I’m on book 1 so far but it’s already quite an accomplishment for me to be reading again. I used to read on my 1h train commute but since I got a new job and the train is only 20 mins anymore I pretty much stopped reading altogether. I’ve decided to get back into it anyway even though it’s only small boats at a time, and I’m really happy to be back :)

I moved to Chicago at the end of October from the deep south. The past few days the weather has been hovering around 0⁰F and that has been an adjustment. I’ve figured out the clothing I can wear to bear it. Sunday my feet felt like they were going to fall off after only a few minutes walking around. Last night I had to wait for a bus for like 20 minutes and I was totally fine. I switched boots and it fixed my whole issue with comfort.

Well, 2 weeks into having a laptop running linux, I accidentally deleted the etc file and can’t get back the few files on it that I created. Luckily, none of it is really all that important and the rest was already backed up onto a thumb drive.

Now I have the task of reinstalling and setting things back up and getting a quick assignment done for one of my classes. Thankfully I’ve got plenty of time to do both.

picked up the new foster dog, coco on saturday. she’s acclimating pretty well, considering she went from a free roaming outdoor only dog on 17 acres to a downtown indoor dog on 1/3 of an acre. my old man australian shepherd is having a harder time accepting her, but we’re getting there with short 5-10 minute intros where he’s on leash so i can redirect when he gets too in her face. the little chihuahua mix has always been good with other dogs, so no surprise that they’re interacting really well.

coco goes to the vet later today, and fingers crossed there’s no major issues.

And a new team project begins. Team leaders from the last term’s projects were exempt from being in charge again this time, which was something of a relief for a couple of hours. The new team leader is a lovely guy, but very shy and socially awkward, and so far his success rate for deciding what to do and delegating it to someone is… uh… one time. A couple more times if you include me making a suggestion and him going “yeah, what Frog said.” I have to give the dude credit for volunteering for team leader - given his personality, it was a seriously brave thing to do and I genuinely admire that. But I understand there are some bets amongst the class for £5-£10 over how many weeks it will be before I’m in charge. And I’m just like… nope, I am not taking over. I’m just not doing it.

@alyaza Going just fine. I went hiking through a forest this weekend and a stray dog kept following every one of us searching for food. You can see it in my profile pic now 😁

When we got to a nearby village, eventually one of the people in our group went to a shop and bought dog food. That dog was probably never happier in a while. It kept following us from a partially abandoned monastery all the way there.

It’s okay, kinda dreading the next school semester.

Otherwise, I’m trying to work on radcare.ca, my wiki project to make lists of local orgs doing good work.

Very chill week for me. I’ve been snowed in for the last 5 days which means a break from work 😄

It’s going, I got my medical cannabis second prescription and it arrived today which is nice, waiting on some blackmarket ritalin to deal with my ADHD until my psychiatrist can see me and prescribe it legally. Not being able to think is a fucking nightmare.

Could nation-states just, for a day, not bomb one another? Houthis hit ships. Ships hit back. Iran hits…seemingly anyone nearby? Pakistan says, “Hold my Lassi” and lobs a few rockets back. Could we maybe, just take a deep breath, and chill?

Anyways, found out I got a hole in my knee meniscus exposing bone. I guess if we keep escalating these little tit-for-tat attacks I won’t have to worry about it for too long.

This, basically.

Up until yesterday, I was doing better, but last two days have been weird.

It’d be nice if I get a full week of “chill” at some point. Well, “chill” as in “good vibes”, not the weather that some of you in the northern hemisphere are dealing with (although, it’s surprisingly cold where I am today, despite it being the middle of summer).

Also, I’m sick of searching for headphones. Like legitimately tired of it. I don’t need perfect, but I need a good compromise between comfort and sound that I can vibe with, which seems to be fucking impossible for me. Probably because of sensory issues, but also because everyone hears shit differently, so reviews are generally pointless.

Having kind of a rough week with wrestling with identity stuff. Things are generally good for me, but I just keep having these questions about myself coming up and I can’t seem to just drop it. Not sure where any of it is going, or if it’s going anywhere, but I’m getting kind of tired of it tbh…

This week went from bad, I wasn’t feeling well couldn’t find any energy was getting back into depression, to worse, my favorite all time uncle passed away last night. I am not dealing well. He was one of those weird, quite a lot, offbeat people that kind of got me, no one else liked him much. Now I feel like when I talk about how much I love home it makes me even more of an outsider. Also he is so far away I can’t go to his friends and his circle and be with other people that love him too.

I’m waiting on a biopsy result. I might have breast cancer.

I still have a job. I survived layoffs… for now. My workload has increased, but all is well, and I’m thankful for that.