Coming back to routine
Hello everyone, I’m back, sorta kinda! My recovery is going well, albeit slowly.
Recovery update
I had major GI surgery four weeks ago at time of this newsletter’s publication! According to my surgeon I’m healing pretty well. Every week I get a little more range of motion and general physical ability. Still, things are going slowly. I find it ironic that one of the hardest things for me to do is something we’re told to do less of: sitting. But that doesn’t stop me from reclining on the patio for a couple hours everyday…
I’ve generally been relaxing, since healing is hard work even if it doesn’t feel like it. This consists of reading, watching TV, playing videogames, talking to friends, journaling, writing, and being on my phone too much (trying to do less of that last one).
I feel like an absolute old person for saying this, but: my patio lounge chair has made my life so much better. It’s nice to not be in bed all day, and to spend time outside even when it’s overcast. I’ve enjoyed watching hawks circle high above the house and hummingbirds visit the plants, and generally this little furniture change has helped me embrace this slower-paced time.
I’m slowly working back into routines, but that’s easier said than done after almost a month of what feels like lounging! Perhaps naively, I hope that this recovery period will help me reform past routine behaviors that didn’t serve me well. Some examples: scrolling after dark, checking my work email before finishing my morning routine, not making regular time for art.
Upcoming artwork
While it’s currently difficult for me to do anything that requires sitting in a chair, I have started writing copy for a few new zines. Ambitious, yes, but I hope to have these three zines ready for an upcoming event (see below).
One zine is…let’s call it absurdist poetry.
Another zine is a perzine about language and gender.
The third zine is about book swaps.
Upcoming events (!!)
I’m still pinching myself about this, buuut…I have a half-table at SF Zine Fest 2025 on August 31, 11am-5pm at the Metreon!! This is my first zine fest. I am beyond excited. Pop on by! (Note: face masks are required for the event.)
More on this later, but I’ll have a virtual table at Bay Area Queer Zine Fest (BAQZF) September 1-14. Basically I’ll be featured on the website linked above and on social media, and I’ll be extra available for sales and conversations!
Stuff I’ve enjoyed during recovery
Because I am an absolute dork, I am reading the Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir for the third time. However, this is my first time listening to the audiobook, which I enjoy doing during the mundane moments of my day, particularly in the morning and evening when I want to avoid notifications.
I finally am watching Andor, and now THIS is a TV series! If you don’t like typical Star Wars I’d still recommend it; it’s basically a noir or spy thriller that happens to take place in a space opera setting. It has a LOT to say about fascism, and with clarity that I frankly haven’t seen anywhere.
Early on in recovery I watched KPop Demon Hunters, and that was a super cute movie that made me more excited about mainstream animation than I’ve been in a long time. The songs are ridiculously catchy; it’s lovingly designed and animated; the characters are amazing. I just wish it had 20-30 min more runtime to flesh out some plot and character background a bit more.
I’m playing way more games on my Switch than I have in a long time. I found A Short Hike a very delightful (and truly short) cozy adventure, and I’ve been working my way through the cozy puzzle game A Little to the Left. I briefly started Pentiment, but I might restart that because I’ve already made some truly atrocious mistakes 😅 It involves mostly exploring people and relationships rather than places and things, which makes it very different than most games, and tbh I’m still deciding if I like it or not, but I want to like it. The medieval aesthetic is awesome, though.