Ghosts & Coffee

Normally I struggle to wake up, my skin crawling

Raging under blankets warm embrace against the Light

The scapegoat for the real cause

Not this Monday

Today I woke with my first alarm, arms stretched

The sun not deemed a traitor but a welcomed friend, birds heard singing lovely songs

I was able to sleep like they tell you to

A helpful lie of ease

My night before wasn't tossed early into the morning or like my weekends spent paying the debt.

No, not this Monday

Last night I could sleep early

This morning I woke well, loving everything and everyone.

Why?

The ones I usually go to are the small local ones. My usual is big and in an old post office building. It's usually bustling and the clientele is a mix of different people. There's music that changes based on the people working at the time and it's almost always dynamic though never overwhelming.

Another I go to often is a metal themed café. It's small, and dark, (and often loud) but the people are kind and cool and interesting to talk to. It's also usually busy despite how small it is. Some of the people are metal heads like me, but you'll just as often see a grandma in there enjoying a damn good cup.

Today's though strikes me as different. It's medium size and Very millennial chic: a plant wall, a chalkboard wall, cozy oak wood on one half. There's two couch/chairs seating areas but most are at the tables. Some of the ceiling panels are clouds. It's very cute and cozy.

The thing is, there's no music playing and somehow the entire clientele seems to be over 50 with a few exceptions. A more modern preppy vibe over all I'd say. I feel a bit out of place here for some reason. I've been here before and had a similar feeling. Is it just the lack of music? The decor doesn't strike me as particularly different, save for a window wall that while it brings in a lot of good light also opens onto the main street, cars bustling by with people . That's not the café's fault though. That's a US thing that the main streets, even of little towns, are designed like mini highways, the pretty planted flowers clinging on as cars whip by.

The more I write, the more I think it is the lack of music primarily that gives the place a weird vibe. Interesting how that can happen. Also the more I write the more I realize there IS music, it's just so low that it's almost impossible to hear what's playing. Could that add to the weird vibe? Not sure.

Drawing for a friend of mine of his D&D character Pidge. I absolutely love his concept: a WWI sniper that happens to also be a pigeon (likely a carrier pigeon but I decided to base his colors on a rock pigeon because I felt it was more 'Pidgeon' in people's minds).

I absolutely adore how this came out, and it ended up going a lot better than the digital version I attempted first. That one might get turned into a new project for him as well, because I'm excited to test out a new program (to me) on it.

Taking photos of hand drawn pieces is something I struggle at, so please forgive a bit of angling issues here but, a close up.

Ultimately, it was nice to get back to my old stomping grounds of colored pencils. I really want to learn more techniques so I got a book on it recently and will likely be doing practice in that regard. Still, I want to practice my digital work too, because I find that for posting purposes those are a lot easier on that end (and I like the different options and effects one can do as well).

Today I felt like every noise was a cheese grater on Styrofoam and every touch was bad corduroy rubbing against dry flaky skin.

There was nothing I could do. I stood up to get some of the annoyance out, just enough not to throw my work computer out the window and give up completely, to wash my face and get clear so that I could go back to work.

Then accidentally hurt my foot stepping wrongly over a sharp point of wooden furniture that's never been an issue before.

I cried.

I just finished up my first couple passes of colored pencils on this drawing of one of my old DnD characters and had to stop to stretch my hands out. Forgive the weird blurriness; my camera does that and nothing I do has changed it to more crisp as of late... I kinda like the aesthetic of it though tbh.

I found a couple really old drawings of her when she was younger, just after our campaign ended, and got inspired to use her as a character in my world building for a fantasy comic I've been toying around with.

It's been a long time since I busted out the colored pencils and it feels good to get back to it. I've tried a lot of different art supplies over the years, but I always come back to these (or my water colors, which might get center stage in a later drawing... Or my water color pencils... I'm apparently predictable lol).

I've been musing about art and purpose lately and feeling kinda weird about where I am in life at the moment so... I guess working it out in color helps.

Do you ever get the sense that your inside is bigger than the outside you're stuck in? Or is that just me?

Just a little mushroom alien based on the photo of Mycena subcyanocephala (pic from iNaturalist) I thought the little yellow bits on stalks looked like stars over a dusk lit sky and ran with it.