Author: Lauren

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

I Want to Visit Disney Again

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I’ve been to Disney a few times in my life. A couple of times as a teenager and once again as an adult.  I had fun each time.

This doesn’t stop me from wanting to go back.

This is a small problem for me as my husband, for the most part, doesn’t really want to go back.  Yup, I’m throwing you under the bus hun.  #sorrynotsorry.

To be fair to him, if I asked, he would probably, reluctantly, go back.  Especially if it’s after they opened the Galaxy’s Edge Star Wars attraction.

To be honest, I’ll go back for that too.  Cause Star Wars!!!

I know I’ll be back to visit Disney World someday.  Until then, well.

It’s Been A Rough Year

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Well, I can’t seem to post with any consistency right now. And that’s okay.

We’ve had a tough year.

Not only did my dad pass away, but we lost two second cousins shortly after that. Most recently, my aunt died very suddenly.

See? Tough year. And it’s only August.

What you can’t see right now, because this is a blog, not a video, is me sending up a prayer to anyone who will listen asking “Please, let this be it!”.

I think it goes without saying that at this point everyone in my family needs therapy. Hell, I’m as depressed as I have ever been. My depression usually just leads me to overeat and wants me to lack motivation, but this time it brought with it it’s friend Sleepy the dwarf with it. Joy.

What I’m doing now is trying to find a therapist and I’m working on doing a thing every day. Right now it’s a silly thing. I’m trying to touch my toes, a feat I cannot currently achieve. I know that it’s a small thing, but it should make me smile when I do it for the first time, so I’m in.

As for finding the therapist, well, that will take some work, and I will be happy to spend the time doing said work. The end results of the therapy will, of course, take longer than trying to touch my toes will, but I’ll be better for having done it.

Just a Small Book Haul

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So I recently went on a book buying binge.  Just a small one.   Full disclosure, I didn’t actually buy one of them (hint, it’s the one that’s not out yet).

I got a lot of these from small indie book stores in Memphis, TN.  One is Two Rivers Bookstore, which does only sci-fi, fantasy, and horror.  They also sell vintage sci-fi covers, vintage clothes, jewelry, and other things.  The second store is a Memphis tradition, Burke’s Books.  It’s where the hubs and I had our engagement photos taken.  Seriously, both places are in the same neighborhood (Cooper-Young) so if you ever find yourself in Memphis I highly recommend checking both of these places out.  The rest of the books I got from Amazon or from Half Priced Books.

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From the bottom to the top we have 2 trade paperbacks.  Fables Vol 3: Storybook Love, and the new Witchblade Vol 2: Good Intentions.  The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon, Circe by Madeline Miller, The Dragon Republic by R.F. Kuang (it’s an arc* copy I got in a giveaway!), Strong Female Protagonist by Brennan Lee Mulligan and Molly Ostertag, The Power by Naomi Alderman, The Inheritance Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin (this one includes The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, The Broken Kingdoms, The Kingdom of the Gods and a novella The Awakened Kingdom), Pretender and Inheritor by C.J. Cherryh, Hyperion by Dan Simmons, and The Madness Season by C.S. Friedman.

What a nice, long, run on sentence that was.

I’ve never read any of these books before, so I’m excited to see what worlds they will take me to.

*An ARC is an Advanced Reader Copy, which is what book publishers send out to book stores to get them to sell the books.  Stores (or book reviewers) can’t sell them, so they either give them away or recycle them.

 

 

 

This Was Not A Vacation

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Hi.  How ya doing?  Me, I’m just over here hiding in case you want to throw things at me.

Yes, I know,  I’ve been gone a large portion of the last couple of months.  And yes, I was pretty much just plain ole gone last month.  I actually have a really good reason for that.

See, my father passed away.

We laid him to rest this past weekend.  It was a wonderful military service and the small enclave was packed full of people who loved my dad.

My cousin did the memorial and it was amazing.  We laughed until we cried.  Then we cried some more.  And then laughed some more.  Just like dad would have wanted.

And now I find myself entering the real world again.  I had spent the last month in Florida or Tenessee, but now I am home.  I had this buffer of family and friends in both places and they filled my time with joy and laughter.  I honestly don’t think I could ever tell them how much that meant to me.

So while I have always tried to keep my posts light and fun, and I still will, I might be working through a few of my emotions here on my little corner of the internet.

The next post is a sad one too.

I have issues.  And tissues.

I probably should have purchased some stock in the Kleenex company.  They certainly have gotten enough of my money lately.

I’m Now A Flexitarian

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I went to the doctor yesterday for a follow-up visit to find out how my medications were working.

