It’s been a very long time coming, but I finally got a copy of ALICE NINE.’s live bluray from last year, Funeral No.999 and I’m thinking I’ll save it to watch it on my birthday. I do (surprisingly) have one small thing planned for the afternoon that day, but an evening of watching a live (twice — the commentary will be round 2) sounds like a very good way to spend it.
I watched とつくにの少女 (The Girl from the Other Side) last night and it was so featherlight, sweet, and eerily beautiful. The ephemeral animation style was a perfect complement to the story (much like the art style in the manga, of course).
This morning, Scout and I are watching the anime classic 銀河鉄道の夜 (Night on the Galactic Railroad) for the first time, and it’s simply wonderful, though sad. Campanella… and the scorpion with a heart of flaming light… and sweet, diligent Giovanni… (;_;)
I decided to try making a rough sketch of the walker I had imagined for Sister from The Seven Ravens; of course, she would have carved and engraved the wood-frame walker with the star symbol herself.
X JAPAN’s new song ANGEL is so beautiful with its ethereal vocal melody and the fluttering piano notes.
My younger brother got engaged this week which was something I was hoping would happen for a long time now. I’m truly happy for him and my sister-in-law to-be. I listened to a tiny playlist of two favourite songs to mark the occasion, as I lay down to go to sleep that night…
Within about a day of ALICE NINE.’s tickets for their September 3rd live going on general sale, they completely sold out. That’s a great achievement for the band, but as Saga rightfully pointed out, it also means that a lot of people who wanted to go attend in person won’t be able to (even if a small number of people who bought tickets sell them afterwards). I’m in that boat myself, though for a different reason altogether. I have to admit, I find it odd that they only allowed sale of THANKS tickets directly to international attendees, and didn’t give them the option of buying regular tickets as well (though I’m very glad that they did create an international-friendly sales page). Especially considering THANKS tickets holders are furthest back and the last to enter for standing. International attendees would have been happy to pay for full-price tickets, just like everyone else…
But that’s neither here nor there. It’s all done now. SHOU did tweet months ago when the freeze was originally announced that there would be a broadcast of some kind, so I’m hoping that will be the case, and that I (and lots of others) will be able to attend virtually. It’s the next best thing! I will never say no to waking up extra early for an ALICE NINE. live…★
Given that I truly can’t attend the Last Galaxy final in person (and not just because tickets are now sold out), I’m going to attend the show that the Smashing Pumpkins are playing in Ottawa for their The World Is A Vampire tour.
Now I’d better go get ready for the engagement party. If I have time, I’ll make blueberry scones to bring for dessert…
Saga and ALICE NINE. have completed their Act 4 Summer tour and now all that’s left is the big finale in September. It seems pretty definitive that I won’t be able to travel to Japan and attend in person… but I will be with Saga and the band in spirit. It is sad… logistically, I just can’t see a way to do it, barring a miracle. So I’m just going to support and cheer on from afar and look forward to (hopefully) going to attend something that Saga does after the freeze… ♡♪
I’m currently working on interview translations for the deep-dive for Funeral (so much glorious content) and then I’ll move on to the GEMINI suite. It is strange, I admit, but even though I consider the GEMINI suite (and album, of course) to have been such a huge influence in my art, I’ve kind of been skirting around the prospect of translating the lyrics of the suite in full. Oh, I’ve read them many times (listened even more) — it’s just that, I’ve been afraid of making them sound less epic than they are. But that’s silly. The original poetry will shine through no matter what. It helps that a fellow 9kumi asked me if I planned to do deep-dives on those songs, giving me an even more concrete reason to face that imposter syndrome and just do the thing!
So there you have it.
I’m doing it.
And the imagery of the lyrics is exactly as rich, as introspective, and as epic as the music sounds.
It was much later than I’d planned, but I finally recorded the Brothers Grimm fairytale that I rewrote to start the newest series that will be part of The Side B Anthology: Sable’s Tales, or ST for short. It was really fun to adapt The Seven Ravens in my own writing style and so I will slowly add more to the series. It was fun to record the narration too, of course; here’s an outtake of me making fun of one of my voices to Scout (who attended the recording by snoozing underneath the comforter of the bed behind me).
