Cleared!

 

 Oops, injury obtained! It's been a few months. A lot has happened. Table of contentssss maybeeee

• March - food, East Coast, Wondercon
• April - bday food, more food, Disney, ren faire, injury
• May - foot, bday stuff, Disney, graduation

To preface, there was a post in March that I forgot to finish and publish. It's there. ONWARD.

Man it feels good to sit and write again. The shenanigans are endless, I tell you. Here, let me show them to you.

M A R C H | 

Spring was coming. And it was reflected in work as well. A family had a gorgerous (among many other beautiful arrangements) array of pastries arranged for their service and kindly shared with us. This was on of them. 

Sakura mochi.

Yours truly

There was a night that we got together with Suna and her peeps after not having seen each other for so long.

The gentlemenliest swagger

We met up at one of our favorite all you can eat shabu spots.

Orange County and LA spoil us with food options. I feel like a brat but it really is amazing here.

I love hanging with her. She and Mr. Chicken see each other again now because people are returning to the office. Once it's safe to visit blizz campus again, I can come see her there. Very proud of Suna. We worked there together for a few years until COVID hit. We were recruited to come back and Suna was made manager of the Blizzard sbux. The guys tell me sometimes they see her laying it down and it makes my heart happy lol. She deserves it and Blizz is lucky to have her there.

Idk whose cheek bones those are, but that's crazy. I think they're my gramma's. Lighting is wild. Anyway, it was a good night. Here's Ophelia's butthole.

Little m'am's gotten really spoiled. She'll do this thing where she'll leave a little bit of her food left and just won't eat it. She expects new kibble in spite of the fact. Every time. It's not too much food, I promise. She just leaves the same amount uneaten lol. I've been putting it back into the container before feeding time. Two can play that game. Little m'am.

Our local butcher had tomahawk steaks. So Mr. Chicken bought 2. Just because.

We took em to Cafe Good Grillz and a feast ensued.

Which is what happens everytime we hit up Homdray's. But that day was tomahawk day. And sliders. And cheese. 

Perfect. Excellent. Delicious. Fantastic.

Here's me counting down the hours before my patience leaves me

Something happened suddenly that shifted the course of Spring Break for me. The same day that I was notified I bought a plane ticket to leave the next evening. But not before Mr. Chicken walks over to me with a most welcoming package before my departure.

AMEKgraphics is an illustrator and funeral practitioner, who also happens to work with a teacher of mine. It really is a small industry! I hope to meet her one day. She did something really special for me a while back while I was dumping bricks over my funeral director licensing exams, and it impacted me quite a bit. 

Anyway this is her packaging and it's really cute and yeah. I still have it lol. I'm never throwing this away!

We had dinner plans the same evening I was to leave. Life is funny like that. 

Whisky boy and cognac girl

We  spoiled ourselves silly that evening. Lobster mac n cheese? 

Aw yiss

The steaks are so tender. I'm gonna just say that I had no idea what yorkshire pudding was before we came here for the first time. When someone says pudding I firstly think of my mom's flan, and then like, custard of some sort. I learned something that day.

And we couldn't pass up on dessert and irish coffee. 

Oh trespass sweetly urged. Give me my sin again.

In calories.

We fed our wedding guests here. I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as we did!

Later that evening, I was on my way back home. My mom had asked me what I had wanted to eat the next day. Of course I answered, "olluquito."

Something happened, and while my mom and dad were okay, I had to be home. Scarlet made sure the couch had plenty of space between me and my mom. 

One of my favorites. There's no ch'arki here but it still tastes great.
If she could, she'd open and run her own restaraunt, by herself. But nah, people are crazy. They don't deserve my mom's efforts like that. Not again. But she goes hard for celebrations with food. She loves cooking.

And everyone loves her cooking.

Thank you, Scarlet. Yes. She's your mom, not mine. Got it.

We binged all of Mandalorian the days I spend there (while also studying for mid-terms). Next time she visits I'm dragging her to Disneyland so she can revisit Galaxy's Edge with a different knowledge of the environment. Hopefully Mando comes out!

Oh god not again

WONDERCON

Of the bigger conventions, this one is tolerable. It's like what Kamikaze (LA Comic Con now) used to be. This year, I saw some amazing cosplays that I wouldn't have expected.

