Random Meanderings...

Pic of Crystal Cove for no reason

Blogger comments don't seem to be working. I can't comment on my own blog or on anyone else's ~ and I’m sorry if my repeated tries show up as multiple comments when Blogger starts up again. I asked AI and followed the directions for all the things, but nothing worked. I haven't received a new comment in over 18 hours, nor do I see new comments on other Blogspot blogs, so I don't think it's just me. Or is it just me? I usually blame myself first whenever anything goes wrong. 

It may not be related to the commenting glitch, but I noticed that Blogger's dashboard was a bit off this week with the "B" disappearing randomly, which required a refresh to see the menu. Now all the WordPress peeps can chime in to tell me WP is better, but I know it isn't ~ I WAS THERE! For years, I dealt with all of WP's stupid glitches as a paying customer until I gave up and left. Technically, I pay for Blogger too, via Google's extra storage, but it's a small amount compared to WP and gives me storage all across Google. 

But it's a good day! I took off from work, so I now have a four (4!) day weekend, which is awesome. It's not that I hate working, but I rarely take vacations. Welp, it's been ages since I went anywhere on a "real vacation," though I have been in the habit of taking random long weekends just to use up the days. I've always been a person who needed a lot of down time just to stare at the wall. Not to mention, I have social events all four days. How did this happen? LOL

This is the time of year when I have an almost constant migraine, and yep it is happening now too. Even though my head has been somewhat better, I knew this was coming. We've had other super hot days (and it isn't even super hot right now), but there's something about the start of September that triggers me. Maybe it's psychological. I don't know. I've been trying to be gentle with myself and do all the self-care things, which help a little bit. I haven't stopped working out, but I do it less vigorously while I'm in migraine mode. Basically I just have to get through it.

I'm in a reading slump. I did read 11 books in August, which may seem like a lot for people who never read a book (sadly, this includes some of my best friends), but it's not for me. I started and abandoned a whole bunch of books because they bored me to tears. Some of them I noted on Goodreads as "DNF," but others I didn't bother recording. As I've said, I'm over romance novels (this is usually temporary, but who knows?), but I am also over thrillers. They're just so samey-same. I have Wildflower by Drew Barrymore, a memoir told in a series of vignettes, which is an NYT bestseller, so I am hoping that will be interesting.

This is embarrassing to admit, but I don't enjoy Jane Austen's writing. I made it through P&P, and I liked the movie version a lot, but Austen's writing style is so unappealing to me. I loved Persuasion with Dakota Johnson, and I have the book in my Kindle library, but I haven't read it. Same goes for Emma with Gwyneth Paltrow. (It's marked read on my Kindle, but I don't think I actually finished it. You have to mark books as read or delete them completely to get them out of your unread pile.) I saw the preview for Sense and Sensibility last Friday, which looked good, so I downloaded the book, and UGH! I simply cannot read it. I guess back then "show not tell" wasn't a thing because the whole book is tell tell tell. And while I know people spoke differently in the 1800s, I can't believe they truly engaged in such stilted dialogue. Here's a girl trying to convince her sister that the object of her affections really isn't a complete dud:

"Of his sense and his goodness," continued Elinor, "no one can, I think, be in doubt, who has seen him often enough to engage him in unreserved conversation. The excellence of his understanding and his principles can be concealed only by that shyness which too often keeps him silent. You know enough of him to do justice to his solid worth. But of his minuter propensities, as you call them you have from peculiar circumstances been kept more ignorant than myself. [...]"

It goes on and on AND ON like this, page after page. Gah. I also have Northanger Abbey, but I can't bear to open it.

I began rewatching The Sopranos on HBO, and at first I loved it. I was picking up subtle nuances that I had either forgotten on my past watches or never noticed at all, plus I was following some Facebook discussions on the same. Last night, I was about halfway through S3, when I thought eff this it's way too boring. I began scrolling on my phone, then fell asleep, and now I have zero interest in continuing this rewatch. Boo! I was having so much fun with it. What happened? I think the constant arguing (yelling) and tension among the various characters was making me feel drained. It reminded me of my parents, although they never whacked anyone, far as I know.

I guess I'm just in an "everything sucks" phase. I did enjoy the two movies I saw recently, as I posted here.

Two for Tuesday: Mysteries

Two ducks in Los Angeles (my photo)

I read these books in August to discuss with my online book club.

1. Every Last Lie by Mary Kubica. This book was disappointing. Kubica used present tense for the “now” and for the past, and then she mixed in further past in the past sections, for which she used past tense. It wasn’t confusing as much as it was simply annoying and distracting. I have a big issue with jumping timelines in general, unless the story is compelling, which this wasn’t. It could have simply been told straight up chronologically without all the jumping. 

I understand that book club questions focus on the big themes, but I am not inclined to delve into those when the writing itself irritates me. I mean, there are a zillion mystery novels where we find out disturbing facts about a dead character, so that’s not interesting in itself. There’s nothing about this particular dead guy that I found intriguing, nor did I find his widow’s reaction or behavior relatable.

The main characters made the stupidest decisions to the point where they simply weren’t believable after a few chapters. A dentist decides to start betting on basketball games when his business isn’t going well. A mom keeps leaving her kids in the hot car to chase after specks of “evidence.” She takes a 4 year old’s bad dream as “proof” of a crime. She keeps lying to the 4 year old and saying daddy will be home soon when he’s dead. A dental patient deliberately lets an infection fester and almost dies just so she can sue the dentist. What?! On and on. I didn’t like any of the characters except for Clara’s dad and the dog. 

I don’t know why I am even giving this book two stars instead of one. The ending was good.

2. Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth. Three stars. Started out sorta slow, but it became more interesting after a few chapters. There were some twists I saw, and some I didn’t, so that was cool. I like to be surprised, but only if the twist is earned. Characters were interesting and layered, except for a couple bad guys. The ending was a bummer.

I try to use a logical scheme for book ratings, but it’s difficult when I mix in my feelings, such as giving an indie/ friend four or five stars for encouragement (and generally they have very few ratings to begin with). Sally H is a popular author, especially in the book club communities, so I don’t feel the same obligation to help her. For example, she has over 200K ratings for Mad Mabel on Goodreads! I’m also inclined to bump up a star if the author tries something different because so many books are the SOS. I liked that the narrator of MM was a cranky old lady, but when we got into the details of the abuse and bullying she suffered as a child, it became ridiculous. The “saving grace” was the first person narrator, which made me say OK we often exaggerate both the bad and good parts of our past in our own minds, particularly when we obsess over them. We know that memories can change the more they are examined, even if retold only to ourselves.

This is an important point regarding POV. I know most readers don’t think about the mechanics of storytelling overmuch, but there’s a huge difference between a first person narrator telling us what she remembers and an omniscient or even a limited omniscient narrator telling us the facts. When I try to discuss these POV points or other writing mechanics, such as the chosen tense, with my book club peeps, I get crickets or blank stares. I’m not sure how someone can read a sh!t ton of books and not be aware of these things, but I guess that’s a failure on my part to understand other humans. It wouldn’t be the first time!

