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July 19, 2025

Say what you will about masculinity (or, rather, if you'd choose the bear, don't say anything because you've lost the plot), but I really think there's something to be said for the men who go out in the Texas heat and mow the lawn. They go out and they fix things in the yard, around the house. They work with their hands to take care of their domain. To me? That's highly attractive. It's sacrificial, and it shows they take pride in what they own or are responsible for. There's a measure of integrity in there as well. Personally, physically doing the things that need to be done.

My husband is kind of the king of this. Everything from yard work to minor plumbing indoors. He makes sure our house is functional and looks taken care of. Even if it means getting tanned out in the heat. Not that I'm complaining about the tan!

So, while angry women scream during the "moment of silence" meant for men's mental health, here's a raised glass in a toast instead. To the men who are doing what needs doing. And, in the case of my husband, looking damn fine doing it too!

 

July 18, 2025

Warning: Rant Level 11

Writing good books is apparently a rare and lost art these days. My theory is that there are far too many authors who self-insert. And they are either not very interesting or not very likable. Or both.

The most recent book I read was advertised as a cross between one of my favorite scary movies and one of my favorite thriller novels. It was not even remotely like either. The only thing that made it similar to the book was they were both wedding themed (my fave was at an actual wedding, whereas this was at the bachelorette party). The only thing that made it similar to the scary movie was that there was a killer on the loose. Ish. Not even really. There was mind-numbing nonsense about yoga, vegan food, and the female main character vacillating between self-loathing over the fact she'd done something morally reprehensible (with extremely sad consequences for someone OTHER than herself) and (re)discovering attraction to every single person she interacted with. Except, thankfully, not with her own sister. She was the most self-absorbed character I've read in a long time which made it even more ridiculous that she was the only one who was picking up on some strange undercurrent of dread and somehow "knew" what was going to happen.

No, no, you did not.

You were too busy flirting and internally whining. And nothing was actually happening.

This is a bestseller, by the way.

And the final chapter of the book, where we get a wrap-up of everything, we spend more time hearing about her new therapy session than finding out what happened to her latest crush, her sister, etc. who were all VERY much more physically damaged in the finale than she was. But, of course, she wanted us to know about her first and foremost as she struggles with psychological issues leftover from seeing horrible things happen to the people she loves. I could not have cared less.

I one-starred that review on Goodreads and moved on to wondering why in the world this is a bestseller. Supposedly written by a Swedish author, the amount of garbage these women talk about their sex lives is very authentically American intersectional feminist. And it was like a peeing contest at times. I miss books that had more happening than this.

And if you're going to say it's a cross between a scary movie and a thriller novel, the first 3 quarters cannot be almost solely about a self-absorbed whiner talking about being attracted to everyone she meets. That's juvenile at best. Lazy, self-insert nonsense at worst. This is not how to write books. This is not how to advertise books. I'm going back to reading Jane Austen. Just kidding. Well, maybe not really... Time to crack open the hard science fiction. Thank goodness I finally discovered my love for that!

 

July 17, 2025

Sometimes I wonder what goes through people's heads when they treat others the way they do. Not returning phone calls. Or emails. Responding to partial communication and not the entire thing. Professionally, that is. Because you're representing your company or organization absolutely poorly when you act like this. You risk people shaking the dust from their shoes and not taking a second look at you when you act like this. There is no excuse. None.

Which ties into another thought I've been having about professionalism as well. Now that I'm putting out feelers for jobs in this area and realizing that, because of the area of work I am in, people don't actually take me seriously. Here, at least. They act as though, because I am applying for a job in this field, that I must not be very intelligent or connected or who knows. But the one take away should be this: everyone is a potential customer. The way I've been treated? I would never recommend your services to anyone. And I know enough people in this area with enough money for that to actually make a difference if the time came. We'll be going elsewhere. Across the board.

 

July 16, 2025

I realized today that, in spite of the fact I wrote a blog post, I lost the entire day yesterday. Alex told me today is Wednesday and I couldn't believe it. Then I remembered I hadn't slept at all Monday night so I slept a lot yesterday. And it's funny that sleeping about 3 hours in the middle of the day on a Tuesday can feel like losing the whole day somewhere. Which led to bigger thoughts about how, not working in a traditional sense, has led to days bleeding one into another until I don't really keep track of what day it even is. I came to the conclusion that I need to buckle down a little and be more intentional about how I spend my time. Being more mindful of days. It does help that I have certain writing deadlines I have to meet but even those are usually finished in advanced and scheduled because I KNOW I'm bad at keeping track of the days. Oh well. Maybe one day I'll be important enough to have an assistant who keeps track of these things for me. Or maybe I'll end up the assistant to a CEO who needs me to do that for him. Only time will tell!

