Happy October

Welp, Inky and I are officially on a diet. I took her to the vet Monday for her first checkup, and as soon as I picked up her carrier I thought… hmm, there seems to be a lot more cat here than when I brought her home three months ago! She’s gained two and a half pounds, which is a significant amount for a small-framed kitty. Vet says she should be around 9 even, so we will aim for that. Since my weight has crept up too, it’s the buddy diet system for us. Solidarity! Today I began a new blog to document our progress, but I’ve kept it private for now. I might decide to rant about other stuff in there, who knows.

I do enjoy Inky's pudgy-wudginess, particularly because Gatsby became so thin at the end. Her extra padding makes me happy that she's a healthy creature and will hopefully be around a good long time. But that's selfish. Inky should be at the right weight for her optimal health, so we will get back there. She is so vibrant, and her fur is so soft and shiny. She loves to play now and has her favorite toys, one of which (feather wand) she likes to bring into our bed every night. It's too cute!

Anyway. The disgusting heat wave is over, TG, and I have a lot of social activities planned for October. Hopefully, my migraines will get the memo and stay away (I did have to take meds this morning, boo). I’m back into jigsaw puzzles! They’re such a great way to relax and zone out from the news and all the yuck online. (I guess I'm trying to do a bit of dieting regarding social media and the news as well as the traditional food restrictions. Gotta take care of my mental/ emotional health too!) I created a method to cover them when I am not actively working on them, so the pieces won't get disturbed by kitty curiosity, but it’s a clunky system. I have this cool plastic tray table with drawers and a cover in my Amazon cart, which I hope goes on sale next week during Prime Days; I will buy it either way. 

My memories of working on puzzles with my mom are of the 1500-2000 piece ones, but those are too big for my table. I have found that even a 1000 piece puzzle is a big commitment for one person to do alone, especially if it's not an "easy" puzzle with distinctive areas. I'm working on one right now that's a bear (not an actual bear), but I like it, so I will finish it, even if it takes me two weeks. The tray table I want to buy is only for 1000 pieces or fewer (a few brands have the "wrong" dimensions, so I will need to pay attention to that if I buy new 1000 piece ones), and my thinking at the moment is that I probably will stick with 500 piece puzzles. There seem to be more of them, and they're not so overwhelming. It's infinitely easier to have a puzzle buddy for the larger ones, but there's just me doing them now. I am not a puzzle prodigy, a la the movie Puzzle ~ I'm a puzzle plodder. If I get a dozen or so pieces in one short session, then that's a win. That's a great movie, btw. I hope to watch it again someday.

I'm enjoying the (slightly) cooler weather and pumpkin spice everything. I don't even mind the earlier dark. Off to do some aerobic exercise!

Pumpkin Spice Thoughts

The internet has turned (allegedly) normal adults into toddlers. A perfect example of this is the kerfuffle around pumpkin spice. Why should there even be an issue? If you like pumpkin spice, then yay there are a lot of products to choose from. If you hate pumpkin spice, then don't order any of these products. Maybe I missed the PS evangelist gang kidnapping peeps and forcing them to drink PS lattes? That's a possibility, since there is so much news it's hard to keep up. In the absence of someone forcing a PS hater to consume PS however, why are the haters so obsessed with hating on it? This is typical toddler behavior, and what do we say to cranky tots? Don't yuck my yum. To each their own. If you can't say something nice, then don't say anything at all. Etc.

I love some pumpkin/ pumpkin spice foods: lattes, cookies, cake, pie, and (surprisingly) tortilla chips from Trader Joe's. I'm neutral on others, and I particularly dislike the oatmeal and granola I tried. But instead of making a nasty meme about PS cereals, I simply have gone on to live my life without them. Other people enjoy the cereals, or they wouldn't continue to sell, and this has zero effect on my life. You could say the same thing about other food items I avoid, such as escargot, beef jerky, licorice, etc. I don't feel the need to insert an "eww" every time someone mentions them on socials. Every September however, without fail, the PS haters appear on social media with their mockery memes, and I just don't understand it.