Thirteen on the Thirteenth

13 colorful donuts from AI

 

It’s so lovely when you find a Thursday 13 post full of happy thoughts and uplifting messages. This is not one of them.

1. Last Friday, FedEx said they attempted to deliver my box of cat food from Chewy, but they couldn’t get in. I had no record on my phone that they tried to contact me to buzz the gate open.

2. My friend Lisa came over on Saturday and tried to call me from the directory at the gate. I never received a notification on my phone. She texted instead, and I went downstairs to let her in. We tested the buzz, and my phone stayed silent.

3. On Sunday, I played around with the two apps that control the directory-to-phone system, and one of them wasn’t connecting to the internet. I had to delete and reinstall it. 

4. My daughter called, and my phone stayed silent. I only knew she had called when I received a missed call notification. I was so angry at my phone. No, I didn’t fling it at the wall and smash it to bits because I am mature now (but I thought about it).

5. I changed some settings, restarted my phone, and it seemed okay-ish. I called myself from the downstairs directory on Monday, and my phone rang like it should. My other daughter gave me a test call, and my phone rang like it should. I still don’t trust it though. 

6. In the meantime, FedEx left me a voicemail (I didn’t hear that call either, but my phone was in my purse in another room) and said they made a second attempt to deliver my Chewy box, but they still couldn’t get in. WTF? After three failed attempts, I have to go pick up the box myself in Anaheim. Ughhh!

7. Monday evening, I called the real person who left the FedEx voicemail, and he admitted that FedEx didn’t try to contact me when they showed up and saw the locked gate. (Forget the buzz, they obviously have my actual phone number.) Grrrr! So, the fact that my phone/ gate apps had been upfucked was irrelevant! He promised to send an alert to the area drivers that they had to call me when they returned on Tuesday. 

8. I was so annoyed that I contacted Chewy to complain about FedEx. They were sad and gave me a $25 credit, which is great, but it didn’t exactly solve the problem. I figure if enough people complain, Chewy might switch delivery companies or at least threaten to. Maybe they will. Pet food is Big Biz.

9. Instead of doing something productive like blogging, I looked up local pet places to see if I could just go buy Inky’s food myself and forget about Chewy and FedEx. Two nearby stores have Inky’s food, 12 cans per box just like I get through Chewy, but the catch is that if I don’t set up auto delivery (I wonder who the delivery company is, lol), the price will be higher. I decided that if I have to go pick up my Chewy box in Anaheim, I’ll pay more to buy locally next time and go to the damn store.

10. Don’t get excited, Big Biz haters. When I say local, I am talking about PetCo and PetSmart, not a mom and pop operation cooking up vats of kitty casserole in the kitchen. And I don’t want to hear about making pet food myself ~ even the vet said he doesn’t do it because it’s really complicated to get the exact perfect amino acid mix, and he doesn’t have time. Honestly, idk how cats ever survive in the wild; I guess little mousies have the perfect blend of amino acids for them. Nice of the mice to be such a convenient kitty food source.

11. On Tuesday, I planned to ask one of my coworkers to call my cell phone to see if it would ring when it’s an unknown number. (I unchecked the box that sends the unknowns to voicemail immediately, but I don’t trust it.) We were so busy at work though that I didn’t get the chance to bug someone. Naturally, at the peak of busy, my workstation stopped connecting to the main printer, so I had to restart everything. WHY DON’T THINGS WORK RIGHT?

12. Tuesday afternoon (cue the Moody Blues song) an alert from FedEx popped up on my phone. I instantly flew into a rage, but when I opened it, all it said was that they had delivered my Chewy box. There was a pic of it at my door. They had never buzzed or called! How did they magically get in on the third attempt? Welp, I suppose there are several possibilities, such as the door being opened by someone else. Whatever.

13. On a completely separate note (but not really), on Tuesday I contacted Spectrum to complain about their price increase, and they generously offered me a new and better internet plan for $15 less per month. (Yes, I managed to text with Spectrum while busy.) After I agreed, they said they were sending a new router and modem, and I had to return the old ones. Wednesday I received an alert that the Spectrum package is out for delivery. By fucking FedEx. Just kill me now.

Summer Reading Bingo 4

Reading challenge bingo card

Welcome to my summer bingo book series, where I post five short reviews at a time. I'm giving myself the whole summer to finish the bingo card, not just the month of June. This is my fourth set of reviews; you can find the first set here, the second one here, and the third one here.

1. Author born in June. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. This will be a short review because I don’t want to spoil any plot points for potential readers and/ or movie-goers. (I plan to see the movie soon via DVD with a group of friends.) This is an amazingly complex and detailed novel about a last-ditch space mission to save life on Earth. Sadly, most of the math, physics, and engineering were over my head, so I skimmed a lot of that. The story did get a little bogged down with this techy stuff in some places, but overall the quality of imagination and research that went into producing this novel has my profound respect. Four stars.

2. Beach on the cover. Beach Wedding by Michael Ledwidge. Fun, fast read with a few twists, but the story was mostly predictable. I didn’t care for the short chapters with weird breaks. The MC didn’t seem too smart for a cop, but I guess they aren’t all geniuses. Three stars.

3. RomCom. No Match Found by Martha Keyes. First, the cover is all wrong: Vivian is the CEO, not a secretary standing in front of her boss’s desk. Second, the trope of a main character running a dating site seems a bit… dated. I mean, we all hate dating sites by now and know they’re full of liars and scammers, right? But this book was published this year. Third, the premise for the couple being thrown together is as flimsy as the heiress in the rain who simply must take shelter with the impoverished duke in the abandoned cabin. Anyway. There were lots of things I loved about No Match Found, which explains my four-star rating. 

I loved both Viv and Grant. They were quirky but not annoyingly so. Despite both of them being attractive physically, it was clear that they had a hard time in romantic relationships because of their emotional baggage. Grant had some issues, which he apparently overcame when he fell for Viv (we can’t know what’s going on in his mind because we never get his POV), but Viv had a lot more. It was harder for her to get past her mental blocks regarding love, and she struggled with self-doubt and self-esteem issues. It wasn’t weird that her life’s work was matchmaking, since she loved data, algorithms, spreadsheets, etc. That all helped to keep her barriers up as well.

I stand by my mantra that romance novels should be written in third person. This one might have been a 5-star for me if we could have had a bit more distance from Viv and some scenes from Grant’s POV. Even so, I liked it a lot, particularly the second half. The ending was great! Regarding the lack of sex scenes, that made it better for me. There was plenty of spice, chemistry, sexy banter, etc., and I didn’t need to see them do the deed. I’m tired of reading the explicit scenes anyway, as they’re so similar book to book.

