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Creative Academy Chapter One Assignment: The Girl With Two Fandoms

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Hello everyone! I’m excited to announce I’ve officially posted my first post on the site I’ve mentioned, which can be found here for you guys to read and check out too. It’s actually a post I wrote for the online class I’m taking Creators Academy.

Creators Academy is an online class that will teach you how to be a better online writer and allows you to better familiarize yourself with their platform’s tools. The class has a total of ten lessons, each divided up into readings that you can enjoy at your own pace. With each of these lessons is a writing assignment that you have to post on the site before you can start the next chapter.

Since I decided to take the class, I figured I’d start off my posts there with the writing assignments from the lessons. The first lesson focused on why a person writes and had some of their writers talking about why they write.

The first writing assignment was to talk about something your passionate about in a unique way. So I decided to talk about The Hunger Games, my second favorite series next to Harry Potter. I focused on writing about why I enjoy the series, but tried making it brief so the post wasn’t too long.

Unfortunately, it didn’t turn out exactly the way I wanted it to. But it’s the first post on their site after all so I know with each post I’ll continue to improve my writing. I emailed the person who told me about their site because he asked me to send him my first post once I had it published. He offered me some suggestions of ways I could fix it or how I can expand on my topic for my next post, which I found to be very helpful and definitely hope to take his suggestions in the near future.

While I don’t know just yet if my next post on their site will be about The Hunger Games, I’m looking forward to continue taking this class and working on improving my writing even more.

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A Year of Blogging: My Reflection on My Blogging Journey

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Hello everyone! I’m excited to announce that today marks a year since I started writing on my blog Vook: Books + Video Games. I started this blog because after graduating from college, I wanted to continue writing no matter what. But I didn’t know what exactly with writing I wanted to do. After much thinking and contemplating, I decided to start a blog so I could showcase my writing to the world. I also started this blog because while in college, I had taken a blogging course and found that while blogging on Healthy Body Peace of Mind I really enjoyed what I was doing. I found that while I enjoyed writing about heart health, it wasn’t exactly what I wanted to write about once I decided to get back into blogging again. I thought about my interests and passions and decided to create a completely new space where I could safely write about all of my passions with the freedom blogging provides. And that is how Vook: Books + Video Games was born.

Since I first started my blog, aiming at creating mostly posts talking about books and video games, I’ve found that my blog has grown far from that. While I try my best to focus on blogging about those two topics, I’ve found comfort in using this space to share some of my own works as well as talk about my personal life because I feel comfortable sharing my whole self with you.

Since blogging on WordPress, I’ve felt nothing but a warm welcome from the few people who I’ve managed to talk to. One of the many things with blogging I’ve been hoping to do is get involved with fellow bloggers and converse and I feel like in the one year I’ve been on here, I’ve been able to do that. While I know the WordPress blogging community is vast with a wealth of blogs, I’ve discovered during my time here a majority of people are friendly and I enjoy the short exchanges of interaction I’ve had from fellow bloggers who share the same love of blogging as I do. As I continue blogging here on WordPress, I hope that will continue in the time to come and hope to talk to more bloggers in the near future.

Even though I’ve only been on WordPress for a year, I feel like I’ve learned a lot from this short period of time. I know one of my biggest strengths in my writing is passion. I find that whenever I’m writing on a subject I’m extremely passionate about, my writing shines through in ways I never expected. This post is no exception because I’ve found in this year that I’ve really started to love blogging even more than when I first started on this journey. When I took the blogging class at Columbia College, I knew I enjoyed blogging and could feel that I was pretty good at it. But when I started this blog, I discovered many months into it how much I enjoyed what I was doing. I discovered I found myself looking forward to coming up with something to write about because it meant I had something else to share with my readers.

I found that I was not only writing for myself, but for others too. And that was exactly what I was hoping for because I don’t want to write posts on my blog only for my own benefit. I want those who read my blog to feel safe and welcomed. I want my readers to enjoy the content I’ve created and feel inspired to create stories of their own. Because every person has a story of their own to tell. But it’s up to them how they want to tell it and whether they feel comfortable sharing it. My blog is a part of me that I feel comfortable sharing with the world. It’s not all of me because I know I’m a complicated human being and still have more of my story left to tell. But it’s a part of me I keep close to my heart yet am willing to share with the world.  I want my readers to know how much I enjoy writing and know they can find a friend in me.

