Being a single parent meant that I didn't have the 'luxury' of hiding my reality completely. There were days which were difficult and dark and to make the notion of the bad days not so terrifying to still small children, I explained the phenomenon of (berating oneself constantly mentally) rough days as "my headgremlins being a bit rowdy and not being able to find the Snow White DVD." This wasn't scary, it was understood, and it didn't mean that we always had to watch Snow White. (Sometimes it was Sword in the Stone or Robin Hood. ;) ) The Gremlins movies are a staple in our home and always have been, especially since my kids are the type who love this kind of "Old School" cinematic marvel with all it's wonderous anarchic charm.
Fast forward a few years, and in a moment of either deep self-awareness or questionable judgment (jury’s still out), my fabulous offspring gifted me a NECA Gremlin for my birthday. Nothing says happy you survived another year quite like a plastic embodiment of your internal nonsense. Faaabulous!
Somehow—because this is how gremlins work—that one stupid, delightful gift dominoed into a realization: if the head gremlins aren’t going anywhere, maybe the move isn’t to silence them, but to wrangle them. Loudly. With humor. With sarcasm. With gremlin-scented chaos and big, messy feelings flung directly back at them.
I was working in a challenging role, the pandemic was not yet entirely at a turning point, never mind an end. Most days came with a hurdle or seven, and a desperate need for absurdity. Thus began the (possibly) noble, deeply unserious mission of making life a little more bearable one ridiculous idea at a time, for myself, my little family, and for my colleagues.
I did, however, own several (equally ugly) little anarchists with poor impulse control. My one NECA Gremlin had become a small devilry by this point...and that’s when the lightbulb went on: gremlins are basically elves who chose violence.
Not only that, but after acquiring their very own miniature "World's Smallest" elves (long story, zero regrets), they reclaimed their crown like the chaotic icons they are when such yearly opportunities to share the lunacy presented themselves.
Naturally, winning once was not enough. Gremlins do not rest on laurels—they sharpen them and wave them menacingly. So the following year, the internal committee of chaos convened and decided the bar had to be raised. Significantly. What started as a one-off joke had, apparently, become a brand. And like all unchecked brands, it demanded expansion.
First came the logo—because nothing says “this is getting out of hand” like accidentally having visual identity guidelines. Then came the blog, a place to document the ongoing negotiations with the head gremlins: the sarcasm, the spirals, the gallows humor, the big feelings that refuse to be quiet. Somewhere along the way, the joke stopped being just a joke and became a surprisingly effective way to externalize the noise and take some of its power away. Weirdly, it worked.Of course, the gremlins were still not satisfied. They wanted an audience. After a personal project caused a need to learn how to master some video making software, another lightbulb moment: MUSIC VIDEOS. Behold! A YouTube channel!
And because there is apparently no bottom to this rabbit hole, the most recent escalation involves original music—because when emotions get too big for words, the gremlins demand a soundtrack. Of course they do.
So here we are: a logo, a blog, social media, music, and a growing archive of proof that sometimes the best way to survive your inner chaos isn’t to fight it—but to give it a name, a face, and a creative outlet.
TheGremlinWrangler isn’t about pretending things are fine or hoping they go away if you ignore them for long enough. It’s about meeting the mess with humor, honesty, and just enough absurdity to make the hard stuff feel survivable. And if it accidentally turns into something bigger along the way? Well. That’s on the gremlins. They'll probably eat it or cover it in custard and micro glitter.
If you, too, are navigating life with a mind full of hecklers - or just need something dumb to laugh at - welcome.
Feel free to check out the socials, where stupid shorts and music videos reside, or the blog for a daily-ish dose of dumbassery. Spotify will be a thing we hijack at some point. We're just waiting 'til Dennis is Busy with Something Else and hasn't requisitioned all of our electrical wires to do it.
Pull up a chair. Watch out for water. And seriously.... Don't feed 'em after midnight.