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Raney Simmon

If We Were Having Coffee: Cleaning Up House

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If we were having coffee, I’d tell you with the arrival of my grandmother coming down, things have been quite busy at home. She came to visit us a couple weeks ago to see progress being made on restoring our house back to normal. While she was here, things were initially moving slowly because they had just started getting to work. So she stayed a couple days longer so Mom wouldn’t have to take time off work.

While she was here, my grandmother Meme and I spent the first couple days around the house in case they had any questions for us. I helped Meme wash her car, and we went on walks while the guys were working on what needed to be done in order to get our house back to normal. I spent a lot of time with Meme the first couple days before I had to go back to work. But even when I was at work, I’d spend time with her when I’d get off until she left to head back home. It was a lot of fun having her for a week even if it was because of the stuff going on at our house.

But it wasn’t until she was back home in Pennsylvania that the progress picked up significantly. The popcorn ceiling where the water leaked through was replaced with more popcorn ceiling, the new bathroom flooring was put down, and plywood was placed on the living room floor until the flooring Mom wanted was eventually put down too. But with all the progress that’s been made came dirt. Lots and lots of dirt that needed to be picked up. Because of the amount of walking back and forth the guys who were fixing everything did and from tearing stuff up to put new down, dirt was getting in our house.

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So we had to do some major cleaning of the house before they continued work last weekend and this weekend too. Things like wiping the kitchen cabinets and table down, wiping the walls clean, and getting rid of all the dirt on the stairs from their use. Doing this stuff on the weekend helped keep the house clean and left us with little less dirt for the next cleaning.  I also did some cleaning while Mom wasn’t at home so she could work on what she wanted to get done.

While I know we’ll be doing some more cleaning again soon, I know there’s very little left to do before they are finished. This makes me happy because we have nice new flooring that looks really nice and our house will finally be back to normal, which means I’ll get my bathroom back soon.

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Our new living room floor. It’s cherry flooring and looks really nice in our space.

I also won’t have to deal with the way Mom is stressing out anymore. Ever since we discovered this leak, Mom has been so stressed out about all of it. So stressed that I sometimes feel like I can’t handle it. I’ve become so used to our current living situation that it’s not bothering me anymore. But for Mom, her house isn’t in order, which is something that stresses her out quite a bit. Sometimes I can handle it because it’s not too bad and because she’s okay after a little while. But I feel like with this, she’s stressed out about things that are out of her control. Things like the progress they are making on getting things restored to normal, and the way they are working on it. I want to tell her things are going to be okay, that these things take time and that our house will be back to normal before she knows it.

But she’s also stressed because she’s not always happy with their work. She makes a decision on something, then ends up not being happy with the way its implemented or they haven’t completely finished working on something and start working on something else, etc. She’s fine with their work, then isn’t. She’s not happy though because her house isn’t in order right now. So even if they are doing a good job, she’s going to find something wrong with their work or complain about how long it’s taking. She says what they’ve done is nice, but isn’t yet ready to appreciate it because her house isn’t back to normal. This is her whenever she’s stressed out about things. Especially when her house isn’t in order, which it hasn’t been for the past couple weeks.

But they are close to being done now. And we are doing things now until they’ve completed their job. Things like painting the bathroom, refreshing the bathroom doors, and painting the living room so as to make it look fresh as well as continuing the upkeep of our house. This stuff allows Mom to stay busy and not worry as much about when things will be completed. And so far, it’s been going really well. Everything looks really nice and I can’t wait for everything to be done.

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Our bathroom renovations. We’ve repainted the walls to freshen them up and replaced our toilet and counter top space, but have kept our vanity cabinets. Lighting is also new because the old lights just didn’t work well with our new bathroom style. All I need is the mirror and the look will be complete.

Besides cleaning up house, I haven’t really been up to too much else. Doing these renovations have kept me so busy that I haven’t really been able to do anything else when I’m not at work. Speaking of work, things there are pretty much the same. It continues to be a stressful and tiring work environment to me. Every day there’s always some new drama that attempts to darken my mood. But I’m doing the best I can to work around it because that’s all I can do until I can get a job elsewhere.

