Crazy July

The past month was bookended by two pretty unpleasant events. Fortunately, the month has also had its share of fun times, and even the more negative experiences were not as bad as they could have been.

On the first, I sustained some nasty burns over my entire face as a result of a household incident involving a blast of hot water. For various reasons, I can't go into too much detail here, but, fortunately, my injuries have largely healed (though I still need to be careful about sun exposure). And I am eternally grateful that my eyes were closed when it happened, sparing me a much more profound injury.

During the afternoon of July 30, I was the victim of an attempted robbery. I was in right in front of the Gelson's on Franklin when I stopped to use my phone (I was entering the cost of my recent haircut into a budgeting app). Suddenly, a guy grabbed my wrist and tried to wrest the phone from my hands. I screamed almost immediately and held my phone tightly; after a short struggle, the guy gave up and made a break for it.

I am pretty grateful to the neighborhood people who came out and helped to scare away the wannabe thief, and very relieved that I still have my phone. It is pretty baffling that someone would be desperate enough to commit a crime under such risky circumstances; muggings in dark alleys are a cliche for a reason, after all.

In better news, my birthday was on the 11th. I had a late celebration on the 30th in Barnsdall Art Park; the party was continued because I worried about conflicts caused by Carmageddon (which turned out to be a non-event) and Comic-Con, and also because I wanted to give my face some time to heal.

Barnsdall is a small park centered around a Frank Lloyd Wright house, and provided a fun and relaxing space for a picnic. I had a great time catching up with everyone who came out.

In addition to the "official" birthday party, I was treated to some great birthday meals from thoughtful friends and family members. Thanks, everyone!

I was also able to attend a fun wedding shower for my friends Monica and Michael earlier in the month. It was a low key get-together, and a nice opportunity to reconnect with people. They left this Saturday (the 30th) to get married back east. Congratulations to both of them!

I was also able to stop by my family home and pick up all of my old sketchbooks and artwork. It's always inspiring to see where I've come from. I am also hoping to post some of my old pictures and (less personal) journal entries when I get the chance.

I don't know what to expect from August, but I hope it is fun-filled and relatively trauma-free.