As I continue my blogging journey, I hope my readers can learn from me. I hope they can benefit from my work and that they enjoy reading it. Blogging has been a big learning process for me. I’ve found that there’s still a lot I have to learn, but I’m willing to continue blogging in order to improve my writing.

I’ve only been on my blog for a year, yet it feels like no time has passed at all. As a writer, I’ve discovered my writing has improved since being a part of this blogging community. I’ve discovered how much I really enjoy writing on WordPress and want to continue doing so in the many years to come. I definitely see blogging as a potential career path for me and want to use it as a way for me to continuously improve my writing as I progress. But I also want it to be a learning tool, as a way for me to always have something worth working on and goals to complete so my blog can live up to its full potential. I know there are some things with my blog I need to be working on and I hope to do that in the many months to come.

Right now, the main thing with my blog I plan on changing in the foreseeable future is the main design. I think the look of it right now is okay to start off with, but it’s not exactly the way I want my blog to look overall. I hope to make some changes soon so that it looks exactly the way I want it to. But for now, I’m going to play around with the overall look and see what I can do to make it even better.

I hope you all enjoy reading my blog. Thank you for taking time out of your busy lives to come on here and read my posts. You have no idea how much it means to me that people enjoy my writing and find inspiration from it. I still can’t believe it’s been a year already but I am proud of what I’ve accomplished so far and can’t wait to see where this blogging journey continues to take me.

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If We Were Having Coffee: A Week of Opportunity

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Hello everyone! I hope you’ve all had a good week, that it was everything you wanted it to be. Wow, this coffee picture looks absolutely good. While I don’t normally drink coffee, it looks like something I’d enjoy. Be that as it may though since it’s coffee, I’m unfortunately going to have to pass.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you it’s been another good week. I’ve continued obsessively to play Pokémon Go along with playing Pokémon Blue too. Because of playing this game, it’s really made me in the mood to play other Pokémon games as well. This week I’ve become obsessively in love with Pokémon all over again.

Pokemon Blue Version

I hate to say this but until now, I thought I’d grown out of Pokémon. Not because I didn’t love playing it anymore, but because as I continued playing the newer games, I found myself getting tired of the same repetition. Of seeing new Pokémon being created with no creativity and having to continuously grind each time I wanted to get my team to a certain level. But now that Pokémon Go is out, I’ve found myself remembering why I enjoyed playing Pokémon so much. It was the thought of becoming the best trainer that had me playing the games when I was little and Pokémon Go was able to bring that reality to life for me. And ever since this game came out, I’ve loved Pokémon again like I did as a child and know I won’t be turning my back on it no more.

I really enjoy Pokémon Go because it’s motivated me to take up walking again. As someone who has a high amount of cholesterol, walking is a good thing for me to do because it allows me to exercise in a way I enjoy and that will help with my heart health. Its motivated me whenever I’ve felt the need to just sit at home to go outside despite the conditions and try to catch them all. Whenever I get an egg from a PokeStop, I find myself curious about what Pokémon is inside it and want to walk the necessary miles to find out. Even when it’s a Pokémon I already have, I find myself excited at the prospect of hatching an egg because it means I’ve done quite a bit of walking and feel as if I’ve made some progress in leveling up my trainer. This is important because I know I have a health problem but I also know I have a hard time breaking bad habits. And having a game like this is a good way to motivate me to walk more because it allows me to work towards a goal I enjoy completing and doing it in a way that satisfies me. It allows me to feel happy about myself and what I’m doing because I’m enjoying every minute of it. I find pride in myself every time I’m able to catch a new Pokémon or whenever I’m able to evolve the Pokémon I already have on my team and want to celebrate it because it means I’m doing something I love that’s also benefiting my overall health. As I continue playing this game, I’m finding myself happier with myself, wanting to do the best I can to continue moving forward in life to become the best person I’m meant to be. I know this game isn’t the sole responsibility for that necessarily, but I think it’s definitely helped and I know I’ll continue to play it to see how far I can go to become the best trainer that ever was.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you I’ve also been playing Spyro Year of the Dragon too. When I’m not busy catching Pokémon, I’ve also been playing this game, trying the best I can to continue progressing to the end. And so far, I’ve been enjoying playing this game from my childhood just as much because its brought back so many memories that bring a smile to my face.