If we were having coffee, I’d also tell you I’m still continuing to do a good job on laying off the caffeine. Now, I won’t lie and say I haven’t been drinking any soda at all. But if I do have any soda on any given day, I usually manage to do a good job of sticking to my intake of one soda a day, except every once in a while where I’ll indulge in drinking one more soda at the most. I think this is good for me because I remember how much soda I used to indulge in and am happy to see I can cut it off cold turkey.

In other news, this week has been a very interesting one. The election came up and I was able to go out and vote. But despite my vote, Donald Trump has been picked to be the President of the United States. While I was upset because he’s not the man I’d like in power of our country, I’ve come to terms that I can’t change what’s happened. He might not be the President I want, but we are stuck with him now for the next four years. Hopefully he won’t be as bad as I think he’s going to be, but we won’t know for sure until he’s inaugurated into the White House next year.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you I haven’t done too much writing lately. With the way things have been at work and home, I just haven’t felt as up to it as I’d like. Meaning, I haven’t been working on my novel as much either like I was planning on doing. Hopefully, that’ll change this week but we’ll just have to wait and see.

I’d also like to say before I’m done I’ve started reading a different book. The last book I was reading wasn’t catching my interest anymore so I decided to reread a book I enjoyed while I was in college. So far, I’m enjoying The Diviners as much as I did when I first read it for a Young Adult Literature class I took at Columbia College.

For now, that’s really all I have to say. I’ve had so much going on in my life, both at home and work that’s been keeping me so busy that I’m sorry I haven’t gotten the chance to post as much here on my blog. I hope with this week I’ll be able to change that, or at least get some sort of writing done. But regardless, I hope you’ve all been having a wonderful weekend and I’ll catch up with you on coffee again soon!

 

 

 

 

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No NaNoWriMo This Year: Working on A Different Sort of Writing Project

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Remember how last year, I participated in NaNoWriMo and wrote about my experience? Well, I’ve decided to change things up this year.

I’m not going to participate in NaNoWriMo this year. Instead, I’m going to be working on a different sort of writing project. Something I’ve been meaning/wanting to work on for some time now, but have kept putting it off time and time again.

There’s this story I’ve been working on since I was in 7th grade. I’ve had this story stuck in my head repeatedly, picturing how it’ll all turn out and what it’ll look like completed. I’ve made various drafts of the first couple chapters, both handwritten and typed trying to decide how to continue moving it forward.

The problem is I’ve always gotten stuck at some point with it. I just couldn’t find the right words to continue the story, couldn’t decide what I wanted to happen to my characters next. So I’d stop, telling myself I’d continue with it on a later day. But I’d end up not going back to it at all despite its continued presence in my mind.

This is the story I want to write instead of participating in NaNoWriMo this year. I want to write this story because I feel like its calling to me. It passes through my mind on a daily basis, asking to be written.

So I want to take up the grueling, difficult task of completing this story. I don’t know yet how long this’ll take me to finish. But it’s something I want to do because I hope to one day have it published. I want to be an author one of these days and I think this story could possibly be my way down that path.

Unlike with my story The Swan & the Crow, however, I won’t be publishing any of this story on my blog for you to read. I don’t want to do that because I don’t want the story itself online before I can get it published.

But that doesn’t mean you won’t hear anything about it from me as I continue working on it. I’ll try the best I can to continuously update you all on how it’s going, and whenever I finally finish it, I’ll be letting you know that too.

Right now, I can also tell you what it’s about in the hopes you’ll be interested in reading it if I’m able to get it published. I’m still working on a few kinks with the title and all so my synopsis will be pretty brief.

When Derek, a young high school boy goes to get his younger sister a birthday present, he gets more than what he bargained for. When he notices a mysterious necklace that not even the store owners were aware they had, he’s curious about it and buys it to wear later. Once he puts the necklace on, however, Derek begins to transform into a being he only thought existed in fairy tales. Having to adapt to the transformation, Derek makes friends with an unlikely ally who helps him adjust to the changes in his body just in time for them to have to work together to defeat an unexpected enemy.

I hope this story sounds like something you’d read and I can’t wait to continue working on it to see where it’ll take me.  

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My Story of Why I Might Not Be Voting This Election

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After finding out who the nominees are for this year’s Presidential Election, I find myself feeling uneasy. As someone whose never really been too much into politics but always conscious of what’s going on, I find myself feeling unsure of the state America will be in over the next four years if either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump get elected into the White House.

To be honest, I’m scared at the two choices my country is having to pick from. While one candidate has more political experience over the other, they are both people I don’t find myself wanting to make a decision of which is the lesser of two evils.

Donald Trump is someone I especially will never vote for as long as he runs for office. As a woman, he’s someone I never want to see in the White House because of the recent allegations against him of raping a 13 year-old and all of the other scandals he’s been a part of over the years. He’s the type of guy who says whatever is on his mind, even things that aren’t necessarily true. Then denies he said such things even though he’s caught saying them. He reminds me of every guy I’ve ever dealt with in life that’s hurt me, like the kids who bullied me when I was in school.

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The most important reason why I’ll never vote for him is because he doesn’t know what he’s doing. He has no political experience and attempts to make up for it by reminding people of all of the terrible things Hillary Clinton has done. When debating, he never answers the debate questions, just skirts around them. The only real plan of his I know of is his wall for Mexico because he never talks about the issues. He’s not a good fit for president because he doesn’t care about the American people and insults anyone that says anything bad about him.

However, Hillary Clinton isn’t someone I feel very comfortable voting for either. Though I believe she’s a much better choice than Trump out of the two, I can’t stomach her being in the White House because of the scandal with her classified emails along with the other scandals she’s involved herself with, such as Benghazi. While she has the political experience we need in the White House, I don’t like the idea of her being our president. She speaks very well about the issues, but with everything she’s done, I have a hard time stomaching the idea of her being placed in such a position of power.

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But those aren’t the only reasons why I’m uncomfortable with the idea of her winning the presidency. As a woman, I think it would be nice to have our first woman president. But at the same time, I think Hillary Clinton isn’t a good example of the type of woman we should have in office. Someone who covers up bad things they’ve done that have jeopardized the safety of our citizens isn’t someone I feel comfortable leading our country. If she were to get into the White House, I’m worried at the chances our country would have of having a woman as president ever again.

Both candidates are the worst choices we’ve ever had in any election. As someone who wants to express their right to vote, the idea that these two are my only choices scares me because I don’t like either one. Yet, if I don’t express my right to vote, I have no reason to complain. But I want to make an intelligent decision before I vote because the person whose chosen will be a leader in our country for the next four years.

But since I don’t know who I want to vote for, I don’t know if I will vote this election cycle. I don’t like the choices we are being given and am seriously debating on voting third party if I do decide to vote this election because Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump aren’t quite cutting it for me. Maybe the next election will be better all across the board to where I’ll know who I want in the White House for our country. But right now, I’m completely discontent with our choices and just don’t know if I want to vote at all.

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If We Were Having Coffee: Slower Weeks

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Sorry for the late arrival of another post. I’ve been so busy lately and just didn’t know what all I want to write about right now. Well, I do have a couple topic ideas, just not sure how I really feel about doing them yet. I hope to have another post after this one coming your way soon. I’m working on something I think you might all be interested in. Will just have to wait and see once it comes out though.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you things have continued picking up at work. Well… a little. Things have been a little slower actually now that I think about it. With Hurricane Matthew coming through, it feels like not as many students were at school this week. Mind you, things still got a little crazy at work. We did have our busy moments. Just not as many as we usually have during any given week.

It’s because of this I feel like I don’t have too much to say about what I’ve been up to. Oh, I can keep you up to date on how I’ve been doing with my caffeine addiction. There’s actually good news on that front. I’ve actually been doing a good job of cutting soda out of my diet. Good as in I’ve gone completely without soda for a while now. I tried drinking my favorite soda the other day Dr. Pepper to see how it tasted after not having it, but it tasted weird to me. So I haven’t really had it since. I then tried drinking Root Beer the next day with basically almost the same results. So I definitely can say I think cutting soda out of my intake is definitely working. Though I’ll admit yesterday when Mom and I went out for lunch with a friend I had some Sprite. More than I planned on drinking. But that’s okay because I didn’t drink any more soda after lunch. I’ve mostly been sticking to drinking water and milk, which I think will do well for me in the long run.

