I am thinking about updating my spring log little by little, instad of all at once. I want a place where I can drop happy memories into, without feeling the pressure of summarizing a whole season at once. Like a contextualized version of my microblog.

Somehow this sping was even busier than the summer. I am essentially working three jobs (internship, clinic, service work) while still being a full time student, partner, sister, and daughter. There are many moments where I feel overwhelmed, though though moments are less frequent then the ones where I simply feel satisfied. I often make fun of my girlfriend for acting like a stopped shark when she's on break-- that is, depressed at the lack of work to do. But I am the same way. I have to keep going, I have to keep saying "yes." It feels very good to feel relied on, to feel like you are doing a good job at something. Perhaps thats the american protestant in me-- idle hands and all of that.

My heart was racing like a rabbit's. At one point, my bpm was almost in the 220s. Though I was scared, I wasn't completely suprised. I had a really terrible episode like this last fall. And luckily, Nicole was with me. She ended up accompanying me to the hospital. Though I was ill to the point of throwing up, she kept my spirits up. Later, Sam even joined us, and we played jeporady in the ER until the doctors transfered me to an overnight room. All the hospital staff was very kind to me.

My mom and sister were equally qorried about me, and ended up bringing me non-hospital food from Culvers and a sweet cakepop treat from a bakery near our house. They also packed me fresh clothes and books to read while the hospital held me overnight. Luckily, I was released the next day with some medicine and a follow-up appointment.

I am trying to read more this year. I have been spending many of my Fridays at the library with my mom. We are good study-buddies-- she does her reviewing, I do my writing. The atmosphere is usually very calm there. Frequent vists also mean that I am much more likely to pick up the library books I have on hold. I have really been drawn to short stories and anthologies as of late. One series I have been enjoying is "Syrup," a yuri anthology. I wrote a little more in depth in my bookshelf review. I have been trying to find more good yuri series as of late, though I haven't been super successful.

A pleasant side effect of not being able to log into a music streaming app is my newfound appreciation for good radio. Bad radio is abundant, let it be known, but when you find a good station, you really do feel accomplished. I've been using this little app called Radio Garden. Radio Garden lets you access any statition (offical or not) from around the world by rotating our cute little planet. Youre supposed to be able to collect favorite stations, but my screen is too small to load that feature, so I start more-or-less fresh each time. I always start in Australia, because I have found (a) it has the least ads of the english speaking countries, (b) it has alot more worldwide news, and (c) the music variety is just alot better for some reason. Like there are gen indie artists playing. Something I don't even hear much on college radio back in the states. I quite enjoy it.

a memory
While waiting at the bus stop, a stranger came up to me and offered a sweet treat. They worked at Fannie Mae, and had a bunch of leftover stock. The treats were some kind of cross between a doughnut and a cupcake, super chocolate-y and filled with fudge. At first, I declined to take one because I had a box of doughnuts in hand already (treats for Nicole), but an older man at the bus stop encouraged me to take one ("live a little!")

I have been trying to get in as much Tab-time as possible before we depart from each other. On one unreasonably warm spring day, we decided to explore East Beverly together. We found many cute shops, including a smoothie shop that was in its first week of opening. Tab got a green smoothie with an orange juice base that was Absolutely incredible. Unfortunently, we decidied to hang out on a Monday, so the consignment store and record store were both closed. Fortunently, Beverly is filled with all sorts of wonderful houses to look at, so we made a morning out of exploring.

a memory
Opening the back door of the resteraunt to a flood of biblical proportions. Holding my sides laughing because we still had to take the garbage out and the alley looked like a river

Tab invited me to a lecture on the meaning of the word "empire," especially as it relates to the Habsburgs. The speaker had a really wonderful precense and, although Tab and Nicole disagreed with many of his points, we really enjoyed listening to him. My takeaways really did not have to do with his own thoughts as much as his sources-- one bit of interest was when he discussed the selling of Latin American debt to French peasants as a way of informal colonial action. This fascinated me for a few reasons-- (1) its just simply weird to think of french peasants owning the debt of colonies, (2) it makes me think that normal people's practice of using the markets as a means of social security goes back way further than i thought, (3) I should really learn about the history of debt at some point in time, (4) I should pick up that david graeber book again.

Citlalli and Nathan joined us after the lecture for tea and a trip to Cedar's. It was such a fun inpromtu meetup. I really missed getting to hang out with all my buddies.

After one of the worst shifts I've ever completed (bless you, annual St. Patrick's day river dying) Tab and I clocked out of work and dashed over to Pilsen. The day was finally here-- The Baldening. We were on our way to Zen Leaf dispensary, the conclusion of my St. Baldricks journey. Hilariously, I was the only one signed up (perhaps because of the river dying?) so it was just me in the middle of the store under a balloon arch. To make things like awkward, I had my gaggle of supporters behind me-- Tabitha, Nicole, Citlalli, Sam, Charlotte and (later) Nathan. They were the best hype team ever, ooh-ing and awe-ing and making silly small talk. Nicole had the biggest bug eyes I've ever seen her do. Tabitha was giggling and told me I looked cute. The hairdresser, Jamie, asked if i wanted to keep a rat tail (no, dear reader. I did not) and asked me questions the whole time. And the organizer, Joe, was super excited to have me there, giving me a fist bump and taking a photo after I was freshly bald.

Overall, it was a delightful experience. Although Tab, Nathan, Citlalli, and Charlotte had to go, Sam And Nicole treated me to pho in Chinatown to celebrate afterwards. I did get carsick, but after that was out of my system, I had a delicious bowl of soup and was very happy.