We interrupt this program to memorialize a moment of shocking import. After at least 27 years and an unquantifiable loss of (video game) life, I have finally killed Bowser and rescued Princess Peach. TBH the princess matters less than the overgrown turtle, suck it you semiaquatic plumber-stomping loser. I have spent fucking DECADES playing through the main game and Star Road and then restarting the minute I got to Bowser’s doorstep because I just couldn’t deal with him.
Of course I then immediately murdered him twice more in separate game files, because we are nothing if not intentional in our murders. I also finally beat Tubular on the same night, I was on FIRE but also I want to go on record saying that TUBULAR IS HARDER THAN BOWSER and that is so fucked up. All of this was possible only because I finally watched a couple of YouTube tutorials and said “THAT’S IT?!” to both of them and then proceeded to flush countless lives down the drain. No, I will not be posting the number of lives I lost. I didn’t count them anyway.
Anyway. As long as I’m memorializing ridiculous things, here’s the nicest takeout bag I’ve ever seen. This thing is a work of art. I’ll have to find some good use for it.
And here is the cat being an absolute icon.
And the St. Louis Cathedral necklace sent by my friend Linda, because it’s cute and I want to pay tribute to it, dammit. Also I dreamed that my neck was too thick to wear the necklace, because that’s a normal dream to have.
To get back to the matter at hand: I thought May was busy but then I went through August which while it did not include any travel was somehow more draining, possibly because I spent one memorable Saturday carrying two giant bags of books and general merch and finding out exactly how many people exist just to stand in the middle of every possible aisle. This also seems to have been my month for repairing things, because I had to get the big TV fixed again and then on that same day Hector’s battery had to be replaced. It’s fine. This is fine. I mean, the battery thing at least got me out of pilates.
I am sincerely hoping I never have to repair this TV again and am simultaneously so pleased that this repair was a lot faster and easier than the last one. I was expecting the TV to disappear into Repairland for at least two weeks, but the fix took place in one morning and the TV didn’t have to go anywhere. It was done in time for me to watch the first Harris/Walz rally live, and it cost only a fraction of the initial estimate because the screen didn’t have to be replaced.
August Reading Stats
Books Finished:
- Bite by Bite: Nourishments and Jamborees – Aimee Nezhukumatathil
- Fevered Star – Rebecca Roanhorse
- Into the Wild – Erin Hunter
- Alias Grace – Margaret Atwood
Total Pages Read: 1,189
This was half a month of new reads and half a month of rereads, with the biggest revelation being Aimee Nezhukumatathil’s Bite by Bite. I didn’t think she could top World of Wonders, but boy was I wrong. As much as I love both books, Bite by Bite has become my new favorite, and one of the best nonfiction books I’ve ever read. As for Alias Grace, which will shortly become one of the only two Atwood books I have ever reviewed despite my embarrassing Atwood collection: my problems with the ending stand, as does my irritation with Dr. Jordan, who is a pig. I’m not sorry he gets his memory blown out of his brain at the end of the book, though I am sorry Miss Cartwright gets stuck with his care and general upkeep, especially as he keeps calling her “Grace.”
Aside from that, I don’t have much to report, except that Soboro is now fully decorated for fall and has been equipped with her little calico dust plug. And I am seriously impressed with her battery life, because I’ve charged her exactly once in the month or so since she dropped into my hands, and the last time I looked she still had a 66% charge. She is also lighting fast and super responsive, and we loves her, precious.
One difficulty: I’d put the fall case away “somewhere safe,” which is a polite euphemism for “I’m never going to fucking find it again,” and after I’d torn apart the apartment looking for it I finally found it tucked away in one of my bedroom closets LITERALLY WHERE I’D ALREADY LOOKED SEVERAL TIMES, and I am putting this here in case I forget again, which I probably will. The odds are very much not in my favor.
As for Spring Moon, she will always be my first Kindle, and she’s actually been trotting around with me on the two DC day trips I took this month. She fits quite neatly in the little sleeve in my new Ecodunia sling, which probably wasn’t actually intended for a Kindle but WHO CARES.
