Was it necessary?

Well, welcome to this #weeklyupdate brought to you by yes-it-was-necessary dot sometimesyougotta LOL

I'm even late getting this up due to the crazy of this week catching up to me. Monday started with a snow day for my youngest and myself. We both enjoyed not having to drive hither, thither, and yon for his classes. It made no difference to my school schedule as I'm entirely online this quarter but not having to drop everything to get him to class was a nice change. The rest of the week was unsettled weather-wise and we were into Thursday before the chance of another snow day ended.

Thursday, my youngest and his girlfriend drove up to Seattle to see the Broadway production of Hamilton. There's a bit of pride in his being such a music afficionado. ♥ Today, they drove back to Seattle for a collegiate production of Anastasia. I've had to limit my online presence even more as I found myself doom scrolling and dropping into an absolute foul place. I think if I was still having regular visits from the monthly menace I'd be in that moody-give-me-chocolate-or-die place just before it hits. Then, the joys of work - I spent 24 hours between Friday afternoon and Saturday afternoon where I was at work more than I was at home. Sleeping has been dodgy at best and I'm still super stressed about my neurotypical opposite of me creativity sucking English professor and her insistence on adding upwards of half a dozen new assignments a week after I've already figured out my plan for homework scheduling. Pretty much everything in her class feels like I need to mask to survive and I really can't wait for this one to be over.

So, needless to say after working 16 hours in the 24 hour period and having two nights of crappy sleep before, Saturday afternoon after I got home, I crashed the hell out for 4 hours with my feet in my compression boots and my feet elevated. It was absolutely necessary before food or anything else. It was necessary. And I didn't even look at homework after - just did the same old laundry and then jabbered with my middle man for the better part of 2 hours about music. I did eventually get some food then bake some cupcakes, so there's that too. LOL

I hope you all had a great week and have an amazing weekend - what's left of it.

It's been a hot minute

It's been so long since I've posted here, but given the state of chaos around us, the fall of Meta into the same shit pot as Twitter and all of main stream media, this is my current space to share #weeklyupdates that I used to post on the book of faces.

To be clear, I do still have my book of faces account because it is where I can share Big Sky Book Event info with author communities and reader communities but I do not and will not ever post my own business there again just as I cut Twitter out with a blow torch. **I had a whole rant typed out here and then thought better of sullying this space with my soapbox tirade.

On to the business of my #weeklyupdate - new and hopefully improved.

Well, with the start of this new quarter at school, I had quite the wall splattering. I was in a required class that was, quite literally, MS Office 101. I've been using MS Office since its creation. *face palm Needless to say, I tested out of that one as quickly as I could and am now one less bit of homework along. LOL Then I realized that my English professor could not possibly be any more different from myself. OMG I can't even. The circular assignments, the adding of assignments out of the blue (hey, let's trigger my anxiety?!?), the utter lack of clarity in their writing of assignment instruction - I literally have to read that shit 3 and 4 times to make it make sense. *eyes rolling violently And then there's the marketing - my bane, my brick wall, my Achilles Heel. Like for real, I'm battling my inner demons brought about by 12 years of doing everything marketing wrong along with trying to figure out what the hell I'm doing. The struggle is real.

Writing - well that's a thought, isn't it? I write a lot but its all essays not books. I did however have a flash this evening when the urge to work on a WIP was so strong - unfortunately I couldn't capitalize on it as I was in the middle of cleaning cat boxes (which could very well have been a procrastination tactic by my mind due to cat poop. LOL)

I am watching the BlueSky space to see if they launch a TikTok alternative and am watching for other pop up social media to replace meta and it's many platforms and TikTok because I don't trust that site anymore either. You can find me on BlueSky pretty much only at this time so I hope you'll pop over there and say 'hey, howdy, hi.' :D

The Adventures of the Introverted Author and Three Tetchy Teens! (part 2)

It took three days.

Three days before the teen boys began to get tetchy.

Not too surprising, and really, in the grand scheme of things it was more like a test than actual tetchiness. LOL The routine to be observed: Work on school related stuffs (as best as you can given that they haven't posted anything for you to work on...) from 9:30 am until after noon when you get lunch - lunch is not allowed before noon just to get you out of school stuffs. *roll eyes* Because, yes, they would try that so I specified early on. You will be dressed, teeth brushed and all personal hygiene will be observed because I will not live with gross to that degree. After lunch you can do whatever, go outside if its nice and you remember distances etc... but not loud and obnoxious, please. Video games/game boxes and all that screen time crap is for WEEKENDS only. PJ day is still Sunday and only Sunday. No school stuffs on weekends. You know... sticking to a laid back version of the norm.

Three days in, these parameters were tested and teens were cranky. I was crankier because reasons and PMS... booyah.

Meanwhile, each day was a special torture for us with Ms. 19. "Just one more day with no curve balls." became our mantra. "Just one more day... Just let us get to Thursday when she can move her shit out of the dorm and get to Atlanta... Just. One. More. Day."

There are no words for the relief felt when Ms. 19 called to say she was out of the dorm. Actual laughter happened when she sent pictures of her "boujee" hotel room. Oddly, the least expensive room near the Atlanta airport was at the Marriott. It was plush according to Ms. 19.

The hotel, with their lovely 24 hour airport shuttle, dropped Ms. 19 off at the airport early Friday morning and she sent a text of shock and amazement that it only took 20 minutes to get her baggage checked and through security. Following this was the "well poop... plane is delayed and gate was changed... good thing I was here early." text.

As the texts on Friday morning proceeded to arrive, they became increasingly anxious. We're on the plane... got a whole row to myself.

We're off the plane, there are mechanical problems.

We're changing planes... hour delay.

At this point, I reminded Ms. 19 that it was "good she had a 4hour layover in St. Louis" then I sent a text apologizing that my "4" and "hour" were having trouble social distancing. This netted a chuckle so she calmed a tad.

Then we got the text that she was back on the plane - again with a row to herself - and was on her way to St. Louis. She was only worried that she wouldn't have time to get from gate to gate because of the delays. I didn't bother to remind her that there would be a time change and that her layover would be two hours rather than four. No point in adding that to the conversation when she was still in "not processing properly panic mode".

Long story short, Ms. 19 is home, healthy, and safe. Now she gets to fret and fuss over her classes that are now all online. - Her circus, her monkeys.

But, on a slight tangent, I have to say the lack of common sense being displayed by so many American's is disheartening. There is a cavalier attitude that is dangerous and stupid that seems to be outweighing the science of this situation.

The notion of "flattening the curve" only works if people actually practice social distancing. That means don't go out to the park. Don't go visit Aunt Marge. Stay the hell at home unless you actually HAVE to leave. Let your inner introvert shine... or if you've already done that (like myself) rest easy knowing you're not the problem.

Don't be part of the problem. Don't be a spreader.

My tetchy teens get it... why are grown ass adults having such a problem with this?

#BeAlertNotAnxious

#UseCommonSense

#BeKindStayInside