#five good things

...because it's been another absolutely crazy week, gigs-and-future-plans-wise. So! Let's get into it...

First and foremost, JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS are coming back to the UK for the first time in FIFTEEN YEARS and we are GOING TO SEE THEM! The missus got the ticket alert on Tuesday - they're supporting Sammy Hagar, about whom we give less than two figs, but regardless, we're GOING - and I picked up tickets for the Birmingham show this morning. Remains to be seen whether we'll find ourselves getting tickets for any of the other shows XD We missed them when they were supporting Motörhead with Michael Monroe opening in 2010, owing to having no money, and we've regretted it ever since (WHAT A LINEUP and also we never did get to see Motörhead and now we never will), so... :D :D :D

My Finnbands friend Lily and I did something really crazy and oh I am DELIGHTED with it :D :D :D I will be sending it to her soon, or possibly delivering it to her in person because...

I am seriously contemplating going to Helsinki YET AGAIN because The Holy Ones announced another show on 13 December, although they did it via Insta story and there's no other evidence I can find that it's actually happening so I'm going to have to swallow my awkwardness and message the band before I do anything really crazy like booking flights, but also Christmas markets? in Helsinki? I've never been to Helsinki in December? uh. Flights are really annoyingly expensive for the 12th which would be the best day for me to go as I have a work event I can't get out of on the morning of the 11th when the flights are somewhat more reasonable, so I may have to go on the morning of the 13th >.< or I could just make the last flight on the 11th but would probably be cutting it a bit fine getting to Heathrow. Aargh. ANYWAY.

I just booked my ticket to Michael Monroe's UK tour in February and will be going with my equally-insane-about-him friends Lynda and Christine again.

Wednesday was also completely insane - I had an email from lippu.fi (ticketing website) at lunchtime telling me the Hype Records show on 27 December is cancelled, presumably because of insufficient advance ticket sales, but my friend Kirsten and I decided we didn't want to cancel our trip, and we could still spend four days very gainfully in Tampere...and by the end of the afternoon Jann Wilde, with whom she's been in touch via email for 15-odd years, had messaged her saying he's going to play a show at Telakka instead, free entry, full set and some fun b-sides, so YAY it's almost even better! I'm sad we're not going to get to see Flinch, but I've never actually been to Telakka, though it's where Kirsten first saw Jann at Tammerfest 2010 (I can't remember where I was, but I suspect it was Poets of the Fall). She said if she wasn't travelling to see her sister at the beginning of December she'd be seriously tempted to join me for THO, so I might be able to persuade her to a future gig and have some company to take the edge off my complete awkwardness XD

Once I sort myself out I'll be going to see Diamond Black, lovely Ben Christo's band, in Cardiff next Wednesday. They're opening for another couple of bands and the Bristol gig was sold out a couple of months ago before I managed to get tickets >.< but the Cardiff gig has moved to a bigger venue so I am going to go to that one instead. YAY.

I have written over 50k this month, mostly on the utterly unhinged AU AU I am having a whale of a time on with @malkaleh, but some on book 4 of Two of a Kind, in which Developments are Occurring.

I'm rather enjoying the first few units of the new OU course, although I'm not really interested in most of the first block of material; it's very education-focused, which is not where my interests lie, I'm much more interested in the application of linguistic theory in wider society, but hey. Means I can ease myself in by skimming these first units just enough to get through the first assignment, and some of it is more broadly relevant. It does at least seem better designed than last year's course, so far anyway...

I haven't been to the gym all week because I pulled a muscle in my back (turning round while tidying up last Sunday, for fuck's absolute sake) but the sun is out today and I'm about to head up there. I definitely feel better when I've done a bit of faffing around on the weights machines with my headphones on, and when the sun is shining, so that's my mood booster for the day all lined up (now I just have to actually get my arse up off the sofa and go...)

Tomorrow evening we're going to see our friends who took on a pub earlier this year - I've been trying to get us there all month but the missus keeps either being knackered from being out on her mountain bike all day, or wanting an early night because she's going out on the bike early the following day. But I put my foot down for this weekend and we are GOING.

And on Sunday hopefully I'm going to have a nice long catch-up with Kirsten because we haven't talked in AGES and we have so much to catch up on, not least all my ridiculousness in Finland, and sorting things out for our trip at the end of December. Wheeee!

Wore my hair in braids today and felt really cute about it

Made an incredibly busted meal for dinner then had a lot of fun bringing it back to Edible with my partner

Tomorrow I only have to go to my office job and don't have to do anything for any of my side hustles. Except maybe pack for the weekend but that's fine.

3.5 my car is going in for service tomorrow which 🤞🏼 hopefully means I'll get her back from Thursday

I'm so sleepy and sooooo horizontal rn

1. The weather is absolutely lovely - 80s and bearable humidity. Looking forward to some time in the garden and reading outside.