Like when I played the previous Spyro games, I also wrote a blog post about this one, which resulted in hearing about an opportunity I didn’t expect. Someone commented on the blog post, mentioning a video game site and how they are interested in me becoming a writer on the site. Now while you all know my blog isn’t just video game content, video games are something I absolutely enjoy playing so getting a comment on one of my blog posts about doing something like this made me happy. I really enjoy playing video games and have looked into doing that type of writing for a site before, but was nervous about whether I should actually do it or not. Not because I didn’t want to do it, but because most of my writing content with video games tends to focus on much older games that I played during my childhood more so than newer games that’ve just been released. I do play newer games whenever I have the chance, but I don’t play them as much because I can’t always afford to play newer games due to not having any of the newest systems released. The newest consoles I currently own are my PSP and Nintendo DS even though I do want a PlayStation 4 of my own one of these days. And most video game websites tend to focus on new releases than on anything that’s been out for a couple of years. However, I’m still interested in it and have already reached out to the person who commented on my blog to find out more about this opportunity. So hopefully this works out a whole lot better than the two job interviews I’ve had. Because I would love to write for a video game site (or any site in general for that matter) and think it would be a great way for me to get even more exposure as a writer.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you that while I haven’t been doing too many blog posts, I do have some writing ideas brewing in the back of my mind. One of the posts I plan on publishing very soon is a poem I wrote the other night just before I went to bed. I have it saved on my phone right now because I didn’t have paper when it popped into my head so I wrote it down through the only means I had available at the time. I actually plan on publishing it tomorrow so I don’t have to worry about losing it. In a couple days (July 28th to be exact), I will have been writing on my WordPress blog for a year. I am so happy that it’s almost been a year since I’ve started my blog that I plan on doing a post about it as well. I also have a fiction story in the back of my mind that I want to work on sometime soon. I don’t know when yet, but I hope to publish that on my blog as well, depending on when I decide to do it. So far that’s it with blog post ideas. Because I could do another Pokémon blog post, but I don’t know if I really want to do another one yet.

Other than that, I don’t really have anything else to talk about with you all. Mom and I went downtown yesterday because I’ve heard that there are a lot of PokeStops in cities and I wanted to get more Poke Balls and catch more Pokémon. But other than that, I haven’t been up to too much this week. Just hoping to continue on my Pokémon adventure and see how far it gets me.

What about you guys though? Are any of you playing Pokémon Go? If not, what’ve you been up to this week?

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If We Were Having Coffee: No Pain, No Gain

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Happy Sunday everyone! I hope you all had a good week and that your weekend is everything you want it to be.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you it really does feel nice to be back home. I remember last weekend when I mentioned my trip to Nashville that I wasn’t at home for most of last week. So this week has mostly been me adjusting to being back at home.

What I can tell you about this week is that it hasn’t been that productive of one. I only did one job application throughout the week. It was a job application for a volunteer opportunity with AmeriCorps. I heard about this opportunity from one of my professors at college who saw they were looking for people and let me know to apply. So I did the application and quickly heard back that they were interested in conducting a phone interview with me for the position. So now I’m just waiting to find out when our phone interview will take place. Speaking of jobs, one of the applications I did way back in May I heard back from this week too. They were also interested in doing a phone interview with me for the position, which I did on Thursday afternoon. I don’t know how I feel about that interview. I know it definitely could’ve gone better, but I’ll just wait and see. If they are interested in me any further, I’ll be hearing from them soon. If not, then I did the best I could and will just have to accept it’s not meant to be.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you about the two cold sores I have on my lips. I don’t know what exactly happened for them to get there, if I bit my lip or what, but they really hurt. Have been the biggest pain in my butt this week because they make it difficult for me to eat and do things like brush my teeth. So I’m just trying to do everything I can to ignore the pain, but we bought some cream I can put on them yesterday when we went to the store. I think that’ll help with the pain and hopefully clear them up. I just wish I knew how I got them so I could make sure it didn’t happen again. But there’s not too much I can do about that now. Just have to do everything I can to make them go away so I don’t have to deal with them anymore.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you it’s really been a good week. Besides this mouth pain, I’ve had a good time at home. I continued playing Spyro Ripto’s Rage and am almost done completing the game. Just have two worlds left before I fight Ripto as the last boss. Planning on getting through that soon. But I’ve also been playing Pokémon Go quite a bit too. It’s becoming one of my favorite video games because I just enjoy it. Reminds me so much of playing Pokémon during my childhood and battling to become the best trainer in the world. I also love it because it’s gotten me to go out and walk around, both in my neighborhood and other places. When I mentioned to Mom that I needed to go to some PokeStops because I ran out of Poke Balls and needed some more, she immediately took me to the nearest walking trail by our house. She took me there because one time when we’d gone out, I saw on the game that there were some PokeStops there that I could go to. So we went there to walk instead of doing our neighborhood so I could get my Poke Ball inventory back in order. We actually went there twice to walk because Mom suggested us going back there the next day. It is a pretty great place to walk. The trail goes so many different directions that you could go any way and end up somewhere you didn’t expect to be. But one of the places we went to on our first walk since Pokémon Go was so beautiful I couldn’t help but take a picture of it.

