Horses are good company -- The Witcher

Some very bad pain days lately, argh! My jaw is hurting a lot, possibly referred from my back, or it could be a sinus infection i suppose. Anyway, anyhoo, I made it to the dog park today with Abbie and Zoiks (who was here just for the day). It was sunny and we saw Marguerite, Mary P, and Jeff, dog park regulars.

Sometimes in the evenings Abbie pants and looks at me and whines like she wants something, but I can't ID what she wants. Which is slightly worrying. She is getting older and I hope she is OK.

I finished watching Sandman, which was slow and too gory, but overall I still liked it. I appreciated how there were a lot of queer characters.

I watched "Coming out Colton" on Netflix, a short "docu-soap" about a minor celebrity who, over the course of the series, comes out to his family, friends, and to the public. I'd never heard of this guy, because he was on "the Bachelor" and played football-- two things I have negative interest in. And yet I really enjoyed this show. I think I could watch a million stories about people coming out, it's so interesting. This guy has a lot of privilege but some of that is addressed in the show, and he's honest about having hurt people in the past and trying to become a better person. His family and best friends are really supportive. I guess not everyone sees "the Bachelor" as inherently exploitative and some people take it seriously? It's a wild world.

Some fun things I did this week:
We were running low on good quality SF/F books at books to prisoners, so I went to the thrift store and bought a bag for about 20 bucks.
I got together with a fannish friend who is also a neighbor, and we had a work party. She worked on a fic and I made subtitles for my festivid.

I'm having a disease flare and am feeling more sick than usual. Despite this I did a couple of fun things recently, in an effort to get out of the apartment and see people more.

On Friday I went to the zoo with a friend. We have a nice local zoo that is free, and I used to go there a lot but haven't been in years. We especially admired the giraffe, rhino, seals, and otters. They have big glass walls where you can observe the seals and otters swimming underwater.

Today I went to a cemetery walk run by the local veterans' museum. They have re-enactors portraying some of the local folks who are buried in the cemetery and this year they focused on women of WWI and WWII. One of them was an awesome lesbian woman. Our tour guide was a little bit awkward but I loved the actors.

I'm grateful to have lots of good TV to watch, because things are a bit hard right now and I need to rest so much. I am achy, not sleeping super great, and using my inhaler every day. I'm also grateful that my dog is low maintenance.

Abbie got a new dog bed in the mail from her friends in New York State. It's a memory foam bed. It took her a week to try it out and now she loves it.

Just ridiculously tired today. I went back to bed twice.

Abbie gets her teeth cleaned and worked on tomorrow, so I have to get up early to take her in. I hope it goes smoothly for her!

Speaking of which, a friend from fannish circles, Mel, has a Go Fund Me up for dental and jaw repair following a vehicle accident:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/melody-mielke-needs-new-teeeeeeeth

1. I'm feeling a little overwhelmed. My breathing is not great and I slept most of today. May have to ask for help with some things, specifically my medication assistance forms.

2. My new sofa arrived! I like it a lot.

3. Abbie was having some dinner time angst and it was becoming a problem. She'd whine and pace, want me to put things on her food, and seemed anxious. A friend suggested I try wet food for her, and that did the trick. She eats it right up, then settles down and sleeps. It's more expensive but worth it.

4. I couldn't sleep last night so I watched "The Emperor's New Groove" which was super fun. Very funny with a kind of gonzo humor. A Vulture article about the making of this film has been going around:
https://www.vulture.com/article/an-oral-history-of-disney-the-emperors-new-groove.html

The best parts of the article are the parts about Eartha Kitt, who voices the villain in the movie.

5. "Becoming Anne Frank" by Dara Horn at the Smithsonian magazine. A difficult, moving article.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/becoming-anne-frank-180970542/

A difficult day for me, physically, but I am enjoying a lot of things in my life.

1. My new Kobo e-reader is allowing me to read again. I tried Autonomous by Annalee Newitz but bounced off it. So, I'm reading fanfic for "The Magicians" and "Schitt's Creek" and a little MCU here and there. Today I sat on the stoop among my plants and enjoyed the breeze while reading.

2. My houseplants are mostly outside on the stoop now. There are a few that continue to live inside year-round, such as the African violet and peace lily. I bought a fuschia and a begonia and I really love them.

3. Abbie, my good dog, just wants to lay around now that it's sort of hot.

4. The 2nd-run theater plays movies for just $3.50, so yesterday I went with my friend R. and her mom to see "The Mustang." This is an indie film about a prisoner who joins a program to train feral Mustangs for auction. I have mixed feelings about the writing of the story, and have to think about it a bit more, but I really enjoyed the experience of the movie overall.

Abbie is acting a little bit weird. Today I got ready for a walk, but she started shaking and refused to get off the couch. So I left her behind and went walking by myself. She's been a little bit restless tonight but not terribly so. I think this is simply due to the weather changing and the different noises that happen in the Fall, but who knows.

Today I rested, read a little bit, watched some TV. My roommate and I are watching Leverage; tonight's episode was the adorable "The Fairy Godmother Job."

I read 2 queer comics, and am cross-posting my Goodreads comments below.

My Solo Exchange Diary by Kabi Nagata.
( Read more... )

Flocks by L. Nichols
( Read more... )

I slept most of the day (I think I had a mild vaccine reaction). Abbie gave this gentle, polite woof of a bark to wake me up at precisely 4:30 pm, meaning, it's time to go to the dog park. She is good at telling time.

Lately it's calming for me to describe things on Tumblr:
https://www.tumblr.com/blog/angelictroublemaker

I try to keep it positive. (There is some NSFW stuff but it's tagged.)

I enjoyed this Dorian/Iron Bull fanfic
Come Forth into the Storm by zythepsary
http://archiveofourown.org/works/8016253

I'm tired. Really tired and not breathing great.

I'm watching the Fosters on Netflix, playing computer games, and chilling. The dog park is not great right now because it's super icy. And the last few days have been brutally cold. Today was warmer, so we went briefly, but it's tough walking over rough slush that's been frozen. This time of year, I wish for an indoor dog park. Abbie does too. I'm thinking of buying her an expensive coat. It's tough to spend money, but she could really use something to help cover her hairless thighs. The Greyhound people like this brand:
http://www.k9apparel.com/Greyhound-s/138.htm

I liked this Teen Wolf story which also has some great art!
Tide Pulls from the Moon by paintedrecs
http://archiveofourown.org/works/5438072

Cute little milestone.

Abbie laid down in the creek to cool herself off. She oh so carefully sat her haunches down, then experimentally, slowly sat down into "sphinx pose" with her head just above the surface.

She zipped around the narrow side park, running in loops. Someone walking along the bike path on the other side of the creek stopped to admire her run.