Top Left: Kiryu Kazuma and Goro Majima - Yakuza

Top Right: Erik and Christine - Phantom of the Opera
Bottom Left: The only Cinderella that matters - 1997 Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella
Bottom Right: Sitcom genie icon Jeannie - I Dream of Jeannie

These two blew me away

Useless oversharing - the intro to I Dream of Jeannie was one of the inspirations on learning how to draw eyes when I was little. And the scenes when she'd go back in her bottle were so cute. When Burning Crusade released and I went into the Blood Elf area for the first time, it kinda reminded me of what the inside of her bottle looked like. I wonder. And digress.

I was in cosplay. It's been a minute. Really missed it.

A vendor stopped me and gave me a stickie. She was really sweet.

Mr. Chicken always with me waaaah. He's not the biggest fan of conventions or cosplay, but he comes anyway to look out for and support me. Thank you Chicken. You make me feel unstoppable, even when my hat's too big cuz I has a little skull uwu

Ran into these guys!

They looked so cooool waah. I've never seen Airbender, but I do know about the blind character cuz one year I saw a cosplayer that looked cool with those blind contacts and looked it up and yeah. And there's like factions with the elements and stuff.

Love these two :D

Waaaaaaoouuuww-leeeeeeee

This was my favorite cosplay from this year. INSTANTLY recognizable. I just. Omg.

SO GOOD.

If there was a David cosplayer I would've started crying.

This booth was cool. The artist converted Poe's works into comics in the style of 1930s noir. Super dope. I bought two comics.

Before we left we had some fun.

Ew lol

I wanted to climb stuff, but Mr. Chicken was worried I'd break something (myself and/or equipment).

Some of my favorite POVs

Cursed

Hot sauces and an art mouse pad for my desk mat? Don't mind of I do! We kinda splurged on a bunch of other stuff, ngl.
The art on that mouse pad is actually Dr. Frankenstein working on his buddy. I thought it looked a little more relatable than Ms. Shelley's fantasy.

It looks like he made an incision over the right rib cage lol? That crazy doc!

For a school project, we had to reconstruct a whole head out of mortuary wax. Could've been anyone. 

I don't think anyone got 100%. I tried though.

The duality of a feral dame.

A P R I L | 

Our friends birthday din din was coming up. She's crafty. So I wanted to craft something for her.

Took me all day to sculpt, bake, sand and paint lmao. I didn't take a pic of the finished product, but it got ruined anyway apparently because the wrapping paper stuck to it. SIGH. I hope she knew how much love I put into it lol.

Birthday girl :D

We returned! Chris ended up wanting to have dinner at our wagyu spot. I was so ecstatic over getting my funeral director's license that we had her and Jason meet us here previously, and they loved it enough for another visit!!

RIP spicy teddy

One of my favorites; the wagyu filet mignon sashimi

Sojuuuuuu

Bone marrooooowww

Bone marrow shots? YISS PLEEEE

Happi birddaaaayyy Christiiine!!

She got her own wagyu cake loooolol

God we were so full. 
So it was time for dessert

So yummmyyy
We ate so much I'm sure we were on the verge of puking. 

MOAR FOOD! 

We joined them for foodies at this one fusion place. Was pretty yummy. I'm not a die hard uni fan, but I'll try it in stuff. The uni pasta was pretty good!

Dessert followed! Jason told us about this place that has durian vietnamese coffee and desserts, so we had it after din din. Yummmmyyyyy. Durian everythiiiiing :D

And later that evening we hit up Homdray's for hangs.

He's so proud of these lolol.

Christine's bday stuff continued in the land of the mouse! 

Mr. Chicken and I got to Disney around 10ish I think and wandered, as we do. Silly Symphonies jacket and Ortensia ears in tow! 

Also, Ub Iwerks needs his own section in Disneyland. I'm just saying. They did him dirty with Oswald's new merch but I'm gonna shut up now :)

Blue milk sounds pretty good right about now.

We normally hit up California Adventure first but we were meeting them in Disney first so wandered there for a bit. Then remembered the food and wine festival was going on in CA. We headed over there to try some stuff before they arrived :B

They're here! 

lol

uwu

Estar Gwars was a must

These rides are so awesome, the downside is the wait times. Depending on what day of the week and what time of the year you go, the waits can be horrendous. Sometimes luck is with ya and the wait isn't bad at all! Either way, Rise of the Resistance is phenomenal. I'm glad they got to experience it :D

Long day is long. 