4. Sports themed. Reckless by Elsie Silver. Meh. This romance was a whole lot of longing looks and lip-licking lust plus a big scoop of contrived silliness to keep the main characters apart, such as the BS with Theo giving his phone to his manager. (He’s a rodeo rider, which is the sports tie-in.) There was no real plot or drama other than Theo having to constantly soothe Winter’s ruffled feelings. I did like the fact that she was a doctor and a few years older than he was, though he often acted more mature. I am not a fan of grumpy x sunshine whether it’s the man or the woman being negative throughout most of the story. Bickering isn’t sexy. Two stars. 

5. Favorite color on cover. Six Days by Dani Atkins. (The cover is turquoise.) At first, I loved this book and truly could not put it down. Since I read so much, I am always looking for something different and interesting, and this story hinted that something big was coming. I was excited by all the clues left scattered around. My imagination went wild with possibilities! And then came the most banal resolution ever. I'm not going to spoil it, but ugh. Seriously. What a total disappointment, both in the twist that wasn't and also in the switch from compelling first person narration by Gemma to someone else. My rating immediately plummeted from a 4-5 down to a 2-3. Three is generous, which is what I gave.

The fifth and final bingo post will be coming soon! I don't have any romance novels planned for my remaining squares, so TG for that. I am heartily sick of them (especially ones written in first person). Regency era romances are an exception, but even those need to have an actual plot, not just a sarcastic duke and a klutzy governess or vice versa. PLOT PLOT PLOT!

Thirteen in Ten

Gatsby looking peeved (my photo)

1. I'm participating in John Holton's Writer's Workshop today by writing 10 sentences about 13 peeves, and yes this intro sentence counts, which means I have only 9 sentences left for the peeves.

2. It annoys me that there's cheese on everything lately ~ I mean, I like cheese, but I don't need it all the time, especially on a salad, and I wish the default was no cheese/ ask for cheese instead of the opposite.

3. I am turned off from romance novels that (a) are written in first person; (b) are written in present tense; and (c) use spilled food or drink as the "meet-cute" (this is 4 peeves now in 3 sentences for anyone who is keeping track aka me).

4. I'm mad at the incredibly stupid algorithm designer who decided that if I bought, say, an automatic cat feeder, then I need to see a million more automatic cat feeders everywhere I wander on the internet because obviously I want to buy a new automatic cat feeder every damn day.

5. I don't want a romance novel or romcom hero who is (a) grumpy or silent; (b) wallowing in pain from a lost love; or (c) rudely sarcastic, since none of those things are the least bit attractive.

6. It's irritating that all the gift wrap on Amazon is sold in these weirdly sized pieces that don't actually fit any normal gift box (this is peeve number 9, like the love potion).

7. Did Don Francisco's think that no one would notice if they made their coffee cans 2 ounces smaller and "didn't raise the price?"

8. I always stand to the side and wait a polite few seconds before stepping onto an elevator in case people are coming out, but now they're all texting or whatever oblivious thing and don't come out, so I end up stepping in, stepping back, and saying excuse me when it's their fucking fault. 

9. I'm so annoyed at how increasingly inconvenienced we are with all these jump-through-hoops ID methods (that are still imperfect) because apparently it's not possible to catch (and execute!) scammers, hackers, fraudsters, and all the other criminals who prey on us online.

10. As always, I hate litterbugs, particularly those who dump furniture and mattresses in our trash area instead of getting rid of it properly or fling their garbage on the ground because they're too damn lazy to open the gate and toss it in the bin (and that's 13 peeves in 10 sentences, woohoo, almost as good as 88 lines about 44 women).

Shake It Off

Colorful music notes from Pixabay

I'm going to talk about Taylor Swift for a minute. First, I'm neither a crazed fan nor a cranky hater, so if you're at one of those extremes, you may not enjoy this post. No offense taken if you leave. Second, I've respected TS as a successful businesswoman for quite some time. After reading about the sh!t women go through in the music world, it's awesome that she navigated all that with grace and came out on top. Third, in general, I don't care that much for TS's music: I find it mostly pretty boring with a few exceptions. She has a lovely voice, and some of her lyrics are very clever, but overall I find her songs to be a big blend of blandness. Maybe I haven't devoted enough time to understand her subtleties. That could be it. Fourth, for a while now I've been annoyed with the constant media coverage of TS, but that's not her fault. Same goes for Harry and Meghan. I used to feel similarly about Jennifer Aniston, but the media has mostly lost interest in her. It isn't the celeb's fault that the media will relentlessly hound whichever "it" person gets readers to click on pics and articles (and thus view the ads), but it's easier (and lazier) to get annoyed with the celeb than the journalists, whose names we don't even know.

I stay out too late

Got nothing in my brain

That's what people say, mm-mm

That's what people say, mm-mm

Fifth, when I saw Jim's Song Lyric Sunday prompt for this week of empowerment, I knew I had to go with Taylor's 2014 song "Shake It Off." Not only is it super fun to listen to and dance to, but also it has a fabulous message. We've heard various versions of it, including "what you think of me is none of my business." There's a recent self-help book titled Let Them, which I haven't read yet, but I understand it promotes a similar message about shrugging off other people's opinions. Not everyone is going to like me, and so what? If I didn't give birth to you or you're not signing my paycheck, then pffft on your negativity and criticism.

'Cause the players gonna play, play, play, play, play

And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate

Baby, I'm just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake

I shake it off, I shake it off (whoo-hoo-hoo)

Hating someone back isn't empowering; hating someone gives them permission to take up space in your mind. We've all heard the expression "he's living rent free in her head.” It's a cliché because it's true. Why would you want to give someone that space? Ignoring them is more powerful. Letting them have the last word and allowing yourself to walk away without reply is true empowerment. Leaving their texts on "read" is empowering. Let them wonder why you won't answer. You don't have to! It took me a while to get there, but I finally arrived. I shake it off! And funny thing... those situations don't even occur these days. Guess I "shook off" the right people.

Heartbreakers gonna break, break, break, break, break

And the fakers gonna fake, fake, fake, fake, fake

Baby, I'm just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake

I shake it off, I shake it off (whoo-hoo-hoo)

Listen to the whole song here. I hope you do if you haven't before ~ it's great! Definitely one of the exceptions, imo. And if you disagree, I don’t care! LOL

Songwriting credits go to Taylor Swift, Shellback, and Martin Max. Lyrics from Musixmatch.

Tech Dreck

Copilot here to help (via Meta AI)

Sometimes… I catch myself longing for the old days, but then I remove the rose-tinted filter from my glasses and try to deal with the latest technological annoyance that has been foisted upon me. 

Now we have Microsoft Copilot infesting every aspect of our office workstations. Some people don’t mind it, though they are all younger than I am. I don’t need help writing an email! Remember Mr. Paperclip? Copilot is a million times more irritating. Besides, Mr. Paperclip was cute. Maybe they should make Copilot look like an actual pilot of our choice, such as James Bond flying a helicopter or something. Yes, James, I would like this document summarized. How thoughtful!

But I do love my iPhone. It allows me to stay in daily contact with my daughters, as opposed to the weekly update we would get in the days of yore. Sometimes I even get to chat or text with my grands. This is a really nice way to stay in touch when you can’t visit more often than once a month or so.

