Clover's Mini Blog

June 13th, 2026

I'm really good at not updating the date correctly in my last entry and only realizing it like months later =w= aw yeah. Anyway I've still been training for karate (basically just running with some incline on the treadmill for 2 mile bouts with varying speeds...which is a ton for me cause I always was bad at running even when I was young. I can finally just "run indefinitely" now at about 4mph and by run I mean slow old-man jog :3) UMM BUT...during last karate practice, my freaking tendon in my left ring finger snapped during free matching practice. I felt a tiny bump on my finger, but we get bumps and bruises all the time....when class was wrapping up I looked down at my finger and the tip was just BENT looking. Not like out of alignment, but the last joint became a malette finger ;o; (look it up) So I've kinda just been splinting it since then. Supposedly you have to splint it for 6-8 weeks. I did get it xray'd and there's no bone involvement so it's pure tendon damage, but gottdamn!! RIGHT before special training and my grading. So annoying lol. (typing is annoying now, putting gloves on at work is annoying now....lifting heavy stuff is annoying now...UGH) I'll be so freaking happy to be done with this karate practice not gunna lie, then I get to go to canada and maybe do a couple beach trips actually this summer unlike last year. I'm not gunna lie I was literally tearing up and depressed feeling at home for a few days. It happened a week ago, I'm still annoyed about it, but I think I've more or less accepted than I'm gunna have a crooked fingy forever unless I get surgery or something on it.
anywhoop. I am finishing up a cute angel egg adoptable thing, I already have the art for it just trying to finish up the coding ^O^ it'll be really cute, I'm going to see if I can add some click-ability where you can click and level it up, and maybe even get tiny badges for it or somthing o_o

May 19th, 2026

Hello lovelies!!!! Since I last posted, here's what has been goin' on:
KARATE - Getting ready for my 10th special training! It'll be a summer one (NICE AND HOT AW YEAH) and it's happening in about a month. Taking a break from alcohol until then and trying to jog more to get ready!! I'm nervous because I'm grading so I'll need to present 2 kata in front of everyone, do a set of combination basics (block/punches, triple kicks, etc) and do some free matching/free sparring as well. I don't need to "win" just show some good spirit and technique. I got a weighted vest because my dad and another person in our dojo got one and I didn't want to miss out on the INTENSE ANIME TRAINING action XDD!!! I can picture it now...I'll drop the vest to the ground when special training starts and I'll be flying around like samurai jack. JK I'll probably just wear it to walk or maybe if I'm doing chores around the house or outside =w=;; It's supposed to help with bone density and as long as I don't do anything too intense I shouldn't be tearing up my joints! woo!

WORK - I went to an IV class at work (yay for getting paid to learn!!) and I was able to use the vein finder tool we have and actually start an IV on a darker skin person...that's an opportunity I've not had yet so it was really a beneficial day for me ^^ Basically it was all nurses practicing on each other, and the nurse I was sitting next to was sooo nice and really INSISTED that I start an IV on her! I was actually surprised to see how unsure some of the night shift nurses in particular were about getting them started...made me feel better as a new nurse at least ^_^; I picked up a TON of extra hours in April, including some contracted shifts that paid like $75 an hour 0: might be looking to do that again if possible. For may and june I'm basically picking up NOTHING though...just doing my normal part time so I have lots of time to train at home and stuff. (and also just take a mental break). They also have us technically doing paritoneal dialysis now, but those patients are few and far between so I haven't gotten to do it yet, I just attended the educational session on it.

ART STUFF - Oh my god I've been spriting so much!!! I've been submitting entries to cute pixel webrings, made so many sprites for my match game (which is DONE but needs updates! You can play it HERE!!), been submitting stuff to itch.io for people to download, posting on my Deviant art when I remember...and now I'm planning to make a Sofubi themed web ring (the cute "soft body" vinyl toys from Japan with nostalgic themes). The sofubi ring will allow you to basically have your own little toy in a cute plastic package (or out of it) and there's going to be a "maker" where you can custmize it then just copy the code right out of the page....it'll be kyute. I'm also make a super dynamic pet/adoptable site. I have the core of the code working for that one, I just need to make HELLA art for it xux;;;; I'm trying to tell myself to FULLY FINISH the sofubi ring before I delve into the pet site. While I work on the sofubi, some of that art could actually be used in the pet site potentially is what I'm thinking!! On the pet site, there's going to be regions you can find eggs, and when you adopt it, it basically becomes a unique code JUST for you! There are timers that show when the egg will hatch or evolve, and there will even be things like the visual of the pet will change depending on the season, "shinies", cute overlay effects....it's really fillig my brain with so many ideas. The dopamine be RUSHIN'. I might even let people submit entries but it'll be kinda involved so we'll see xux

