Musings from someone who wears many hats. <iframe style="border: 0; width: 350px; height: 470px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=416900036...
Very recently marked 29 years since I was brought to the United States from my country of origin. Thankfully, my adoptive parents never attempted to celebrate my "gotcha day," a day and overall concept often dedicated to rescued pets and that many adoptees (rightfully) loathe, instead choosing to sweep the detachment of me from my own home, language, and culture under the rug. As an adult, I've…
A few days ago I booked my flights to not only attend a professional event, but also visit and stay with one of my best friends next month. This will be the sixth time that at least one of us has traveled to hang out with the other. We met each other online six years ago via Reddit (and to some degree, Instagram back when I still had an account) simply through shared interests. Never in my life…
I briefly dated a guy from a dating app earlier this month. While I'm not looking for a life partner at the moment, I still struggle with feeling like I'm too picky. But on paper this seemed like a good match: we're both well educated and progressive, and we have a similar sense of humor and taste in music. He was down to text via Signal and was always super responsive. We even have similar roots,…
Or shall I say soccer because I was raised in the US? I'm writing this because I need to. The sport was such a long chapter in my life, and thanks to my newfound unemployment, I've been able to watch by far the greatest number of World Cup matches ever in my adulthood. So, I'll start from the beginning. I think I was around six years old when my parents enrolled me in ballet and gymnastics…
I hesitate to call myself a photographer, but maybe I am given how much I've been itching to make a photography website for the past couple of years. I take photos for fun. I've never had any formal instruction besides an intro class I took in middle school, which probably doesn't even count. But photography always manages to become something like a job for me whenever I travel somewhere. I'm not…
I've been unemployed for a week now. For the first time in my adult life, I have no authority that tells me how to occupy my days. This wasn't by choice. It's all Donald Trump's fault, to be honest. If not for this regime, I would be living in a different city right now working on something in science policy. Then things got even worse, and due to continued pressure, my advisor can no longer fund…
Lately I've been entertaining romantic relations with someone I'd already established a good friendship. As I mentioned in my last blog post, he has been through some pretty horrifying shit. He also was kicked out of his home as a teenager, and his mother told his sister that he moved to a different country (when in reality he still lived in the same city as them). He moved to the United States a…
I felt like an evil person recently. The dynamic between a good friend and me has shifted recently, as we both admitted feelings for each other thanks to a deep emotional bond that makes us feel safe with each other. We're still trying to work things out, so we decided to try having a serious chat a couple weeks ago. I insisted we go to a café to chat. Of course, I didn't know he was going to…
It's been difficult to blog lately. My life was hard enough last fall, and now I can't seem to catch a break. About a month ago, my best friend had a stroke. Although she's doing well and even managed to travel abroad since then, there's no clear explanation for the incident at this point despite visiting multiple specialists already. Anyway, over the past few weeks I've had to drive her all over…
I spent my whole weekend at the hospital and running errands. On Saturday, my best friend who is like a sister to me had a seizure for the first time. It is currently attributed to an acute ischemic stroke. She is 29 years old. She seems to be bouncing back pretty quickly and shows zero signs of stroke, only recovery symptoms from the seizure. That's why this is doubly shocking. For years she has…