Harbison Recreation Center Water Fountain

It was such a beautiful setting and such a beautiful place to go that I wish I’d taken more pictures of this beautiful water as I saw the ripples cascading around me. Another aspect of Pokémon Go I’ve found myself enjoying is that it allows people to explore the world around them. To see all of these new places you might’ve never gone to before. It makes me want to find beauty in the world around me that I know does exist. This game is also a strong motivation for me to walk, something I normally enjoy doing but don’t do as much as I should. I know part of the problem is the temperature outside because it’s so hot that I can feel the heat as soon as I step outside. But Pokémon Go makes me want to face the heat anyway, want to walk and explore the world around me despite the weather outside. But it does it in a way not at all criticizing the player but rewarding them for their hard work. It is something I really appreciate. There are so many people who criticize gamers so much for spending hours playing video games, for doing something they enjoy that having a video game that rewards its players for what they are doing is a great motivation for them to continue doing that task. I also enjoy this game motivating me to walk because I know I need to. It’s something I know I should be doing every day and having a game that brings one of my childhood dreams to life is one way I know will help motivate me to continue walking whenever I feel like giving up.

I’d also like to mention along with playing Pokémon Go I also finished reading Into the Woods and have started reading Shadow Mountain: A Memoir of Wolves, a Woman, and the Wild, one of the books I had bought at 2nd and Charles a little while ago. Into the Woods was overall an okay read for me. It wasn’t the worst book I’ve read, but also wasn’t the best book I’ve read either. I enjoyed the mysterious circumstances surrounding the main character in the novel despite the disappointing aspects of the story that didn’t endear the book to me. I think the book I’ve started reading though will prove to be a much better read to me because it’s about an animal I enjoy learning more about. But will just have to wait and see to know for sure.

If we were having coffee, I’d also mention that we are getting close to the day I first started this blog last year. I plan on doing a blog post on this because I want to talk about my experience with blogging so far and what all I’ve learned since I created Vook: Books + Video Games and what I hope for as I continue blogging. I know a lot has changed for me since I first started this blog, and can’t wait to talk about my experience so far with you. I know there are some things I want to do in order to improve my blog, which is something else I plan on talking about with that post. I hope you all read it and tell me what you think because I want as much feedback as I can get on how to improve my blog. But I also want to hear other’s stories about their blogging journey and what they’ve learned along the way. Along with this post, I’m figuring out what else I want to post next in the days to come. I know I still have the one fictional story buzzing around in my head yet to be written so I’ll try to get that posted as soon as I can for you all to read and enjoy. Hopefully it’ll be as good as it is in my head, but we’ll just have to wait and see.

But for now, I think I’ll be going. There really isn’t too much else for me to say here about my week. It’s mostly been reading, watching YouTube videos and playing video games, the normal stuff you all should expect from me now. But enough about me. What all have you been up to lately? I want to hear all about it.

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If We Were Having Coffee: Traveling to Nashville, Returning Home

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Good day everyone! Wow, it feels good to be back home again. Hope you all are doing well and had a good week so far.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you this week for me has been quite a busy one. I’ve been in Nashville for most of it, helping my sister move into her new apartment complex. I enjoyed all of my time up there because I not only spent some quality time with my sister, but my grandmother too. I enjoyed getting to help move my sister into her first new big girl place, getting to meet her two new roommates and getting to see what the city of Nashville, Tennessee has to offer. It’s a beautiful city, very bustling with life and many different places a person can go to explore. I enjoyed every minute I spent there with my family.

