Season 8 Goals And Dreams Blog 10: Book Rage 2: The Other Mitchell

 Book Rage 2: The Other Mitchell

I was single when I published my first book, The Greattastic Adventures: Miracle Child. I purposefully set Paige and my first date for two weeks after I got her number because I was publishing my second book, Once In A Lifetime: A Song For Sam. As I have said before, I hate “publishing Mitchell”; he’s filled with stress and anxiety, and he takes it out on everyone that “proper Mitchell” loves.

On February 24, 2025, Kid and I left Kobolt after working on my third book, The Greattastic Adventures 2: Fractured’s book cover, with Dad’s employee, Kate (The Fractured Book Cover). As Kid drove off, I smiled. My original plan was to publish Greattastic Adventures 2 in March and Greattastic Adventurers 3 in Late August or early September. At this point, I seemed to be on track, and publishing Mitchell had not reared his ugly head.

Pins Mechanical is a bar/duckpin bowling alley that started in Columbus. Kobolt has created all the graphics for Pins as they have expanded across the country. Now, all the writing I do is on Google Drive, but the template for formatting a book for the company I use is in Word. Unfortunately, my laptop does not support Word. As a result, I have to reformat everything on Mom’s laptop. There was a new Pins location in Austin, Texas, and everyone had to go down there for two weeks in early March. I was unaware of this development until the day before everyone was about to leave, when Mom asked me to watch the family cat, Sami.

This led to some understandable stress, and publishing Mitchell came back with a vengeance. Because I was single when I published my first two books, I was a little nervous about publishing Mitchell existing around Paige. Not that she couldn’t handle him; he appears every time I post an installment to this series. Still, I felt guilty exposing her to him for more than the usual hour or so. Especially because at this time I was already putting her through a lot, because I was sneaking around to get things set up for our engagement!

“Hey,” I told Paige when Mom finally got back from Texas, “I might stay at my parents' house a couple of nights this week.”

“What? Why?” She asked.

“I don’t want you to be around publishing Mitchell anymore than you need to be,” I explained, “I feel a little guilty about it.”

As any good soon-to-be fiancé should, Paige replied, “That’s understandable. But you shouldn’t. I would love to help you with this. We can go to your parents' together and we can work on it!” 

While there were still many major struggles with getting it published, even up to last week, but I officially published The Greattastic Adventurers 2: Fractured on Wednesday, May 28, 2025! The name of this season is Goals And Dreams, as I am trying a new system to better organize (and as a result, achieve) my goals and dreams. When the book was published, I smiled because I knew that I am now one step closer to achieving my goals this year, and my system is clearly working!

Have a Greattastic Day and Be Safe

J. Mitchie Ulibarri!

The Greattastic Adventurers 2: Fractured is available on Amazon as a paperback and A hardcover, now! 

Season 8 Goals And Dreams Blog 9: The Scroll Of Proposal

 The Scroll Of Proposal

As you may recall, I asked Paige to be my girlfriend after Kid helped me make a makeshift scroll that said, “Will you be my girlfriend?” on it. Then I took her out to a restaurant, and had our waiter hide it in her tiramisu (The Scroll). My first date with Paige was at a bar called Seesaw. Since then, it’s become a new bar called Good Night John Boy. John Boy is 70s-themed, while Seesaw was more modern.

At 5:20 p.m. on Friday, May 9th, 2025, Paige stepped out of Nicole‘s car and walked into John Boy. She had just gotten her nails painted blue, and she was wearing a blue, flowery dress. She knew that the proposal was coming soon, as we had bought the ring together. She pretty much figured out that it was happening that day when Nicole kidnapped her, and I was dodging her calls when I got off work early, but John Boy confirmed it.

A bartender named Andie took our drink orders, and once we got them, we sat awkwardly because we were dancing around the fact that she knew. Though I was OK with the fact that she did, because I knew she didn’t know everything that was about to happen. When we finished our drinks, I waved at Andie, and she dramatically nodded. “What was that?” Paige asked, a little nervously. I smiled and waited. She brought out the pad for me to cash out, and gave Paige a scroll. Paige looked at me, smiled, then unrolled the scroll. It read: Where Our Love Story Began. “Is this a scavenger hunt?” She asked.

“Maybe,” I replied.

Paige and I met because our brothers went to high school together. When Ryan, Will, and Mitch started Cousin Simple, Paige’s brother (who is also named Ryan), invited his whole family to a show. While I have known Paige for 8 years, we only started dating after reconnecting when Cousin Simple played The Newport (Columbus Against The World).

Noah had sent an email to The Newport to see if we could get inside for the next scroll in the scavenger hunt, but there was a concert that night, so the best we could do was meet Ryan outside. Because this happened to be the weakest part of my plan, I didn’t know exactly how it was going to work. Luckily, there was a parking spot right in front of where Ryan stood. Paige looked at me, then looked at Ryan, and she was obviously confused. In a moment of panic, I rolled Paige’s window down like we were at a drive-through, Ryan handed her a second scroll, and we drove off.

The second scroll read: Where Our Life Story Started, and Another Chapter Begins. When we pulled into our apartment complex, we were both giddy with laughter. We walked into our apartment, and the camera Luke got for Christmas was set to record, and music was playing from his Bluetooth speaker. There were tall black candles and small blue candles that my coworker, Elizabeth, let me borrow, placed around the ring and a huge scroll.

