indarkdirected | Recent Entries

I’m a shy black girl from the future, I love reading sci fi and fanfic, and I’m (slowly) cultivating interests in too many other areas (language learning, community moderation, crafting, music, etc). Lately, I’m reading various cookbooks, trying out new crafts, and trying to figure out what I want to do with my life. You know how it is.

More details in my profile, if you want ’em.

Ya’ll means all, so feel free to say hi if we have a shared interest, or even if we don’t :)

Current Mood: *waves hello*

It was a small turnout, but we had fun :) Beautiful day and more trash than I expected! (Now that I've typed it out, that's not a good thing, but it was good to have something to do. You know what I mean.)

Just got back from another event where we talked a little about the group's future plans. The overarching plans are for letter writing and canvassing, but the next community plan is for a food bank event. I also tentatively floated the idea of asking community members for ideas when we start canvassing. I was really struck by that story about the Young Lords literally just asking what people wanted and then staging their activism around the answers they got (in that case, people wanted the city to pick up their trash, so the Young Lords staged protests until it happened). The hope is that there will be a common thread, and that if we hold an event based on it, the community will go - 'wow, they did the thing we asked for!' Also the next time someone claims that Democrats only come around when they want votes, that community member will go, 'actually, those people volunteered at my [INSERT HELPFUL EVENT HERE] last week.'

During the event one of the group leaders mentioned how 'cool' they thought I was, and I was like, '....huh?' High key feel like I've tricked them, and they will figure it out VERY soon. I genuinely just think it's a combination of me being younger than most of them + the only visible person of color + I've embraced the fact that dressing well makes me happy ( + when I wear a scarf people make all kinds of weird assumptions about my ethnicity/religion, so they're probably wondering about that too). One of the men is kind of intense? He keeps being like, 'let's hear what Sydney thinks!' and I always feel like a deer in headlights. He asked what I've been up to, just like in a friendly way, and I was like, '....knitting?' So, VERY soon, like I said.

What else? Brindlewood Bay is still going well. We're leaning into the fun more than the creepy, but what works works. The game before last was a Great British Bake Off theme, and we came very close to just role playing the episode instead of solving Paul's murder. The DM is doing a very great job of adding in fun elements - after my character sabotaged someone's cake, they added 'Watched by Noel' as a condition and when I forgot to erase it at the next game we just pretended that Noel was in the parking lot with binoculars the entire game. They also just happened to have a codex lying around their house???? So they made us a puzzle to solve. And we're all getting supernatural elements - my fellow players are developing electric powers and immortality respectively. I have an Entity living in my basement, so we'll see where that goes.

In other news, the city confirmed that my yard is eligible for the reimbursement program! Now I just need to plan the garden area/get landscaping quotes, get approval, pay for and install it. That sounds like a lot, but it's two steps less than when I first learned about the program, so yay!

The planning stage will be helped by an event the local museum is hosting -they're going to teach how to make your yard to wildlife friendly. It's sounds very fun, and I'm excited to learn and meet some new people! I'll also be taking notes for my dad and brother, who were also very interested when I mentioned it to them.

That's all for now, hopefully I'll remember to come back for more updates later!

Current Music: Bug- Fontaines DC

1. My godmother just finished a show where she was featured artist! She and my brother are still on the way back, so I don't know how it went sales wise, but she did well in her interview and I'm super proud of her regardless.

2. The cake pops were a success! I was doubtful at first, because they did not look like the pictures, but everyone liked them! A few people went out of their way to say so, and I got asked for leftover pops. One co-worker asked for the recipe for her daughter, so I got to have a little extra fun by hopping onto Canva and mocking up a cute personalized pdf for her.

3. The last Brindlewood game was really fun! I felt like I played it a little too safe for the first two games, so this time I took some bigger swings and they worked out! My character now has an official enemy! I specifically asked to have one, so it's a good thing lol. Apparently I'm the drama llama of this group ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I have some choices to make before the next game (I leveled up, so I get to either add a point to an ability mod or choose a new maven move.) Tough choice, but I still have a few days to decide.