GARDENING STUFF - My dad helped me plant TWENTY arbor vitae trees in my yard a couple of weeks ago! These types of trees make really pretty "natural" dividers or walls between properties giving a little bit of back yard privacy to both neighbors. (It took us probably 8 hours total between 2 days) I had actually left a hand written NOTE at my neighbors place asking if they would be okay with it, and they said they thought it would look great. They actually already had a row of them planted in their own back yard, so now it kind of echos that. I'll try to post some pics. I'm getting more ready to post a gardening shrine page soon, but right now I'm just collecting a bunch of pics and pixels and things. I still have pics from last year that I need to post..but at least now it'll be kind of a chronicle and you can see the differences in the garden and yard between the years. I'm trying to get my patio ponds established this year, but they are kinda struggling. It only JUST got hot out this week, so maybe the plants will do better now. The ones I was putting out kept dying off, so I think I was just too eager to get them out there. I didn't have any snails in them for a while because I didn't want them to be cold, so the algae was just kinda...growing XoX;; I've been doing water changes on them, trying to put floater plants, lillies, pothos type plants, etc. I actually picked up a papyrus the other day and I think that one will do well! I might grab another because I KNOW those things do well in water. I was able to get some lil snails from my local fish store...they were happy to get rid of them and I was like PLEASE GIVE because they really help clean up algae. Plus they're so cute to watch crawlin' around in the pots xux; My pansies in the front yard came back after winter, and actually started spreading to other parts of the yard ^O^ so it looks like a cute bouquet up in the front and honestly I just want a whole pansie yard. Forget the grass. Gimme dem flowers. Anyway, we'll be mowing outside this morning soon, but since I woke up so early I thought I'd post these updates.

I hope you are doing well!!

October 5th, 2025

Aside from the state of the country and government, things have been going okay. Getting a little better at my job each day, but always wishing I had more chances to start IVs. Doesn't happen that often in physical rehab places. I might still take a phlebotomy course, but for now I'm just kinda saving up money to have some wiggle room for things (and eventually save up for an infinity pool/jacuzzi pool XD) It's really looking like fall out there too, the mornings are getting quite cold but the afternoons are still warmish. I'll be taking apart the last of my patio ponds this week, so I hope to post pics in the "My House" section of my page eventually so I can document the ups and downs of the ponds and my plans for next year.
Charles and I just had a garage sale that went kind of slow, except for this one guy who bought ALL of my gameboy games that I originally bought to sell at comic con o_o We vended at retro world but only sold a few of the gameboy games....but this garage sale guy just walked up and basically dropped almost 1k on ALL the games (we sat there and tallied up all of them then knocked a couple hundies off the price) Now I have excuses to buy more games from yahoo japan auctions XwX!!
Oh, I'm planning to go to a karate special training later this month! It's a winter special training, so no running (thank god) and the practices are more crammed together, just going from Friday to Sunday afternoon. I like to take a month and not have any alcohol leading up to a practice like that. Gives me more opportunities to wake up early and excercise, and gives the ol' liver some time to heal @w@;; I do miss a nice sake once in a while though lol but it's good for me. My thoughts now are to do another special training in January but in Canada! I invited Charles to go hang out there for a week after the special training so we can see the place a bit.
Oh, I officially have 3 fish tanks now XD Aaahh....Two of my female guppies gave birth so I just had to separate the male and females. There are currently just 16 babies total but I've read the moms could have multiple births even later on so we'll see. One tank now holds the male guppy and 3 mystery snails, another tank has all the baby fish plus a female guppy, and the last tank has a female guppy with a minnow and two coreys. As soon as I'm more confident about what sex the babies are I'll move them to the appropriate tank. I'm thinking if I get too many I can donate them to a pet shop perhaps? My original plan was to put some of them outside in the ponds, but other fish I put out there really didn't survive well ;___;
Finally, I just wanted to mention that someone emailed me saying how much they liked my webpage and I think it was the sweetest email to receive!!! Their webpage is really cute too so I need to right them back soon. Anyway hope you are doing well, have a great day ^o^!!