Speaking of this weekend, Mom and I went to a friend’s Halloween Party last night. It was quite a blast too! My Mom made a Litter Box Cake for the party to bring over and everyone else was dressed up in really great Halloween costumes.

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I was also given this cute coloring book to add to what is becoming a vast coloring book collection. It’s got a lot of cute cats, dressed up for various occasions, the type of coloring book I know I’ll enjoy coloring in. Speaking of which, I hope to start doing some more coloring again soon. I’ve been missing it and I think getting another coloring book from someone is just what I need to remind me to get back into the habit of coloring.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you that’s really all I have to say. I’m planning on doing a blog post about this year’s presidential election, which is something I’m interested to see what people’s thoughts will be on it. It’ll be nothing anyone will find too surprising, but something I hope you’ll be interested to read.

But yeah, these last two weeks have actually been really slow for me. My grandmother will be coming here this week though so Mom won’t have to take as much time off and so she can see what’s going on at the house. Her contractor is supposed to be continuing the demolition process this upcoming week when my grandmother gets here so I’m looking forward to see what’s going to happen next.

Until then, I hope you all have had a wonderful week!

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Kicking Bad Habits to the Curb: My Caffeine Addiction

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Everyone has some habit or another that is considered unhealthy. A habit that the person tries hard to break only to find themselves returning to it once again. For me, this habit is not coffee, but soda.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always been a big soda drinker. Growing up, I consumed soda without a thought to how it can affect my health. Yes, soda isn’t the only thing I drink, but it’s the beverage I consume the most above all others. Whenever I find my throat feeling dry or my head throbbing in pain, I go to Dr. Pepper for help. It’s the one constant thing in life that makes me feel better after a long and busy day.

It wasn’t until I talked to a friend of mine that I thought I might have a soda problem. I drink soda without a second thought whenever I find myself wanting it, not keeping track of how much I consume a day. I try cutting back on my soda intake, only to drink Dr. Pepper once again just because I have the taste for it.

But I want to stop drinking soda. Or at least, stop relying on it the way I do. I enjoy the taste of it, but I really need to cut back.

I don’t want to rely on it anymore. Not because I don’t enjoy it anymore but because I don’t want soda  affecting my physical and mental health in any way. As someone with high cholesterol, I don’t want to drink as much soda because I don’t want to put myself at risk for heart disease. I know soda isn’t the only contributing factor for heart disease, but by cutting back on my soda intake, I hope to better even my chances. Here are some ways I believe I can stop myself from drinking too much soda:

  1. Limiting/keeping track of my soda intake: Instead of quitting drinking soda cold turkey, I can start off by keeping track of the amount of soda I drink each day. I can do this by limiting my soda intake. By having a set number of soda to drink each day, it’ll be a little bit easier for me to stop drinking soda completely if I decide to go that route. For this reason, my goal is to try and drink one can, bottle, etc. a day. I think by allowing myself this amount, I’ll still be able to have some soda if I need it, but it will also prevent me from drinking soda just because I want it. This will allow me to better monitor how much soda I consume each day and do my best to control the amount I have.
  2. Replacing soda with other beverages: In order to better control my cravings, I’ll start drinking something else whenever I find myself wanting soda. In most cases, this’ll be either water or milk. Water is a good substitution for me because it can help me manage my weight and keep me hydrated throughout the day. While a high intake of milk can increase the chance of prostate cancer and ovarian cancer, milk is a good source of calcium and is better for me to drink than soda. I can replace soda with milk and water by drinking either beverage whenever I feel tempted to have soda to drink. By replacing soda with these beverages, I believe I’ll be better able to limit my soda intake and be on the right path to consuming less soda.
  3. Not buying soda: Whenever I go out to eat or to the store, I typically end up spending money on soda. I think not buying soda for myself at home or whenever I go out will help decrease my soda intake in the long run. I also think this will be a benefit for my wallet because the cost of soda is much higher than water. Not having soda at home will also make it easier for me to avoid the temptation of drinking it. And not having soda when I go out will save me money I could spend on something else.