This weekend I intended to sit down at my laptop and write more for Casseltaur, but instead had a sudden flash of inspiration for the next fairytale re-write so I ended up typing away at that instead until I had a first draft. As a kid, one of my favourites was Little Red Riding Hood, but having read a few versions and retellings over the years, I had a very clear idea of how I wanted to shape it in my own words.
This is basically just a fix-it fic lol.
Casseltaur, meanwhile, gets weirder each time I sit down to do the worldbuilding for it.
Which, of course, is a good thing. :p
I’m now on week two at my new job and the amount of change it has brought about in my day-to-day life already is incredible. Scout and I get lots more time together, for one thing. Aside from that, my commute is actually pretty energizing now (what?!), and I have so much more time and energy during the week to clean, run errands, and even write and translate. The new team I’ve joined are great bunch of clever, funny people and I’ve barely scratched the surface so far of what I’m going to need to learn to do this new job correctly, but they’re all very supportive, and this kind of challenge is exactly what I wanted.
Also, this week I started watching episodes of Gundam The Witch From Mercury before work while eating breakfast. It really takes me back to my childhood, watching anime in the morning over a bowl of cereal… キャリバーンがやっとデター！Obviously I want to watch the latest Dragon Ball stuff (lol), but the next thing on my list is とつくにの少女 (The Girl From The Other Side), which I started reading the manga of a year or so ago, but stopped because I couldn’t get the next volume, I think. In any case, I hope watching it will be just as beautiful and mysterious.
In terms of live-action TV, what I recently finished watching was the arctic season (6) of the survival series “Alone” (set in Northwest Territories, Canada). I used to watch quite a number of similar wilderness survival series back in the day because seeing people living off the land and personally finding the pockets of abundance in a given landscape is both impressive and soothing, in a way. CONTEXT and Casseltaur both involve living in an arctic zone at some points in the plot, so my watching was sort of research-ish…? I did learn a number of really cool facts as I watched, anyway.
Also: one of the survival experts was basically an arctic Forrest Gump… if that isn’t a good enough endorsement, I don’t know what is. Haha.
One of the survival experts made an incredibly beautiful, durable shelter and was just so adept at creating handmade things from natural materials. Another was doing fine in terms of shelter and food but decided to leave early because he realized that time with his wife and kids was more valuable than the prize money (or bragging rights) he could win if he spent more time away from them… nothing but respect from me for that mindset.
Last night it was a documentary about the concept of infinity that I watched (A Trip to Infinity) and it was a delightfully strange thought exercise for my mind — it gave me goosebumps in the best possible way. I think it’s safe to consider this research-ish as well. As much time as I’ve spent thinking about the concept of infinity and of how our universe is configured, there were several things I hadn’t considered before — facts that tilted, stretched, and reframed my imagination and thinking on the subject.
The office surprised me with a pizza lunch the day before my last, and I really do mean surprised. I was working the last thirty minutes til my actual lunchtime, enjoying my music and the stillness of the room as everyone else went to work in another, when my fellow team lead came up to my desk with a serious question and asked if we could go talk. I felt kind of concerned and followed her. She led me to the closed board room door saying we should talk in there and motioned for me to open the door. When I saw that the room was completely full of coworkers apparently having a meeting, I automatically made to close the door, but before it was shut, everyone was saying “surprise!”
Feeling somewhere between sheepish and embarrassed, I went inside and thanked them (my fellow team lead had not allowed me to shut the door and make the tactical retreat I had intended to).
My embarrassment wore off as they started cutting the pizzas, and I thanked them all again (also mock-complained, “you guys really got me!”). Those two huge slices were definitely a tasty alternative to the sandwich that I had brought with me that morning.
Then, finally, it was my last day at the office I’d been working at for years, that I was going in to every day for most of the pandemic. I’d had quite a bit of notice and time to prepare beforehand so all of my responsibilities and jobs had been neatly handed over to others before I left (with plenty of time to train each person and make sure they were comfortable with the hand-over), the result being that I had no regrets upon stepping out the door for the last time yesterday afternoon.