But good to spend with friends ^_^

There's a taiwanese hot pot place nearby that serves the coziest meals. 

And while stinky tofu isn't my favorite, their braised stinky tofu is so yummmyy and spicy and the cilantro with it is just.... mpf. 

Renaissance Faire wooo
First weekend of the season

Arrr !

T'was this day that Dragon's Milk became my favorite stout. Okay maybe not my favorite, but it's pretty high up there.

I ran into Bridget and Kristine! Another Kristine!
Bridget was my first mentor before I worked where I do now and we bonded over weeb stuff lol. She loves to dress up and cosplay. This is adorable because Bridget is also Kristine's apprentice! Bwuuuuhhh, wholesome. ^_^

Yes, they're Jedi. Kristine is a licensed Jedi in the state of California, and Bridget is her apprentice. Yep.

It'd been a while since I'd been to faire, as Californians call it. In Pennsylvania we just called it the ren faire. But here it's like, just faire. Grammatically weird. Anyway, 

I dressed up because what better way to embrace denial during exams than to completely disengage from reality and indulge in costume and play? And ale! And pirates!

My boobs were out and at first it was weird. I'm rather prude. I don't even own push up bras.

But Mr. Chicken said he loved my outfit

and our friends were like das coo bro boobs are dope
i apologized to them before they saw me LOL

Mr. Chicken looked so good in this hat. Almost bought it but couldn't think of another time he'd wear it. I agreed. If it was something more for every day use I would've encouraged him to get it, but we are a pragmatic folk, the earth signs. Our equips must have duel, long term usage.

Behold !

And of course, the lovely Serendipity of Clan Tynker.

Serendipity is a mute character. This is one of the things I really like about her. She doesn't have to say anything about herself. Beautiful? Yep. Mysterious? Ya. Enchanting? Magical? Uh huh. A performer? Looks like it. When I asked to take her picture, she signed in response. I swooned.
A pet peeve of mine is being around those who must insist exclaiming what or who they are, sometimes ironically achieving the opposite effect. Like Andrew Eldritch lol

I don't know how many of these we had.

I wish we could've gone back once more before it ended but I had to graduate and my foot is derpy :(

Still, this was awesome. I'm really glad we went. Only downside is that it was really hot out and as you can see, my make up was succumbing to my body's response to rising temperatures.

I told Smur that he'd make a good Dr. Strange. I'm dying on that hill. 

He's considering it.

Saw a tree. He climb.
I take piccie.

Twas a good day. I was almost dead by the end of it. Exhausted. Boozy. Tired. So we did the next best thing.

Oh god 

oh no 

not again

The following Friday, I remember we had plans to meet up at Homdray's. I finished class early and instead of driving home, I'd wait at my school campus until Mr. Chicken was off work and meet up at Homdray's.

I took advantage of the time I had and studied.

That's not a Joy Division sticker. It's an embalm calc one that one of my profs gave me in orientation lol. Best sticker. Even though that album is aight. It's not bad. It's just aight.

Anyway, then I got hungry.

So I treated myself to all you can eat sushi while studying. 

Depressing? Kinda. 

Satisfying? Very much.

It was a good night. Can't go wrong with nuggies, bawls, snack trays and drinks. I forget what movie we watched that night. Not because I was drunk, but because that's what exams and quizzes every week in your last semester will do to your memory.

FOOTSIES TIEM. that's it. That's your warning. 

I'll show bruising. 

No clue who called the ambulance lol.

So, I was at work and while walking across the cemetery lawn, my foot did this 

Real hard. Crunched, too. For a fraction of a second, but I heard it. And the result is the swelling you see above my cuboid. Something ruptured or tore, and blood rushed to the area, as it would. There was an injury to my other leg, but we're gonna keep this post blood free :D

Everyone was super helpful. My radio was inside the vehicle. The folks who were there for the service were doing everything they could to get help. My body was reacting to trauma, so my breathing intensified, heartbeat escalated, and my adrenaline was going crazy. But I couldn't move. I was sitting on the pavement trying to remain focused through the pain and shock response. It's kinda weird. You're numb but not numb at the same time. It was easier to hyperventilate than it was to control my breathing. But it was hard to breath. Bodies are crazy.