When we weren’t helping my sister unpack her things, we were exploring the city. We walked past the Frist Art Museum as well as some of the country music places that Nashville is very well-known for. We even went to the Grand Ole Opry, even though we only went inside to the gift shop because none of our family is big country music fans so we didn’t think it’d be worthwhile to spend money to get a full tour of the place. We also went to the Opryland Hotel, which is very beautiful inside with a riverboat tour that allows you to get even more acquainted with the place.

But before all of that, we celebrated our fourth of July in Nashville at a pizza place in the city. One of my sister’s new friends recommended the place and it was the perfect setting for us to enjoy some good pizza and see the fireworks we’d come into the city to see. We didn’t go deeper into the city because it kept raining so we wanted to be somewhere with shelter from the stormy weather. So we hung out at this pizza place instead where we listened to Sheryl Crow perform and then listened to the Nashville Symphony when the fireworks were in the sky. We had a great time despite all of the bad weather, making the most of our time in Nashville.

Our time in Nashville was a lot of fun and exhausting, all at once. We did a lot of unpacking to help my sister move into her new place while also getting to explore Nashville. It was a great time, full of fun and laughter. I took a lot of pictures in Nashville during my trip and have them posted on my Instagram for those interested in seeing what all I’ve gotten to see while there. I look forward to going there again in the future whenever we go to visit my sister. I really enjoy exploring whenever I go to a new place, especially cities because they have a whole lot to offer. I also feel like I’m going on an adventure, which makes me even more eager to explore new places.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you I’ve had a busy week at home too. The two days I had at home after returning weren’t too productive for me, but a lot of things did happen in the world that caused me some concern. This week, there have been shootings of two black men, Alton Sterling and Philando Castile by police and in Dallas, five police officers were killed during a protest of these two deaths. This has caused a lot of unrest for me for many reasons. I don’t have issues with black people or police just trying to do their job and protect their citizens. I do however, have problems with police who use excessive force that results in the loss of life. And in both of the shootings before the protest in Dallas, I feel like there was too much force used against these two men which resulted in their deaths. Now I understand the need for police to protect themselves whenever they feel like they’ve been threatened. But neither of these men were hurting anyone when they were shot and I feel like the police officers decided to shoot first, ask questions later. While I understand being a police officer is a difficult and dangerous job, I also don’t think they should be pulling out their guns unless absolutely necessary. And in both of these instances, I don’t think it was necessary. But that doesn’t mean I don’t feel sad for the police offers killed in Dallas.

I feel sad and outraged by all of the lives lost during these three incidents. I don’t think race should be an issue in our country, but I do believe racism is still alive in the world today. While I know being white I’ll never experience the racism that exists in our world, I want to do whatever I can to help those who do experience it and let them know they aren’t alone. I know I’m not perfect, but I want to do whatever I can to help because we are all human and deserve to be treated equally no matter our skin color. Along with that, I’d also like to say I’m sorry to the police officers who’ve lost their lives during the Dallas shooting. I have full respect for police officers who act to protect all of their citizens and am sorry you lost your lives because of a few bad apples. Just know I thank you for upholding the law and doing everything you can to protect innocent civilians during this difficult time. I don’t really think there’s too much more I can say because I know there’s a problem in our country that needs to be fixed, but don’t know of any way to fix it.

If we were having coffee, I’d also tell you that Pokémon Go came out earlier this week. It is a real world adventure game where you as a Pokémon trainer can catch virtual Pokémon in your own backyard as you move in real time. I’m really excited about this game because I played Pokémon quite a bit during my childhood. It was one of many of my favorite video games growing up. So having a video game like this one where you as the player can travel as an actual trainer makes me really excited to see what this game is like. And so far, I’ve enjoyed my experience playing it. When I first started playing, there were a lot of times the server went down so I wasn’t able to do too much in it. But now, I feel like I’m finally getting a handle on how the game is to be played. While I haven’t progressed too far into it just yet to do a first impressions post, I’m looking forward to continue playing it to see how far I get.

Pokemon Go Video Game

Along with playing video games, I’ve also finished reading Armada and written my review for it on my blog along with started reading In the Woods. So far, it’s a pretty interesting read and am interested in seeing where the story continues to go.

Other than that, I don’t really have too much else to say. The weather here has been very hot recently so I haven’t been out and about too much lately.  Mom and I went swimming at a friend of hers house yesterday in order to cool off which really helped me feel cooled off. Hope you all are doing well and are enjoying your weekend too.

