✈️ StL ➡️ San Juan

Currently reading: How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe (Enhanced Edition) by Charles Yu 📚

Time is a machine: it will convert your pain into experience. Raw data will be compiled, will be translated into a more comprehensible language. The individual events of your life will be transmuted into another substance called memory and in the mechanism something will be lost and you will never be able to reverse it, you will never again have the original moment back in its uncategorized, preprocessed state. It will force you to move on and you will not have a choice in the matter.

Sunshine, breeze, warm, things in bloom. Great day for a balcony break.

A black balcony railing under a black umbrella and flowering Bradford pear trees with a blue sky in the background

For sure, this is what e e cummings envisioned.

Morning walk

Hyacinths flowering - one small pink, one larger white, one green bud.Flowering tree against blue sky backgroundA green sign that says Save Our Trees on the side of a narrow roadNarrow paved road bordered by trees

HEY It’s time TIME TO DANCE IN YOUR KITCHEN (Or anywhere really)

At least once a week, a new set or two of these in my photo library courtesy of Lily. 😂🥰

Finished reading: The Steerswoman (Steerswoman Series) by Rosemary Kirstein 📚

What an enjoyable book. One review describes it as “excellent female-authored fantasy that had been undeservedly forgotten.” Spot on. The promise of a scholarly protagonist committed to honesty hooked me. The friendships and physics interwoven with classic fantasy elements kept me hooked. Maps! Lore! Jewels! And smart analytical thinking. Loved this one.

🥾 Today’s hiking church - LaBarque Hills Trail. Little signs of spring everywhere.

A leaf covered trail winds through the woods with shadows falling across and sprigs of grass starting to show

I was out taking my stupid little mental health walk when this song popped up. I was laughing out loud. Hilarious, a groove, and surefire motivation for the gym or the walk or whatever.

Milestone: first post-divorce big trip with the kids

In 10 days, I’m taking the kids to Puerto Rico for a long week of vacation.
I’m so excited to relax at our favorite beaches, visit friends, and do nothing but read, rest, eat, swim, and soak up the sun. This is our first “big trip” since the divorce. In the past three years I’ve done a couple of overseas trips by myself, and several road trips/family visits with the kids. But this is my first time doing the whole flight+rental car+hotels+etc for all five of us, as the sole adult.
It’s a little intimidating.
The planning is fun. I like trip logistics and I’m good at that sort of thing. It’s really the idea that I’ll be THE ADULT on this trip. If something goes wrong, I gotta solve it. I have to do all the navigating and driving, checking in and out, making decisions, communicating…
Fortunately, this one is a soft launch. We’re going back to where we lived, not a new place. We have friends there, so I can get help if I need it. That makes it easier. Plus the kids are not little. They’re near-adults, helpful, intelligent, capable, and great travelers. So I’m expecting things will go great, we’ll handle little disruptions with ease, and have a lovely time. I hope so, because I love traveling, and I love traveling with my kids, and I want to do more of it. It’s been on hold till now. Feels really good (even if a bit scary) to unpause this part of my life and pick it up in a new way.

Finished reading: Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher 📚

Really enjoyed this one. Female protagonists (love), good writing, endearing story but not cutesy, humor, just a lot of all around yes.

February reading 📚

The Month of Ursula, apparently.

  1. A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
  2. The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. Le Guin
  3. The Farthest Shore by Ursula K. Le Guin
  4. Split by Suzanne Finnamore
  5. A River Enchanted by Rebecca Ross
  6. Jar City by Arnaldur Indridason
  7. No Bad Parts by Richard Schwartz
  8. The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin

Finished reading: The Lathe Of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin 📚

So good, of course. This one is going to linger in my brain.

just overheard Lauryn Hill and Amy Winehouse referred to as OLDER MUSIC so anyway bye I’m gonna go dig my own grave and lie down in it

🥾hello, darlings

Daffodils in bloom with a tree in the background

Does anybody else have a “car book”? Just a book… that stays in your car… There when you’re waiting for a few minutes and need something to read. Right now mine is a collection of short stories by Bukowski.

Finished reading: No Bad Parts by Richard Schwartz, Ph.D. 📚
Got the overview of internal family systems I was looking for in the first half, skimmed the second half.

Checking this site periodically for little dopamine hits: donald trump’s debt: live tracker