First things first: civic duty over all.
This is the first election I’ve voted early. Every other time I’ve left it till Election Day, but this year carries far more urgency. I am deeply afraid. I also live in hope. It’s a baffling place to be. Meanwhile, here’s my little sandworm, who has no larger concerns than the ice cream that is not currently being shared with her. Why no ice cream for Circe? 🙁
October Reading Stats
Books Finished:
- Shady Hollow – Juneau Black
- Bookshops & Bonedust – Travis Baldree
- Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
- Cold Clay – Juneau Black
- Mirror Lake – Juneau Black
- House of Hunger – Alexis Henderson
- Fire & Blood – George R.R. Martin
- Cat + Gamer 6 – Wataru Nadatani
Total Pages Read: 2,055
This month being significantly less busy than the last because reasons, I was able to direct more time towards reading. The latest Cat + Gamer was a pleasant surprise; I’d completely forgotten it was coming out this month. I’ve also been rereading and rewatching Spy x Family, and it’s been a blast. Next order of business: rewatching both seasons of House of the Dragon while I wait for season 3. The book is making me do it.
October’s surprise find was actually not a book so much as a big pack of Kleenex, which is very fortunate because I just ran out of extra Kleenex and was planning to buy more. :’) Luckily I am a procrastinator by nature and I kept putting it off for so long that I finally stumbled across this pack stashed in my closet. I have literally no memory of buying this thing, but I guess I should go into my closets more often.
Currently Reading
Sherlock Holmes Complete Collection
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
No progress. :’)
The Secret Life of the Universe: An Astrobiologist’s Search for the Origins and Frontiers of Life
Nathalie A. Cabrol
Current rating: 4.75-5 stars. Slowly but surely. Hoping to finish this up within the next week.
My Beloved Monster: Masha, the Half-Wild Rescue Cat Who Rescued Me
Caleb Carr
No progress. :’)
Legends & Lattes
Travis Baldree
This book is just so, SO wonderful. I’ve been having a good time reading all the Kindle books I picked up this year, and this happens to be one of them. I can’t wait till Thimble comes out.
Bruce Coville’s Book of Nightmares: Tales to Make You Scream
Bruce Coville et al.
Current rating: 4.5-5 stars. Really throwing it back to the ’90s and the Scholastic Book Fair with this one. I grew up with this book, as well as Coville’s alien anthology (or at least one of them – I think there’s more than one), and I’ve really been feeling that nostalgic itch lately, so I found both of them at Wonder Books and somehow managed to keep myself from diving in until Halloween day. This was a great decision, because the vibes are immaculate. I’ve only read three stories so far; “The Boy Who Cried Dragon” is my current favorite, omg that story is amazing.
Unemployment Update
Drumroll, please: I AM GOING TO BE WORKING AT BARNES AND NOBLE OVER THE HOLIDAY SEASON OMGGGGGGGGGGG y’all I have fantasized about working in a bookstore for literal years (my last job created particularly lurid fantasies about running away from corporate life and opening my own bookstore/bakery, which I can tell you Bookshops & Bonedust only fanned into flame), but I never managed to get hired by one until this week. Back in college I made it to the interview stage at Ukazoo Books, which now is no longer there, but I think I was too brutally honest in my opinions on the books I didn’t like (I’m a book snob okay we all know this) and ultimately did not get the job.
Fast-forward to the present day, in which I am (1) an overly talkative walking book encyclopedia and (2) completely unemployed. I have been following my closest BN on IG ever since it relocated to another part of its shopping center, and it was by sheer algorithm-based luck that I happened to see that they were hiring part-time booksellers for the holidays. I stayed up all night dreaming about it (gods I wish that were an exaggeration) and put in my application the next day, had the phone screen the day after that, interviewed in person this past Monday, and got the offer late Friday afternoon. And I am STUPID excited about this because, you know, books, but also it gives me the breathing room I need as I figure out my next steps and I am so very grateful for that.
And, yeah, in most cases retail is absolutely not excellent, but books are my joy and my safety, and I genuinely do not see any scenario in which I lose. One of my work refugee buddies says she has worked at BN in the past and loved it. My fondest hope right now is that the holiday gig will turn into a permanent part-time position, which will give me a reliable source of income while also allowing me the time to polish my professional skills (lol, I say that like I ever want to go back to an office), launch my own business, and write my novels, which if I’m honest are the only things I care about. I don’t want the next job to become my entire life, the way the last one did. I don’t want to depend on an outside company for my entire income. I wasted years clawing my way into a job that I thought would be permanent, and now I have no job, no roots, nothing but a few weeks of unemployment pay that went straight into the rent and zero support from our so-called HR contact who so far has been about as much use as tits on a rooster.
In conclusion, I am very happy to go back to retail, which is how you know the last place was really bad. You might reasonably wonder how retail serves my purposes, and in fact I was asked as much during the phone screening, because on paper it looks like I can do better. Technically I can, but look where “doing better” has left me. It took me ten years and a Master’s degree just to get a contract design job, and another three to become a full-time employee with meaningful benefits. It took me thirteen years to get into a job that actually had benefits, and if that doesn’t seem fucked up to you then we literally cannot be friends. Yeah, I’ve “done better” before this point, but now I’m tired and angry because I was promised that if I made myself useful then any employer would find a way to keep me, but I have in fact spent the last two decades proving that the world doesn’t actually work this way. I am one designer in a field awash with talent, I don’t have the video skills that would make me a shoo-in at other companies, and every fucking company is beginning to think my field is obsolete, THANKS, AI. I’m sick of this shit and I just want to sell books.
In a best-case scenario, I find out that bookselling suits me, and I become a regular BN team member while actively pursuing my side hustles. (Maybe in time I can think about opening my own bookselling business? I won’t rule it out.) In a worst-case scenario, I have something to do for a month and a half while I look for something more permanent. I am not kidding when I say I need something to get me out of the house. My sleep schedule is out of control, and my motivation is about as low as it’s ever been. In the meantime, I am so very excited at the prospect of getting paid to talk to random strangers about books. Fingers crossed that I won’t just end up trading labor for new books, lol.
Post-interview book haul, because of course I bought more books even though I swear I was only planning to get Lady Macbeth. T_T
Cooking Corner
I have been doing so, so well with my leftovers/pantry/freezer over the last month – turns out the threat of running out of money is a great motivator – and, despite one DoorDash-related lapse (I was weak and craving Chinese takeout), I am pleased with my cooking this month though next time I make fried rice I’m adding salt. The best find of the month was the Hakka eggs with preserved radish, seen below with fish congee, and the creamed tuna, which my mom’s mom used to make. She was gone by the time I was born, but my mom still remembered the skeleton of the recipe, which was more than enough to recreate it. Grandma always served it with short-grain rice, which is good, but I have found that I prefer it with buttered egg noodles, parmesan, and crusty bread. Either way it’s delicious and I just bought a family pack of canned tuna, and I will be making this again.
Circe’s Corner
Have I made it clear enough that I want to come back as a very spoiled house cat in my next life? She literally does not have a single thought in that fuzzy little head and it sounds absolutely glorious.
And here she is expecting to share my fried rice.
And here she is being depressed that she didn’t get any fried rice. It’s the hard-knock life.
