Wednesday – 24 April 2024 The other night, I decided to wind down the evening with a White Russian. The cocktail, that is. I made it a bit stronger than planned – I couldn’t decide whether to name it “Natasha” or “Piotr,” based on how it put me on my ass in short order.
Nevertheless, it was a damned fine beverage.
Tonight, I decided to have another… though not quite as strong. I’m hoping that this is more “Illyana” than “Darkchylde.”
Tuesday – 2024-04-02 Sometimes… if we’re lucky… a confluence of events occurs and really just makes your day. Today was one of those days for me. Let me start from the beginning…
Thing One I woke up this morning, expecting an average Tuesday. I got my morning coffee and headed to my office/Room of Stuff to read before starting the day. After my reading time was done, I looked at my Memories on Facebook to try and garner some small bit of inspiration for today’s #CapesAndCoffee action figure picture. I scrolled back and found an entry on World Autism Awareness Day from five years ago and read the comments on it… for what felt like – and may have actually been – the first time. They made me smile. Broadly.
Thing Two About fifteen minutes later, I found myself scrolling through Twitter – that’s right: “Twitter;” I said what I said – and saw that Gail Simone had posted about one of my favorite characters, Jeff the Land Shark (or… just “Jeff”):
I stumbled across this reply…
…and it was “Game on,” because I have done a few pictures featuring Jeff and his hero, King Shark, including the ones below, in which the pair (along with Gwenpool and Ghost-Spider) do meet:
…and tweeted as much:
I figured that was the end of it, until this popped up on my phone:
What the WHAT?! The Bear, herself, retweeted me!? YeahbuhWHAT!?
Thing Three Riding on my own personal Cloud Nine, I received a not-so-random instant message:
Hi, I just wanted to thank you for your support and thoughts on the Key Bridge Situation. I work for the MDTA communciations department (The entity that runs/ran the Key Bridge) and I was on site of the collapse last Tuesday at 2:30 am and have been swamped ever since. Hearing my favorite podcast (Been listening for over 13 years) talk about it was unexpected but super appreciated. Please tell the podcast thank you from me. Also, I think you are a super awesome addition to Geekshow and your knowledge of comics is awe inspiring. So keep being awesome! -Christopher [last name withheld]
A bit of context: I am member of Geekshow Podcast. As a Baltimore native, on this past weekend’s show, I wore a “Vintage Baltimore” sweatshirt and spent some time talking about the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge following the collision of the container ship, Dali, into one of the bridge’s piers. I also had things to say about some of the less-than-stellar comments that people with the power – and anonymity – of the Internet have made, as well as a brilliant case of talking out the side of one’s neck from a certain politician. Given the pressure that those involved with the clean-up and recovery of the bridge are under – original estimates put the timeline for replacing the bridge at up to ten (10) years! – the last thing they need are newly-minted armchair experts dragging them with ill-informed “Why nots” and “What ifs.”
This message was the true icing on the morning’s cake. Beyond the kind words about me being on the show, learning that something I said had meaning and weight and importance to someone meant the world to me.
Coda These things all happened within just over an hour of waking up. They were a delightful way to start the morning and carried me through the day!