 

July 15, 2025

I don't know why I don't sleep sometimes. It's an odd feeling to have the sensation of exhaustion, mind and body (and soul too some days), yet no amount of lying in a quiet room with a pillow over my head sends me off to dreamland. And, even if it does, I quite often end up with some kind of night terror. Somewhere between awake and asleep, the weight of a person sitting on the edge of my bed will send a shot of adrenaline through my system. Aaaand I'm awake. For the long haul. Sometimes I don't even get that. For which I'm grateful. I really do prefer not waking up terrified from almost sleeping when I am exhausted.

Anyway, I'm a bit delirious. Still, I do come bearing gifts. A new venture. I Think I Love This Little Life. We'll see what happens. How long it lasts. But, for now, I'm having fun.

 

July 14, 2025

There's a sign on the road leading into our neighborhood, just before you get to the gate. Dusty and worn from desert air over the years. One of those that you pop flat, individual letters into. Long ago, it lost one letter. So it now simply says "STOR GE". We drove by it one day and I turned to my husband and quietly said, "Poor Storge."

"Storge?" Alex asked, a bit nonplussed but ready for whatever was coming next.

"Mmhm. Storge. He lost his A. I guess that makes him Storge." This time I pronounced it to rhyme with Jorge.

One of the best payoffs for a corny joke is the way he laughs when I've caught him off guard with something that is, in our household, considered the triple threat of humor. 1. Absurd. 2. Requires you to pause for a moment to think. 3. Comes out of utter left field. I pride myself in discovering new ways to triple threat my husband.

One of the best payoffs for Googling, is discovering that "storge" is actually the Greek word for familial love and affection. You could say we have a lot of natural storge in our home.

 

     

 

July 12, 2025

My husband has been 3D printing a lot lately. I think he's the only man I've known that does utilitarian projects with his 3D printer. He's created a new keyboard with it, designed and printed a stand for my Switch, and now he's creating pieces for something I thought up to help us train our cats.

Don't get any fancy ideas. We're not training them to do tricks but rather doing behavior training. Both were feral when we adopted them and at least one of them gets triggered into a very focused, stalking prey mode. We want to redirect. And the little item I thought up has turned out beautifully thanks to my husband's design work and 3D printing know-how.

Unapologetically, I thoroughly love when married life leads to moments of partnership. Especially with tiny things that take a little bit of me and a little bit of him and come together in the middle to be something completely us.

My take away is this: marriage is not hard. Don't let them tell you that. It's life that is hard. When you face it together with your best friend, you end up with creativity, joy, and a resounding sense of satisfaction. Not to mention a lot of laughter. Together.

 

July 11, 2025

Trial and error in my job has always been a strength. Trial and error in my life really hasn't. Learning what I am good at doing when it comes to my job is easy. I know what I am good at and I know how to get better at what I am not as strong in. When it comes to life? That's a whole different ball game with a whole different set of rules. It's both daunting and exciting (I'm working on switching the order of those words). First, I have to figure out what holds me back. What words are running through my mind, often without realizing they are even there, that are keeping me from moving forward? The even harder question is, what don't I know? If you don't know what you don't know, there's a lot of guess work involved. When it comes to some things, guess work is my least favorite part.

I guess, all that to say that I am aware that trying out new things and ways to communicate my experiences to the world has been an interesting, sometimes uphill battle. I'm still working on it. We'll see where it goes. And how long I'll tolerate the whole "not knowing if it's working yet" part before I give up and try something else.

 

July 10, 2025

The evil continues. I'm all for freedom of speech. I honestly think it's a good thing when people warn me ahead of time that they are nasty individuals to be avoided. It's a form of aposematism which I appreciate. Do I want to hear more of it? Nope. There's only so much one can handle, as a mother, listening to other women call innocent, dead children incredibly vulgar slurs. I can’t imagine the internal rot that would allow someone to do that.