Through all of that, I asked one of the honor guard to go in my van and bring me my radio. He did. I had to radio security and then my department LOL. Everyone heard. I can't even imagine what my department was thinking. But I was trying to keep it lighthearted so as to not create panic. I just needed a supervisor on the scene to address an injury incident. A guest from the service was so sweet to me, she was like in super mom mode. She was like gimme your radio I'll tell em! Gimme your phone I'll call someone! She grabbed my phone and started recording the scene around me and me on the floor and my foot and where I fell and everything lmao. She was awesome. I wish I caught her name, but I was kinda distracted. I never got to tell her thank you. Or maybe I did. Delirium. I don't know. Anyway, yeah, never been in an ambulance before. Meanwhile the procession is on its way. 

That day was cursed. Earlier that morning, when we arrived to the church to unload, we checked with the church staff and they said we could park out front. Dude, one of our vehicles got a ticket for street cleaning. The parking dude followed us, waited for us to get out and took down my company vehicle license plate. My coworker tried to reason with him that we were unloading for the family's funeral, he didn't care. Drove off. We were pissed. Saturdays are crazy at work, I swear.

The ride was bumpy. That sucked lol. But as they were loading me in, I told them their gurneys are cooler than ours. They wanted to laugh, I could tell.

Anywho, I called Mr. Chicken on the way to the hospital. The adrenaline was kicking in and numbing my foot more by this time. But with every bump in the road or slight movement, that awful pulsing would return.

My hero. Mr. Chicken. He told his boss (Hi G!) what happened and that he had to come get me. What would I do without you, Cheem? He walked in and I looked at him with a goofy, pathetic, sad clown smile and he just smiled at me with a you silly goblin what did you do look lol.

but I got a cool wristband!

They put me in a soft cast and binding. Using crutches for the first time is an experience lol. Oops. That's blood on my pants. My bad. My knee got pretty messed up, too.

Aaaand that was it! April 24. The day I got a parking ticket during a funeral from an overzealous parking dude. And got yeeted at the cemetery.

And a long series of appointments.

The next day, following another 2 appointments with 2 separate doctors, Mr. Chicken asks me, "want Jollibee?"

Always.

Ophelia didn't know what to my of my freakishly long, metal arms and single fat foot. These things were foreign to her. 
 

And I still had assignments to work and and exams to study for. 

One of the first things that went through my mind before reaching out to anyone was telling my professors asap that I probably won't be able to come in for a few days. In spite of my worries, they were all sympathetic and worked with me to not leave me behind. It's probably super annoying, but every little thing that happened, I would send an annoying email to them letting them know about it. It's stupid, but I think if I was a teacher and a student flaked on me with zero notice, it'd feel kinda lame. So I think that played a big role in like... communication... stuff. Maybe. I don't know. Communication is important to me.

It got to a point where driving me to everything became too much because Mr. Chicken had to keep taking time off work. By friday, I had to go into to class for an exam and that's it. So Jason stepped in and offered to help Mr. Chicken and me out with the burden transporting me. Was exteremly cool of him to offer. Like, there aren't words lol. Just really thankful to have friends who are able to step in this way. 

That morning at school was interesting.

CONTEXT TIME: That class was exhausting, though not because of the content. I had expressed the hostile nature of the atmosphere in that class to the professor, to which she agreed saying that she also felt it. It was hostile in that complaints over faculty were expressed with personal animous, openly and out loud for all to hear, all semester long, with zero resolution or addressing. It fueled resentment and created a distracting, hostile environment. So, I brought it up to the professor, she agreed. That was that.

The following week, I woke up dreading going into class because I was sick of hearing vile gossip. Not to mention the exam that waited. Long story short, it happened again as people were trying to study before the exam. Again with the same bitter drivel. This time I spoke out. I spoke out in the same fashion those students spoke out about faculty all semester long, to their faces and told them to just fucking talk to the teacher instead of obsessively bitching about it every week. It's distracting. Someone clapped and then it was silent.

