We’ve had some chilly mornings this week! Enough for me to wear my sweater during my walks, which I’ve enjoyed more than usual as a result.

However, this week also had some lows. On and off I’ve been a tad depressed, in spite of so much to look forward to. Time is moving very slowly for us right now, as we are excited about the very immediate future, and it all seems so slowly in coming. It’s stressful, and some of the happiness I feel feels wrong, for complicated reasons. It will get better, as will the stress and anxiety, but it feels as though time is passing like molasses, as they say.

I’ve also had a litany of minor accidents, maybe my mind being so lost in “stuff” has made me careless. As of Friday morning when I write this (which I will finish in the evening) it doesn’t feel like a great week, but that might change as the day goes on, who knows.

🦆 Sunday 🦆

On Sunday I saw a cute duck during my walk, just foraging in the grass. It wasn’t scared of me so I was able to get a good photo.

I took a different route on this day, which I’m sure I will take again. It’s very peaceful and with nice views.

Here are a couple of photos of Rosemary and Elliot that I took in the afternoon…

🌈 Monday 🌈

Monday was productive but also a bit lonesome because Christopher had to work late. I kept busy though, and had a pretty good day overall. In the morning, I went on a very long walk. It was nice and cold. I went all the way to Barnes and Noble and got a cheap little book, then walked to our local Cuban coffee shop and had lunch while I read. It was so pleasant.

I took a break from commissions to play Yoshi’s Island. This game is so cute and colorful!

🍀 Tuesday 🍀

On Tuesday I met a sluggy friend at the start of my walk! It was so big! I wanted to take it home with me so badly, but it was not a good time to do that. I never see these guys, just their trails. It was longer than my index finger.

This one was really fast moving, too. It was moving right over the hot sidewalk too, in the middle of a very dry day. Very odd. I wanted to assist it to the grass, but I didn’t want to touch it, so for a bit I didn’t know what to do.

In the end I grabbed the biggest blade of grass I could find, and had it crawl over it. Then I could gently pick it up and place it on the grass it was trying to move towards all along.

It disappeared into the grass very quickly. Kinda made my day to see it. Gastropods are so cool!

I stopped by the Cuban place again after my long walk. More reading and snacking delicious food after (or rather in the middle/as a break from) exercise. It’s such a delight.

I bought Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea today because watching Nadia: The Secret Of Blue Water has me really excited to read it (and I’ve wanted to for years anyway). In addition, Christopher let me have a special treat today!

The Jurassic Park / The Lost World special edition from Barnes & Noble. I’m so excited to read it!

During two of my walks this week, I listened to a new podcast (well, new to me): Medical Murders. I started with this two-parter about Dr. Morris Bolber. I highly recommend it and have embedded it below:

CW: Blood mention in the paragraph below.

On this day I also managed to pinch my finger with the camera tripod quite terribly, but the skin didn’t break. I did bleed a good amount, under the skin, which had never happened to me before! It grew into a large blood bubble. I had to poke it with a needle like three times during the afternoon, just trying to get all the blood out. It was so painful! And would only be the first “accident” I had this week.

🩹 Wednesday 🩹

To begin with, while I was having breakfast on Wednesday morning, our neighbor’s sprinkler burst quite spectacularly:

Most of Wednesday was wonderful. I worked on commissions and on personal art, and overall made a lot of progress. I did housework, and our friend’s brother worked for hours in his future bedroom. I had to bring down a lot of the things I had hanging on the wall, since his work on the other side was making them move around rather precariously. But by the evening, the wall no longer had holes, and the closet door frame was nice and smooth:

In the late afternoon, I went on my walk and also to the grocery store, determined to make a nice dinner for Christopher. Shopping went well, but by the time I left the store, it was nighttime, and here is when my day went from pleasant to, well, not so. 😟

Recently, I’ve had more and more instances of running into shady people on the sometimes nearly-pitch-black streets during my evening walks. I try to avoid it, but sometimes I leave the house too close to sunset without realizing it.

Some instances I suspect are likely nothing, but still scary, such as the van that was stopped ahead of me recently, as though waiting, and when I saw it and stopped walking, waiting for it to drive off, it instead backed all the way up until it reached me, and when I started frantically walking ahead again trying to get away, a woman in the passenger seat began to relentlessly try to get my attention, only to apologize profusely when I began to call Christopher on the phone (and then driving off).

These people were likely lost, and I felt silly to be frightened, but to have that happen in a dark empty street at night away from anyone is very scary, especially when you watch as many crime documentaries as I do. 😅 Anyway, there have been similar instances (which is why I’m glad to have the pepper spray Christopher got me) and that last one had left me a bit rattled. So I wasn’t happy that I didn’t make it out of Publix until after sunset on this particular day.

Because of this, I avoided the street on which the aforementioned event took place, since I feel so vulnerable there, and instead went in the direction of Pines Boulevard. This was much busier (technically) being the main street, but surprisingly dark too. I walked as fast as I could, with my big heavy cart full of groceries, pepper spray in hand.