The Scroll said The Scroll Of Proposal on the top of it and had the date at the bottom, and my engagement speech made up the body. The first paragraph talked about how much I loved S.M. and that I thought I was going to marry her. The second paragraph was about Ryan catching up to me in grade level, and him starting Cousin Simple with Will and Mitch. Despite how much I loved the band, I felt very insecure about it; however, the insecurities were worth it since I met her through the band. The third paragraph was about how my cousin Ellie met her at Josh’s grad party (Graduation, Girlfriends, And A Pig Roast). She looked at us for all of 10 minutes and said, “When you’re with her, you have the same look on your face that you have when you talk about S.M.” The last paragraph talked about how much I love her, and how I am so excited for her to wear the ring, because every time I see it, I imagine growing old with her, and I can’t wait for that!

As I unrolled the scroll, Paige laughed and said, “It’s giving Hamilton.”

I couldn’t help but reply, “Hear ye, Hear ye!”

When I started talking about Cousin Simple, their slow song, Doorstep started playing. I had told Luke to hide in my room, with our cat, Charlie, until I started talking about Ellie. When I started talking about Ellie, out of the corner of our eyes, Paige and I saw Luke dash out of my room, into the hallway like a little goblin. Once I had finished my speech, I knelt down and grabbed the ring box on the table.

“Paige O’Brien,” I asked, “will you marry me?”

“Yes,” she said with a smile.

Have a Greattastic day and be safe!

J. Mitchie Ulibarri

Season 8 Goals And Dreams Blog 8.5: The Asterisk

The Asterisk

I posted an installment on Sunday about Paige, Shane, and me going to the grand opening for the new Bitty & Beau’s coffee shop location in Columbus. In it, Paige left to go back to my car because we had been waiting in line for about an hour, and she was cold. I put an asterisk at the end of the sentence describing her leaving. The reason? I took out a scene because it wasn’t majorly important to that installment; however, it is pretty important to the rest of my life. This is that scene:

At about 10:45, Paige asked, “Can I have your keys?” When I asked her why, she told me, “I’m going to sit in your car for a bit. I’m freezing!” I gave her my keys and watched her walk off. 

“Okay,” I said to Shane excitedly as soon as she was out of earshot, “it’s happening next Friday!”

“What’s happening?” Shane asked.

At this point, Jessica, Shane‘s fiancé, who works at Bitty & Beau’s, ran through the line, and she gave Shane a big hug. After they let go, Jessica greeted me. I said hi and hugged her. Then I made eye contact with Shane, looked down at Jessica’s engagement ring, looked back at Shane, and raised my eyebrow. Shane’s eyes went wide, and he said, “Oh my gosh! Congratulations!”

On Friday, May 9th, 2025, I pulled into a parking Garage at 5:00 p.m. After I parked, I pulled out my phone and checked Paige’s location: 17 minutes away. I took an excited breath, exited my car, locked the door, ran out of the garage, and looked across the street at the bar: Good Night John Boy.

Season 8 Goals And Dreams Blog 8: Bitty & Beau's

 Bitty & Beau's

In the year or so since Paige and I moved in together, I haven’t really mentioned my former roommate Shane. Despite our intense fights during the two years we “lived” together, my intention was to keep our friendship alive after I moved out. The reason I haven’t mentioned him in the last year is because while I have seen him a handful of times, we haven’t hung out in the way that either of us wanted to.

There was a girl in the grade below me at OLP; let’s call her Laura. Laura‘s little brother, let’s call him Andrew, ended up going to New Story during my last two years as a student there. At the beginning of January, Laura and Andrew‘s mom shared a video from a coffee shop called Bitty & Beau’s. Bitty & Beau’s was started in 2016 by a couple with two children named Bitty and Beau, who both have Down syndrome. They almost exclusively employ people with developmental disabilities. The video that Laura’s mom had posted was introducing the employees for the new Columbus location. Andrew and Shane’s fiancé, Jessica, were both introduced. 

After Mom told me about it, I looked into it and found out that the Bitty & Beau’s Columbus grand opening was on Saturday, May 3, 2025. I immediately called Shane, and we decided to go. At 9:30 that morning, Paige and I drove up to the Gleason Road apartment. Shane was already outside, and we got to Bitty & Beau’s by 9:45. It was very rainy that day, but luckily, there was an awning, so we had cover.

A handful of things happened while we waited in line for 2 hours. 1. I saw three of my New Story coworkers ahead of us in line and said hi to them. 2. Laura and her friend from OLP, Sylvia, saw me and we talked briefly. 3. Unfortunately, we were too far back in line to see the ribbon-cutting, but we could hear it. 4. At about 10:45, Paige went back to my car because she was cold.* 5. Shane had texted Jessica’s mom and told her that we were there. When she found out, Jessica came through the line and gave Shane a big hug. 6. After Jessica left, a woman named Maddie and her husband started talking to us. They were very friendly, and they brought my books!

Eventually, Paige returned, and within another 30 minutes, we finally got into the shop. Jessica rang up our coffees. She gave me a 7 of hearts playing card, and the person who made our order had to match ours with the 7 of hearts they had to make sure they got the correct order, which was really cool.

I wrote each War Of The Roommates installment (War Of The Roommates, Dancing With Our Stars, and The Truth About War Of The Roommates trilogy) the same way. I reveal that despite what I’ve depicted before, Shane and I are having problems for one reason or another. I then reveal that I’m trying to use this series to make myself feel better about my complicated living situation. Finally, I resolved them with, “he and I fixed it because x, and now it’s all gonna be perfect from here on in!” While the point of The Truth About War Of The Roommates trilogy was Paige and I moving in together, even though I still wanted Shane in my life, the way I wrote it and his lack of appearance after it made it seem like I was running away from Shane. But as we sat and drank our coffee, I looked over at Shane with pride that he and I had finally grown past the War Of The Roommates.

Have a Greattastic Day and Be Safe!

J. Mitchie Ulibarri