Whoever clapped... please tell me who you are hahaha

Since then, I was the bad guy. They HATE me. Which is fine. That group reeked of anger since the moment I stepped into the same class with them 2 semesters ago. Kept my distance the entire program. 

What actually sucked was the day that Jason and Christine walked me to class, I waited outside the classroom so as to not interrupt a presentation, and one of the students who wasn't there during the incident walks out, sees me and walks by. When she went back into the classroom, she has a smirk on her face and tells people I'm outside. Another student walks out of the classroom just to look at me, goes back inside and says "that's so sad" and another student bursts out laughing in response.

For the next couple weeks, I knew they'd refocus their ire on me. Because that's psychology :D

I don't care who does or doesn't like me. The real sad part is that these people are working in a profession that serves hurting people. I hope they figure out their issues. Seeing me injured and laughing at it because I called them out is not it for this profession.

After I took my exam (and passed!) Jason treated us to lunch. And he so generously drove me to and from class a few more times after that. He has helped us tremendously and I hope he knows how grateful we are. The appointments haven't stopped. My mama in law had insisted on driving me to my last few classes.

I love my crutches tho lol. They look like cool mods or something. I mean, they are. They suck to walk around in, but they still look cool. I was surprised at how light they are.

The more I got used to maneuvering around in them, the better I felt going to see friends again.

M A Y |

I had to go a week in between soft casts before they could change it. After the first week when I finally got to cut it off and shower like a normal person, I decided to have some fun because I'd been missing out on restorative art labs.

I don't wanna show the entirety of the bruising, it was pretty graphic, but you can see it through the bandaging. So I took my mortuary cosmetics....

And covered that big guy up LOL

My foot was extremely swollen. Cankle Queen. The macrophages pooped bilirubin all over the top of my entire foot, and sad blood had spilled into my toes. But y'know. I'm me. So.

More sushi !

Nigiri with Mr. Chicken makes for a happy Cynth

My inlaws took me to dim sum after class/an appointment one day T_T

And another day after class or an appointment, Jason took us to a yummy burger place with cute egg themes and gudetama stuff :3. 

And for ultra healing, yummy macarons waaaahhhh

they worked because I was gradually training myself to put weight on my foot again. It was a slow process, but little by little, it was happening. Baby steps.

CHICKEN BIRTHDAY

Mr. Chicken isn't a fan of surprises. So I kept some stuff ambiguous for this bday thing, and some not. I think it was a successful bday spent :D

It started out with the usual buffs for our party.

Tomahawks AGAIN?!?

Ya. :)

More friends showed up meant more buffs

I also made espresso drinks for people and served them in champagne flutes.

Hmm, rather myeas. Quite.
Indubitably. Indeed. Hmyeas.

Dey cookin! She made a yummy garnish salsa thing for meats :D
No clue how, she just found stuff in the kitchen and put it together lol
She's a wizard, Harry.

Screaming

MYEAH. WHY CANT WE HAVE SOME MEATS.

WOT BOUT THEM?

THEY'RE FRESSSSSH

Homdray will tell you why something sucks.

Team "I rather go home right now"

These two deserve fluffy safety blankets of invisibility, noise canceling earphones, food, and distractions when we drag them out to conventions they absolutely do not want to be at lolol

love and appreciate you both

Yay cake tiiiem!

As the sun went away, more people showed up. It was glorious.

So... LOL. Idk what posessed me to do this but I suddenly wanted to see who could get into my cosplays.

Surprisingly, Homdray was able to fit pretty well into my Doujun cosplay. When I made it, I had no idea what I was doing and didn't know how to convert sizes to fit me, so I just did whatever youtube told me to and it always fit kinda loose on me. But it fit him pretty well! Except for the hat thing. That was specifically measured for my head, so it looked funny on him but overall, he worked it!

And the Noir Spidey stuff was literally just my work coat and the hat that I got that not surprisingly was too big for me.

VICTORY. 

I couldn't zip up the little sister dress, but he still looked amazing lmao

I put on my Misa Amane wig, harness and mask thing. 

Why am I not using crutches!?

Healing is wild. I noticed I could move around with the boot on. Slowly and badly, but mostly independent as long as there wasn't a comet or zombies we had to run from. 

And my creators guild hentai jersey that I never wear anymore, Chun-D could fit into it! But barely lol. 

