#the glorious life of a cartoonist
I spent a couple of hours in the woods today. So nice that spring is finally here again! The Mayday trees (they are also called bird-cherry trees) had not started blooming yet, but there were lots of wood anemones and marsh-marigold. And lots of birds, but they are unfortunately not so easy to capture on photos. I even saw a bullfinch, which I think was the first time I saw one outside of people’s gardens.
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Despite my love of black clothes, I decided to dress in bright colors for today’s Easter dinner with the family (it’s an old dress from the 1970′s, I believe).
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I think this is the first time I have my own påskris (“Easter twigs”). My family always used to have one when I was a kid since it’s a popular part of the Swedish Easter festivities. Påskris are birch twigs that are decorated and put in water so they will burst into leaf in time for Easter. I’ve read that they originally maybe were supposed to symbolize the palm leaves that were scattered before Jesus as he entered Jerusalem, but nowadays it’s just a way of adding color and greenery to your home in a time of the year that still is very grey. I’m not religious in any way, so that’s what it is for me anyway.
When I was a kid me and my friends also used to dress up as Easter witches on the Thursday before Easter. It goes back to the legends about witches flying to Blåkulla on brooms on that very day, to party with the Devil and his demons. We would go from house to house, sing songs and give people our home-made Easter cards in return for some candy or a few coins. The photo above is of me and some of my younger siblings dressed up as Easter witches in the late 1980′s.
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I realized yesterday it was on Friday this week, not next week, that my friend comes here again and stays for about a week. So now I have two days to clean the apartment, do the laundry, and try to finish the next comic page. And remember to cook and eat (I know that I don’t really have to finish the next comic page, but I WANT to!).
At least I have more normal sleeping- and eating habits this time.
I started a new internship last week at a second hand store in my town. They take in a lot of people with various disabilities and also immigrants who need to practise their Swedish. It seems like a good place, the people there are very friendly, and it’s nice to have some routines. I’m only working there two hours a day for a start, but the idea is to eventually be on half-time.
(I’m definitely not looking for a full-time job, because that would be the death of my career as a comics artist. I’ve also heard that people on the autism spectrum more easily burn themselves out, since they usually need more time to recover from stress, so they shouldn’t really have full-time jobs. I’m sure it varies from person to person, but I feel it’s quite true for me at least.)
Anyway, I’m glad to have some healthier routines, but since my body hasn’t quite adjusted to it yet, I’m feeling more tired than usual. So the drawing goes a bit slower. ^^