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If We Were Having Coffee: A New Style

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Good morning everyone! I hope you all have had a lovely week and are having a wonderful weekend. My week has been pretty good so I can’t wait to tell you all about it.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you I’ve been busy playing video games lately. I saw one of my favorite YouTubers playing Spyro Year of the Dragon, which really made me interested in replaying the first three games in the Spyro series. So on Sunday last weekend, I started playing Spyro the Dragon and even wrote a post about it, which can be seen here. I played it so much that I’ve beaten it now and am continuing with the Spyro series by playing Spyro 2: Ripto’s Rage, my favorite in the series. I plan on doing a blog post about this Spyro game too in the near future whenever I get the chance. As for now though, I’m deeply enjoying reliving my childhood and can’t wait to see how much progress I make in these games.

Speaking of games, I’ve been listening to these Dungeons & Dragons podcasts by Geek & Sundry called Critical Role. Each one of these podcasts are about two to three hours in length, and is a game of D&D done by a wonderful group of voice actors. So far, their gameplay of D&D has been wonderful to watch, seeing them struggle to overcome enemies while also watching the Dungeon Master weave a wonderful story that captivates the audience to see what’s going to happen next. I look forward to listening to each episode posted on YouTube because it reminds me of when I played Dungeons & Dragons for the first time and makes me really happy to listen to. I plan on listening to more podcasts in the future, just need to find some more soon.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you I have some good news! After recovering from strep throat and talking to my mom, I finally got the hair cut I’ve been wanting for some time now. And it turned out really good, better than I expected.

Raney Photo New Hair

I love it! I love the way it looks from the front and back, and the way my new bangs hang across my forehead. I have a rather large forehead so these bangs hang across just right in a way that I feel works for me. This hair cut just works for me way better than all of the other haircuts I’ve had in the past. I like having short hair because of the way it looks on me and this just works because I feel like it fits me. I feel like it makes me feel younger, but also more mature at the same time. Makes me feel more ready to take on the world and whatever obstacles are heading my way. I feel more confident in myself than ever before, like I’m seeing my true self for the first time. I’m just so happy with this hair cut that I can’t see my hair looking any other way.

Then after getting my hair cut, Mom and I went to Panera for dinner because I’ve been wanting to eat their soup for some time. Since before I’d gotten sick with strep throat. So I felt like it was about time we went there to get some food before heading home from my hair appointment. And it was just as good as my taste buds hoped it would be. Both the bread and soup were just right and it was a nice treat to have their delicious broccoli and cheese soup with bread the perfect size to dip it in.

If we were having coffee, I would just like to quickly let you know we won’t be having coffee next weekend. We are moving my older sister into her new place in Nashville next weekend and will be spending our 4th of July there so I will be so busy with family that I won’t be able to make coffee. Before she’d gotten the job in Nashville, we were originally supposed to go to Pennsylvania for a friend’s wedding. Once there, we were going to spend time with my grandmother, visiting Philadelphia and spending a day in New York as well as enjoy our 4th of July Pennsylvania style. But now that my sister has her new job and will be moving into her new place that weekend, our plans have had to change. Mom isn’t exactly pleased about this because it was her friend’s wedding we were going to and we’d already made a commitment to go months ago. So now, we’ll be spending our weekend in Nashville instead and our grandmother will be flying down so we’ll still get to see her. While we still don’t have everything planned out, I’m hoping it’ll still be an enjoyable weekend and that our 4th of July will still turn out fine.

Other than that, I haven’t been up to much. I’m happy because I was able to post one of the fictional pieces I’ve been wanting to write for a little while now. I still have other works I want to post onto my blog. But will just have to wait and see how all of that goes and whether I’ll actually post those on my blog soon. I promise though that if they don’t end up on my blog this upcoming week, they’ll be up as soon as I feel like writing them.

Now that I’ve talked about my week, what all have you been up to?

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If We Were Having Coffee: Three Days at Work

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Hello everyone! I hope you all have been doing well and are enjoying your weekend.

If we were having coffee, I’d apologize for not having any recent posts published. I found out last week from my doctor that I have strep throat so I figured posting last weekend wouldn’t be a good idea. I decided to rest instead, taking my antibiotics and doing everything I could to make sure I was getting better.

