Author: Lauren

I'm not a good writer, so I'll just keep writing until I am.

A Great Love Affair

Lauren2 Comments

No, I’m not talking about the love I feel for the hubs, though that is epic (Epic I say!). And no, it’s not some Regency romance where the man gets the girl but only after he’s been an accidental jerk to her and she’s been uppity to him for the whole thing.

I’m talking about my love of Animal Crossing: New Horizons!

This game with all its cute little villagers has somehow managed to capture my whole heart to the point where I have played it, everyday, for the last three months, for at least an hour.

I may have missed a day at the Nook Stop, but I haven’t missed a day playing yet!

I’m not actually sure if that’s something to be proud of or sad about. I guess it all depends where you are in life. Right now, I guess I’ll take proud!

I have loved everything about this game, from Flick, to C.J., to Celeste. Lets be honest, I freaking love Celeste. She pops up when there are meteor showers! How cool is that?

I love being able to pick where my villagers get to live, where the shops all go, what paths I get to lay. I love all the things!

If you’ve played, then you know the joys of which I speak.

Who would have thought a simple game (that I wasn’t even sure about to begin with would turn out to begin with) to be so much fun?

Gods Behaving Badly-A Book Review

Lauren1 Comment

This book came out in 2007, so I’m a little late to the book reviewing game on this one.

See, I’m a big fan of Greek myth stories. I just found out about Song of Achilles, like, two months ago, and I need to read it now!

Back to this book. My main problems were with the characters and the plot. The world building was perfectly fine, and since it was our world it wasn’t a hard sell.

The characters, however, were rather flat. Our female protagonists are polar opposites of each other, which normally isn’t a bad thing. You look for that opposition to bring out the characters strengths and/or weaknesses. But in the case of Alice, it did nothing but make her look weak. No redeeming qualities at all. Poor Alice.

The premise of the book held great promise, but when you got into the actual meat of the book, the plot fell flat. Until that twisty bit with, well, to say its name would give away part of the twist now, wouldn’t it?

After that twisty bit it did get pretty good. Not great, mind you, but good. I did like the bit with Hades and Persephone.

At the end of the day this book was just okay. I didn’t hate reading it. I also didn’t love reading it either. I give it a solid “meh”.

Gods Behaving Badly was written by Marie Phillips and was chosen as my book club’s book of the month.

Welp, That’s Over…For Now

Lauren2 Comments

Dun Dun DUN!!!!

That’s right. We have offically cancelled the Disney trip.

And by canceled, I mean postponed.

And by postponed, I mean put off for another two ish years.

And that’s okay. Except for the part where when I sent the email to the travel agent I wanted to cry.

But it’s fine. I’m fine. Everything’s fine. This is fine.

Our Disney Trip Might Be Over

LaurenLeave a comment

So our trip to Disney might be over before it’s even begun!

See, Disney recently announced their plans for re-opening Walt Disney World starting in July. And that came with a lot of restrictions and cancellations.

What got cancelled, you may ask? Well, all of our Disney Dining reservations, including the ones for making the lightsabers! I woke up at five in the morning to make those! They cancelled those for everyone through the end of the year. They will let you make new ones 60 days out from your trip date, but that just means getting up in the morning to do it all again.

They also aren’t going to have parades, fireworks, or any shows that may draw large crowds. Since our trip is still months away this may not affect us, but with the way Covid-19 is looking right now, it may still be this way. This may also mean that there is going to be no Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party this year, which I was looking forward to.

They have also currently cancelled all Fast passes so they can use the lines for social distancing waiting for all the rides. We shall see how that goes.

Of course, this is just phase one of a phased re-opening. Disney is sure to have more up their sleeves in the future. We just get to play a wait and see game for the next few months.

Stupid plague.

Well That Didn’t Take Long

LaurenLeave a comment

Well, I did it.  I changed my mind.

About what, you may ask?

The wall!  I changed my mind about the wall!

If you’ll recall from this post, I really wanted to paint.  Specifically, this wall in my house.

img_20200329_163834

I felt my home really needed an accent wall, but I was going to do my best to wait until the pandemic was over.

Then I got an itch.  And I needed to do something!  So I went out and bought paint samples for the two colors I liked best.

img_20200414_145350

But as time has passed and I lived with the colors, I came to a very different conclusion.

I don’t actually like either one of them for this room!

Yup.  They gotta go.  It didn’t take too long.  I noticed after about a week that the colors weren’t quite what I wanted, and they pretty much stayed that way.

It also doesn’t help that both colors made me want to paint the rest of the rooms that the wall is visible from, i.e. the kitchen and the dining room. That’s a no go.  I know I have the time, but that’s a lot of work and I have very high ceilings.

Whine.

So it’s back to the drawing board.  I still want to paint that wall, I just have to find a different color for it.  More researching on the internet for me!

When the “Worst” Thing Happens

LaurenLeave a comment

Okay, so not the worst, worst thing.  But still.

The worst thing happened!

My Nintendo Switch died!

I should maybe explain that I started playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons recently.  I had never played an Animal Crossing game before.  I found it highly entertaining.  I played, according to my Switch before it died, for 125 hours or more.   Not to mention the hours I had put into my replay of Breath of the Wild.

Then on Saturday, I put my Switch to sleep to go make dinner, and it didn’t want to wake back up.

I did everything I could to bring it back.  I even called my husband down to come and look at it.

Nothing worked.  It was well and truly dead.

Bother.

My husband did have one minor solution though.  See, we are a two switch household.  We discovered a while ago that we both like playing Switch game and taking it on trips and the like.  So two Switches quickly became a necessity in our lives.

The hubs just suggested I use his until we could send mine off to Nintendo for repairs.  Which will be a while, since the repair center is closed due to Covid-19, as it should be.

