mastodon 4.6.6Part of the rebel alliance and a traitor. Take me away. 🇪🇺
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A cropped image of Mara Jade from Star Wars drawn by Jake Bartok. It's a white woman with long reddish brownish hair in a braid. She's wearing a scarf and a green jacket.
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Photo of the Natural History Museum in London with the skeleton of a whale over the main entrance hall.
Joined Fedi in the great wave of Nov 2022
Another day, another lengthy and deep conversation with colleagues.
Ticked off lots of organising jobs around the house.
Messages from close friends making me smile.
Not shying away from scary conversations. This is a good thing. They're awkward and often end in tears, but keeping the avenues of communication open helps hugely in the long run. I lived up to this twice today and came out stronger because of it.
Jenkins 🐇 gets softer by the day. He probably did it on purpose because he ate the carpet and wanted to be cute. This carpet has already been torn up due to building work, so it's fine.
Jenkins also helped with some DIY. We had a random speaker cable in one corner that wasn't connected to anything and needed to be cut at the wall. He very helpfully did this for us without our input while I was on the toilet for like 45 seconds.
Packing up the house is moving along nicely. Moving day is Friday. I'm excited to get painting. My grandpa was a painter and decorator his whole life so I think he'll be proud I'm doing all of that myself. I love it.
Last week's extreme excitement buzz is now a constant hum of warmth as it appears my new friendship is continuing quietly and consistently. I feel so much less alone and like my people really are out there (not just hiding on the Fediverse).
My colleague drew me a moustache and goatee on a post it note. He stuck it on my face. Damn I looked good. Just like the villain in Ever After played by Richard O'Brien. It was quite striking how well I suited it!
I promised to record a song for my friend. All week I thought about what to play and practised a lot... Then today the perfect song came to me and I learnt it super quick. Yes, it was from Groundhog Day. How did you know?
Jenkins did some epic zoomies before I went to work early this morning. His kick flip was incredibly high.
I put all of my mugs into the new kitchen. I have a lot of excellent mugs.
Finally left the hotel and met real people. I had tea and biscuits and absorbed a beautiful landscape away from the city.
I tried sandboarding, which was awesome. Like snow boarding only it's not snow underneath your board. It's sand. I've never done that before.
Our guide gave me the name "Aicha" because I was "full of life". He was referring to the fact that even though I was the oldest in the group, i was the fittest. That running lark has genuinely worked wonders for me. It's astounding.
Going out last night means that today feels like Sunday. It's nice to realise I have another day off before work yet!
I finished my music/video project and sent it to a couple of people already.
Tea makes everything better.
All 3 of these #3GoodThings happened today and they were indeed pretty good.
I can also add:
I watched some 9 day old kittens being adorable.
I felt the warmth of another human.
My nurse told me she doesn't want to see me again (in a good way because I'm doing really well!)
Reconnecting with an old friend and laughing more times today than I remember in a long time.
Whole day to myself and I made a big leap in progress on my film project.
Another positive mental health day where I feel pleased with myself.
An old teaching assistant reached out to me because one of my old teacher colleagues is retiring. She asked if I wanted to write a little message for the retirement book. I went very extra but I know she'll love it.
First session with a counsellor. It was really productive and more validating than I expected.
Our house move has finally been confirmed. Now comes the round of furniture buying so we have something to sleep on and somewhere to chill my snacks.
I had a juggling lesson and it was exciting.
There was a bake sale at work so I bought a couple of duffnuts*.
I got out for another little run.
*These are doughnuts but in English you can pronounce "ough" in literally any manner you choose so I call them duff -nuts
Making elderly people laugh.
I ate to benefit Future!Helen when Present!Helen was refusing.
My best friend checked in on me and told me she was proud of me.
I have a friend I've written to roughly once a month or so for the last 16-ish years. Today I wrote a super long one to her, which she will love.
I had a snooze and still fit in all my jobs I needed to do. Most of which involved leaving the house.
Jenkins is a cunning blueberry stealer. No one would ever notice him because he's just so sly.
I wanted to give up on my challenge to juggle 10 times in a row but I didn't and now I feel relief rather than shame and frustration. Yey!
Jaws is a really excellent book.
I also practised some card magic today whilst enjoying a delightful mint tea.
Feeling down in the dumps all day but being brought round by my friend being unable to say "Ocarina of Time" until he settled on "Orca of Time" and we spent a long time imagining exactly which hole you're blowing down to get a sound out of that.
Jenkins was a bit off last night but was his usual chirpy self today.
I recorded a song. I sang Night Will Come from Groundhog Day. It's not great but that's the point. It's human-made. When I've put the piano and singing together in a way that doesn't drown each other out, I might even upload it here.
I did a charity run, the first run I've ever done with other people, and it was lots of fun. My legs will hurt tomorrow but that's okay.
My best friend invited me to an online spa birthday party for her in October and it sounds rather lovely.
There was a video of me before the run and I looked happy and careless. As in, I had no cares. That was also fun. Also, SO MANY glow sticks. #running