Currently choking down protein powder smoothie. Guhhhhhhhhh.

I'm BULKING which means after my cut (I made it down to 136 pounds) I'm gonna be packing on the muscle with a higher calorie load and harder workouts. Really excited to eat a ton, not excited to work out. Never excited to work out.

The 1st we will be moving into our new place. The elderly couple renting it out is moving out the 25th ISH and said if we help them move furniture we can move in stuff sooner as a sort of storage. Yay! I'm hoping I can document some of it here. 

Otherwise I just am tattooing and always drawing tattoos. I am doing fall themed tattoos -- Gourds, sunflowers, mushrooms -- In hopes that someone will get it. I love fall and the change of seasons, I prefer cold and gloomy months and what it brings (Halloween and Xmas)

SPEAKING OF I'm doing a fall equinox brunch for me and Alex on Sunday. The plan is homemade beer bread with a cranberry, pepper, sweet potato, bacon, brussel sprout and apple hash with maple-basalmic dressing. I'm not sure what to have as a side -- Apple crisp? Maybe? I feel like that's not a very filling brunch, but I'm honestly sure it'll be pretty filling. What other fall themed food would go in this brunch?!

I survived the convention! It was a low turn out this year but I made almost 1k so I'll take it lol

Luckily the shop bully was fussy and didn't do much other than complain and bitch about everyone around him, so I generally ignored him and he fucked off. He left the convention early which was great for me because I didn't want to deal with him. Unfortunately he didn't help set up or break down, which was a pain in my ass but whatever.

I only have today off before i have to go back to work so I'm trying to relax as much as I can. EVERYTHING IS SORE. I made a fair amount of friends tho and it was delightful. I enjoyed tattooing and advertising to people, I just hope that people will like me enough to want a tattoo by me.

I got Minecraft and I fully intend to just blob today and play it. 

So the HEALTH INSPECTOR is making rounds lately. For reference I got nothing to hide, I'm not worried. But another tattoo artist pulled up on the shop popping the curb and came in, telling us the city health inspector was making their rounds to shops. CUE PANIC. Most of the younger generation artists aren't freaked out, but some of the older generation artists were locking up their stuff. I have all my paperwork and I do all my forms so I'm fine lol

I got texted by a friend at another shop that some shops local to her were getting hella fined because they were forgetting to put down the lot number for their inks -- which has never been necessary before. Weird! I'm going to unfortunately start doing that, which is just more paperwork for me to do. At least I won't get fined.

This weekend I'm going to a benefit for a friend and his dog who were attacked by an offleash dog, an unfortunate problem of our city. It's also May Day! I'm making oat cakes and I'm gonna repot some plants. It's pretty boring honestly but that's fine, I'm lazy after moving and just want to sleep all the time. I'm also planning out my birthday trip, which will be to Chicago. I'm so excited.

It's been a while but I've been busy ok? OK!?

Me and Alex moved into a new place. With a GARDEN. I've been overwhelmingly busy with tattoos. Like. It takes up my entire life. Alex is busy with his hospital job. I am very lazy and yet to make a real update but I'm also intimidated at the idea of returning and not having anything to talk about. What do I talk about? Coming home and sleeping?

A few friends around DW have been posting these things, like ... Internet rabbit holes, favorite internet things of the week. I have been wanting to do one but I never really do much on the internet because I am too busy with tattoos and then melting onto the floor when I get home, but I'm gonna make a lil one!

Alpha Tec - Youtube channel of Japanese man who cooks food on the beach or in the woods. Extremely soothing, I just like watching.

Purr Cat Cafe - Watched this with Alex and we were GRIPPED with intrigue. A woman who owns a cat cafe and how it all falls apart because of her piss poor social media attitude. Good for when you're working on other things and need something in the background.

Suspense! "Sorry, Wrong Number" - Suspense is a radio show from the 1940s that aired through the early 60s. It tells different horror stories in short format (like 20 mins to a hour). I like to listen to this while I crochet or draw. This one is a classic!

That's all I can think of for now. IDK if people actually read this stuff but! Why not!

I spent the day yesterday wrangling Lurch. Do long time readers remember Lurch? My most beloved monstera deliciosa? Here he is over a year ago, when I bought him (buckled up for safety!)



So he has gotten immensely bigger and has started growing sideways and out. For a while I tolerated it but then I decided to make my own moss pole so I'd stop smacking into his leaves when walking around. Online moss poles are expensive as fuck (especially since this one is about 4' tall), so I bought some plastic garden wire and some spaghnum moss and made my own.



