August is all about cleaning

 Remove the rubble, make room for the good. Breathe. Repeat

If I'm not paying attention on Zoom...

 It's because I'm busy taking screenshots of your cat. 

That is all.

2nd Dose Side Effect Log

 2pm Friday; 2nd Dose. 

Shot didn't hurt at all. 

Waited my 15 min; All good, went home

6pm Friday

Arm pain; 2

Hot compress, Advil and water administered

11pm; slight rash at injection site

Arm pain 3

temp 97.5

9:30 am Saturday; Woke up feeling normal, 

Arm pain 5; heat compress and Advil again

11am Saturday

Arm pain 4, rash fading already, otherwise feeling good, went out for a long walk

9pm Saturday

Damn! I got exhausted by what should not have been an exhausting walk. 

Arm pain; 2

12am Sunday

tired (but not asleep... sigh)

Arm pain 3

Fever! 100.2

10am Sunday

arm tender to the touch but no pain without poking it

Temperature; back to 96.9 

Feeling fine! 

Happiness isn't always picture perfect.

 Currently I have too much paper I'm hauling around. I recently moved apartments. Every time you move things you remember the literal and the figurative weight of it all. So I'm looking through boxes of physical photographs I have kept. I'm digitizing most of them, keeping some, and getting rid of the ones that lack sentimental value.

 These particular blurry photos are difficult to part with. I think I'll keep Shamu. I know that in recent times Sea World has come under scrutiny, but for me Sea World was an incredibly happy memory. Even as a child I have had so few days of true happiness that these hold the rarest impression of such a thing.

I was obsessed with whales. Where other girls would spend hours drawing horses and unicorns, I would be sketching orcas, dolphins, blue whales (and sharks too). I was a deeply serious kid for the most part. I usually only had one or two friends (except for at summer camp when suddenly I had many). These unfocused, poorly composed snaps I took with my little 110 film camera still hold magic for me and I need them to be visible, even to this sad abandoned side of the internet. At least I know they're out there, they could be found. 

No caption today

 

Pups and pics

 I love finding old photos of people with their pets. Well-loved dogs and dignified cats of the past make the people seem somehow more real to me. More than babies and Christmas dinners, I love seeing affections, quirks, jokes. I love seeing people climbing trees, playing in water. So often these old images feel so distant that the stories of the people in them might as well be in a textbook. This is a photo of my Grandmother being held by her father. She was a first child after he returned from serving as a medic in World War I. Grandma looks at the loving family dog who appears nearly natural standing on its hind legs. I wonder who was holding the camera. Probably my great-grandmother. I hope that the pup got head scratches and treats after the photo shoot.