With the hubs’ great sacrifice, I was off!

I did have to start the game all over again, but I learned from the last time I played.  What took me almost two weeks to do last time, took me a day and a half to do this time.

I’m trying hard not to do things the same way.  I picked a different roof color for my house, for example.  And of course, the island is different.  And I got all new villagers, which is great, though I did like my old villagers.

Oh!  And because I had gotten Nintendo Switch Online, I didn’t lose all my gameplay for Breath of the Wild!  Still wish you could back your Animal Crossing island up though!

 

When Life Has Got You Down

LaurenLeave a comment

Well hello!

Mental health check!  How are you?

Me, I’m on a mild downswing with my bi-polar disorder.  For me, that means mild depression.  Oh joy.

I say mild because that’s what it is.

I find myself having a lack of desire to do things other than sitting around my house playing Animal Crossing.  And I only want to do that because it involves just sitting around my house!

I’m having trouble falling asleep at night and then, in the morning, I’m having trouble waking up!  That’s what you call a no-win situation. It’s because of the lack of sleep the night before leads to a desire to sleep in, but the alarm I set to try and wake myself up every day says no.  Bother.

This week I told myself I was going to start doing things.  I know, doing things won’t snap me out of my depression, nor do I expect it to, but my house won’t clean itself.

When I looked at the idea of cleaning my house it felt too daunting, so I skipped doing something on Monday.

On Tuesday I told myself that I was going to clean the master bathroom.  That didn’t happen.  It felt like an insurmountable task.  Like Sisyphus and his boulder.

Then, on  Wednesday, I decided to try something different.  If the idea of cleaning a whole room felt too huge, why not just clean part of it.

So I cleaned the shower.

Finally, a win!

I did something.

Thursday, I woke up early and met with my psychiatrist.  He doesn’t recommend changing my medication at this time, because, like most people, my change of mental state can be directly related to the chaos caused by Covid-19, even though my day to day life hasn’t changed much.

So for now, I just have to remember to be not to harsh with my self when I find it hard to get out of bed and to practice good self-care.

Oh, and lots of cuddles with this one.

img_20200508_150913

 

Happy Star Wars Day!

LaurenLeave a comment

May the 4th be with you!

I love that pun.  nevermind that it is a very clever marketing tool to get Star Wars fans everywhere to buy new merch and watch the movies.  It totally works.

I mean, I woke up this morning to buy a pair of Star Wars Minnie ears from Disney for my upcoming trip only to find out that they were more than I was willing to pay for something I was only going to wear once.  $80 for a pair of Minnie ears Disney?  Really?

They were cute though.

Droid Ear Headband by Ashley Eckstein for Her Universe – Star Wars – Limited Release

It may be a day for merch, but it’s also a day for nostalgia.

See, my first memories of Star Wars are shared with my father.  He was the first person I saw the original trilogy with.  And I’m not gonna lie, after the last movie, Rise of Skywalker, I may have cried in the theater as the credits were rolling because I wasn’t able to share this final movie with him.

It was bittersweet.

So today, I’ll watch that original trilogy.  I’ll celebrate all things Star Wars.  I’ll remember my dad and the times we spent watching the movie together.

Today, I will be unapologetically nerdy.  Just the way May the 4th is supposed to be.

That’s It, I’m Giving In

Lauren1 Comment

Well, I cracked.  I did it.  I gave in.  I decided to listen to my inner mental health cheerleader and paint the wall!

img_20200329_181243

Yes, this bland fireplace wall is gonna get an update.

And the hubs will be so relieved that he no longer has to listen to me complain about it.  Heck, I will no longer have to listen to me complain about it!

Right now I’m in the color selecting process.

img_20200413_172701

I did that by going online to various paint-related stores and searched their online catalogs.  Lowes and Sherwin Williams both had tools where you could upload your own home photo and see what the color would look like in the room that way.

I narrowed it down to two colors, both in different color families.

HGTV HOME by Sherwin-Williams Caviar Interior Paint Sample (Actual Net Contents: 8-fl oz)

Caviar by HGTV Home By Sherwin Williams.

HGTV HOME by Sherwin-Williams Dark Night Interior Paint Sample (Actual Net Contents: 8-fl oz)

And this is Dark Night by HGTV Home by Sherwin Williams.

Now I am choosing the colors by not painting them on the wall but on a canvas.  I have no access to posterboard right now, and I have the blank canvases in the house and I figured, why not.

img_20200413_180029

This method helps me choose a color without committing to painting the wall should I decide that I dislike either color.

img_20200413_173830

Use as many coats on your sample as you would on the wall for maximum opacity (is that actually a word or did the beauty gurus make it up?).

img_20200414_145350

Each color is so very different.   I have one I am leaning towards though.  Which one do you think it is?

 

We Made Our Dining Reservations!

Lauren1 Comment

I woke up at 5 AM and did it!

I made our Advanced Dining Reservations!

And yes, yes you should clap for me, cause that was 5 in the morning!  The sun wasn’t even out yet!

We got The Hollywood Brown Derby in Hollywood Studios for lunch because the burger looks amazing!  We also procured a reservation at The Jungle Navigation Co LTD Skipper Canteen (isn’t that a long name) in the Magic Kingdom for dinner.  We also got Tiffins in the Animal Kingdom for dinner.  For our arrival date we got Whispering Canyon Cafe at Wilderness Lodge for dinner.  And last but not least, we got Raglan Road in Disney Springs for lunch with the family!

See, both the hubs and I have family in Florida.  They live about an hour and a half away from Orlando on either side of the state, so we get to see them while we are there!

We don’t have ADR for every day we are there because Epcot’s Food and Wine Festival will be going on.  We will be eating all the food that day!

I am so excited for our trip!  Let’s eat all the things!