Home Archive by category "Bloggish Things" (Page 25)

Category: Bloggish Things

Thoughts, essays, and comments from the writers of Turtleduck.

Marie Kondo, Queer Eye, and Rejuvenation

Sometimes, things just come together. I love Marie Kondo’s Tidying Up. I’ve watched every episode. She’s so cute! And she helps people enjoy their lives more! What’s not to love? And Queer Eye–I’ve loved Queer Eye since the first episode I saw, way back when. I love the new one maybe more–no, I can’t say that. I love them both, and every single one of the guys in both shows. But I did watch the new one more recently than any of the old ones (all of season 3 on Netflix in approximately four days after it was released ahem) Rejuvenation–well, roomie was avoiding something, and I commented on how I wanted time to paint my room, and she painted my room! This color. It’s called Rejuvenation. Naturally, to get the walls painted, nearly everything had to be moved out of the room. My bed and my desk stayed, pushed into the middle of the room, but everything else outside my closet was removed. Did I mention this was spring break? This was spring break. Roomie’s school doesn’t have the office staff work over break, but my school does. So my room got painted and it’s BEAUTIFUL and I LOVE IT, and the tape got removed, and I just kept not finding time to move all my stuff back in. Because I was tired. Because I was busy. Because my room was so nice without all the crap in it! Reader, I don’t actually have a lot of crap. My…

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Still Mostly Brainless

So, the observant people will probably notice that this blog post is up on a Wednesday, not Tuesday like usual. There’s a story in that. So it was one task after another all day Tuesday and into the evening. Six clients’ work. I also posted my own blog post for A Round of Words in 80 Days (ROW80) which I always participate in because it keeps me accountable. I hadn’t posted check-ins except for two, and thought it would be good to at least post the final one for the round. Why this didn’t send up a flag in my head about this blog I’ll never know. It was around 10:30pm and because I need help to use the bathroom, my help wanted me to start so she could go to bed. Fair enough. As I am shutting down for the night, it finally freaking dawned on me. I’d forgotten this blog! But wait, there’s more. Between this and two other incidents, I am convinced that surgery can screw with your mind three weeks later. Please note that I feel fine with the exception of pain. I am also more tired because it’s physically wearing on me to haul this body around on essentially one foot on a scooter. And I have fibro fatigue added to that. I started working four days after my surgery. Say what? I had a lot to do. My clients were great about it, but I’m apparently insane. So I have a vivid memory of…

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Adulting Sucks But At Least There’s Coffee

Which is funny, because I was pretty sure I was never going to be a coffee person. First of all, our new anthology is out! It features four stories from the time period between the War and the events in City of Hope and Ruin. All the details can be found here. But seriously, there was a coffee shop in the lobby of the engineering building at university, and I’d meet my friends there all the time, maybe getting some tea, and they were boggled about how I was surviving engineering school without caffeine. (Maybe caffeine would have helped? I did not get a lot of sleep at night and slept through a lot of class, but I think I’m mostly immune to caffeine anyway.) (Moving on.) In a few minutes here I have to take my car to the dealership for a major recall fix (apparently the passenger side airbag becomes more and more likely to explode incorrectly as time goes on), which is a pain in the butt. I have at least coerced them into giving me a rental car so I don’t have to wait around (with the smallest, mobile one) for six hours while they replace the airbag. Two weeks ago, I had to have the washing machine repaired. And two weeks before THAT I had sinus surgery, which I shall be paying for forever. I mean, nothing’s a catastrophe. But, Goddess, can’t things stop falling apart? Can’t we go a few months where there are…

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When Writing Isn’t Fun Anymore

As a writer, I periodically hit this point. My Serious Novel work-in-progress feels too hard. (It may or may not have anything to do with where I am in the novel. Some parts of writing a novel just suck–even Neil Gaiman says so. But sometimes that’s not the problem.) Editing one of the short story drafts I have floating around feels too daunting. And starting a new novel? Forget it. I can drift along for months without writing anything. A couple of years ago, I even announced that I was quitting altogether. (It…didn’t stick.) Sooner or later I give myself a shake and go looking for the fun parts of writing–the parts I used to know about when I was a teenager, but somehow get harder and harder to find the more I learn. One year, I got out of this slump by writing Firefly fanfiction. Another year, I started plotting a contra dance–themed cozy mystery. Two years ago, I challenged myself to write the smallest possible thing every day–it led to a lot of haikus and then, eventually, flash fiction. (Which led to me placing third in a flash fiction contest and then getting to help judge it last year, as well as making my first pro-rate sale. But that’s not the point of the story.) Why yes, this does happen regularly. It’s a cycle. I know this. Doesn’t make it any easier to avoid falling in…but at least I’m getting practice climbing out of it? The current strategy?…

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Kitchen Adventures Continued

Last month I talked about another attempt to get organized. Like a wave washing up the shore as the tide comes in, each time I try I get a little better. Unlike the tide, eventually I hope to get there and stay. (although I guess with erosion and rising sea levels, it could–ahem.) Last year (gulp) I talked about learning to cook more. It’s another wave thing, but these waves come slightly more frequently than the get-organized ones. Probably because eating out is expensive and bad for me. (pretty certain it’s the expensive part that keeps me coming back.) Since last year, I’ve given up my Jamie Oliver cookbooks. I still like to watch him cook, but I don’t make the recipes in the cookbooks, and I’ve been watching Marie Kondo, so… Turns out the recipes were a little…odd…for me. Unfamiliar measurements, unfamiliar ingredients, and results that made the whole family go “…umm?” When you’re just not sure if it’s supposed to be like that, it’s hard to figure out if/where you went wrong. Also I’ve discovered that I really enjoy hunting recipes across the internet. So. Meal planning is a major step for me. I’ll do it the way I like best, to encourage further exploration. I’ve found it’s actually easier when there are limitations. Roomie can usually cook two nights a week, but she won’t use the Instant Pot. Kid can cook another night, but it has to be an easy recipe and I have to be available…

