mistressofmuses (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
mistressofmuses) wrote2025-10-27 10:57 am
mistressofmuses) wrote2025-10-27 10:57 am
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I'm Free! (For a bit over a week!)
Berry Mad has emerged! She had burrowed a couple weeks ago, and for a while I could tell she was coming back out occasionally to make new mud for herself, but then she didn't seem to even be doing that. I was trying to decide if I should go dig her up (I don't want to overly bother or stress her, but it's not actually cold enough in here for her to hibernate.) But as with last year, as soon as I started to really worry about it, she came back out.
Not that she looks happy about it, lol.
Bonus Guava Splash. (With fruit flies.)
Sadly Three, one of the katydids, passed away a couple days ago. He was the third of the three we caught this year, but the first to go. This is about the end of the katydid lifecycle; we haven't heard any outside for a week or so. Last year we had two, and one died the last weekend of October, and one the first week of November.
So far both Clickbait and Green Bean are doing all right: still eating their beans, and Clickbait has had plenty to say. Unfortunately, we probably only have another week or so with them, but we can always hope for more!
I am free for nine whole days! I try to take the bulk of my "holiday" time off around Halloween, since that's my favorite, and doesn't have as much PTO competition as the time around Thanksgiving/Christmas.
As always, I have a long list of things I want to do. Lots of it is creative-ish stuff, like writing or working on the arty reading page I'm about five months behind on. I'd also like to read more, get some of my enamel pins displayed, maybe even play A Video Game, which I basically haven't done in a year+. Mixed in, I'd like to do some of the little cleaning projects that never seem to happen, like getting shelves dusted and drawers organized. Our nice weather is holding, at least to some extent (might be a bit chilly, and some overnight freezes, but not supposed to be snowy or anything,) so it'd also be nice to get a little more outdoor time in before the time change + not seeing the sun for six months makes me lose my mind. I also have plans to get together with Taylor for a couple nights. Also gotta fit in my annual Over the Garden Wall watch, obviously.
Now it's just a matter of doing those things. I know that last year after my Halloween week off I felt quite disappointed in how little we did with the week. I think the weather was less cooperative, but my recollection is a lot of days kind of wasted in being stuck in "waiting" mode, where I'm scrolling on my phone for a couple hours because we *might* have an errand to run later, or taking a nap that ends up eating the entire afternoon... every day.
We already did our big "event" for the holiday, which I'll post about in a day or two when I get the pictures sorted. (We went to the "Spirits and Spirits" event at the Four Mile House, which was a lot of fun!)
I feel bad for my coworker. Yesterday she told me she was going to put in her two weeks notice today. Sounds like she and her fiance are splitting up. He's moving back to be with his trump-humper family in Wisconsin, and since she can't afford to live here on her own, she's moving home to her family in Alamosa. So big breakup, quitting her job, and having to move all in one go.
Weirdly, I keep catching myself kind of slipping into "New Year" mode. It could be the shorter days, it could be just general autumn wanderlust feelings, could be the subconscious desire to skip a chunk of winter... I sort of suspect it's just me, haha. I feel like I often get about 3/4 of the way through an allotted time (in this case, 2025) and am ready to jump ahead and start planning for the next bit.
In this case, I really want to start sorting through my TBR list again and figure out what I realistically expect I can get through in 2026. I keep slapping my own hand away from it, because I'm not there yet! Gotta get through this year before I can reasonably guess where to start for next year!
To a lesser extent I'm sort of doing the same with writing goals, and trying to figure out a plan to actually get some sort of writing completed next year (unlike this year.) But again, gotta get through this year to know where I'll be at!
The World As It Is continues to sort of suck. Alex won't be getting food aid for November, which is money we definitely rely on to, y'know, eat. We will be okay, but I know there are people who are likely to be less okay than we are.
But that's kind of a downer to leave it on so...
Looking forward to this week off, and really hoping to find ways to make the time intentional!
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I'm sorry about Three, but hopefully Clickbait and Green Bean have some more time before it's their time. Didn't one of them lay eggs?
That does really suck for your coworker - break-ups and jobs not paying enough for one person to live alone are fucking shit, so hopefully they pick back up well with their family, and maybe they can find a roommate there so that they can be at least somewhat independent. So many people are living with their families, though, these days because no one can afford to live by themselves. Linda keeps telling Kathy that we need to live with them, and there's no fucking way. I told Kathy I'd live in my car with Darji before I lived with them for so many reasons, the nicest being that they (mostly Linda) are hoarders and there just isn't room for us there. You know all the not nice reasons I'd prefer a cardboard box to living with them.
Trump is using the food assistance thing to scare Democrats into caving on the Epstein file thing, and he's such a fucking fascist scumbag for it. All the Republikkkans need to just drop dead right now. Then we could have a saner society. It wouldn't solve every single thing, but it would solve the good majority of the problems right now.
Enjoy your time off as much as you can! I hope you're feeling better so that you can enjoy it!
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I love the katydids, but they are sadly very temporary pets. (Though every time I saw one that someone had stepped on outside, it made me glad we had a few that were kept safe, ha.) I hope the other two stick around for a bit longer, even if it's just another week or so.
