lunabee34

1. I got a card from talitha78. Thank you!

2. My 2024 in books from Goodreads

I read 72 books in 2024. Go, me!

3. And here's the first books of 2025:

The Best American Poetry 2002 by Robert Creeley

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Robert Creeley and I clearly do not share taste in poetry. LOL



View all my reviews

The New Yorker - The Fragrance Foundation Book of Cartoons by Luxe Pack New York

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


As with any set of New Yorker cartoons, I didn't get some of them, but on the whole, these are pretty funny.



View all my reviews

Witches Among Us: Understanding Contemporary Witchcraft and Wicca by Thorn Mooney

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This is really informative and accessible, especially for people who know very little about witchcraft and Wicca. Mooney spends a lot of time contextualizing and defining terms. She also provides an excellent list of scholarly resources as well as resources from within the community for further understanding.



View all my reviews

1. I got cards from lyr, sallymn, and timespirit. Thank you all!

2. I am giving myself amnesty from Yuletide recs. I am reading and commenting widely, but I not going to rec anything except the wonderful gift I received:

New Fates for Old Things
Bot 9 series
Gen
Ship had once told Bot 9 that it was the fate of all made things to be discarded, but much has changed in the decades since they left Earth.

I'll have more to say about how awesome this is after reveals for reasons that will become apparent. LOL

3. Christmas was a shit show. I had been deliberating over how to handle my parents' insanity, and I had decided that I wasn't going to keep my mouth shut and leave the room anymore. It's always us accommodating them, and I get more and more resentful every visit until I'm just seething by the end of it. Not pushing back on their bigotry or conspiracy theories or whatever it is feels like letting them win. So I did push back whereupon my parents treated me and the children to an incredible harangue about how we were all going to hell, how Biden is a pedophile, how black people and white people had no problems with each other until Obama the Great Divider came into office, how police violence isn't a problem because black people in Chicago shoot each other, a bunch of nasty stuff about gay and trans people. Fiona got really, really upset and cried although I'm not sure they realized she did. Dylan handled it very well; they continued to calmly and maturely disagree with my parents who looked and sounded deranged next to them. They handled it better than I did. I always turn into a child around them who can't articulate things the way I mean to. It sucks.

4. At least I don't have to be in the classroom again until the 8th. I'm not updating my classes until the 6th because I don't give one single shit. Ha!

5. Happy New Year, y'all. I'm still in the process of sending out cards, so if you haven't gotten one yet, look for them over the coming weeks.

1. Yuletide is did! I am so relieved.

2. Colonoscopy went well with good results: no polyps. I also got the results of my antibody test, and they were normal. This means that I am not currently being accidentally glutened. Tom has been much more careful since the last big blow up, and I have been hiding my lunch meat, so clearly that's working.

3. Tumblr has come to the middle school. Fiona started telling me yesterday about how two of her friends are pan and one of them is aroace and several of them are therians. One of her therian friends identifies with an OC animatronic she made up for the Five Nights at Freddy's universe. Y'all, I had no words.

4. Moar Christmas stuff! I got a card from troisoiseaux and a wonderful package of goodies from misbegotten. Thank you both so much!

5. There is no five.

1. I got Christmas cards from lyr and minoanmiss! <3

2. My maternal grandmother died yesterday at the glorious age of 97. She kept her marbles to the very end, she never had to be hospitalized, and she died in her own home surrounded by her children. The last couple months of her life she experienced some discomfort, but she was never in a lot of pain and never had any serious illnesses. She lived the dream, y'all. I'm sad but not overly so, you know? This is the way life is supposed to go. I spoke to her on Christmas Day, and she said talking to me was all the Christmas present she needed. :D We'll be traveling to MS to the funeral in a couple of days.

3. I can't wait for Yuletide reveals! I am dying to know who wrote everything and to tell you all about what I wrote. :D

4. I've got some work to do on my classes before they start on the 10th, but I've decided that it's actually not as much as I thought and that I'm not going to worry about it as a consequence. I'll do it when we get back from the funeral.

5. On this last day of 2023, I am thinking about how grateful I am for you all. Your love, support, and encouragement have carried me through a very difficult year, and I know they will continue to sustain me in the coming one. <3

1. I got home yesterday and slept in my own bed on clean sheets, and it was glorious.

I had been very anxious about this conference; I know many of you travel frequently, but I don't, and I was worried about basically every step of the process. LOL But it all worked out fine, and I think I will be more confident the next time this sort of opportunity arises.

2. Fiona got second place in the poetry competition at the Beta Convention, which qualifies her to go the National Beta Convention competition! It's being held in Savannah this year, so she'll definitely get to go; she didn't go last year despite qualifying because it was too far away. We are very proud of her. :)

3. I think we have finally found a regimen of meds that is working for Sammy's asthma. He takes an antiviral pill twice a day followed by an OTC supplement that is also an antiviral. He is such a good kitty. I shake the pill bottle, and he comes running and lets me pick him up. I put him on his back in my lap with his head against my chest and pop open his mouth, and he swallows down his pill with no fighting. Then he runs to go get his next med which is in paste form. Originally, we bought this med as a chew, and he would have nothing to do with it. We mixed it in his food, ground it up and mixed it with water, whatever--he would not eat it. So, I bought it as a paste with the intention of just holding him down and squirting it down his throat if necessary. Indeed, he would not eat it at first, but after a week of squirting it down his throat, Sammy decided his paste is the bomb, and now he begs for it.

