Mayday III: Return of the Javi

For English speakers only. Sorry, Spanish fellows!

At last, here is this year's Mayday. Good news and bad news... again. The good news is that I could spend time with the second half of my family, as usual. The bad news is that it has been a bit harder this month, due to an utterly unexpected herpes zoster on my body; it is basically chicken pox caused by low defenses due to stress and anxiety, which I happen to suffer from nowadays. Thankfully, it has been treated and is now a few marks from the past. Nevertheless, it signified a drastic change of plans.

At first, my father, my stepmother Zenia, my little brother Nacho and I were going to celebrate the latter's 4th birthday with a few more relatives (presumably some of my uncles, aunts and cousins). Sadly, the "rash" ruined the party, and talking my father into letting me join in was not easy at all because of his ill health and Nacho's young age. Emphasis on "sadly": I burst into tears. I hate it when my plans do not work out. I kind of believe in miracles, though, and my father changed his mind at the last minute. We went to eat out together, albeit without the extra relatives. It was better than nothing.

In other words... No meddling kids kept me from getting away with it. Even Zenia was lucky to get a day off to be with her youngest son. My big sister Teresa could not get away with it, though; she did have to work.

Coincidentally, on the exact same day when I got the "rash" (from last month, to be more specific), a little girl was born.

Growing up, I desired to become an uncle. Years later, I took it back, because it is the kind of thing that kids wish for. However, just like nobody, including my father, had expected the latter to have another child many years after my birth, I had never expected to become a stepuncle. My big stepsister Wendy, who is about one year older than me, gave birth to the person who would become my stepniece, along with her husband, whom she married last year.

And so, my father kind of became a grandfather... and Zenia became a grandmother without even being middle aged. This is Cuba that we are talking about. Not much else can be told about this, except the newborn's name and birthdate: Vanessa Hernández León, born 27 April 2023.

This goes for you, furry fandom.

To those who do not know about it, it consists of people who are big fans of animals, particularly anthropomorphic animals or similar creatures, thanks to any source which (heavily) features them. Their fondness for these living beings makes them want to stop being humans for a while (or forever, depending on the person) and become the creatures that they desire to be. These people are referred to as "furries", and if they have animal personas, these can be referred to as "fursonas", no matter if they are animals with or without fur (although, people with reptilian personas can be referred to as "scalies"). Said personas originate from works of fiction, but in real life, they can be represented with costumes known as "fursuits". Normally, these people disguise themselves as their own characters, but this does not always have to be true. Furry conventions are held for social gatherings.

In spite of me having my own persona, Thomas "Tommy" Catson, I do not consider myself a furry. I have been part of the fandom for over 7 years (since the creation of my persona with the aid of my close friend Álvaro) because cartoon animals are fun, but I do not consider myself as such. We are just one and the same, and I must thank my astrological sign, Gemini, for making this possible. Fun fact: "Thomas" means "twin"; guess what represents Gemini.

Anyways, there was this one time when I came across a red fox while I was walking with my best friend Jeffrey Preston. What did we do? Chase the Red Fox.

Yes, siree, I am very punny. I just love a good pun. The name of the artist whom I commissioned to work on the following drawing for my 23rd birthday, really is Chase the Red Fox (or Chase Reynard, as he is referred to in his own work of fiction). Did you spot a pin on the first picture of the previous entry? That was him. Chase is a furry streamer with whom I have a lot of fun. Not only does he draw, but he also plays video games. Thanks to him, I have made many friends. Some of these friends even enjoy reading my puns and stuff (I hope one of them will get these single segments of speech). Nonetheless, that does not mean that it is all fun and games; Chase takes everything very seriously for the sake of his community, which he refers to as the Fox Fam ("Fam" being short for "Family"). I am glad that he is understanding and easy to get along with at least.

And since we are both fans of Sonic the Hedgehog, I asked him to design a background reminiscent of the Japanese covers of Classic Sonic games. No points for guessing which one this background was based on. As a result, his name was made into a visual pun. A literal game. Thanks, Chase!

Make sure to Chase the Red Fox!

At some weekends, when my father feels like doing something with me, he takes Nacho with him and picks me up, and we go to the same restaurant to have lunch. He orders a calzone, Nacho orders some croquettes, and I order open sandwiches, a pizza and ice cream bonbons (and eat some of Nacho's croquettes if he leaves them over). Yes, I eat like I am actually two people (remember what I said a few paragraphs ago).

And yet, last time we went there, Nacho was very hungry.

After lunch, I went to their house to set up a Wii that my uncle Ángel gifted them. We spent a fair amount of time playing together, though Nacho has yet to understand how video games work.

My father is going through the same experiences that he has lived with me and Teresa. First, we played on the Nintendo 64; later on, we would play on the Wii. Now it is time for him to play games with Nacho.

Hi, Keri. You know I cannot forget about you, right? In fact, the last two pictures were taken on your birthday.

Once again, here is my little fellow Poncho sticking his tongue out à la Rolling Stones. He turned 11 years old on the same day as Nacho.

And this has been this year's May. With this, I finished writing a whole trilogy; I will not focus on this series of entries anymore. I hope you have enjoyed it.

That is all!