July 6th, 2025

I left 2024 on my last entry by accident for like, 4 months so I had to log on real quick and fix that. aaand since I'm here I thought I'd throw an update in :) I've been enjoying summer, my 2 week Japan trip was super fun and nostalgic going back to my old college ;o; SO MUCH SHOPPING. Now, I've been making little patio ponds on my back deck (with super cute plants, fountains, and little snails living all up in em), but unfortunately some wasps started building under the deck making things scary and unpleasant back there >_> I tried taking care of them myself but I'm just going to call someone to do the work at this point cause they wont go awayyyyyy. I also started a little low tech fish tank with some live plants, so that's cute (just has a minnow, two guppies, and two coreys in it for now, my goal is to someday have a Ranchu goldfish or something chunky and cute like that).

I went out for lunch today with the fam after attending the local farmer's market and attempting to advertise our karate group a little bit. People mostly wanted kids classes, which is not what we are...and I'm not good with kids so I'm not gunna do that either lol.

Oh otherwise for some reason I got the mega muse passion to suddenly teach myself game maker. I was going to do Unity, but I'm like...I only want to do pixel stuff and not really 3d, let me just mess with game maker. And it's pretty fun so far! I definitely have to use AI to help me fix up code and make my dreams real, but it's so cool when it works out. I'm also watching youtube tutorials and just seeing how they explain things too ^^ I made a little match/puzzle game with a score, multiplier, a cute "select" effect, and a little sparkle effect when you clear the cookies from the scren with a match owo I will try to put them up as an upload if I ever get one that looks decent. For now I'm just picking random simple games to try coding so I can learn the inner workings of the program.

Oh, Charles also got a new job finally and he's starting tomorrow ^O^ so happy for him. I think they'll have a lot of hours for him so I'll miss him a lot but....he needs da monies XD don't we all? Okay I'll talk to ya laters!!!

March 5th, 2025

Wow my last entry was SO SAD lol. I'm in a much better place now!! (Except for the freaking election that happened since my last post...ughhh) I ended up getting a job as an RN at a place I used to work as a nurses aid, and it's SO MUCH MORE CHILL than the first place I tried to work at. Why stress out so hard on the very first nursing job ever, am I right? I had so many people/nurses/etc tell me to ease into it and not just go hardcore onto a complex unit right off the bat. Looking back, I think I could've pushed through and kept working on the more intense unit, but things could be dangerous and I ultimately realized I didn't want to risk my license so quickly after getting it ya know? 

So updates on Karate and Iaido. I have an iaido grading this weekend, where basically I'll receive a rank instead of just practicing and being unranked. There is going to be an all day seminar Saturday, and the next day is the actual grading. Unfortunately, I've been sick TWICE the last month (One with the flu and once with just a general nose/throat cold) and I'm still kinda of recovering so I really have not gone to many practices lately ;o; Just practicing at home...which isn't the same. My energy is coming back though, which is good because I have to start training up for....Karate special training!!! I wont be grading for Nidan level black belt this summer, but I'll be getting one more grading under my belt. I believe I need 10 if I ever want to grade for Sandan, and I only need 7 to grade for Nidan, and this summer would make my 7th one. I did start doing some Kunku kata at home again (gotta get to 5,000 before I can grade for nidan) so at least I'm making a little progress there. My mom told me she wants to grade for her Yodan level black belt, so we hired a private instructor to come to the house and help us learn how to do jujitsu type falls and throws!! It's been really interesting. We have to develop her routine to present in August, so I'd say we have a good head start. I'll be her "uke" which means I'm the person she'll be throwing around on the mats and taking all the punishment basically XD Anyway, my other plan is to get Charles trained up so he can actually attend a winter special training with me within the next year or two. There is no running involved in winter special training, which is how I eased into mine...so it might be OK for him. The running during summer is rough, just makes you that much more tired for the rest of the practices. 

