Hi! It’s me! Lily!!!

It’s tax day!!!

I don’t really have any taxes to file.  I mean I have some investments, and…  oh.  Well, I guess I do.  But the accountant took care of that, so there’s that.  We have our accountant do all the taxes now.  I did them for a while, but everything got too much for me to handle, so we pay someone to do that now.  Especially for the shop.

Taxes stink.  Especially when you think about what they use them for.

I’m still a little melancholy about the prom.  I don’t know why I get this way, but I do.  It’s everything in life just seems to exist to tell me how little power I have.  So many things happen to me that I have no control over, and even the stuff I do… it’s like I’m playing some otome game where there’s some sexy anime guy with sparkles, and I get to choose every now and then but then the game just kind of moves forward based on that choice and there’s little I can do between choices.  And sometimes the choices get made for me.  Maybe that’s how it is for everyone – you only get a few actual choices in life, and everything else is watching it play out – the same way you watch the scenery in front of you as the roller coaster crests that first hill…

I chose to go to Japan for school, and now that’s playing out.

Was that the right choice?

I think so.   I hope so.  I…  I don’t know.  I guess I won’t know until it’s played out and I’ll know in hindsight.

They say hindsight is 20/20.  And I don’t think they meant looking at butts.

Jack’s still sticking with me…  somehow.

Crystal found the rest of her bandmates.  They’re coming over so we can meet them.  I hope they’re not like drunk senpai from Bocchi (they’re high schoolers, so they’d better not).  She has a drummer, a bass guitarist, and she even found a keyboardist.  I guess keyboardists are a bit rare in rock bands, but I guess she got sold hard and, well, worse case she’s not needed.  But I saw k-on, and a keyboard can really add a lot if you use it right.  Beth’s going to keep doing vocals, though.  It’s not her first choice, but she loves Crystal, and she likes to sing, so she says there are far worse things she could be doing.

She’s probably right.

I guess it actually wasn’t a hard sell.  She just showed some videos of our last performance, and said that half the band decided to move on, and, well…  she’s good enough that they thought it might be fun.

Do I feel bad about that?  No.  Not at all.  It was the right choice.  I love Crystal too, but she has to stand on her own two feet.

Anathema and Joe set their date.  It’ll be before the baby comes, probably in a month or two.  I asked Anathema how she feels about getting married while she’s pregnant.  She said she’d of course have preferred to have her cat-girl body, but it is what it is, and she’d rather be married when she has the baby than to not.  She’s a little worried about if Joe will have to deploy at some point, but that comes with marrying into military, I guess.  For his part, Joe’s being very doting and attentive. He has the same “red line” I do, and it’s really frustrating Anathema, but even Anathema agrees it’s the right call.

Anathema has really changed.  Really, really changed.

She’s talking to us about leaving the shop, though.  Awww.

We’d be sad to see her go, but we understand.  She wants to focus on her studies, on her upcoming wedding/marriage, and someday getting a better job so she can help support her new family.  She’s still working for us for the time being, though, and she’s trained the other “maids” well.  It’ll all work out.  The “cat-girl money printer” has stopped printing money, but neither Sabby nor I ever really relied on that.  It was nice while it lasted, but we like Anathema better this way.

Anyway, that’s probably enough updates for now.

Isn’t my life weird?

I think it is.

Love you all!!! ❤️