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mwcowan · 3 months ago

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A Whole New Chapter, Part 2

Back There, Back Here

When I left off last July, we were heading back to the US for a short visit, just over 5 weeks to be exact. Busy time! We arrived back at our home in Nevada to find everything as we’d left it, well, except for the weeds that had taken over the back yard. The first week back was pretty much recovering from the travel, and for me, spending some quality time with the weed-whacker clearing the back yard, or at least enough of it for us to get out the back door and find the chairs and barbecue. I figured that was enough and I’d find someone to finish the job, but I never did. Oh well, I’ll have something to do next time we’re back.

Our first adventure was drive to Salt Lake City to visit Tommy, Hannah, and Felix. And of course, Rolf, their rather huge Lab/Newfoundland mix. For a few nice days we enjoyed spending time with Felix – he’s in that very enjoyable phase around 6 months, lots of smiles and giggles.

After returning home, we had a nice visit from Georgia’s son Matt and wife Morgan, and her son Anthony. And dogs Ripley (Max’s sister) and Anthony’s Lab Maxx (we call him Big Max). We showed them around our new area and spent one HOT afternoon at Lake Lahontan, which is about ½ hour from us. Nice lake with good facilities, it was just HOT! Next day we drove up to Lake Davis in Plumas County, where the weather was much cooler and we had a picnic, swam, and fished.

Georgia actually talked Matt and Morgan into leaving Ripley with us for two weeks (I think she pulled the guilt trip about how much we missed Max).

Back up to Plumas County to visit our friends Todd and Kathleen Solomon, and Max’s sister and BFF Lizzie. On the way we met up with our friends John & Judy Lullo, and Robert & Yvonne Ware for a good lunch and catch-up session, then stopped into the Mohawk Community Center which was having an open house – another chance to meet up with more of our Graeagle friends. A fun dinner at the Solomon’s followed, where we were joined our friends Cliff Romig and Cathy Davies, who have Max’s brother Olaf. A real doggy reunion, too bad Max had to miss it!

The next day we went boating at Bullards Bar reservoir with the Solomons plus Todd’s grandson and a couple of his friends. It’s great to go boating with young people; they’re happy to ski or wakeboard all day, leaving us old folks to relax and drink beer. I did get talked into wakeboarding, which I haven’t done in a long time, time as measured in decades. I’m proud to say I got up 2 out of 2 tries, but quickly did a face plant each time. Maybe I'll try again in another 20 years.

The boating activity I'm more suited for. Yes there’s a beer in my missing hand.

Almost done, but not quite. Back from Graeagle, it was time to go to Las Vegas for Georgia’s family’s annual August Birthday celebration. We celebrated Dignah’s and Dinah’s birthdays on the appropriate days with a nice lunch, and met up with the usual stream of family and friends that always accompanies this event. We’d had Ripley with us all this time, and by agreement, we left her with Georgia’s sister Dalene to take back to San Jose and her regular family.

Whew, that was a busy, and quick, 5 weeks! Back to Fernley with a day to pack and lock things up, then off to the airport and back to the Philippines!

Manila

We’d timed our arrival to be one day ahead of Georgia’s Mom Dolly, her sister Dalene, and cousin Lena, who were headed over for a long visit. As we did just the day before, they arrived before 6am. No problem for us, due to jetlag we were up at 4 already!

We’d hired Arturo, the driver who took us on our road trip earlier this year, to help us with the airport pickup. A good thing too, with the three ladies packed up for a 3 month trip, their luggage filled two vans! But we also had another motive. After getting everyone settled into Dolly's house, Arturo drove us to Kawayan Cove to pick up Max! Max was of course happy to see us, but after spending maybe 15 seconds jumping around and giving us kisses, he headed to his toy box to find his favorite for us to play with. Then with a quick turn-around, we were on our way back to Manila. Besides (I hope) being happy to be back with us, Max got to see lots of the moo moo cows who just hang out on the highway. Be sure to turn the sound on!

Max also got to see monkeys along side the road; we found that he has a very different, unfriendly, reaction to monkeys. I think he still remembers the incident in Vigan!

Danny, Ben, and Lachlan!

Besides being timed for the arrival of Georgia’s mom et. al., our travel was also timed to meet Danny, Ben, and Lachie, who soon arrived from Sydney for an 8-day stay! We picked them up at the airport in the evening, spent the night at Dolly’s in Manila, then headed back to Kawayan Cove the next day.

Lachie is 1 ½ years old now, a great age, and he has the looks and personality to charm anyone. Especially here, you just don’t see many VERY white, red-headed children! Besides being a hit with all the ladies at Dolly’s house, anywhere we took him it seems like he gathered a crowd! Everyone wanted a look at him, asked lots of questions, wanted to meet his dads, etc.