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Surgery Prep Central and the Insanity of Trying to Do All The Things

Yep, so in case you haven’t heard, I’m having surgery on my screwed up right foot next Friday. When I was first notified by my foot doc’s boarding department of the date, it felt like forever. Now, it feels too soon. I have an impressive to-do list. I took on extra work for my VA clients because I wanted my first week of recovery to be easier. Which means…I have lots more work to do than usual. Like, I have two newsletters to put together before my surgery. One for a client, which I am totally okay with as I was the one to suggest it, and one for myself because I was an idiot and signed up to do a promo the day after my surgery. So that needs doing. My mom and sister have been AMAZING. I decided that I should have frozen meals to get me through that first week (and possibly beyond). The original plan was the three of us were to make the meals. Except…I got bogged down in work so sister and my mom took over. And did they ever! Holy crap, it the past I don’t know, five days or so, they’ve made 4 or 5 meals already! So that’s been happening. I also need to pick up my scooter once the medical supply place calls. I know the surgery is scheduled for 7:30am but I am assuming they will want me there earlier. I’ll have a pain ball, and as I’ve never…

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I Look Like Groucho Marx

This has been a year so far, my friends. Yes, it has. The first half of January was eaten by Disney World, and February’s first half isn’t going so well either. I spent most of last week doing stuff for the kids (and also I got a very minor case of the flu over the weekend, yay), and yesterday I had sinus surgery. This has been a bit of a roadblock, as you can imagine. Surgery is, of course, not cheap. Plus there’s the fact that I’ve never had surgery. Or anything remotely like anesthesia. So, panic! (Though, when I told my anesthesiologist that I was feeling nervous, he said, “I have medicine for that,” and duly went and got something and put it in my IV and woah, that stuff works fast. And is also a little disconcerting.) Anyway! I won’t go into too many details. Surgery was had, I have survived, and now I’m in this weird place where I feel mostly like myself except also occasionally very sleep and a bit dizzy. Should I just plan on this being how this year is going? Only half a month is usable? Maybe so. Maybe that’s not a bad thing to assume anyway. Keep our expectations realistic and all that. Anyway, I’m going to take a nap.

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Adulting

At the start of this year, I got back from vacation, looked around at the state of my home, and declared that January would be Adulting Month. What I had in mind was things like “make some appointments that I keep putting off” and “clear the junk out of my home office”. (I guess decluttering is the new weight loss resolution?) But apparently the universe didn’t get the memo. I’ve written before about how contra dance has helped me grow. Well, the past few months have presented a whole new challenge. See, I’m on the organizing committee for my local dance community. A few months ago, we started talking about changing how we do things. It’s a bit esoteric and not essential to my point here, so I won’t go into details, but suffice to say that it’s about inclusivity. (If you really want to know, read the fifth paragraph of my last post about contra.) Here’s where I admit that I was the one who officially got things moving (after months of unofficial talking). Suddenly I found myself on the front lines along with two other women. We were planning out how to introduce it in such a way that everyone felt heard and included, even the people who liked the status quo and had never thought about doing things differently. I was writing copy for our website and newsletter. I was vetting the survey that my co-planner put together. I was talking to other dancers to find out…

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Organization is Good

My schedule makes me free. If I keep repeating that, I’ll come to believe it, right? >_> Well, here we are. It’s time once again for KD Sarge’s not-quite-yearly attempt to get organized. Falling, as usual, right after KD Sarge’s nearly-annual freakout about how little got done last year. Whee? Eventually, I believe, I’m going to get my carp together. It’s going to happen. I have faith. I’m back on the BuJo train again, but this time I’m staying away from Pinterest layouts and such. My bullet journal will never look like those, because that’s not what I want to spend my time on. If it reminds me of the things I need to remember when I need to remember them? That’s all I need from it. I’ll just save my pretty gel pens for my adult coloring books with pretty mandalas and swear words. And also Postcards to Voters. And my washi tape for…random craft projects because I totally do those. Yeah. I’ll figure something out, I’m sure. But the thing with my BuJo, which probably had something to do with my dropping it the last two times I tried, is that it can’t help me if I never open it. So I’ve got a schedule too. I wrote it on a chalkboard on my wall (large, because I am amazing at ignoring with singular attention anything I’m supposed to be doing, but obviously, the bigger it is the harder to ignore, so…) That’s for my after-work evenings, when…

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Starting Out with a Pain

Yeah, so 2019 has started off kind of rough for me. But to be fair, this all started late last year. It’s just carried over into this year. So, about six months ago or thereabouts, I began having pain just above my right heel whenever I would stand up. Because I typically have random aches and pains that end up being nothing, I didn’t even think about it. But then my mom saw me hobbling around and asked what was wrong. I was like, “Oh, my heel hurts. No biggie.” Well, because she has heel spurs, she was pretty worried. And then it progressed to all the time. So it was time to see the doctor. He diagnosed Achilles Tendonitis, told me to rest it/ice it/take Motrin and call him if it wasn’t better in two weeks. Well, it ended up being longer because the holidays were coming up and being that I don’t drive, I had to wait for someone to take me. So it was in October that I finally saw the doctor again. He wanted an MRI; my insurance squawked and made me get an X-ray, another find-a-ride-ordeal. I finally got my MRI right after Thanksgiving. My doctor’s office called me and told me the results: Achilles Tendonitis (you don’t say?), edema (swelling), and a complete tear of the anterior something-something ligament. In other words, a very severe sprain. Now, most people who aren’t me probably know when it happened. They either fell, twisted it funny, or…

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