Zombies!

Hello to any who might still check this blog. I am still alive, though suffering a flare up of an existing, exhausting condition. It’s been over a week of not being able to work and getting very little done. It’s demoralizing. Anyway, I am looking ahead and hoping next weekend will see enough of an improvement that I can run my zombie workshop at the library. I don’t think I’ve shared many of my zombies, probably should have checked before posting but this headache means I am not going to so, here are some of the little blighters.

I like the green ones best and I like the little guy in overalls w/ the yellow shirt the very best. His name is Slurpie and I love him. I’m realizing that I need to pay more attention to the goofy gore and make sure all my zombies actually have some zombie features beyond just the eyes. Some of them don’t obviously look like zombies and that is a shame.

I’ve also made, using the basic zombie template, Drizzt for my husband’s birthday.

just forget the world…

I’ve done all I can and I need a break from stress and worry so I’m here to talk about things that are bringing me joy in some way, things that take me out of myself and distract me, all that sort of stuff. So, onto that! First things first: Books. They are my sanctuary, my education, my consolation, and my many, many other lives.

Current/Recent Reads:

The Ballad of Black Tom; by Victor LaValle (fantastic mythos-related story)
Adventures in Opting Out; by Cait Flanders
Disfigured; On Fairy Tales, Disability, and Making Space; by Amanda LeDuc
The Library of the Unwritten; by A.J. Hackwith
The Only Good Indians; by Stephen Graham Jones
Dirt to Soil; by Gabe Brown
A Deadly Education; by Naomi Novik (The latest Fantastic Stangelings Bookclub read)
Beowulf; by Maria Dahvana Headley
A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet; by Becky Chambers

There are other books, of course, but these are all the ones seriously in the flow at the moment. Other wonderful things I like to fill up my senses with: Shows!

Community. (Hulu & Netflix) My current comfort watch. Brilliant show with a ton of laughs and lots of heart.
The Haunting of Bly Manor. (Netflix) Pure gold so far. Atmospheric, subtle horror, perfect storytelling. I think I’m on episode #5 and I am having such fun. As always, my brain is whirring on ahead of the story making guesses and trying to expose the whole picture. I spotted a few things before they were revealed but, wow, there is so much here to unpack and it is glorious.
Liziqi. (YouTube) My ultimate escape from my own reality mixed with my ultimate life goals. Somehow relaxing and inspiring at the same time.
Good Omens. (Amazon Prime) We’re on our own side. Perfect.
Vienna Blood. (Dvd from the library) Very cool, entertaining, a bit like a Sherlock Holmes homage. Victorian Vienna. Hitting a bit close to reality with the superior race nonsense but a good crime procedural with interesting characters. Some absolutely stunning voices among the cast; loads of deep gravel in varying flavors. Particularly the lead detective and his rival. (I’m a sucker for a really good voice)
Shetland. (Dvds from library) Love, love, love this. I love the way this show is paced, the slow unraveling of the clues, the deep sense of Place. The landscape as another ever-present character. I have sadly finished all the available seasons of this and…
Vera. (Dvds) The same author wrote the books this series and the series Shetland are based on. Brilliant TV, just brilliant.
Videos of babies laughing hysterically, goofy pets, etc.

There are many more shows I could list that are excellent distractions but these are the ones I’m currently living inside. I’m also playing RPGs, of course. I am currently playing in; Hell’s Rebels (Pathfinder) on most Tuesdays, Azartia (a friend’s homebrew D&D) on Thursdays, and Age of Ashes, (Pathfinder) on Sundays. I am also running; Extinction Curse, (Pathfinder) on Saturdays and The Slithering, (Pathfinder) randomly, and my hubby is running the teens from the library through Age of Ashes as well. I’m playing 2 Human Druids and one Gnome Bard multi-classing into Druid and experiencing whiplash between characters. My bard is level… 12? 14? Something, and in Pathfinder which is designed for characters to be heroic. She is a blast to play, and absolutely good time. My Pathfinder Druid is low level, fun but kind of a letdown after playing the high level bard. The D&D Druid is… fine. She has a few pretty great spells that are fun/effective but… D&D 5e is just, well, it’s awful. Simple to play? Try; Over simplified, broken, frustrating. Cat, my druid, is level 9 with a 15 AC… The champion in our party has only a 20 AC. We get hit constantly, just absolutely constantly. The game is just not on a heroic scale at all. It’s dumbed down to the point of, why am I playing this? But yeah, it’s a distraction for a a few hours a week and time spent with friends. There are a lot of laughs as we play. Many laughs come from failed saving throws.

