OH HEY EVERYONE.

It’s been a minute. And by a minute, I mean a month. I love reading blogs that do little slices of life, so I thought I’d do a catch-up post. Hopefully you do too! Either way, LET’S GO.

Austin-y Things

The day I’m posting this (April 7th) officially marks six months of being back in Austin!

Last month was all about the bluebonnets, and I make no apologies for it.

It is so good to be back as a full-time resident during bluebonnet season! It’s one of my favorite times of year. Last weekend we went to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. I’ve never been there before – the gardens were gorgeous and full of bluebonnets.

My brother visited last month for SXSW. It was definitely a chiller vibe than past SXSW events we attended – no waiting long hours for a show this time around. There actually weren’t any shows when we went – we showed up on the last day and it seemed like everything was already shutting down. But we saw a bunch of people hanging out at the Paramount Theater, so we decided to stick around to see what was going on. Five minutes later, a vehicle pulled up and Anne Hathaway emerged from it!

She’s ridiculously gorgeous in person, which seems like such an obvious thing to say. HEY, DID YOU KNOW THIS A-LIST ACTRESS IS ABSOLUTELY STUNNING IRL? The sighting totally made our otherwise low-key SXSW experience this year a success.

We also checked out the Blanton Museum last month! I haven’t been there in years and it was really fun to visit. Right now there’s an exhibit of Japanese woodblock prints. We were also able to try making our own print from a woodblock made by a local artist.

We also celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary this past Friday by trying out a hot pot experience at dipdipdip Tatsu-Ya. It was so good and though the roof of my mouth is still a little burned from the hot pot, it was WORTH IT. We were also treated to glasses of sake as an anniversary gift. If you are ever in the area and looking for a delicious experience, I highly recommend it, though it’s a bit pricey. We have been cooking at home a lot more; back in the day, we could consistently eat out here for under $25 for us both and that is just not the case anymore. Austin is way more expensive than it used to be, but I’m happy there are great places to try when we can splurge a little.

Right now everyone is waiting for the eclipse on Monday! We are fortunate to be within the path of totality, which I’m really excited about. I’ve thought about where I want to see the eclipse, and I think I’m just going to work from home and enjoy it from my backyard. Apparently the weather is not going to be that great, but who cares? We’re still going to experience totality, which is really cool. The next time Austin is going to experience totality is ::checks notes:: 2343, so I’m going to make sure I savor this!

Writing

I’ve mentioned here that I have been doing a writing program – but I’ve actually started a low-residency MFA in creative nonfiction! (I’ve been pretty quiet about it on social media and have told maybe a handful of people – so readers of this blog are IN THE KNOW. Haha). The low-residency model means I can keep my full-time job while still getting a degree, along with attending a yearly in-person workshop. I met my mentor last year when I was selected for the creative writing workshop I attended in Dublin, and she encouraged me to apply! I have really enjoyed working with her and I’m pretty excited by the essay topic I’ve selected this month – let’s see how it goes, though. Last month I thought I had a great essay idea, but I got SO. STUCK when trying to execute it. I submitted my packet this Monday and have been recovering from that (plus an insane several weeks of work from my full-time job), but I am ready to go with this month’s essay. I bought this book today and am hoping that I can use it for both my creative and critical essay.

This book considers the dilemma of being a fan of someone’s art when that person is objectively terrible. It’s a topic I think about a lot! I think if you only decide to consume art from non-problematic people, then there’s not going to be much (or any) art to consume. And I think we can still appreciate an artist’s impact or message even if we don’t personally or politically align with that person. I do think the decision to consume art is completely objective and should be up to the individual, but I also don’t think we should feel like terrible people for consuming and appreciating art from problematic people like the internet makes us think we should.

WHEW. That feels good to say. I mean, as a classic rock fan, basically all the music I love would be off-limits (because YIKES). My essay this month will be delving into music from bands like Pantera. I feel like I have to put a giant asterisk when I say I love Pantera – while I obviously do not co-sign everything they’ve said or done, their music has been impactful and got me through some really rough times. So I’m really excited to read this book because I’ve been wanting to see these ideas articulated for awhile and I’d love to incorporate this discussion in my own essay.

Music

Speaking of music, I’ve been learning Pantera’s “Five Minutes Alone.” But neither my drum teacher nor I have a working double bass pedal, so I can only get to the bridge before it’s ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. But it’s so much fun to play (especially those ride/crash cymbal hits during the chorus). I really need to get a working double bass pedal so more of this music can be accessible to play, but $$$$.

I’ve also started taking violin lessons because I am tired of sucking at it. I have been working on scales, a study, and a solo. My solo is “Theme and Variations,” and it sounded so familiar while I was playing it that I dug through my old middle school violin folders. Lo and behold, I played this song for a UIL competition at 13.

That girl with the “terrific ear” now plays everything sharp. FRETLESS INSTRUMENTS ARE HARD, OKAY? When I was middle school I had tape on my first position spots to stay in tune. Now that I’m truly playing by ear, it is a different story. Again, it’s very humbling to be competing with the version of yourself from childhood, but if I can quell this discomfort and just play, I think I’ll get much better.

Work

::looks at to-do list::

::hyperventilates::

Let’s move on, shall we?

Fashion

So yesterday, I thought I had finished all the pieces to my knitted cardigan and just needed to sew them together and block the finished piece. I took a picture of the pieces and was so excited.

But HAHA NO, I STILL NEED TO MAKE THE SLEEVES. This is definitely not getting finished until July, and then I won’t be able to wear it until probably late November. Yayyyy!!!!

I’ve been slowly trying to build my wardrobe back up and that has been a process. I used to get all my clothes at Target, but I’m not really feeling the styles there anymore. A lot of the clothes are monochromatic, and while I can’t say that I’m a fashion maximalist, I do love color and prints. However, I did find this skirt there last week and I really love it.

I was a teen/young adult in the late 90s/early 2000s, which means I’ve had my lifetime fill of things like low-rider jeans. That being said, I actually bought a crop top to go with this skirt – it’s so high-waisted that I can still wear the crop top and not show any skin (no shame if you do want to show skin!) I love this outfit! I wore it with some cute sandals for our anniversary dinner. I just need to take my time to find pieces that I really love.

Pets

Apollo has still been sick. The internal medicine specialist hypothesized that he either has an autoimmune reaction to allergies, or a nasal tumor. Since his symptoms were most indicative of the allergy, we’ve been proceeding with that course of treatment, but we haven’t seen any improvement. I’m still cautiously optimistic – Austin has been draped in pollen for the past couple of weeks, and Apollo’s symptoms did flare up with the pollen. We have an appointment on Tuesday, so we’ll see what the next steps are. He has gotten really fussy with his food too, and hasn’t been eating as much. We finally got him to eat a full bowl yesterday, so fingers crossed. Our little guy turns 12 this month, so while I know health issues are expected at his age, it’s just hard to acknowledge that he’s an old man now.

The girls are doing well! They celebrated their first birthday last month ❤ They have been full of meows and are as silly as ever. We love all three of them so much. ❤

WELL. If you made it this far, thank you! I’ll try not to go an entire month without updating again, but no promises. I hope you have a wonderful Sunday!