Ramblings, rumblings, grumblings, and rambling grumbly rumblings.

"Is there a way we can attach our Clapper to some fun lights for my party?" Ella asks Cathy and Maurice. The newlywed couple is apparently still cooking meals for the group at Ella's house. And why not? Ella has a better kitchen and she actually shops for groceries, and doesn't have to carry them up 3 flights of stairs. And she doesn't cook. Maurice started while he was employed as Jon's home health aide and was trying to pass the time while stuck in the Sievers' house all day. It's an easy way for me to draw the characters hanging out together.

Maurice replies, "Ask my downstairs neighbor if you can borrow his rave lights. Cathy's good friends with him."

Cathy brings Ella to Owen and Sammy's apartment. Owen answers the door and Ella introduces herself. "So, I'm throwing a party the day before Halloween, and Cathy says you own some lights?" she asks Owen.

"They're bolted to the wall," says Owen, frowning and glancing over his shoulder. "I don't think we can get them off." Suddenly he brightens. "You could have your party here!"

"My brother's disabled," says Ella. "He'll have trouble with all these stairs."

"Oh! Is he that athlete guy? I've seen him around!" says Owen.

The girls enter the apartment, where Ella looks around, remarking, "Yup, he's around and around, but not up and down."

Sammy is on the other side of the room, reaching toward a large boxy device perched high up in the corner. "Hey Owen, I think I can get it! We just need power tools."

***

Yeah, I took another break from the daily comic. I've definitely been busy, and am still lagging behind on some very high priority tasks. Caregiving, my graphic novel, supporting my friends in crisis, tax prep... I really don't want to fund genocide, violence, corruption, and all the numerous other terrible things my tax money is going to. I'm trying to do small things to help my community, but it can be hard to coordinate, and to scrape up the energy to take on more tasks. I've started going to the gym, progressing very slowly to avoid wrecking myself, and it puts my energy levels for important daily tasks back a bit. The sad thing is that I can't build up stamina due to my health conditions, so I'm not sure what I'm doing this for. Honestly, my main motivation is that it's just a quiet place to read my book. The book I'm reading is funny and interesting, and it's helping my ability to follow conversational French quite a lot. But I never pick it up at home. I have eleventy-twelve other things I need to do at home.

Against my better judgment, I ventured a peek at Facebook this morning, and it was kind to me - it greeted me with this memory.




It's a panel from the last page of my graphic novel. The wedding is over, some drama was resolved, and Cathy and Maurice take a stroll with Ren to watch the sun rising over the Saône River.

Maurice is saying, "Je suis fini!" Which means "I'm finished" in more of a mortal peril context.

Cathy corrects him: "Non, j'ai fini! Heeheehee!"

It's my announcement of completion of the webcomic, which is also Draft 2 of the graphic novel. That's not the actual dialogue. The good thing about putting my dialogue in digitally is that I can change it all I want, and so I make memes out of my own art on a regular basis, because then I can just change it back to what it was afterwards. I also do endless rewrites. Creating a graphic novel has forced me to learn brevity, and to allow much of the storytelling to appear in the art. For those who can spend time examining the art, there's a layered and complex story in there with lots of additional character development and setting. For those who can't see the art, there's still a lot of story to be had. It turns out I'm not very good at brevity.

But what really hits me about this 1-year anniversary is that it means I've already been working on Draft 3 for a year.

Oh no.

***

ETA: I looked at other posts I made that day, and it was Mardi Gras, so I asked my FB list, "What are you giving up for the Trump Administration?" (A reference to giving things up for Lent, for those of you who are not from a Lent practicing tradition.) And then I wrote a long list of things I expected to lose in the coming years. One year later, yup, most or all of them have come about. I could even add some.