SO to cope with all the awful stuff going on in the news about our country, I've taken up some crafting hobbies! I want to post about it for sure, but I'm kind of in the experimental phase at the moment. Basically, I got really into blind box BJDs/MJDs and 30MS/30MM (30 minute sisters/30 minute mission) build kits! They are like gundam wing build kits, but they are much cuter in my opinion since they are kawaii/sexy lil' ladies XD!!! You can mix and match their parts, paint them, make them battle ready....or what have you! I kinda splurged and bought a bunch of dolls that I also want to do face ups on, bought an airbrush, paints, gloss and matt top coats, stickers, cabochons, and more. I even uneartched my UV resin cure light and some unused UV resin in a bottle that I had from when I last was doing doll-customization stuff! I used to customize my little ponies, then I tried my hand at monster high dolls, but I just had a lot of struggles with it. Now, I really want to try again. I believe in myself and I think I can do even better this time with all that I've learned from youtube videos since my last attempts.

I'm wanting to make a video about the BJDs and build kits I bought, before/after paint job vids, plus a video about JoAnn fabrics shutting down (I went there and filmed as I did my possibly last shopping adventure there!) I also want to make either a short video or maybe a shrine page dedicated to Tenshi Kaiwai, which is like a blue/white/silvery aesthetic fashion sub style. I ended up getting some random clothes, bags, and things that fit that style and I wanted to take some pics and maybe make a little vid just to show the outfits.

Last bit of news....I'm going to Japan for 2 weeks!!! I'm bringing Charles, and I have all these things written down for each day we're there that we will try to check out (It's impossible to do it all, but depending on business we'll do what we can) I'm so excited because I haven't been there for 13 years, when I went to live there for nine months in college. We'll be staying a few days in Tokyo Ikebukuro area, most of the time in Nagoya, and a few days near Akihabara before we head back home. Unfortunately, I did book this trip overlapping GOLDEN WEEK so it might be a little crowded x___x;;; I don't plan on going to super touristy places though, so I'm hoping we can pretty much avoid too much crowd-age. Can't wait to take pics and post em up, and maybe make a little video for my channel as well. 

Anyway, those are the main things going on right now. I hope you guys have all been well. I love seeing the guest book and chat room comments, and even the Oekaki drawings you guys post!! It's nice to visit my own site and see that people have been here and gathered some inspiration.

September 9th, 2024

I've been super depressed lately because I screwed up my first nursing job. Basically, I cried at the end of one shift, then I cried at the very start of another shift a few days later and had to step off the unit. I told my preceptor that things didn't feel right and I was going to go with my gut and find another unit. Unfortunately, now it seems like the company I was working with is no longer interested in keeping me because it's been awful quiet on their end since last Saturday (just a few emails going back and forth about waiting on 'next steps') Now, it WAS a weird three day weekend thing when I decided to find another unit, but like...ugh. I thought it would just be more simple than all of this and that they would just throw me somewhere else that needed RNs. I was only a few weeks into training too. I just felt like I should've been better at my job than where I was at knowledge-wise, but really I needed more time. Wherever I train next I'm just going to take it SO SLOW. I guess I just push myself too hard with things and hold myself to these high standards. I was thinking "Oh, EVERYONE does this type of nursing as a starting point it should be totally fine" but it just didn't feel right. I didn't like how the experienced nurses on the unit were also saying they felt stressed even after being there for years. Not all of them appeared stressed, but who knows how they felt deep down. I have always heard of bad 'nurse to patient ratios' and I just felt overwhelmed at this place. I'm going to try rehab nursing and see what happens. It may be more patients, but they are better off overall and are getting ready to go home for the most part so maybe it'll be a bit easier despite a higher nurse to patient ratio. At least I got some good training in while I was at this med surg unit, and I hope I can bring what I learned to rehab nursing. 

Anyway. I have been so depressed that I've actually been lacking in any motivation to continue with karate or even iaido. I want to go back and learn more iadio, but it was already really hard even when all things were going well in my life. I never truly felt like I fit in there. I felt like I could've used more instruction but never got it unless I specifically asked. I mean, I guess that's ok but it just wasn't a learning style I was used to. For karate, at this point I feel like I'm doing it just to spend time with my parents. There is a lot with the organization that I'm dis-enchanted with, but I do want to keep up the exercise and sparing drills and things we do at the very least. I have to do 5,000 of a kata called "kunku" before next summer and I'm barely over 1k and I just can't find it in me to continue working on it at home. I felt like I was working on it endlessly without any change happening and I just didn't know what else to do with it. I could literally continue to keep doing it at home, but without feedback, I don't know what to change. I keep getting told my kata looks very good, so what do I do? Maybe I'll just continue working on my "favorite kata" which is empi, and try to perfect that one instead for a while. 

