Oh hey, Chat. Did you love how I dropped an intense post and then fucked off for two months? Sorry for abandoning you. Your girl is back.

What have you all been up to lately?

Things here have been nonstop, good and bad. Honestly, you really don’t want to hear about the bad stuff. TL;DR: I’m fine. Kay? Kay.

On to the good things!

I got to see Kendrick Lamar and Sza in concert. It was sick. The tickets were kind of an impulse purchase back in December as a Christmas gift for a family member who loves Sza. And since I bought them super quickly in the middle of winter, it didn’t occur to me to check if the venue was outside. Luckily we had an absolutely perfect night, weather wise. It was cool, but not cold and not a cloud in the sky. All of the fans were well behaved and respectful. Oh, and the pizza was delicious. Kendrick and Sza took turns on the stage; they would do a few songs then switch back and forth. It made for a great balance because Kendrick’s music is more upbeat and Sza’s is very chill. The artwork in the backdrop was unreal:

The thing I didn’t realize that apparently Sza’s latest album art is, uh, bug themed? Just the artwork, not the music. And at one point, there were praying mantises walking around the stage?

So, that happened.

Anyway, the other cool thing I did recently was I attended a silent book club! One of my main goals in therapy right now is to challenge myself to get out in the world and cultivate a community. My first step was, of course, and event with limited social interaction, but whatever man. Baby steps, ok? They meet at this bangin brewery that I didn’t even know was five minutes from my house. The beer was the best I’ve had since I was in Portland, OR. I hadn’t planned on eating, but the couple I sat next to convinced me to order the soft pretzels and. Oh. My. Mouth. Orgasm.

The way it worked is that you chat with the group for, like, 30 minutes or so, order drinks, food, whatever. Then the leader announces that it’s reading time. She sets an alarm for one hour and everyone just, heads down, gets to it. And, you know, it’s a brewery so there’s music and people and dogs (apparently?), so it’s not actually silent, which is good for me because I like listening to music or having some sort of white noise around me while I’m reading. When the timer goes off, the leader collects everyone’s books and takes a picture for social media, which I thought was just the cutest thing ever. Then you can hang around if you want or peace out. I sat across from a really kind woman, who I vibed with. And be proud of me, I only got awkward ONCE! I mean, it wasn’t toooooo bad….I MIGHT have exclaimed, “DO YOU HAVE PICTURES” when she told me that she had a chinchilla. She humored me and, hopefully, didn’t think I was too weird. Worth it though. That chinchilla was painfully cute.

And that about brings us up to date. Before I go into sharing my April and May reading wrap up, I want to give a huge shout out to the lovely human, who took a risk and emailed me just to check in. Thank you for giving me a little push to come back. I’ve read both of your emails like a million times and they make me smile every time. Oh, and tell your husband that I said that you’re definitely not crazy for emailing a girl who lives across the world. He should be proud and, quite frankly, reward you for your big girl bravery. Just saying…lol…

So without further ado, I present to you, uh, this fuckin thing. It’s not a beatboxing blueberry. Too deep of a tik tok cut?

Anyhoooooo…

I hope to be back with more soon. I’ve been working on a few posts, including a new review for an incredible book I read at the end of May. So stay tuned! Hope you are all doing well.

Oh and check out my new playlist for June…with nary a song from Even in Arcadia included. Such self control.

Deuces.