September Recap

Hooray! Jump for joy! Very first journal entry. Well.. technically not really, as i made another one before this. But this is the entry that comes first chronologically and is intended to recap the month prior because i don't feel like making a bunch of different entries leading up to 10/4/23 so i suppose we dont always get what we want. But whatever. September... a month filled with love and loss..

Lets start with the good: I went to a wedding out of state! Very fun. My mom knows the grooms' mom and apparently they knew me before i had gained self awareness so i do not remember this at all but i'll take their word for it. Because of this i was also invited to tag along. Oh also the dad of the lady getting married is Greg Maddux which i thought was interesting. I'm not a sportsball fan and im not sure how many of you would care (i am assuming not a lot. this is neocities.) but a fun tidbit nonetheless. Keeping this in mind, the wedding was probably the single fanciest event ive ever been to in my life thus far. There was an extremely beautiful view of the ocean during the ceremony that i enjoyed thoroughly.

They also were handing out these little watermelon cocktail drinks... very tasty. I enjoy how the stirrer is the dog of the couple who got married. However i wish they had made these concoctions less delicious because by the end of the night i was quite drunk on both these + a few glasses of wine and realized i had to go the hell back to the hotel once i stumbled into the restroom and tried to barge into the occupied stall of a woman that i somehow did not realize was in there. Sorry random lady, wheoever you are. The morning after I woke up and ate leftover rice with a clothing tag because there were no utensils and then went to the post-wedding brunch before flying home which was a delight.

Oh also the night before the wedding we got these little gift basket things delivered to our rooms which included chocolate and a thc drink (dangerous combination. Equivalent of sending a beautiful and enticing lady to my door.) The high was nice and honestly just really mellow which helped me fall asleep but the drink did taste curiously like an approximation of battery acid or a can of lemon scented febreze. The chocolate more than made up for it though. Culprit pictured below

Aside from the wedding i did just generally have a ton of fun exploring the beach near where i stayed and the little town in the area. There were many critters i encountered on the walks that i took... on one walk in particular i happened upon an absolutely gorgeous vertebra that i brought home with me... it currently sits with my collection of oddities and i love to look at it. Such a great find.

I had also gone to a marine mammal rehabilitation center nearby, I love pinnipeds so this was something i absolutely had to visit before the wedding. They primarily held sea lions either recovering from a toxic algae bloom thats happening on the coast at the moment or babies that washed up dehydrated or generally malnourished. The guide who spoke to me there and gave me information was an incredibly sweet lady and was extremely knowledgeable about everything that goes on with them so i had a nice time learning about all she had to tell me, it was really great to know that the center would be expanding in the next year or so to accomodate more patients :^)

With all of that recounted it's time for the stuff that sucked. So, a bit of background, for the past year or so there has been a terrible leak in my ceiling that kept getting pushed back for repairs for months on end. This was manageable for a while until a huge rainstorm made its way to my city and...Well. the picture speaks for itself.

not fun. It seemed, at least for a while, that after this rainstorm it would be clear skies and finally this damn hole could be fixed + whatever was damaged with the roof that even allowed for water to come in. A month or so passed and it was all good, until a certain day i was away from home and happened to not catch the forecast. Another rainstorm. At this point, the hole is still there and the roof is still unfixed because the closest date that was given for a repair would be in November. Unfortunately, while away from home, 3 certain books resided on my bedside table where the leak was the worst. My Locked Tomb hardcovers.

This stupidity was entirely on me, and i have no idea how i didn't think to move them or to be mindful of if any rain would be coming my way. They of course got soaked. Nona faced the worst of it though, as she got totally saturated with rainwater. The page swelling and ink bleeding was beyond saving. Harrow and Gideon thankfully fared much better, and after extensive flattening and drying and a few re-stuck tabs i'm glad to say they won't need to be replaced and are in good condition. If there's one thing i can say positively about this though, i thought the ink bleeding on the dustjackets were a bit cool lol

Although only one book ended up being beyond saving, i remember at the time being so distraught. I know logically they're just books and can be replaced but as someone who gets incredibly sentimental about their stuff the idea of replacing them made me feel kind of queasy. Sentimentality aside, they were also just rather expensive. Bad situation all around. Like i said, i'm so glad that at least Harrow and Gideon were able to make a full recovery and the warped pages are really barely noticeable. I would feel bad tossing my original copy of Nona, so after talking with a friend i'm considering maybe rebinding her? turning her into a sketchbook? we'll see. That about wraps up my terrible leak experience which had been a big cause of stress throughout September and i'm thankful that its reaching its conclusion as November is soon approaching, monsoon season is ending, and a temporary tarp was put over the hole.

And that finishes off September! A pretty packed journal (diary..?) entry but still fun to write, and i hope a bit entertaining. Looking forward to all my future entries and a nice October. Cheers!