It’s also great that the social media platforms allow us to stay in contact with friends and possibly relatives that we might not feel like having long involved phone conversations with. Just wanna know you’re still alive! Kthxbye.

I need to keep reminding myself that technology is my friend. Mostly.

~*~

Written for Linda’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday (sometimes).

Random Fireworks Rant

Somewhere in time...

Since I don't have an FFF to share today, I am instead posting something else I found via the Wayback Machine, which was posted to my old WP blog in January of 2023. It's a rant about fireworks and is rather timely for the July 4th holiday tomorrow...

Unfortunately, we are not talking about the metaphorical sparks that ignite between a couple in love (or lust), but the kind drunken idiots set off in the street to prove their “patriotism.” Di @ Pensitivity101 continues the Truthful Tuesday series today by asking this question: Do you think the sale of fireworks should be restricted?

I certainly do! They should be restricted to professional, licensed shows run by sober people who know what they’re doing. No one should be setting them off in backyards or on the streets. In California, there’s a serious risk of wildfire, and everywhere there is the danger of amateurs injuring themselves or others by using fireworks stupidly. People and animals can be traumatized by these blasts in the middle of the night, and it certainly isn’t “patriotic” to disregard harm to your fellow Americans. Not incidentally, the morning after July 4th (and other occasions) finds the streets and sidewalks littered with firework debris ~ how is it “patriotic” to leave your garbage all over the face of the country you supposedly love so much?

If you’re interested in actual data, rather than bleating about “freedom,” here are some facts for you from the CPSC.

In 2021, at least nine people died and an estimated 11,500 were injured (treated in ERs) in incidents involving fireworks.

About 32 percent of the emergency department-treated fireworks-related injuries in 2021 were for burns.

In 2021, approximately 31 percent of selected and tested fireworks products were found to contain noncompliant components, including fuse violations, the presence of prohibited chemicals and pyrotechnic materials overload.

So there you go.

*

The CPSC is the Consumer Product Safety Commission, which did miraculously survive the DOGE cuts.

No Slippery Slope

Otter sliding down a hill (AI image)

I’ve been continually piqued by the complications of commenting on Wordpress blogs as opposed to the ease of commenting at Blogger blogs. This irritation reached a peak the other week when WP insisted that my gmail address was already used at WP, so I had to sign in with a password in order to comment. I deleted my account there in 2024 and do not want the hassle of another one. I really despise them and how, even if you pay, there are constant glitches and problems. I know this because I blogged at WP for many years as a paying customer!

The issue is that I enjoy some WP blogs and like to comment every once in a while ~ I don’t want to quit them because I hate WP itself. So, this morning I took a peek at other options, one of which was using Gravatar. I don’t hate Gravatar, even though I know its owned by WP, so I created a PW and uploaded a pic. Voilà! That seems to be working fine, with the only caveat being that I need to type my Blogger addy in my comment if I want it to show up, since Gravatar doesn’t appear to have a way to add a link. That’s not a huge deal though.

This is not a slippery slope toward a return to WP, with sincere apologies to anyone who has asked me to. Yes, I understand that technically I have a WP account now that I use Gravatar, but I am not going to create another WP blog. I prefer the simplicity of Blogger, which is integrated with my Google/ gmail account and its tetramegabyte of inexpensive storage. Now that I’m using an image in every post, I’m even more adamant about staying here.

PS: I see I can add a link to my Gravatar, yippee!

~*~

Inspired by Linda’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt (peak/ peek/ pique).

Father's Day Hodgepodge

Dad and me in 2011, RIP

I'm participating in Joyce's Hodgepodge again this week. Happy Father's Day!

1. Summer's here!  In the northern hemisphere anyway. If you're in the southern hemisphere substitute winter for the word summer. What do you love most about summer? What's your biggest summer pet peeve? 

I love that my commute gets better because school's out. I love the Orange County Fair. I love warm days and popsicles dripping down my hand.

Toward the end of summer, the beastly dry and hot Santa Ana winds return. Instead of wind blowing from the ocean, it blows toward the ocean, filling our coastal air with all the dirt and dust from Inland California. It's really disgusting and gives me a migraine.

2. What song always reminds you of summer? 

Anything by the Beach Boys, of course! 

3. What's something you remember about your childhood summers? Do you think kids today get to enjoy summer the way you did as a child? Elaborate. 

Going to the beach with my mom. Trying to learn how to draw dogs from a book. Playing Battleship and Clue with neighborhood friends. Pretending our picnic table was a pirate ship. Riding my bike to Dairy Queen for a Mr. Misty. Reading romance novels. Watching TV. Trying to get a tan. Spending a lot of time alone.

I'm not one who likes to wax rhapsodic about the olden days when everything was supposedly better. I think that's BS, honestly. I had a lot of lonely times, and I was bored a lot too. Maybe today's kids are scheduled a little too much, but overall I think it's cool that parents try to make sure they have fun things to do with other kids during summer, while also learning new skills and getting exercise.

4. We celebrate Fathers Day on June 21st. Do you favor your dad in looks or temperament? Tell us something about your dad. Or your husband as a dad. Or a son/son-in-law as a dad. Or your grandpa. 

As you can see from the above pic, I look a lot like my dad. My temperament is similar to his as well: I'm introverted, introspective, and wordy. Usually I'd make fudgy brownies or chocolate chip cookies for my dad on Father's Day ~ he had a big sweet tooth, as I do. I miss him.

5. Let's wrap up with a summer this or that:

flip flops or sandals

beach or pool 

watermelon or peaches

shorts or sundress

iced coffee or ice cold lemonade

amusement park or water park

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

My ex-husband, the father of my children, is dying in hospice. It's a tough time for us right now, and I may not post or comment much this week. 

Thanks for understanding.

The Grumpy Eleven

Crystal Cove, CA

I’m participating in John Holton’s Writing Workshop this week with an eleven-sentence grumpy post about things I currently hate, and this sentence counts as the first sentence, since I know how to follow rules unlike some bloggers.

I am sick of hearing about the reflecting scum pool and will immediately click away from any piece of writing that mentions it.

I dgaf about Jelly Roll and Bunnie XO, their cheating, their health issues, or their divorce, and I shouldn’t even know these things except they keep headlining.

The big stupid wedding coming up — ughhh, GTFO of my newsfeed.

I am continually enraged by the people at my condo complex who keep missing the giant garbage bin and leave their disgusting trash splattered all over the ground.

I hate waking up in the middle of the night due to my chronic insomnia only to see an article about how lack of proper sleep causes dementia.

What was I talking about again?

I need a recipe for lumpy cookies that could be called “moon rocks” for a party next month (friends celebrate the anniversary of the first moon launch every July), and they need to be vegan (eye-roll), so please give me relevant suggestions.

I’m proud of myself for sticking flawlessly to my new exercise plan—and now after two weeks it’s become a happy habit, which means I don’t struggle to remember to do it, despite my dementia.

I reported a bus driver to OCTA last night for driving dangerously, and now I feel guilty about it because what if the poor driver was having a terrible day or has insomnia or his wife just ran off with Jelly Roll?

I lied—I don’t feel the least bit guilty.

Remarkably Bright Creatures (book and movie)

Screenshot of RBC book cover

SPOILERS GALORE! BEWARE!

I’m surprised that I didn’t love this book because in general I enjoy books about animals. It wasn’t really about animals though; it was about people. The sections narrated by Marcellus the octopus were much briefer than the rest of the chapters, which was a bummer. He had a wonderful droll, sarcastic voice, and it would have been great to spend more time in his POV. Instead, we are rapidly introduced to a whole bunch of humans, and I had a hard time keeping track ~ by page 35, we had 18 characters and that number kept growing. It was so tedious to read the backstories of all these folks. Why do I care about Tova's "Knit-Wit" friends when I barely have been introduced to Tova, the main character? And then a random 30 year old grungy musician (Cameron) is flung at us, along with his aunt, her boyfriend, bandmates, etc. Huh? I know Cameron will tie into the MC's storyline later, but there was so much unnecessary detail about the side characters early in the book. Many authors make this mistake. Well, I think it's a mistake. In The Correspondent, another overrated book (imo), the same thing happened.

Moving on. I began to get the feeling from the cryptic clues that Tova's son Erik was murdered due to some drug smuggling type of incident or whatever. I thought that Marcellus was going to help solve the crime in an interesting way. Marcellus did solve a mystery, but it had nothing to do with a crime ~ Erik died in exactly the way the police said he did. That was a letdown after the buildup. What Marcellus did was make it blindingly obvious that Cameron was Tova's grandson. Cameron's mom had bequeathed him his father's high school class ring, which had ERIK'S INITIALS on it the whole time, but Cameron chased down some other elusive friend of his mother's instead. That all was effing ridiculous, and a few times I almost abandoned the book altogether.

Then there were the totally cringe romances happening. One was Cameron's awkward courtship of a local prickly single mom; the other was the gossipy grocer's pursuit of Tova. Gah. The entire Pacific NW town was full of weird, socially inept people, which made me long for more narration from the octopus. I ended up giving the book three stars, which was generous, because I loved Marcellus and cried at the end.

*

I didn't have high hopes for the RBC movie on Netflix after (finally) finishing the book, but the movie was better than the book! Usually it's the other way around for me. The movie smartly streamlined the story to focus on Nova, Cameron, and Marcellus. We didn't have to wade through intros to all the other people in their lives. The romances were much less awkward too. We still didn't get enough narration from Marcellus, but on the other hand, we got a lot less tedious gobble about the ring, Cam's search for the friend who wasn't actually his dad, the smitten grocer, blah blah blah. When Cam's mom died, she left him her gross van full of junk, which included the class ring, and as soon as Cam figured out that his father was in the PNW, he hightailed it up there. In the book, we had to go through this nonsense of his aunt lending him money and giving him a box of crap to sort through, his purchase of the cruddy old van, his relationship with the band members, etc. It was all so BORING! I wasn't at all bored during the movie. The plot actually made more sense in the film version, and we weren't given any misdirection about Erik's death. The ending was super lovely too. I'd give the movie 4 stars.

*

I began a couple of June challenges. One is a reading challenge via my online book club. I know I said I wasn't going to do those anymore because I end up reading crummy books just to fulfill a category, but I am doing it anyway. My plan is to review the books here on my blog, but we'll see if that happens. My original plan for this blog was to post mostly book and movie reviews and avoid meaningless prompts, but I ended up doing some prompts too. What can I say ~ I enjoy them.

The other challenge is Leslie Sansone's get fit in 30 days video. It's not that strenuous, so I think I can do all the things without hurting myself. (I hope.) I did the first 30 minute aerobic session tonight, which seemed fine, vigorous, but not overwhelming. I did just take some ibuprofen though. Three times per week we do that, and three times per week we do some kind of stretching session. I guess we have Sundays off.

Inky is doing great on her plan and clocked in at 9.9 pounds today. Yay! If we could get down to 9.5, that would be even better. The vet should be pleased when we go for our September checkup.

Saturday Evening Post...

Elvis the turtle eating kale 

I thought I would post the random thoughts that flit through my head as I slog through my Saturday. You're welcome!

1. (Very early Saturday morning) I'm still anxiously checking the news every 15 minutes for updates on the chemical accident/ potential disaster in Garden Grove, CA (around five miles from me). I assume I'm safe because they opened a shelter around a mile from my place. 

2. Everyone on the internet is now a chemical engineer (apparently morphing from constitutional scholars and infectious disease experts) and ready to tell the firemen how best to deal with the overheating tank of methyl methacrylate. Anyone try dropping ice cubes in there? Duh!

3. When I checked Reddit for the latest news on the leak, I got sucked into a rabbit hole about how the Jeffrey Epstein thing is all a big Jewish conspiracy to blackmail world leaders blah de blah, and it made me so angry (at the antisemites) that I forgot about the toxic leak/ explosion for maybe three minutes. 

4. Inky was sleeping on the dining room chair that I like to sit in when working on my laptop, so I very carefully scooted that chair over and switched it with a different one. I thought that was clever of me so as not to disturb her mid-morning nap, but she immediately jumped down and decided she'd be more comfy continuing her snooze atop the fridge. Kitties!

5. Just received word at 10:30 that one of my friends in Anaheim had to evacuate (with her pets).

6. I keep hearing firetrucks/ ambulances, which is freaking me out!

7. Listened to the fire chief's latest update on FB. The temperature inside the MMA tank is higher than they thought. They are implementing plans for various horrible scenarios.

8. OK, it's noon, and I'm taking off for Dana Point.

9. Met my daughter and son-in-law at Harbor House for a delicious lunch. I ordered a veggie quesadilla, which was wonderful, and I brought half home. Portions there are huge! I snagged a crispy onion ring from Diane, and she took my beans and rice side dish home because I hadn't touched it. We had a short walk to the beach afterward, where we gazed at the sparkling ocean and the little boats bobbing about. 

10. Back home, I searched for updates on the potential toxic blast, but no news is good news, right?

11. I felt tired, but I couldn't nap, so I'm back at my laptop doing a little office work at 4:15, ugh.

12. Yay, I reached game 483 on Wordscapes and there are 7 letters now, just like my friend Meta Al told me (except he said it would happen at game 450). Dang, that was annoying to play all those ridiculously easy ones to get to this point! It should be more challenging and fun henceforth. Also, not that anyone cares about any of this, but I received the blue-footed booby icon for my latest prize. I don't understand all the icons and stuff littering up the app, but that's fine. I just want to play the games.

13. Sometimes I feel like I'm going blind, but then I remember I dimmed all my electronics when I had a migraine. Ahh! 

14. Apparently it's World Turtle Day! I like turtles; I had a couple as a little kid (I think I murdered one, so terrible), as that was trendy back then. I did an acrylic painting of sea turtles once, and my friend Joe said I should name it after the Grateful Dead song "Terrapin Station," so I did. Ultimately, I decided I didn't like the painting enough to keep it with my collection (I have limited space). Once, when I went to a stranger's house to play board games, they had a pet turtle named Elvis, and he liked to eat kale. I do not like kale myself. 

15. I had a mango popsicle for dinner, and now I am in a hot debate with me and myself over whether we should work on the panda puzzle, continue reading Remarkably Bright Creatures, or watch Mamma Mia again. Who do you think will win?

It’s now 7:45, so I think I will schedule this to post at 8:00, which will give me a few minutes to decide on the image. Thanks for reading! Hope nothing explodes tonight (they decided that an explosion would be worse than a flood blast).

Sweet Potato Hodgepodge

Baked sweet potato with broccoli and sunflower seeds

I’m participating in the Wednesday Hodgepodge again this week, which is hosted by Joyce @ from this side of the pond. 

1. What do you make more complicated than it needs to be? 

Hmm, pretty much everything including this question. The older I get, the fuzzier things appear (cleans glasses), and further possibilities sprout up like little forest mushrooms after a rain. I'm not talking about math, normal daily routines, or other things with clear answers (although the higher up you go in math, the fuzzier that gets too), but complex questions and new issues that require new decisions. Take Social Security, the supplement, and a drug plan, all of which I signed up for this year. OMG, how I agonized over all that! In general, I'm happy to take the advice of other people, especially my daughters, most of whom know more than I do, and ~ more importantly ~ seem confident in what they're doing.

2. What impresses you? 

Confidence, hah. Creativity, humor, kindness, empathy. 

3. On a scale of 1-10 how picky of an eater are you?  (1=extremely and 10=not at all) If you had to eat a meal made entirely of one color what color would you choose? 

This is a complicated question because on the one hand, I stick with the same basic meals and do not require nor generally desire anything fancy, but on the other hand, when I'm confronted with a list of foods many people hate, I'm fine with most of them, even if I usually don't eat them. For example, I love coconut, sushi, shrimp, oysters, mushrooms, olives, beets, eggplant, tofu, blue cheese, etc., but I don't usually eat any of that because I generally have the same boring salads and sandwiches and fruit. As I age, out of necessity I avoid a lot of fried food and other things that give me indigestion, so maybe overall I'm a 7.

I guess I would choose orange for my single-color meal because I could have cantaloupe to start, then a baked sweet potato, and uh... pumpkin pie for dessert!

4. What does balance in life mean to you? Does your life currently feel 'balanced'? 

To me, balance means that I work normal business hours, chat with my family most days (texting), hang out with friends on the weekend (a few times a month), and still have enough time for reading, writing, chores/ errands, puzzles, and loads of kitty snuggles. I am lucky in that my life feels balanced currently, though sometimes at the end of the month I have to work overtime.

5. If you could travel the world for a year what would be your first destination? 

I absolutely would not want to do this, no matter how much money I had. I would miss my family too much and also Inky! How could I leave Inky? I don't even like to be gone for one night.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Websites lately are so irritating, though I still find Blogger vastly preferable to WordPress (and I'm never going back). Whether it's an online store or a news site, you're bombarded with pop-ups and ads, and it's hard to even read an article anymore without being harassed. For example, I used to read People magazine to get the dish on celebs, but it's so obnoxious that I can no longer deal with it. Articles hang up before they finish loading because the ads are taking too long. On the other hand, sometimes an Instagram ad looks interesting, so I think OK let's see what this is all about. Nope. I can't even view whatever thing it is because the company would rather pester me to sign up for emails and deals than let me view the product in peace. You know what this reminds me of? In the olden days, we used to browse in meatspace stores (how quaint!), and salespeople were constantly pestering us with small talk and asking what we're looking for. We hated that then, and we hate it online!

Maybe in Another Life

Photo taken by me

 

I was gifted Maybe in Another Life by Taylor Jenkins Reid for my birthday last month. It had been on my list for a while because I loved TJR's Daisy and the Six (not the TV series however) and also Malibu Rising. Both books received a 5-star rating from me. I also enjoyed Evidence of the Affair, but I gave that novella only 3 stars. Three stars isn't a bad rating at all ~ it means you liked the book in general, but it had flaws. Four stars means you loved it, and 5 stars means it was utterly mind-blowing and you'd read it again. Most of my ratings are between 2 and 4 stars. (Two means it was "just OK.") If a book is so bad I'm going to award only one star, I usually don't even finish it. 

As I've ranted mentioned before, I feel the star rating system is skewed because so many readers are giving books 5 stars if they merely liked them. I'm not a purist ~ it's fine to overrate your friends' books ~ but that's not what I'm talking about here. I'm talking about people flinging 5 stars at ordinary mass-produced romances, thrillers, etc., and thus making the ratings meaningless. So annoying. Oh well, I guess there are larger problems in the world…

Anyway. Back to Maybe in Another Life. 

Warning: my review contains spoilers!

I didn’t like the main character, which isn’t necessarily an insurmountable impediment to loving a book if the plot and other story elements are great, but they aren’t. We are following two distinct storylines, which diverge after 29 year old Hannah does or does not hook up with her old high school boyfriend when she moves back to LA after flitting around various cities/ jobs. In the first scenario, Hannah and Ethan have a blissful few weeks together until Hannah realizes she’s preggo, but not with Ethan’s baby ~ she’d been carelessly hooking up with a married man in NYC. There’s not one moment where Hannah thinks hmm I am such a flighty and irresponsible person, so perhaps I should terminate this pregnancy or at least consider giving the baby up for adoption. Instead, she’s all in immediately, even after the NY man nopes out of helping. Did I mention that Hannah has no job, no car, and no apartment? That’s OK: other people step in to help her because she’s so wonderful. Those wonderful Hannah moments occurred off-screen, as far as I can tell. 

In the second scenario, Hannah chooses not to go home with Ethan and gets hit by a car. She wakes up in the hospital after three days in a coma, only to discover that she’s lost a pregnancy she hadn’t known about. Ethan shows up to visit, but he had taken another girl home from the bar that night after Hannah turned him down, and Hannah knows this, so she is meh about him. She falls for her hunky night nurse Henry instead, and gets him in trouble with his supervisor. I feel bad for all of Hannah’s physical problems, but she’s so selfish! The plot isn’t captivating enough to make up for her shortcomings. And do we have to keep hearing about her love for cinnamon buns on every freaking page?! Not to mention her obsession with having her hair up in a “high bun.” Buns buns buns! (Same thing in the other storyline.) Hannah quickly recovers from the accident, with everyone helping her just like in the alternate universe. Blah blah.

The reason I awarded 3 stars to this book instead of 2 is due to all the philosophical musings in the narrative and sometimes in the dialog. That’s what kept my interest. It was also interesting that TJR didn’t write the exact same endings to both situations. Some events stayed on track in both, and others were wildly different. I liked this, since I don’t believe in “fate” other than what you create for yourself through the choices you make… and some stuff is totally out of your control. 

I didn’t love or hate this book because not everything has to be extreme, and I would give another TJR novel a shot.

~*~

This review is for John Holton’s Writer’s Workshop. 

Earth Day Hodgepodge

Grand Canyon scrapbook page

Warning: this is a long post, full of asides and pointless meandering.

Here are some random questions relating to Earth Day coming up on April 22. I found them on From This Side of the Pond. It's not likely I will remember to return to that post on Wednesday to link up or whatever the rules are ~ I am not big on blogging rigmarole, which is why when I participate in the poetry prompts I don't do "Mr. Linky," even though I would get more readers that way. It's nice having an audience (yay for A2Z!), but I am too lazy to jump through hoops to get it. This is also why I refuse to do any marketing for my books, though I may put up a page one of these days. I've been thinking about doing a few pages ever since I started A2Z because t's nice to sum up the links all in one place.

But seriously folks, I don't get it. Why create a post for people to respond to, which should be fun and easy-peasy, but instead of just accepting link-backs at the time people post, you make these rules about putting your link on another site (Mr. Linky) or telling people they need to return on a different day to post their link in comments? I also don't understand "blog hops" that require a code. A CODE?! Why can't you just post links to blogs/ posts you find interesting and suggest people pop over to check them out? Whine, whine, whine. Then again idgaf what people do as long as I don't have to participate. It's just perplexing, is all.

1. April 22nd is Earth Day...what's the most 'out of this world' place on earth you've ever visited? Tell us something about it. 

Welp, I'm not a big traveler and haven't been to any exotic locales, but I have visited the Grand Canyon in Arizona twice, and it is pretty awesome. You can get a sense of it from photos, but the sheer hugeness of the thing cannot really be appreciated unless you see it in person. It's definitely breathtaking. In fact, all that I have seen of Arizona generally is incredibly beautiful, particularly Sedona.

The first time I saw the Grand Canyon, I was with my college boyfriend. We had flown from Chicago to  California, so he could pick up an old junky car from his sister, which we planned to drive back. This was over Winter Break, so we had to take the southern route. Naturally, she did not get the car checked out beforehand, and we ended up in a repair shop somewhere in the wilds of California during the first day of our journey. I could say so much about how annoying college boyfriend and his sister were, but who even cares now? Anyway, we did manage to get to the Grand Canyon on the second day, and it was spectacular at sunrise. We stayed only a little while because we needed to get back on the road and head off to New Mexico. Albuquerque was much less spectacular ~ it was actually a dump ~ and we ate dinner at Pizza Hut and took off early the next day toward Texas and then north.

The second time I saw the Grand Canyon, I was with my (ex) husband and daughters, and it was much more fun. We actually stayed a decent amount of time to better appreciate it. The plan was to drive from AZ to Vegas, but during the trek, my (ex) husband took a business call in the car, got all distracted, and only refocused when I pointed out the "Welcome to Utah" sign. Since we were there, we decided to detour to Zion National Park, which is possibly the most beautiful place on earth. We could only do a quick drive through, but even that was incredibly impressive. Even though I am neither a camper nor a hiker (gah!), I can kinda see why people might want to spend some time in close physical contact with this place.

2. A favorite quote, verse, or song lyric with the word earth in it? 

"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy." ~ Hamlet to Horatio in Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 5 by William Shakespeare. 

Even though this quote is trying to get Horatio (and us) to accept that there are ghosts communicating with us, which I don't believe even though it has happened to me (I don't really think it was a "ghost," but rather my memory of my mother's voice that my mind conjured up when I needed an answer to a question), I still find it intriguing. What interests me is the concept that as fascinating as it is to be an intellectual and live inside one's head doing mathematical proofs and creating philosophical problems to solve on paper, reality can be even more interesting. See: the Grand Canyon.

3. What's the most trivial thing about which you have a strong opinion? 

Uh, Mr. Linky? LOL. Here's the thing: I don't believe that we truly accept something is "trivial" if we feel strongly about it. For example, I might say littering. I HATE LITTERING! But littering isn't trivial, is it? It may seem inconsequential to drop a gum wrapper on the sidewalk, but if everyone did it, the city would be carpeted with gum wrappers. We count on others to not do the thing we're doing. Take non-voters who say that their vote won't matter in the vast sea of votes. Yeah, and if no one voted? I still feel guilty about the primary I failed to vote in that one time. OMG, this whole thing (waves arms) is all my fault! Back to philosophy: this is called the "Tragedy of the Commons." We decide to not waste time researching candidates and marking our ballots because we rely on other people to do just that, but if no one did it we'd have a horrible system where unscrupulous grifters ended up in charge. Oh wait...

4. What's your most commonly used kitchen utensil or tool? What's the last thing you made using that tool? 

A spoon, I guess. I used one this morning to stir milk in my coffee and scoop cat food out of a can into Inky's bowl. Two different spoons! I am not a barbarian.

5. Marilyn (Memphis Bridges) gave me a great book of 3000 questions, and I'm going to try to use one in our Hodgepodge every week. Here is today's - 

What is your greatest extravagance? 

I am not an extravagant person, but I did spend $50 three times recently to decorate cookies, and that might seem a bit excessive. It was fun though! It wasn't just about the tasty cookies obviously ~ it was spending time with friends in an intensive, hands-on class, which required us to focus away from our phones. Confession: I may do it again, though not for May because I do have some self-restraint. Sometimes.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

This whole post is random. Back at my old WP blog, people seemed to enjoy my pointless meandering posts, and I even created my own personalized image for those posts, but for this one I think I will try to find a pic of the Grand Canyon, as it would be more appropriate for the Earth Day theme. I wish that One Drive could intelligently retrieve photos via keywords from my enormous backup pile, but it does not have the capability to do that like my iPhone does from the iCloud or the Google cloud. If I tell my phone to search for a cat pic, it will grab all cats and maybe some dogs too, but One Drive can only retrieve a pic from a keyword if you've renamed it with that specific word. Who even bothers naming their photos now that our phones make it possible to take a zillion pics per day? At least One Drive sorts by date, so if you remember approximately when you took a photograph, it is theoretically possible to find it again. Theoretically.

The Complaint Department

Gatsby, looking peeved (RIPurrs)

I’m taking a little detour from the April A2Z posts to participate in John Holton’s workshop. Here is a list of 10 things I’m currently sick of.

1. You know who. I’m not saying his name, but his ugly bloated face and savagely stupid tweets are in the news 24/7. 

2. People who park right next to me in the open lot at work when it’s 90% empty. I’m not near the elevator. WHY? 

3. Dumbass spam telling me my cloud storage is full.

4. The 800 bazillion snail-mails from every Medicare agent on the planet. I’m all set. GO AWAY! 

5. Random has-been actresses hawking their memoirs. Lady, I didn’t care about you back then when you were on 90210 or whatever, so I certainly don’t care now. 

6. Lazy Amazon deliverers who don’t bring large and/ or heavy packages to the door but instead stuff them into mail parcel boxes. Grrrr!

7. Putting off washing my car because it’s supposed to rain, but then it rains heavily in the night when my car is in the carport, and I just get a splattery drizzle on the way to work, which makes my car look dirtier. Argh!!!

8. The 405 freeway. IYKYK.

9. Books written in first person, present tense.

10. Bananas getting too ripe too fast. I know we’ve discussed this before, and I had a whole IG series about putting aluminum foil on the stems, but it doesn’t really work that well, so I am still dealing with this very important issue. 

Hobgoblins

We’re all probably familiar with the Emerson quote addressing a foolish consistency. I think about it a lot because my mind is stuffed with hobgoblins, so I worry that my mental capacity is limited. Even if my mind is large, having so many hobgoblins bouncing around means that there’s less room for deep and important thoughts. I was curious about the difference between a regular goblin and a hobgoblin, and Merriam-Webster says a regular gobbo is grotesque, evil, and malicious while a hobbo is more like a playful troublemaker, so that’s comforting, I guess. 

One of my hobbos insists that my profile needs to be consistent across platforms. I updated my profile on Instagram and Substack, which I can’t copypasta as it will change the font of the post (another hobbo!), but suffice to say that it’s perfect (until I change my mind). I can’t use it on FB though, since it’s over the character limit. Boo! I also can’t use it here because Google has separate categories for various items, and it wouldn’t make sense to smush them all into one box. I did fill out my Google profile similar to one I had years ago before a paranoid hobbo made me delete everything, and now part of it attaches to the end of each post. I guess that’s okay. It also doesn’t make sense to post all the things on my YouTube profile, so I didn’t, but at least what I did say is consistent with the other sites.

See what I mean? Instead of wasting time futzing with all this, I might have solved one of the math problems that have been vexing scholars for centuries or written a brilliant poem about butterflies or sketched a candle in a canoe. 

Contemplate the stars

But wait! My socks are crooked

Hobgoblins chortle 

K.I.S.S.

The older I get, the more I appreciate simplicity. I’m sure I am not unique in this preference. For example, Target just sent me an email telling me how happy they are to have me as a longtime customer. This would be the very same Target whose outside credit agency has rejected my new bank account about a dozen times, so I am forced into paying by phone. Since you can’t reply to the email, I decided to write a scathing letter about how badly I have been treated by both Target customer service and their stupid credit agency. I had fantasies about my extremely well-written (but very mean) letter going viral. People would finally appreciate my savage wit and intellect! I’d become famous!

Then I thought, nah, I will just continue not shopping at Target, which has been working well for a while now.

Regarding social media, the more FB annoys me, the easier it becomes to K.I.S.S. and avoid it. Lately, I’ve been checking my book club for updates, perusing the first dozen posts in my feed, and skedaddling out. If it weren’t for my book club, I would spend even less time there. 

I find Substack too difficult to navigate, so even though I have a couple pieces posted there, I never go unless I receive a link to an article that seems interesting.

Instagram actually pays attention to what I enjoy, so now my feed is filled with photos from zoos and kitty accounts. Ads for puzzles and “healthy” cookie dough may appear, and that’s okay. Funny that IG used to be my least favorite site! Words, man, I am here for words, I used to insist. Hah. Words are so irritating. Show me a red panda and keep your political jabber to yourself.

That said, I follow a few politicians and celebs there. I plan to read Valerie Bertinelli’s new book at some point (though I won’t pay the full hardback price). A few months ago, I donated to Gavin Mewsom (keeping this typo, sorry), so he sent me his book (for “free”). I will read that soon. I am currently, and by accident, reading two time travel books, including the 800 page novel 11.22.63 by Stephen King, which isn’t simple at all, but it’s damn good. (Update: just finished the non-King book and will review it soon on Goodreads.)

I refuse to read books I dislike, which means I don’t read all the selections every month for my online book club. My local, in-person club generally chooses books that I enjoy, so that’s cool. I joined an unofficial book club at work, but it’s via a comedian on YouTube, so I probably will pass on some of the selections. They’re very male-centric. 

I still like to engage in creative hobbies, but painting is so time intensive and messy. My friend Lisa gave me a sketchbook, and I am going to begin drawing instead of painting. Maybe I’ll engage in a little watercolor too. A whole world of possibilities opened up when Lisa said it’s not “cheating” to print out pictures from the internet and use them for inspiration or even copying outright ~ that’s what I basically did with those acrylic tutorials anyway. Real artists use models and photos all the time! Idk why I thought drawing/ sketching should come straight from my imagination. Silly.

How ironic is this looooong post? Maybe I should write a whole series on simplicity… or a novel!

Let’s keep it simple

Nobody wants War and Peace

Shiny things abound 

Post Valentines Blues

It’s official: I’m tired of romance. I don’t even have any romance novels in my house ~ I donated them all to the library. Even the Regency novels are leaving me cold because I really resent those hunky titled men who do absolutely nothing all day. Contemporary, in theory, should appeal to me, especially since I love the classic romcoms such as You’ve Got Mail, which I watched yesterday while doing a puzzle. It made me cry like it always does. Such good writing. Great dialogue and chemistry between the leads. A solid plot. Newer novels however have such stupid protagonists, not to mention plots that are way too absurd to take seriously even in fiction. There are exceptions, such as The Hating Game, but they’re too hard to find in the sea of dreck. 

Kinda like dating itself!

My online book club gravitates toward thrillers, and I have been reading a lot of those over the past year or so, but I am getting bored with them as well. I also have a separate list of restrictions for thrillers just as I do for romances: no child abuse, no animal cruelty, nothing about eyeballs, no teenaged protagonists, no first person alternating POVs, no stupid main character who deliberately flings herself into danger, etc.

This is not an exhaustive list.

Right now I’m reading The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill by Mark Bittner. It’s nonfiction and interesting. I do have to take breaks when I get annoyed with Mark for being an unemployed bum and remind myself that it’s okay and I am not dating him. In a romance novel, Mark would have been an introspective earl who could study birds all day and still be obscenely wealthy with a vast estate, but at least in this book the MC’s lack of a job actually means he goes hungry for a while. I have also started My Octopus Teacher on Netflix, which I am enjoying as well, but where is the documentary of an irresponsible man who won’t work, befriends animals, and dies impoverished and alone?

This morning I am going to breakfast with a friend and looking forward to catching up (and getting some avo toast). After that, I may paint again because my self-esteem is a bit too high, and it will be fun to fail at creating the masterpiece I have in my mind and end up with a hopeless mess. That way, I can remember how I didn’t pursue a lucrative career because I wanted to put energy into creative endeavors… and how that didn’t pay off. At all.

Besides that, I have loads of anxiety lately about all the things that have happened plus the ones that haven’t but might. Good times.

No advice needed. Commiseration encouraged.