I felt light, ready for the next chapter of my life to begin.
So I decided to kick it off by leaving early and going to Bluesfest for the first time since 2019.
Going back to this music festival after so many years was fun, even comforting — but I am also so much more centered now than I was back then. It didn’t feel like a new beginning, it felt like taking the next step in my life by leaving my old job, and then setting foot in this familiar place, days away from starting a new one.
The weather was warm but the breeze was cool making of the evening a perfect one for going to see some bands play outdoors.
I was a little late arriving to the River Stage for the first act, Pony Girl, so I encountered them mid-song, having never heard them play before. They were having such a blast on stage, it was impossible not to get into their music. When they suddenly played a clarinet solo outta left field, I knew I was in the right place, their songs delightfully unusual — art pop being a music genre I hadn’t been familiar with until their performance. Thumbs up for these talented, energetic, local musicians!
The frontman told the crowd they were having an amazing time playing for us that evening, which was especially important considering the night before had been the exact opposite: their rehearsal space had started flooding… with sewage. Yikes, man. He gave us extremely clear (read: comically roundabout) directions to the merch tent to buy their new album, and then got emotional thanking us for coming out to see them — because there’s nothing quite as special as “playing music with your best friends.”
And it showed. They just kept grinning at one another, sharing said jam session among friends with us, the crowd.
We cheered as they ended their set and began clearing away their instruments and equipment for the next band as the sun began to set.
As the sun continued to set, casting warm golden light onto the stage, Allison Russell came out with her band, beaming at us in her glittering blazer. Though she lives and works in the US, Allison Russell explained (en français) that she grew up in Montréal and that performing at Ottawa Bluesfest had been a longtime dream of hers. A dream so big that she’d missed her daughter’s first performance in a play to fulfil it… and we, the crowd, were grateful for her and her band’s presence that night.
I’d never heard any of Allison Russell’s music before and was touched by her lyrical storytelling through her radiant singing voice and radiant, radical message of love, peace, and acceptance. She spoke of growing up with an abusive adoptive father, of running away from the abuse, finding her chosen family, and of slowly unlearning the shame that her adoptive father had forced on her through his white supremacist ideals. It made the overpowering sense of love, compassion, empathy, and acceptance in her songs that much more beautiful. She introduced each member of the band as part of her circle, her chosen family, and all four of them radiated with purpose as they played, whether the song was sad and heartfelt or whether it was uplifting and euphoric.
They took their final bow to our enthusiastic applause.
The crowd packed in elbow-to-elbow as they cleared away equipment and rearranged the stage between bands; the sun had set entirely when Fleet Foxes came onstage as a cheer went up from the crowd. Their opening vocal harmonies were so soft, so clear, and finally seeing them live I understood that up to four band members would sing together at once for those beautiful, layered melodies, that it wasn’t several tracks layered together as I had figured. It was a wonder to see and to hear. I was also fascinated by all the different instruments they played throughout the performance.
The crowd was utterly thrilled by the performance (me included), singing along to songs, whooping, cheering, calling out to the band — and the band seemed pleasantly surprised by this enthusiasm, with the frontman continually exclaiming “thank you so much!” with a grin after almost every song.
Hey man, that’s our line! 🙂
It was particularly meaningful to me to hear Your Protector, Blue Ridge Mountains, and Blue Spotted Tail live, three of my favourite songs by them. Your Protector gave me chills… Blue Spotted Tail was so quiet and beautiful, the lyrics deeply touching. Something about Blue Ridge Mountain’s lyrics just puts the coziest sort of image in my mind.
I heard about their self-titled album through one of Saga’s entries on his old ameblo. It wasn’t nearly as easy to sample albums back in those days, so I just decided to trust Saga’s taste and buy it on a whim — it became one of the most-listened to albums in my library (especially when I was writing), and is the album that clued me in to the fact that folk rock is one of my favourite genres. Thanks, Saga! ♪
They played right up until the minute it turned 11, and then they stopped and left the stage… an Ottawa bylaw prohibits loud noises past that time, so even though the whole crowd was ready to call out “one more song!” (and I’m sure the band would have wanted to play one) they wouldn’t have been allowed to do an encore.
