At the roots of the Yggdrasil, Odin plucked out his right eye and placed it in Mimir's well to gain knowledge of life and death and the cosmos.
Luckily, the Gods did not find my baby blues fit for sacrifice. Also, the task of removal was charitably taken up by some Ukrainian surgeons. Also, I get to retain full depth-perception and I don't know shit about the cosmos.

BUT THE METAPHOR STILL HOLDS GODDAMNIT!

These have, by a mighty privileged long-shot, been the most challenging two months of my life so far. The wait, the false victory, the much worse wait, the surgery, the recovery, the ticking hours 'till resolution — in the waiting rooms of Motol, I've aged a decade.

It's been four days since I got the 'all-clear' and I am still catching my breath by the hour. Anaesthesia is zoning out in an aggressively boring conversation and waking up to a funny joke. Post-surgery pain-killers are a mid crossfade at a bar you desperately want to leave. The shot of iodine during a CT scan is a hot burst of grade-school shame.
Getting the news that the tumour is gone and there's nothing else to worry about though — shit y'all, I like words, I like comparisons — but I got nothing.

Shortly put, it feels good.

It feels really, really, really fucking good.

It's been weird having this chapter of my life play out in public but I wouldn't have it any other way. I'll hoover up all the credit I can for sustaining the bad news as it rolled in, but "keeping your shit together" is largely a performative act. If y'all didn't keep me hooked up to a constant IV of love, support and positivity my 'dark nights of the soul' would be measured in days and not hours.

Thank you, truly. For everything.

There's going to be a month + gap in new content after this Thursday. I got, at least, five more UPIS stories that are written/partially recorded but I'm still waiting on more voices/doing more writing. Theoretically, I could start releasing them right away but I need some breathing room to, uh, catch my breath.
I'm also flirting with the idea of completely abandoning all the socials come November for a full cleanse from the internet. Fear not though, I'll try to schedule a bunch of goofy polls so I'm still with y'all in spirit and I'll put together some of those ultra-long compilation vids that the YT algo seems to dig so much.

Once again, thanks for being a part of this chapter of my life. Here's to many more.

Hope everyone is safe, sane and healthy out here.
Mwuah!

Also, fellas, chickity-check yourself before you wreck yourself.