2. Family rmember released from hospital. Still a long road to go and many appts and treatment still coming but after practically living at that hospital for over a week, I am thrilled to get them back home. Thanks to the overworked understaffed medical professionals on the care team staff - y’all were awesome and deserve so much more than the big bag of chocolate I left!

3. Coworkers, friends and family have been so supportive - helping where they can and sending kind thoughts and messages and coming to visit. Everyone was pulling for him! And I appreciated the reminder of how awesome my community is.

4. Autumn blooms - which are also end of summer blooms. The garden centers are filling with mums, rudbeckia, and other autumn flowers but we are still getting the sunflowers and other late summer bloomers - like the callas on the porch. It’s truly beautiful in nature right now as we wait for the leaf change and cooler weather. Gotta catch up on my Monty Don.

5. Mini art projects that contain all the pieces. Coloring books with attached markers, sticker mosaics, mini legos, I love all of you. When I wasn’t working full-time (thank you laptop), I used these to keep my busy mind from spinning to worst case scenarios. And because they were simple and self-contained I did not have to worry about making mess or too much cleanup in a hospital. These were great when my mind was too fried to read.

HM: Books and libraries - thanks to Libby I had books at my fingertips at any time even when it was not library hours. And I could do chair yoga, etc. from their available online offerings. Looking forward to being back in person but libraries always come in clutch.

HM2: PBS Passport. When i got home from the hospital at 10 PM every night, with anxious thoughts racing, you guys had new mysteries for me to explore or use as a bedtime story. Or sometimes Bob Ross to soothe me to sleep. And no commercials to jar one back awake (side eyeing YouTube extra hard). Best streaming service and best network ever! And thank you NPR for Peter Sagal and the crew managing to make me laugh as I listened to Wait Wait subscriber editions driving to the hospital in rush hour every morning - hoping to drop my line and wait patiently all day to find a doctor who would appear out of nowhere. In this time of stress and need, public broadcasting were superstars!

Inspired by @nocompromise-noregrets because my week has been pretty great :))

My mom and sibling have been visiting me in my university town this week and I’ve been having a wonderful time taking them around all the sights!! It’s so exciting to be able to go “let me take you to my favorite greenspace/museum/ice cream shop/etc!!” 

Following on from the previous, we took a day trip to the local castle yesterday and got to spend time at the beach and it was the best time I’ve had at a Proper Beach in years (not counting lake beaches). We collected shells, and watched the tide come in, and the sand was lovely and soft and the sun was pleasantly warm, and I’m going to remember it for a long time.

My flatmate and sibling and I have started watching Yu Yu Hakusho together!! This is my… fourth? rewatch I think (at least of season 1, I’ve only watched the other seasons once or twice) and I’m really having a good time sharing it with them. (the sibling has seen some before, the flatmate is completely new to it) Also I’m spreading my Team Urameshi polycule agenda so that’s great fun XD

I’ve gotten to see some of my university friends again for the first time in months and it’s so good to spend time with them in person again. I just got back from hanging out in the pub with a friend and it was so relaxing.

I start the second year of my animation degree in a week!! This year I get to focus more on actual animation!! I’m so very excited to see what my coursework looks like this year :))

I got to meet a couple of my online friends in person recently!!! (hiiii @the-daughter-of-a-wolf and @tuuliii <33) We had a great day going to pride together and discussing all things LotR/LotR Musical 

I’m directing my theater society’s weekend show this year!! We’re doing Starkid’s Trail To Oregon which should be… interesting to put on in 3 days. We shall see how it goes! 

List five things that make you happy, then put this in the ask box of the last ten people who reblogged something from you. Spread the positivity ✨💛🌻

Tumblr deigned to give back to me a lot of messages it had previously eaten. Idk. It happens sometimes with my blog. It’s like I’m a baby bird and tumblr is my mama bird, trying to regurgitate food asks for me. Sometimes it goes wrong 😂

1. Chocolate 🍫

2. Kitty toe beans 🐾

3. Spring’s first valiant flowers 🌸

4. Open world survival games 🖥️

5. Midday sunlight ☀️

cold ginger mint tea after a long day running

new pencils and a new notebook in honor of the first day of school

the orange marmalade kitty who comes to lay on my porch and blink at me

the memory of my friend laughing after being slapped in the face by a fresh salty six foot wave

+ my best friend made me laugh until I cried because I painted her nails really poorly

+ I know there's someone at work who is looking out for me in my position because they were kind to me again today

+ my coworker asked me to help her do something when she was having trouble which made me really pleased (to help)

+ my lunch was pretty tasty

+ I got delicious ice cream and listened to funny drunk stories from my best friend

1. Ice cream sandwiches

2. Large cokes from McDonalds with extra ice

3. Ice. All the Ice

4. Air Conditioning and knowing that your area isn’t scheduled for a rolling blackout tonight

5. Laying around in a bikini when you don’t have to go to work cause it’s too damn hot for anything else. Every once in awhile I go hop into a ice cold shower.