The Christmas Spirit

~ shawnaborman ~ 2 Comments

Hello, hello! How’s everyone doing this lovely Wednesday? It’s that time of year where I try to get into some kind of holiday spirit and fail miserably. Don’t feel like sending out cards again this year. I tried Christmas music and just ended up tuning it out. I’m boring, I know. Dad and I did walk up and down the street to look at the lights our festive neighbors put up. That counts for something, right? Anyway, I have nothing to ramble about or review, so here are random festive songs. Kind of. I guess.

1. I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas by Gayla Peevey.

2. The Season’s Upon Us by Dropkick Murphys.

3. Snoopy’s Christmas by The Royal Guardsmen.

4. Won’t be Home for Christmas by Blink-182.

Thoughts on GODLY HEATHENS

~ shawnaborman ~ Leave a comment

Howdy, howdy! How’s everyone doing this lovely Wednesday? Did you have a good Thanksgiving (or Thursday)? We had a nice one. The neighbor and his family came over as well as the minion and one of his spawn. It was good. Yummy food! But it’s the last Wednesday of the month, so we’re here to ramble about a book. I decided to request a YA fantasy type thing to try something a little different. Godly Heathens by H.E. Edgmon was released yesterday (the 28th) from Wednesday Books. As usual, I must thank them and NetGalley for access to an ARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. So, let’s do the thing.

Godly Heathens follows Gem, a trans teen in small town Georgia, as they struggle with mental issues and trying to find their place in the world. Throw in the discovery that they’re the reincarnation of one of the most powerful gods from another world and a downright villain, and life gets pretty complicated. Other reincarnated gods want to make Gem suffer for past transgressions. Meanwhile, Gem just wants to live their current life.

This book has content warnings. I have yet to find a book with content warnings that I actually enjoyed, so I had little hope for it when I saw them. I get what they’re for, but I don’t believe they’re necessary 99% of the time. They either give something major away or they draw unnecessary attention to things that are super minor in the book. It’s annoying. That’s just my opinion. But they also seem to be most prevalent in books that try too hard. And this book definitely tries too hard to be… relevant, I guess. And edgy. So freakin’ edgy. It borders on hilarious at first, then it just becomes sad.

The plot is neat, but far from original. Teenagers as reincarnated gods from another world. It’s fun enough. But it’s super slow and the big bad shows up halfway through, but they turn out to be nothing special in this world. And we’ve got this whole build up to a show down between specific characters only to have a complete rando show up like 5 chapters from the end that they all have to fight together. I feel cheated. It is definitely not a satisfying ending. Granted, there’s supposed to be another book, but at least wrap up the story arc of this book first. But no. We get a bullshit ending that does absolutely nothing.

I had high hopes for the characters here, because I’m all for villain stories and diverse casts, but I was disappointed again. Sure, Gem and the Shade might’ve been villains in their own world, but here, they’re just whiny little bitches. All of the characters are. And none of them grow or change by the end of the book. There’s nothing to root for because they aren’t actually doing anything. Yes, teenagers are generally dicks, but they grow and learn things quickly. They try on personalities like outfits, changing pretty much daily. But not these characters. They’re just asshats. It’s boring.

The writing is meh. Like I said, it tries too hard to be edgy and all that crap. It ends up making the book a slog to read.

Ultimately, Godly Heathens was a huge let down. I probably won’t bother with the next book unless it falls into my lap. It was a waste of time and not in the good way.

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Overall, I gave it 2 out of 5 stars. One and a half, really. It got published and some people will like it. But I think there are better books to spend your money on.

A Little Thanksgiving

~ shawnaborman ~ 1 Comment

Howdy, howdy! How’s everyone doing this wonderful Wednesday? Things here are good. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, so happy turkey day to those who celebrate! Happy Thursday to those who don’t! I slacked off and waited until the last minute to write this, so it’s going to be a little short. Just a reminder of the stuff I’m thankful for even if I don’t say it enough.

1. Dad. First and foremost. Always. I’m thankful for everything he does, which is everything. He does literally everything. Thank you isn’t really enough, but it’s Thanksgiving, so thank you! Danke. Arigatou. Gracias. Grazie. Merci. Asante. Spasibo. All the thank yous. Also, we need more pictures of you.

2. The Minion and the besties. Yeah, you guys are all right too. Joel, Jenae, and Danielle. I’m glad you exist at the same time as me and that we somehow ended up meeting. Tell your respective parents that I’m thankful they had sex since you exist because of it!

