So, it’s been several days since I posted, we’re all fine here, how are you?
I’ve been working, working on working, running games, playing in games, reading, cooking a lot, and plenty of other stuff.
My latest read: the 3rd book in the Demon series. So good so far!
Special note: last night, while gaming, exploring a vampire lair, a bat got into our bedroom and went unnoticed by all… except for Puddin’ the Wonder Dog, who perked right up and stared at the little thing until I took notice. Of course I start yelling; “OMG, A Bat!!! Help me, A Bat!” Stuff like that, and my husband is like; “We already killed all the bats, we’re fighting a vampire.” … … … ME: “NO, A REAL FUCKING BAT!!!” Points——> “Right fucking THERE!” And then much restraining of the dog, searching for something to throw over the bat, then running for leather gloves and a box, and finally: successful bat removal. Then returning to the game.
So, that was most of the excitement for yesterday. But I also learned how to make friendship bracelets! Yes, I know, like any 8 year old can do, but I am enjoying it. It’s one of the take home crafts I’ve put together in the hopes the teens will enjoy it. The stained glass craft and the fairy lantern craft have been well received. I’m working on a shadow puppet craft too. Lots of stuff to do.
My attempts so far: simple stripe, chevron, leaf pattern, & rainbow pride stripe.
I’ve been playing the Harry Potter game on my phone again for a few days. It encourages me to get outside and walk around which I really need to do. I’ve put on 5 pounds, all squishy and no muscle. Rude. It’s a freaking pandemic do I need to gain weight too? No. So I get out and fight Death Eaters and monsters, and return confundables or some such thing. It’s cute and play HP theme music at me. I like it. They keep adding to it and making it more interesting which is cool, plus special events and things.
Also, holy crap, you guys! One of the teens has submitted a story for the contest!!!!!!! YAY! Last year I had a Design a Cover contest and no one entered so this is making me very happy. ^_^
My sister sent me a present. It is so awesome! She’s gotten into pottery and she’s really good, selling stuff online and in a little shop or two near here. So exciting. Anyway, she’s making yarn bowls now and they are so cool! Here:
It’s blue with a branch opening and gorgeous green on the inside. So so lovely. She has cool stuff, check it out! https://hollypots.com/
It’s a weird week so far. My son dropped out of my Pathfinder game, for many reasons, including the fact that he’s in so many games he can’t keep his characters straight anymore, makes me sad.My Director let us know the library is opening in some capacity on August 1st which I find greatly disquieting. A coworker then questioned the need for all of us to stay 6 feet apart all the time, terrifying. On the plus side, I have 2 new players joining my game and that should be a lot of fun.
Side note: I woke up with no inspiration or motivation to bake this morning so there are no muffins. Alas. Perhaps, if it stays cool long enough, I will bake cookies or something later. It’s probably ok to take a day off now and then. Though there is value in habit and inertia is definitely a thing. If I don’t bake today will it be weeks or months until I get back to it? I hate to lose the momentum but I’m tired and stressed today. Probably partly the Benedryl, it does a number on me.
I’m reading Among the Fallen; by N. S. Dolkart now. I’ve barely started and it’s already lovely. I want to sink into it but I can’t seem to focus. My TBR (to be read) pile is just ridiculous and I’m expecting more books any day now. I’ve been watching movies more than I’ve been reading lately, I blame the Benedryl, thank you So Much, Allergies… I watched Rocketman, The Color out of Space, and Doctor Sleep. I actually enjoyed them all. Rocketman started out very surreal and continued to occasionally stray into a dreamlike quality, but it was compelling and the music was great. I thought all the acting was excellent and the story, at times, heartbreaking. The Color out of Space, a Nick Cage movie so my hopes were not high, but it ended up being quite a solid movie. There were odd moments, odd patches of dialog, typical “humans don’t talk like that” moments that happen in almost every horror film, but overall it was creepy and became atmospheric and deeply disturbing. I did get the feeling that there was probably a fair bit of film on the cutting room floor that would have brought the movie up to a higher level though. The hydrologist could have been a more fully-fleshed character if given a little more screen time and I feel like they cut some stuff they thought wouldn’t fly because of how people feel about certain animals. Definitely one of the best depictions of actual Lovecraftian horror I’ve seen and one of Nick Cages better movies. Doctor Sleep was my favorite of the 3 and a great film just flat out. Great acting, cool bad guys, I’d say it’s Stephen King at his best but I haven’t read the book yet so I’m not sure how true the rendition is. A great movie, see it, see all of them, they are all worth at least a few hours of your time.
