"In a battle between brain and heart, always listen to your stomach"
- unknown

August was really August. It almost felt like being back to the days we danced in the rain. In August it seemed like the world decided on a theme and it was babies. Off the top of my head, 6 people (or more) gave birth. There are some of you that will say, "but people give birth everyday"; Yes, I'm aware 🙄 but people I know don't give birth everyday. So in August, Storks came knocking closer to me.

August started out quite slow with some plans for SCA Minna and a few postcards from friends that travelled. I had a moment of nostalgia when I remembered waptrick but apparently it's now a shady site and not worth the attention. I'm still trying to remember the name of the book that led me to werewolf novels that year, eventually pushing me to Wattpad. My tiny java phone was a true companion like no other. I still have it somewhere tucked in some junk.

Moving on, I slid back into my random community work with kids and had a fun time with some kids from a school I can't remember right now but they were a huge improvement from the other guys where I was essentially doing ingausa (mixing hausa and english). These guys were quick to grasp concepts and situations. While this was going on, we received news that my sister's surgery date was moved forward. We had to frantically start prepping for a trip to Minna. Packing was the least stressful part, we had to go to the market (which in case some of you don't know, I dislike) so double ish. On the 10th my grandpa celebrated his 97th birthday then we left for Minna on the 11th and on the 12th of August, 2025, a new dessert was dropped and she shall be called "Pudding" and yes I have a niece now and you all are not ready 😌. She's 3 weeks old now and google photos will probably suggest a folder soon because I already have so many pictures. That's a spoiled kid in the making and I'll definitely contribute to 80% of that.

Minna was half fun and half stressful. We had to do hospital runs and then I'd still go back to work and project and conference papers and all that. Also AI checkers will be the bane of my existence because why are you flagging words like "leverages" 🤌🏾. So it was no wonder I fell ill. I came down with a cold that left me weak with blocked nostrils but I still had to keep up with my tasks because my leave was not approved yet and they were taking their sweet time. Actually it never got approved on erp for some reason but at least I got permission to go and that's all that matters. School work didn't take a rest though and kept on going as I tried my best. it got better after taking some drugs but it took almost 3 weeks for me to feel normal again. Getting back to Suleja, I had two days of tutoring left and then we began prepping for a bootcamp that's happening in a few days (That will come in the September entry). I realise I only told you about the stress of Minna but the fun part was catching up with family and seeing my grandparents and just goofing around remembering the days where pre-school was just staying with the grandparents until our parents got off work.

I had been toying with the idea of picking up my daily journal again and a stroll down the streets of youtube made me get more interest in making it fun with doodles and since I'm writing this in September, I can proudly say I have a 4 day streak of random ugly doodles and daily updates in my not so aesthetic handwriting but chaos is in itself another form of aesthetic. Talking about youtube, those cliche videos have taken over my life at this point. I enjoy them so much 😂.

Did I tell you a friend is getting married in October? Well, she is and I have officially entered my social butterfly season because after this will be devfest. Well “anko” is here and we have completed the style selecting phase. Also random but I pleasantly found an old manhwa I was reading that stopped and I have caught up again. It reminds me of my early manhwa reading days but it's still a great story so I will keep reading and see how it goes.

For someone that thought I wouldn't have a lot to say, I have written quite a bit. Oh, I got two new species of mint from Minna and I have ordered new pots to officially start my backyard garden in full swing. Okay Okay that's it except for maybe forgetting to mention that I have still not completed my pending book and I have a book review to go for on sunday and I haven't read the book we are reviewing. Alright, I'm really done now 😁.

August was a really cold month filled with rains and being indoors but the rain also brought babies and a lot of musing hours making it feel perfectly like a MONTH OF JOY IN GREY.