greetings

i’m doing better than i was last month but it got worse first :’-) we trudge on. september is always a little weird and sad for me, even when i’m not dealing with particularly heavy shit in my personal life. i’m more of a spring guy. i’ve noticed that i historically take less photos in september than any other month of the year for some reason. weird! it won’t seem like it from this newsletter lol.

anyway, i’ve been spending a lot of time in my bed with the window open. the cool breeze is a nice little treat to (almost) revive me while i watch movies and try to do various crafts in the relative darkness of my room. as much as i definitely suffer from seasonal depression, i am excited for the slow-down of the cooler, darker months. i’ve been very much on the struggle bus lately, but i somehow have lots of new stuff in the shop.

slow communication disclaimer ~ it’s so weird to be on IG like “hi, i have new wares! don’t send me an email tho or i might cry.” emails, DMs, etc replies are on like a week delay right now (esp if there’s a request attached). humor me a while longer, please & thank you <3

new in the shop

porch fest leftovers have hit the shop, along with a new sticker and various mask chains! porch fest was really cool, had lots of nice chats and made a buncha money. shout out to grey for braving the longest tabling day ever with me <3. it took me more than a week to recover lol.

upcoming

portland zine symposium is my last tabling event of the year on saturday, october 17th from 11AM-5PM at at PSU’s smith ballroom. it’s free, ADA accessible & masks required. there are a whole buncha zinesters i’m excited about at this one, and i’m bringing a buddy so let’s all pray my social anxiety permits me to walk around while i have the opportunity. i think i’m gonna bring a handful of stuff to trade, which will hopefully help the anxiety lol. i love zine fests but i have to have a job or else i get totally overwhelmed.

if you’re looking for covid safer events around olympia, there are a few coming up! i’m excited for halloween rollerskating. i just updated the calendar on covidsaferoly.com. everyone thank elizabeth for hosting events!

i’m also going to the first gig i’ll have attended all year on october 6th at le voyeur (7-10PM, not free), neutral shirt and malasada (jon from lost sound tapes) are playing and you should go, if you’re into that kind of thing!

zine news

some of my zines are being added to a very cool new marketplace called ilovezines.com in october!

from their mission page: “This website was created to provide a "one-stop-shop" for individuals, book stores, and zine distros, allowing them to easily purchase a variety of zines from a variety of authors. We hope this makes ordering and re-stocking as easy as possible.”

i found out about it from the long arm stapler podcast :) very excited about the site’s existence and trying to spread the word. websites!

this is tangentially zine news, but lee arden of sheer spite press (who kindly distro my zines) put out a new book called the politics of lonely: why is friendship so hard? and i loved getting to hear them talk about it on the gender reveal podcast. maybe you will too! very important book imo.

garden report

BEANS. some of them are huge! mostly scoping places to plant garlic, planting out sweet william first years/repotting bulbs and harvesting beans atm. i also made a retroactive garden report collage for august since i didn’t include one in last month’s letter:

had to share that beautiful new dahlia i grew from burfoot flowers* this year <3 and i didn’t plant any of those zinnias lol, only one of the seeds i intentionally sewed came up, those were lucky volunteers.

*the cosmos also originally came from burfoot flowers as seed, they’re in their 3rd year now i think.

some song(s)

living rent-free in my head right now. i haven’t been listening to much music at all this month.

some movies

i’ve been coping by getting stoned as hell in bed and watching movies. i watched 9 to 5 and clue for the first time, both were delightful. i had a fun time watching the wrong girls (new stoner comedy ft alia shawkat & kristen stewart, queer stoners rejoice). i also really enjoyed billy elliot; we love a movie where family is supportive even though they don’t “get it.” i’ve been rewatching gilmore girls as my comfort show, watching the new season of ted lasso very slowly, and of course, dropout tv for morale. i’m always looking for watch recommendations btw! obligatory letterboxd link.

tiny victories

• handled some hardship better than i would have a few years ago, let my people show up for me when i was a mess instead of isolating

• my monstera put out two huge new leaves & i’ve harvested almost a pint of big, beautiful beans

• i made some art/jewelry/plans to look forward to

• had a skate date with some friends

• i tackled a couple impossible tasks

• i made/went to a lot of medical appointments & got my covid + flu boosters (yr welcome for the reminder! do it!)

• made my annual nightmare bills month work with a little help from my community

• i’m hanging in there

some photos

til next month <3 take care y’all.