Was a fantastic evening. We ended it with sitting out back, torches lit, cigars, singing sea shanties and just coming down from the day. Good stuff. Ultimate chill.

The next day, family bday dinner!

I tried their ginger old fashion in my attempts to be more open minded to ginger. At least I tried lol. But the food was really good. I was steaked out from the day before, so went with the halibut and seasoned rice thing. Pretty yum.

They had this yummy lobster bisque and dessert platter thing, and super rich bone marrow mac n cheese.

SUPER DISNEY BROS

We achieved the impossible. We convinced them all to go to Disney lol.

This was going to be a special trip because not only were we all going together, just how I mused we would earlier on, but it'd be my first visit there from a different perspective!

From a wheelchair!

While I could walk slowly with the boot, I couldn't walk long distances without discomfort, so this was the next best thing. It was kinda neat if I'm honest. I mean, after a little bit I got kinda sad that I couldn't run around how I usually would, but it was nice to not be on my feet all day while we were there. 

We got there around 10:30, which gave us time to get on the ride they had to see. Thankfully, the waits that day weren't bad. I think the longest I saw was 45 minutes, which is what the app said our wait would be for this ride, but it was maybe 30 minutes, if that. 

We tried to hit up all the classics.

So, because I was in a wheelchair, some of the older rides aren't build to accomodate wheelchair access. Back in the day, one would enter through the exit or alternative entrance and essentially get to the front of the line. I know this because for Bats Day one year, one of the people in our group was in a wheel chair and we skipped a bunch of lines that day. 

Things have changed since then. So, a lot of the newer rides are wheelchair accessible. And what's happening with the old rides is you'll get this flyer thing:

And they'll give you a time to come back. On average, if the wait time was 40 minutes, they'd tell us to come back in 30 to let us in. So it's very much like how the fast pass thing used to work, only it's just for the older rides. Haunted Mansion, Indiana Jones... I can't remember what else... those we had return times for.

Everything else we waited in line for. But like I said, the wait times that day were the best I've seen them in a long time. And I think it's because it's the lul between summer and spring. It was graduate week, too. So while we saw groups of students there, it wasn't that crowded.

Mantis was so cyoot omg

It's weird to say this but the ramen in California Adventure isn't bad. And I guess now there are spicy turkey legs too! 

There was a cast member with a mop that started drawing out characters on the pavement with water. Was pretty cool. He did Mickey and then Minnie. And the new strawberry dole whip was yummy :D

We're terrible. At one point, we saw this dude, he was probably super early 20s, super lean, and he like, starts posing like he's sad or something, like 90s boy band sad, in front of the truck in Avenger's Campus where captain america usually comes over to photos. And it looked so bizarre. He was having photos taken by his friend, but it was just one of those for the instagram moments that felt otherwordly out of place. Like, even though he was physically there, he was still on the internet. 

I mean that's fine. It just made me wonder if he considers what he looks like in real life. Or maybe he didn't care. Good for him. But man. It was culture trippy for sure. For all of us.

LOL

He likes Star Trek

We'd been wanting to get them into the Cantina, but it was booked. Thankfully, everyone went to go watch the fireworks, which was when Mr. Chicken checked for availability to get in.

LOL his drink was called the rancor bone or something and it had this bone shaped cookie thing in it. We're stupid.

WoooOOOUUuuuooOO

We splurged, but it was worth. This was the perfect unexpected topper for the day.

No one around. Was perfect.

We took a bunch of photos here.

Though I know what I'm experiencing with my injury is temporary, I got a small glimpse of a different life lense that day. These mobility aids are extraordinary in that they make the impossible possible. I wouldn't be able to enjoy the things I've continued to enjoy without them, and for that, they're awesome and I'm lucky that I can use them. So I'm really thankful for my crutches, and the wheelchair. The weird part is that other people may pity you when there's nothing wrong with you. You're just moving around differently. I mean, that's a given, but I felt it and get it 

Mr. Chicken insisted on pushing my chair that day. And sometimes the other guys would jump in to give him a break. Overall it was a great experience just being able to be there with friends despite my injury. Life is good. I'm really lucky.