Other:

Knitting: one big project for a present, over half done now. ^_^
Work: 2-3 shifts a week, busy, on my feet, frustrating with Covid restrictions but, hey, I love it anyway and I’m lucky to have a job at all.
Baking/cooking: my daily chore and sometimes creative outlet.
Macrame’. I just got supplies to start doing this. I’ve been wanting to try it for ages, since like the 70s. Just getting around to it!
Holiday planning: well underway, constantly on my mind, so much to do!
De-cluttering. On the back burner but always on my mind. I want to get the excess out of here and have a semi-orderly, uncrowded, welcoming home.
Writing. Blogging here, jotting down ideas that keep coming to me, writing for work, which is fun and cool that I get to write for work at all. It’s mostly instructions for craft kits I make up or promotional writing for said craft kits, but still.

Sigh, and now the world is calling, I’m afraid, and I must answer. Stay well, be safe, see you soon.

Banner photo credit: “Contemplation – Dartmoor, Devon” by Faborsky Photography is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Day 65…read, work, eat repeat!

I’m doing ok. My attempts to keep my work more separate seem to be working. My stress level is going down. I can tell because my heart isn’t racing all the time anymore, sometimes sure, but not all the time. Plus I can focus and READ again, much more than I was able to even a week ago. I finished The Serpent of Venice; by Christopher Moore, an awesome, quirky, book. Now I’m waiting for the next one to come out, Shakespeare for Squirrels. I preordered it with the gift card my sweet husband and kids gave me for Mother’s Day. Thanks you guys!!!! Currently reading Heroine Complex; by Sarah Kuhn

I worked most of today, well 4 hours, but I’m a beast about what I will count so it covered about 6 hours of the day because I take breaks to keep a little sanity, plus I get interrupted and have other things I’m supposed to do as well. I’m trying to learn about how to find and acquire grants for the library and learn more about best practices and that for Teen Services. My library wide Pet Month art gallery is being promoted on Facebook and such and hopefully we’ll get some submissions. The Pathfinder game is going well, we had 3 kids this past session and I think we can expect 4-5 at the next, which would be AWESOME. I have loads of ideas for online/virtual programs but I’m not sure which ones to pursue. I’m trying to populate May with a few activities and pull together a lot more for June & July. Summer Reading is going to be so weird this year.

With work done for the day I am now working on laundry and came up with a plan for dinner. Yay. Almost forgot to do that! We will be having grilled cheese sandwiches, some squash soup, a salad, and assorted leftovers as well. Tomorrow will be more coherent. I am currently ahead on grocery ordering and we’re set to get an order on Thursday. I view my instacart picks as suggestions or wishes at this point. I think I’m getting about 50% of the things I pick out, another 25% substitutions and about 20-25% is just not available in any form. Last week I did not get: Raspberry tea, flour, chocolate chips, baking powder, chicken thighs, or frozen chicken patties. They replaced whatever chips I’d tried to order with jalapeno chips, hilarious, and other substitutions were all brand substitutions … I think. I have been able to get toilet paper, no problem, I got maybe a 12 pack a couple of weeks ago. Oh, I also wasn’t able to get sanitizing wipes. Not a one to be had, apparently. Meat prices are climbing pretty hard now too. We’re just lucky to still be working at this point, as stressful as it is to be navigating working from home, I know I am damned lucky to be able to.

How are you all holding up? What are you doing to keep busy and distracted?

Holidays are Coming

2 days till Thanksgiving. 2 days until we are launched into the holiday season. I have a lot to do, of course, but I think it’s manageable. I’ll do some cooking and prep the night before and Thanksgiving day I’ll tackle the major cooking. I actually like it, spending the day in the kitchen with my son watching and rewatching Gordon’s video and telling me what to do next. I hate how fast dinner is over and all the cleaning but it’s still a nice day.

I’m almost done with the Yule/Xmas shopping. Just a few things to get and I can start wrapping and crafting. I’ll be making butterbeer lip balm and a few other things for stocking stuffers, no big projects on my radar so far. I just have to finish the Ravenclaw scarf and tassel the lot and I’ll be done crafting for the Harry Potter party at the library. I guess I still need to buy cream soda and all that for the butterbeer but that won’t take long. Easy. Doing some checking around for the last few items on my list today I found a CD of instrumental xmas music that is pretty cool. It’s super mellow and relaxing, I’m listening right now. https://www.awintersolstice.com/blank-q3t56 Here’s the album on YouTube in case any of you want to hear it: https://youtu.be/NCSAYm8QrRQ

I’ve been checking around for activities for the upcoming holiday season and there is a fair bit going on. There are some concerts, fairs, plays, etc that I hope to get to. I’ll miss some things due to work but the rest I just need to scrape myself up and GET TO.