So I am starting a blog, hopefully I can do it daily.
So what’s up? Nothing much today was an interesting day to say the least. I recently began coaching at a Muay Thai gym I attend. It’s hard teaching people something that you just naturally do. I don’t want to sound like I am a very skilled Muay thai practitioner but I’m good. I’ve had 4 fights and two smokers. My record is what ever. But I mostly do it because it can be fun and exciting. It’s a weird love and hate kind of thing with Muay Thai but I much prefer it to just going to the gym and doing weird shit or running around my neighborhood. Anyway I taught my first adult class and it went pretty well. No complaints, but the anxiety of having to teach really got to me. Also I taught on fridays and fridays is hard sparring day which is something i use to look forward to but no longer do.
I use to think it was so cool to see how hard of a punch or a kick i could take, or how many rounds i could go with out stopping. The more damage I took the more I felt like a bad ass. At the time I was still competing so any damage taken here was something that I wouldn’t fear if it happened to me in the ring. Now that I’m no longer interested in competing I’m also not interested in taking damage. I no longer seek that thrill. Don’t get me wrong its still there. It’s still inside of me, but I’m also just like, what’s the fucking point of all this now. Anywho when I’m there on days when sparring is happening and I’m not sparring it feels like your in time out. Everyone’s looking at you like why aren’t you playing with us. Oh i dont feel like it. There like ew dude, i dont want you spreading that nonchalant ness to me. This could all be in my head. I still like sparring but I’m just not hungry to prove myself anymore which has kinda thrown everything off. I just want to have fun I don’t wanna push myself to the limit any more. Anyway my girlfriend came and picked me up and for some odd reason my anxiety was pumping hard. We took some breathes and she said lets go get some pizza since she caught a baby today at work and I successfully lead my first class.
We went to paulie gee’s which is a pretty sweet Detroit style pizza spot in Logan square. We get there and somehow find a parking spot on Milwaukee ave which is usually a no mans land for spots especially on a friday night. When we walk in we are greeted by the bar tender who i met a few months ago when i went to go place an order for pick up. I started talking to girls and soon after shots were being provided and i was eating my Togo order at the bar with them. It was nuts. Nice platonic swap of numbers and new friends were made.
Anyway he’s there and as soon as we get there he’s like dude i know your face and im like yeah i was here with that Asian girl awhile ago who im pretty sure was aggressively hitting on you and he was like yep I remember you. What shot are we doing? My girl says whiskey please and down the pipe the shots went. We followed that up with a cider for me and a Manhattan for my lady.
The anxiety melted away instantly. I love drinking. Not getting drunk per say but just like getting a nice buzz. All your problems melt away, the room moves, you talk openly, you ponder and listen to what people say. You loosen up. I love it. It’s a feeling I’ve really come into since moving to chicago.
We eat some awesome pizza, perhaps next time ill take a snap shot of it. But it was this sweet and savory Detroit style pizza with ricotta, mozzarella, maple syrup i think and pepperoni. We each got three slices and proceeded to wolf them down with the quickness. I also forgot to mention the amazing salad we got before hand. A house salad covered in hard salami and speck? Or like the cheap equivalent of speck. Doused with balsamic vinegar. It was the perfect mixture of sweet sour and green and hardy meats.
Afterwards we both realized we were pretty close to being to buzzed to drive and it was snow raining. Drinks were on the house and we gave our man a nice big ole tip then sashayed out of there. Just to make sure we could still drive we did a quick walk to the local target. I walked straight to the pokemon aisle and looked at what they had to offer. Luckily i have enough pokemon cards to last a century but the thought of pulling a sweet holograph is still to powerful to pass up. But not now there’s so many i dont even know which pokemon id want to pull out of a pack. We turned our focus to midnight snacks. I guess Easter is on the horizon so i grabbed a solid white chocolate rabbit and my lady grabbed a bag of nerds eggs and malted eggs. We paid and got to the car where i was pretty sure i was good to drive.
The next day i woke up super late. Every since i got back from philly I’ve been waking up at like 10 and not getting out of bed until 11 some days. It’s pretty fucked. I hate it. I might be slightly depressed. Then i remembered oh yeah I’ve been drinking the night before which is why im waking up with the blues. I also remembered that i did manage to get some inking down on page 4 of the new comic im working on proving to myself that i am still a responsible illustrator.
I got out of bed eventually and it felt like i had been hit by a ton of bricks. I told myself fuck this im going to sipping turtle and im gonna work on an info comic about how i need to sell 13 pieces so i can but a new laptop. I biked to the cafe and immediately ordered a Bahnmi, oolong tea, and rocky road brownie. The Bahn mi’s at this place are good tasting but they are hardly authentic Bahn mi’s which bum me out because the owners are clearly Vietnamese. I think this sets a bad precedent because in philly a Bahn mi is a meal. It’s a celebration. It’s a hoagie. It’s large and in charge. The Bahn mi here is small and ironic and meant for hipster mouths. Taste wise its really good. I usually get the teriyaki beef. All the other meat options are kinda silly. There are no pickled vegetables or bbq pork options. But like i said taste wise it still hits. The Oolong tea is good as well. It’s sweet and toasty tasting. Goes down smooth and doesn’t call for a sweetener but if one is added it only enhances the flavors.
I hung out here from 1pm to 6pm. During that time I drew a few panels of the comic that will hopefully entice people to buy some art so i can get a new computer. Although I am really trying not to totally believe 13 people will spend a $100 dollars each on me. Best to keep my hopes nice and low but it would be nice. Then i moved on to drawing some faces. Something I’ve been trying to work on getting better at. I drew about 7 girls faces in profile view. An easy task i know but good to practice.
After that i came home, made some rib eye steaks. Usually when im seasoning the steaks i sprinkle salt and pepper on to the meat, but lately there have been spots on that tasted seasoned and spots that tasted unseasoned which lead to an inconsistent taste. This time i decided to sprinkle and rub the seasoning on. I accidentally added way to much salt and i feared for my poor arteries. God please help my future self. The steaks came out tasting great but god damn you could really taste that salt.
I also sautéed some onions, whipped up some mashed potatoes, and then sautéed some asparagus. We drank white wine and watched some French show about hacking and Syria. Oh i also gave thanos my cat some raw steak since she started eating one of the steaks when i had my back turned. I think she liked it but i fear the rush of blood and raw meat might make her primal.
After that it was time to stream. I try to stream 2 - 3 times a week. The stream went well. I mostly talked about dumb shit like watching Jeepers creepers and the Jon jones fight and how yes he was smart to wrestle and choke Cyril Gane out but it would’ve been so much cooler to see his new striking. Whatever its about whose the smarter fighter not the cooler fighter. I started penciling page 5 on the stream hopping to get it penciled and inked but i got caught up on panel 4. It’s still blank as i type this but the rest of the page is done.
Tomorrow i will ink it up. I still need to finish the pencils for a commission. And i need to respond to an email about some more commissions. So yeah good day i guess. Gonna drink some wine and try to absorb some visual goods. Im also transitioning into making this a comic year. I want to do more comics this year. I think im going to start a smaller comic and do it on 8.5.x 11 paper like a manga.
See ya