I have started a new blog, with a different blog service.
If you are an actual human reading this and not an Asian robot, you can message me for the address. I'm not sure how to do that, but there is probably a way. I don't think anyone that is not a robot has ever actually read this blog, but just in case...
Sorry for the inconvenience,
Sincerely,
Brianna the Frustrated Blog Writer
Sometimes you are on top of the world, and other times...
sick relatives
injured guinea pig (I think she poked herself in the eye, vet appointment $$$ tomorrow)
child driver "failed" her first lesson. She didn't actually fail, but she needs to drive faster than 5 mph...
messy house
broken, what isn't broken in this house?
went to water plants at the community garden I helped build, and couldn't get the hose to work properly which was frustrating
snarky children who won't do their chores and complain they are bored all the time
uncomfortable living room furniture that probably needs to be replaced
unwelcome memories from my past that were triggered and now won't go away. Does anyone else do that or is it just a me thing? It doesn't happen very often, but it's irritating when it does
the place we are going on vacation in July is very close to a raging forest fire
I'm not going to break any records on book reading this month...
When does the relaxing part of summer vacation start again?
ETA: the good news is, since I was weighed at my ear infection appointment in May, and decided this summer I was going to finally lose weight, and stopped eating most foods with unpronounceable ingredients, and chemicals, I've lost 10 pounds. No, husband, I am not counting calories (as I've said a billion times.) I'm making better food decisions. Lots of fruit, vegetables, nuts, cheese and yogurt and no chips, crackers, cereal, and being picky about bread.
I don't know why it's working, but it's working. Go me.
Summer Day #2
Took the car to dealership this morning (because they had an available appointment and my mechanic does not) and am waiting for a call about what they figure out. It's annoying because it's on the other side of town, and I don't want to use their shuttle service.
Went to the library.
Let the oldest drive home and I didn't die. Gradual stopping is apparently a learned skill...
Cleaned out the other car.
Have to take the 17-year-old to driving class again tonight (3 nights a week...)
Should take a picture of my new bookcase...
Am washing a load of towels, clean towels are a luxury in this house...
Mailed a book someone bought from Pango. Annoyingly enough, the public blue mailbox in the driver's ed parking lot only opens enough to put letters in there (because I'm there all the time, so that would be convenient) as does the one closest to my house. The drive up one at the post office is bigger but not big enough. And the one at the Dollar Store (2nd closest to my house) is on the wrong side of the car so unless I have a passenger I have to park. Why? Why? Why?
Summer Day #3
When will I get my car back? When will I get my car back? When will I get my car back? The answer is 3:00. Do not ask how much new fuel oxygen whatever sensors and updated software cost.
Was hoping all the chainsaws at the end of the street meant I'd be getting that load of free bark chips I asked for from Chip Drop two months ago, but alas no.
It's hard to believe school only ended three days ago.
Hot and tired and don't want to make dinner.
Summer plans:
lots of making stuff (both food and craft related)
daily exercise or every other day at least. Mostly walking.
daily reading, as usual
farmer's markets --Thursday--the small one closer to my house, or weekends (the huge one)
lots of sitting outside enjoying nature listening to my backyard neighbor clear his throat
some adventures with the kids
lots of library trips
trying (probably in vain) to get the house back in shape after a busy school year
and hopefully some relaxing...
Viva el verano!
Done list:
Mowed the front lawn
supervised the kid mowing the back yard
vacuumed
cleaned out the vacuum canister, and cleaned the filters, vacuumed the vacuum...
cleaned off my desk
paid bills
watered the garden
watched two Youtube videos
weeded
went to Kohl's to spend some Kohl's cash, got more Kohl's cash...
printed the "text book" for driver's ed class that starts tonight
still waiting for my bookcase to get here (it was supposed to be here yesterday)
still need to read for the day
am thinking about ordering pizza for dinner...
How is it only 3:46?
All images are from Wayfair.com.
I have this corner by my bed where I keep the books I am going to read. Right now, there is an awkward table there with makeshift shelves sitting on top of it. It's a weird corner because I need to be able to walk between my bed and the wall, and if I put a bookcase under the window, I can't open the curtains very easily... plus it's a south facing window so sunlight is an issue.
I can't move my bed anywhere else in the room because tall people hit their head on the ceiling fan if the bed isn't in the exact right spot... the room situation is kind of like the first photo, except the window is higher up and there's less room between the bed and the wall.
Anyway, I have ideas of turning that specific corner by my bed into booktopia. It will probably never happen, but I can dream.
I think the middle bookcase is the prettiest, but it's also out of my price range at $345 (on sale.)
The top one is nice, although that front section probably wouldn't fit many/any/ enough books and the left side might be hard to access jammed up against my bed...
The bottom one spins! This is actually the cheapest option, but I'm not sure how I feel about not being able to see everything at once...
I am also out of room on my permanent library 'please bury these with me when I die books.' My preciouses. They are on a 3-shelf bookcase from Target, and apparently, you can either get bookcases with 3 shelves, or 5 shelves but 4 is rare. I can't go much taller in that space because there is a speaker (1978 is calling they want their house-wide stereo system back) and a light switch in the way.
I like the darker colors, but my bedroom is so dusty (even with an air filter going 24/7) that it will always look dirty.
Maybe I need a new house, not new bookcases...
# Book nerd problems?
And the answer is: I ordered a folding corner bookcase from Amazon. I don't know why you would want your bookcase to fold, but for $32 if I hate it, I can stick it in a different corner in the house and buy something else.
...to read boring books.
Two dnf's this week.
First
Which I was listening to on audio while in the car. I made it to 32%. Interesting premise, a woman has to 'stay awake' for some reason, and had written the message all over her body and she also finds a bloody knife in her purse. Sounds good, right?