4. The litter clean-up planning is underway, and it sounds like the group wants to make it a recurring event! I'm not convinced that the location the group chose for the first one is the best (probably not going to be that much litter), but cleaning up litter is really only a part of the reason for the event. Giving people a reason to get together and feel like they're doing something good is just as important, and I think part two of the plan (going to a nearby brewery after the cleanup) will help with the social aspects.

5. A landscaping company came to my job to teach a training session, and it was really interesting! They're more eco-focused than some companies, and they're offering to replace awkward patches of grass (places that are hard to mow/maintain) with patches of native grasses and flowers. In addition to looking way better than plain grass, they improve drainage and soil retention and they're good for local insects and animals! I think my back yard is too wet for the plants they mentioned, but the presenter gave me a few things to look up and I found a city program that helps fund rain gardens! I have some more research to do, but I think my yard qualifies for the program.
They also gave brought a bunch of free (really pretty) books talking about the concepts they mentioned, and gave everyone a tiny cacti! Yay!

but my volunteer group leaders thought the litter clean up was a good idea and they agreed to move forward with it! I guess as a result,
I got invited to a leadership planning meeting on the 26th, and I low key feel like I conned my way in. Ridiculous, because they have been explicitly asking for folks to take the lead on projects, and also because I would make a terrible conman lmao. I'm not sure what all we'll discuss, but tbh I'm just happy to be included and to get to clean up litter ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Anyway, I just emailed the leadership a preliminary list of 'to do' items and a spreadsheet breaking down the tasks and roles we'll need. Making the spreadsheet made my little nerd heart very happy, so I hope they like it!

I have too many items on my to do list for today and tomorrow, but the wish list is to:

Spend some time outside
Drink more water
Redo my hair
De-clutter my room
Start on some cake pops for tomorrow's Brindlewood game (if they go awry, a new doughnut place just opened near my house, lol)
Read some more Southern Book Club

Here I go!

Current Mood: excited
Current Music: King's Affirmation, Iniko

low key cheated by daylight savings starting during the weekend, I am really really glad the sun is back. I started eating outside at work again, and it was weirdly hard at first? I felt tired and just wanted to stay at my desk. But! Yesterday I poked my head outside and immediately knew I needed to soak up some sunlight. I'm hoping that spending more time outside will boost my energy levels.

I spent some time reading in the sun, which pretty much made my day - The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires, by Grady Hendrix. I'm about half way through and I'm enjoying it a lot. It's funny, relatable (the first chapter is devoted to the main character totally meaning to read this book for her book club, and totally not doing it), and creepy, which is a great combination. *

Today was pretty good too, even though I didn't get to eat outside. We had a staff meeting, during which they held a raffle - you get entered if you get a good review from a homeowner. I received a really nice thank you email a few weeks ago, so I got entered and won a gift card!

Then I went to the dentist and they adjusted a filling - it feels like a quarter of my tooth is gone, but hopefully I won't have any more pain while eating.

Pretty good couple days overall :)

*List of potential triggers, updated as I read:
( Read more... )

Current Music: mama said - the shirelles

thinking about what I want out of this year - I guess as a sort of belated NY resolution process.
I broke my goals down into some rough groups - volunteer work, social activities, education, organization, health, self reflection, and creativity. It's easy to feel overwhelmed by how much there is to do, but I was pleasantly surprised by how many of these categories I've already started to work on.

Volunteer work - I've been attending the volunteer group meetings. I also went ahead and emailed the local litter coordinator as well as the group chapter leaders, so hopefully I'll hear back from them both soon! The local cleanup runs a little longer than I originally thought, so hopefully there's enough time to get together a group for late April.

Social activities - there's my Brindlewood Bay game. I didn't know one of the players beforehand, so hopefully she'll be a new friend. I think the volunteer work with help with increasing my social circle as well. I'm also thinking about finding a local crafting/knitting group? I'm not sure how much work my hands will allow, but maybe if it's infrequent it will be possible. The weather warming up should help a bit, I think.

Education - I still need to figure this out. The goals are to spend the allowance my job gives us for industry specific education, and to spend a more significant amount of time language learning. My family are starting to learn Japanese in preparation for a trip, so I want to be able to talk to them! Also reading, of course.