I hope that by keeping track of my soda intake, replacing soda with milk and water and not buying soda, I’ll be on the right path to reducing the amount of soda I drink each day. I know this path won’t be easy and that I’ll find myself straying from it from time to time, but I know I can do it. I know it’ll be challenging but by doing this, I hope I’ll be able to reduce my calorie intake and decrease my chances of heart disease. I know the amount of soda I drink isn’t healthy and want to do the best I can to reduce the amount I consume. And I believe these steps will lead me on the path to success.

 

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If We Were Having Coffee: What A Busy Week

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Hello everyone. How are you today? Hope you’re doing well. Since we’ve entered the month of October, I’ve decided with my coffee posts to do images of coffees that are Halloween related in some way or another. As a way for me to get into the Halloween spirit so to speak on my blog. Halloween is my favorite holiday so I want to celebrate it in whatever way I can here.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you this week has been a busy week at work. I’m not going to get into any of the specifics, but it’s been pretty stressful. Things out of my control happened and I felt like I walked into bad news every day I came in. Some of the things that happened have me feeling ashamed and frustrated that they happened, but are being handled the best way they can.

I’m sorry I can’t get really get into more detail other than that. I can tell you it’s not necessarily something me or my coworkers have done. It’s something that’s happened at my college that has everyone around campus talking, wondering what’s going to be done about it. It’s stuff out of our control, things we couldn’t predict happening. But nonetheless, it happened and we are doing the best we can to move on from it.

If we were having coffee, I’d also tell you I’m still working on the fifth chapter for the Creators Academy course I’m taking. I’m not sure what I want to do it on just yet. I’m thinking of possible topics, but just haven’t come up with one yet. I know my last one was about Harry Potter so I’m considering doing something about it again, like maybe talking about the Harry Potter podcast I’ve been enjoying or something. But haven’t exactly decided if that’s what I really want to do or not. Until then, I’ll keep looking and see what happens. I’ve also found out I’ll be given another mentor again. Don’t know why I keep getting different mentors, but I’m still looking forward to this whole process and am excited to see what I’ll be writing next on this site.

Speaking of writing, I’ve found a Flash Fiction Challenge I’m really looking forward to doing. I think I know what I’m going to write about, just not exactly sure how I want to go about doing it yet. Considering its more of a nonfiction post, I’m still trying to think of how to tell this personal experience of mine. It’s something I want to talk about, but not sure how others will feel about it so I’m still trying to figure that out before I write it. But I am planning on doing this challenge in the near future even if it ends up being finished later. Would rather write this one accurately and late than finish it on time and it be completely false. So I plan on working on that sometime in the foreseeable future. Fingers crossed it’ll turn out the way I want it and others will enjoy it too.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you I’ve finished reading When She Woke, with the review posted on my blog for all of you to enjoy. I enjoyed it, but there are some things with it I have a problem with. I’ve also just started reading this book called The Imperfectionists yesterday. So far, it seems like an interesting read, something I’d enjoy. But will just have to wait and see once I’ve finished.

I’ve also started watching Criminal Minds on Netflix. I’ve been wanting to binge watch it for the longest time now and figured since I’ve been seeing some of the episodes on TV, I might as well watch it from the beginning.

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So far, I’m enjoying it, like I always do. I know I’ll probably eventually get tired of watching it, but right now it’s very enjoyable to me.

Right now, that’s been it for me. I haven’t been up to much else besides work and whenever I have free time, I read, write or do something else. Hope your week has been good and can’t wait to hear all about it.

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Book Review: When She Woke

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Rating: 3 stars

Hannah Payne’s life has been devoted to church and family. But after she’s convicted of murder, she awakens to a nightmarish new life. She finds herself lying on a table in a bare room, covered only by a paper gown, with cameras broadcasting her every move to millions at home, for whom observing new Chromes—criminals whose skin color has been genetically altered to match the class of their crime—is a sinister form of entertainment. Hannah is a Red for the crime of murder. The victim, says the State of Texas, was her unborn child, and Hannah is determined to protect the identity of the father, a public figure with whom she shared a fierce and forbidden love.

A powerful reimagining of The Scarlet Letter, When She Woke is a timely fable about a stigmatized woman struggling to navigate an America of the not-too-distant future, where the line between church and state has been eradicated, and convicted felons are no longer imprisoned but chromed and released back into the population to survive as best they can. In seeking a path to safety in an alien and hostile world, Hannah unknowingly embarks on a journey of self-discovery that forces her to question the values she once held true and the righteousness of a country that politicizes faith and love. 

When She Woke is a really powerful story. A story that makes me question the world Hannah lives in as well as my own society.

Chroming people depending on their crime is an interesting idea to think about. Especially because in this book, I feel like each color choosing for a crime is symbolic. Red for murder is obvious in the sense that murdering someone involves blood being shed while blue for rape represents a sense of innocence being lost. I think the idea of chroming people in general is interesting because it would make it easier for us as a society to know who’s committed a crime. We’d be better able to protect ourselves from people we don’t know who could hurt us. But at the same time, I see it has serious issues too. It would be another form of racism where people who’ve been chromed will have to deal with people trying to hurt them because of their past actions. It would create another society for people to continue hating each other. But at the same time, society would be safer because we’d know whose committed crimes and justice would be served. Either way, it’s an issue you ponder as a reader when reading this book.

This book also makes me question faith. I’m not a highly religious person to begin with because I believe everyone should be able to believe in whatever they want without someone judging them. Not everyone has the same faith and I think everyone has a right to practice their religion without fear from others perceiving them in a negative light. In When She Woke, Hannah had her own doubts about what she believed in whenever she became a chrome. Life changed for her and she found she couldn’t feel God’s presence anymore. She also realized that she missed out on so much in life because of her faith and how it perceives women. While I enjoyed reading this aspect of the book, it definitely makes me question religious institutions and the way people act towards others in the name of their faith. While I believe religion is important, I don’t think it should be considered so important that you completely disregard another person and treat them ill because of their actions. If anything, that’s when a person needs religion the most. It’s because of the way people act towards others in the name of their faith that I don’t care as much about religion as others. And this book brought that to the surface to me in ways I didn’t expect.

I enjoyed reading this book because like the two issues I’ve mentioned above, it brings a lot of interesting conversation to the table. Conversations about issues like crime, abortions, faith and racism that while uncomfortable to talk about need to be discussed. I enjoyed reading this book because these issues were included in the story and made me think.

However, there were also some aspects of When She Woke I wasn’t pleased to see. I wasn’t happy that they made faith such a huge part of this story. While I understand that Hannah was once a very religious girl, I feel like they really enforced it too much sometimes. Especially because it seemed like almost everyone in this society was religious in some way even though that’s not at all how everyone in our world acts. I felt like reverends in the story like Hannah’s lover were given celebrity status in the story for being so indoctrined in their faith. While it gave me hope that things with chroming wouldn’t be too bad, I also felt like it was trying to force a message about faith on people too.

Another aspect of this story I wasn’t happy about was the way in which Hannah becomes saved. I found so many plot holes with the whole thing, especially near the end of the story when Hannah is left to travel to Canada on her own. Especially because so much could’ve gone wrong with her traveling alone. I also just didn’t understand why this organization was only helping women who’d gotten abortions instead of helping every chrome who wanted to repent their crime. I guess I just expected more from this besides Hannah going to Canada to reverse the change. Maybe something along the lines of her and the organization stopping chroming from being legal. I guess I feel like the story isn’t finished being told and that more should’ve been written.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading When She Woke. It was a very powerful story with a lot of things for the reader to talk about. It just didn’t necessarily have enough explained in the plot for me to give it a higher rating. But I did enjoy the book as a whole and recommend it to anyone interested in reading something like this.

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If We Were Having Coffee: A Misfortunate Event

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Hello everyone! How’re you all doing today? These past two couple weeks have been… interesting to say the least.

