Welcome Home, Little Tsukihime!

I hope everyone is doing well! There were no intense storms causing power outages this week, but people are still cleaning up the wreckage from the storm last weekend. So many trees and branches littered yards, sidewalks, and streets. A week later and they're still everywhere. Granted, the cleanup has progressed to the point where giant trees are no longer blocking streets, so that's a plus. Did anyone else experience crazy storms like that recently?

I woke up a lot more well rested Monday morning (thank you power for being back on! It wasn’t too warm any longer to sleep comfortably). I didn't remember everything from my dream, but what I remember started with some kind of like trial. For whatever reason, it was taking place at the church I grew up at. My parents were involved, but I’m not certain if they were in trial against one another or not. My dad was acting as a lawyer (possibly for my mom or possibly for himself against my mom—I don’t really remember too many specifics); I do remember him calling her a bitch at some point (not sure why). I don’t think the trial ever reached any conclusion. My siblings and other family members (like aunts and uncles) started leaving. I was one of the last people to leave from the pew and noticed a pretty rain jacket on the floor (it looked sort of like my pastel tie die pants). I’m pretty sure I knew it wasn’t mine (I think I knew it was my sisters). I didn’t want to carry it out, so I decided to wear it (apparently it was raining, too). As I was putting it on, my sister came back in a huff, all miffed that I was trying to take it. I easily gave it to her, explaining that I didn’t want to leave it behind but simultaneously didn’t want to carry it—I wasn’t trying to steal it. I’m not sure if she believed me or not. I don’t remember anything else from this part of the dream.

There was some other part involving Smurfs for some reason. I don’t really remember much from this part. They were all gathered for something. They were communicating with someone that was supposedly their enemy via some kind of communication screen. The enemy decided to eagerly come over and help them, though. It was some kind of strange enemy (i.e. not one that was actually from the show/movies—not that I watched any of those much). The enemy proclaimed itself to be a virus and could move through electricity/electronics apparently. It kind of teleported through the screen and was with the Smurfs in like a minute. I don’t remember anything else from this.

The last thing I remember about my dream was Lilo and Stitch themed. Lilo lived literally on the beach (but still in her house). She was on the phone with someone, relaying how she literally almost died from a recent storm (the ocean was a few feet from her house). Somehow or another, Jumba was trying to gift Stitch with the other experiments, telling him to pick one of the capsules out as a gift. One rolled on the floor and I think I picked it up as Lilo, noticing that there were about 8 different experiments in one of the capsules (the first one being labeled “11111”—I don’t remember what the others were, but they didn’t really have the traditional numbering from the movies/show). I/Lilo asked what this meant/why there were so many in one capsule. Jumba said something about those being mistakes. I’m not really sure. All of the experiments ended up exploding out of the capsule machine/container. Stitched ended up pulling the sandwich-loving experiment (I’m pretty sure he’s 625—he was Emily’s favorite growing up) off of one of the beams holding up the house; apparently he had been trying to eat it. I don’t remember anything else from the dream. I don’t think the experiments were trying to cause chaos or anything. They just seemed happy to be free.

I woke up Tuesday morning half asleep and out of it. I know that a bunch of things happened in my dream, but I struggled to remember anything. I didn't remember much when I woke up Wednesday morning from my dream, but I think I was at a library at some point in the dream. I don't remember why I was there, but I was explaining to someone how much I had enjoyed The Gingerbread Baby growing up in school (whoever was with me found the book and showed me, which prompted me to go down memory lane). I don't recall how the dream transitioned, but I think the next place I was at had something to do with a helicopter. I'm not exactly sure where it was or why a helicopter was involved. A four-year-old was supposed to head up the ladder, and someone asked me if it was okay if her older sister went with her; I inquired why it wouldn't be. I didn't understand why it would be a big deal if the sisters went together. I think my questioning got whoever who had asked to realize the strangeness of asking if it was okay. There was some other ladder that I was going to try and climb up on the other side of wherever we were. Apparently, I was climbing up that ladder to go put away ice cream (I don't see how it relates, but whatever). It had gotten rather windy. I think the girls needed help, and I went to help them. That's all I really remember. I woke up out of it Thursday morning, not recalling anything from my dreams. When I woke up Friday morning, my dreams seemed wrapped in a haze, but I remembered something about crystals. I think I was making them? Or maybe like polishing them with fire (I don't think that's typically, but maybe it was like a fusion of crystal/rock polishing and glass blowing? I know you shape glass using fire/heat). I was turning some crystals into a sphere/making them round using heat. I think one of them was bloodstone. Other than that, I couldn't remember anything. I didn't remember much upon waking up on Saturday morning, either; I know things happened in my dream, but everything feels cloaked in a haze. I wonder if it has something to do with psychic attack; Corliss has been experiencing them lately in her dreams. Considering that I haven't slept the best (not that it was horrible or anything), it could be that--it seems unusual that I haven't remember much from my dreams for the bulk of the week. It's peculiar, but who knows. When I woke up this morning, I knew that I had been writing and editing short stories with Corliss in my dream. I don't think the stories were the ones we wrote and edited yesterday (although, that was a lot of fun). I'm pretty sure other things happened in my dream, but that's all I could remember upon waking up.

