Daily Photo: Week 1 (Patreon)

Once a year or so, I like to choose a period to take a self portrait every single day as a kind of photo diary. I just set my camera down with a self-timer and do whatever I was already in the process of doing before I remembered "Oh shit, did I do my daily photo yet?" Like last year, I'm choosing the month of January to document this time- so I guess this is starting to become a bit of a tradition.  Rather than bombard you all with a fresh post every day, I'm compiling the week's worth of pictures in one post at a time.

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Monday, January 1

Biked to the studio! First bike ride of the year! Though I didn't actually get any work done while there but it was good for my brain and body, as I've been feeling... weird the last week. My brain is lightly foggy and I'm just so tired all the time.

(More photos from this day are in the post image carousel)

Tuesday, January 2

Got up to feed Tig at 7, so exhausted after making breakfast and drinking my morning tea that I laid back down in bed with Matt, probably around 8 or 8:30? The next thing I know, I'm checking my clock and it's 11:30. Something is definitely not right with my body and my mind is all cloudy. I parked myself on the couch for most of the day. Had Matt bring me the blue mop/barf bucket, just in case. If I don't feel better by tomorrow, guess I'll take a Covid test. Sigh.

Wednesday, January 3

Ok, doing a bit better today. Still fatigued but not feeling sick- or like my body is fighting off becoming sick. Didn't take a Covid test. Normally I really love January, it's this big reset for me. I haven't done any of my rituals (reviewing my calendar notes, writing down the milestones of the year into a card for Matt, looking over my 2023 ambitions and comparing them to how the year actually shook out, plotting down my 2024 hopes) and I feel like I'm floating between time. Unfocused. Did get the laundry done, tho.

Thursday, January 4

It's not Covid but I feel a degree less than rotten. Like. My head and stomach ache enough that I can't actually get any work done, but I feel just well enough to keep entertaining the thought that maybe this is all in my head and I'm just doing that thing where you want to be sick so then your body makes itself fake-sick. There's a word for that. Oh right! Placebo? I know that what I just wrote is not the definition of placebo, but you get what I mean, right? Anyway, I'm feeling v. sorry for myself today. And grumpy. I am not enjoying this.

Friday, January 5

Shipping day! In October, Matt and I took on the fulfillment operation for a friend's online store, so now on Fridays I spend a couple hours packaging up orders, printing out postage,  dropping orders off at the post office, and doing customer support. Haha, I know it looks like a trash heap to the untrained eye, but I love my l little basement shipping station. I am the queen in my basement domain.

Saturday, January 6

Rough day, hard day, physically and mentally and emotionally. Oh! But the neighbor brought over their annual holiday homemade candies! That's the container, there in the foreground. Inside it is full of this kind of... crunchy caramel slabs? Plus this year they added in a bunch of my favorite non-chocolate-chip cookies, the snickerdoodle! Snickerdoodle and chocolate chip are always elbowing each other in the category of Erika's Favorite Cookie. Every time I feel ready to commit to snickerdoodle being the winner, I'm then faced with the question "Chocolate chip is not your favorite?" and I spiral back into indecision.

Sunday, January 7

It was a good day to be a person today. I hung out with two people who I have seen individually once or twice before, but this was the first time we all three sat down and it's just... nice, y'know? It's nice to be a human spending time with other humans. And then in the evening I drove (which is its own accomplishment) to my first session with my new French tutor and he said I was pronouncing things about 60% correct which made me feel like I'd just won an Olympic gold medal. Guess who's about 60% understandable in her second language? THIS BITCH (Cette salope?) SO SUCK ON THAT, HATERS (Ok, so I'm trying to translate that and Google thinks it's "c'est nul ça" which I think means "This is nothing"(?) Which is... considerably less satisfying to announce.)

Francophones, what French expression in your beautiful language best encapsulates the vibe of "SO SUCK ON THAT"?