If we were having coffee, I’d pour my heart out to you about them. As this is oddly enough my thirteenth coffee post, it’s unfortunately going to be a little full of bad news. Just to let you know though, this bad news doesn’t pertain to my blog and you guys in any way. I just wanted to let you know that before I continue.

The reason I haven’t been posting as much lately is because I have a lot going on here at home. On Tuesday last week, my Mom and I came home to a disaster in our house. The septic tank in the toilet in our upstairs bathroom cracked, resulting in a leak that did some water damage to our upstairs bathroom, the living room floor, and the crawl space below our house, which just recently had new insulation put in. This damage means we have to replace the flooring in our living room and bathroom, which has severely impacted our living space.

Because of this damage, a lot is going on here at home in order to get our house back into working order again. We’ve had to rearrange our living room space so we could have somewhere to sit down besides our bedrooms as well as cleaned our house the best we can because of the mess the demolition process caused. The only thing really left to do is get our contractor started on replacing everything that was damaged so we can have our living room and bathroom space again.

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The toilet that caused it all. The only picture I’m going to show because my Mom doesn’t really want me posting about this everywhere. Once everything has been fixed, I’ll be posting more pictures in the future.

But because of this situation, I just haven’t had as much time to write. All of this going on at home is constantly on my mind even when I have free time I could be using for writing. I also don’t have as much space to write anymore, which sucks but is something I’m adapting to in my own way. I’ve decided to seclude myself in my room whenever I want to write at home or in the library at school whenever I’m waiting to go into work. I think this’ll work better for me anyway because I’ll be able to write undisturbed. But now that the initial shock over this leak is over, we are adjusting just fine to our new surroundings. Just need to get the bathroom and living room space fixed up, hopefully looking even nicer than it did before. I’ll continue as my weeks progress to let you know how it’s all going.

If we were having coffee, I’d also tell you things at work are just as crazy as home. The week this all went down, there was a catering dinner I was helping out with for two nights. During this dinner, there were apparently some issues going on between some of my coworkers that resulted in one of our coworkers quitting. These issues occurred apparently as soon as I left to help out with the catering and have just caused more trouble than its worth.

Having that coworker quit has reminded me of why I’m not content working here. While I don’t mind the work and the people I work with, our managers aren’t exactly what I’d call the best at managing their employees. Especially when issues like this arise and when certain employees don’t handle their responsibilities correctly, resulting in other employees having to pick up the slack. While I don’t personally have issues with the managers, the way they handle their work responsibilities doesn’t always sit well with me. Especially when employees let them know again and again about certain issues and instead of handling them they just don’t talk about it.

But enough about work right now. How about talking about something happier, like let’s say my writing or books I’ve been reading? If we were having coffee, I’d tell you I’ve finished reading The Dark End of the Street, which the review of can be found on my blog. I enjoyed reading it, but I think I’ve read it before because a lot of the short stories felt so familiar. So now I’m reading another book called When She Woke. Unfortunately, I’m dealing with the same problem because all of the character’s names sound so familiar to me, even though I don’t really remember most of the events going on. But I’m still enjoying it anyway because it’s an enjoyable read.

I’ve also finally completed the fourth chapter assignment for Creators Academy, which can be seen here for those interested. I’ve been struggling with this one for a long while because I just didn’t know what I wanted to write about. Well, that’s not necessarily true. I knew I wanted to write about Harry Potter in some capacity. I just didn’t know what about Harry Potter I wanted to write about. Luckily, I was able to figure something out in order to write this story, even if it was talking about the series in a news story way. I know this piece wasn’t at all what I was expecting to write, but I’m happy with it anyway because I haven’t written a news piece since being in college so it felt nice to do it again.

If we were having coffee, I’d also like to mention I spent these past two weekends with other people I care about besides family. Last weekend, I spent Friday night at my best friend’s house because my Mom wanted me out of the house while dealing with the mess that’s become our home. While at her house, I had a much needed sleepover, which included watching movies and sleeping in a comfy bed. Just getting to spend some much needed girl time, catching up on life with each other and just enjoying each other’s presence. During the sleepover, I was able to get some much needed sleep along with go with my best friend walking at one of the parks near us. This walk was something we’d talked with each other the week before about starting to do every Saturday morning.