The morning is slipping away from me. I should probably be cleaning something, or planning something, or, at the very least, be painting something or creating something. I need more time out in my fort to destress and unwind. Now that I work 2 nights a week and we’re still gaming 4xs/week, I feel like we’re always so busy. If I could drop a game I would but it isn’t looking like a very good option. I’ll have to find some other way to loosen up my schedule.
I’m a librarian, I read a lot, well, I read as much as I can in between all the other things I need to do, have to do, and like to do. I finished a book last night and looked around to see which one I want to pick up next and found that I am reading quite a few at once right now. Typical, I switch books as my mood changes unless one really grabs me. That used to happen all the time, now it’s rare, but it’s such a delight when it happens.
I just finished Vagabonding; by Rolf Potts and Mark of the Demon; by Diana Rowland and I enjoyed them both. Vagabonding is a sort of travel book that encourages you to wander on a more long-term basis. It’s well written, full of tips, hints, and encouragement for would be vagabonders. I sincerely hope to be able to follow its advice one day. Mark of the Demon is one of those rare books that grabbed me and made me read it. I read the first few chapters a while ago and had to put it aside, I think it was the pandemic that distracted me, I picked it up again a few days ago and just flew through it. It is part detective story, part urban fantasy, with a dash of sex/romance. It is a terrific read and, happily for me, the start of a series. I loved it enough that I ordered the next 3 books in the series before I’d quite finished the 1st. Diana Rowland is a treasure! And to think I only discovered her because of the dragons in her yard. https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2018/12/19/neighbor-anonymously-called-christmas-dragons-her-yard-demonic-so-she-put-more-up/
I’m currently just barely started on The Color of Law; by Richard Rothstein and very excited to read So You Want to Talk About Race; by Ijeoma Oluo which arrived in the mail yesterday. I’m doing my best to educate myself about racism and what we can all do to end it and build a better world. If anyone has any suggestions of helpful books on the subject, especially those by people of color, I would love to hear about them. Please leave a comment!
These 3 books ^ are all relating to the Summer Reading theme for 2020 which includes fairy tales and folk tales. I had really hoped I’d be done reading them ages ago but even with the lockdown I didn’t get them read. How to Fracture a Fairy Tale; by Jane Yolen is, unfortunately, not a how-to book. It is a collection of fractured tales that is perfectly wonderful, I had just hoped it was a ton of advice and examples of how to actually fracture a fairy tale. I’m running a writing contest for the teens at my library this summer and I did not examine this book before buying it. I’m a little bit impulsive and quite whimsical at times. The Witch Must Die; by Sheldon Cashdan is a book that examines and dissects the meaning behind fairy tales. So far it is interesting and I am learning that there is practically no end to the number of fairy tales I hadn’t heard of before picking up this book. Fairy House; How to Make Amazing Fairy Furniture, Miniatures, and More From Natural Materials; by Mike and Debbie Schramer is exactly what it sounds like. Filled with tons of colorful pictures it is a delight to the eye. Though some examples can be very specific, and might use materials not everyone can find, they still function very well as inspiration for one’s own creations. I am hoping to make great use of this book for my own projects this Summer and, hopefully, with the teens for a Fall workshop, pandemic permitting.
These 3 ^ are books I’m reading in a determined, not to say desperate, attempt to overcome my longstanding status as a blight Druid who tragically loves plants and wants to be a regular Druid. I love books on urban farming and small space gardening even though I live in a rural area because I am almost completely hopeless at growing food. Books on urban farming tend to be much more cheerleader-y and encouraging to people who don’t think they have the space or talent to grow anything so, obviously, they are my go-to.
And these are books involving a spiritual path that I find fascinating and compelling but that is not my own specific path. I find myself in the awkward position of being a solitary Norse Pagan, a path not best suited to being solitary. So I find comfort in books about Wicca which is much more commonly pursued alone. The Earth Path; by Starhawk is, so far, quite good. I find much of value in her writings in general and when I started reading this one there were fires devouring parts of Australia and California and the book opens dealing with fire season in CA so it felt ridiculously relevant. The other 2 deal with herbs, plants and place and are part of my frustrated Druid recovery issues.
