First off, Paperblanks heard my prayers.

My stuff arrived Friday to be picked up by my girlfriend and unboxed by me under so much excitement.

The Emily Dickinson notebook is so smooth to the touch, the colour is absolutely gorgeous and although I will have to get used to the ultra size, I think I will grow very, very happy with it as time goes by.

The daily planner is also gorgeous, very vibrant and stark in its colours - and huge. It reminds me mostly of the fashion bible from that movie, The Devil Wears Prada, honestly, it's enormous. Very fitting for my calendar project and I will be starting in on that tomorrow later today, hopefully.

The three bookmarks were a very nice quality, thick and with structured paper. K. and I each had our own favourites, she liked Poetry in Bloom best and I loved the Chanin Rise! The third one, something something Honeysuckle, was a gift for the girl who has done some translations of Anise Koltz poetry into Danish for me and whom I'm sending my old, worn copy of the English translation to ASAP.

Then, there was the pencilcase which is gorgeous. After seeing it live, I'm not sure I'll get the Spring design in notebook-form, but as a pencilcase, it's so nice and with this structured, gold-sprinkled surface. So luxurious. In it, I put the Kara-ori pencils, though I've only sharpened one of them, so I can use that first and take out the others as it becomes necessary. The pencilcase is also a good size. Right now I'm fitting four pencils, two pens, a pencil sharpener, an eraser and a highlighter in there and I do think there's still room for a little bit more!

I would include pictures, but my phone is old and dated and can't manage pictures anymore. I will be getting a new one today, though! Finally! It's a longer story, but it means my final reliance on my parents will be severed and I will have my very own phone for the first time ever. In control of my own mobile subscription, payments, everything... Sad to say this has never been the case before in my almost forty-year old life, but some things are like that. Anyway, it means, once we've set it up, my girlfriend and I, I can take pictures again! I will spam you, have no doubt.



Speaking of my parents, I took charge of the situation with their visit Monday and just cancelled it, setting up a new meeting in a few weeks at their new house instead. It's not because I particularly want to go, but it will make them happy and, most importantly, put me in control of my own engagement with them. It will be my choice. It was a very important step to take and I felt elated afterwards, very relieved, too. So no, it doesn't make me more inclined to want to see them, but it makes me the decision-maker on when and how. That is, by all definitions, easier.



This weekend we had a 24-hour write-athon in my Danish writing Discord server and I almost managed to pull an all-nighter, though age came to hunt me down and I had to give up after 4 o'clock, napping until 6, when I got up to write some more and accidentally fell soundly back asleep again around 11am, so I actually missed the big finish.

However, what I didn't miss was finishing the piece I was working on for these 24 hours, the Marie-Claude essay I have had in mind for so long. 4k words it ended up being and most of those were written during this write-athon. I was very pleased with my efforts.

The essay ended up pretty good. I think one of the chapters, the second-to-last, needs a bit of tweaking still, like, majorly, but the rest is satisfactory and the beginning especially is something I'm really proud of. The red thread is a pretty dry, academic walk-through of the types of government known in the Ancient Greek world, with a recurring circling around Aristotle's view of democracy. It was a lot of fun to research for! But from these adacemic musings, Marie-Claude collects her personal views and experiences with power and mixes it all together. I do think the concept is really something.



K. was off visiting her grandmother yesterday, but read the whole essay (20 pages, she's a fast reader) in the evening when she got home and was so inspired by it, she actually wrote the first 3 letter snippets from Jean Louis to Marie-Claude in response, her first try writing him in 1st person. It was amazing! Seeing the way they speak within the same frame of reference, yet coming from two very different, opposing almost, approaches and with two very different voices. I was so inspired, in turn! Simply can't wait to really get started exchanging these letters. My girlfriend has a very busy week ahead this coming week, with plans every day, but on the other side of that? Definitely.

We've been wanting to do something like this for years and years and to finally really start working on it? I can't put the feeling down in words. It's such a gift sharing this with her.



My next solo project, the coming week, is going to get started using the calendar I bought and stylize some key dates in the timeline of the first year when Marie-Claude starts corresponding with Jean Louis. I think I'll be starting with August and fill that out, since that's the month when JL's first letter arrives for her, so I kinda get a sense of before and after. Then, I think I'll fill out February and March, following the election period the first month and her first time as Prime Minister after that. Then, from there, we'll see.



It's almost 4am and I have the choice between going out into the kitchen and make a cup of chamomile tea, hoping it will settle me for the rest of the night/early morning or forcing myself back to bed straight away. I'm just feeling a bit too chipper to sleep, even if I am tired, too. Tired but restless.

Chamomile tea, I think. Must be the solution.