July 2023 – [insert current hyperfocus here]

July Reading Roundup

Thanks to the massive depressive episode, and the massive anxiety issue that followed it, my reading habits have fallen into a bit of a slump I spent the last few months mostly rereading/relistening the fluffiest stuff in my libraries. But now that I’m feeling almost normal, I’ve been slowly getting through some of the things in my backlog.

Mortal Follies by Alexis Hall

Book cover for Mortal Follies, by Alexis Hall

I liked it, but I didn’t love it. The omniscient narration did give me a really good idea for that one series I’ve been poking at for a while, so that was nice. Thanks, Alexis!

The Affair of the Mysterious Letter, also by Alexis Hall

Book cover for The Affair of the Mysterious Letter by Alexis Hall

This was a weird little book, a sort of fantasy Sherlock Holmes by way of Lovecraftian horror, a really fascinating ride. I got it back in 2019 when it was published, but I kind of zoned out of the story about three quarters of the way through and just never got back to it. Finally finished it, and I have to say, I have mad admiration for Alexis Hall’s vocabulary.

Broadway Butchery by CS Poe

The third volume in the Memento Mori series, and it was just as good as the first two. This is one of the best murder mystery series I’ve read in a long time, highly recommend.

Apprentice’s Luck by KL Noone

Another excellent installment in this world, I think it might be my favorite so far. A really sweet romance, and Talis’ journey to discovering his magic’s true power was wonderful. There is to be another story with these two, which makes me happy!

I’ve also listened to Winter’s Orbit by Everina Maxwell again, prior to finally starting the sequel, Ocean’s Echo. I’m liking it well enough so far, though it has yet to really capture my attention. I’ve also got Fourth Wing from the library, and I have to say, it doesn’t live up to the hype. Can’t say I’m surprised, YA as a genre is middling at best, and nothing that’s that popular on Book Tok could possibly be good. It’s not as awful as my Booktubers led me to believe, but I’m personally finding it kind of boring. *shrug*

Vacay

Took a couple days to go visit my oldest friend with my sister. We don’t get to see each other much on account of the distance, but we always have a nice, relaxing time and a lot of good food. I was worried my appetite would be too bad to enjoy that part, but I ate without any problems, so I’m starin to think my stomach issue might be partially environmental. I’ve been having issues with my fridge so that’s currently my main suspect. I’ll have to wait and see how the next couple days go.

On the writing front, I’m so close to being done with the the current project. Building up to the climax, so just another chapter or so, then the epilogue so it doesn’t end on a total cliffhanger. Despite some of the shit I put these characters through, I’m not *quite* that evil. XD

Adulting like a pro today

It’s been way too hot to do anything lately, and my work schedule for the last few days has had me away from home in the mornings and/or getting home in the middle of the hottest, most miserable part of the day, so my already (extremely) shaky housework routine has suffered. But today I actually got up at seven(!!!) and washed all the dishes that had been cluttering up the sink, and took out the trash. And I made real breakfast too, homemade hash browns, sausage, and a fried egg. Delicious!

I did the maths last night and I my current writing project is at 179k words. So close to being done, too, I think I might be able to complete the draft within the next couple weeks! Very exciting! Now I’m off to spend the next twoish hours working on that, then I have a painting to finish before Sunday!

Leafy pattern of alternately interlocking triangularish shapes — A small sample of my last painting, from earlier this year.

A much postponed update

I always mean to blog but somehow I forget what I was going to blog about or just don’t have the time or energy.

I’ve been in a bit of a slump recently. Last year I was doing well and trying to get my farming business off the ground but then I had a months long depressive episode that killed the whole enterprise. I had to go off my antidepressant, but then by the time I was feeling better I ended up with that extremely long-lasting bronchitis that was apparently going around earlier this year. I finally had to sacrifice a week of vacation days to fully recover. :/

I eventually did begin to feel better again, even began to do well at writing again, but only being on my adhd medication meant I had a relapse of the very bad anxiety that originally prompted me to seek medication in the first place, so I got quite sick again, spending a great deal of May this year in a state of absolute misery because I was chronically nauseated. I lost about ten pounds just because I couldn’t eat anything, and you can probably imagine how lethargic and crabby it made me. I had to wait two weeks for a virtual appointment with my brain doctor and he prescribed buspirone, 10mg twice a day.

Unfortunately the main side effect I suffered from the buspirone was…nausea. Yeah, that was fun. After some research I reduced my dose to 5mg once a day and spent a couple more weeks dependent on Pepto while my system adjusted. This turned out to be not quite enough of a dose, as I was still having some issues when things triggered my anxiety, so I have gone up to 5mg twice a day and that seems to have taken care of the issue. I’m no longer having the terrible recursive thought patterns, my writing output is way up (I’ve done over 80k words since May, nearly done with my current project) and I am able to be nice to people at work again, which I’m sure they all appreciate.

I was posting a lot of native wildflowers before all this happened, but now that we are into the dog days of our horrible Texas summers, there isn’t a lot going on in that vein to talk about. On the art front, I spent too much time looking at polymer clay artists on Insta and it inspired me to make some small things, mostly earrings so far, but I also made a gift for a friend, which I shall refrain from posting here just yet so as not to ruin the surprise. (Idk if she reads this extremely neglected blog but still)

A pair of pastel rainbow earrings composed of small, slightly translucent polymer clay leaves — Fluffy rainbow earrings that I made while playing around with Sculpey III translucent. Colored with pastels, except for the blue-green, which was colored with Golden High Flow