Hello friends, and happy Spring!
I hope you're all doing well.
In an effort to make these updates a bit better, I figured I should also include a post about my little guy and favorite gal.
For anyone who hasn't met him, this is Winston.
Abby and I adopted him two(!) years ago, and he's only gotten cuter and sweeter ever since.
He's so cute
Despite the saying, I don't think March really went out like a lamb. April has been full of nippy days and warm nights here in NYC. My apartment has a single temperature, boiling hot. 82 degrees last time I checked. Being on the top story of a third floor walk-up means the heat walks right up those stairs with us. It's oppressive once the temperature is above freezing and we can't just open the windows all day. I feel bad for little Winston, who has the curse of looking a hundred times cuter when he's hot and panting. I'm writing this right before he gets a haircut so I'll try to include a before and after photo in the post.
| 3pm | 5pm |
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I have been eagerly awaiting April 1st for so long. Last year, I saw a video of someone rubber banding their kitchen faucet sprayer so that when someone turned on the sink it sprayed them instead of running the tap. This is exactly the kind of prank I wanted to pull on Abby. Harmless but annoying and kind of inconvenient. It has been sitting in my mind taking up space ever since. So, in the final moments of March, I knew what I had to do. Being the polite and considerate boyfriend that I am, I waited until the work-from-home day was over and we were settling in for the night. It was a Tuesday, so I was going to be playing dungeons and dragons with my friends, she'd have the run of the house while I was squirreled away in our little office. I waited until she called her mom, a weekly tradition during my D&D games, when I made my way into the kitchen, rubber band in hand.
The trap was easy to set. I had to avoid eye contact with her as I snuck back into my reclusive space to await her screams. Two hours later, having talked myself dry, I went back into our apartment for a glass of water and promptly drenched myself with the same trap I had set for Abby. This might have been some kind of preemptive karmic justice, but I wasn't about to allow that to change my devious plan. Somehow, she didn't hear or see the mess I made and even more surprising, she didn't need to drink any water until 11pm that night. I waited impatiently until her startled scream echoed throughout the apartment. Winston started barking in response and my cackling laugh radiated from the bedroom. I could barely walk from laughing so hard as I made my way over to her. Standing in the kitchen dripping water, she couldn't help but laugh alongside me. Later, she locked me out of the apartment.
People always ask me how Abby and I are doing, and I never know what to say. Good? In love? In rhythm with one another? It almost feels like that question is fishing for a problem, hoping to scoop up some piping hot tea. This story feels like a perfect answer, a little microcosm of our relationship.
| She's so cute | He's so cute |
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I love spring, the dethawing, the growth, the sun staying out later and later. It's a time when things get better. Not sure that really holds true this year in the real world but nature doesn't care. In an act of selfcare, Abby and I went to the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens to see the cherry blossoms. We were a bit early for the main show, but it was still a soft, satisfying day. The sun slowly set on us while we wandered the paths and took a moment to smell the roses and whatever else was around.
| "Okay, now look pretty" | "Okay, now eat that flower" |
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It's funny, I go to the park so much more with Winston than I ever did before we got him, but I never take the time to appreciate the park itself. It was nice to be able to sit back and enjoy the show. Brooklyn in the spring is fertile ground for people watching and we surely got our fill.
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If you've read this far, let me know. Without social media, this is the only way I update my friends and I'd love for it to be a two-way street. To preach for just a moment, that connection, the core point of social media, feels like it’s degraded into nothing. The internet has rotted away into the slop that we have now. If you need an incentive, I have a few climbing videos but instead of accomplishments, it's just me failing and falling on my ass a few times. I'll send them to anyone who responds.
I even have a conversation starter for you; tell me what song has had the biggest impact on your life. For me, it's Memories by Lewis Del Mar. It's this guttural, emotional and raw song that captures a moment in time for me. Not a good moment, mind you, but not a bad one either. It's the kind of song that takes on new meanings throughout my own life and the various struggles within. I've had to have listened to it well over a thousand times since its release a decade ago.
The world is crazy right now, but I'm glad to have all of you in my life.
Stay safe, and find your own joy.
With love,
Lucas