Dear Universe,
What a week! Finished my Star Wars paintings, celebrated Star Wars Day by catching a cold, got my exam admit card finally, and started kickboxing. My arms feel super cool. So I guess, we’ve got a lot to address:
Dear Star Wars day,
Why did you come so soon? Now I feel so purposeless. I know I should be studying instead but my mind keeps whizzing to every single painting that I could potentially paint ever.
Despite all that, I am so utterly grateful that I kicked my ass finally to committing to something daily. Even if it was just me that truly enjoyed those blissful two weeks and a half.
Also, I owe the composition of my “Master Skywalker” piece to my brother who is a Fine Arts graduate. If he wasn’t surfing reddit for those old school Mark Hamill pics, I would have never painted Luke Skywalker because I do think he’s quite a pansy. Turns out, that was one of my favorite ones I did.
Sincerely, a very satisfied, relieved and confused artist
Dear cold that keeps trying to sneak up on me,
I felt you on Wednesday morning, and I stopped you in your tracks right then and there. You could say: Gotcha!
If anyone is interested in what I do to get over a cold:
- Snag it when you feel it coming on. Your body is wired to react to its needs so when it’s there, you’ll know it’s there.
- In the earliest stages, have some mild over-the-counter type medication, like Crocin. Nothing over the top. Cough syrup here and there.
- If it’s a sore throat – all the colds I get start with a tingling in the throat – then make sure to breathe through your nose. This may sound weird but I got over a sore throat once just by breathing through my nose, not through my mouth. And generally, mouth-breathing tends to agitate the soreness.
- Also, brew yourself some ginger tea with honey and buy some ginger flavored cough drops. We get Vicks over here and I find that the ginger ones work wonders. The honey ones are probably the worst for me. My dad LOVES adding ginger to everything he cooks that, frankly I’m over ginger-based dishes. That one year we spent in Tokyo with mom and bro over in Delhi was a complete ginger overload. But I’m finding my exception with ginger tea and ginger candy.
- Get all the gooey stuff out in the morning and in the evening. Super gross and yet satisfying, like when you squeeze a pimple.
- Most importantly, stay active. I learned this from my brother, wise sage that he is. The worst thing that you can do with a fever is to lie around all day. Trust me, I wasted two weeks of my life lying around during a sickness when I had to do was get up. And yeah, if you have a cold in the summer, you’re likely to sweat like a waterfall even just walking around the house but you’ll get over your illness faster.
- Drink lots of water to counter the sweating.
So yeah. Kicked your ass.
Sincerely, not sick anymore
Dearest Constipation,
Yours Truly, Esther
Dear kickboxing workout videos,
I feel the force is growing in me. I feel my muscles turning into steel. Yes, that must be it for I am stiff everywhere and I walk funny.
I hope that you can be a gateway into an MMA future for me. Then I can finally live out my life-long dream of becoming a Power Ranger. They will finally pick me and I will have my own Zord.
Sincerely, Power Ranger in the making
Dear sexist dinner guest
It is not okay to say that you can hit anyone whether it’s a young lad or lass to do their work. It is not okay to say that it’s easier to send a young man to do stuff because you can hit them if they disobey. And it’s certainly not okay to say that it’s harder to send a young woman to do stuff because you can’t hit them. As much as you think you’re doing us a favor by implying that you’d never hit a woman, you’re very wrong. Why would you hit someone to begin with? That’s the worst incentive I can think of.
Go back to the 50s with your misogyny. Go back to the 1700s if you want so much to hit people to do your bidding.
Sincerely, I-can’t-even-believe-how-hard-I’m-rolling-my-eyes
Dear future dinner guests,
If you make any sort of intolerant comments, you know where the door is.
Sincerely, host who is trying to weed out the world one dinner guest at a time
And that’s that. Good day, Universe.