I read Silent Hall; by N.S. Dolkart some time ago. I absolutely loved it. Somehow I managed to miss that 2 more books were released in the series, which I think is a trilogy and therefore complete now, and now I have these 2 on my teetering TBR pile. (To Be Read) The special thing about these 3 books is that the author held a drawing to give away a few sets of his books to celebrate Father’s Day and his 11th wedding anniversary and I won one! They are all signed and I couldn’t be more excited to find out what happens to the little band of heroes I grew to love. I can only speak to book one which was very much a coming of age fantasy adventure with an interesting cast of characters who set out to save the world or the kingdom against pretty impossible odds. It’s been a couple of years and the details escape me but my enthusiasm remains high. I may actually re-read book to catch hold of the thread again. N.S. Dolkart is an author I expect great things from.
So, that ought to keep me out of trouble this summer! Plus I’ll be fitting in the ‘Demon’ books I’ve got coming in the mail … somehow. That may involve losing some sleep to reading time but I expect it will be well worth it. What are you reading this Summer? Let me know!
How crazy is the world right now? It’s almost a sincere question because I am trying to keep my head down and not look at the news because I’m trying to preserve my sanity. Some stuff still gets through and a lot of it is depressing and enraging and horrifying in the extreme. I don’t hide from the news all the time, just when I need a break.
I’ve been reading a book called Mark of the Demon; by Diana Rowland and I’m really enjoying it. I ordered the next couple of paperbacks in the series because I had a Barnes & Noble gift card. I’m reading tons of other stuff, The Color of Law; by Richard Rothstein, The Witch must Die; by Sheldon Cashdan, plus many more and I’m still waiting for my copy of So You Want to Talk About Race; by Ijeoma Oluo. But Markof the Demon is my escape read at the moment so it’s getting gobbled up in a hurry.
The other ways I’m distracting myself from reality are working on a project that may or may not be anything at all, work and the Summer reading preparation that is swallowing me whole, replacing instacart shopping because gods, does instacart SUCK. We had good luck with them for a few months but when they fail they fail BIG. Wasted my entire day dealing with it and I’m DONE. We did the curbside pick-up at Hannaford’s for the first time today, it went well so I’m hopeful. It was also way cheaper! We grabbed the farmshare on the way home so the fridge is full to bursting and I will be committing acts of vegetable preparation and loads of cooking in the next few days.
My roses have gone ballistic! I harvested at least 150 blossoms this morning. At this rate I will have enough for tea all year long. I just need another couple of harvests like that. Since we finally have rain, the mint should start going crazy too. Yay! I need a lot of mint to keep me in tea through the winter. I still possess exactly zero apple trees though and that is sad. I bet they take forever to get established and get going too. I’ll have to look into it. I am not good at growing plants for food. I do okay with house plants but I’ve been frustrated for decades at my inability to get even the hardiest herbs to grow. But I DO have mint now. It’s a ray of hope that I am determined to capitalize on. The golden raspberries look like they will do well this year, as do the wild blackberries. What can I say? Little dreams keep me going through the dark times.
Everything else is continuing on as normal. We’ve got 4 or 5 RPGs going at the moment so that keeps us busy. The kids are all staggering along doing their best to keep occupied and sane too. I look forward to a day when we can do regular stuff like run out and get yummy soft-serve ice cream, or stop by a store to pick up that one thing we forgot, or maybe get haircuts or something. It’s so weird right now and it seems even weirder with people rushing to get back to normal. I hope things will start truly improving soon but I don’t know. I keep dreaming of tornadoes.
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?
Look at me, I’m taking the next 2 days off from working. Ok, I just spent a little time creating a BUJO (bullet journal) page of ideas in my new journal that I transferred from my old one… and they were mostly ideas relating to my job… but the intent was just to not lose track of good ideas not to actually do work so I think it’s ok.
My plan for today involves spending time on the deck in my hammock reading, a second attempt to make a first skull motif for a project for my son, laundry, decluttering, probably some video gaming, possibly some painting, maybe some writing, (in addition to blogging) and too much cooking which is the new normal.
