Doll-repair success Actually had good luck with the benzoyl peroxide treatment this time around, and got highlighter off of a poor cabbie’s face. Last time I used it it didn’t make as much of a dent, but I tried something a little different this time and the highlighter marks came right off. So I’m gonna have to go back once I have some time during Christmas, and tackle a few stains once again.
Oh Christmas Tree My favorite part about Christmas has always been the lights- specifically at home that means turning the main lights off in the living room and just letting the glow from the tree softly light everything. It’s so wonderfully warm, and I feel like it soothes me more than just about anything.
No Quarantine Knock on wood…. we’ve had a few close calls, but even as the cases increase in our area we’ve been lucky enough to avoid being in a quarantine situation again.
Well, I kind of lost track of time again this week. Getting caught up on grading and such. But better late than never.
A Quiet Thanksgiving I must admit, I feel a little odd about having taken a week off from Thankful Thursday on the countries official Thankful Thursday, but I figured ’twas better to just relax. And relax I did. Normally I have family from Ohio that comes in, and, well… Covid. So that didn’t happen. It was a lot quieter than I’ve gotten used to. Just me and the hubby, and Mom and Dad. It was still nice though, just different.
My First Pumpkin Pie Normally, said family-from-Ohio brings in desert for Thanksgiving Dinner, including the pie. So, it fell to me to make one since my mom avoids pumpkin pie if at all possible. This way, I got to make it sugar-free, so I didn’t have to worry about a blood-sugar spike. And I think it turned out well. Between me and Dad, we certainly didn’t have any trouble with finishing them off this year, so I’ll count it as a success.
The Tree is Up A lot of times putting the tree up gets pushed off to the side, in favor of getting school work done. But this year we managed to get it put up and decorated this past week. I think I got holiday spirit kicked into gear by…
The first Snow of the Season As weird (and as warm) as this year has been, I was halfway expecting to not see snow until January, but we got a nice couple of inches. Not enough to be really dangerous, since it melted off the roads pretty quick, but enough to make everything nice and pretty and white for a day or so.
Success With my Phone I’ve been struggling to load my mp3s onto this sucker for the past few months. For some reason it just wouldn’t make a solid connection with my computer. I finally figured it out though, just in time to be able to put on my holiday music. Hopefully it wasn’t a one-time thing.
So this has been a ‘I’m not blogging right now’ week, evidently. It’s been a weird one all around, with a massive amount of quarantines at school, and subsequently distance learning going back into affect, and needless to say my mental energy has been elsewhere. More on that in a minute. I really did want to do this at least however, even if it was a little off, timing-wise. So, here we go with my thankful list for this weird-ass week.
Cabbage Patch Girl I haven’t been out all that lately (going back to the whole covid ramping up thing), but I did take one trip out this past weekend and had a bit of luck. I was prowling around a venders mall and found a cute little cabby in pretty good shape. The elastic on her dress is worn out and I’ll have to fix her toes on one foot, but she’s adorable, with a brown yarn ponytail (yes, she’s a Coleco) and brown eyes. I’ve got her all cleaned up now, drying in my bathroom and waiting to be named.
Weird Little Cookbook At the same place that I got the little cabby girl I found a really weird cookbook- so of course I got it. Weird cookbooks are totally my thing. It was printed by an army/navy wives organization called Jango and almost all of the recipes were originally hand-written by their contributors before being printed.
Of course, this makes a few of the recipes rather difficult to decipher, but I’ve never seen another recipe book quite like it so it’s worth it.
Another Completed Draft! Yeah, this is the reason for my blog going quiet this week. My brain decided to latch onto the last rough patches of my book and just ram the final edits in- draining all my creative energy and keeping me up at insane hours at the same time. All of this took place over the period of a couple of days in, essentially, three marathon sessions, and I think I’m only just now recovered mentally. It was a rush, that’s for sure.
New Music This is probably in no way surprising to see here. Finding new music always makes me happy. I’ve found, through the years, that the right song sets my writing off like nothing else. Sure enough, “Meet me in the Wood” by Lord Huron fueled a lot of the creative surge this weekend.
Of course, I’m still drifting around in the Good Omens fandom at the moment, and I found a song inspired by the show and it’s so absolutely pretty and sweet and the writer/performer is so talented and great. Come With Me by Chxlotte is turning into one of my faves and the other stuff I can find by her is is wonderfully good too. I just wish she had more out there.
Old Gods of Appalachia Of course, that’s not all I’m listening to. It’s not every day one finds an Appalachian cosmic horror audio drama, but I ran along Old Gods of Appalachia and holy cow is it good. It’s created by Appalachians so it has this weird verisimilitude- it feels Appalachian, which, let me tell you, isn’t always something you find when it comes to stories set here. I’m not very far in at the moment, but I’ve enjoyed every minute of what I’ve listened to.