My issue: there are two POV's in this book, the other one is a detective trying to solve a murder after a dead body is found. I just did not care for the detective portion of the story. Maybe it was necessary to tell the story, but really it was just seemed like filler. Both characers had different narrators, but I could not really tell when the POV switched by their voices. The story was also very repetitive and not seeming to actually figure anything out.
I have read a book from this author before and quite enjoyed it, not sure what went wrong here.
On to something else...
11,000 ish words so far, although I haven't worked on the story in three days.
I did: make a phone call I have been putting off for a month
attended my mom's 70th birthday party
attended an IEP meeting for my 10-year-old
grocery shopped (twice)
went to the garden store and spent way too much. Won't spend $72 on books at once, will spend $72+ at the garden store in less than 30 minutes.
various other life tasks and responsibilities like graduations, end-of-school year stuff, and laundry.
I hope to get back to the writing soon.
It's a Romance, set in Canada, about a woman who inherits her family resort, then the man who ghosted her a decade ago checks in.
There are multiple timelines, and flashbacks, so wait what time period are we in again? It's OK. I will finish it, it's just [so far] not living up to all the hype.
I'm not sure how much reading time I will have today as I have an IEP meeting to attend, a surprise birthday party this afternoon, and all the chaos that is the last seven days of the school year (stressed kids.)
What are you reading right now?
Blogger provides some really useful statistics [sarcasm] about where people are when they read your blog, and what operating system their computer uses to look at it. Really mind-blowings stuff those statistics.... I think I'd rather know something useful like why are you reading my blog and did you enjoy yourself while you were...
So, people of Hong Kong, 81% of the people who have visited ye olde blogge in the last week, what brings you here? Is it my sparkling sarcasm, my charming intellect or are you some kind of robot who just likes to mess up blog statistics. Inquiring minds would really like to know.
Also, if anyone really wants to know the gritty details, and is on the edge of their seats, most of my blog readership uses Google Chrome, and Windows with the occasional Firefox and Android reader.
Fascinating, fascinating statistics. Snore.
Me: Quirks and all, a list.
I always put my cart back even if the stupid cart rack (Trader Joe's, Bi-Mart) is as far from the parking lot as physically possible. Yes, even when my kids were little.
I save worms and don't squash spiders. Moths on the other hand... I once had a room mate, who was from Japan, horrified I killed a moth instead of catching it and releasing it out the window in our dorm room.
I don't sticky note or annotate books... I am too busy reading to stop to take notes.
My kids used to rip my bookmarks out of my books so often, and I got in the habit of memorizing what page I was on when I stopped reading. I still do this although I can now use bookmarks. I track my reading, so it comes in useful when I need to record it in my [online] reading log, and left the book in a different part of the house.
When I'm stressed I bite/chew my fingernails...
My favorite cereal is cinnamon Life. My grocery store (finally!) started selling a generic version, just as I have decided not to eat processed things. Damn you, Winco!
I have a very strong aversion to eye injuries, or reading about eyeballs.
Most days I wake up before my alarm goes off just so I don't have to listen to it.
I [as far as I know] am the reigning Tetris champion of Ivy Hall. Twenty-six years and counting.
I have been able to read since I was four, majored in English, am a writer, and can spell without autocorrect or spellcheck (typos are because I can't type :P) yet I always scored higher on the math portions of tests, and math is definitely not my subject! What does this say about my brain? No idea.
Yes, I'm a weirdo.
And that is my list for this fine Friday. I hope it was fun.
Yes, that's a piano not a typewriter, I don't care.
Writing, writing, writing, I've been writing. I don't know if any other writers have this problem but when I get into writing mode, I can't get out of it. You have other responsibilities Brianna, stop thinking about your damn characters!
Writing about what? Not to jinx myself or anything but...
First POV late 19th century ha ha ha (late 80s - mid 1990s) girl and her siblings are dropped off to with their grandma for a few weeks during the summer. Stuff happens.
Second POV: present-ish time period, same girl returns (very unwillingly) to the same house, now in charge of her sister's children and "remembers" some stuff from the past which is why she does/is who she is now.
Not sure how to mix the two POVs, not sure I want to do past-present-past-present or even which one to start with... how to write a character who resembles herself at age 10/11 and at 40... and am still not fixed on the character's name as usual. I hate naming stuff especially people!
It's not romance, although there is a dude in it, I guess there's some mystery in there (where did the kids' parents go?) lots of history repeating itself, there might be a dead body, and lots of chaos and throwing my character into her worst nightmare scenarios because according to my own children I'm a meanie-mo.
I'm at approximately 7,000 words.
Go me, writing and stuff. Binge writing, but writing none the less.
Update: 9000ish words. Yay me.
Beat-the-Backlist challenge: 33/52 prompts complete, I'm happy with that.
450+ page books: not-so-good. Summer will be spent working on that one.
Ocean books: well I dnf'd Into the Deep, but then I realized I only put ten books on my goal not twelve so I'm still on track.
Author-of-the-month: on track.
Series progress: doing good, although when I look at my series tracker I am not really in the mood to read anything on there...
And what I will be reading in June:
author-of-the-month: Emily Henry and People We Meet on Vacation.
ocean book: This Thing of Darkness by Harry Thompson (probably July's book too.)
series books: the 2nd Pages and Co. book and maybe the 2nd Penderwick book since it's in my house somewhere.
Beat-the-Backlist: 4 word title... gotta find one of those or use This Thing of Darkness for that prompt...
share the love: shouldn't be too hard to read a romance.
name that tune: One-hit Wonder by Lisa Jewell has been waiting to be read for months.
other: The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah
The Stand by Stephen King
And since I'm already at nine/ten books I think I'm calling June's tbr complete.
Happy summer reading!