Lachie loves tractors, and one day a big excavator on the way to a construction site stopped in front of our house. Lachie loved it! I think the guys taking a break (from putting the tires under the treads as it moved uphill) had just as much fun seeing Lachie as he did seeing the excavator!

Lachie also loves swimming, so naturally we spent quite a bit of time in the pool. Unfortunately the beach was too rough for swimming due to a passing (far away, thankfully) typhoon, but we did have a nice lunch at the club.

On the weekend we took the boys to our favorite resort in Anilao/Mabini. The one with the goats, which Lachie enjoyed feeding.

We had planned to do a dive day, but with the rough seas we figured diving wouldn’t be too good, so we just relaxed around the pool instead. Lachie was good with that. And the food in the restaurant too!

All too soon it was time for the boys to go, on to their next stop, Bali. Gotta feel sorry for them, right? Oh well, we had a great visit and hope to see them again soon, here or Sydney or wherever!

Merry Christmas!

Yes, it’s September, and the Christmas season has started. Christmas decorations in the malls, holiday music. I’m usually not ready for this until after Thanksgiving, but it’s the tradition here. Christmas is celebrated in the ‘-ber’ months (September, October, November, and December). Just go with it.

Typhoons

I mentioned that a typhoon was making waves and stirring up the water. It was super typhoon Yagi (a 'super typhoon' classification is equivalent to a category 5 hurricane) which fortunately was only a tropical storm as it passed over northern Luzon. Although we were seeing wind and larger than usual waves when the boys were here, shortly after they left the weather significantly worsened with high winds, strong surf, and heavy, continuous rains, lasting for 4 days. And this is when the storm that was 700 miles (1120km) northwest of us! I took these screenshots from two weather apps, the first showing the storm path, passing over northern Luzon as a tropical storm before strengthening into a typhoon, and the solid cloud cover extending as far as southern Palawan. We’re at the blue dot, Palawan is the long, skinny island to the southwest of us. The second app shows the wind strengths and flow – you can clearly see the circular storm center, but also look at the effect it’s having on the winds, pulling them up from the southwest between Palawan and Vietnam, and straight at us. It’s just amazing how huge an area the storm impacts!

While I’m being weather-geeky, around the first of April I installed a weather station, with a digital rain gauge. As I write this, it reads 1509 mm of rain since then, about 5 ½ months. That’s 59.4” for you non-metric types. California should build a water pipeline to the Philippines. Hey Gavin! No problem, just raise taxes to pay for it!

Fruits Loops

We finally have bananas! We’ve planted many banana plants (they are not trees, actually the largest member of the grass family); some have blown over (they’re not very strong), and some just haven’t produced any fruit. Plus they’re pretty ugly so they need to produce to justify being in our yard. Well finally one is making bananas. The conical purple thing is the flower; as layers come off it reveals another row of baby bananas. I’ve never seen them at this stage, so I’m excited to watch them develop, and hopefully I’ll get to taste some. I’ll keep you posted.

I’ve reported on many strange tropical fruits over the years, but it’s been quite a while since I’ve had something new to try. We took a quick trip to Dolly’s farm in Alangilan (Georgia had to help with some family business), and waiting for us were Marang. If you attached a pointy nose you’d have a cute little hedgehog – the spines are soft, and underneath is a skin that’s easily pulled open to reveal the sweet and creamy fruit inside.

People say the taste is somewhere between Jackfruit and Durian, with little of the pungent odor of the Durian. I thought it was quite tasty!

And then there’s Durian. The king of tropical fruits. Not new to me but always worth a mention. As soon as we walked into the farm house in Alangilan I knew there were Durian lurking somewhere. That unmistakable smell, even from unopened fruit, that people describe as anything from sweaty socks to a soiled baby diaper. One of the very few foods that made Andrew Zimmern (Bizarre Foods on the Travel Channel) gag and refuse to eat. Banned to carry on most airlines and public transportation. But being blessed with a rather poor sense of smell, I’m able to get it past my nose and into my mouth; I actually enjoy the creamy and sweet fruit!

Nang Belen getting ready to unleash the monster...

Sunset(s) of the Week

A couple nice ones, first from Mabini (I must admit that the camera captured more than we could see, especially colors in the clouds, but a nice sunset by any means)

And a view from home.

All for now, stay healthy and happy!

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dana-chan-the-control-brain · 4 years ago

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Happy new year everyone 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

I know 2020 has been hard for everyone.

And I want everyone to know, suffering isn't a contest and we all suffer in different ways. But I feel I should give my year in Review. Just some things that happened to me personally.

