- On Monday Frances took me to the teamLab exhibition at the Asian Art museum. It was really wonderful! I hadn’t seen the one in Japan so I was new to it, but the interactive art nerd in me was all over the concept and trying to figure out what was static and what was interactive, and where the sensors were. Tons of fun!
- On the weekend we went to the Gold Cup ⚽️ final in Vegas. This is important only because: the powers that be let me bring my own drum and I drummed for the whole 120 minutes. As I might have mentioned this has been a dream of mine, and I’m 100% that dream-believe-achieve bitch. I still need to improve a lot, and bless Ryan (who played the big boi drum next to me) who had to put up with me coming in sliiiightly too early a lot. Only up from here!
- Looking at my calendar, a lot of my funemployment is spent levelling up. This will not shock anyone but: I kind of loved school. My first 2 years in uni I audited like 2 or 3 extra classes a semester, because I’d get all the bits I loved (going to class, learning things, taking notes), and none of the existential dread and panic attacks of being evaluated. So now that I’m an adult who gets to control how I learn things, I’m all over it. Here’s what’s currently on the docket:
- Practicing drum rudiments on my snare drum. I should probably find a human to pay to help me with this, since I’m figuring it all out from YouTube and tbh, I have some questions.
- Singing classes. I really enjoy singing in the car but I a) don’t like the sound of my voice and b) don’t actually like to produce loud sounds that draw attention to me, both of which make me not want to sing along in front of people. A lot of singing is relearning how to breathe, and that is Extremely Weird.
- Spanish on Duolingo. I used to speak it as a kid (I used to watch a lot of telenovelas, and I’m a bit of a language sponge), but I lost it since I never actually used it. I want to be able to speak to my friend’s Colombian family when we go to their wedding, so here I am.
- Conversational French hangouts on italki. French and I have a super uncomfortable relationship where after 11 years in Montreal I understand and can read most of it, but I’m unable to speak it. It’s not that I don’t know what to say, it’s that I literally panic and refuse to say the words. I’ve had a lot of kind of traumatic experiences with a bunch of french (and quebecois) native speakers who were really hostile to people who speak French poorly, and it left me a bit terrified of even trying. I figured the best I can do to work on it is pay a complete stranger to talk to me – even if they think I’m shit, I won’t ever see them in person. I will be able to sleep at night just fine.
- Books: I am struggling with Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi, because it’s a devastating book. It’s well written and I desperately want to finish, but I find myself dreading reading it; all the stories are about horrible things that people did to slaves and my heart just breaks on every page.