We also have acquired a kitty inhaler but not had to use it yet. We've been getting him used to the mask, and he doesn't seem to mind it. We'll see.

4. When A. S. Byatt died, I didn't have the chance to make a proper post acknowledging how much her writing has meant to me since I encountered it decades ago. I'll link my Byatt reading tag here because I talk at much greater length in each of those posts about her novels and short story collections than I will here, especially Possession. That book was a game changer for me when I first encountered it as a college freshman and remains very special to me. It encapsulates like nothing else I have ever read the joys and frustrations of literary scholarship. The Potter Quartet is a structural masterpiece; I remember the moment when I was reading the final book and I realized what Byatt had done structurally with the way each book is introduced and the chronology and the awe I felt at that realization. And then, always, the words--such beautiful, beautiful words--sentences to read over and over again because they're too lovely to be done with quickly. I'm sad there will be no new words but glad the ones she gave us are words I want to visit again and again.

5. And last not but least, amejisuto sent me a wonderful early Christmas present--Brent Spiner's Fan-Fiction and a beautiful bookmark that says, "I have been and always shall be your friend." <3

I also got my first Christmas card of the season from troisoiseaux!

I have been extremely remiss in acknowledging all the wonderful gifts I received for Christmas.

I got cards from sallymn (with a pocket-sized calendar that I have put up at the office so I can look up at scenic Australia when I get bored with grading), goss (gorgeous watercolor, I think, of a fairy inspired by the hobbits from Rings of Power), king_touchy, china_shop, lyr, misbegotten, isabellerecs, oracne, decynthus, aurumcalendula, and Louise (who I think used to be 02104isme, but DW says that username doesn't exist, so maybe I've got the user name wrong, or it's actually someone else; there was no return address).

( gifts )

I am pleased with the cards and the gifts but more so with the sentiments behind them, the love and friendship and the care everyone took to bring some joy to my life.

*hugs*

1. The dentist doesn't think anything is terribly wrong. An ulcer has developed at the edge of the gum and the crown, so he's given me a mouth rinse to help with that. I'm taking an antibiotic just in case, but he doesn't see any signs that anything is terribly wrong. Seems it's just the trauma of the procedure. *sigh* My face is special. :) All the stress of the flood and the dental work kicked off a flare up, so I'm exhausted, and I think maybe I just don't heal as well or because of the autoimmune stuff I'm more prone to inflammation and that's why I haven't bounced back from the procedure as expected.

2. I got the most amazing package from executrix full of stationery goodies and a bespoke knitted hat and lip balm. Happy belated Gauda Prime Day to me! LOL

3. The flooring trim has been acquired. Hopefully it shall be laid down in the next couple days. My goal is to have the room completely finished by Monday. *fingers crossed* A beautiful rug has been acquired to that end.

4. I have made significant inroads on getting all my classes set up and ready to go for next week. Cross your fingers that I get a few more students enrolled in a couple of them. I'm paranoid that they might cancel a couple of them at the last minute for low enrollment, and then I will be livid.

5. Mom and Dad are doing fine; they haven't had any symptoms worse than a cold. Nobody at my brother's house is ill (yet), and my sister-in-law's mother is doing well. She's been able to eat a little and bathe, so everyone's happy about that.

1. vehigadta (and you shall tell)
Princess Bride
Assorted items from the writings and correspondences of S. Morgenstern, and how I came to find them.

This is full of the joy of being a fan, and I love it. Very curious to see who wrote this one.

2. I got a Christmas card from talitha78!

3. RIP, Betty White. You have brought me so much joy over my life. I am glad you lived a long and meaningful life that did not diminish as it grew longer but only fuller and richer. You always seemed like you were having the best time to me. I hope that continues wherever you are.

Yuletide is open already!

I feel my plans to work until 4:00 and then start reading Yuletide slowly derailing. LOL ETA: Oh, wait. I think I'm an idiot; I thought it was supposed to open at 4:00 this afternoon, but I think it was always supposed to open at 4:00 this morning. LOL

Let's see how long I can hold out before I say screw it and just abandon work altogether. :)

Merry Christmas to everyone who celebrates and Happy Saturday to those who don't and wonderful weekend to us all!

1. I got Christmas cards from spikedluv, isabellerecs, and amejisuto!

2. We watched the first three episodes of season 2 of The Witcher and loving it so far. Yennefer forever!! I'll do a detailed review when we finish the season, but I'm very happy with the show so far.

3. Emma had her rheumatology visit yesterday. It was just the intake visit, but I am very encouraged. Reading the visit summary, it's clear that the doc is taking her symptoms seriously and she's running all the tests I'd want her to and etc., so now we just wait and hope that the bloodwork will reveal "objective disease criteria" and Emma can finally get a diagnosis and treatment.

4. Josh and I have talked it over, and I've decided to stay here while they go to his parents' for Christmas. I am just so tired, and traveling makes me so much more exhausted, not to mention, the last time we travelled this summer it set off a flare. And his parents are so terrible about my dietary restrictions; it becomes this Big Deal that is very stressful for everyone regardless of how we try to handle it, and it makes me feel pretty bad. It's almost like his dad gets mad about it or something? IDK It would be one thing to power through feeling really tired and kinda rotten for an awesome experience; it's another to power through feeling rotten for a rotten one. So I am going to stay here and nose to the grindstone on writing my new class and then luxuriate all day on Christmas Day in Yuletide. I'm actually looking forward to the break even though I think it will also be kind of weird.