She has been having some slight software issues, which does not please me, as she started acting up almost the minute Soboro arrived. But these issues seem to happen only when we’re traveling, which I guess is understandable, and so far have cleared up well enough when I put her on airplane mode. I really do not want anything to happen to my little Spring Moon. I wanted her to last me at least a decade when I ordered her four years ago, and that is still my intention.
Currently Reading
Sherlock Holmes Complete Collection
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Still stuck in The Sign of the Four, lol. No progress.
Fire & Blood
George R.R. Martin
Chugging along, chugging along. I’ve just gotten to the start of the era covered by House of the Dragon, which I’m gonna go ahead and say is my favorite part in view of the rest of the book.
The Cartographers
Peng Shepherd
Current rating: 3.5-4 stars. I fully admit that I came into this expecting it to be a DNF, because I couldn’t get through The Book of M and thought it might be a problem with the author. Which sucked, because at that point I’d already bought The Cartographers and couldn’t go back. So then I thought I’d give it a few chapters and unhaul it if it didn’t work out, with every expectation that it wouldn’t work out because let’s face it I really needed the shelf space, only then I actually started reading it and got hooked, goddammit. I like Nell as a character so far; I’m not too far in, but she’s off to a promising start, though her internal narration is disappointingly repetitive. I’m hoping it gets better. I would so like to love this book.
The Secret Life of the Universe: An Astrobiologist’s Search for the Origins and Frontiers of Life
Nathalie A. Cabrol
No rating. Only 26 pages in. I did have a chance to meet the author, but was foiled by my own inability to heed my alarm. T_T
Thoughts of a 12-Year Stirlingite
Honestly, I haven’t thought about Lindsey Stirling for a while. I first found out about her somewhere around 2012 and did what I always do and listened to all her music and watched her music videos and learned everything I could about her, but sometime later – we’re talking a lifespan of years – began to lose interest in the phase, not because of Lindsey herself but because that’s just how it goes with me and my phases. Despite a shrewd mention in Light from Uncommon Stars (Ryka Aoki), she fell off my radar and did not resurface until Heather told me about a joint Lindsey Stirling/Walk Off the Earth concert in DC. I’d never heard of WOTE but obviously I’d heard of Lindsey, so I figured why not?
Spoiler alert: Best. Decision. Ever.
I am now a WOTE fan. As for Lindsey, I have one of her earlier concerts on DVD (also from Heather, who knows me quite well) but was genuinely not prepared for the experience that was the Duality tour. It was a concert, an acrobatic show, and a therapy session all rolled into a 90-minute spectacle. While I was dearly hoping for an acoustic performance of one of her OGs – Transcendence, for instance, which I honestly prefer in its acoustic form – I have no complaints about the music, which included some of her new songs without forgetting the ones that first made her name. I was surprised but so excited for Roundtable Rival, Crystallize, all of the old favorites. There was even a segment where she brought a little herd of adoptable puppies and kittens onto the stage to act as her backup dancers, it was adorable.
And even with the flashing lights and the unbelievable acrobatics, it was such a wholesome joy just to listen to Lindsey even when she wasn’t playing, to hear her stories and her jokes. I personally could’ve done with less of the philosophical recordings, but overall the show was amazing and I would absolutely go again. She made me want to haul out my violins again. (Haven’t so far, but you never know.) I was so fired up that I actually bought the ridiculously expensive merch, though I managed to limit myself to one T-shirt and one hoodie. I’m too lazy to take a pic of the shirt, which has by now been washed and worn multiple times, but here’s the hoodie selfie I sent Heather a couple days later.
Unexpected bonus: We had dinner at the theater and I stole the onions that came with Heather’s burger, because she didn’t want them. I will never say no to onions.
