Of the moment's:

• Woke up this morning to cry happy tears at my realization on the work year-end planning/dive trip to Anilao
  • That is, the question I ask myself in government work is: What is worth protecting?
  • History, memory, protected areas, people as fragile beings, people as fierce beings, to find ways to exist in the world that wasn't built for us, to ease suffering when possible, to suffer for something, the dream of radical equality, a silent spring
• Handled the admin work of life: bills, computations, PRs for one's performance as an advocate
• Posted picture of the flowers I gave Kevin for our 7th anniversary
• Brunch with Mama and talking to her like a friend
• Prepared for my first tattoo appointment, asked Kuya Ding to drive me, 15 minutes early to the set time
• What it felt like: first time sparring with someone whose ability you do not yet know, preparing to get your ass kicked
• "In this episode of Kyusi Ink" chikahan with the tattoo artist, watching her process, providing input
  • A tattoo is co-created art, embodied
• Telling the core stories of my being to distract from the pain, which was tolerable but draining, like many things
• Coffee with Kuya Ding and talking to him like a friend
  • Will Kuya Joboy ever ask us to accompany him to get a tattoo? An optimistic question
• Afternoon nap
• Afternoon emails, updating friends
• Balcony sesh and ordering a rocking chair
• Listening to Taylor Swift's Folklore
  • "In isolation my imagination has run wild and this album is the result, a collection of songs and stories that flowed like a stream of consciousness. Picking up a pen was my way of escaping into fantasy, history, and memory. I've told these stories to the best of my ability with all the love, wonder, and whimsy they deserve. Now it's up to you to pass them down."
• The Ofelia Gelvezon-Tequi inspired tattoo is:
  • Something I've carried with me for a while which finally find itself on my skin
  • "And the quiet moments are for my paintings. We brought all the contents of our old house, the treasures and the trash. A table with warped planks, chipped walnut oil jugs, cracked confit pots find their way into my still life paintings. Like the orchids whose blooms I paint with our Chinese ceramics, juxtaposing the emphemeral with the permanent. The acids, the zinc and copper plates, the hard and soft rollers, the etching inks are waiting for me in my printmaking workshop. I will make time for them in this lifetime."
  • My statement to the void in April 2020: I will not survive without art is no longer an overstatement. I will make time for it in my lifetime.
• On cleaning a tattoo for the first time
  • It is nice to have a physical wound to wash and care for for the psychic wounds we have carried
• Lazada orders:
  • Books from Everything's Fine
  • CD of Zild's Huminga