3. Squeaky toys that make Mardi happy! The pupper gets cuddles as thanks for being our whiny little roommate who entertains us all the time.

As always, feel free to share your thoughts and comments and questions here or on my social media pages!

Self-Help Is Useless

~ shawnaborman ~ 5 Comments

Howdy, howdy! How’s everyone doing this lovely Wednesday? Things here are good. Quiet. Turkey Day is going to be a small thing. Just family. Are those of you who celebrate ready? Anyway, I still don’t have much to ramble about, but I somehow ended up reading a self-help book and need to word vomit about my hatred of such things. I only did it because the friend I do a kind of book club with wanted to read it for our craft book month. This particular book was Atomic Habits by James Clear, but the following thoughts apply to the other handful of self-help books I’ve had to read over the years (mostly while I was in school).

1. Why are these books so repetitive? Like, my dude… why is your book 300 pages when it could’ve been 75? And every self-help book I’ve read, including the majority of craft books, are the same way. I can understand repeating the important stuff once or twice in different ways in case some people don’t understand the first explanation, but why are you saying the exact same thing 50 times? You don’t even try to explain it a different way. Sure, you use a different scenario, but the explanation of your process is just copy and pasted from the first scenario. I either got it the first time or I’m still confused the fiftieth time. There’s no in between. Please just edit your work.

2. Uh… duh? Every self-help book I’ve read takes something that is absolutely common sense and frames it as something genius. It’s always along the lines of “Today, I’m going to share something with you that changed my life. There’s plenty of science to back it up. For the mere cost of $15 for this ebook, you too can learn this amazing secret!” Then, the book is 300 pages of “I learned to put my socks on before my shoes” and the science is a Wikipedia article. Dude, no. Just no. The habits book… I’ve done just about everything he suggests because duh. Repeating tasks turns them into habits? You don’t say. It’s easier to keep up with habits that are simple and fun? No way. I can increase the difficulty of a habit over time by gradually increasing what I’m doing? Mind blown. Seriously though, tell me something I haven’t learned just by existing in the world.

3. Who are you? If I’ve never heard of you and you quote things like Twitter, Reddit, and Wikipedia at me, I’m definitely going to doubt your authority on any given subject. Looking at you, Clear. Same goes for craft books. If I’ve never heard of you and you start using your own books (none of which I’ve heard of) as examples of how to write, my automatic thought is that you’re just trying to sell your other books. Yes, I’m a jerk. Yes, I expect self-proclaimed authorities on whatever subject to prove themselves. No, I won’t take your word for it. Especially if you’re supposed to be using science to back up your claims. What can I say? I’m a very skeptical person.

I think that’s enough rambling and rant. Self-help books are not my things. I’ll read them if I have to or someone I love really wants to read one together, but otherwise I avoid them. I do know people who enjoy them, though. If you find them useful, more power to you.

What do you think about self-help books? As always, feel free to leave your thoughts and questions and comments here or on my social media pages!

Thoughts on MAGIC BY ANY OTHER NAME

~ shawnaborman ~ Leave a comment

Howdy, howdy! How’s everyone doing this delightful Wednesday? Things here are coasting along. I know it’s not the last Wednesday of the month, but this is an extra book review for the month! A while ago, Simone Jung from Books Forward (a marketing and publicity firm) got in touch and offered me access to an ARC for a fantasy book in exchange for a review. The premise was interesting, so I said sure. Magic by Any Other Name by Alison Levy was released yesterday (the 7th) from SparkPress. Let’s get on with the review!

Magic by Any Other Name follows Ivy (aka Georgette) as she and her best friend Mei-Xing run away from Ivy’s emotionally abusive mother and insane family. As she struggles to build her new identity as Georgette, she collects a strange but powerful found-family to help her figure out who she is while she helps them. Werehyenas, vampires, Valkyries, and numerous other magical folk fill the pages of this book. Plus, there’s the human love interest. But before she can settle down, Georgette must confront the darkest parts of her upbringing as a witch as well as work through her trauma.

The plot is standard fantasy fare. Witches enslave “familiars” (any other magical creatures collectively called fae for some reason) by branding them. But one young witch uses the brand to share power with her magical friends. One of her new friends’ family member (wife) was taken by the big bad (fae traffickers) and together they must save her. Things go from bad to worse until finally there’s a happy ending. Wrap it all up in family trauma and that’s the book. Not bad. I enjoyed the plot for what it is.

