Just Keep Swimming

Timer has started so here we go:

I’m in an interesting middle place where I’m feeling better than ever but I also have occasional moments of sadness, anxiety, and not goodness, so at this point I think this is just how life is gonna go for the foreseeable future if not forever and I have to be ok with that. One big thing I keep going back and forth on is the puzzle me and Tore that we’re about to put on Instagram. It’s something I was very excited about while making it, but now that it’s ready to go up, I’m nervous that nobody else is going to care about it as much as us in which case am I just making a big deal out of something else for no reason? 

BUT THAT DOESN’T MATTER!!!

What matters is that I know how much I like the puzzle, and since that’s all I can control, I shouldn’t be worrying about what other people will think once it’s up.

On Sunday, we did a #ToreTalks with topics suggested by our followers which was very fun and funny for us at first, but then I think we both got a little tired of it by the end because it felt more and more like we were doing these #ToreTalks for others instead of for ourselves (which was the whole reason for #ToreTalks started in the first place). One cool thing about it though was I actually learned some things about Tore that I didn’t even know like his favorite movie is Sandlot and his favorite superhero is Wolverine so I guess what they say is true! You learn something new about your other half every day.

For example, Tore just asked me “Did you always want to become an artist?” yesterday as if I HAVEN’T WANTED TO BE AN ARTIST MY WHOLE LIFE?!? But I guess we’re even now...

Mom also showed us a zoom stream of Jenny Birmelin describing how she prepared for and actually swam the English Channel yesterday and I thought it was very inspiring. Even if I doubt I’ll ever swim the Channel myself (but never say never ;-), it was gut-checking to hear her talk about how much work, time, and effort she had to put in just to get ready for such an enormous task. In other words, if I ever want to do anything of note, I better get ready to invest almost my entire life (at least for a little bit) into doing it and also bring along some pouches of Peter Rabbit baby food just in case! 

One of my favorite parts of her talk was actually after she finished the swim when she and her crew visited the White Horse Tavern (sic) in Dover, England to see everyone else who had swam the Channel and signed the walls and ceilings. Not only was it emotional to see her draw the Old English “D” for Detroit on part of the ceiling because it meant she was officially apart of history, but it was also moving to see how many other people had already signed the place knowing that each of these people had also put in the same amount of work, time, and effort in order to join this exclusive club of real life superheroes.

Another cool part of the stream was finding out the cartoonist of one of my favorite comic strips, FRAZZ, is friends with Jenny because he was also watching AND ALSO HE MADE A COMIC STRIP WITH HER AND HER SWIM REFERENCED IN IT!?! My favorite comic strip of all time that I think about a lot: