This and That

This week has been busy, with a bunch of ups and downs, which is why I haven't blogged, even though I can't wait to tell you that Inky is now a big cuddler! She is soooo sweet and affectionate and even sleeps on my bed with me during part of the night. She's curled on my lap right now and purring as I'm typing. I haven't forgotten about Gatsby, my soulmate kitty, and I will always love him, but Inky is helping to heal my heart. I love her too and think about her when I'm at work; my condo feels like a home again now that I have a sweet kitty waiting for me.

Today is my divorce anniversary (the second divorce; I don't remember the exact dates my brief first marriage began and ended). Fourteen years ago today, July 11, the dissolution of my 21 year marriage (plus two years of legal separation) was finalized, which was a huge relief. For five years afterward, I tried to find someone new, and I stayed pretty optimistic about my chances until 2016. That's when I started to accept the idea that a new romantic relationship wasn't going to happen and it would be better to stop dating altogether, as the process was increasingly depressing. It took a couple years longer for me to feel fully comfortable being single and not looking.

I have made a new Substack account: lightmotifs.substack.com. Please follow me and I will follow you back. The reason I made an account is because one of my writing friends invited me to contribute to his poetic series on the body, and I wrote a poem about hair. It turned out well, and he is going to publish it on his Substack soon. I didn't have to make my own account to get credited, but why not? Maybe I will be in the mood to write more poetry on my own stack (or whatever you call the pages there). Last time I joined, I found it confusing and way too political, so I deleted my account, but every form of social media is stuffed with politics 24/7, so I have to take responsibility for avoiding it and focusing on what I do enjoy (same with Bluesky). That said, my first comment on the app was about Pete B (love him). LOL!

(I still find the app confusing, btw. When I logged on, it said hey how about these four friends we found for you? I said, OK, I will follow them all, but now they have disappeared. What's up with that?)

I read The House of a Thousand Lanterns by Victoria Holt and gave it four stars. It's a romance mystery novel, and I found both aspects very intriguing. A chunk of the book takes place in Hong Kong, and the local color was fabulous. I have no idea whether it was accurate, but I enjoyed it regardless. 

Earlier in the week I finished The Weight of Blood by Tiffany Jackson, a horror novel and an homage to Carrie by Stephen King. I wasn't sure at first if I would like this book because it's partly told in podcast format (which is apparently a "thing" now), but I did like it ~ I gave it four stars! The story involves a lot of racism and cruelty and some fantasy elements as well. 

Finally, I read The Only One Left by Riley Sager. Shades of Verity abound in this psychological thriller about a caregiver, Kit, who who is "forced" to take a job working for an alleged murderer at the crazy mansion on the edge of the cliff. Everyone in the story is a potential or actual murderer or victim, and though the story is basically well written, I found the pacing tedious at times. I kept wondering why Kit simply didn't walk away from the mess and begin again somewhere else where people didn't know her. The ending was so convoluted that I gave up trying to understand what motivated everyone to do what they did. Three stars.