Organization - I'm still struggling with this, even after having roughly partitioned out my space a couple years ago. I've gotta stabilize my room, at the very least. If I can keep it uncluttered, I think I'll just feel better. In the last few weeks I put together a clothes rack and a new shoe rack, and they're helping a bit.
EDITED 3.21.25: I want to have a work from home set up that's comfortable, encourages focus, and is ergonomic. Tall order, but it's important.

Health - Gotta work on strength and mobility. I'm becoming increasingly concerned about making sure that I'm not super fragile in old age, since I already feel fragile now :/

Self reflection - DW should help. I mostly want to make sure that I keep momentum on my goals.

Creativity - So many options! I'm in progress on a mending project (fixing a woven cardigan with a big ole hole). Next I think I want to work on a heating pad to use at work. I already have a small electric pad that I keep under my wrists, but the heat basically just escapes into the air. Hopefully a soft pad to go on top will help me stay warm!

Current Mood: contemplative

volunteer group chapter meeting yesterday. I think they are a liiiiittle bit disorganized, but I'm still feeling pretty optimistic about it. They're interested in combining voter outreach efforts like letter writing and phone banking with volunteer efforts at local charities, and that's exactly what I'm looking for in an org right now.

We just need to actually... get it together, lol. They're looking for people to volunteer as activity coordinators, but the idea of volunteering for that is pretty intimidating. I don't think of myself as a leader, like, at all. But anyway, the local litter clean up is happening in April, and I want to at least ask if they think it's worth it to try to coordinate a group. If it works, I'll be stoked (I'm constantly noticing that there's trash all over my city), and if it doesn't ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I already strong armed my little brother into coming to the park to clean up around the creek with me anyways.

Anyway, I want to see if posting a little bit every few days will feel like less of an overwhelming project than the way I've been doing it so far. We'll see.

but my computer ate it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

A few friends and I played our first session of Brindlewood Bay yesterday. It was my first time actually role playing in a TTRPG
(my previous attempts at DnD were always pretty focused on fighting monsters, and I always lost interest pretty quickly) and I'm excited about it!

Brindlewood Bay is much more conversation based, and I was with people who are more interested in the RP parts this time. The premise is that all the players are role playing as old ladies who, in between book club meetings, solve mysteries. There's also an overarching supernatural mystery that you figure out over several sessions.

I'm not a huge fan of the built in character options, but doing what you want despite the rules is the best part of playing pretend! I can already see at least one way the game could be tweaked to be more interesting (to me, lol). I already started with the small tweak of arbitrarily limiting my own character's abilities.

My character is a member of a country club, a gardener, and has the 'Jane Marple' Move (can move freely in any space as long as she's not hostile to the occupants). Naturally, I decided that her Move should work everywhere but the country club. What I haven't told my fellow players yet is that it doesn't work because there's a rumor going around that I killed my husband. I didn't!...but there's a chance that the seemingly benevolent entity living in my basement did.

I have more Dramatic Backstory in mind, but I'm a little worried it's too much? Also that I won't be able to RP it well enough, or that I'll be more into the game than my fellow players, or not as into it, or... I'm basically running my typical anxiety hamster wheel, but I'm finding it very comforting that the first game was relatively easy to stay engaged with.

(This sounds silly, but I'm very slowly learning that when I don't enjoy spending time with people, it's not that I'm not trying hard enough, it's that they just aren't my people. And I think I trust that these are my people enough to trust that they aren't going to be judgy if I'm not the greatest RP'er.)

I'm sure my DM will assist with working background into the story where needed. I already jokingly told them to expect unhinged texts on the subject 😂

One friend's extremely funny character was based on his neighbor. His character was a retired cabinet installer, with an auto-mechanical hobby, a giant pile of dirt in her inventory, and a habit of dispensing unhelpful unasked for advice (the last two were based on the neighbor IRL). She has the 'Frank Columbo' Move, which means that rich/famous people don't take her seriously and that allows her to find extra clues in their presence. Also naturally, this means that my character doesn't take her seriously, which should be quite fun.

Anywho, we have another session planned in a couple weeks. We'll see how it goes!