This was an intense, and long and spiritual and emotional journey for me...

I really discovered what it meant to have community, family and what my life means to me.

But I feel I need to get this in writing cause I can remember the year with vivid detail and I will probably forget if I don't get it down.

Do I have to share this publically online to my tumblr account for a bunch of strangers to see? not really.

Do I want to?

Yes. I think so. Just from how so many people on tumblr and real life have touched me.

This is kinda long and no one needs to read this.

(idk how to do a readmore on mobile. But this is where I would add it later. No one needs to read if they don't want to.)

January/February: (and some background on the last five years of my life cause.....well. it's important.)

As people knew, I got way into Invader Zim last summer. I spent most of my waking life working a dead end job at a grocery store. I lived a sad lonely life, going straight home to a single dark studio apartment. With not many material possessions outside of games, my laptop and my tablet to my name. Half of my material loves, such as home furnishings and books were still in boxes from when I moved in. In case I ever had to move again, or get some "big screenshot or copywriter" job in the city.

....

I lived in that city in the same dead end job and apartment for five years.

No friends. No social life. I often refused to make doctor appointments or attempt to establish myself in that city. I didn't even talk to anyone in my workplace.

Work. Go online. Go to sleep.

I lived like that for five years.

I thought it was good.

Even my therapist thought I was doing well.

When I really wasn't. My main character flaw I struggle with is motivation.

I can talk to someone about very detailed plans I have to fix a problem... But I tend to never follow through.

Just because I can describe in detail how to fix my personal problems, it doesn't mean I will do it.

(I have gotten better at this but it's a major struggle)

I might have been a Zombie during the day...

But by night I was pouring my soul into my AU and my analysis.

After being so thoughly ignored or overlooked by the Naruto fandom and the Undertale fandom, I felt like I had finally found my home and was settling into a community there.

I just loved that people loved what I had to say.

Especially my AU.

It's no secret that a lot of themes in my au revolve around found family, grief, and loss.......

Fatherhood, in particular.

What it means to be a father, how much do you need to try when you mess up, how willing should a child forgive their parent, especially those that have wronged you and how much of it is factually accurate and simply a self projection of what children want their parents to be and visa versa... What amount of forgiveness and change is nessasary...is it needed?

....

It's no secret that a lot of my AU is a giant coping mechanism for my Dad's death. Espessially the falling out and growing closer with a lot of my family members throughout the years following his death. (Most of the time I keep it ambiguous to how it relates to my personal life unless I include a readmore that states so outright. I feel my au can be enjoyed by a variety of people in the fandom who don't need to know me as a person or my life story.)

My Dad passed away in 2016 in February and my family still feels the aftershocks to this day.

It's part of the reason I moved to the city, alienated myself from my family and people that loved me and refused to experience life for five years.

My entire world was Zim, and I was okay.

March: When America finally realized and started to feel the effects of the pandemic....

A lot of people got scared.

Me included.

I didn't have any streaming services or access to the news. So I only heard accounts from my mom.

I didn't understand why the store was so dead quiet and empty for a few days, then it went into mass chaos and panic in the span of two days.

It felt like Retail black friday in the worst way. Everyone was packed like sardines. Everyone was yelling. The lines at the registers bled into the clothing department.

I was witness to customers shoving others for toilet paper, being rude to cashier's and just overall unpleasantness.

At the time, I didn't even fully grasp what the pandemic was, and I feel a lot of people at the time didn't either.

I ended up absentmindedly scratching my eyebrow in front of a customer and she screamed and villanised me for it. That they didn't want groceries touched by my "unclean hands"

I ended up breaking down into tears.

The customer behind me gave me a hug and told me I was doing a great job.

But the damage was done. It was the final straw, I couldn't stop crying and I was breaking apart.

Thankfully my Boss (the one who likes me) pulled me aside and asked what's wrong.

It was then that I quit. No notice. Same day. I had to get out of there.

I was planning to move to an apartment with my sister in the summer, but my Mom offered for me to move back in with her temperarily just so I can get out of the city and away from the pandemic.

So I did.

I got scared, broke my lease a month early and quit my job of five years that gave me nothing back.

He told me, "take care of yourself and your family, I won't keep you here, do what you need to do."

So I did.

April-June:

A very eventful few months.

My mom offered for me to live at her place, but for some reason she was acting like I would live there forever. That this wasn't a temporary arrangement, and that I didn't have an apartment set up already.

This was in large part to my sister, who had lived with my mom taking advantage of her for years.

Even though my sister and I were going to move in together, I was just never sure about it cause of how she never packed her stuff or made any effort to find a job.

