Jackbird Lee

This has been a good weekend!

Yesterday, my sister and I started an Intro to Archery course at a local archery club. It was my sister's first time shooting, and basically mine as well (I did a little bit of archery at a day camp one summer when I was a kid). Since it was the first class of the course, most of the time was taken up with measuring us for equipment, reviewing safety, practicing our stance, etc. but we did get to shoot a total of nine arrows, and it was so much fun! I missed the target entirely a couple of times (to be fair, we were sharing targets, and I was lined up kind of off-center on mine) but I also got a bulls-eye on my final arrow for the day.

We've already signed up for the next series of classes after this one, to continue advancing. It's a little difficult for me, because I'm a naturally very shy person with strangers, and - understandably - the instructors expect you to show a certain amount of assertiveness, since this is a sport that involves firing a weapon. For the sake of safety, it's important that if you're participating, you also show an ability to speak up for yourself and make decisions independently. But the instructors in the course are really great - there were some younger people in the class as well who were also naturally shy, and the very straightforward way the instructors set their expectations with them was helpful for me as well. And it was just nice to be outside doing something that was both physically and mentally engaging.

Also, an interesting fact that arose during the first lesson: it turns out that my sister and I are both cross-dominant, meaning that our dominant eye and dominant hand are on opposite sides. We're both left-eye dominant and right-hand dominant. In cases like this, you basically just pick whether you want to shoot lefty or righty, and if it doesn't work out, you switch. They started my sister shooting lefty and me shooting righty, and it's working out well for both of us so far.

Today we had family dinner for Easter at our father's house. I made a couple of batches of cookies to bring - one batch of walnut chocolate chip cookies, and another batch of the same recipe but with butterscotch chips instead. They were very popular.

My sister and I also took the opportunity to walk our father and brother though the eye dominance test. Dad is right-dominant for both his hand and his eyes, and brother was cross-dominant in the same way that we are. We concluded that it was probable that mom was also cross-dominant and it was genetic. Also notable: apparently cross-dominance can make you predisposed to migraines, and me and my sister both have migraines, and so did mom.

The day went really well otherwise. My brother is doing really well, it's great to see him looking so healthy and engaged.

Between the busy weekend and some other things (I'm pushing through the final draft of Welcome to Dead Man's Creek right now) I'm a bit behind on the next chapter of Space Between Us; it might not come out until next weekend, although I'll try and see if I can get it up before then. But I'm giving myself some breathing room. Ultimately, SBU is more of an experiment for me than anything else - it's the first time I've ever tried to release anything on a chapter-by-chapter basis - and although I am absolutely determined to finish it, it's always going to be the first thing that gives when I'm tight on time.

Monthly words to date (April): 19,626
Annual words to date (2023): 124,507
Dinner tonight is: a handful of mozzarella sticks, plus mango-pear juice with aloe jelly chunks from our local boba tea place (more of a snack after that heavy Easter lunch!)