Current Mood: cheerful
Current Music: IOU - Luke James

Like most people I know, I spent a lot of Wednesday in shock. I had already taken the day off because I thought I would be tired from the polls, and ended up being incredibly grateful that I didn't have to pretend not to be upset.

I spent a little time making calls to cure ballots over the weekend, but other than that I haven't quite figured out what to do with myself. I visited with friends Saturday, and it was a boost to my spirits even though we were quieter than usual. We decided on craft time plus a hot sauce tasting. At first I hated my abstract drawing, but it grew on me as I worked on it, and a lot of the negative feelings drained away too. Who knows whether I'll actually use them, but I've resolved to take some markers to the office to doodle with during lunch.

The hot sauce tasting was also very enjoyable, even though I'm not usually interested in my food being painful to eat. if you have a fruity, vinegary hot sauce on hand, go try it with some vanilla ice cream. A soy sauce based hot sauce also works. You'll be pleasantly surprised, I promise! Unless the sauce contains garlic, in which case have your sibling or someone sibling adjacent try it and enjoy laughing at the face they pull ;)

Current Mood: awake

Election day is over! I worked as a poll worker again, and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the day. The buttons popped off the dress I was wearing (I had a shirt on underneath), and thankfully that was the worst thing that happened, despite my mom (and some of the other officials' relatives) being worried for us. My co-poll-workers were all very nice, and the vibe was actually pretty cheerful. It's not unusual for everyone to be nice, but that doesn't guarantee a good atmosphere, so it was really nice to have that in an especially tense election.

The oath we had to take doubled in length from last election, and now contains a weird section about us not being allowed to 'memorandum' anything that happens in the voting booth (I'm 100% sure its due to weird republican voter fraud fear mongering bs). Nothing I have to say has anything to do with the voting booths, especially since I'm a help table official, but I'm not gonna say much else just in case :/ I will say that the oath is now longer than the one used to swear in the fucking president, and that that's fucking dumb.

Despite telling people not to panic, after we closed the polls I immediately checked my phone and started panicking 🙃 It's fine though, because I very deliberately put on 911: Lone Star (devastated that it was canceled btw) and ate a bunch of chips and queso to make myself chill out. Going to sleep soon, but hoping everyone is doing well,

Went to the movies with a couple friends over Labor Day weekend, and found out that they're getting married! This was surprising to me, because for some reason I was convinced that they were already married. *facepalm* They were very gracious about the perplexed expression I made, though, and I (hopefully) recovered well enough to express my genuine happiness for them.

We saw the anniversary edition of Coraline, and it was unexpectedly really nice! I'm not a huge fan of Neil Gaiman's work (plus I read the book as a kid and remembered being unnerved by the button eyes), but it was a cute film with a lot of really thoughtful character and set design elements. Coraline is unflinchingly childlike and it's really refreshing to watch. She's also awkward in her body and a little mean in the way that angry pre-teens frequently are.In the way I was, tbh. Afterwards there was a little documentary about the recreation of the stop motion puppets used in the film, and I thoroughly enjoyed that as well! I honestly could have watched a full length documentary on the topic.

One of my friends is a film buff, and he shared some insights into the rift between the director and the animation company. Apparently he doesn't approve of their more modern methods (3d printing puppet parts, using CGI to smooth their joints). I liked it though ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I was slightly disappointed to find out that my other friend, with whom I normally talk about books, isn't a fan of Austen. I just started reading Lady Susan, and was hoping for someone to cackle with. I'm about a third of the way through, and every successive letter has had me gasping and looking around for someone to gossip with. Guuuuurl, I can't believe she just said that 😂😂

At work things are going well. I do think that interim boss was correct about my og boss being a bit burnt out, unfortunately, but I'm hoping she can work her way through it now that she has some support. There's still a lot to do, but at the moment it's mostly housekeeping items. There are a lot of them, but it's doable.