Perhaps it's a way of bonding: nothing brings people together like a common hatred. There even used to be a dating site themed on this concept ~ apparently Hater Dater has morphed into a typical advice blog. It makes sense though ~ common dislikes are sometimes more important in assessing compatibility than common likes. For example, when I used to date (or try to), it didn't really matter that a man matched with me on liking rock music, kitties, and sushi. Someone truly in sync with me didn't enjoy watching sports all weekend, traveling extensively, or going to massively loud/ crowded events. Of course, shared must-haves are crucial in certain areas, such as whether one requires a monogamous relationship.

Speaking of (not) dating, I was chatting with friends yesterday during a pumpkin spice themed rock painting party, and I mentioned that at a certain point, sometime between 2011 (breakup with boyfriend of 2.5 years) and 2016 (ghosted by man after 2.5 months), I just said eff it and began doing whatever I pleased without worry that it wouldn't mesh with some hypothetical future beau. My current lifestyle would most likely be a total turnoff to any man, with my focus on cats, crafts, puzzles, romance novels, and romcoms. I also play a lot of board games, which some men are into, but that's just a coincidence. The gals and I have planned another couple events during October: more rock painting but combined with a swimming and BBQ party, and a visit to the pumpkin patch where we will act like silly little kids again. I'm excited! I'll post my painted rocks on IG ~ I really like my cute avo.

My autumn agenda includes more books, more movies, more fun with friends, and more pumpkin spice. I will be avoiding as much stress and drama as I can, which means less and less social media. Btw, I have read plenty of books since my last review, but there hasn't been anything interesting to say about them. I also finished the first season of The Morning Show, and it turns out that only S1 is available on Prime (it's disappearing soon in any case); supposedly, I have Apple TV through a friend, but I can't get it to work, so I probably won't be watching more. I thought S1 was very good. Tonight I plan to watch Swiped, the docu about Bumble, only because it stars Lily James.

Four Short Weekend Reviews

I was a busy consumer this weekend, gobbling up other people's creative offerings, two books and two movies, which I shall briefly review in this post and try not to go on and on about, since I am tired. I also want to have time left to watch a movie and work on my last latch-hook pillow (I do only around three rows per session so my hands don't get too crampy).

1. The Pumpkin Spice Cafe, a romance novel by Laurie Gilmore. This book is pretty meh. There isn’t much conflict of any kind, and the protags annoyingly obsess over their past and what others think of them/might think of them if they begin dating. Sure, lots of folks do that in reality, but it's boring to read about. It felt like a young adult book with respect to the emotional maturity level even though both the hero and heroine were supposed to be around 30 years old. There is also a "mystery" element, but it isn’t very mysterious or interesting. I basically skimmed TPSC only so I could attend a meetup today with some book clubbers who had also read it (no one loved it). I'm certainly not going to read the next one ~ The Cinnamon Bun Book Store. I think there are a few more after that as well, with similar titles. Two stars for TPSC.

2. In the Dark, a thriller by Loreth Anne White. This is another one for my online book club. At first, I decided I hated it. A whole bunch of characters were flung at us rapidly, and not only couldn't I keep them straight, but also the story jumped around in time. Grrrr. But then I realized it was a homage to Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, which I absolutely love (book and movie), so I began to view it more favorably. At some point, it became one of those "unputdownable" books that I'm always hearing about. The premise is that someone sets up a group of people for a scam trip to a remote resort that will be opening soon, with all of the victims hoping to get some kind of lucrative business contract out of the deal. As soon as they arrive, they realize they've been duped and there is no resort, just an old lodge with no easy way back to civilization. Some of them are vaguely suspicious that they have met one or more of the others before. Then they find the Agatha Christie book on the table, and soon they twig to what's happening: they are all connected to the tragic death of a child that occurred 14 years earlier. After that, people begin dying, one by one. I almost didn't want to go to the meetup for TPSC because I needed to find out what the heck was happening In The Dark! But I did go... and rushed back home to finish the thriller. It was very satisfying, and I recommend this book heartily. Four stars.