The characters ranged from fleshed out and interesting to stereotypes. I wanted more out of Kazimiera. She was on the flatter end of the spectrum, as was Mei-Xing. Georgette and Ishak were the fleshiest, so to speak. I wasn’t particularly a fan of Ishak. The whole point of the book is emotional growth, but Ishak keeps playing on Georgette’s guilt instead of trusting her to help him because she wants to. It’s super annoying. He does it all the way through and no one calls him out on it. Yes, she’s a witch. Yes, her kind are generally dicks. But she’s proven her loyalty to the fae time and time again. Stop being an asshat.

I don’t generally talk about book structure unless it’s glaringly flawed, so guess what! It’s not great. Every chapter is from a different POV. Usually, it switches between three characters, but there are at least nine POVs that get at least a chapter. It’s too many to keep track of, especially when they show up once and that’s it. It’s also unnecessary. The prologue being from the aunt’s perspective could have just as easily been in Ivy’s perspective. The aunt didn’t play a role at all in the book. And the guy who just shows up to die. His chapter was useless. Nico’s chapters were okay, but not exactly necessary either. Same with Neil. There should be like five POVs, tops. Any more and it gets super hard for the average reader to follow.

Me to half these POVs.

The writing itself was nice. There was a lot going on, but the pacing was pretty good. It dragged in the beginning, but got better.

Ultimately, I enjoyed Magic by Any Other Name for what it is. A found-family fantasy story. If there’s another one, I’ll give it a shot. It’s called book one, so I’m guessing it’s supposed to be a series, but it’s an okay stand-alone.

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Overall, I gave it 3 out of 5 stars. There’s room for improvement, but if you enjoy fantasy and found-family stories, it’s not bad.

Short Story: Homecoming

~ shawnaborman ~ 3 Comments

Howdy, howdy! How’s everyone this first Wednesday of November? As I’m writing this, it’s Halloween. So, I thought I’d pull an old short story from the trunk to share with you. I wrote it in 2014 and it’s in second person POV. No idea why I wrote something in that POV. I guess I was just experimenting at the time. Anyway, enjoy! Or don’t. But feel free to leave your thoughts and comments here or on my social media pages!

Homecoming

by: Shawna Borman

“We all deserve a place where we can feel safe.” You smack the wooden table hard enough to draw attention from half the cafeteria. “I mean, shouldn’t we be allowed to blast our favorite songs as loud as they’ll go while we’re in the shower without worrying about some asshat sneaking in and stealing our stuff? Where do people get off doing that shit?”

The story you saw on the news last night fuels your rant, but none of the people you’re eating lunch with care. Still, you ignore the eye rolls and the attempts to change the subject and ramble on. No one wants to acknowledge that there are no safe places in this world. Even you, the one who so vehemently believes in the idea of a perfect world, turn a blind eye to the shadows around you whenever possible.

In your perfect little world, people would have nothing to fear no matter where they were. There would be no murder, no rape, no beatings. Humans would be nothing but happy puppies who chase each other around the park and spread sweet puppy kisses to anyone willing to scratch behind their ears. But this isn’t your perfect little world.

It’s mine.

#

The bass thumps all around you as you grind against horny frat boys who think they have a chance with you. A neon green mixture of God knows what sloshes from the red Solo cup you hold above your head as you sway and sling your hair around, totally oblivious to the actual rhythm of the music. Some strange force of gravity that only applies to college parties and raves keeps the liquid from running down your tube top and mini skirt, and instead has it splashing all over the eternally sticky floor.

As one song fades into the next, you freeze. The fine hairs on the backs of your arms stand on end and the sweat trickling down your spine turns icy despite the heat of the bodies jostling around you. Scanning the room, you search for any eyes lingering on you. No one is staring. You glance down into your cup, hoping for a sign, a smell, anything at all to explain your sudden nerves. There’s nothing there. Dropping the cup, you shove your way out of the throng of people and toward the front door.

Your roommate sits in a rocking chair on the porch, nursing a beer. She jolts up at the sight of you and grabs you by the shoulders.

“What the hell?” Her voice draws your attention away from the panic that’s been etched deep inside your bones. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost or something. Do I need to go in there and cut off someone’s balls?”

You shake your head and an unexplainable shiver rocks your body, causing you to hold yourself. “No, no. I’m fine.”

“Are you sure?” she asks, draping her coat around your shoulders. “I’ve seen fine and this isn’t what it looks like.”