Library of Congress Book Festival
The next August event, which I was looking forward to even more than I was looking forward to Lindsey: attending the 2024 National Book Festival with Heather and Michaella!!! I have been to the book festival once that I recall, with my parents, several years ago – not so long as childhood, but long enough. It was definitely within the last decade, though I can’t pinpoint a more specific time. In the years since, I haven’t been too interested because DC is a pain in the ass to get to if you’re not already in the city. This year, though, Aimee Nezhukumatathil was on the list of authors attending, and, well, we all know my feelings on her writing.
Welp, as it happened, Aimee did not make it to book fest, which was very sad and I hope she’s okay, and also that I’ll have a chance to meet her in the future. But book fest was still amazing – we even got free lunch boxes, which considering the amount of money I spent just at the LoC merch booth was a real blessing – and I really enjoyed the one talk we managed to attend. Even if Aimee wasn’t there, we still got to listen to Annabelle Tometich and Crystal Wilkinson who actually name-dropped Ronni Lundy whose cookbook I have been reading since childhood OMG as they discussed their new books. I was too hot and too tired to stand in line for author signatures, but I have both their books, and I can’t wait to read them. Unfortunately I was not meticulous about photographing my LoC merch, but I am now the proud owner of an LoC tote, a nice thick blanket designed to look like an old school library checkout slip, a free book fest poster (going to get that framed any day now), bookcase decorations, a red leather notebook – I couldn’t help myself, okay – and probably a number of other things I am currently forgetting. I almost forgot to pay for the tote bag because all my merch was stashed in it lol orz how embarrassing :’D
I really wanted to go to the Emily Wilson talk, but the line to get into the room was ridiculous to the point that I don’t think they had enough seats for the people who were there. I’ll just have to watch everything I missed online.
Anyway, 11/10 experience, would go again, I will at least take a look at the author line-up next year to see if it’s worth the trek though I’d probably go for the book sale alone. I do so love to buy books.
Labor Day Labors
And now the natural consequence of buying more nonfiction books: running out of shelf space. Again. I couldn’t unhaul my way out of this one, so I finally caved and ordered a skinny Billy (IYKYK) and spent the last days of August putting it together and reorganizing my books, which honestly is my idea of the perfect long weekend and I have no complaints. I will jump at any excuse to build a bookcase and redo my library while watching Matilda.
I had thought that the cat would hide while I was busy, or maybe take a nap on my bed, but she instead hung out on the floor with me even while I was hammering the bookcase together. We don’t deserve animals. ;_;
This might seem like a trivial thing, but I have put together so many Billy bookcases over the last several years, and I can tell you that I almost cried when I saw that this Billy had holes punched in the back piece and matching screws to peg it to the shelves. Again, IYKYK, but this is the part where I always fuck up because I just suck at measuring and pounding nails and I am SO FUCKING GRATEFUL to the absolute genius who finally realized IKEA customers are not shopping at IKEA because of any great construction-related proficiency. I don’t know if this is only a thing on the skinny Billies; I haven’t put together a regular-sized Billy for a couple of years. (God, has it really been that long? INCONCEIVABLE.)
It also occurred to me at the last minute that, while I have been putting off the construction of a reading corner as a “house project,” I am no closer to buying a house than I was a year ago and I want that fucking reading corner. I had all the furniture, it was just a matter of willpower (which I have) and muscle power (more doubtful). With the benefit of hindsight, I can now tell you never to doubt a bookdragon and especially never doubt me, cus I got some mean ass genes and despite my general brain frizz I have ways of getting what I want.
Before
I take a set-it-and-forget-it approach to interior decoration, which is no doubt the main reason I have never been entirely satisfied with my haphazard layout, as seen below. It was fine for my purposes, but I can do better. I was particularly dissatisfied with the placement of the bedroom TV, because I am a side-sleeper and have never found a way of comfortably watching TV while lying in bed. I know, I know, #FirstWorldProblems.
During
I was so hoping the new Billy would just neatly slip into the gap between the leftmost bookcase and the wall, but he turned out to be juuuuuuust wide enough to force me to evict all my books, move the three main bookcases a fraction of an inch to the right, and put all the books back again. Unrelated, I am sure, but why do I have SO. MANY. BOOKS. It didn’t seem that many when they were still on their shelves. I am not looking forward to the very distant day when I will eventually have to pack all these books into boxes so they can be moved. I am so grateful that there are people who will let me pay them to carry those books for me.
