Things to yell at people from a dark bush (Patreon)

A couple of weeks ago I went on an evening dog walk with my friend Alie. There's nothing unusual about this: Alie is one of my best friends, and we both have dogs. 

Alie spent majority of the walk talking about how excited she was to have found a walnut tree by her house. There's nothing unusual about this either: Alie is a very excitable person and has an entire podcast dedicated to jumping into science-related rabbit holes.

Scraps and Gremmie in Truckla

After the walk, we go back to my house and Alie immediately drags me to my pitch-black backyard to see if the giant tree that is growing there could be a walnut tree.

But before I have a chance to look at the tree, I hear someone yelling at me from a bush.

There are not a lot of good options in the category of "things to yell at women while hiding in a bush at night." Even seemingly benign things become very concerning if said from a dark bush (see "Would you like a job?" "Free samples!" and "It's a baby boy!")

But, fortunately, the people hiding were eight of my friends and the only thing they yelled at me was "SURPRISE!"

It was two days before my birthday and I was completely caught off guard. I couldn't stop smiling. I had been sad that I wasn't going to be able to celebrate my birthday with my family, and here were my friends, stepping in and holding down the fort.

My friend Jarrett even baked me a theme cake, thinking that it's an established Swedish tradition. It's not. It's just something my family has made up: every birthday you get a (often poorly) sculptured birthday cake representing something that happened this year. Jarrett made me a Scraps cake, and I happily ate her head.

They had also set up an outdoor projector, and I forced them to watch Frozen with me. I. Fucking. Love. Frozen. I have probably watched it around ten times and it still makes me cry and sing and laugh. I guess I'm just a seven year old Scandinavian girl caught in a now 30 year old body.

I still don't know if the tree in my backyard is a walnut tree. But I do know that I love my friends. And that Scraps is an incredibly poorly calibrated guard dog. 

Squirrel? Barks.
Baby in a stroller? Barks.
Her own reflection in a window? Barks.
Eight people hiding in the dark in our backyard? Not a single peep.

What else? I posted a new video yesterday! And I'm getting the workshop ready for a new giant machine that is arriving tomorrow. It starts with a C and ends with a C. I'm a bit intimidated by how steep the learning curve seems to be, but so stoked about all the stuff I could build with it. More on that later.

XOXO
Simone