“Have you ever felt like someone was watching you, but no matter how hard you searched, no one was there?” Your eyes catch hers, sympathetic but confused, and you force a smile. “Listen, I hate to be a downer, but could we head home for the night? I think I’m just super tired.”

Without another word, she guides you across the street to her parked car. Your apartment is only a ten-minute walk across campus, but she had insisted on driving. She’s cautious and smart. Getting past her will be difficult.

#

Fluorescent lights buzz overhead, casting a sheen across the biology books scattered on the table in front of you. Notes sit discarded in the chair beside you as you flip through the latest sci-fi thriller. After studying for an hour in an empty library, you deserve a break. At least that’s how you rationalize it to yourself.

The ticking of the clock on the wall above the door infiltrates the edges of your awareness. It sets you on edge. When did it get so late?

Tucking your “for fun” book into your bag, you lean over an open page that explains the dissection of a frog. You haven’t thought about such things since high school, almost three years ago. The way the blade slipped right through the dead amphibian’s flesh. The thrill that ran through you as you took the poor thing apart piece by piece. The fleeting wonder at what it would be like with a human. You push these memories away as you move to a different book.

But it’s too late. Your heart dances in your chest, as if chasing the old thoughts. I’ve seen the inclination in you and I want you even more.

Something slams to the floor in the stacks behind you. A jolt of fear surges through you, erasing all your naughty desires. You pack up everything as quick as you can and flee the deserted building.

#

Stars twinkle in the sky as you cross the quad after a late-night study group. Your roommate had offered to pick you up, but you insisted on walking. The night air rustles the leaves of the trees that dot the lawns in front of the oldest building on campus. Breathing deep, you pull your jacket tight around you.

A door shuts somewhere behind you and a second set of footsteps echo on the sidewalk. You resist the urge to look over your shoulder but strain your ears to determine which way the other person is going. They’re following you. Slipping your phone from your pocket, you pretend to check your texts while you turn on the camera. You angle it so that you can just see over your shoulder.

The figure behind you is wearing jeans and a baggy sweatshirt with the hood up. Their hands are in their pockets. It’s impossible for you to decipher a sex. Still, your heart climbs up into your throat as they match your pace. The fingers of your dominant hand wrap around your keys until they protrude from your knuckles like cheap Wolverine claws. Muscles tense, ready to fly or fight. Whichever the situation calls for. You automatically speed up but force yourself not to break into a run. After all, the chase is half the fun.

Part of you wishes they would hurry up and make a move, give you a reason to jam the pointed metal tip into their eye. You lick your lips, mouth dry, and check your camera. They’ve fallen behind but are still within attacking distance. Your apartment building is within sight. As you prepare to dash to the door, your follower veers left toward the building next to yours. A shaky breath escapes your throat as you mount the stairs two at a time. Your roommate welcomes you home with Chinese takeout and Netflix. When she asks how your walk was, you simply say “invigorating.”

#

Your limbs protrude from the fleece blanket you’ve tangled yourself in. Breaths flow from your lips in a steady rhythm of exhaustion. It’s been weeks since you’ve been tired enough to sleep soundly. I suppose a sustained state of heightened fear has a way of wiping a person out. You don’t even stir when your roommate leaves for work.

The gentle shush-shush of my footsteps on the carpet don’t register in your dreams. My presence hovering over your bed goes unnoticed. Even when I click my tongue against my teeth and pat my thigh, you remain undisturbed. A soft growl precedes a glint of red eyes as my hound steps into the room. She’s everything an animal should be, not like your ideal little puppies. You don’t make a move until her teeth are at your throat.

But it’s too late.

Hazel eyes stare up into the shadows that I lurk behind. You don’t even see me or my hound as you open your mouth to scream. The only noise that escapes is a quiet gurgle as you choke on your own blood mixed with her saliva. Your thoughts turn briefly to the ease at which her teeth open your flesh, the tug at your insides as I coax your soul through the shadows. Then, you see me. Your fear flickers. You see her. Your fear novas.

Welcome home.

END

Thoughts on MURDER UNCORKED

~ shawnaborman ~ Leave a comment

Hello, hello! How’s everyone doing this gloomy Wednesday? I’m a little sad because I found out Sakurai Atsushi (the singer from Buck-Tick) died about a week ago, but otherwise things are fine. Anyway, no time to mope. It’s the last Wednesday of October! That means it’s review time. I stuck with the cozy mystery genre for this month, mostly because I was too lazy to look for anything else. Murder Uncorked is the first novel (though there is a short story prequel) in a new series by Maddie Day and was released from Kensington Books yesterday (the 24th). As usual, I must thank them and NetGalley for access to an ARC in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. Let’s get to it.