It's also Spirit Week at work! Ive been trying to participate in the team activities they hold, so I've been going all in with my outfits. Monday was themed the same blue as their logo: I wore a cute jersey dress, and won best dressed for the day :)

Yesterday was Pajama Day: I obviously wore my Jack Skellington onesie. Today was Wacky Tacky Day, and I was very pleased with my outfit. I was aiming for children's tv show host vibes and I think I hit it 👍🏾 I wore a sequined purple, blue, silver, and pink crop top with a clashing skirt, leggings and shoes. You have to see it to really understand, but one of my coworkers said that it's 'extremely concerning' that I had all those pieces in my wardrobe. I swear, they all look good separately! (Except maybe the crop top, I can't decide 😂 And for the record, my children's tv show host name is Svetlana Banana). Tomorrow is Throwback Thursday, and I'm going for 80s/Madonna vibes: padded shoulders, lots of necklaces, purple tights, frizzy hair with a scarf. Friday is Sports Day, and I'm going to wear my one single sports team tank top with regular clothes, because that's as sporty as I get, lol.

It's embarrassing to admit it, but until last month I genuinely thought it had only been about two months since I last posted. I've had a lot going on in the past few months, but I can't honestly blame my inattention on outside circumstances. Apparently, I'm just... ridiculously time blind.

I started a new job (similar office assistant position, but in a new industry) today, and everyone I met was very nice. I was really nervous about it, but after expending a truly excessive amount of energy on worrying I think I finally feel okay. I'm going to have to do some extra work in order to accommodate the pain in my wrists, but I'm confident it's possible.

I'm off to get something to eat, but cheers to trying new things :)

(and a few old ones that felt very recent 😂)

For the past week I've been visiting my grandparents and my mom. We're prepping for Thanksgiving, which is likely going to be better attended than usual (and it's usually packed). We haven't done a lot so far (cleaning chitlins, unpacking tables and chairs, putting up Christmas trees), but my grandmother started defrosting a large amount of food the other day, so the work is still incoming.

It won't happen immediately (the ingredients aren't available here), but this year my birthday present was the promise I extracted from my mom to bake a cake with me! (She would have done it anyway, but it's what I wanted, lol). It's an interesting recipe that combines traditionally savory Thai ingredients (makrut lime leaves, Thai bird chili peppers, and green curry sauce) with chocolate and coconut, and has very good reviews. In theory, yum.

In the meantime I've been (slowly) making my way through Samin Nosrat's Salt Fat Acid Heat. It's lovely so far, with an engrossing mix of educational storytelling by Nosrat and gorgeous food illustration by Wendy McNaughton.

( More about SFAH, because I'm obsessed )

Other recent and enjoyable reads (and listens) include:

Garth Nix's A Confusion of Princes (I'm not the target audience anymore, but I still enjoy his work and I'm both overdue and excited to finally read the latest Old Kingdom novels),
Martha Well's Fugitive Telemetry (yes, good, excellent as expected),
a podcast interview with Martha Wells that includes an excellent excerpt of System Collapse (it also includes this weird rusty spring noise that I at first thought was my car, but hilariously turned out to be the interviewer trying not to giggle at Murderbot's internal monologue),
Terry Pratchett's Going Postal (my first Pratchett novel! I was worried I wouldn't like it because I'm not a huge fan of Neil Gaiman's work, but it was really fun, even though it's not my typical cup of tea. I think it's the sort of thing that I would enjoy very much as an audiobook, so I'm going to have to search around for one of Making Money), and
Lois McMaster Bujold's Shards of Honor (I had no idea what it was about going in, but I loved it. A really tight mix of action, political intrigue, and romance, with a really deliberate emphasis on the fact that romance is for everyone, not just women, the young, the pretty, the silly, etc. I was a little surprised at how immediately and straightforwardly the romance angle was introduced, but I was convinced by the strong characterization, setting, and pacing. Yes, the way they gravitate towards each other feels a little fairytale, but it fits Cordelia and Aral's characters perfectly (they're both simultaneously driven by their ideals and dragged down by their own pragmatism and humanity), and the high drama of the space opera plot complements the romance rather than jangling discordantly against it the way I half expected. Cordelia is a really fun type of heroine - underestimated by her opponents, quick thinking and clever, and complicated enough to feel sympathy for the enemy. I'm dying, but in a good way).

Current Mood: cheerful

Sad to say that I just finished the audiobook of Network Effect, and that I'm on hold to borrow Fugitive Telemetry. Luckily there's only two people in line in front of me, so the wait won't be too torturous. Network Effect was everything that I've enjoyed about the Murderbot Diaries so far, plus a couple things that I didn't know I wanted!

