044-Print Shop Opening!
Monday Updates: Shop Opening Today, Reflections on living in Mexico
⋆✴︎˚｡⋆BIG ANNOUNCEMENT⋆✴︎˚｡⋆
Official Shop is opening TODAY.
I’ve been on the phone with customer service for the past few months, which spiritually has felt like half a billion years. But despite a long stream of mixed advice from agents, delayed customer service replies, and several desperate watches of YouTube tutorials, I managed to make my official opening date (thank god).
And it’s today. *throws glitter in the air*
The process itself has been pretty smooth, but with everything going on around me, it feels like I’ve been trying to drive a car without suspension. The road itself isn’t that bad, but having a different vehicle would have made the gravel a lot less bumpy.
The shop will be where I do my direct print sales, as well as the main platform for my books and other products. The book itself will be here soon. It’s a process that has also been taking considerably longer than expected, but I’m around the bend now. If you want to be updated on the book launch, click here.
Thank you for your time friends. That’s enough announcements for now, so onto the rest of the week.
A few days ago, I was sitting and working in my little room in Mexico. I heard the house itself might be neo-colonial. It is a beautiful white room that fills with sunlight in the morning. For many people, waking up to the sun is not only undesirable but avoided at all costs. I don’t think a blackout curtain will even find its way into my Amazon Shopping Cart.
There is a desk in my room, positioned in front of two beautiful, curved windows. While I typed away and prepped for a few upcoming projects, I heard the beautiful chirps of Mexican birds that sat in the trees. They sounded like the birds from home, but I knew they couldn’t be the same. People on bikes zipped by, and I watched them through the sheer curtains.
The air was very still. The trees, the branches, the leaves, weren’t moving. The air was dense, pregnant with heat right before the rainy season. I am grateful it is not humid. That is one thing about Japan I will never miss.
I checked online, it is approximately 11,650 kilometers from Mexico City to Nara. It also looks like a straight shot, right through the Pacific Ocean. Maybe it’s not as far as one would think. Just like a long bus ride.
I moved to this current apartment around two weeks ago. I didn’t know I would be at this particular place. A few weeks ago, I didn’t even have an apartment lined up.
After living in areas like Vallejo, Portales, or Santa Maria La Ribera, it is my first time living in Condesa. I remember the feeling I had while putting my food into my tiny cupboard in the kitchen. Having a place of your own, even if it’s a tiny area, can mean everything.
Here, with 6 roommates, we all get our own sections for food. I stuffed mine to the brim, happily and joyfully. With katsuobushi and natto. I felt like I was finally making my way up, that I was settling on a home. That maybe happiness wasn’t as far away as I thought, maybe I did have a right to be joyful, after all.
But, of course, next month I’ll move again.
For 10 years, I didn’t budge from my home in Nara. Now, after being out of the country for nearly two years, I have probably lived in 30 different places. I’ll do an official count sometime soon.
I don’t know what has led me to this in my life, but hopefully down the road, I will learn balance and moderation.
From a recent diary entry:
Do I have one beautiful thought left in me? Is there time yet to think about the trees? To wonder which one is an oak, and which one is a beech? Not yet, not yet.
Little heart, you work so hard. But you are horrible at showing how hard you work. You can show it, but you deserve a little rest. Just a little rest.
I have a lot of things to do today. All beautiful and confusing. But I will try. I will try my darndest. I will try my hardest.
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Monday Updates is a section of this blog where I’m letting my hair down, figuratively. I am often preoccupied with getting things perfect, rather than simply sharing and enjoying the process while talking about life. Instead of the tradition of hating Mondays, I’m going to try to associate them with creative freedom and allow myself to speak my mind without the worry that a perfectionist usually has. Things here may be a bit disjointed, incomplete, and occasionally nonsensical, but they may also be playful, curious, and whimsical. I will do my best to make it more of the latter.