Sunday Post/Sunday Salon - November 10, 2024: Chasing My Tail

Less than a week, and the election already feels like ancient disappointing history to me. The Instagram Reels and TikTok are still off the hook, and trying to be inspiring. I deleted Facebook from my phone. That's all, folks.

I'm joining up with my peeps at Sunday Post and Sunday Salon today. You can join in too at Caffeinated Reviewer and Readerbuzz. My weeks have started cycling between already needing time off work during a week (so taking more and more time off) and being scheduled and available 40 hours (so working as much overtime as I humanly can). Last week was the first - I had Friday off to do an event at my son's middle school, so I decided to use two hours of my use-it-or-lose-it flex time on Wednesday, and then calling off on Thursday... This week I only have a 7pm theater meeting on my calendar for Monday, so I'll probably stay late on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, and I'll plan to work on Saturday. The week after that is the high school's production of Little Women (and my daughter is Jo March!!), so I may need to schedule some afternoons off... My motivation is definitely a runner lately, so zeus help me getting anything accomplished at work lately!

What I'm reading this week:

I finished two kindle books since I posted on a Sunday! The Good Bride publishes in early December, and I gave it 3 out of 5 stars. Some of the characters who were central to the storyline were unlikeable, so I didn't really need to know what happened to them. LOL 

Don't get my wrong, sometimes I like unlikeable characters, as in The Stranger Upstairs, which I finished last night. The unlikeable character in this one was a much more entertaining unreliable narrator with a drug and alcohol problem. Funsies! I gave this one 4 out of 5 stars. Both reviews will be coming on Books I Think You Should Read.

Last night I started The Woman at the Wheel by Penny Haw. It's 'an inspiring historical fiction based on the life of Bertha Benz.' The author has drawn me right into the imagined life of Bertha in late-1850s Germany. Although 'only a girl,' Bertha loves hanging out with her father and learning the nuts and bolts about his business and what makes things work.

In print, I'm still reading Lightborne (coming up on halfway!) and Little Women (okay, haven't even picked it up in weeks, but hoping to get cozy with it in a bit. I still do want to finish!).

Three Good Things:

1. We had Christmas with my family last week! My parents are snowbirds (travel from Michigan to Florida every winter). In their case, they go via RV, so they'll leave before there's remotely any chance of snow in Michigan, hopefully. [I think August is the only month it has never snowed in the upper peninsula, but that's hours and hours north of us.] Anyway, my parents, my family, and my brother's family all meet at my brother's house. We have dinner and get gifts for the kids and my parents. The last few years I think it's been in October, so we actually had Chrismas a lil late this year, on November 3. Hahahahaha
2. 
   My son and I went to Motor City ComicCon yesterday. Edited to add: We're Bill Cipher and Mabel Pines from the Disney show Gravity Falls. So fun!! He's the real mastermind, and made his own costume. I ordered all the stuff for mine from Amazon the day I got tickets and found out what he was gonna dress as. This was our second Comic
   Con, and we'll definitely be back.
   
3. I started my holiday shopping! Well, I supposed it can be said that I finished it for my nieces and one of my nephews before 'Christmas' last weekend, but I started getting stuff for my kids and making a plan. See, I wanted that fabulous gift with purchase bookcase set from Lego, which ends in the next couple of days. So I had to order $130 in Legos, and then I'll slip the bookcase to my kids to wrap for me. LOL

Three Goals for this week/month/whatever:

1. 
   The other part of starting Christmas shopping for me was making a decision on our Advent calendars. I don't belong to any organized religion for Advent, but I've been doing Advent calendars since I was little, so it's definitely an awesome tradition that I enjoy. The last couple years, thinking about it stressed me out, so I bought the pre-made Advent calendars, but this could theoretically be my daughter's last December at home (unless she takes a gap year after high school), so I went back to our old-school calendars. When I was little, my parents and the neighbors collaborated to make this Christmas tree shapes in wood frame that holds baby food jars. We take the lid off one jar each day of December and get what's inside. Instead of packing them all at the end of November, I've taken the lids off of them all, and I'm filling them and putting the lids on as I go. Which is to say, I hope to get these finished up sooner rather than later...
   
2. Holiday Cards!! I actually made them in October, and they're already delivered. Now, it's time for the addressing. Might even start that later today..
3. As the fundraising VP for our district theatre program, I mostly plan dine to donates. Patrons eat at the specified restaurant on the given date, and the restaurant donates a percentage of sales as agreed upon when we set up the event. We had one this week at one of my favorite places to get pizza and salad for lunch at work, but it did not hit the restaurant's minimum for a donation. Unfortunately, a couple people who were supposed to help promote the event, didn't. And then the road that goes past the restaurant was gridlocked with lots of police presence, at least while we were there eating. Which brings me to my goal: Dine to donates are a thing for a lot of organizations near us, so I'd like to start a running list of dine to donates. No one has to belong to the organization to donate - it's usually just a code you give or flyer you show. I've gone to placed when I've seen posts for organizations we don't belong to, and I think others would too. I'd love to get a community list going with the dine to donates. I've said this for years, but it is still something I'd like to do.