The Best First Day

Close up of a magnolia blossom from underneath

Look, too often the days that are often supposed to be significant end up being not. Yesterday though .. yesterday was the First of  June.  Maybe not a national holiday, maybe not even the official first day of summer, but it was the first of the month and, man, the rest of June will have some living up to do!

When I’d made plans to FINALLY see Dr. Lawyer, I only focused on the day of the week.  During this summer I am not working Fridays, so that was the extent of my thinking. I completely overlooked the fact that it was June 1st.

June 1st was already on my radar because it was the release date for Neko Case’s new album Hell On. Look, I don’t full on fan for a lot of artists, and Case is currently the only artist for whom I will straight up buy an album. In fact, I pre-ordered this album. How did this make yesterday awesome?  Well, it mean that, as I drove to what I knew was going to be an awesome meeting with one of the women I admire most in this world, I got to listen to awesome music made my another amazing woman! Neko Case albums always take me a bit to digest, so you will have to wait for my full review of this.  Musically, that wasn’t even it.  Yesterday, the Regrettes doing “Helpless” from Hamilton also dropped and it is EVERYTHING summer and awesome. It also reminded me that in 8 days Dr. & Mr. Revolution and Dr. Too Cool for School*, I are going to see the Regrettes. I. Am. So. Excited.
*Yes, I change his name all the time, but maybe … just maybe … I will remember this one.
Anyway, yesterday was pretty much musically perfect.

By the time I got to Dr. Lawyer’s house, I wasn’t even concerned that her spawn were still around. In fact, it was fun getting to meet them for the first time. Though Dr. Lawyer was pivotal in my ability to navigate the whole House of Plagues incident, we actually hadn’t managed to see one another since I’d moved back. We had A. LOT. of catching up to do.  It was fun and in the middle of it all I mentioned wanting to get a tattoo. Since Dr. Lawyer is someone who gets shit done, she actually made this happen for me. Tattoo of green ribbon with two words Kinder and Softer written on it

Okay, y’all know me, which means you know I’d actually been thinking about this for some time. Yesterday’s decision about timing might have been spur of the moment, but the decision about what to put on my body, that was well thought out.  Dr. Lawyer had already recommended a place, which I didn’t think I’d be able to get into on such short notice, but here we are. It isn’t done yet. My sensitive skin was too swollen to finish this in one setting.  I will have to go back later for some more shading and detail work, and … yes … you will get updates.

The message is there though: the Ijeoma Umebinyuo poem condensed to two words, the green ribbon, like all my other pieces reminding me who I am and who I want to be.

Like that magnolia blossom, June is opening itself to me and I feel myself opening up within it.  Do I expect every day to be as awesome as June 1? No, not really, but I do plan to look forward to every minute of it.

 

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *