Henry's Emporium of Wonders

Making the internet normal again, one post at a time.

Tag: family

  • Chow Chows

    When I was in my last year of college, I had gotten a black pug named Frank. I loved Frank so much. I had worked triple shifts to afford him. lol. He was with me for 2 years but then I joined the Navy. While I was on deployment he ran away. 😦

    A few months later I started dating this weird Russian guy. IDK I was just like lonely in a new town and looking for companionship. He was kind of weird, he had gone to jail before for counterfeiting, and he liked going to raves. He was really nice though. We had some good times, but he was just kind of unstable. Anyways, he had gotten me a replacement Frank. I liked the new frank, but he didn’t have like a completely back coat, he looked faded. I don’t know if that makes sense. There’s a stray cat who goes into our yard who is grey but has random patches of this weird orange color. It looks like she was bleached. That’s kind of how new Frank was.

    We wound up breaking up after a few months because he was just like too weird for me. Like I’m weird, but I’m stable and always gainfully employed, but he was just weird. I was also resentful because he came from this great family, his mom was SO NICE! She was a psychiatrist, taught herself how to paint, and was teaching herself French at the time. I was so jealous. I would think about where would I have been, if I had that kind of support from the get go, compared to what I had to go through. IDK but that’s also part of the reason we broke up. I just couldn’t relate with him well.

    Anyways, he wound up taking Frank back with him when we broke up. 😦 Secretly I was kind of okay with it because new Frank wasn’t like old Frank. He later drowned in my ex’s mom’s pool. 😦

    For my birthday that year my brother decided to get me a new puppy. We had went to a puppy store in National City. They had such dogs! There was this super cute white chow chow puppy named Elsa. I knew she was the one. When we inquired as to the price–THREE THOUSAND DOLLARS–we noped right out of there. They were talking about financing a dog. FINANCING?! Like financing for a car, but for a dog!! That’s too crazy. We jumped on craigslist and found a breeder selling Chow Chows for 300 a pup in LA.

    We went to see the puppies and Henry was the first one to come up to me. I had always seen my self as a boy dog mom, and Henry is a girl, but I had my heart set on the name Henry. Her name also serves as a litmus test for people I meet. If they don’t get how words are just sounds we attach meanings to and aren’t intrinsic to the physical material that makes up a person or thing, then we probably won’t get along. Alot of people say, “Oh, you are confusing her”, “What if she becomes gay?” It’s like first of all that makes no sense becuase that’s not how any of that works, and also BECAUSE SHE IS A DOG. Dogs don’t know English, they just know what we teach them. Words don’t have bearing on a person/animal’s sexuality, as that is just something they are born as.

    So, that’s another reason why I enjoy having Henry around. Not just for her beautiful face, but her beautiful soul.

  • Gaming as a Parent

    My husband and I used to game a lot before we came parents. Our favorite game to play together was Conan Exiles. It was just a lot of grinding, but we had fun. After we first had our son, that gaming time was practically nonexistent. Well, apart from when I got hooked on Stardew Valley, I would play it while my son napped.

    Recently I started playing Genshin Impact. It’s a really fun game, I still can’t believe it’s free. There are gacha elements for you to spend money on it, but I’m cheap and am just free to play. I feel guilty about playing. I maybe spend like an hour to game, but during that time my son is always pestering me. I set up activities for him to do, but he would rather bother me. I spend quality time with him earlier in the day. After work I typically take him outside or to the pool to play where we have quality one on one time. I guess it just makes me feel guilty. Like I should be spending more time with him, but I literally spend all day with him (I work remotely), and spend 2-3 hours of quality time with him everyday. Is it that bad that I want to game for 1 hour? I only get like one hour to myself everyday. 1/24 what is that? Like 4% of my day spent on something I enjoy. I know logically it is okay to take some time for myself, but I feel so guilty about it.

    My husband on the other hand….he’s something else. He can play for hours a day and not feel bad about it. I am the main care taker for our son, I want to be an involved parent, he doesn’t care about that until our son gets older. It’s kind of annoying, but kids can pick up on who is invested and who isn’t. If that’s the kind of relationship he wants with our son then I guess that’s what he wants. I on the other hand will continue to mentally torture myself into thinking I don’t do enough. I will however will save at least 30 min of my day to play Genshin Impact…maybe more on the weekend.