Murder Uncorked follows Cece Barton as she moves to be closer to family and tries to settle in a small California wine country town. She’s kind of a suspect when a guy she’s been arguing with via email about business matters ends up dead. She’s only met him once, but she feels the need to clear her name. Toss in every cozy mystery stereotype (enthusiastic supporter of shenanigans, inept and exasperated detective, mysterious love interest, etc.) and you’ve got yourself a story.

If I’m being honest, the plot is super thin here. The obvious killer is the killer. There’s no real hiding it. The bank robbery thing that’s thrown in there to muddy things up is extremely awkward and not set up at all. It comes out of left field and just feels random and unnecessary. It made me cringe. Besides that, the plot is pretty standard and not all that entertaining.

Also, the pacing is rough. This is most obvious in the dialogue with the completely random and jarring changes of topic. All of these characters blurt things out like it’s a natural thing, and in real life, a few conversations might go that way, but not in books. The dialogue needs to flow naturally and convey information in a smooth manner. Just like the rest of the book should. But everything here is choppy and annoying and jars me out of the story.

The characters were all flat and did nothing to break free of their stereotypes. The attempted growth between Cece and her daughter is the most interesting thing in the book and it’s just emotional blackmail. I mean, seriously. Cece calls up her basically estranged grown ass daughter and is all like “I almost got killed because I keep putting myself in stupid situations. Feel bad for me and love me again.” And the daughter falls for it. There’s no actual growth despite what the story says. You can’t just put emotional blackmail in a book and call it character development. It’s gross. And none of the other characters are any better.

I have nothing nice to say about the writing either. A lot of the problems came from the poor quality of the writing. I don’t know if this book was just rushed to publication or what, but it really needed more edits.

Ultimately, Murder Uncorked was not worth reading. I know Maddie Day has another series, but I have zero desire to check it out. Hopefully it’s better than this one.

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Overall, I gave it 2 out of 5 stars. One and a half, really. One because it got published so someone likes it and a half because I finished reading it. But unless you’re a fan of the author, I don’t recommend wasting your time with it.

Fancy Chocolate is Fancy… I Guess

~ shawnaborman ~ Leave a comment

Howdy, howdy! How’s everyone doing this lovely Wednesday? Fall is here! Kind of. Pretty sure the temperatures are supposed to go back up a bit the next few days. Anyway, if you read last week’s post, you’ll know that I was thinking about buying myself a treat. After much hesitation, I got the fancy chocolates! I ordered from Recchiuti in San Francisco because they’re on all the “best chocolates” lists I looked at, so I figured they were at least okay. Guess what! They do indeed taste like chocolates. I haven’t tried all of them yet, but I thought I would share my thoughts on the ones I’ve tasted so far.

In order to make the shipping price hurt less, I ordered the Black Box 16 (because I like to try different things) and a box of Peppermint Thins (because I love all things peppermint). The Black Box was $52 (so like $3.25 a piece) and the other was $28 for 24 (around $1.17 each). I shouldn’t focus on the money, but I’m a miser, so this was a really difficult thing to talk myself into. I’m constantly wondering if things are worth the money, not just chocolates. Everything. But let’s get to my thoughts thus far:

1. Peppermint Thins. These are about the size of a nickel (I don’t think they’re as big as a quarter but it’s been a while since I’ve seen actual change, so maybe). The inside is thick and the whole thing is reminiscent of a York Peppermint Pattie without the white coloring. I like letting them melt on my tongue. You get to taste the chocolate first and the mint gradually gets stronger until it’s almost overwhelming. I enjoy that. Would I buy them again? No, but I’m not mad I tried them this time.

2. Black Box 16. So far, these are not bad. I’ve only had 5 as of me writing this and mostly they’ve been good, but nothing impressive. I’ll let you know if I come across one, but for now, it’s like with the Peppermint Thins… I’m enjoying them and I’m not mad I tried them, but I probably won’t be getting them again.

2a. Sesame Nougat. This one was definitely nutty and I liked the wafer that was hidden inside. I didn’t look at the legend until after I ate it, so I wasn’t sure what it was, but I enjoyed trying to figure it out. Did guess sesame specifically, but I knew it was a nut or seed. It was interesting.