So far I’m sticking with the BUJO write along. I’m doing it about once a day, catching up on the posted videos. There aren’t many, it’s a weekly exercise, I think, so I’ll be caught up soon and can follow along like a normal person. I have trouble sticking to things, to habits, routines and that, it’s good I’ve made it like 4 or 5 days so far.
Tomorrow I have no plan for yet. That feels kind of nice.
Day 54 of isolation, here we are, we’re hanging in there. My husband and I are struggling through working from home. He struggles with the mountain of work he has to do, technical glitches, higher-ups who think just because they want something to happen means that something is possible, etc. I struggle with trying to find way to actually DO my job, alternate between excitement over Summer Reading and anxiety that we won’t find a way to make it work, and worry that my job might go the way of the Dodo. I worry about the vendors I’ve contracted with for in-person programs this summer, how are they doing now? What the heck are they living on? I also worry that if, as is mostlikely, we won’t be able to have them come to our library they will insist that we have breached the contracts and expect to be paid out of a budget that has likely evaporated. I don’t know what will happen with all that, I suspect it is above my paygrade and something my Director will handle.
Focus on the positive bits: what is making me excited about Summer Reading? A demo of some cool software we might use to run our programs virtually. I could completely customize it for our teen patrons, give them the option to leave their thoughts on books they read, allow options for them to see what their friends are reading, (that they want to share) and add little mini games that can be unlocked as they read through the summer. I’m also excited about the Fairy Tale Writing Contest I’ll be running. I’m hoping big to get some submissions on that. Besides upcoming SRP May is national pet month so we’re having people submit art pieces, writing, photos etc of/about their pets. I was thinking of the whole thing as a community wide exhibit on our website, but I think the Director is leaning toward some sort of contest. I’m doing everything I can to connect with the teens and keep programming going, that’s all I can do so I might as well relax and let the rest go.
Everything is still up in the air. We’re all, all of us in the world, sort of holding our breath and waiting to see what happens next. There is no real notion of when we can leave isolation safely and the news out of the places in the world where restrictions have lifted or were never put in place is not good. Sweden is experiencing a very high death rate, other places tried to go back to normal and got savage resurgence of the virus. We need to be so careful no matter how impatient we are for some kind of normalcy.
Blogging to try to stay sane here. I’ve got this creeping feeling of despair that threatens to overwhelm me. I’m swimming in stress and I have to think that’s what’s aggravating my acid reflux. I haven’t been drinking almost at all, I think I have somehow managed to lose my taste for beer, but last night we played Remote Insensitivity with some friends and I drank more wine than is good for me. I don’t think that helped my acid reflux either.
We’re gaming a lot. Today we will be playing Pathfinder again. A good game. We’re currently exploring an abandoned Hell Knight Citadel and it’s been a lot of fun, challenging, and I’m collecting pets. I’m trying to convince the party that I should get to raise the warg pups we found because CUTE, and keep the kobolds because they are hilarious. They are already sold on allowing the goblins to be part of our lives so there’s that!
I’m trying to ART but I can’t because I require some solitude for that and there isn’t really any solitude right now. I could make some but that would involve carting all my art stuff around and it’s a lot of work. I’ll probably be desperate enough to do that soon. The only craft I’ve been working on is slowly knitting rows so I can be done with the HP washcloth and move one to something more interesting. I can’t wait to be knitting something else.
I’m cooking a lot, of course, and I get super sick of it. I always have to cook enough for all 5 of us and it sucks sometimes. If anyone else were to cook something, or make a sandwich even, they could make it for themselves and no one else and no one would think anything of it. If I want to make myself a sandwich I very much feel like I have to offer to make one for everyone else. Tiring. But, hey, we have food and I’m deeply grateful for that. Food is a very good thing. I’ve got another delivery floating out there somewhere and this time I actually remembered to add the baking powder so that will improve my baking and keep me from having to muck about with substitutions. That will be awesome. Lately I’ve made lasagna, scones, a really bad shepherd’s pie, (ground chicken does not cut it) kielbasa and rice… and a lot of noodles. So many noodles. I’m going to make this crazy butternut squash mac & cheese tomorrow before my squash gets icky.
I’m reading A Serpent of Venice; by Christopher Moore very slowly. I don’t seem to be able to concentrate on reading for very long these days. Stress? How are you all doing? Able to read? Tell me your stories, what are you doing to stay sane in this isolation? Is anyone still out there or have I gotten to the point of screaming in the void?