After
People who have visited me will remember that little blue couch from my first apartment, and I was so proud when I paid it off. But when I moved to this place I got a bigger couch, and the little couch has been relegated to a corner of the living room for the last two years and largely forgotten until this weekend, when I got it into my head to swap it with my linen dresser. The linen dresser is now in the living room; the clothing dresser moved across the bedroom to replace the linen dresser, and the blue couch and the area rug moved to the bedroom to take the place of the clothing dresser. (In the reading corner pictures: the LoC library card throw. It is nice and thick and I lurves it, even if it does take 500000000 years to line dry.)
All of which is to say that I managed to construct a cozy reading/gaming corner in my bedroom just in time for fall, complete with the kitty heads that I finally decided to hang on the wall because they were lying around and getting in the way and driving me crazy, and I also want to put my LoC poster here whenever I end up getting it framed. I have some spectacular bruises on my right knee from the number of times I used it to MAKE THIS STUPID BOOKCASE MOVE and I’ve been in agony for a week, I mean, you can’t turn a couch onto its nose and shove it through a doorway without some serious consequences, but I don’t give a wombat’s anus. My apartment now looks the way I want it to, I have plenty of space for new books, and the September weather so far has been so beautiful that I’ve been able to keep the AC off and the windows open all week. I am, in short, very happy.
The finishing touch on a perfect reading corner: the house basket I picked out at Home Goods after my evil Kindle group convinced me that house purses are a great idea. I would have really loved it if the basket had had partitions; however, it holds my Switches, my Kindles, and my DS Lite, so I have no complaints.
My biggest concern in all of this was Circe, who on the Friday before the holiday weekend was dragged to the vet to get sedated so they could trim her nails while she was out (not my first choice of plan, but she forced my hand). Under other circumstances I would’ve put off any furniture rearrangements, but unfortunately this was the only three-day weekend in sight and I was not waiting till November to finally get the IKEA box off the floor. Kitties are creatures of routine, and I was really worried that Circe would be addled and unhappy while I was busy; which, to be fair, she was. But then I got the couch into its new corner, and magic happened.
I think she’ll be just fine. She staked out the couch early, and in the time since then has had some superior naps on the rug in front of the TV. I’m not thrilled about her habit of scratching the blue couch when she wants attention (I have some anti-kitty tape, we’ll see who’s laughing when I finally remember to put it up), but I love that she’s been using the couch as a springboard to get onto the bedroom window sill. She loves sitting by the windows and taking the fresh air and watching the world go by, and the couch has just made it easier for her to get up there. As her mother, and as someone who has watched her miscalculate the distance between floor and sill and ram herself face first into the wall, I cannot tell you how happy this makes me.
As far as the library goes, my manga bookcase moved to fill the gap between the linen dresser and the other bookcases, because with the couch gone there’s suddenly a lot more floor space in the living/dining areas. I will admit to some slight worry when the new Billy was finally put together, because it didn’t look as roomy as I’d imagined. I had originally thought to put my nonfiction collection there; however, as that collection keeps growing by the day and I couldn’t bear to unhaul any of them (which is why I needed a new bookcase in the first place), I ended up relocating my children/YA books instead, because I don’t expect their number to grow significantly. It turns out I don’t have as many children’s books as I thought I did, which is great because the new Billy also has room for theater and poetry, foreign language, and non-manga graphic novels. This in turn freed up so much space on the main bookcases that nonfiction has expanded to an extra, sorely needed shelf, while my entire Redwall collection can actually have a shelf of its own. There are no words to express exactly how happy this makes me. The Redwall books have spent years double-stacked on the children’s shelves, and I have always hated that.
In conclusion, it wasn’t my book-buying habits that were the problem, it was my lack of shelf space, all I needed was an extra bookcase, do not argue with me on this point, I will die on this hill and take all my books with me.
