Recently

WATCHED: 

Flow (HBO) - I've heard about this movie for months and the second I heard it was coming to HBO I added a reminder to my phone to check it out. It deserves all the hype because it is such a beautiful film about the friends we meet along the way. There were some anxiety inducing scenes but overall this little bud went with the flow. Just a heads up there is absolutely no talking in this movie, even amongst the animals and it still was engrossing to watch. Like foreign movies with subtitles it really makes you put down your phone and pay attention the whole way through. 

The Wild Robot (Peacock) - Roz, an intelligent robot is shipwrecked on an uninhibited island. This movie got me in a way I haven't been got in a long time. I was full on ugly crying toward the end. Was it the whole found family element? Most likely. The scene where the opossum talks about her litter had be dying (pun totally intended). 

GOT TATTOOED during a fun little Valentine's Day flash event at The Mermaid's Muse. Katie and I took off early on a Wednesday, grabbed Parlor Donuts, and then went down the road for our appointment. The shop was all set up for the Galentine's Flash event with refreshments. There was also a canvas set up on an easel so that everyone could collaborate on an art piece together.  I'm so curious how it ended up turning out. 

Katie went first with the dragonfly tattoo on her shoulder and a Darlin' candy heart on her arm. I, too, was getting the dragonfly but was having a hard time with placement. I originally wanted to  put it on my arm but since it is more fine lined Kaylee didn't think it would be as cohesive. Then I thought my upper thigh but it didn't feel right either. Then bam it hit me, she's got to go on the front of my ankle. The minute I suggested it both Kaylee and Katie were like "YUP!". Sometimes you're dead set on placement in advance and other times you just got to pivot when it doesn't feel right. I ended up with the cutest little dragonfly (as did Katie and everyone else who might have gotten one!). I originally wanted my first tattoo to be a dragonfly but I didn't like any of the options I could find back in 2003 so I went with a butterfly per was required for all millennials. I love that I finally got my dragonfly all these years later. A full circle kind of moment. 

 

READ the third in the Empyrean series, Onyx Storm. No spoilers below, I promise! 

I fell deep into the Fourth Wing world and then had to wait over a year for the third book to be released. Of course it came out when I was sick so I didn't even start it until a week after. It was such a slog to get through. It felt like a filler book. This series could've easily been wrapped up in a third book but since there is a 5 book arc already planned we got this book. I'm hoping I'll appreciate it once the series is complete but it's not likely. 

DOING MY BEST to find joy in all of this shit. I wake up and am bombarded by horrific news event ever single day. I try and treadmill-it-up at the gym and I am met with several TV screens showing that gross orange face. Between rights being taken away, planes going down, and everything in between it is EXHAUSTING as fuck to be a empathetic human being at the moment. But it's all I know so I continue on, with maybe even more naps than before, in order to rest my tired soul.

But the joy is there. It's in a double date hockey game. It's being chauffeured around Lake Eola on a giant swan. It's a Moo Deng hair clip. It's a new tattoo.  It's trying new foods with old friends. It's long distance phone calls with one of my favorite people. It's getting a text of a photo of my cousin's dog acting like a cat. It's being able to truly help someone at work. It's sending snail mail because I love it and I love who I'm sending it to. It's a market with friends. It's when I roll over in the middle of the night and feel two cats curled up next to me. It's when I'm really feeling myself in the outfit I chose for the day. It's a funny meme in my DMs. It's a fresh haircut. It's singing along to a song on my way home. It's a Girl Scout cookie. It's just having done my skincare routine, teeth brushed, retainer locked and loaded, while I snuggle into bed.