Aside from all of that, I have a lot of lolita/ouji clothing that came in the mail that I want to make a video on as a review. I got things from wunderwelt, devil inspired, and random ebay purchases that are all ouji themed and a little bit ero themed as well!! I would really like to share my thoughts on these pieces, so I  hope I can find time to make a video on them soon. It's just so hard when I feel like a total loser sitting around not making money cause I can't handle stuff xwx;; Anyway, I know I'll get over this and I know I'll look back and feel so much better about nursing and my career. I really hope I can even make a video about that some day, about all of my anxiety and experiences I had just starting out. I'll see you guys later!! Let me know in the chat what areas of the website you want me to work on next. The last thing I worked on was the 'top 10 worst pokemon' because literally someone in the chat just said they wanted to see that xux so anything you guys want, leme know!!! Listen: Even if life sucks, just let it suck and coast along. Be happy with total boring-ness and just be chill. What do you think animals in nature do? They have their lot in life and just freaking deal with it. It's really hard when you think you have so much else to offer to life, but please just relax and try to realize not everyone is going to have this huge heroes journey type adventure. Some of us are just peaceful little farmer-type-cottage-core folks and we need to relax and not worry about what our life brings to the greater good. Be OK with what you are. I'm trying to work on that right now even though I've literally been crying every single day since I quit my unit unexpectedly. Love you, and bye bye for now. Go take a bath and do a moisturizing face mask or something. 

May 12th, 2024

I'm DONE WITH NURSING SCHOOL!!! I took my final exam on May 8th, and got to know my score immediately. I got a B (100 questions total x0x), and it was worth 20% of our grade...I basically had an A in the class already so it brought me down to a high B, BUT I'LL TAKE IT!! I think back to how full the class was on day one...when we were all younger and full of hope XD I think every seat was filled. As the semesters went on, people dropped out, the LPNs graduated after 2nd semester, then 3rd semester brought back a few re-admit people but some of them dropped out again anyway...it was wild. There were only three guys left in the class of about 36 people by the end of it. We still need to do the pinning ceremony which is weirdly two full weeks after our final exam date, but oh well. I'm so happy to not just have assignments, random clinicals, and exams/quizzes looming over. Now, I just have THE state licensure exam which I can't even schedule yet until people at the school send grades and stuff off, blah blah... What I'm hoping is I can finish it before Karate special training, which starts a little earlier this summer (June 5th). Then I don't have to worry about studying while I'm resting from the karate practices. Speaking of which, I've been training for summer special training with some outdoor running (now that it finally warmed up a tad), so I'm not focusing as heavy on weight like I normally like to do. I'm also continuing my Iaido practice, and will soon be moving onto the fourth kata! OH my mom also ordered an iaito for me for graduation/birthday ;o; It's being made in Japan right now and will be shipped here maybe in a few months. I'm really excited to have my own legit sword...it wont be sharp (because I'm still learning and don't want to lose a finger) but it'll be great for training and getting the real feel of a blade. For other karate updates, I'm currently helping my mom train so she can go up for her Yodan o_o she has to basically demonstrate Funakoshi's 9 throws (ON ME lol) so I'm practicing falling and aikido style rolling so her presentation can look good. It's actually pretty fun and it has been helping me learn the order of the throws. I think we're going to go to a practice later this month that focuses on those throws, so hopefully we'll be ready with questions and open to good feedback. 

I've been saving so many random images and stuff that I want to upload to my site, it's actually a bit daunting. But eventually I'll get some of it up. One project I really wanted to do, but I don't think there is a way to do it (due to how this particular phone game stores data) is save all the clothing/accessory assets from Cocoppa Play and make a simple doll maker on my site! I might be able to do it if I can get some AI assisted imagine editor that can remove backgrounds from screen shots, but for now I don't have anything like that. Another thing I've been trying to do is save email image assets from Pokemon, Sanrio, etc so they could be used by folks on their webpages or what have you. I swear, these companies have these really nice (sometimes animated) images that get used for a single email, then that's it!

