Once again, I'm shocked that time keeps moving! I feel like we just entered 2026, but somehow it's already April?! Truthfully, I have been in a really weird existential space since the start of the year, but I guess that comes with aging. At the end of December and January, I was dealing with Luna's kidney failure diagnosis. It kind of came out of nowhere, and I didn't have enough answers to understand what the future means for her, so there were a lot of vet visits and tests. One of the ways to manage kidney failure is through diet, so after meeting with a pet nutritionist (ugh), she's been put on a special diet, and ironically, she's been looking and acting healthier than ever, despite her diagnosis. I hope I still have a few more years with her, even though she just turned 11.

Amid said weird vibes, I have still been keeping busy.

January was my birthday, and I celebrated by hosting a lasagna dinner for my friends. Since more than half of my friends are vegetarian, I made a more traditional ricotta lasagna and then a funky squash/spinach version (From the NYT gift link if you want to make it). Luna was an absolute demon, but what else is new? One of my closest friends, Thary, flew in from Vancouver to stay with me for that week, and despite a few snowstorms and general January blues, it was nice to spend time together. We got deep into Overcooked and managed to beat the whole game while she was here.

After that, January flew by! I got my stomach tattooed by my friend Jacqueline, did a lot of walking, watched a lot of movies (The Plague, It was just an Accident, Skindeep were standouts) and did a lot of co-working with friends.

I also saw two cool gallery shows at the end of January, the first being Intermission: A Tattooer's Art Show, which is kind of self-explanatory, but it was a big group show where all the artists are tattooers. Jacqueline had a piece in there, as well as Justine Diaz, who also tattooed me.

Then, right after, I checked out Marigold Santos' show at Patel Brown Gallery. She also has a background in tattooing, so it was a weirdly on-theme weekend. I am obsessed with her work, it's so graphic, colourful, textural and other-worldly. The scale and detail of some of her pieces was astounding, and apparently, she produced them all in 6 months, which is unreal.