So April wasn't the best month, which probably explains my totally, not fake entry that I just so happened to post at the literal last minute of April so as not to ruin my "one post a month" streak.
To be quite honest, April sucked.
On April 11, we made the heart-wrenching decision for Elvira, one of our guinea pigs, to be put to sleep. She had lost nearly half her body weight, in spite of eating often, and was clearly not doing well. The vet believes she was suffering from either pneumonia or cancer, and after four previous unsuccessful rounds of different medications, we knew it was time. It was the most difficult decision we've ever had to make, but we knew it had to be done for her sake. We stayed with her the whole time, petting her and telling her how much we loved her. The other three guinea pigs seem to be okay; luckily, they have each other, although there are occasional times where a guinea pig will grieve severely to the point where medical intervention is needed. Early the following week, we picked up her ashes in a beautiful box with her name inscribed on it, along with, to our surprise, a lock of her long hair that the vet or one of her assistants had cut off for us. Though we only had her for just over a year, we're immensely grateful for the time we got to spend with our lovely Mistress of Darkness.
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| Elvira Bellatrix 2015 - April 11, 2019 |
On April 15, the Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris caught fire. Some of you may wonder why this would affect me, but I was pretty devastated. Notre-Dame changed my life, though I've never seen it in person. Without it, I never would have met several amazing people, including my two best friends. The Disney movie, The Hunchback of Notre-Dame and the musical Notre-Dame de Paris would never have been made, and I never would have discovered the music of Bruno Pelletier. If I hadn't discovered his music, I never would have met Lauren and Kat, nor would I have started teaching myself French. If I hadn't met Lauren and Kat, I never would have gone to Truman, and if I hadn't fallen in love with French, I never would have gotten a Bachelor's degree in it. If I hadn't gotten my B.A., I never would have spent a year living in Montréal. Who knows what my life would be like if, in my senior year of high school, my art history teacher never talked about Gothic architecture and, in passing, mentioned Quasimodo sliding along the buttresses in the movie?
Notre-Dame came to symbolize so much for me. It truly did help to change and shape my life. So to see part of it go up in flames (and on the day Titanic sank, no less) was horrible. But I'm ecstatic that they'll rebuild. I'm glad it's not lost forever.
April 22 is also what would have been my brother Michael's 28th birthday. I was unable to go down to Georgia (nor have I been able to go down at all this year, actually), which made it even harder.
But good things happened, too. The final Avengers film, Endgame, came out and proved itself to be an absolutely amazing culmination of twenty-one (or is twenty-two?) films. I've seen it three times and I think it's safe to say I'm addicted. It's an incredible film.
On April 28, I finished the second novel of my series, The Way Back Home. With 111,645 words, it's longer than Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and, if printed as a paperback, would be about 450 pages or so. I've already started on the third novel, so I'm not quite sure what I'll do when I've finished that one.
In late April, early May, Theo flew (for the first time ever!) to Las Vegas to spend several days there at a conference for work. He had fun. I was jealous.
And later this week, I'll be flying up to Québec City to spend a long weekend with my lovely friend, Karen. It shall be magical.