2b. Kona Coffee. It’s coffee and chocolate. What’s not to love? So far, it’s my favorite.

2c. Rose Caramel. This one was interesting, but the flower oils left a perfume kind of taste that lingered. I wasn’t a fan.

2d. Force Noir. I love dark chocolate, but this one was just okay.

2e. Burnt Caramel. My second favorite. It has very intense dark caramel flavors that I like.

So, yeah. I got myself a treat. They’re not bad, but I think I’ll just stick with Hershey and the like. Future treats will probably just be useless pretty things.

Trick or Treat?

~ shawnaborman ~ 1 Comment

Howdy, howdy! How’s everyone doing this lovely Wednesday? I’m trying to trick myself into buying myself a treat. I’ve been trying to talk myself into something for a while, but always make excuses not to. It’s very hard to come up with a reason to buy things that I want. If I don’t need it, why should I waste the money? It’s not like anyone is telling me not to buy shit. On the contrary. I’m constantly encouraged to treat myself. I just don’t. So, if I can talk myself into buying a treat in the near future, what should it be?

1. Fancy chocolates. I’ve been leaning towards a literal treat, but I keep putting it off because the shipping is like half the price of the chocolates. And fancy chocolates are always a let down. It tastes like chocolate. My palate is not sophisticated enough for expensive chocolate or coffee or whatever else people try to convince you is a whole different experience when you pay stupid amounts of money for it. It’s still just chocolate. But the flavor combinations sound fun and the ones I’m looking at aren’t too ridiculously priced. Except the shipping. Maybe I’ll feel better about it if I add a couple of other items and the shipping stays the same.

2. A sweater/nice top. Or just clothes in general. I bought a lovely, thick sweater last year and have only worn it once. I can only think of a couple of situations to wear it since it’s Texas, but I still love it. I could use a thinner sweater or just a nice long sleeved top. I have a nice summer top, but I have a feeling I’ll need a skirt to wear with it. I keep forgetting it exists, though. But we don’t really do anything that requires nice clothing, so I have a hard time justifying spending the money on that stuff. I can’t even talk myself into buying stuff that will go into my every day rotation.

3. Shoes! I’ve refrained from buying shoes for a long time, but they are some of my favorite frivolous things. I stopped buying them because I only wear two pairs of boots (biker boots I’ve had since I was like 16 for every-day-winter-leaving-the-house wear and a nice bronze/brown pair with short heels in the event we go somewhere dressy during the winter), my two pairs of Converse, a pair of wedge sandals, and a pair of purple flip-flops. I have dressier shoes for summer, but never wear them. I also have my fluffy slipper bootie things that I wear most of the time in the winter. I just don’t need more shoes even though I love them.

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4. Jewelry. I randomly buy myself bracelets and necklaces, but then feel bad because I only wear them once or twice. I do want a new ring or two, but I don’t remember my size and I’m too socially awkward to go into a jewelry store, get my fingers sized, then leave without… you know… buying something. Rude. I guess I could just buy a sizer or print out one of the paper ones. I just haven’t. But I would definitely spend money on new rings because I wear one 99% of the time. That’s probably why I haven’t actually gotten sized. I don’t want to spend money.

There’s also art and knickknacks and things that I’ll never convince myself to buy. Also, weapons. I’ll never be able to afford the weapons I want unless I become a millionaire and can convince myself to part with a couple of thousand for no reason other than I want to. Anyway, should I buy myself a treat? What? What kind of treat would you buy yourself? As always, feel free to leave your thoughts or comments or questions here or on my social media pages!

Lazy Day was Lazy

~ shawnaborman ~ Leave a comment

Howdy, howdy! How’s everyone doing this wonderful Wednesday? Welcome to October! I fully intended to make some rambling post about nothing, but somehow ended up adulting instead. Spent time on the phone (yes, really! And I didn’t die.) with an actual person trying to fix something that neither of us can fix. She’s getting help from another place. Maybe. I have no faith in the third party and I don’t think the person I was talking to does either. C’est la vie. Then, Dad and I went on an impromptu trip to the pharmacy to get shot. The new Covid vaccine and the flu shot. Fun. Now, we’re waiting for our salads to be delivered from some place called Salata. And it’s 7:30 for some reason, so you get a cute spooky season picture instead of a post.

Artist: Ashleigh Izienicki