Friday night Corliss shared a link for a short story competition. The prompt was "Death by Chocolate," but the only requirement was that the story involve chocolate cake somehow. I have always enjoyed writing, but creative writing, while enjoyable, was a bit of a struggle for me in school merely because my brain didn't function in the form of describing the setting. My brain deemed it insignificant and prioritized character interaction/dialogue. That part was always fun; the characters would become alive with their personalities shining through with what they said and how they said it. Even when I read that's what my mind focuses on; descriptions and settings tend to be background noise. There's nothing wrong with them--my brain just isn't concerned with them. To be honest, the only time my brain will focus on what characters/settings look like is if they're in a like a show, anime, manga, or movie (i.e. in fanfic my brain will happily focus on the characters' appearances because it already loves the characters and grew attached to them). I'm not sure if that's just a quirk of who I am or not, as I haven't heard anyone else share the same sentiment/experience. That being said, my first draft of the story was mainly the character interactions. That being said, I did describe the cake in detail with ease, as that was part of the main focus of the story--it made sense to my brain to describe it. I went back after I finished the first draft, trying to add more detail about the setting/appearances. I did alright, but I suspected it wasn't enough, sending it to Corliss to get her thoughts. She loved it but confirmed my suspicions about the setting/descriptions being a bit lacking. I ended up going over to her place last night so we could edit/revise our stories. It was a lot of fun, and I feel like our stories grew a lot from it. To be fair, we probably spent more time joking and making commentary (i.e. we could tell that my recent reading selections of Sesshomaru fanfic influenced my story; we felt that Karissa's name could easily be replaced with Sesshomaru and that Kagome and/or Rin could easily take the spot of Serena), but we had a blast. We discussed a few potential ideas for additional stories/fanfics/crossovers. Corliss remarked that she anticipated seeing the sink come to life with the Pokemon Muk springing forth 🤣 I adore my friend, and I glad that we wrote and shared stories with one another. I'll be sure to share my short story once I put the finishing touches on it, and I love to read any of your stories, too!

Corliss ended up reading my story to her siblings after I started driving home. They loved it, praising that it had so much flow, and Corliss informed me that it made everyone smile. That warmed my heart; I'm glad that my story could bring joy to others (I had lots of fun writing it, which is rewarding in and of itself, but it feels extra rewarding to have others share that joy). The drive home was a bit peculiar, though. I messaged Corliss about it as soon as I got home. A strange phenomenon was sighted in the sky on the drive home. There was this glowing, incredibly pale yellow triangle in the sky. It's the only thing I saw until much later (when I saw a helicopter by the mall). Before leaving Corliss and I had hoped to view the stars some, but we only saw one bright speck in the sky (we believe it was Mars)--everything else was lost to cloud cover. The triangle thing was maybe a third or half the size of the moon (which was also hidden due to cloud cover). It just sat there in the sky. I witnessed it for at least a minute before it seemed to transform into a slim rectangle and then completely disappeared. I know not what that object/being was. Words fail to properly explain the experience. I've experienced/witnessed nothing like this before. The triangle kind of made me think of a paper airplane, but as it was a great distance away, I couldn't really make out any details aside from it being illuminated and super pale yellow in color. It was strange to say the least.

It was a fun week of babysitting. We did more work with older brother's summer P.E. class. We continued our morning walks at the park while his brother had swim practice at the pool next door. We discussed anime, abridged series, names for a new kitty, crossovers, etc. He wanted to come up with Pokemon names for restaurants; some of the ones we came up with included Alcreaie Queen and Toxel Bell. One of the boys decided that he was a Pokemon this week. He declared, "I'm a Pokemon. I'm Blanket. Blanket is placed in attack position. Blanket used Swallow. Pearl is defeated." He then proceeded to attack my shoe as the "Blanket" 🤣 Next, he decided he evolved, explaining that it was similar to Kangaskhan since his evolution granted him a "brother blanket." He then proceeded to keep throwing the other blanket across the room, shouting, "Go, my brother!!!" Some of his attacks reminded me of Mimikyu and its Z move. It was very spontaneous and unexpected but incredibly hilarious! I have no qualms against his imagination and creativity. One morning he looked at me and went, "Meow. Meow. Do you know who's a cow? Not me." He kind be quite unpredictable and quirky, and I love it 🤣 They want to go to the zoo next week, which should be fun.