3. Mini's First Time, a 2006 drama/comedy on Amazon Prime. First of all, you can't take this movie seriously, as it is utterly absurd, but once you view it as a kooky movie, it's sort of fun. Alec Baldwin is on form as a jerk, so we're off to a good start. His sexy stepdaughter (played by Nikki Reed) narrates the film, and her "thing" is to have a lifetime of firsts, from all sorts of sexual situations to murdering her mother, who hates her anyway. So the murder is planned and executed, and now we have a cop, played by Luke Wilson, hot on the case. Jeff Goldblum plays a weirdo neighbor. The whole thing is just so ridiculous that I enjoyed it. I just wish there had been more scenes with Luke because I particularly like him.

4. Non-Stop, a 2013 drama/suspense Prime film, starring Lacey Chabert, who plays an author's assistant trying to outwit a killer on a plane while she transports a manuscript to Zurich on her laptop. Why can't we email manuscripts to Zurich? Who the hell knows. Basically, the reason I clicked this was due to my fondness for Lacey from her Hallmark movies, but this movie left something to be desired, namely a plot that made any fucking sense at all. The twist at the end was fun, so I didn't regret watching the whole thing.

Oh, I forgot ~ I also watched Separate Lies on Prime, a British drama/romance. This story centers around the disintegration of a married couple's relationship after a tragedy for which one of them is responsible. Good story, though sometimes a bit draggy. Excellent acting. 

My Bathroom Smells Like Pie

Saturday 5:30AM I received a notification from my bank that someone tried to use my credit card at a TikTok store. Fucking TikTok! They have stores there? Just one more reason to hate them. Anyway, my bank was rightfully suspicious, declined the charge, and canceled my card. I'm glad they're on high alert, but now I have to be inconvenienced by waiting for a new card and changing my automated transactions when it gets here. Paying cash in the meantime. Hate scammers. Hate them so much.

Anyway. As I mentioned, I went to Mother's again, this time with my friend J, and had another delightful lunch. I try not to order the same thing every time, so Saturday I had the ancient grains bowl, which was very tasty. Lemon quinoa, broccoli, mushrooms, etc. I'm glad I didn't dump the sauce all over it because it was pretty spicy, and a tiny dab per bite was plenty. We browsed the store afterwards, and I couldn't resist a bar of pumpkin pie soap with a cute little soap dish. Not to use! Then it would be all gone. I put it in my bathroom for the scrumptious scent, so now my bathroom smells like pie.

Today I met my book club group at The Habit in Seal Beach. First time I've tried that place, but I wasn't in the mood for a burger, so I ordered a chicken Caesar salad. It was good. We had a great discussion about this month's book ~ Local Woman Missing by Mary Kubica. Most of the group liked the book more than I did, but we all agreed that the narrative was choppy and hard to follow, there were too many red herrings, the police procedural stuff made no sense, and the ending sucked. Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln...

After starting and stopping a bunch of crappy movies, I stumbled onto a fabulous one Friday night. It was Red Dragon (2002) on Netflix, the prequel to Silence of the Lambs, and in my opinion it was just a tad better (even though I love Jodie Foster). I read the book ages ago, in the 1980s, a gift from my friend K, and this is one of the rare cases where the movie was just as good. It helped that there was a stellar cast (Edward Norton, Anthony Hopkins, Ralph Fiennes, et al). Gruesome story, but if you can handle that, I highly recommend the film.

Similarly, after several literary disappointments, I began You by Caroline Kepnes on Saturday morning and finished it by Sunday night. It's so good! The narrative is straight up present tense, told in a single, linear point of view, and it is utterly compelling. See? When you have a solid story with an interesting protagonist, you don't need a bunch of gimmicky chronological flips and teasers. You can just lay it out there. That's not to say I hate all flashbacks ~ I don't ~ but they have to be good. Most aren't, especially the ones that careen back and forth in time with multiple viewpoints. I mentioned I was reading You to my book club, and they informed me that it is a series on Netflix, and naturally I started watching it tonight. So far, so good! Differs a bit from the book, but in ways that make the main character more well-rounded, so yay.

Since I gave up coffee, my blood pressure has been consistently in the "green zone," which makes me happy. I still have caffeine, via a few cups of black tea per day (not after 3PM though), which doesn't seem to affect my BP negatively. I didn't have any diet soda this weekend, but I will during the work week because I am not a saint. LOL