Scout needed food yesterday so I got ready to run that errand and figured I might as well put on some makeup and turn the outing into a solo date at a café. Of course, as these things do, one thing led to another, and my original errand spawned several side quests.
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
I woke up to this sweet little baby angel (and occasional fluffy mischief-maker) cuddled up next to me in bed and after a good bit of reading, got up to start the day. The book? センチメンタルワールズエンド by 武瑠, which I have finally been able to return to after setting it aside for a while — my studying in the interim has made it much easier to understand. Not every word individually, obviously, but I’m much better able to understand sentences as a whole without having to know every word in them. I’m enjoying it so far, enjoying the descriptions and dialogue especially — the conversations have a natural feel to them (at least from my non-native speaker perspective…).
The pie pumpkins sitting on the kitchen table will have to wait another week or two before getting turned into baked goods because my mind is currently set on working through my third big edit of The Everyforest — which is what I set my mind to again after my early morning of reading.
I’ve already renamed the first chapter, added an extra passage, and reworked a lot of the wording. It’s something I should have done originally, but I still hadn’t let go of the idea that it needed to stay as it had been in order to match the audio narration. But the story had morphed so greatly between the first chapter and the last that it truly needed to be reshaped. And so the audio narration is a preservation of the story’s original draft, but the ebook/print will diverge from it quite a bit.
The days are getting colder, to the point where it may start snowing in the next few weeks so despite the looming rain and general chill, I made a point to leave my coat at home. One last hurrah.
After stocking up on food for Scout, I started walking home, keeping my eyes peeled for any cozy-looking cafés along the way, and instead found myself walking into a comic book shop. I’d intended to buy a Gundam Plastic Model kit, but they didn’t carry any that I wanted to build and I instead ended up perusing the shelves of graphic novels… and selecting a few that were on sale. I own a ton of comics and graphic novels, but in digital format, so it was a bit of a pleasure to indulge in physical copies for once.
Wet Moon, volume 3
The Last Book You’ll Ever Read
Beautiful Darkness
When I went back outside, the temperature felt as though it had dropped further. I took refuge indoors again, this time heading to Uniqlo with a mind to buy myself another top like the one I’d had on… but of course, it was already well out of season, so I had no luck there.
Until I noticed, lined up on a shelf, a little contigent of Doraemon plushies. Oh, the cuteness! I walked past.
And then I doubled back and picked one to bring home with me. I simply couldn’t resist. I paid for my magical little friend, feeling rather gleeful about the unexpected find (and the fact that I had bought the only thing in the store that wasn’t clothing of some kind), and made a beeline for the exit.
Finally, it was raining.
I thought I could make it to the café before it started pouring, but I barely had time to put up my umbrella before the rain started pelting the pavement.
I was a tiny bit soaked when I reached the café… but no worse for wear.
And very much in need of the peanut butter cookie and mocha I bought.
I didn’t start drinking coffee or tea regularly until I was in my late twenties and had severe social anxiety, so I never really developed a habit (an indulgence) of going to cafés or coffee shops on my own to read or study. It’s something I’m learning to enjoy now that the pandemic has ended and my anxiety is no longer severe — I wish I could share that sense of quiet mental freedom with my younger self who was petrified of being in the wider world alone, constantly worried about invisible social rules, scripts, and unknown spaces.
I sat in front of the window, listened to music, read a bit of one of the graphic novels, read a bit of an ebook.
I love the feeling of being cozy and warm indoors, watching rain falling out the window.
When I finally got home, shoes and umbrella dripping, Scout immediately swarmed me at the door, eager not only to sniff at what I’d bought but also to remind me that his suppertime was Very Soon. When Scout noticed our new friend sitting nonchalantly on the reading chair, he snuck up behind him and… caught Doraemon with his paw!
Then he went back to enjoying his supper.
Doraemon, meanwhile, mysteriously teleported to the living room couch, where he is still sitting as I type this… as far as I’m aware.