I helped take care of my cousin and aunt's dog this week since they left for Florida. Chevy is super sweet, but he seemed worn out (due to the heat and his older age, no doubt). He's such a good boy!

We looked into getting a new kitten this weekend. We stopped by a kitten adoption at Petsmart as well as one being hosted outside some jewelry store on Saturday. The Petsmart kittens were adorable! They wanted to play with me; I would have loved to take them all home. The ones at the jewelry store seemed pretty tired (but we had visited them mid-afternoon, so it could have been a long day for the fluffy babies).

A new kitty companion joined us today! The official name (as decided by everyone) has yet to be settled, but to me she is little Tsukihime, my moon princess. The others like Suki, and my sister suggested her name be Tsukihime/Tsuki with "Little Foot" as a nickname. I prefer Tsuki or Tsukihime, myself, but it can always be like last time--the others named fluffy cat "KT7," so I just went with "fluffy cat" or "kitty" (the name they picked sounded too much like a robot name). Tsuki is super cute! She's three and a half months old. She's adjusting to our home rather well. I look forward to spending many happy days and fun adventures with her!

I'm super excited for my new goodies this week! I got a new tie-dye shirt (love Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends!), and you can never go wrong with a Sesshomaru wallet. I got the new sunshade because the boys keep telling me I should have an anime one (lol). Sailor Moon for the win~ I also got new goodies from Spiritual Supermall's Divine $9; it was an amazing week!

Here's the art creations for the week; I made some new paintings:

I watched some anime and read more fanfic this week. Fanfic for this week includes: Traditional Encounters, The Duchy of Trylburg, Night Terrors, Unorthodox, Life Drawing, Seasons, Confessions, Beach Day, Mind Reader, Old Flame, Tryouts, Umbra, Beneath the Blackthorn Tree, Something Blue, Instinct, Frail, and Happy Birthday, Miko. I did some catching up on My Hero Academia over the weekend, and I love Shoto so much! He had me fangirling for him so hard during his practice interview 🤣 He has such a keen intellect, but he had no clue what Mount Lady meant; his soul's so pure, though--he was genuinely concerned for others' wellbeing, thinking that they had heart problems/he'd kill them with his smile. Poor thing was horrified; I adore him so. It just made me want to hug him. I wish he was my best friend or brother at the very least. He's so sweet and been through so much. He could use some friendship and extra love. The story was getting pretty intense, too. After Midoriya was freaking out about this new power suddenly appearing and going out of control from One for All, the owner of this power, Blackwhip, and former One for All user appeared to explain, "Listen well. If you use One for All in anger, the power will react to that feeling. What's important is keeping tabs on your heart. It's fine to get mad; rage can be the source of incredible strength. But you need control and not just over your body, but over your emotions, as well... Prepare yourself... Control your heart and master using those who live in this power. Good luck. We're with ya, kid." It's sound advice for many people. So many people remain in the dark about the power that lies dormant inside of them. It's been starting to spring forth in these unusual times, and it can terrify people. The power of thoughts, feelings, and beliefs is no laughing matter. They create your reality. Once people have practiced and manage their thoughts, feelings, and beliefs to work in their favor, it changes everything. Times of change are coming, and we need to prepare ourselves. Nothing will be the same again. Midoriya comes to terms with this and realizes, "I'm not afraid of this power any more. It's on my side--an ally that's rooting for me. If I can just control my heart... I must remember where I started. Seeing how far I've come makes me feel like I can do just about anything." Our thoughts and feelings aren't the enemy; we need to collaborate with them and the universe to create our story. We've all come so far from where we started, and we can't forget that. We've progressed and grown so much. Sure, maybe we're not where we'd like to ultimately be, but we're no longer where we started, either. It's important to keep moving forward, no matter how small or large the steps taken. The universe is on our side; it's our ally. We don't have to fight against it (but it's still our choice, so we can fight it if we truly wish to). We can do anything we set our minds, anything our heart desires, if we give ourselves the opportunity to. Maybe you feel powerless now--Midoriya certainly felt rather powerless at the start of My Hero Academia. He didn't give up on his dream, though. He continued to follow his heart, seeking to be a hero, even when the entire world seemed to be against him, throwing all of this "evidence" in his face on why it would never come to pass. If there's a will, there's a way. If it worked out for Midoriya, it can work out for you, too. Don't give up. Rest and take breaks when necessary, but keep the hope and dream alive in your heart. Somehow, it will all work out. Not knowing can suck (humans struggle with the unknown), but just because you can't fathom how it will work out doesn't mean that it can't or won't work out in the end. Breathe. Find joy and gratitude where you can. Make the most of this human experience. Life's a journey; create a fulfilling story for yourself. We've got this. Take care and stay blessed with love and light, everyone~