Last weekend was a sad one. My older sister left to head to Nashville because of her new job. She was starting it this Thursday so she wanted to get there ahead of time to adjust to her new surroundings. I was still sick so I was bummed that she was leaving and that we weren’t able to go up to Nashville with her like we’d planned. But we did say goodbye, waving to her as she left. We were sad to see her go. However, she was planning on coming back home this weekend to continue packing more of her belongings. So I knew I was going to see her again soon.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you this week has been a somewhat productive one. It started off slow due to being sick and having to take my antibiotics. But I spent my free time watching more YouTube videos and just taking things easy. However, I had gotten something in the mail from my job at school last week. Summer Orientation at my school was coming up this Wednesday through Friday and they needed me to work it.

At first, I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to work it. I’d just found out the previous week why I had been feeling unwell and didn’t know if it’d be wise for me to go in. But because of the antibiotics, I was starting to feel better so I went to work those three days. It went pretty well, for the most part. There wasn’t too much to do when I clocked in due to everything was already set up and ready to go. Once we opened, things weren’t too much better. Still pretty slow once everyone from orientation made it through. But I obtained some hours and worked for a couple days so I had nothing to really complain about. I also spent time with a friend on Thursday and Friday before going into work, walking around at a park and downtown, just talking and spending time together. Overall, I’m glad I was able to go and get some hours so I could get some extra money during the summer.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you other than work, I haven’t been up to too much this week. I didn’t continue reading Armada, though I’m planning on reading it some more soon since I’ve been feeling better. I’ve been watching more YouTube videos than anything else and recently discovered one of the YouTubers I enjoy is playing a video game from my childhood. I’m so excited about this discovery that I feel inspired to play that game myself along with the other games in the series. So much so that I’ll probably even write one blog post about the games once I’ve completed them. During this time, I’ve also discovered a Dungeons & Dragons podcast I really enjoy. Each episode is roughly three hours in length, however, so I haven’t been listening to them all too much yet. I just finished the first episode yesterday and plan on continuing watching it in the future.

I also have plans on doing more writing, both blog posts and in my personal journal. I haven’t been writing as much lately because of recovering from strep throat so I want to do all I can to remedy it. I have a couple fictional stories in mind that came to me while I was recovering so I’m hoping to work on those and post them on my blog in the near future. I won’t say anything more about them because I want to see what you think of them once they’ve been completed. Just know I’m planning on working on those to get on here as soon as I possibly can. But I also need to continue job searching. Mom has been on my case lately about job applications so I’m hoping to get that going some this week so I can find somewhere to work so I don’t have to return to my current position.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you this weekend with my sister home has been going pretty well. She spent most of yesterday packing her stuff, getting it organized and ready to take with her to Nashville. But we also had a good friend of ours come over for a dinner my sister made, which turned out to be really good. Today she’s continuing packing her belongings and taking her things to the car. Mom is helping her because she wants to make sure she has everything she needs. I’m doing the best I can to stay out of the way because I know there’s not too much I can do to help.

And that’s pretty much it. After my sister leaves today, Mom wants to do some cleaning up in our backyard. We had a storm come through Friday afternoon so we have a little bit of a mess going on in our backyard because one of our neighbor’s trees fell into it. But Mom wants to get some of the stuff she’s able to while the neighbors get someone to come over and get their tree out of our yard.

I hope you all are having a wonderful weekend and look forward to hearing all about it.

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If We Were Having Coffee: Bringing the Heat Indoors

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If we were having coffee, I’d tell you most of my week has been pretty unproductive. Spent most of it continuing to read Ready Player One and lounging around the house. Mostly because my neck and head pain hadn’t gone away and I didn’t want to do anything else while dealing with it. But I also worked on editing another poem to post on my blog and watching YouTube videos.

Watching videos on YouTube is actually one of my many favorite hobbies. I usually do it whenever I don’t feel like watching television. Most of the videos I watch on YouTube are video game videos. I watch fellow gamers play video games to find out what type of games people are into lately. But also because I don’t have the current game systems out now. So I watch YouTubers to see games I might possibly be interested in playing myself one day whenever I’m able to afford getting a PlayStation 4. I also do it too because I sometimes just like watching other people play games because it can be mildly entertaining seeing another person play something and enjoying it. It also makes me feel like I’m even more a part of the gamer community because I watch YouTubers who play games currently available. But also watching them play games I might enjoy is fun too.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you about my fun day I spent with a friend on Thursday. We went driving around to different towns and parks here in South Carolina, then got out of the car and walked, looking at the beautiful world around us. I was tired whenever we first started our trip because he’d asked me if I could wake up a little earlier than usual so we could get started earlier in the day in order to have plenty of time together. But it was lots of fun, just driving around, seeing different places around us. We even briefly drove through some of the mountains here, which was such a beautiful sight to see. My ears were popping during that part of the trip, but it was worth it seeing all of that beautiful landscape.