Greenbean did lay eggs (and Three was the father)! So many eggs! We're going to try overwintering them in my mom's garage to see if we end up with any hatching.
Yeah... I feel for her. She's not always been the most amazing employee, but I like her, and I like having her there on the weekends with me. I think the breakup is for the best, as I've always thought her fiance was a bit of a tool (mostly because of his trump-humper family, who would be downright mean to my coworker, and he'd just sort of brush it off as "not wanting to get involved.") I do really hope it'll be a chance for her to have a fresh start, get some stuff sorted out, and then launch into better.
It sucks how hard it is to afford... living. Like at all.
Though ugh, "moving in with Linda", a horror story in four words. I did live in my car for a few years, and I'd go back to that before living with them for sure. Nope, nope, nope.
I'd actually really hoped that my mom might move somewhere that she, Taylor, Alex, and I could all live, but she ultimately ended up deciding she didn't want to move. Not because I desperately want to live with family, but because it's so hard to even afford our crappy, tiny apartment!
Food assistance and health care and ugh. Colorado just released a report that they expect health insurance costs to double for almost everyone next year, and there are only a few days before those costs are basically locked in. My increase might be less because it's employer-provided, but it's already a huge chunk of my paycheck.
Living is too fucking expensive.
I'm with you; it wouldn't solve all our problems, but it'd make it a whole lot easier to solve the ones we'd still have.
Luckily I am feeling better, so hopefully it'll be a good week!
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RIP Three. May his line continue with the eggs.
That sucks for your co-worker.
Yay for having time off finally!!! May you accomplish all (at least half o_O) of the things you want to get done!
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Alas, poor Three. I hope he enjoyed his bean-filled summer. (And hopefully he has many successful children!)
Definite bummer for my coworker. :/
I am so glad about the time off, and have been enjoying it. (Right now it still just feels like a long weekend... hoping the rest of it doesn't fly by too quickly!)
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I hope you can get a satisfying amount of stuff done during your time off! (And this is a perfectly reasonable time to mark your personal new year!)
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And thank you! I am definitely hoping for satisfying time off... and that it doesn't fly by too quick!
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RIP Three... :( May their legacy live on in their clicky progeny. (I hope Clickbait and Green Bean are faring well in their advancing age and will stick around for weeks, plural, to come.)
BADASS! I hope you've been having a fantastic start to your time off work thus far and are able to cross off all the project items and aspirations on your list!
Damn, I really feel for your coworker. That's a helluvalot to go through, much less simultaneously. I can only imagine how she's feeling/how daunting it looks on this side of it all, I wish I could offer encouragement and reassurance from the other side that if nothing else, if they're not of the same "trump-humper" inclination, they're going to be so, so much better off for the breakup in the long run... (I went through an eerily similar life blowup in my mid-20s as well and totally commiserate.)
As for the New Years vibe you're feeling, hell, I'd say run with it. Is your TBR list not more of a "living document" anyhow or something that you can periodically edit or track changes on?
...Fucking hell I am so, so, so incredibly sorry that Alex won't be getting food aid in November with the absolutely unfathomably cruel, indescribably fucked up and sick shit going on with this miserable, incompetent, and inhumane administration. I'm relieved you'll both be okay, but goddamn I am so sorry that that of all fucking things is yet another "death by 1,000 cuts" of the worst sort to deal with on top of the complete dumpster fire that is everything else right now. *hugs in spirit* Just... fuck...
I truly hope you'll have a wonderful rest of your vacation and that things on the world front take a serious turn for the better, preferably a helluvalot sooner rather than later, for everyone. <3
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This year, no noticed restlessness beforehand, but it was a bit over two weeks that she was buried. She came out for a few days, and has now reburied again.
We had the same species previously (though a full-grown toad, rather than a young one like Berry Mad), and she never seemed interested in burrowing!
Guava Splash has not shown any inclination toward hibernating yet! They seem blissfully oblivious, just vibing in their pond and waiting for the fruit flies to fall from the sky.
Alas, poor Three. Knowing they're very temporary friends doesn't keep it from being a bummer. But hopefully he had a lovely summer full of beans, ha. Hopefully we can get some eggs to hatch! So far so good on the other two: Greenbean laid yet more eggs (no idea if these are still fertile, or if they're "blanks" at this point), and Clickbait still has much to say.
On day three of my time off, it still feels like "just" a long weekend, and I'm hoping the rest doesn't fly by too fast.
I definitely feel for my coworker. I do think it'll be a good thing for her; the ex-fiance has been kind of a tool for a while. But yeah, even when it ends up being for the best, that kind of major life implosion sucks.
I do try to keep track of things on the TBR list, and keep adding things to the end of it... I just don't want to tweak it *too* often. If I make it through my current goal of finishing the horror ebook set, then maybe I'll give in and rearrange it "early" haha.
"Miserable, incompetent, and inhumane" pretty much sums it all up. *hugs* It sucks.
But thank you! Definitely hoping for everything to have a better upswing.