Recent events (see: tripping on a run like a cartoon character and destroying my knees) has made me think, did anyone else's mom/parent think peak first aid was applying hydrogen peroxide directly to open wounds? This isn't even me picking on my mom, I think it was just a 90s parenting thing, but dear god they were just out there giving us micro chemical burns like it weren't no thing
I also disassociated at work yesterday by reading about Strahd (of Curse of Strahd fame) and after learning his backstory I declare him the Count of Cringefail, what an absolute loser, I love him
Vacation approaches!
I work today and then have tomorrow off, during which time I need to pack and do a few chores/errands, and after that I'm off Friday through uhhhhhh I think Tuesday??? I don't have my calendar in front of me but basically I have a really long weekend and it'll be nice. I have to drive six hours to get to St Paul on Friday, which is gross, but that's what gastropodcast is for!
I did also finish the third of Drizzt's origin trilogy at work yesterday and, truthfully, the trilogy as a whole is among my favorite books now! I didn't expect to like Drizzt as a character as much as I did, but he and the books themselves are extremely up my alley. I really enjoy straightforward adventure stories wherein the main character(s) is a person of good intentions who tries to be fair and kind. It may not be edgy, or particularly academically interesting, but it makes me happy to play pretend with it. I don't know if I'll read more Drizzt books, because there's approximately eight thousand of them, but maybe when I finish my readthrough of Vampire Hunter D light novels I can start digging through those. I've been told Drizzt does get "darker" in some of his arcs, but I was told that by someone whose media opinion I don't entirely trust, so I'll definitely have to see for myself.
As for right now he's just a little guy who likes animals and wears a unicorn necklace
I should probably go on a run before work today but my knees still hurt and I just ..................don't wanna. Maybe I'll go stretch my legs on the treadmill, at least??? I should, so I will, but my body is ready to not have capitalism-run timelines and schedules for a few days
OH speaking of Drizzt, there was a section in Exile that hit way harder than a book about a special boy dark elf going on adventures has any right to--
The backstory is at this point Drizzt has fled Menzo and lived in the harsh wilds of the Underdark for several years. He's lonely and gone a little feral, and at one point realizes that if he doesn't find a home and people, he's going to lose his kindness and humanity. So he surrenders himself to a nearby deepgnome village, where he cannot speak much of their language and struggles to show he has peaceful intentions. He gets taken in by a deepgnome named Belwar and slowly endears himself to the village; prior to this scene he was talking to a group of children and telling them stories, but he has what I'd call with modern terms a panic attack while remembering a fight with a basilisk and freaks out. He's deeply ashamed and worried he might hurt the children, so he hides himself.
Drizzt tries in broken language to explain why he's dangerous and says "This beast follows me" and I dunno man that, as a descriptor for trauma, just really fucking got to me
Anyways, Belwar convinces him to tell stories to the children and he does and the narrative point is that the beast of his past (being raised in Lolthsworn Drow society, the murder of his father/mentor, escaping that society, living feral and alone in dangerous wilds) will always follow him, but in time and with love it gets easier to let it pass you by.
and................yeah it do be like that, huh?
beep boop shmeep shmop
Prep day!
I woke up extremely grumpy and tired of being a grown-up, made worse by being forced to grown-up via my appointment to get my tire fixed. I was so grumpy I almost cancelled the appointment and convinced myself to just keep topping off the slow leak tire and deal with it later, but I persevered and went to the tire place. I ended up having to get all new tires, because the leaky tire needed to be replaced and my other tires are extremely old (original to the car, which is a 2018, so) and tl;dr it was one of those things I didn't necessarily want to do right now, but made the most financial and car safety sense to do right now, especially with a Labor Day sale that knocked a few hundo off the price.
(as I was wrapping up the purchase the clerk said I could also get my brakes replaced for blah blah blah deal and out loud I said "Oh no thank you" but in my head I said "sir you do not seem to understand that if I spend one more minute in this automotive repair shop I will scream")
After that I went and got a few groceries, tidied up the apartment, and then tbh crashed for a bit because I was running out of spoons
but! I took a nap, then took a shower, and ordered dinner and now I'm feeling much better and excited for my trip tomorrow. I'm going to spend the rest of the evening packing in-between playing some video games and plan to hop in bed pretty early so I can wake up early and zip to St Paul
I am back in Chicago!
I technically was yesterday but tbh only in body, after the weekend and the extremely long drive (Labor Day traffic turned an already painful six hours into almost seven) I had only enough energy to halfway unpack, eat dinner, then collapse into bed at like 9:30 PM.
Thankfully past Erika hooked me up and I have today off as a recovery/chores/etc. day, so I got a good night's sleep, nabbed some groceries, cooked a food, and after I write this I'm gonna take Baby Dog on a nice afternoon walk since it's a really pretty day outside. It's starting to feel more autumnal, which is refreshing.
Toescon recap!
On Friday I woke up early and left, as planned, and the drive was fine. I listened to a few episodes of Gastropod, which I enjoy as a podcast and which also has about 45 min/50 min episodes, so I can kinda break the drive down as "oh only three more Gastropod episodes." However, I got sleepy because driving from Chicago to St. Paul is fucking boring as fuck it's all just flat prairie on like one interstate, so I switched to music about halfway through. Once I got to St. Paul we hung out at Masquehouse for a bit until it was time to check into the AirBnB, and once we did that we decided to be slug people and played board games/ordered food/etc. It was nice! We played Forbidden Island and a new version I got, Forbidden Jungle. We also played a few rounds of Magic and did some acrylic paint pours with supplies I brought!
On Saturday we went to the Minnesota State Fair, which I think is one of the biggest state fairs in the country, if not the biggest. At a quick Google Texas might have a larger one in terms of ground covered, but MN's is pretty famous. We saw sheeps and goats and bunnies, meandered around to look at various absurd foods on sticks, and generally vibed and had a good time. After that we fled back to the AirBnB for more slug time, since we were pretty overstimmied from the amount of people and noise.
(Something that's extremely nice about hanging out with other neurodivergent/neurodivergent-friendly people is we all were open about communicating when something was overstimulating, or being unoffended if someone was like "hey this is too loud I'm gonna stand over here and just come get me when you're done" or whatever. We also all respected each other's "rectangle time" which is what we call it when you want to flop on a surface and stare at your phone/tablet/game device/etc for a bit. I dunno, just super peaceful and nice to have an entire group of people who are like yeah, everybody's comfort and time is valid and important, without making a big deal about it.)
Sunday we went to the conservatory and zoo! We took a group picture in front of a butt--
--and enjoyed looking at plants and animals. On the way back to the AirBnB we stopped at a big Asian grocery store to buy lots of snacks, which we ate while playing D&D later that afternoon. It was a really good session, Rex had a bunch of plot stuff happen and gets to take a level in paladin!!! my son!!! my baby boy!!!
Anyways after that, more slug time, and then the Monday following was when we had to check out of the AirBnB and go our separate ways. We did have time for a morning walk to get breakfast sammies at a coffee shop, though.
It was nice and much-needed time with people who I love!
Today I go back to work but tbh I don't even care because a) I only work two days before I'm on my weekend and b) I switch to motherfuckin' day shift on Sunday LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO