Market Chipping

did a bit of driving through the state of georgia today and wound up driving through a small town that i later discovered was called newborn, which is an odd name but doesn’t technically have anything wrong with it, except for the fact that i nearly gave myself whiplash doing a double-take at a building sign advertising NEWBORN TAXIDERMY

I wasn’t sure what to expect from Piranesi but it definitely wasn’t to get hit with one of the most beautifully depicted settings I have ever read. The world of this novel is gorgeous. Specifically, how Piranesi sees it is gorgeous. Page after page of detailed notes about the tides and the wildlife and the many, many statues and how beautiful all of it is. I can smell the salty sea air. I can hear the cries of the gulls echoing through the halls. I can see sunlight slanting through a window and gleaming on white marble and foamy water.

but ykw at least i'm not on mount everest. at least i'm not paying tens of thousands of dollars to slowly suffocate in a 300-person line at the gates of hell. never in my life will i have to be steered in a hypoxic stupor through the maze of poop and corpses atop mount everest. on this earth a lot of horrible things can happen to you without your permission but there are a few that you have to opt into. you can just say no thanks! and be guaranteed never to have to be on mount everest. much to be grateful for actually

still not on mount everest this morning 😌 alhamdulillah

Laughter is contagious... especially this little one...