Waking up this morning to a loud thunder strike, and the pitter-patter of rain on my roof and I'm reflecting about how special yesterday was. Also what joy means to me- (you might not be ready for the longest run-on sentence of this Monday). Joy is getting to zine fest on a quiet rattling bus and keeping track of my breath, walking over and feeling this rush of excitement to see the most wonderful people, finding out you get to sit next to all your favorite artist, giving special brooches I made for Daisy, Rhea, and Kenzo (lazf organizers), feeling inspired by Carolinas nieces zine making, seeing Jasper trade his first zine for all cat zines, hugging Carolina(duh), Elises gifted ladder pin that says "getting there", looking over at kyles table and he's selling like a boss, seeing Jason and catching up and giving him a really long hug for strength, hooking up my guy Myke with a "sensitive boys gang" brooch and making him the president, picking up zines from chickchawpress, seeing Ellen's table setup and telephone zine and freaking out, waving at people I've never met, saying hi to Lora and picking up real life printed treasure, seeing the unity press boys and afterwards directing everyone I know to their table, seeing Kevin and giving him a tote bag and a hi-five, seeing traveling Kevin and feeling the kindness emanate and picking up some sweet skate zines, finding out Grace brought zines to trade and feeling so lucky, Rob Brown risograph masterpieces, sitting next to Fin and experiencing their first zine fest and watching them kick so much butt, seeing miles, witnessing the support of my little not so little cousin Ronald and Serena (thank you), seeing all the video game inspired zines Thomas picked up, giving my entire zine collection to my sister Jenny, getting more science zines from Two Photon, meeting Patrick Gibson and friends and collectively freaking out and sharing skateboard stories, meeting Sharada and getting a precious zine about "how to take up space", getting a bird Keychain from Daisy, seeing a ton of dogs especially that black and white dog on that humyns shoulders, having an art piece in the gallery upstairs, anticipating a hug from trent, getting that hug and giving him a brooch that says "gentle trent", receiving the most meaningful and beautiful print from Jess and wanting to cry, meeting so many damn people, picking up a Sergio Terans zine of his relief prints, trading for the most beautiful print of a girl taking a poop selfie, mopping up coconut juice (really enjoyed that for some reason), sharing the most delicious poptart from the most special person/artist Morgan and proceeding to share that fucking poptart cause it was out of this world, hearing Cheynes laugh, witnessing people support zines and makers, seeing Erik and just vibing on the long lost vibes and joy of seeing each other, xavier tabling for me so I could squeeze through the madness to pick up treasure, talking to Chase about balance and dogs, hugging Rhea at the door and thanking her for the most magical zine fest, and riding the bus home with my best friend feeling so much unbelievable support, care, and love from the entire day from people I knew and people I just met. Thank you LA zine fest for making this space real and nurturing an environment where this much amount of joy can exist, and thank you for everyone that supported me and my work whether it was a trade, hand wave, hug, or sale. If you read this entire thing I love you, lets go for a walk and have a potluck.