I was worried about the audiobook format (my usual reaction to audiobooks is "[blorbo] wouldn't fucking sound like that," so I tend to avoid them), but once I got used to it I really enjoyed it! I had forgotten how funny Murderbot is, and I'm honestly not sure if I fully realized before how much I empathize with it; I so frequently feel like that little penguin meme -you know the one where he's doing stupid arts and crafts for his stupid mental health? Yeah, it's like that, and Murderbot gets it.
( mild murderbot spoilers )
Visiting my family got postponed to this upcoming week, so I decided to go ahead and make the beef noodle soup. I used my instant pot successfully! with only a couple nervous text to friends and another couple reassuring calls with my mom. (To friends: "Haha, hope I don't blow this up. No really, I'm hiding across the room, it's making sounds like it might blow up." To mom: "Is this normal???? It's making Sounds." From mom: "Call me back after you open it...just in case.")

The soup is good! The hardest part of making it was forcing myself to go the grocery store to get the ingredients (I always have so much trouble with that, and I can never figure out why). I ended up tricking myself by telling myself that I was just going to look and see if they had what I needed, and that took the irrational pressure I was feeling right off. Once that was done, it took some time (and five grocery stores) to find what I was looking for, but I'm so glad I did, because now there's a ton of cuisines that I can try out!

Current Music: the project runway theme song

I've been struggling a little bit with managing my adhd and feeling like I'm not getting enough (anything) done lately. I've realized that sometimes I mentally sort tasks into 'homework' even when I'm ostensibly doing them for fun and interest, and that's sort of what I did with DW *guilty face.* I want to get over that and kick start myself back into posting regularly, so here I am!

We got back from a show last week, and even though the bulk of it belongs in a different post, I will say that it had a few highs and then a bunch of low lows. Right now we're looking to the future, though. There's still a bunch that we can do to improve and prepare for next year, so hopefully I can get myself together enough to work on that plus all of my personal projects.

Speaking of personal projects, I've been tearing through Project Runway reruns. I thought I wasn't going to re-watch all of it, but it's looking like I might end up doing it anyway. Oops :)

Watching it made me remember how much I love clothes, so I pulled out an old simplicity pattern (a bralette that I want to use as practice before experimenting with boning and simple pattern alterations) and some thrifted fabric a couple weeks ago. I really want to do it the right way, so I've started a sewing journal and written out a plan (as usual, I'm determined to make things difficult for myself, and I've decided to depart from the pattern instructions in a few key places). The fabric is mostly cut as well, I just need to do a bit more (several more steps of, lol) eprep before it can start to come together.

The other current work in progress is the ongoing revamp of the way I use my kitchen; I've started discarding a lot of out of date products, and exploring ways to be more mindful about either preserving ingredients or finding new ways to use them. That includes using the appliances that have been hiding under my counters, so I pulled out the instant pot that I received as a gift YEARS ago, and I'm going to get over my fear of all the buttons and the seals and the whistling! Believe it! I saw @cassyeungmoney making Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup, and found a corresponding recipe on Woks of Life that looks amazing. The only question is whether I want to wait until I get back from visiting my family next week to make it.

....Or I could make it while I visit them. I'm thinking it won't be hard to persuade my mom to make this with me, which will both increase the chances of success and the number of people to help me eat it ;)

I locked myself out of the house several hours ago, and while my neighbors are friendly enough, it would have been an awkward five hour wait.

Things that are funny about this situation:
-Probably all of them, if I'm being honest, but especially
-The fact that all of the books I wanted from the library are locked inside my house
-The way I probably looked cussing up a storm on the way to the library when I realized that the plumber was supposed to come today. He hasn't texted yet, so there's a good chance I won't miss him by the time I've been let back in.
-And last but definitely not least, the fact that I locked myself out because I was too busy panicking about a bug that I had already trapped to pay attention to where my keys where when I went outside (they were in the door. On the wrong side, obviously).

