I'm backdating this (posting on 6/7) because I actually wrote most of it on 5/30 and then never created the HTML page for it.

calico sitting inside looking up focused on the ceiling

Monthly meditation

I've now been doing a monthly virtual meditation for 5 months and I don't know how to articulate the benefit I get out of participating in it. I admit I might not have even thought about the benefit except I skipped the April session and saw the consequences of not doing it very clearly.

This meditation is put on by my library system in partnership with a local yoga studio despite only being once a month, it has changed my perspective and demeanor in many ways. I'm calmer overall, able to handle stress more quickly and forgive myself for big mistakes that cause stress, and I'm sleeping significantly better than I was this time last year. It's difficult to articulate because I don't set intentions beforehand, but afterwards I feel refreshed and centered, ready for the next 30 days or so.

text: to become what you want to be, you have to sacrifice 15 hrs 34 mins screentime

Lessons from 100(ish) days of writing

Even though I'm not active on social media anymore I still like to participate in a 100 days of "something" challenge with creative leanings. I'm not on any 'official site timeline' because without Instagram I'm not feeling accountable with a community. In some ways it's a bummer to lose that aspect of it, in other ways I feel extremely free to do this whenever I want.

This year I chose to do Feb 18 - May 29 because while going through some old writings I found that's when I did 100 days of writing in 2023 before I got all of my new diagnoses. I thought it would be interesting to compare the writing and topics covered, tone and so on.

Well, it was a nice thought, anyway! I didn't do a very good job with keeping up this time, but I still learned some lessons! I think I need to intend to write daily in order to get myself to write more frequently. Whatever the intention is, I'll write less than that. If I intend to write daily, I'll write several times a week; if I intend to write weekly, I'll write several times a month... and so on.

I'll try on that approach for a while and see if it works. I am happiest when writing is a regular part of my life because it helps me process everything that happens.

text: MYTH: All autistic people have a special skill. FACT: Autistic people are often just as useless as the rest of us.

Memorial Day weekend

I took Friday off before Memorial Day to run some errands before camping all weekend, but then some other things came up and I didn't end up camping across the whole weekend. It was nice to have a full day off with no other obligations to catch up on things.

I spent Friday night watching Creep (2014) and Creep 2 (2017) and one episode of The Creep Tapes (2024) before I finally went to bed at 3am. The next day I went to the campsite for late lunch after sleeping in, and to set up my tent. When I arrived, there were no tents - just the patio tent we use as the kitchen. My parents had several unexpected camping disasters on Friday and I found out they also hadn't spent the night.

skeleton prop with no legs hanging from a patio tent outside marshmallows on sticks held over a campfire

One of the "other things" that came up was that my friend invited me to a place called Neptune Room in DC for some drinks for his birthday. I met some new and saw some old people I haven't seen in a while. They had a nice selection of hard seltzers and teas (not very hardcore, but these are the only drinks my body can do) and the place was really nicely decorated with fun stickers all over the bathrooms.

Before Neptune Room I went to my friend's house to hang out with his wife and kids for a while (and meet his new baby), and that's where we found out that Neptune Room was having a goth DJ night event. It wasn't that long ago (pre-2020) that I was purposefully leaving my home in dangly black clothing to do goth dance nights. I am so far out of the scene at this point that I did not recognize anyone! It was nice to have the soundtrack, in any case.

ceiling of the Neptune Room night club with hanging glowing lights
toilet with the seat open, at the corners of each side on the bottom there is a sticker for an eye, making the toilet seem mad at you bathroom fixture with a sticker that says: Thank you for your service as a hot trans person bathroom fixture with a sticker that says: Elon Musk is a crybaby bitch

After drinks I went home to sleep and then the next morning (Sunday) after nursing my small hangover away, I packed up my things, Zenny's things, and Zenny, and we went out to the campsite. I've taken her to a campsite before during the daytime but brought her home before it was time for bed.

Camping with Zenny right now is not super exciting or adventurous, except that we've never done it (so in that regard it was). I'm not interested in letting her walk around freely until she gets good at the harness. Therefore, camping for Zenny was being transported from her carrier to a totally open tent where she was exposed on all sides, to our tent where she was less stimulated and much happier, overnight, back to the carrier and then back home again. One container to another, no real outside time.

calico cat inside a see-through tent with carrier in the middle calico cat inside her carrier inside the see-through tent

She preferred staying in her carrier rather than being visibly amongst other campers (my family) in her exposed campsite hangout tent. They are not me and therefore their presence and existence is unacceptable. The tent I used is closed all around but netted for pets so they can still see/experience everything around them. She HATED it. As soon as she got into my tent where there were places to hide but still enough netting to spy on everything going on (from afar, protected, unseen), she was extremely happy. For a moment she even stopped hissing at people who dared to look at her.

calico cat comfy on a cot with blankets in an overnight tent calico cat exploring the inside of a tent at night

I was surprised at how quickly she got excited about being in the tent. She had a little bit of anxiety at first but she always does. She LOVED being trapped inside a 1-room unit with me not using my phone at all (except to sneak a picture here or there). She ate all her food, nothing interrupted her bathroom schedule, and she was mad when I was getting up to leave and kept sitting on stuff so I wouldn't pack it away.

It was fun, we might do it again sometime but it'll be too hot for a while.

Miscellaneous May

I wrote a post about taking a walk that I like so I'm sharing it again.

text: Sweet peppers, mild-mannerd chilis

Some things I've found on my web travels this month:

text: Q. What should I do if I find a bone? A. Please do not move the bone. Go to the office

On the Lego shop you can create custom minifigs and I splurged and decided to make a Lego of myself. Here I am holding an egg!

Lego minifigure: messy brown hair, glasses, mummy top, black pants, holding 1x1 flat egg and standing on a LEGO.com brick