My mom often acted like I was lazy and not searching and was treating me like... Well, an unruly teenager instead of a woman of 29 years. She acted like I was a failure for returning home when it was her idea in the first place.

I would have just been petrified in the city.

Like usual, I retreated to my au again.... And in the spring, something eventful happened.

In may, 8th 2020:

I was invited by @rissynicole to join an invader zim discord.

Now, I've never really used discord before. I always thought it's interface is too confusing.. and I'm a member of a few other iz discords and I usually don't follow them that closely.

Rissy assured me it was different cause some friends of thiers made it and it was smaller.

Before I knew it, I was sharing memes and getting to know everyone there.

It wasn't long after I invited my partner in IZ crimes, @paketdimensioncomic who was genuinely wary of iz servers due to a bad experience with the last one they were a part of.

But soon they were sharing memes and laughing with everyone else.

My eyes were starting to open and I was able to connect to fans of my work in an interpersonal way. And I was able to discover new artists and aus I never knew about.

I was also able to meet so many others of the community and invite them to the server myself.

The moo-ping 10 server kept me sane while I was living with my judgmental mother.

Not only that, the summer was very productive for my au.

Drawing was all I did, and it was a huge break from the job as a cashier I had.

Not only that, June came, and with it, me and Ceph's first collab fic:

A result of us just going back and forth in our DMs constantly about Professor Membrane and how he changed in ETF for the better and how much we adamantly stan "trying-to-be-a-good-dad-brane" and how much of his ETF development has to be implied off screen in order for the emotional resolution in the movie to matter.

The only reason I never professed my love for Membrane as a character in the fandom before the fic dropped was.... Well....

Membrane can be a decisive character in the fandom and I was so worried people would hate me if I did an analysis on him, simply because he's not the best parent in the world. (As an understatement)

Ceph and I really encouraged each other to scream our love for the science himbo loud and proud more frequently and so often.... I actually start to see less Membrane hate posts and breakdowns then their used to be.... I like to think it's a combination of Me and Ceph's influence, along with ETF and the Quarterly's painting Membrane in a slightly more nuanced light then he was previously.

I never wrote a collab fic before and it's such a rewarding and fun and unique experience that I don't think I'll ever have again. And I love working with Ceph on our fics so much.

So much so we did it again...

July-August:

I never thought I would be one of those people who writes NSFW IZ fic... But here I am.

The Brainbrane au started.... An au of my au where Membrane and the Computer fall in love and Membrane makes him a body.

This ship was based around the idea where we joked that Membrane and Zim's Computer would have funny interactions if they ever met, under the pretense Membrane thinks Computer is Zim's parent.

Our headcanons morphed and shifted until we just full blown started shipping them.

Just because Membrane and Zim's Computer have overall REALLY entertaining chemistry.

It's a character dynamic never seen in the show or comics (yet) and I imagine thier interactions to be nothing but entertaining banter.

The fic was also born from spite... Making fun of the troupes and cliches that we found personally destestible in some questionable zadr fics.

So an angry ace and a demi-bisexual collab on a porn and end up blessing the fandom with

Compapa headcanons,

Computer being recognized as a more common used fanon character,

The ship of Brainbrane.

The fandom having a crisis of "oh God, not only are we xenophiles we're technophiles too!!!" Or "why you gotta give Zim's Computer an ass"

More android Computer designs

It was an eventful summer.

In the midst of all this, I moved into my new place, got a new job, and I was able to see my friend (who is def my platonic straight soul mate) who lives in Indiana.

She came to visit, showed me how to decorate and how to take care of my body better! Things were looking up! It was great.

September-November:

My job was at a boat store. If was approaching the fall and my hours were being severely cut.

I was getting into a rut of depression again.

I thought things were changing but the same routine I was trying to escape from was the same thing coming back.

But instead of letting it take hold, I decided I was going to do something about it... I was gonna visit a museum and go with my sister. Just... variety stimulation.

Well that didn't happen.

I talked about this shortly in my au itself...but..

My sister had a complete mental breakdown.

She stopped taking her meds, went off the deep end and was in the hospital a total of five times throughout November.

A lot of it was acting out and the perfect storm of environmental factors that made her scream and act out so she would keep going back to the hospital.

It was traumatizing for me.

I just can't explain what it's like. For her and for me to be in that position.

I'm not telling the full story and a lot of bullshit things happened I won't share here.

She got diagnosed with bipolar one and my mom expected me to be a caretaker for her.

I threatened to disown my family and move away out of state.

It was just too much for me to handle.

So much I was a nervous wreck.

I tried to pick up a second job... Cause my sister was in the mental ward so frequently and couldn't pay the bills.

