Deep Conversations

Escapade was a blast! Me and Airawyn convinced someone new to attend this year, and she fit in superbly. I imagine she'll be back next year. It's always a bit of a gamble, y'know? Want to make sure friend has fun, but also don't want to be tied to friend the whole time. It was great though, the second batch of friends I introduced her to, she went, wait, are you ___? And it was! So they had a grand time chatting about people they both knew. And then later on we were doing something in the con suite and she met Nev and was like, wait, did you write ___? And Nev was like, OMG WHAT I have been recognized by name alone?!?

And seeing pals and hanging out and talking fandom was fun as always. I miss everyone already!

I am also older! (not a surprise, cuz everyone is, but y'know) We went to the Skirball museum to catch the Jack Kirby exhibit right before it closed, and boy am I glad we did. It was delightful. I loved getting to see original art, and sketches, and learn things about the man that I never knew before (like he moved it here near me and is actually buried out here? I need to make a pilgrimage!). The 'rents went along and I think they actually enjoyed it too - we got there just in time to join a docent tour, and that was extremely helpful for them. And me too, but more for them since they had zero background info. Ash cam along too, and that was so much fun getting to see her and spend time with her just doing something fun without work or munchkin involved. (I like munchkin, but I miss just having Ash.) And then we went through the rest of the museum, which was much more mom's speed, as it's a Jewish American museum so it's all kinds of Judaica info that she's super into.

Got a bunch of books for birthday, including the translations of Mo Du and Sha Po Lang, which I haven't started yet. Did finish the last of the Lychford books that I hadn't read yet, and now feel like I want to go back and read all six of them again, in a row, in the correct order. I just really love those novellas.

Work continues, except for my Methodist job, which officially ended today. I imagine it's not a common experience, witnessing the closing of a church. I've certainly not done it before; we've always left instead. So that was sad and hard. Hopefully will be able to keep in touch with people.

I got my first fraud return, and my first IP PIN reject, so those feel like mini milestones, lol. And more military returns, and some pretty wild life stories. Kinda fun, really. Tomorrow I plan on taking my next level-up test, which will get me to three, and then I'll probably start working on the next set of classes because I still have a lot of long, empty days at work.

Didn't go see the Z1L movie for a couple of reasons - time, and Sam mentioned some directorial choices that were visually difficult, so I just said fuck it, I'll wait and small screen it, and spend time with my friends instead. I think that was a good decision.

Dad and I have been working our way through Arsenal Military Academy, which hasn't been too bad, really. This is the most tolerable I've ever found Xu Kai to be, and Zhu Hong's actress is in there too. It's still a stretching disbelief cross-dressing show, but at least a couple of characters have at least acted suspicious about it, lol. It's also made me look up some historical references, and I always enjoy learning new things, so that's fun too, even though what I'm learning is definitely Not Fun.

Tuesday is my cardiology appointment, which I am both looking forward to and dreading. It's one of those, please let them find something, but an easily fixable something, kind of situations. I would like to not have a constantly elevated heart rate any more, thanks, it's been like three years, I'm over it.

Hand specialist appointment, however, is not until JUNE. I need to contact my PCP and be like, please, do you have a second option, because I don't have physio now, and my left arm is getting worse, and waiting another 2.5 months is not gonna be helpful. Or get me back in physio, something. 

Goals for the Week: pass the level-up exam. cross the 25 returns mark. start reading sha po lang.

Good Things: friend time! books and having time to read them. dark chocolate peanut butter cups.