fractured dog foot blues

Cookie fractured his foot, so I’ve been pretty consumed by the dual priorities of work and keeping him from running, playing, jumping, and otherwise hurting himself worse than he already is. I’m lucky, I guess. It’s a clean break of only one inside bone. It didn’t break the skin. He’s young and determined to do whatever he wants: a strong will that makes it seem like he’s not hurt at all.

I’m also lucky because I’ve been working remotely for the last 6 months at a job that has considerably less stress than my last one, where my boss understands that sometimes I might just have to run outside or to the vet to change his bandage and that’s okay because I otherwise get my work done. A job that just let me take off two weeks of vacation for the November and December holidays with a “yeah take your time off yo” message.

The first week of his recovery really spiked my anxiety. Cookie isn’t the first close dog I’ve had in my life, but he is my first real dog and it turns out that distinction actually matters. I’m directly responsible for his health so any fallout from here feels directly my fault, even if I know that’s not the technical definition of the word accident.

Deciding to get Cookie was kind of difficult for me. I’ve wanted to be a true dog owner because I enjoyed a lot of the aspects of having a dog readily available to me in my last relationship. That’s to say I felt a really close bond with the last dog that was continually in my life and the severing of that bond, while realistically the best choice for myself mentally, took a pretty big toll on me. Then, I tried to get another dog and it went really horribly. I thought I was in a better place than I really was and that the dog had a lot fewer behavioral challenges than it really did.1

It wasn’t the right fit for me. But intellectually knowing something and emotionally knowing something are two different things. That truth rattled me in a profound sort of way. Which is silly, at least according to my therapist at the time. People make pragmatic choices all the time that don’t reflect on their worth as a person. To me, it was associated with my worth, or lack thereof.

Regardless, I am in a better place now. I also wouldn’t be in that place if it wasn’t for Zach. He’s really helped to keep me grounded when I’m stressed or anxious and helped me appreciate Cookie as a joint effort that’s really strengthened our partnership.

Anyway, since I’ve more-or-less been MIA for a few weeks here are some brief thoughts on things I have consumed:

Wheel of Time, Season 2Wheel of Time is interesting because, as Zach put it: if you had to take bets on which wildly popular fantasy IP that Amazon had the rights to would perform better, you wouldn’t think Wheel of Time stood a chance against LOTR.

There’s a lot I like about Wheel of Time: the way magic is handled, some of the acting, a lot of the scenery. There are some parts that feel a little frustrating and forced, but that’s kind of par for the course with a lot of fantasy stories. It convinced me to actually start reading the books though which brings me to…

Wheel of Time, Book one I’ve been challenging myself to expand my reading beyond strictly literary fiction. It’s an opinion I’ve held that’s snobbish and ultimately cringy to not really dive into the world of genre fiction. So far I’m enjoying the first book, though I’m reading it pretty fast because I already know a huge portion of the plot from watching season one of the TV show. My main gripe with this book is how male-focused it is given that the TV show is much more concerned with the powerful women in the WOT world.

Soccer Mommy’s Karaoke Night albumNot much to say, it’s just fun to listen to!

Guts, Olivia RodrigoOne thing that’s fun about listening to Guts is I keep imagining that each song is sung by Guts from Berserk. Vampire really works well, like he could totally be singing that to Griffith

Generation VLook I watched the Boys and read all of the comics. There is some really problematic shit with the Boys comic, mainly how homophobic and subtly racist it can be while also acting like it’s TOTALLY NOT those things.My biggest gripe with the TV series has been how it’s supposed to be this anti-superhero crusade that points out how our obsession with superheroes is just alt-right and pro-military propaganda. But, it’s still a major Amazon IP so like, is it actually doing that at all?2 Gen V kind of breaks that mold a bit more by actually giving the horrible superheroes some human qualities that, in my mind at least, makes the satire hit a little better.

One Piece live-action

I’ve been a One Piece manga purist forever now, mainly because I’m not sitting through 1K episodes after spending 5 years reading the Wano arc3. I don’t have the energy left in me.

I was ready to hate the live-action but ended up liking it. It has its flaws like Luffy’s rubber powers looking eerie rather than fun and some of the acting feeling stale. But it doesn’t take itself too seriously or try and make the One Piece world seem dark and gritty, which I really appreciate.

The Marry Me Chicken recipe

Look, I made this last night and it was delicious. Served with some rustic bread and a glass of nice red wine. I was in heaven.