Today has been a fantastically lazy day. I spent the latter half of the night on the couch yet again because of The Cough That Just Won’t Quit, and Bear came bounding down the stairs at about 6:45 am, Pokedex in hand, and body-slammed me where I lay. We cuddled, watching Brainchild, until around 9:00, when I finally got up an prepped up a vacation-worthy breakfast of scrambled eggs, toast, corned beef hash, and apple sauce.
While I worked today, I was feeling nostalgic and went over to YouTube and started streaming Welcome to Night Vale, starting right from the Pilot. It’s a trip, let me tell you; I’d nearly forgotten how much I absolutely adore early Night Vale, and over a year removed from actually keeping up with the show, it’s sometimes easy to forget what made me fall in love with the show and its stories in the first place. I fell into the fandom during a bout with a mild flu, in December 2013; I remember waking up from a bizarre fever dream, Night Vale still playing in my headphones, the opening chords of Danny Schmidt’s “This Too Shall Pass”¹ rousing me to semi-wakefulness. In January of 2014, my fandom in full swing, I attended a standing room only Night Vale panel at my first Arisia, followed by a wonderful, small impromptu meet-up afterward, and scored tickets to what would be the first of five live shows I would see them perform. In spite of falling out of the fandom, it remains one of the best ones I’ve ever been in, and I have wonderful memories of it.
The fruits of my labor today are the beginnings of a painting, the background of which I adore, though I think I’m going paint over the foreground, and the beginning of a drawing. The drawing is two days deep at the moment, and I’m incredibly happy with how it’s turning out, though I need to find a few more visual references for the sketch before I can even think about inking.
It’s Tuesday night — tomorrow is halfway (including for my vacation, sadly). Treat yourself to something special, get a good night’s rest, and brace yourself for the hurdle. I’ll see you on the other side.
¹To this day, Danny Schmidt’s “This Too Shall Pass” remains not only one of my favorite Weathers, but one of my favorite songs, full-stop:
