You’ve got form

Preamble

Do you have any micro-guilt for little things that nag at you for years? My latest one is this: for about 2 years, there was what looked like a power drill sat on a distant neighbour’s garage roof, where I guess they’d done some work installing the security light that’s on that roof. Probably to shoo away the foxes, although it didn’t work^{[Jump to footnote 1]}. We can see this garage roof from our bedroom window, and ever since we spotted it, I had planned to write a note to the owner of the garage. Then one day recently, the drill disappeared. Time beat me. I am a bad person. So that’s my micro-guilt forever when I look out our bedroom window. And that’s how sheltered my life is, heh.

Notes then? Notes.

These things happened this week

• I’ve become part of the furniture of one Brighton cafe to the extent that today I was asked to mind the till for a few minutes 😅.
• Bumped into my next-door neighbour and she’s learning to be a Qi Gong teacher, and I’ve offered myself up as a practice student, oops!
• Emma was away for work so I watched Annihilation again with the cats. It was strange watching it after having read the Southern Reach books, which I might read again actually. They’re beautifully written.
• My Playdate arrived^{[Jump to footnote 2]}!
• A jigsaw puzzle website I’ve been meaning to buy from is closing down, with massive discounts, so I’ve ordered an unreasonable number of puzzles. Despite not having done a jigsaw puzzle in years. I just like the idea of it, and they looked so beautiful!
• I picked up meds on the day of running out. Postal meds don’t work anymore because I’m not organised enough to order the 2 weeks in advance that they now recommend.
• I went to see my sister and nephews over the weekend. My nephews D and L are very cute. D is just like me. He is getting help now after years of being denied it because of a crappy time with CAMHS. The neuro lady at his school sounds like an angel. I’m so happy and relieved for him ❤️.
• My sister bought me a treasure hunt book for Brighton! One of those things where you solve riddles based on different monuments and buildings in the city. I’m gonna do it soon and to be honest, you can’t stop me can you.
• Things that make me feel like an alien: Christmas, my own birthday, all surprises^{[Jump to footnote 4]}. And forms.
• Emma helped me write an application form for a volunteering role. When I say helped, I mean she basically wrote it and I edited it. I really struggle with filling out forms, mostly because they tend to be so open-ended or unclear that I get overwhelmed with all the possibilities of what I think they want me to say. If you ever want to test a form design for ambiguities, give me a shout 😅.
• My whole day and all my energy was consumed by this form. It is mostly done.

Overheard through the days

• “You’re literally boasting about Tetris”
• “We’ll have an initial look at what this real skeleton will look like”
• “I’m not quite sure what the pterodactyl meant”

Yours,Leaf

Footnotes

1. When it’s not so cold out, we see foxes playing or sleeping on the garage roofs behind our house. One of our neigbours is a waste removal tradesman, and the foxes sometimes mess about in his truck, and rummage through the rubbish and odds and ends he’s picked up in the daytime. I love watching them from our window ☺️. Jump to source of footnote 1
2. A Playdate is a cute little retro console, a bit like a Gameboy but smaller and has a very indie dev vibe. It was co-created by Panic Inc: you know, the folks who made Untitled Goose Game, Firewatch, and if you’re old school enough to have used it, Transmit! (Tbf Transmit is still going). Every 2 weeks, for 12 weeks, 2 new games arrive like little presents. Each one is made by an indie game developer. I waited 2 years for this thing to arrive and I love it! It has a little crank, which has just reminded me of a line in an old Death Cab song called Little Bribes^{[Jump to footnote 3]}. Jump to source of footnote 2
3. “You pretend every slot machine is a robot amputee waving hello / The people stare into their eyes and they feed them little bribes and then they go.” Jump to source of footnote 3
4. Some old friends once organised a surprise party for me at a restaurant and it remains one of the most surreal moments in my life: for several minutes after the reveal, I still didn’t recognise any of the surprise people, whom I’ve known since I was a teenager. My brain was just completely overwhelmed 😅. Jump to source of footnote 4