Turns out they are working fine.  But me, well I could be working better.

See, the last time I went my doctor told me I had to lose some weight.  Not a lot.  Just about 30 pounds or so.  Nothing major.

I cut out Cokes and most processed foods.  The egg allergy has kinda helped with that and with cutting out most fast foods and fried foods from my life.  It also helped with cutting out things like cookies and cakes and other sweet treats as well.

I also started to do some light yoga a couple of times a week.

Needless to say, I have lost zero pounds.

Why?  Well, for all the cutting out I did, I can still eat at Taco Bell.

Not anymore.  No more tacos for me.

The doctor has told me that while she does want me to lose weight, but not on any on the fancy diets, like keto.  No, she wants me to become something called a flexitarian.

According to dictionary.com, a flexitarian is someone whose diet is mostly vegetarian but does eat some meat, poultry, or fish.

I also have to cut out added sugars, most dairy, some carbs (not all carbs though), and red meat.

Bye bye hamburgers.  Hello Impossible Burgers.

 

Family Emergencies Are The Worst

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So you may have noticed that I haven’t posted anything in a while.  I might have left my laptop at home after going to Florida to “visit” during a family emergency.

To be fair, I was a little pre-occupied with the family emergency part.   That kinda took precedence over the whole blogging aspect of my life.  Go figure.

The family emergency involved my dad and some surgery and lots of doctors saying things like “well, it’s complicated”  and “this has to be handled delicately”.  Because why can’t family emergencies ever be simple?

I was gone for two weeks, and while my life may have been mildly inconvenienced, I didn’t have to spend it in a hospital bed being poked and prodded by doctors on the regular.  I can imagine that was the worst.

Actually, there were a few things I can think of that could have been worse.  Thankfully, they weren’t.

Family emergencies really are the worst, aren’t they?

P.S. I feel like this entire post can just be one big shrug gif.

Embroidering the Day Away

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Everyone has a hobby.  That small thing they like to do to get them through the more restful (Re: boring) moments of their lives.  Some people like to build model trains, make bullet journals, or knit.

I embroider.

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I got this as a full kit here.  While this particular kit is no longer available, this Etsy shop is full of kits that are great for beginners, which is what I am.

I started this hobby last year in about July.  My sewing craft of choice has always been needlepoint, but there aren’t a lot of kits available that I haven’t already done/don’t want to do.  I needed something I could sit and do to keep my ADD from going bonkers.

It does that sometimes.

And this isn’t the same embroidery that you usually think of when you think of embroidery.   For example, I love this kit, which you can find here.

Etsy is full of wonderfully unique pdfs to download and full kits to do.  I have quite a few that have been favorited that I will be purchasing as soon as I finish the ones I have already collected.

If you are interested in getting started yourself there are some great samplers out there to learn basic stitches.  I recommend this one and this one.  Both are simple and easy to learn from.  If you need further help or want to take your skills to the next level, YouTube has some fantastic tutorials, I love the Handiworks channel.

This is a hobby that I didn’t expect to love as much as I did, but I am glad I found it.

 

Job Interview

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I had my first job interview in ten years today.

Pretty sure I blew it.

Again, it’s the first interview in ten years.  I think that’s okay.   It’s good experience to have for my upcoming interviews that I don’t have yet.

How do I know I blew it?

Among other reasons?  The first question they asked me I went “Umm” and totally blanked on the answer.

I am special.

Oh well.  I blew the interview.  There will be other interviews for me to blow, er succeed at.

Cat Intteruptus

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For the past few days whenever I have tried to type up something on my blog, my cat has jumped up on the table and decided to nap on my arm.

It’s just a tiny bit distracting, to be honest.

And the purring!  It starts whether or not I pet her.  She doesn’t care, she just wants attention.   Cause cat.

 

Breakfast for Dinner

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The other day I made breakfast for dinner.  A skirt steak (which we split in two), duck eggs (my allergy-safe alternative) and some breakfast potatoes found their way onto our plates.

Terrible meal.  Absolutely awful.

Just kidding, it was a great meal.

The leftovers were good too.  Since the huge steak was huge and we split it in twain originally, and for dinner the following night we split half of a half.

And then I made pancakes.

Breakfast for dinner two nights in a row may seem extreme to you, but to me it’s heaven.

I may or may not love breakfast for dinner.  But who doesn’t love breakfast for dinner?  I mean, it’s the best of all worlds without the regret of eating too many carbs and having to go about your day feeling overly full!

What’s so wrong about loving that?  The answer is nothing.  Nothing is wrong.