Other updates...Charles has moved back in with me into my new home ^O^ He has been here about a week now, and we got his room to a workable/living situation. I ordered some furniture for him and he worked a lot on getting his mega collections up and on display. It's a museum of nostalgia in there, let me tell you. Tomorrow he's going to help me transplant some foliage from my parents yard to around my house. Some forsythia, and other nice flowers to help fill in my yard. 

February 9th, 2024

Okay I finally got COVID lol. It just took til everyone considers the pandemic largely over for me to finally test positive. I had been around people who had it in the past but never tested positive myself. I'd say it lasted about a week for me. I'm still kinda clearing my throat and waiting for my nose to stop being completely stuffy but I'm mostly better. I decided not to go to clinical today because I was still testing positive and I just really worried about the patients. Anyway, We just finished exam #1 for the last semester and I got a freakin 95.15%!!! So happy about it the score because it's a topic I have zero interest in actually working in...maternity....=w=;

Well, the winter was pretty mild. It's almost time to get a summer intro page ready. Tropical Gyaru-style let's GO!!! I also decided to quit my job until I actually get my license. I just felt like it was too much going on this semester. I basically only had 1 day where there is nothing scheduled, and the night-shift clinical really made working weekends difficult considering I have iaido and karate on weekends. So yeah, no work for a while, just school! I actually had a dream where I accepted a position working on this specific floor. It's like a surgical trauma unit so the patients have pretty complex cases going on, and you only are assigned 2-4 patients MAX. It's very interesting and I know I could learn a lot there, but I need to practice at a slower pace first. I don't want to eff up my license right off the bat after all :) 

One last update, I got approved to be a vendor at RetroWorld this summer! I'll have a table and me and Charles will be vending some of my goods n' merch...including these cute Pokemon paint-pen drawings I did ^^ I need to take pics of them all and post them here before I sell them off. I also need to put a few more modded gameboys together to sell, but I'll have time this summer before the convention starts. That's about it for now ^^ see ya later!!

January 16th, 2024

A new year, and just ONE MORE semester to for nursing school! I just had a really nice winter break where Charles came to visit for a few weeks, also my sister who lives in Ireland visited with her whole fam, so it was a busy and enjoyable break as well. We were supposed to have school today, but it snowed so online and in person classes were canceled. We should have lecture tomorrow though, plus orientation to our clinical sites on Friday (I got the absolute LAST of my picks,,, Friday nights >_>; I asked specifically for any day BUT Friday, and any times BUT night time...OH WELL!!!) I got a head start on some studying during the break and the "off day" today, so I feel pretty good going into the semester. 

Anyway, I'll be going to California for spring break to see my brother's house and spend time with my mom who is watching his 2 dogs for a week. After nursing school graduation, I will have a Summer Special training (for karate) and after that, we are doing a short trip to the South of France for a week or so for a 60th anniversary Karate event! It will be a few practices, but dinners/gallas/etc in fancy mansions xux;;; So cool. We are renting an air bnb and the whole family will be there for a reunion kind of thing. That's the update for now! I hope to work more on this site during the semester if and when I get some free time. Winter is a perfect time for indoor crafts and hobbies I always say. OH I almost forgot, I also started Iaido! (Japanese sword drawing/slashing techniques) It's so cool, and it really echos some things we do in karate as well. I'm only going once a week right now for times sake, and because it's pretty hard on the knees for the first two kata lol. Okay ttyl :) Be well~

August 25th, 2023

School is going to start soon AAAHHH!!! That means lots of studying and stressing about tests ;D In nursing school, you have to maintain a 77% exam average or you must leave the program. No pressure. The farther you get into the program the more intense the idea of being kicked out is. I've heard of some people needing to leave due to life circumstances, and they were able to be readmitted....but I'm not entirely sure if they do that if your grades are bad. Yeesh. At least one person broke a bone in their finger or wrist, and due to this they were unable to wash their hands properly when attending clinical. This caused them to be expelled from the program :( How horrible....hopefully I don't break anything in karate lol

Speaking of that, I attended a Nagewaza/Nage no Kata (throwing techniques) 2 hour class yesterday led by a godan-level blackbelt near the boston area. It was very informative and my mom and dad both attended as well. My dad was there pretty much to walk around and help instruct, and I got to work with my mom for "Funakoshi's 9 throwing techniques". These are higher level throws that we teach black belts in karate. So difficult. It's funny because we focus so much on punching and kicking, it's considered "high level" when you start doing grabs and throws. However if you start out with Aikido or judo, you immediately get into falling techniques, throws, grabs/releases, etc...then LATER you learn how to punch XD Priorities.