But that didn’t end up happening this past Saturday because my best friend hasn’t been feeling well lately. I know she gets sick a lot though so I already knew we probably weren’t going to be seeing each other because of it. But that was okay because another friend of mine wanted to spend the day with me. So yesterday, we went park hopping once again. Like all of the other times, it was a lot of fun despite how hot it gets here. We also went out to eat at a Korean restaurant for lunch, which was so delicious I brought some home with me to eat for lunch on another day.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you that while there’s been some misfortune going on with the house, I feel like things afterwards have finally settled down for me. I hope in the weeks to come I’ll be able to write a little more and that the mess with our house will be fixed and I’ll be able to use my bathroom again. Hope your all doing well this week and are having a wonderful weekend as we get close to the beginning of a new month and season.

 

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Book Review: The Dark End of the Street

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Rating: 3 stars

In one fast-paced story, a strong and aggravated man considers the pretty woman at the bar while he fingers the knife in his pocket. But what becomes of his prey when they move to the bedroom? In another tale, a man remembers the victim of a ghastly murder who visited the same hair salon as he does. And a Don Juan of a protagonist has a hobby of marrying vulnerable women, getting access to their bank accounts, and then robbing them blind.

But there is much more to this collection than dark-haired vixens and crimes of passion. Some stories are brooding, some twisted; some bring righteous satisfaction, some linger in the back of your mind. What is truly on display is an impressive collection of literary talent: a group of some of the best writers we have, weaving fresh and memorable stories from a pair of classic themes. Taken as a whole, they are a rare treat for fans of great fiction, whether it’s high literature, good old-fashioned suspense, or anything in between. Original black-and-white art by artist/author Jonathan Santlofer completes this innovative, exciting, and irresistibly intriguing book—a true literary gem.

This collection of stories was an okay read. I enjoyed reading these stories because none of them were too complex for me to understand what was happening.

Each story told from a different perspective, this collection of stories about crime and sex were very intriguing. I found them to be enjoyable because I wasn’t sure what to expect. As someone who enjoys reading fictional stories about crime, I found these to be interesting enough for me to read.

I also enjoyed reading The Dark End of the Street because none of these authors were familiar to me. I felt no familiarity with any of the authors mentioned who were a part of this collection. I found that to be a nice thing for me because it made reading all of these different short stories interesting. It allowed me to read these short stories with an open mind, something I might’ve not been able to do if I were familiar with any of these authors.

I enjoyed reading this too because they are stories about crime and sex. As someone who enjoys watching shows like Criminal Minds and Law & Order Special Victims Unit, reading about these type of crimes is just as fascinating. Especially when the perspective is from someone thinking about committing a crime that doesn’t pull through. Or reading a story about someone witnessing a crime that gets told from many different people who weren’t there. These type of stories fascinate me because they are appalling, different and make me wonder about the world we live in. I also see them as a way of keeping up with the way people act in society and a better way of understanding people. While criminal acts aren’t something to gawk at, they are definitely a way for us to better understand the people surrounding us.

While I did enjoy reading The Dark End of the Street, I also felt a sense of déjà vu when reading these stories. When I first opened up the book to read the first story, I felt like I already knew what was going to happen, almost as if I’d read these stories before. This feeling continued throughout even when there were stories I wasn’t sure I read before.

This feeling made it difficult for me to read these stories because the element of mystery was gone. I couldn’t enjoy these stories quite as much because I already knew what was going to happen. I don’t know if it’s because I already read this book before and didn’t realize it, but it definitely hampered my ability to enjoy it. I couldn’t react to the stories with a fresh perspective and the sense of mystery and surprise that comes with reading stories like this was gone. Instead, I wasn’t at all surprised by the events that unfolded, just disappointed that I could find them to be so predictable.

Despite this feeling of déjà vu, I still enjoyed reading The Dark End of the Street. But it did hamper my ability to enjoy these short stories to their full potential.

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