Dear Moko

Dear Moko,

I miss you.

I hope you were happy.

I wish I could have given you more. Done more. Was it enough?

I love you. Rest well.

-Jess

Things Ivan Does When He's Asleep (Besides Snore)

Ivan has a tendency to do strange things when he's asleep. Like...really weird. One time, he woke up completely dressed apparently. Since we've been living together, mostly he speaks gibberish. He can have whole conversations in nonsense, which is surprisingly hilarious, even at 3 AM. One time he randomly started to rub the dog's belly without even realizing it. I think she had been whining a bit at the time.

A little while ago, he did something new. I had woken up, probably from a dream or something (I do that a lot) and was working on getting comfortable and falling asleep again, when he randomly started patting my arm. Then he moved onto my face, so I held out my arm, and he went back to it, checking the hand with really soft squeezes and pats. I was curious, so I decided to see if he was awake and what exactly he was doing. The resulting conversation went something like this...

"What are you looking for?"

"The net retractor." Brief pause as he checks my arm again. "But I'm not sure where it fits."

"....OK...."

 Since he was obviously still sleeping, I let it go, and he eventually stopped trying to figure out where to put the net retractor and turned over. He did it again at one point, but I was tired and didn't ask him why. Maybe he was just making sure it fit properly. I did tell him about it the next morning and he had no memory whatsoever of any of this, which is pretty typical. He rarely remembers the odd things he does in the middle of the night.

So, that's one strange thing Ivan's done in his sleep. What a weirdo.

Hello, Internet!

So...this is my latest attempt at creating something interesting online for other people to see. I'm not sure how this will work, but it's worth a shot. If anyone knows this guy then you probably know a little bit about me. Ivan and I are getting married in October, and currently live together in a nice little house with a handful of crazy animals, which he's touched on once or twice in his blog. I'm not going to lie, I'm sort of copying him a little bit, but he seemed to be having so much fun with his own blog, that I wanted to give it a try. At the very least, it'll be somewhere to put photos with random comments and things that isn't Facebook. I try to avoid using that particular social media whenever I can. I've never liked it much.

I stole the term headspace from Kevin Hearne, author of the Iron Druid Chronicles. The main character of these books, Atticus is a Druid (yes, what a shock!) and in order to work his magic properly, he memorizes large bodies of work such as Shakespeare's collective plays, and in doing so creates a sort of sectioned off space in his head separate from the rest. Actually, now that I think about it, there's a similar concept in The Name of the Wind, another good book series. Now...I am not nearly as smart or dedicated as Atticus, and while I would love to be able to whip out random Shakespeare quotes whenever I like, I am far too lazy to actually memorize anything. I thought this blog might be able to serve a similar purpose, a place for me to record thoughts, pictures, events, and maybe the occasional blurb of writing and unclog my head a bit. If I can make something interesting that people enjoy reading, even better, but I'm going to keep my standards low for now. 

Well, that's all I have to say for now. I have a sleepy dog on my lap and I want to enjoy it a little before game night tonight.