So it took me a good 7+ days to get over my cold. While coming out of the cold I have been putting things away from the move, deconstructing boxes, and making FURNITURE!! lol. Oh my god so many allen wrenches. Putting things away has been hard because I don't want to just carelessly toss things onto a shelf. First I position the furniture, then I walk into and out of the room a few times, and just feel the vibe of the room. I decide if that's where the furniture makes sense from a feng shui/flow perspective, and ONLY THEN do I actually start putting items on it. When I'm putting my collection and display items out, I often change their position 3-5 times on just a single shelf. I consider larger vs smaller objects, color, texture and themes of the objects, and so on. When I look at a shelf, I want the things on it to be like a little art piece or mini gallery that is pleasing to the eye. (You can see why it took a long time to unpack...) I also wanted to make sure I have room for more things that I'll inevitably collect at thrift stores, antique stores, comic cons, online shopping, and more. Despite having so many knick knacks, I actually donated a good handful of ones I no longer cared for and boxed up other parts of my collection to sell at comic con next year. Let me tell you, I GOT STUFF TO SELL lol. Can't wait for comic con ♥ Oh, I even parted with a few items from my lolita collection that didn't "spark joy" any longer and listed those on lacemarket. I need to go through and maybe make a few accessory lots to tone down some of my bow/clip/pin collections.

That's about it for now. I need to review nursing math because we are literally having a math exam day ONE when we get back to class. Good times. I'll see if I can get pics of my home decor and displays up later.

August 8th, 2023

I wanted to have a little spot on my site where I could just pop some life updates once in a while. I kept feeling like I wanted to add them to the "site update" section, but it really doesn't make sense there. So here we are!

I had a few weeks break from working on this site this summer because my friend Charles came over to hang out. We went to Salem, practiced karate together, and generally just chilled and ate yummy foods. The last few days of him being here, I actually closed on a house that was just built for me over the last 7ish months (the closing happened a full month later than we were originally expecting), so we were focused a lot on paperwork, getting boxes moved over, making sure the money transferred successfully, and so on.

Basically right after Charles left, my throat starts hurting and my nose is all stuffed up. I desperately want to get back into my regular workout routine, but I'm feeling so tired from being sick. (I pretty much only get sick like once a year, and this one was really mild compared to others I have. It never actually turned into a full blown cough which was great.) The energy I do have is focused on getting boxes opened and things put away. Charles helped me assemble things like the new birdcage, tables, chairs, and he helped me clean too!

My mom and dad are also AMAZING and they helped me move so much stuff. My mom cleaned the floors a bunch and my dad helped me hang things and did some gardening clean up. He also helped me water my lawn as it just got a layer of grass and clover mix put on. They also got me a new vacuum, a new security camera set up, helped me pay for literally everything, let me use tons of supplies, and were just very excited for the new property in general and seemed to enjoy helping out. (My dad is retired so he has time! lol)

I had a break from house stuff to go in for a day of work last Saturday...and wouldn't you know it? THREE of my eleven patients were testing positive for covid XD Lovely! It definitely slows you down when you have to suit up for airborne precautions with an n95, gown, and goggles, just to drop a food tray in a covid room. Good practice though. I've been around various people who have tested positive for covid before and never actually tested positive myself despite mild symptoms. I made sure to get my vaccines, and I believe it helped make things not blow up too bad. I hate feeling sick and getting coughs, so ANYTHING I can do to prevent that I will do. I've also been taking my vitamins, doing the netti pot, and drinking lots of water ;) Even when I'm a bit sick I try to do some light stretching and at least 10-15 minutes of some weights or something. I think the movement helps.

Mom and I are going to Ikea tomorrow, and I know I'm going to want to buy everything lol. I do have some priority items, like drawers for clothes (I don't hang EVERYTHING I own, some things I like putting in drawers...) Anyway, karate is going to start in a bit so I'm going to go change and get ready for that. ♥