At one point, I saw a man ahead of me, walking in my direction. Since we were both in the middle of the sidewalk, I moved all the way to the left. Instead of moving to the right to pass me, he did the same thing. I thought it was an awkward miscommunication, so I quickly moved all the way to the right, even though it was very hard to maneuver my heavy cart. Well… the man promptly did the same, as he continued to approach me while staring me down. He was trying to block my path in a very obvious manner. 😥

Now I knew I had a problem. Promptly I moved back to the left, rushing to pass him before he could try to block my way again, and as I did this, he very aggressively tried to get my attention, going “Excuse me, EXCUSE ME” not in the tone of someone who needs help, but in the tone of someone who is trying to intimidate or confront you. He got as physically close as he could, too. He sounded even angrier when I ignored him completely. I rushed ahead, looking back to make sure he wasn’t following me (thankfully he didn’t) and soon turned into the neighborhood.

I was pretty panicked, silly as it may sound, because this guy could have easily attacked me and I don’t think anyone would have noticed in time to help me. 😣 And the neighborhood was much darker and empty than the street where this took place. So I felt even more scared. I pushed my cart as fast as I could, almost running… and then suddenly everything turned upside down. There was a hard dip on the sidewalk, that at a slower speed or had my cart been less full, would have simply stopped me on my tracks. I could not see it in the dark. Well, stop me it did… but I was going so fast that the cart tipped over ahead of me, and I went completely over it. 🙃

I’m sure it would have been hilarious to see (though thankfully, no one did) but it was probably the most spectacular fall I ever had in my life. It was extremely painful, and so sudden. Having confirmed no bones were broken, I threw things back in my cart and tried to keep rushing on, only to notice that my cart was kind of wrecked and bent out of shape. It looked as though it may fall apart at any moment. This turned out not to be the case upon inspection at home, but at that moment it certainly seemed so, and just rolling it was almost impossible.

Here I started losing it, so I called Christopher (who, being still at work, could do nothing to help me) basically to cry at him. But as I try, three times, to explain what has happened, the call keeps breaking up. He can’t understand me, and is getting very worried; I’m getting frustrated beyond belief and nearly sobbing at this point –and then as I’m still on the phone with Christopher, our friend calls me. He was right by the house, moving more things in. I couldn’t believe my good fortune.

Anyway, he comes to rescue me, and as I’m sitting in his car and in the subsequent minutes the dull pain I had grows astronomically. I wanted to just have a good cry so badly. But there was a lot to do –get my groceries in, get his stuff in too. 😔 He calmed me down a little and left. But by then I’d lost all my motivation to make dinner, and my mood had tanked pretty badly and remained so even into the next morning.

I ended up having a hot dog for dinner, and that is after cookies… I just wanted to feel better. 🌭

Christopher was a little down on this evening, too. Back pain among other things. But we helped each other feel better.

✨ Thursday ✨

Even though I didn’t sleep so well, by the time I really started my morning I had perked up. ✊ All morning long Christopher kept teasing smiles out of me, and just being affectionate and sweet, it made me feel happier and I was significantly cheered up by the time he was off to work. He really has had such an impact in me just getting through this week. I don’t know what I would do without him.

I did some of my chores and had fun working on my half of a trade with Priddy, as well as even more commissions. 😊 And I finished reading this book:

It was quite good and I realized upon finishing that it’s by the same author who wrote Jip: His Story (another book I own and love) who, of course, is also the author of the famous Bridge To Terabithia which, surprisingly, I’ve never read. I guess I should, given that I clearly love Paterson’s writing.

In the afternoon Christopher and I spent lots of time together doing nothing but cuddling on the couch and talking –about our lives, our relationship, the future and its possibilities. Then I made dinner and we watched TV. And then we just went to bed. It was a quiet but cozy night.

In the evening I received Priddy’s half of our trade (you can see my half in the art summary below). Priddy is the first person to draw the bear version of my character:

I love everything about this drawing, it was a highlight of my day and quite fitting for this accident-filled week… 🤕

📚 Friday 📚

Overall, this week I have been doing a lot of reading. 📖 In addition to reading Lyddie from cover to cover and FINALLY finishing The Beasts Of Tarzan, I began Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Seas. 🦑

On Friday I finished yet another commission as well as a piece of personal art that might become a YCH. I cleaned the snail tank too, and a lot more work got done in the room for our friend by his brother –by end of day tomorrow, it should be fully finished and then we can take care of the final details, such as adding a closet system, reinstalling the fan and putting the closet doors back in place.

My stress level is still quite high, I’m still kinda down in the dumps, it comes and goes. Even tonight I’m still banged up from the fall, my arm and legs hurt, I’m irritable… but I’m also happy, I’ve gotten so much work done, and even when I feel down, Christopher is right here, keeping me grounded so to speak. Things will be right as rain again very soon. In the meantime, I’m working as hard as I can and staying focused.

🎨 Weekly Summary Of Art 🎨

Here is all the art I’ve completed and posted this week, in case you missed the individual posts!

I’m going to start posting these summaries every week. It’s really nice to just be able to see all my progress for a given week in one place (and if you missed anything, you can view it here).

Especially considering that this doesn’t take the weekend into account, it’s been a very productive week. I’ve more than halved my commission queue and even done personal art, gift art, and a trade! Not too bad. 😊 I’d like to get to Monday with the four remaining pieces in my queue lined.