It was a gorgeous concert.
I made my way home, tired but glad that I’d gotten to hear such great sets, and went to bed as Saga and アリス九號., on the other side of the world, were setting up to play what would turn out to be a seriously wild and passionate live at 新潟NEXS… ♡♪
It was truly a momentous occasion at ホームBASS last night, as Scout discovered that mixed in with cans of food and a bag of litter were some new toys! But not just any toys. Bath toys. That float.
He hasn’t had another bath yet, but he was absolutely delighted to just be able to admire his new ocean friends before bed.
This morning I drifted back and forth between the offline writing laptop and the web-dev laptop, preparing a new page for Alice9Lives while Scout cooled off, belly-up, on the hardwood floor. He’s a perfectly strange character, and I wouldn’t have it any other way! Just after breakfast, he was having fun untying the bow of the ribbon I use to keep some kitchen cupboards shut. He untied it and then carried the ribbon over to me, utterly pleased with himself. I had to figure out another way to tie it to keep my little tactician out of trouble lol
I spent the afternoon chatting with other writers at the monthly pub meet-up and aside from just relaxing and catching eachother up on our writing lives (during which time I heard yet more interesting bits of advice), we also discussed how to keep the monthly meet-ups going because the current Ottawa Writers’ Circle is set to close at the end of the month. We sat around the pub tables and discussed rudimentary plans to keep parts of the group going under a new name. At the very least, we wanted to make sure we’d all know where and when to meet up again the following month.
I volunteered a subdomain for this purpose (until or unless we decide to buy a domain as a group), and others volunteered to take on organizational responsibilities so we could carry over some elements of the original group (it has a huge online user base and had many events, so we just chose to focus on maintaining the core elements for now).
Much like last month, a contingent of introverts stayed behind at the end for a bit of extra conversation (myself included) and then, once more running into another meet-up group that needed our space, we said a quick goodbye and headed our separate ways. My feet carried me to a newer shop downtown: Midori Gifts.
Correction: I intended to go to right to Midori Gifts to peruse the cute stationery imported from East Asia, and was on the right street, but I walked almost four blocks in the wrong direction. Yep. I completely passed the store front. When I finally checked the map and realized my mistake, I felt incredibly embarrassed (also amused) and made a u-turn. The store’s selection was exactly as cute as I’d expected. I may or may not have bought a new eraser and sketching pen to add to my regular lineup…
Oh, I got one other thing out of the afternoon: a mild sunburn. This, despite having slathered on sunscreen beforehand! Ah, well… nothing a bit of deep moisturizing tonight and tomorrow won’t soothe. I was craving a salad of all things on the way home (fun fact: the tastiest salad I’ve had in the city so far is from my fav pizza bar) so I picked up some greens and Scout and I have been settled in at home ever since. In fact, we’re enjoying having the windows open for some fresh air tonight, since there’s no smoke and the temperature has cooled…
Over in Japan, Saga is preparing to go onstage with the other members of アリス九號. in Sapporo… ♡♪
Is it just me, or was the latest season of Black Mirror gorier than usual? Another excellent selection of thought-provoking short stories, though, and superbly acted. I ended up watching the whole season over the weekend, riveted to my seat with horror.
The rest of the week I’ve felt depleted of energy, though. Not exhausted, but depleted. I’m not sure how to explain the difference, but I suppose it’s something like this: exhaustion is sort of pleasant after putting a lot of effort into something, and a good night’s sleep will generally fix it, but depletion is a persistent lack of energy that a good night’s sleep can’t remedy. Normally, I wake up before my alarm, but this week I’ve struggled to get out of bed with enough time to catch the bus. And I keep forgetting to charge my phone.
If I think of it with a bit of emotional distance, as though it were a scene in a book, it’s almost comical, the number of times I groan and hit snooze, completely out of it. Even Scout, who normally will wiggle himself under my pillow to wake me up for breakfast, isn’t trying to get me up every morning. It’s like he can tell I’m not myself this week.
I finished reading Carmilla (a rec from the Queer for Fear documentary) and was pleasantly surprised by how overtly queer-coded it is and by the fact that I found the writing style more or less enjoyable to read. That’s saying something, because I normally find novels from that time period a bit of a slog to get through.
After the first half of the first season of Gundam The Witch from Mercury, every other episode has at least one scene that is like an emotional gut-punch. It’s good, just… emotionally harrowing.
The cover art for the Everyforest is still very much a work in progress, but last night’s sketch feels promising.
Last weekend I finished the first installment of a new anthology which I am tempted to call Sable’s (Tall) Tales. It will simply be a collection of classic fairytales that I’ve re-written in my own style and these, of course, will end up on the podcast eventually. The first story I chose to re-write was The Seven Ravens, because I simply loved the sister protagonist’s bravery in going on a quest alone to free her brothers –and the fact that the originally translated text implied that she had a disability. I made this much more overt — a gutsy, clever heroine who saves her brothers with a support of her trusty walker.
Saga seems to have mostly left Twitter at this point, and so there’s very little reason for me to stay on the site either. Rather than move firmly to Mastodon or some other microblogging platform, it seems more sensible for me to try and get back into the groove of long-form blogging instead.
They released another photo of Saga’s birthday hoodie and there IS a UFO on it. Has the inside of the Nose Mountain been visited by aliens?
Find out on the next episode of The S-files…
🛸✨👃
Ahem.
The design for the T-shirt is even more intricate than I had realized, too, and the symmetry of the two pointing fingers makes the eyes even more compelling somehow. I love the ST logo as well, and the colours… ♪
The silver amethyst pendant is simple, classic, and beautiful, but since I already have an amethyst pendant… ♡
Oh, and I’ve finally finished translating the entire GRACE album; they’re all up in the Cryptography section! They’re beautiful. I’m glad I took the time to fully understand and reflect on all of them.
I went to bed before finishing the writing of this entry, and finally woke up just before my alarm this morning feeling relatively well-rested. Scout was very pleased that I decided to join him at the window begore breakfast to see what little creatures were scurrying about outside.
In preparation for Saga’s birthday today me and Scout made pizza from scratch for the first time in a while yesterday (I have a cake in mind to make for tonight or tomorrow, too). This was meant to lead up to an online pizza party this morning, but unfortunately Saga felt too physically wrecked from the lives earlier in the week and so had to cancel. I’m a little worried about how Saga must be feeling, but glad that he chose to cancel the event instead of pushing himself. Hopefully he still had enough energy (and wasn’t in too much pain) to enjoy his birthday to some degree with family or friends… feel better soon, Saga. ♡
It’s been a very slow day here for me and Scout — intentionally. I did a little tinkering on the laptop in the early morning but then both me and Scout laid down and napped on and off into the afternoon while I did bits of editing on my phone. I had the leftover pizza while watching some more extremely cute episodes of はじめてのつかい and then gave Scout a bath. He actually splashed the water with his paw a little! I have every intention of getting him a floating rubber duckie for future baths to see if he’ll play with it… he’s basically a mischievous little kid.
Scout’s currently sitting next to me, grooming his still-damp fur, but it’s just about time for his allergy medication and his supper, so I’m off to do that.
I hope you have space to relax this weekend, drink plenty of water, and do something you enjoy.
The writing circle meet-up last weekend was just as interesting as the first one that I went to, but for an entirely different reason this time. I didn’t participate all that much during the meet-up proper — the energy was a little different than the last time, where we were all sort of discussing in small groups and having fantastic conversations that spanned a wide array of subjects. The gathering felt somehow a little sour this time. That is, until people slowly left and there were just two of us at the table, the other person having spoken even less than I had during the gathering.