Hot Tea It’s late fall, and my classroom has been like an iceblock this week because the heat doesn’t work for some reason, so a hot cup of tea has been a welcome warm-up at home. It was never as much a thing in my family. Iced sweet tea was almost always in the fridge during the summer, but we never had an abundance of earl gray or such sitting around at home. I found out, this week, though, that my Mamaw was a hot tea fan- though she didn’t usually drink it since everyone else was drinking coffee. Now, every time I brew up a cup of tea I feel a bit of connection to her.
So, it’s been a week, in that it has literally been a week since the last Thankful Thursday post, and the fact that this week has been one of those weeks, if you get my drift. Not gonna sound quite so cheery today, but it is what it is. Some weeks are easier, or harder, than others, but there’ll always be silver linings and little spots of sun- it’s just sometimes more difficult to find them. Regardless…
It’s Thursday- Week’s almost done. Despite what I just said it’s honestly not been a bad week. Not great, but not bad. There honestly hasn’t been much, outside of my own head, to complain about for the majority of the time; mostly just a bunch of bad brain days pushed on top of each other. That hasn’t made that time any easier. I’m very happy to have the weekend within reach.
Fanfic Authors- Lately, I haven’t had the energy to do much by the time I get home- reading being the exception. And I’m not going to spend that valuable resource by pushing my way through Dune. I need the written equivalent of comfort food. Thank god for fanfic writers because I swear there have been a few fics this week that have saved my sanity.
McDonalds- Say what you will about the place, its an easy dinner, that let’s me not think. Decision fatigue’s been bad this week, so it’s nice to just pull through, order a chicken sandwich and be done with it.
The Election is Over! – With the exception of the inevitable recounts, the hellishness that was waiting for the results to be declared is finished and we can move on with our lives.
Library time- We’ve been doing research in the library this week. I love research days. They’re chaotic and a lot of times I feel like I’m running all over the place and it’s exhausting, but I love helping students find their info and put order to their thoughts.
Writing progress! I’m one chapter (and a bit) away from finishing this draft of my book, and I’m so much happier with it now, but I’m happy to be able to hand it back over to my beta readers. I’m really looking forward to seeing what they make of my changes.
New EP from Bring me the Horizon Post Human: Survival Horror– what a name for an EP. I found it on election day and it’s felt rather fitting- synced right up with my headspace. Sometimes you just feel like screaming.
The Penumbra Podcast I’m up to date on The Magnus Archives and Nightvale, but I had The Penumbra Podcast lined up- still warming up to their style of standalone eps (I’m more of a connected narrative person) but I’m really enjoying Juno Steel so far.
The bared outlines of mountains As much as I miss the color of summer, there’s something cool about the hidden shapes being revealed once the leaves start coming down. Exposed curves and lines and structures coming into view for the first time in almost six months.
Crisp air There’s something special about those first cold breaths you take in autumn- cold enough to still be jacket-comfortable but chill enough to wake you up a little. The first time your breath appears in white puffs, imagined dragon smoke racing from between your lips.
Familiar stories I’m still creeping through Good Omens at the moment. I’m enjoying it more this time around than I have in a while. Perhaps more so than when I first blazed through it.
Still not quite over the bug from last week, but I’m still trucking- or at doing me best to at least. Here’s the things that have made life doable since last Thursday.
No Covid I officially got tested before letting myself out in the public again and the bug I had last week was just that. A nasty bug. Probably a head-cold gone bad. I’ve been a little tired this week, but it’s most loosened its grips on me. The cough’ll hang on until the middle of next month, but that’s cough-variant asthma for you sometimes.
Jack-O-Lanterns Finally got the chance to carve jack-o-lanterns. I never did get to decorate properly for Halloween due to coming down with a bug right at the beginning of Fall Break, But I’m fairly happy with the jack-o-lanterns me and the hubby carved this year. And at least this way they’ll look fresh for Halloween proper- rather than nearly falling into on themselves like they’ve done in some years in the past when it was an overly warm October.
My Ballot is Cast Voting was easy, and I was able to get it done without much fuss. Even in a small rural area, I at least have to stand in line for a few minutes, but that wasn’t an issue. I was in and out within ten minutes all said.
Back into the Swing of Things I think I’m slowly finding my groove again, with the whole long-term sub thing. The first week was rocky, for several reasons, but I’m starting to feel like I’ve got my feet under me again, at least some of the time.
Fast FoodFrench Fries Granted, as previously said, I’m still tired. Especially with the whole recovering from the crud thing. So grabbing something through the drive-thru for dinner tonight was a relief. I swear, fast food fries never taste so good as when you’ve given up on having any maintainable level of energy.
Well, this has been a week. A rather exhausting one. I don’t have much energy for writing today, and I’m not about to go into the whys, but I wanted to put this together anyway.
Fall Break Thankfully, I’ve had some time to recover from all the not-good this week. It’s fall break and it’s been nice to have a bit of an escape.
I Passed There’s nothing like getting a good score on a test- especially when you’ve been waiting on the results for over a month. It was an English Praxis test- my subject area, so I wasn’t too concerned overall- still it’s nice to not have that hanging over my head.
Good Omens Finally, a year after its release, I’m watching the show and it’s so good! I always forget how much I love that story, until I get back into it again, though typically before now that just meant rereading the novel.