But I was fired within a week cause I was so stressed I couldn't retain the basic information they were training me for.

It was an office job.

My dream.

It could have been.

I was fired from something I really wanted.

I was only there for three days.

I could not retain any information.

I was a mess.

My sister was a trigger, my mom wanted me to live with her. I couldn't live like this.... I had to get out.

I had to get out.

December:

Remember my Indiana friend?

Well the first week of December is my birthday.

My 30th to be exact.

While I did pick up a seasonal position at Target (not my first pick)

I took the first week of December off so I could spend time with her. Cause she agreed, I needed a break from this crap.

Surviving 30 years is cause to celebrate and if I had to celebrate with my sister I would have cried.

I know there was a risk traveling out of state during a pandemic...

But I needed out, I needed a friend..

And I kinda wanted to look at the place since I was considering moving there.

My friend's mom was sick so she avoided me and her daughter and got us a hotel room.

It was fun! I got to swim in a salt water pool, we talked about Naruto, I showed her the iz and su art books I brought, also Computer and Membrane tea.

I also got to meet her other friends and get crunk. And her bf who is super nice and funny!

I had a super fun birthday....

Until her mom told my friend that her grandparents had covid and that was what she had. And my friend got sick within that same day.... As did I.

I owe so much to her family.

I was an entire state away...about a ten hour drive from home.... She let me stay at her house. "The covid house" we called it.

Cause everyone (except the father. He avoided everyone and booked a hotel immediately cus he was an ER doctor) had covid within a day.

I called in, the test results were positive and I had to stay with her family for ten days quarantine before I could work again.

Which would have been fine....

If my tumblr didn't log me out perminately of my old account. @dana-chan325 .... Which really sucked cause I had a constant headache and was too sick to engage with tumblr or much of the fandom. I didn't want to make a new account when my head was in a bad fog and I could barely breathe or smell.

It's not like I saw much of my friend either.... We all slept at different hours and she had more symptoms then I did.

It was just netflix, danganronpa v3 and cry.

I was miserable, but at the same time.... Not?

I really feel like God himself was the one who pulled me off from tumblr, and my living situation.

Maybe a whole extra week feeling like a bobblehead was what I needed.

It gave me some much needed clarity on my relationships with my mom and sis and friend.

Running away to Indiana was not the solution here.

Once I was better within ten days and no longer had a leave of absence, I drove home.

I am glad I fully recovered (but from how I understand it, my dear friend is still ill. I'm praying for her)

I might have gone to work a bit too soon, cause I had an asthma attack after trying to unload a single cart in the span of six hours.

My boss lectured that my speed was unacceptable, and even though I explained the covid situation and breathing problems many times, she threatened that I'd be fired if I'm that slow again.

Que the next few days of work where they put me on register.

Instantly I was sent into a panic remembering the last time I was on the register and how that panic attack caused me to quit.

I even asked if I could go back to stocking, since my breathing had improved. My boss assured me that I was put on the register cause they needed help and nothing to do with my covid thing.

Then as December concluded and the new year began, my boss said that this was the last shift for me cause my position was seasonal and they were letting a lot of people go.

I then asked why I was on the schedule for Sunday, and he told me to ignore it and I'm free to reapply for full-time.

I mean.... They can act smart about it...

But putting your general merchandise stocker onto register after she had an asthma attack and missed working the first two weeks of December due to covid.....

Not a good look.

So once again, I'm jobless once more.

Will probably continue to live with my sister for awhile.

But I do not feel as if it's a bad thing....

I met so many good people this year....

My friend's family even gave me 500 usd to cover my rent since I couldn't work for a majority of December.

I've seen evil and good from humanity this year. I've seen acts of god, good friends and what my real family means to me as well as friends I consider family.

This year really made me look back at the person in the mirror and say,

"I deserve better."

And actually worked for it this time.

Oh and after Christmas I got a horrible yeast infection that burns over most of my body currently.

Very accurate doodle to the pain I'm in right now.

(seriously my body is a fungus.)

But hey, good news, I respected myself enough to go to the doctor about it!!

So that's progress.

I really hope 2021 holds good things for me.

Thank you to the mooping 10 server for always being there and keeping me sane,

Thank you tumblr for liking my au and everything.

AND A SUPER SPECIAL THANK YOU TO @evartandadam and her family for housing me and my dumb diseased ass. Everyone, she is an angel and I can't express how much she means to me. Please check out her art and buy her stuff on redbubble.

Anyways... Byebye 2020.

I look forward to what I can accomplish for myself this year.

#danachan's posts #personal stuff #new year post #tw: covid #tw: yeast infection

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