JPEG GHOST

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

 It's Alex's birthday!

I let him sleep in today (usually I'm in his face at 9 AM, being someone that wakes up at 7-8 AM), and when we finally got to breakfast it was Voodoo Donuts! I shoved the bacon maple in my face at light speed and groggily slouched around for 30 minutes because it was too much sugar but it was so GOOD.

After working out we went out to a Japanese bookstore that had all kinds of cool stuff. Penpal friends, I finally got some stationary so expect something ... ... Soon!
I got him a shiba toy and he got himself a Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice art book which is from some videogame series he likes. We then went to the Container Store cause sure, why not, and envisioned all the organizing in our house. Ooo, ahhh. Pull out drawers and cabinet organizers ...

Right now we are taking a break to do things (I have some school to work on), but I'm also working on drawing him a birthday card. He draws me a card for each of our monthly anniversaries, which is always on the 13th (which seems very on brand for me). The least I can do is draw him a birthday card. I'll take a picture later of it.

In other news, I found our county's agricultural extension office and am balls deep in all the sustainable farming and plant care classes in it. If it wasn't for Covid, they'd be having free classes at the libraries 'round here every Thursday, but since we have a pandemic that has become politicized, it's all online. I signed up for a course on Fall Garden Preparation on the 23rd with Friend Chelsea and I'm honestly so excited, you guys have no idea. FALL GARDEN PREPARATION!!! Spaghetti Squash! Acorn squash! Pumpkins! Uh -- Other things!

It does make me sad, though. While it is USDA funded, just a little, the Department of Agriculture has been so hacked and slashed since the Reagan era that our extension office struggles and has to be college funded by Texas A&M University. I was going through archive.org (as I am wont to do) and found radio transcripts of "Homemaker's Chat", a radio program founded by the Department of Agriculture in the first half of the 1900s. Some of the information is so useful. For instance, Christmas decorating on a budget and healthy snacks. It's too bad that we have slashed all our public work offices to bare bones just to militarize our police departments. SIGH.

Anyways I may post notes from my sexy sustainable gardening class if you guys are so interested. I feel like it'll be pretty straightforward -- Or will it?

I got another plant.

How many is this by now? I've lost count. I have a fair amount of herbs, but now I have to deal with a yucca cane up in my business even though I will be moving by November into me and Alex's new home. For your information, her name is Rita, but said in a posh English way. Thankfully she's low maintenance. I'll take a picture tomorrow or Thursday, whichever happens sooner.

Pablito (poinsettia) had to get ANOTHER quarantine haircut because of a whitefly infestation; everyone is vaccinated now, I aggressively treated the problem and they have been gone for a week. Pablito looks like sad sticks but he is rejuvenating with a few little leaves...

I went to that funeral home up north from a few posts back and had a delightful day with them helping out, most importantly there was mariachi at the funeral and I was ready to turn the hell up to it. I mean. If there wasn't a large grieving family there.

To all my penpals: I got your letters, they are beautiful and I love them. I'm going to a ranch in Corpus Christi (!) Friday - Sunday, so I probably won't get a response out for a minute but I'm planning my responses carefully. The cards are currently displayed on top of my TV by my creepy porcelain animals. Joy!

 Picture me as of five minutes ago: Slav-squatting in front of my refrigerator, drinking old cold brew in an attempt to wake up. I have too much schoolwork to do and a funeral to deal with from 1-5pm, but instead I'm glaring down a bundle of carrots sitting in my vegetable drawer. I'm probably nearing mania. 1958 smash hit 'Tequila' is looping in my head.

Okay. Now we know my mental state.

I've had four funerals in the past 3 days. FOUR. Funerals are a 5 hour+ deal, but there are so many dead people. Luckily today I just have a Jewish service; I'm not Jewish, but I know the customs well enough to properly help with one. Those are almost always graveside only for a cool 45 minutes, rarely do they have a chapel service or visitation of any kind (unless they're Reformist, but we mostly get Orthodox and Conservative). I'm not sure why I have to be there 4 hours, maybe I'm needed for morgue work.

ANYWAYS. Yesterday at the end of a visitation I was in the thick of a rosary and nearly fell asleep. Rosaries are exhausting, my eyes usually cross and since I don't participate it's just a lot of chanting. The Father was particularly soft spoken and slow so what was a 20 minute affair was dragged to 45-50 minutes. He mentioned eating bread, and my dumb hungry self immediately thought of food, and then sin-eaters.

Back in ye olden times, sin-eaters were people paid to stand over a corpse, eat bread, and drink wine or beer. This, in theory, resolved the deceased of their sins as the sins ... went into the food? And it hastened their trip out of Purgatory, much like how praying the rosary for a decedent supposedly eradicates the deceased of their sins and allowed them into Heaven.

I always found sin-eaters fascinating, the concept of sins leaving the body and jumping into food is so bizarre but these are also the people that believed in bodies having miasma.

The Middle Ages were an ........... interesting time!

Also, dear Lurch has a few new leaves that unfurled, with some more on the way <3 I'm so happy he's thriving. Here's my favorite one so far:

I'm almost midway through this semester, thank goodness. I'm so burnt out from work, school, and the ever-imposing sense of doom we all seem to have lately. I have no idea what I'm gonna do when this semester is over -- Lay on my face for two weeks? Rot into the floor, become one with the dust?

I have two funerals tomorrow before I'm off for the weekend, which is when I hope I can start pruning Pablito and repotting him, preparing him for the ridiculous trials and tribulations necessary to have a pretty poinsettia for the holidays. He's gotten rather leggy because I've been letting him grow like crazy, he's going to have to get trimmed back pretty extensively (probably 4-5 inches!) and I'm going to be very sad because he's going to look awful. But also, plants like trimmings, sooooo?

Also I just found out they can become tree sized if you don't prune them. That Audrey II joke I made last post hasn't aged well.

I've been pawing at Alex over a CRYPTID ROADTRIP, where we drive around Texas and hunt for cryptids near-ish us. Despite the insanity of Texas folklore, there's a tragically small amount of local illogical terrors. There's the Chupacabra, yes, but I'd wager he's more likely to be in Mexico, and someone supposedly shot a Bigfoot out here but what Bigfeet would dare live in such a nasty, hot environment when they're so densely furred? There's a Donkey-Lady about 3 hours from us, and a Man-Goat 4 hours from us, both of which I'm tempted to hit up at some point. I'll even take pictures, maybe, probably!

The lack of Texan cryptofauna makes me long for the stupid monsters of my youth. One that I remember being particularly afraid of were Melonheads -- a doctor operated on young hydrocephalic children and subsequently drove them insane and cannibalistic from his malpractice. They can also inexplicably run as fast as cars and have glowing red eyes! And their heads got even BIGGER! From ... Cannibalism? (???)

Where I grew up, there was a clearing in the forest where a rotten couch sat, with a washing machine across from it. It was obviously a local place for the kids to smoke pot, but I convinced myself that melonheads hung out there. Not far from it was a burnt up house that had long been vacated, so I of course theorized that they lived there too, chowing down on unlucky children. To add to that, I was convinced that the Goatman would eat me, or the Bunny man, but that's a tale for a different day ...