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This is a picture taken at one of the parks we went to. It had a nice waterfall too and there were lots of ducks and geese there, swimming, squawking, just having a good time. This park is located in Greenville.

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This is the mountain view we saw on our way to our next destination.

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The house up on the hill is the home of an author who lives in North Carolina named Carl Sandburg. Going to this place took us a little bit of a drive, but my friend wanted to show me this place. I’m not a big fan of history but seeing this author’s home in the distance really excited me. It was a beautiful uphill walk that took my breath away with each step.

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 Our last stop was seeing Carl Sandburg’s house at a historic park. It was in North Carolina though so we had an hour and a half to two-hour drive to get there, but it was so worth the time it took for us to get there. I really enjoyed going there not only because the view of the house was breathtaking but because once we got up the hill, there’s a goat house where you can go and pet goats. I would say this part of the trip was one of my favorites because we did quite a bit of walking and it was just such a beautiful place to visit. After leaving this place, we headed home, quickly grabbing a bite to eat before heading back. Overall, the trip was such a great time that I can’t wait to see what type of adventure we go on next.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you Friday was quite a draining day. I was woken up early because Mom discovered a problem with our air conditioner and was having someone come to find out what needed to be fixed. So since I was still tired from my fun filled Thursday, I went back to sleep on our couch until around the time I normally wake up, waiting for the guy to get here. Once he did, he immediately went to our attic to find out what was wrong with our air conditioning. And what he had to tell us wasn’t good news. Apparently our coils for the air conditioning that connect to our drain were very rusty and there was mold on them. So our whole air conditioning system has to be replaced because of the mold. We also think this is possibly why I haven’t been feeling so great the past two weeks. Apparently, the mold was so bad that if anyone in the house was allergic to it, it would affect them. And while my allergies mostly pertain to pollen, I think it’s also possible I could have an allergic reaction to mold, which is why my head and neck have been hurting.

But because we need to get our air conditioning replaced, we’ve had to turn it off completely until they are able to come and fix it. Unfortunately, they won’t be at our house to work on it until Monday, which means this weekend we’ve been having to deal without it. Meaning, we now have a lot of box fans set up around the house and all of our ceiling fans on because we need cool air in our house. We live in the south where our summers are usually hot in temperature and right now our house is around 90 degrees in temperature. Unfortunately, I really have a low tolerance for heat and summer isn’t one of my favorite seasons of the year. I love doing things like swimming and laying out to get a tan during the summer. But otherwise, I want to stay away from the heat as much as I possibly can. And since we have this heat in our house now, I want even less to do with it now than ever before. But so far, I feel like we are dealing with it well, trying to stay as positive as we can. Monday just can’t seem to get here fast enough though.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you I also finished reading Ready Player One and wrote the review for it on Friday. I overall enjoyed it, but gave it three stars because there were so many issues I had with it that made it difficult for me to enjoy it even more. Now I’m on to read Ernest Cline’s second novel Armada, which is so far pretty good. I’m hoping I enjoy it as much as Ready Player One or even more so, but we’ll just have to wait and see.

And that’s been my week overall pretty much. Nothing else I can think of writing, at least right now. I hope you’ve enjoyed the coffee and can’t wait to hear about how your week has been going.

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Victory (Poem)

Victory Pose

As I watched my heart get destroyed,

I’m still here standing.

 

Victory is mine.

 

Because while you’ve broken my heart,

You can’t take away my pride.

 

I used to feel so sad,

Of the way I felt about you,

But not anymore.

 

Not anymore.

No way, no how.

 

Because I’m not letting you,

Keep me broken anymore.

 

I’m going to stand up,

And cry no more.

 

What tears I have left,

Hold no power over me.

 

Because I’ve learned to let go,

I’ve given up on you.

 

I’ve given up,

On what we used to be.

 

We used to have so much,

But all of that is gone,

Because my heart doesn’t want to be broken anymore.

 

So watch my back now,

That’s the last thing you’ll see of me.

 

I’m done with this game,

And these lies.

 

So ready to love someone,

Who’ll treat me better than you.

 

Victory is mine,

Because I won’t let you keep me broken anymore.

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