The Velvet Underground I love finding new music- something that shouldn’t be too unexpected if you’ve read these posts of mine before. And thanks to a post from Neil Gaiman I’ve found myself diving into the work from a rock band I’d never paid much mind to before.
Old Horror Movies I’ve been indulging in some older stuff- 70s and back, and I really appreciate the lack of jump scares and gore. The atmosphere and set up is what I really like- the creeping sense of wrongness. That sense of foreboding and rising paranoia. I’m thinking it’s the same reason I enjoy horror podcasts so much.
And Thursday rolls around again. It’s been an eventful week, to say the least, and my brain feels vaguely like cotton candy right now, so let’s just start before my brain shuts down on me completely due to lack of sleep.
One More Chapter Down On the book front, I finished the edits on another chapter, and I’m actually pretty happy with it. I finally feel like the end of this round of revisions is within sight. Of course, my progress might be a little stuttery again for the next bit.
Sub work Why, you may ask? And also, why am I so tired? Well, I managed to get a longer-term subbing job. I try not to mention work too much, It has a way of taking over my brain if I let it, and I need a space where I can completely shut it out, but I’m happy for the stable-ish in-the-same-room-every-day experience.And knowing that I’ll have a job for the day. I swear, sometimes waiting around in the morning, waiting for a phone call, is one of the worst parts of subbing.
Frozen Pizza Of course, with long-term subbing comes a lot of exhaustion. And it is for that reason that I am very thankful for frozen pizza. Dinner in fifteen minutes, and I don’t have to stand over the stove. Can’t beat that.
My Best Friend Because when the stress inevitably gets the better of me she’s one of the only people who can get my brain to shut up and quit being such a jerk.
New music Another thing that keeps me sane. Good music. I haven’t had much of a chance to listen to the rest of Talkie’s stuff yet, but “Fuzzy Disco” was the ‘weather’ on a Nightvale episode, and I’ve had it on repeat since I heard it early this week.
Ah, it’s been a good week overall, with lots of little changes in the air. Lots of chaos in general… that’s kind of the world right now… a whirling ball of chaos… but at least a bit of it was good on my end. I’m trying to stay positive right now.
Dreams I’m finally starting to be able to remember them again. For some reason they’ve been a hazy mess for the past few months, which was annoying, since I get some of my weirdest writing ideas from my dreams, and I love weird. For the last week or so though I’ve actually managed to remember them with some clarity. Crossing my fingers that that’ll continue and also won’t drift into the darker side of dreams since….
Halloween Season has begun! Not that I have to have an excuse to indulge in the spookier side of things, but I love Halloween so much! I pulled my decorations out of storage yesterday and spent a bit of today starting the house’s transformation.
Fall colors Mother nature’s doing some transforming of her own. The colors are starting to noticeably shift from green to yellow and orange now. I had to take a lengthy trip for some routine car maintenance and it gave me the chance to see how much fall has started to take hold.
Bingeable Podcasts As nice as the foliage was, it still didn’t make the trip seem any less long. But the podcasts I loaded to my phone did! I’m almost caught up on Welcome to Nightvale and I got in a few minutes of the Penumbra Podcast– don’t know if it’ll be my next driving-to-work distraction, but it sounds interesting so far.
Stories! Continuing on with that theme, a lot of stories that I follow were updated and/or completed this week. Plus I discovered that Peacock has at least some of Elvira’s Movie Macabre. Bad horror movies just in time for spooky season.
Chapter Complete! I finished the last of the add-on chapters for the book I’m writing. Well, the rough version at least. I’ve still got to go through some revisions, but writing the new parts and trying to make sure they fit with the flow of the story has been an absolute nightmare. One of the worst blocks I’d had in a while. The story’s much better for it, I think, but still. I’m so glad to have that part of the process finished.
Thrifting So like the cautious people we are, me and my mom have been staying away from unnecessary trips out. We hadn’t made a joint thrifting trip in what feels like forever. Well, we finally decided to mask up and go hit a few places, since we had to go out anyway, and it felt really good to get out with her for a while. I must admit, it was a bit of a weird day… I’ve never experienced quite that level of chaos at a goodwill before… but it was still awesome. Would’ve been great even if we hadn’t found anything, but I came away with some goodies.
Cookbooks Yes, I got more cookbooks. Did I need them, no. But they’re old and pretty and I love them, so there. They’re undergoing quarantine right now, but I’m looking forward to pulling them out this weekend.
An Easy Read I’d really hit a bit of a snag in my reading lately. The past few books I’ve tried to get through have been such a slog- just books that I can’t get into. it’s been like three in a row, and I still haven’t finished the one. Normally I’d call it quits, but it’s a sci-fi ‘classic’ so the english major in me feels weirdly obligated. Anyway though, I finally picked up a book I’m enjoying and it’s such a relief! Well written and creepy as heck so a good start for October.
Critical Role I can’t say anything. I won’t say anything, but holy cow this week has been wild.
Hanging by a Plot Thread 