Things that are extremely lucky about this situation:
-I found a fun cookbook at the library (which I will now have to carry home. Less lucky, I suppose).
-I spent some time out of the house, which I had been meaning and failing to do for several days. (Life throws lemons rather than gifting them, occasionally, apparently).
-I was wearing leggings under my jeans and a sweater when I got locked out, despite it being almost 90 degress out (I had planned on going to the grocery store). This is lucky because despite the walk, it is cold in this library.
-I had my phone, headphones, and wallet on me. YES! OPTIONS!
-And last but REALLY INCREDIBLY not least, my godmother and brother, who were supposed to be out of town at a show for another day (the show closed early because of the latest hurricane), called about an hour before The Incident to let me know that they were coming home early. Only another half our or so to wait!

Today was decently productive! Made a quick trip buy a covid test (negative), and then took care of a few chores: my car now has gas, I have eggs in the fridge despite the increased amount of cooking I've been doing (blondies with a peach swirl yesterday), and my room is a bit cleaner!

I also made a quick (and long procrastinated) repair to the journal that my godmother uses to collect emails at shows, and repaired my personal journal at the same time. The text blocks had ripped out of both, so I just added new end papers and glued them back in. Not an elegant repair, but it's 100x better than carrying around two books in four pieces. It also felt good to do something binding related again, even something small.

Unfortunately, in the middle of all that, the kitchen sink went on strike (it stopped draining).

In addition to being the second unexpected house expense in the last few weeks, this has put a serious damper on my plans to test out different pizza dough recipes. ( Pizza Plans! )And on my plans to like, eat fresh food. My neighbor shared the number of a plumber who lives in our neighborhood, so hopefully it'll be resolved before I reach the point of needing to wash dishes in my bathroom sink.

The last week or so has mostly been taken up by doctors appointments (mine and my gm's mother's [great god mother's?] - anyway, we're both good :)) and running errands, with some cooking and various media tossed in.

( Cooking! )
( Media! )

( Recipes )
( Future Adventures )

This is the second, much shorter, version of this post. The first got eaten by my iPad, and has proven irretrievable. When it happened a few days ago, I looked at the iPad, said "fine," in the most passive aggressive way possible, closed it and flounced away. I'm in much better spirits now (a.k.a. I have stopped making dagger eyes at my iPad), and have taken it as a sign from the universe to be (this time) more succinct 👍🏾👍🏾 A n y w a y...

I've been trying to improve my eating habits lately (when I don't straight up forget, I frequently executive dysfunction my way out of eating properly), and I think meal prep is a partial answer! I found a copy of one of my mom's favorite cookbooks online (Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins' The New Basics) and she's an amazing cook, so I'm hoping I can use it to improve my cooking as well as my eating.

(I also think that this could be a way to connect with her - I love my mom a lot, but our conversations can be kind of stilted. She sounded really pleased when I told her I was using her favorite cookbook, though, so I'm hopeful this will give us something to talk about.)

Eventually I think I'd like to typeset and bind my favorite recipes into a collection - I would really like to create a family recipe book too - but for now I think I'll keep notes on my progress here.

My first attempts at eating better have been a variation on The New Basics' corn chowder, their pancakes, a random food blogger's tuna pasta, and a copycat sandwich from the menu of a deli I visited in Illinois. Notes to follow.

In the meantime, if anyone has suggestions or favorite recipes they like to share, please feel free :)

PS, I wanted to tag this Bottom Chef, but that seemed too on the nose lmaooo. If I don't stop thinking it's hilarious soon, maybe I'll change the tag ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Current Music: The dulcet sound of my own juvenile giggles

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indarkdirected

May 2025

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mulberries and muscadines

Recent Entries

Welcome!

46. The litter sweep went well!

45. Five good things make a post

43. Trying not to get too excited,

42. Even though I felt

41. Yesterday I spent some time

40. Went to my local

39. I started to post this yesterday,

38. The last few days

37. after the polls

35. The movies, Austen, and Spirit week!

32. Oops

30. It's that time of year again! + recent reads

28. Murderbot and Beef Noodle Soup!

27. Getting back on track

26. Thank god for libraries because

25. Productivity, house expenses, pizza plans

24. Food with family, movies with friends, and books for meeeeee!

23. Food Adventures Master List

22. Better living through meal prep!