Happy September! (Patreon)

I can’t believe it’s already September... how quickly did this summer fly by?!? Thank you so much to everyone who is still here with us for this month, and a huge, warm WELCOME!! to all our new Patrons! I really appreciate everyone’s support, and if you happen to be in the “Whoppie Senior” tier, your letters have been sent out in the mail today, so keep an eye out! :)

Today was a really great day for me, which I’m thrilled about because this weekend was pretty hectic! Not necessarily hectic in a bad way, but my to-do list for work is ever-growing, and I’ve been struggling lately with the weight of everything. But Russ and I essentially spent all 3 days of this past holiday weekend filming, editing, and composing, and we made a really great leap in progress. Also, Ivan (Cyberattack!) came over on Sunday, and we filmed a super fun collaboration video! We chatted about how to deal with mean comments, and he also gave me my very first official guitar lesson -- I can’t wait to share that with all of you. Guitar is FUN (albeit painful... my fingers have to get used to the feeling of pushing down those thin wire strings), and I don’t want to spoil anything, but I learned how to properly hold a pick, how to properly strum (you don’t think about these things, but when you’re a complete beginner, you don’t know how to do it correctly!), and I learned the pentatonic scale shape. So I’ve been practicing that in my free time, and I have more guitar lessons scheduled with another teacher coming up in the near future. I will be so happy if I just become a “decent” guitar player. I don’t want to be the best, or even great; I just want to be able to play decently. It’s a new goal of mine!

Cyberattack also brought over these really amazing temporary Tattly tattoos, and we went a bit wild applying them for our collaboration video. After he left, Russ and I spent most of Sunday night and Monday filming short-form content for IG / Youtube, and I’m rocking all the fake tattoos in these videos. I feel like they look really awesome, and you’ll definitely be seeing them in some upcoming posts on Instagram (they're still on right now)!

Part of the reason why today was so wonderful is because when I got home, there was a surprise gift waiting for me! I’ve been playing lots of Stardew Valley with Belle from JHS, and she sent me the Stardew Valley Guidebook!! It has such beautiful illustrations in it, useful information with tips and tricks for the game, and it came with a custom bookmark. These are the little things that always cheer me up. I’m going to cherish this book forever! Speaking of cherishing, I also checked my PO Box today, and found an amazing gift of Black Mango Tea, both in loose leaf and tea bag form! There was also an amazing iron-on patch of a frog holding a knife, and it really made me smile.

Another game I’ve also been enjoying is called Slay the Spire, and I’m currently playing it on my iPad (I promised myself that I would only use that iPad for sheet music storage and freelance harp gigs in case I dropped it or somehow broke the screen, but now that I’m no longer performing at weddings, I figure it’s probably safe to start using it for other things like reading books on the Libby app and playing games). I started a free trial to “Apple Arcade”, which I didn’t know even existed until recently, and they have Slay the Spire on there for free. It’s normally $24.99 on Steam, so to be able to play it for free is pretty amazing! I’m also playing chess online, and I might be going through a bit of a chess-obsession... I visited the “largest chess store in America”, which coincidentally is located right here on Long Island. It was a pretty amazing store that had a lot of different chess sets, and the store clerk was SO nice, she didn’t rush me at all, answered all my questions, and she let pick up and hold any chess pieces I wanted to. Call me crazy, but I feel like it’s important to feel the weight of the pieces. Sometimes when you go into stores like that, the clerks can be too strict and not want you to touch anything, but the staff at the store (it’s called “Your Move”) were so welcoming, and it made me really happy to see that.

In addition to playing games, I’m also trying to read more to improve my mental health. I know it may seem contradictory, but “The Road” was SO good, even though it was a depressing story, I really loved reading it for the first time. I always heard it was a great book, but I tried reading it many years ago and couldn’t get into it back then. It’s really funny how books will hit you differently, and they’ll hit at the right times in your life. I also checked out a book called “There, There” which I’m really enjoying, and I’m almost finished with one called “When These Mountains Burn.” The other day I went to Burger King and scarfed down two Whoopie Joonies while reading it, and I crushed like 15 chapters in one sitting. One of my vices is eating junk food while reading a great book. I also read some short stories from “Tenth of December”, and STICKS is definitely my favorite one. It’s an older book by George Saunders, and you can read it here if you’d like: https://www.unm.edu/~gmartin/535/Sticks.htm

Another thing I’ve been enjoying is Hibiscus flavored La Croix. I still can’t have caffeine or artificial sweeteners because of my migraines, so soda and coffee are out of the question. My favorite teas don’t have that much caffeine in them, so I’m good drinking those, and La Croix has been satisfying my craving for soda. As a quick 'health update', my TMJ has improved a ridiculous amount from all my appointments and the jaw exercises I’ve been doing, and my tinnitus still hasn’t gone away (15 months? Something like that?) but it honestly doesn’t bother me anymore. I’m really proud of how far I’ve come in accepting the constant tones in my head, and I’m so proud to say that it never disrupts my sleep anymore. Acceptance is a strange and powerful thing!

I’m currently sitting next to Russ as we go through our footage from when Bad Snacks came to our studio to film a collaboration video. I’m SO excited to share this one with all of you, too, because Bad Snacks is so awesome, and we made a really fun track together!

Please let me know what good things are happening in your life! I hope everyone is doing great out there, and if you've read any good books / played any good games, let us know! Also, do you have any new goals lined up? It may seem a little silly but I always think of September like the "fresh new school year start," even though I've been out of school for a while now hahah. I'm really going to work hard at practicing guitar!