on Tuesday, January 13, 2026. By this point Paige and I had had a couple of meetings with our parents, and we had a rough outline for the wedding, but it was still not anywhere near where we had initially planned to be with the wedding as close as it is.

I don’t have a real ending to this installment. I am aware that everybody who is planning a wedding is going to feel at least some level of stress, and despite how cliché it is, my anxiety, taking the form of my crazy ex, seems kind of fitting. Nonetheless, I am happy that my friends and family have Paige and my backs, as we start this next chapter! 

Have a Greattastic day and be safe!

J. Mitchie Ulibarri, SBT

Greattastic Life Special Edition: For Papa

    Greattastic Life Special Edition: For Papa

A year ago, my Grandpa, Papa, passed away. At the time of his passing, I had 8 Grandparent figures. I was fortunate to have had that many, but his passing marked my first grandparent who died (not counting great grandparents, obviously). It also marked the first death of my adult life besides a friend of mine that I was able to roll into Once In A Lifetime as an epilogue. I wrote an installment about Papa’s funeral, but in the moment I realized, I didn’t want to document every funeral, because it wouldn’t be as meaningful if I was just describing the funerals, every single time. In the Christmas special, I said that I was having trouble processing Papa and Aunt Shana’s deaths because they are different from the deaths that are depicted in Once In A Lifetime. Because writing Once In A Lifetime helped me process my grief about S.M. and the others, and not wanting to depict every single funeral that happens for the rest of my life, I decided that I would write an installment depicting the lives of each person who dies from this point on. As kind of a way to commemorate who they were before me.

Jack Savage was born on March 30th, 1953, to Martha and John Savage Sr, and he was one of four boys. Everyone who young Jack met was a friend. I would say that I am a confident person, but my confidence, at least on some level, is a form of autistic masking, and as a consequence, is always a bit of an overcompensation. Jack's was different. It came to him naturally; he is almost the textbook definition of a people person.

Jack was a very avid sportsman. In high school, he excelled at basketball, football, and baseball. He went to Ohio University and played on the baseball team. Growing up, I knew that he almost made it to the major leagues, but at his funeral, oh my gosh, the number of newspaper clippings and other articles documenting his sports journey was something I was not ready for.

In 1976, Jack met a woman named Bev Opper. Bev was a single mother of three, living in a not-so-desirable part of town. Jack and Bev began dating, he helped the family get into a better neighborhood, and in 1977, Jack and Bev got married. For their honeymoon, they went on a cabin trip in Heuston Woods, and from what Nimba has told me, it was a really fun trip. While Jack became a stepfather to Bev's children, Bob, Sandra, and Melissa, he and Bev would eventually have two daughters of their own, Shana and Cyndi. On June 22nd, 1979, Shana Marie Savage was born.

My initial idea for this installment was to go over Papa's entire life before I was born. Shana’s death changed that plan a little bit. I will be doing another installment about her life and continuing his later. While this installment is effectively just a second obituary, I have enjoyed writing it. Even though it is just an overview and not very detailed, because I was not there for any of the events of this installment, I hope that it gives a brief and accurate glimpse into Papa's young life before Shana was born.

Have a Greattastic day and be safe, 

J. Mitchie Ulibarri, SBT.

This story will continue in Greattastic Life Special Edition: For Shana, in May!

Rules for a Greattastic Life Season 9 is coming soon!

For Papa Trailer

 For Papa Trailer

As I explained in the Christmas Special, most of the deaths that I have experienced in my life happened during my childhood (The Greattastic Adventures) as opposed to my adulthood (Rules for a Greattastic Life). The only exception was a guy named Henry, who died in 2021. However, he was a childhood friend, so I just included him in the Epilogue of my second book, Once in a Lifetime: A Song For Sam. This means that the first death that I count as happening in my adulthood is Papa’s.

After he passed, I wrote an installment about his funeral, simply called The Funeral. As soon as I published it, I knew that I liked honoring new people in my life who have passed through writing, but I didn’t want to just write about their funerals every time, and writing a spinoff book for everyone from this point forward is unrealistic. The compromise is obvious.

A year or so after someone close to me dies, I will post an installment about their lives, before I was born (in the case of family), or leading up to their first written appearance (basically anyone else). The question basically being: who were they before they entered my life?

The first such installment comes out on January 21st, 2026! See you then.

Season 8 Goals And Dreams Finale: The Goals And Dreams Project

 The Goals And Dreams Project

On Wednesday, December 31st, 2025, I walked into Crimson Cup Coffee at 11:00 am. After ordering my coffee, I opened my computer with the intention of editing. The manager, Lydia, who I went to high school with, walked up to me and we started to catch up. I first introduced you, the audience, to Lydia in the season 6 installment A Writer's Place, in which I revealed that I had finished writing The Greattastic Adventures 2: Fractured and Greattastic Adventures 3. I wrote basically the entirety of Greattastic Adventures 3 at Crimson Cup. “How's the last book coming?” Lydia asked.

“Good!” I replied, “I'm actually doing the last little bit of editing that I need to right now, and then after that, it's just about getting the cover done. Hoping to get it published before Paige and I get married!”

Finally, we stayed up till midnight and rang in the new year together, for the first time in our entire relationship! As 2025 rolled into 2026, and Paige and I said good night, I opened the 2025 Goals and Dreams doc on my phone. The Goals and Dreams Project is something that I started after I had a brunch with my friend, Madison, Pop-pop, and Sara, on New Year's Day 2025, and I realized that in terms of reaching my goals, I was plateauing (Self Advocacy). As I explained in the installment, The Goals And Dreams Project (Beta), the document was inspired by my teaching mentor, Mr. Livingston, during my Walkabout at TGS. While I haven't actually discussed the document since I introduced it in that installment, it has helped me.

Originally, Mr. Livingston had had me just make one document and list a handful of goals and dreams on it that I wanted to achieve in my senior year of high school (specifically during Walkabout). This year, I expanded on that idea by making the 2025 Goals and Dreams Doc and then the Major Goals and Dreams Doc that runs from 2025-2030. I also had a color coding system. Black means still needs to be done,  green means completed, and red means moved to the following year's Goals and Dreams doc. Though, as I looked at it, I realized I needed to add blue for things that are in progress.

I started this installment at Crimson Cup with Lydia for a reason. Originally, I was going to make this season finale about me publishing Greattastic Adventures 3. I already have the idea for what that installment is going to look like because, despite it not being a finale anymore, nothing about that installment is really going to change. The real-life delays in publishing are the only reason that I am not a four-time published author going into 2026. And I'm not worried about it. 

My goal last season was for me to start a nonprofit. Obviously, me not being able to achieve that goal within that season attributed to the aforementioned plateauing. As I made the 2026 Goals and Dreams Doc, I smiled. While this series has made me a lot more goal oriented, the downside of that is if I don’t meet the main goal that a season is built around I tend to spiral. The fact that I have not spiraled despite not publishing Greattastic Adventures 3 yet, proves to me that the goals and dreams project is a success.

Have a Greattastic day and be safe!

J. Mitchie Ulibarri, SBT

Speaking of things not happening when I thought they were going to, on the 4th of July, Ryan told Noah and I that Cousin Simple’s newest EP, You Don’t Have To Sing Along, would slowly drop throughout the rest of 2025. I took that as set in stone. As of the posting of this installment, January 12, 2026, all six songs have been out since Friday morning. You can listen to it wherever you find your music.

Rules for a Greattastic Life will return with Greattastic Life Special Edition: For Papa