The thing about introverts is we become more talkative and relaxed the smaller the gathering becomes. So I took a chance and asked her if she’d like to sit a little longer to talk some more… and she was happy to. As it turned out, she writes screenplays which is a format I’ve never attempted before, so I had plenty of questions about it and we both got to talk about our WIPs and the differences between our preferred formats. As obvious a thing to say as this is, it’s truly comforting and fun to talk to fellow writers.
We probably would have stayed to chat even longer had an organizer not come up to us in the restaurant we were in and asked us if we were there for a “language exchange” meet-up that was being set up in the area ours had been in. We said no and excused ourselves, paid for our drinks, and parted ways.
On the way home I perused my local comic book shop to admire their wall of Gundam plastic model kits (I refrained from buying one on the spot), and to take a look at some of the newest comics and graphic novels on display (it’s not new, but I still need to get the latest Saga volume), and then I left to take the long way home because the weather was fantastic (warm, but with a cool breeze).
I hadn’t intended to do any shopping at all during my walk, but when I noticed that Nordstrom was in the last couple days of its store closing sale, I couldn’t resist taking a look (a couple weeks before, I’d nabbed a heavily discounted YSL lipstick I’d had my eye on for years) and ended up finding a very comfy pair of leggings along with a holy grail find of two bras in my (specialty petite!) size in a style that I liked. Talk about lucky.
I didn’t have the energy to make anything complicated for supper when I got home, so I made a comfort meal of そうめん (cold noodles) with side dishes of cold tofu and sliced tomatoes. As always I had to fend Scout off several times, as he wanted to either sniff or stick his paw into the noodles, but after that we just relaxed and ate side by side.
I bought great new PS4 games when I was in Japan, but wouldn’t you know it? Instead of playing those, I’ve been hooked on replaying Dragon Age Inquisition instead. I finally cleared the trebuchet battle (without lowering the difficulty, heheh) so I set about exploring Skyhold and clearing up some minor quests before bed. And then woke up in the middle of the night and played some more until I could fall back to sleep.
Before that, though, I made some more notes for the next story, which I expect will be a novella or at most a short novel. Even now I’m still more or less in the outlining phase, but that Sunday, I did start the writing proper, though with a lot of false starts. It’s been in my mind since 2018, so I have bits of writing from that year and 2019 to incorporate in it (or discard if it no longer aligns) which is rather exciting in and of itself. A bit of spring cleaning for the imagination, you might say.
I even added another old art piece to the home page — void/eden from 2018.
In the week since I’ve put a bit more work into a short story that’s been percolating in my brain for a number of months and I finished translations for a few more アリス九號. lyrics (though they still need a bit of editing before I can post them). Though given that I worked yesterday, I’ll be spending a good deal of time, I expect, giving in to Scout’s requests for naps and pets…
Sounds like a good way to spend an afternoon to me 🙂
p.s. I ate yogurt all throughout childhood without any issues, but when I became a teenager, the smell suddenly started making me gag and ever since then I’d been keeping my distance from the stuff. Well, wouldn’t you know it? I recently figured out a way to trick my brain into eating it again! I take plain greek yogurt, slather it in my favourite salsa, and eat it with chips as a replacement for sour cream! Paired with the salsa, as long as I eat it while its still cold, I really can’t smell the difference between it and sour cream. I wonder if I’d be able to eat it with pierogis and green onion…
A couple evenings ago, Stephany and I met up again in order to attend another concert at the NAC. Last time we’d gone to see a concert that featured Vivaldi’s Four Seasons (and a disco ball out in the main hall afterwards, to our delight), and this time we were out to see a concert featuring Bryan Cheng, a cellist from our hometown of Ottawa.
This time, we had plenty of time before the concert was to start so we decided to go chat over milkshakes beforehand. We got our wires crossed right off the bat though, when I wasn’t clear enough with one of my texts, and so I went to the mall to meet her and she went right to the the milkshake bar. Luckily, we realized the mix-up quickly and I power walked my way to meet her where she’d already saved us the best seat in the house.
Not only is the name For God Shakes a great pun, the milkshakes were also pretty damn good. We talked about work a little, and then finished up our shakes over anecdotes about our cats because Scout and Marcel are always zooming around and getting up to silliness.
