Dog Food and Furniture Tester

On Sunday, I attended a lady-writers group we call Allthing with Meagan. It turned out to be just us (was supposed to be Kathy, JC, Alyssa, and Sam, too, but no one else made it). So the two of us spent about a half hour with a quick Odd-Jobs workshop. I can't remember her picks-from-the-hat (one had something to do with a whiskey cask, oh, and the other was an Odd Jobs Journalist), but mine were 'Dog Food Tester', and 'Furniture Tester' (other picks-from-the-hat were things like, 'snake milker', 'carnie', and 'fortune cookie writer').

Sunday was such a nice day, we decided to book out early and explored the South Wedge. We passed by a house where a banjo jam band practiced on their front porch, we took pictures with a life-size toy goat named Percival, and we ate delicious whiskey and espresso flavoured ice cream (both at Hedonist Chocolates). It was so nice having some girl time. I don't have girlfriends I can trust these days (who I get to hang out with often), so that's a load off my chest, too.

Anyway, we just did one-page stories from our prompts:

( Dog Food Tester )

( Furniture Tester )

After girl time with Meagan, I went to meet with Linda, my former neighbor, at Panera, and we were there for hours.

And then I went home just in time for Game of Thrones. Which was fucking brilliant. Right in the berries.

Nightmares Fucking Suck

This icon is a relatively accurate depiction of me last night at 4am. Except I was not USING the toilet, I was just sitting on it. But crying and texting.

Because as soon as I fell asleep, I dreamed my best friend Ross ate a gun. Like, proverbially, messily, and not literally (I know in dreams you can literally feast upon whatever you want, but)... I didn't get there in time to stop him. I smashed open his window to get to him and I was too late - he was pulling the trigger as I threw my body through the glass and I saw everything.

I woke up and bawled my eyes out as silently as I could, but that level of stress doesn't come out as quietly as one could hope, and you couldn't even cut that tension with a knife. I had to get up and grab my phone.

I haven't texted him since we took a break from each other, since our fight I never wrote about. It'd been months. Since early February. It's been hard. But I had to. I've been worried in THAT way about him, and I just HAD to.

And he's okay. He did a nice job of calming me down, deflecting from my dream to his, and as usual, to the Ninja Turtles (he is one of the artists for IDW's TMNT comics). It was like old times, sort of.

I love you, Ross. I miss you <3