I have read every day of 2020 so far. I wrote a fair bit yesterday, blogged here, started a recommended Tarot Journal on paper. Also started learning about Tarot reading, so double duty there. My reading is also doubling as working on learning to garden properly. I feel so efficient! ~_^ I managed to work in a little crafting yesterday, I ate pretty healthy, and failed to make progress on any other fronts, which is fine, I need to pace myself and be realistic. Fighting my instincts here. This is day 3 of just kind of winging here, on the goals, I may need to set an actual structure up at some point.
I’m currently reading a gardening book and a mystery novel. Our first Book Boot Camp is going to be Mystery so I should really get cracking on that sucker. My TBR pile is ridiculous.
Reviewing my goals this morning I realized that I have no professional goals listed. I need to think about it for a bit but I think I should have some of those. Right off the top of my head, one basic goal is just to have my programming planned out and publicized at least 3 months in advance, beyond that I need to figure out what else makes sense. Maybe to try to take in one seminar a month or something on professional development? I should have goals, some kind of plan, or vision for my job. That seems awfully grown up.
Oh, hilarious development yesterday, it turns out my youngest had school yesterday and I blithely let him sleep until 1 pm thinking he didn’t go back till Monday. Ha ha ha! I am such a bad mom! Oof. My husband thought so too and, apparently, so did lots of other parents from our kid’s school… the one that prides itself on communication but is really bad at it. Yeah. I just don’t feel too bad about it. I mean, it ate up one of his allowed sick days, but I think the school must have been pretty unclear about this winter break. If it was just me, sure, my fault, but the school was, reportedly, a ghost town yesterday so I’m not taking it on. My kid wasn’t exactly broken up about it either. LOL
I’ve got a new trick for getting him out of bed now! My old method involved loud, poor singing, bright lights, and getting the dog riled up. Now I bring him tea or food. How civilized! I should have thought of it sooner. I bring my husband tea, and occasionally breakfast, in bed every day. He used to get breakfast in bed every day, if you can imagine. That fell apart at some point, I think 18 years ago when I was pregnant. It’s been sporadic-to-rare ever since. Maybe I’ll start that up again? Add the boy to it and bring up tea and breakfast on weekdays. Hmm, maybe I will, it always made for easier mornings for my husband, and it made him feel super appreciated, loved, and looked after. I suppose I worry about spoiling the lad and giving him insane expectations which his future partners will hate me for. Hmmm, maybe we’ll try a limited test of it?
It’s January 2nd and I spent most of yesterday cleaning, decluttering and reading. A good day. I like to use the first week or month of the year to clear things out and make space/raise energy for growth and learning new things. This year I have a long list of skills I want to develop.
lotion making
soap making
gardening
foraging
mending socks and other clothing
weaving baskets
cooking with a bamboo steamer
candle making
sewing clothes
learning to interpret both Tarot and Norse Runes
I’ve set my reading goal for 1 book per week and intend to read mostly nonfiction that will help me learn all these new skills. I’ll sprinkle in some fiction for entertainment/escape doubling as me reading along with the book boot camp I’ll be running for the teenagers. I set my sights too high for reading in 2019 and didn’t make my goal. (60 books) I did manage 1 book per week so I feel like that’s fair. How much can I really ask of myself when I have so much on my plate? Other sorts of goals I’ve set for myself for 2020 are:
Making more time for intimacy & alone time, including sex, with my husband.
That last one: seriously, who would have guessed it would be more difficult to find time for the 2 of us with young adults in our home than toddlers?????? WTF?
I also want to slow down and be more present in my life. Hilarious next to a list of goals and activities I know. But I think I can do it. It has to do with how I approach all this learning and all these goals. The Danish practice of hygge is kind of what I’m thinking of here. I just read The Cozy Life; by Pia Edberg and I think it’s helped me shift my perspective, given me a new idea of how to keep moving forward without putting too much pressure on myself. Believe me, I will not be beating myself up if I fail to learn some of these skills, I am a master at changing tack and dropping things I don’t need or don’t serve me, I am always reevaluating. 2 days into 2020 and I already didn’t write yesterday. ^_^ I did read though, so there’s that. Now I’m off to continue cleaning and decluttering.
Gen-Xer Remix 