In this case, said silliness was getting their humans so distracted with talking about them that said humans had to dash out of the shop or risk being late for the concert! So off we went as quickly as we could, stopping only for a moment to laugh about the fact that we’d both worn cuffed pants and boots that were very similar in style. Our power walking didn’t quite cut it, though, and we arrived just a minute too late to go in. We had to stand outside the doors and watch the first piece in the concert from a screen before they would let us in.
Then, when they did let us in, we arrived at our seats but were perplexed when we found that they were already occupied. A pair of elderly ladies, thinking that they would remain vacant, chose to move into them but upon seeing our confused and/or frantic looks explained and moved without us even having to ask. I was thankful for that because I’d just about entered anxiety-mode and begun wondering if I’d read the map wrong and gone to the wrong side of the room! Crisis averted. We hurriedly settled into our seats and then Bryan Cheng and the conductor readied themselves and launched into the second piece.
The piece was brought to life beautifully by the orchestra and the cello had such a soft, warm sound. After that piece, the conductor left the stage and Bryan Cheng regaled the audience of his hometown with an unusual and lovely piece on the cello that would probably normally be meant for a fiddle. He also gave us all a good chuckle by demonstrating a “chop” on the cello (he very dramatically rapped the strings on the bridge once with his hand before starting the piece).
This bit of levity (followed by much applause and cheering afterwards) led into the intermission and Stephany and I got to talking about Japanese studies and using the Japanese language. She told me a little about what the most advanced Japanese course offered in the city was like, and I told her about the kanji studying app I was back to using after half a year away from it (Kanji Study — it’s incredibly versatile for self-directed study especially… I used it before taking the N2). I also told her that the JLPT is now offered in our city (and that we no longer need to travel to Toronto for it).
…I still intend to achieve N1 certification, even if it takes me a couple tries.
But I digress.
The orchestra returned to the stage, the lights dimmed, and once more they drew us into an incredible piece of music that was filled with so much energy and dramatic high points. I normally get lulled into a doze partway through classical concerts because they’re so relaxing, but this music had me awake from start to finish! Despite the fact that we missed the first piece of the night, it was a gorgeous concert and we both had a good evening taking it all in… which is not to mention how enjoyable it was to catch up too!
On the way back to the train, we got to talking about the last piece and what we’d each imagined, and it was so interesting that while we both got the same energetic impression of the music, we both imagined different scenery: Stephany imagined a stormy sea and running through a forest, while I imagined huge snowdrifts and powdery snow blowing up and away in the wind.
A little while back, Scout found a new way to get me up in the morning for breakfast: by burrowing under my pillow so that I would have no choice but to sit up.
Cute and clever, right?
Well, this morning Scout decided to up his game and got even craftier.
He decided to burrow himself into the damn pillowcase.
When I sat up and saw what he’d done, I burst out laughing.
Once again (to Scout’s delight) I stayed home from work, as I was still positive yesterday evening and still positive this evening too; I have only a bit of a cough now but with any luck, I’ll be negative by tomorrow morning. That being said, I took full advantage of the fact that I was feeling better to do more writing and cleaning up today — and getting a few hundred words on the page yesterday was such a relief.
Leaving my phone in the other room on silent was too.
It was just me and the page, my imagination, a jumble of words.
Scout kept walking back and forth over the keyboard for the first twenty minutes of my attempt at writing yesterday (while I spluttered and laughed in despair), but seemed to understand, eventually, that he should just let me focus, and went to lie down and relax, still in sight. It was an afternoon, like many, in which we shared a companionable silence.
So far today I only managed a few sentences before I had to go lie down and take a nap and when I woke up decided to start preparing a bunch of loads of laundry (which I won’t be able to go out and do until I’m negative) and do more cleaning and vacuuming to try and make this place feel less stuffy. While I was rummaging through things in a drawer, Scout decided to lounge on the v-kei magazine piles and ended up looking like a fluffy little dragon guarding his hoarde of gold.
