Life. Lately. The April Fuji Journal

The Matchbook | 5.30.25

Sarah, at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center

In a shocking turn of events, I’m late again with my Fuji Journal roundup post to show you what I’ve been up to. This little Fuji lets me snap, instantly, what I’m doing, where I’m going, and what my time is being occupied by, and I adore it. Sarah says it’s her favorite thing I’ve started doing, which is cool, but which also means the other things I’m doing clearly aren’t hitting like they should hahaha.

Like last time, this Friday post is generously provided to you, All of you, from the kindness of the paid subscribers. If you want to make sure some of these stay free (and reap a whole slew of rad benefits, including knowing you’re literally keeping this place alive) you can upgrade your subscription super easy right here:

Here’s the visual (and word-ual) breakdown of what I did. Warning: A lot of track meets.

Click on the first and it’ll let you see them bigger and scroll through each one :)

Started things off with Addie getting her septum pierced. She got this weird rush of blood to her head after the piercing, and immediately barfed, and I ran far away the moment I knew it was gonna happen. I hate barf. Then, another track meet, this time in Missoula, Montana to watch the kids compete. The distance girls were sad and had to eat outside because all the tables were full. After one last Montana hike, we flew to Cincinnati to photograph a wedding. Pro-tip: Stay in hotels that are also art museums, as they will 1) accommodate your request for a laminated photo of the Dalai Lama (I love doing this to hotels, random people’s photos laminated as a “check-in request”) and they had all these tiles with body parts in the shower. There was a nose, eyes, belly button, pectoral muscle, mouth, and even a boob. It was rad.

Cincinnati was cool, we went to a funny place for breakfast and had a huge giggle (See Sarah stifling it!?) about the very stoned waiter thinking I couldn’t eat the eggs after I asked to have them without dairy, because they’d been pasteurized and he thought that meant put into milk. We went to the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, which was so meaningful and heartbreaking and reminded us how we need to do more, and fight harder, against an administration that is literally threatening to take down the entire museum as well as a million other atrocities. *Sigh* don’t we ever learn? Don’t we ever fuckin learn? We went to the Zoo after that as we had an entire day to kill before working, and got to see adorable animals and learn about the conservation efforts that go on behind the scenes.

Guess what we did then? MORE TRACK MEETS hahaha. April was chockablock with them, and we went to them all. I told stories to Sarah’s ex’s new baby, who is now a toddler, who is rad and named Remy and loves me a randomly lot amount, and we also watched the kids get awards from the National Honors Society, which is fancy way of saying they are smart and nice. Also, that photo that says HMS up there, it’s so weird being back there, as that was my middle school, and that basketball court that looks straight out of a prison yard was where all the fights happened at lunch, because there was only one tiny way in and the rest was surrounded with chain link so kids would make a circle so the teachers couldn’t see or bust through to break it up. Wild times, the 90s.

Ended things with my Mom’s birthday, which was cool and she was the guest of honor for a bit. It’s so interesting how birthdays seem to congregate around the same cluster of months, isn’t it? Finally, I cried a lot as my beloved Liverpool Football Club won the entire Premier League championship with FOUR games to play. The celebrations were wild, I sobbed, sang You’ll Never Walk Alone a lot, and just was so happy to support a club that feels like this. Ended things with Henry and his buddies coming up for a photograph to use on their graduation party announcement cards, which is wild in a way I don’t understand, and Sarah keeps crying about. Poor thing, what a momentous occasion that her little huge heart just ain’t ready for.

I love doing these, love letting you get a peek in, love reminding you that I know stuff is hard, I know it’s work to fight through this life, but dammit, it’s so worth it.

Find the beauty, and more of it will find you. I promise.