16 Sentences About 8 Whimsies

The title is a riff on the song “88 Lines About 44 Women,” which is a very weird, dark song, so of course I like it a lot ~ and yes I have a Spotify playlist based on numbers/ math, though some of the tunes I admit are a bit of a stretch. Spotify is a great place for indulging my OCD because I can make playlists themed to any whim and change them whenever I feel like it too (unlike my old themed CD’s).

Whims are my jam: joining Bluesky was a whim, and deactivating was also a whim. When I first signed up, I thought it might be a fun recreation of early lighthearted Twitter days, but it turned toxic right after 10/7 as the antisemites crawled out of their holes.

I don’t put up with antisemitism online, which is why I don’t have as many Facebook friends as I used to. I also refuse to tolerate Tr*mp buttkissers, so that leaves me a very narrow and tricky path to navigate ~ luckily, I have a close circle of local friends (aka meatspace) who feel similarly, or who at least aren’t trying to be deliberately offensive in every interaction. 

One thing I love about blogging (and I am following more bloggers now, though still in the teens, not 500 like I did on WP!) is that bloggers generally have such a wide variety of interests compared to folks on other platforms. I often find it difficult to limit myself to one topic even when I’m writing a book review ~ thoughts about unrelated subjects tend to creep in ~ but in a blog post anything goes, so it’s cool, and I’m glad I restarted this one on a whim back in 2024.

Speaking of books, I have now read six so far this year, and while that may sound like a lot to a normal person, I definitely feel that I have slowed my roll and may be able to recall more of what I have read, which will be helpful during book club meetings. I still don’t go out on work nights (and sometimes not even on weekends) or watch much TV, plus I have lost interest in painting, crafts, and beginning my own novels on a whim, so basically all I do in my free time is gobble up other people’s writing.

I also consume a lot of snacks, though I’m trying to grab healthier ones and not sugary treats, and as I have said before, the less sugar I eat, the less of it I crave, though it’s impossible not to partake in the homemade yummies a coworker brings to the office. In the last couple weeks, I’ve been exercising a little more than last year, like 4x per week instead of 3x, so yay for that.

Sometimes I miss writing, but not the obsession, if that makes sense, and while posting book reviews on Goodreads is fine and I will continue to do so, it’s not scratching my itch. Since I don’t want to begin a novel (not before I retire anyway if even then), I may try to satisfy this longing via blogging, including doing the upcoming April A-Z challenge via John Holton, where my theme would be whatever whimsy pops into my mind that day.

Whimsy is a great name for a cat, and I will try to keep it in mind for a fictional pet, but I suspect it’s another one of those flashes of brilliance that will disappear as soon as this post is published. I’ve had so many… or perhaps I haven’t… how will we ever know?

~*~

Written for John Holton’s Writer’s Workshop.