Young men are coming out in support of the same rhetoric now too. Basing it on wildly misinformed ideas thanks to their consumption of mainstream news. When will someone clue them in that the news is a business. They have to make money. They make the most money when you're angry and demoralized. It all falls under freedom of speech. Which I support. But let's also think with our heads and not our emotions. Stop letting a business make money off of riling you up over and over. Stop letting anything rile you up over and over. Especially if you cannot control it. The only thing you can control is your consumption. I'm switching off.

 

July 9, 2025

In an effort to take my mind off things, I've cleaned my house from top to bottom. Aired it out. Rearranged it all - oh did it need it. We're still recovering from the move and weren't sure where we wanted things until we'd been moving around the space and had the cats capering about too. I've also started playing a cute game called Tiny Glade. Highly recommend it. Thanks to my wonderful hubby for the gift.

 

July 8, 2025

Back to the lady who was invited to a party that wasn't a party. More childish behavior has taken place. Apparently the homeowners didn't like the response they got from their side of the story, which they chose to post on the internet. So they attempted to get her husband arrested by pretending he had been making death threats against the sheriff. When the voicemail was played back, the people from Vermont were surprised anyone thought the southern accent was coming out of the husband's mouth. Seriously? I'm now curious to know if there is even more behind this. Who goes to the cops and tries to frame someone over a woman showing up at your house with food when you just didn't want her there?

 

July 7, 2025

The evil of some people. To come on social media and say that babies deserved to die because of politics. There are a lot of things I could say but I will keep my mouth shut. Employers and communities have already spoken enough. My heart goes out to the families of those who were lost in the Texas floods. I'm grateful my family and I were safe.

 

     

 

July 5, 2025

There's this story circulating the internet, or at least in some corners, about a woman who came to a party, that wasn't a party, brought food because she'd been invited, and was treated terribly by the homeowners. Who, apparently, were aware she was coming. But seemed to think that being rude to her once she got there was the best way to handle it. Instead of either letting the person who invited her know that they really preferred a smaller gathering or just being warm and welcoming to her anyway. Being rude was the default. Talking to her like she didn't belong there when she'd spent her hard-earned money to make food and be sure she wasn't just showing up to mooch. Throwing tantrums outside of the house. Calling someone's mother (they were all adults). This is how children behave. I just want to look the homeowners dead in the eye and ask them who left them unsupervised. SMH

 

July 4, 2025

I truly love fireworks and the celebration of our country. I am proud to live in this country. I've done enough research into other countries to know I wouldn't want to live in any of the others. Unfortunately, some people really and truly make me wish they lived in other countries instead of this one. God Bless America. Even the haters.

 

July 3, 2025

Hot Take #1: What other people think of you is not your business.

Hot Take #2: You can admire someone and still think they’re wrong because you can disagree but still have respect.

Hot Take #3: Hallmark needs to get into the horror movie business. The amount of revenue they could generate by producing heart-warming, romantic, horror films about Christmas is an untapped goldmine.

 

July 2, 2025

Okay, class, today's lesson is this: you cannot control how others think or feel. And you certainly cannot make those things illegal. You can only outlaw actions.

Also? The Handmaid's Tale is not about what you think it's about. Your take is reductive but good job conflating it with your personal agenda. Two thumbs up for effort and a trophy for participation.

PS: I see you using AI to write things. AI is the only thing using emdashes like they are still relevant—to the general population. lol

 

July 1, 2025

It's a shanty town here. Yes, bits and pieces everywhere. There's more to come. I've started a few new ventures. We'll see how they pan out. Checking out different platforms for getting my writing out there.

July 1 starts the beginning of the second half of the year. The first half was filled with a lot of changes. It's only now that I'm settling in, taking a breather, finishing a few things.

I know there are few who follow me here but that's because I haven't marketed. That is hopefully changing soon. I had very little idea as to what I wanted here in this space before when I set it up. Now, I'm cycling through new things and ideas. And I'm just rambling here but then, that's what it's like writing. You ramble until something starts to form on the page that makes sense. Like swathes of watercolors on an artist's canvas.

We'll see where it all goes. If nothing comes of it, so be it. I tried. That's all that matters!

PS: America's "sugar free" nonsense is garbage. 75-80% of what is labeled sugar free contains sugar substitutes that are worse than sugar. Be mindful of what you're consuming. It's almost like they want you to be sick.