Lush! Elegant! Mossy!

In theory he will grow into the moss pole and start growing upwards, and I will no longer have to zip tie him to it. In theory.

Ok I'm about to run to the tattoo shop but UPDATES:

-We are going to Lake Conroe instead of the farm outside Corpus Christi. I'm sad that we aren't going to be on the farm but I've never been to a big lake before like that ... Excitement!

-I submitted for a local art show and got an email back after like 15 minutes that I was accepted. Shock and awe! 

-The fursona poll reached an overwhelming verdict of Raccoon or Ring Tail Cat. I'm going with the second option, but he was raised by geese (thank you Briel)

-The hurricane barely skimmed us, we got a night of heavy rain and power outages but otherwise nothing interesting happened. Boo. However I can tattoo all this week until I go to Lake Conroe. Yay!

-I've been playing Fallout 4 and I DON'T REMEMBER FERAL GHOULS BEING SO AWFUL

-I'm sewing a Halloween table runner. It is too short for our table. I'm gonna make it work anyways.

I don't consider myself a furry but I like fursonas, I think they're cute. And when I draw little doodles of myself I never like it. So I'm relying on YOU, THE PEOPLE, to help me figure out what the fuck kinda animal I am. I'm very candid with my personality on here so I think it's a potential.

OKAY CAST YOUR VOTES.

Munchkin Cat: Alex chose this solely because "you got short legs". SIGH. I also like to lay around a lot, like a cat.

Hyper Dog (Like a spaniel?): Speaks for itself.

Raccoon: Eats anything. Works next to a dumpster. Occasionally smokes weed next to a dumpster.

Ringtail Cat: Submitted by my friend, said it's a raccoon with more energy. HMMMM.

Cast your votes! Or don't! I'm at a loss!

My September appointment book is almost filled (just have 4 open slots left). Humbled!

In plant news, while I was walking outside to go to the gym, Alex spotted a little abandoned cactus! A taped sign on it said "Christmas Cactus -- Free to a good home" ... How can I deny that?!

(Here it is in it's new home)
I haven't thought of a name for it yet, but I've been doing some research. Apparently the weather is slightly too hot for it, so I'm a little vexed on what to do since I don't have any space inside for it ... I may just put it outside and hope for the best. :C I have miserable lighting in my apartment right now, and have a grow bulb for my plants to keep them alive because otherwise they would all be dead. Even poor Lurch is putting out fewer fenestrations!

When we went to my friend's house a few days ago, her boyfriend said his uncle remodels rentable houses, and I'm really eyeing the idea right now since my poor plants are struggling in this environment... But our lease won't be up for a while. SIGH. I'd love a garden fsdkafjs

I got my first tattoo stalker... I think.

Her name is Amber, she showed up at the shop one day while I was working on someone. She asked if she could talk to me, and I said
" ... Hey man, I'm busy, I'll contact you when I'm done."
She said fine, she was going to wait at the gas station nearby until I was done. ...Okay.
She showed up later to discuss flash, but she genuinely didn't want to talk about that long and instead wanted to talk like we were on a date. Getting to know each other stuff. I cut it short and told her I'd contact her on Instagram. She instead gave me her phone number that I later trashed because I don't want to blur the lines of the business relationship.

Over the course of the past month, Amber would send me multiple "good morning" IG messages, or poke me for random reasons. I never respond because again, I see her as a client. Thursday afternoon while I was out with Friend Chelsea at the Natural History Museum, she did her usual 'good morning' text and then just exploded my inbox with random memes. As in, memes I don't understand. Memes about furries, memes about Jesus loving me, memes about cats eating fruits, memes about anime. Like it was a LOT (probably ten memes). And unprompted!

And while it's anticlimactic, I didn't respond. I don't have anything to say. And I don't know what to do if she shows up at the shop again.
Climb through the ceiling to freedom maybe? Tunnel out the back wall?

The current joke in the shop is that she is in love with me. UGH.

On an entirely unrelated note, I'm probably going to start taking photos of small things in my apartment, during my day at the tattoo shop, things you wouldn't normally care about but I find interesting (as in, what's on my bookshelf, in my mess drawer, on my record cabinet). I don't really have a real reason to, other than to enjoy the aesthetic of small things in my life. I'm trying to think of a good tag for it, but I'm looking forward to it actually!