For mothers day, we went to a local family owned sushi place

They had toro! Had to get it along with yellowtail. My favorites ^_^ And they had this yummy spicy scallop roll. Not a big fan of rolls, but spicy stuff with lots of flavors I'm a sucker for.


COMMENCEMENT

That day was ... a lot. I had to be at campus 8:00am to take our practice national board exams and the final. Pass the practice exams to graduate or go home lol. I think the stress building up to them was worse than the exams. My friend Cristal and I both passed! That's all that mattered.

Mr. Chicken had driven me and I told him once I finished with all three exams we can kill some time before our Mortuary Sciences department ceremony. 

It was really cool. The first semester cohort put everything together. There were goodie bags, food, drinks, and everyone was gathered there to celebrate mortuary sciences. There was a whole ceremony for our graduating classes of Fall 2022 and Spring 2023.

And I got an award!!! Waaaaaaaaaaahhhh!! That was crazy. They announced my name and my jaw dropped in denial. I think that's called imposter syndrome? Excellence in embalming. 

I'm really proud of this. Because I love embalming. Everything about it is like conducting an orchestra. So much technical application driven by the marriage of compassion and science. Like, what? You'd think those two things can't harmonize, but they can and do. So getting this was a huge deal. It actually means something coming from people who have mastered their craft seeing potential in your efforts.

We took an oath and I cried through it.

This prof was my mentor through embalming. He presented the award to me and I almost cried. I look like I'm crying because we had just taken the oath lol.
Cristal and I dragged ourselves through this program to finish a semester early with the push from the program director. Without her super positive encouragement, we wouldn't have pushed through. It was hard, but feels dope to say we did it. All of the professors I built relationships with were supportive the entire way. It was really, really hard. But worth it.

We all have something in common, lol.

Then we had to get ready for commencement. That was trippy. Couldn't believe it was happening. 

My family were standing on the overpass to watch. Waaaahhhhh.

LOOK AT MY BOOT

Before we left, I wanted to find this guy. He sat through so many students lining up to see him, and it was just hilarious to me because he probably had to pee or like eat really fast before we all kicked his door down to nag him about our exam results. His classes were the hardest, but also crucial, so some of us wanted to do well and know what they did wrong. He was really cool to learn from. Zero filter, but loves what he talks about and is a complete nerd. 

Mr. Chicken spotted something at Disney that he thought my prof would like, and I was like omg that's brilliant. And he was right! It was a rubik's cube with chemical elements on it from the Avenger's Campus. I clicked with him and my embalming mentor the most, I think. And I'm just super grateful for their guidance. He was the one who gave me the Joy Division embalming sticker in orientation. 

For dinner, we had Taiwanese hot pot. The evening had gotten a little chilly, so this was the most comfy, satisfying choice for dinner.

That weekend was also Homdray's bday. We had to celebrate!

SMURR FOUND GOLD

I don't usually drink more than one bottle of beer because I eat too fast and get full, but when I do, it's Dragon's Milk.

I finally got these fools to play chess. They both won. Lifa and I were a close match. I got too greedy at the end and missed stuff. Mr. Chicken was just rude lol. But man, Chess is fun!

This was so good lol. Homdray didn't wanna play, but I excel at nagging him until he becomes annoyed enough. 

Was such a good game lol.

My dad taught me to play chess when I was little. I wish we had spent more time playing. SOON.

Eventuallyl I wanna get a really nice chess set. 

Was a good time. It's always a good time there.

And that brings us to the now.

I had an MRI done earlier this week. I'll get to see the results next week, and maybe start physical therapy. It's interesting... the last time I got injured at work, it happened to be around winter break when I had to cram for my funeral directors licensing exam. Even though I couldn't work, it gave me time to review and study thoroughly, and I achieved what I set out to do. This time, same thing. Work injury happened to be around the end of the semester when finals are piling on and stress is at an all time high. But I got to stay home and focus on my studies. 

I've mentioned this before in a previous entry. There's a lot of good, and eventually it'll balance out with a challenge. But then from that challenge, something good could come of it if you allow yourself to look for it. I think I called it... balance?

:)

Next week, I take my national board exams. once those are done, I can take my embalmer exam, and everything from there is easy mode. I can breeeeeeeeathe! Because I did it :D

I hope everyone has a fantastic memorial day weekend. I want pancakes lol