Today in the Magic Thermos™: nothing. I was too lazy to make coffee this morning. I'M SORRY! I will do better tomorrow. I hope.
Well... this weekend was... a thing. It was hell, is what I'm trying to say. Absolute hell. I spent all three days of the long weekend in bed, not moving. Yup. Still sick. I thought I was on the mend by Wednesday of last week. Not so! It was so bad, I had to cancel all of my plans. Saturday, I had the opportunity to go see Kingsmen with good friends. I really wanted to go. I couldn't. I went out for an excursion of a different kind and returned home so exhausted I couldn't bring myself to crawl out of bed again. Sunday was going to be the day I went grocery shopping because I have literally no food at the moment. That didn't happen. I couldn't move. I stayed in bed and slept. A lot. Monday I was supposed to brunch with my family and then in the evening have my monthly meetup. Neither happened. And for those of you who know, skipping on family things is a big deal for me. And I feel really guilty for cancelling the meet up. Ugh!
I seem to be on the mend now, though (so I say). Except for the colossal headache and the vague, dreamlike haze that surrounds everything. i doubt I'll be getting much work done today, but I'm at work all the same.
About my excursion on Saturday that left me exhausted beyond belief.... it wasn't the excursion that did it. It was the fact that I have gotten out of bed at all. Still, it was all worth it. Why? Because this girl has a new tattoo!
But about this one, since I will invariably get questioned on it...
If you recognise the script, you are a bloody hero... and a gamer, no doubt. The script is 'Draconic' and it's from the game I'm obsessed with. That's right. It's from Skyrim. There were several scripts I was debating between. Of those, Draconic and Tengwar (Tolkien's Elvish script) were at the top. Alas, my love for all things dragon - even if just video game dragon - won out and I decided on Draconic. It's a cool-looking script.
The word itself is "Calon." Hang on! Draconic doesn't have a 'C', say the people who are as geeky as I. It does... sort of. The 'C' in calon is a hard sound; more commonly written as 'k' in English. So people not in the know would probably hear the word and write 'kalon.' Draconic does have the hard sound, translated most commonly to 'k'. Since I'm dealing with symbols, the sound is what is important. Now that I've explained the spelling, let me explain the word.
It is Brythonic, which is to say, it belongs to the p-Celtic group of languages - Welsh, Gaulish (extinct), Cornish (revived), and Breton. It literally translates to 'heart' but is used to mean courage. It is also connected to the root that means 'hard' or 'tough' (caled, in Welsh - Wnes i weithio'n galed heddiw; I worked hard today).
Courage, to me, is the highest of attributes. It is something I greatly respect and something I aspire to. But what about kindness, compassion, love? Yes, these are all fine attributes, but they are meaningless and worthless if one does not have the courage to act upon them. Unfortunately in this world, it takes courage to be openly compassionate and kind. It takes courage step in and stop a bully beating on another. It takes courage to speak out against (your own?) government. In many places, compassion is criminalised. It takes courage to show it. As for love, ask the LGBTQ community how much courage it takes to show theirs.
I'm not trying to sound my own horn here, but courage is the only thing that got me to where I am today. It's much easier now, but I cannot tell you how much courage it took for me to get out of bed every day until quite recently. It was the word I would repeat to myself before stepping out of the house and into the world. Some days, I still do so. Some days I need reminding.
I've been toying with the idea of this tattoo for years. This wasn't a spur of the moment thing. Like the dragon that sits on my right shoulder, it is something that means a great deal to me and something I've thought long and hard about before getting.
There are many people who don't like tattoos at all. That's fine. You do you. But I don't want to hear about it. I think tattoos are beautiful and interesting. It's alright if the exact opposite is true for you. I don't care. I'll be over here, loving the skin art.
Granted, I have taken into consideration future employability. The tattoo sits on my forearm, high enough to be easily covered by any long sleeved blouse or a blazer/jacket. It is easy to hide, like my dragon. In fact, all of my planned tattoos will be easily hidden from people with prejudices.
So, here's a question, Readers, of those of you who might consider getting a tattoo, what would you get and why?
On today's agenda, get back on track with my Welsh lessons. Get back on track with editing Human, get back on track Beta Reading for my Mum (who is also an awesome writer, you can find her stuff HERE). I need to finish that stuff, because I promised to Beta Read for someone else and need to get that done promptly. With so much on my plate, I can't get to it just yet, and I really want to.
Gah! So much work for my exhausted, aching brain. I should go get another coffee and get to work.
Ciao!