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If We Were Having Coffee: It Feels Like I’m Playing Catch Up 

Hello everyone and Happy Easter! It feels like I’m playing catch up with these #weekendcoffeeshare posts because it’s been awhile since my last one. I would say this is accidental if it weren’t that I honestly just didn’t feel like doing one of these posts these last couple weeks. I don’t think making excuses for myself will change that truth for me so I figure I might as well be honest about it. But I’m back with this post and hopefully I’ll continue to do more of them in the months to come. But for now, I’ll try and see if I can catch you up to speed with what’s been going on in my life. 

If we were having coffee, the first thing I’d probably tell you is we’ve been watching friends of ours pets lately. We watched someone my Mom knows dog and cat a couple weekends ago and are now cat sitting for another friend. So far, we’ve gotten along with all of them and there haven’t been too many problems. I just recently spent the night with the two cats, one of which slept on top of me and was demanding my affections. 

Look at that sweet boy. How could you say no to that face? 

The other cat is more guarded around people, but he’s just as sweet. But it was nice spending the night with them so that they could have someone around to take care of them. It was also very quiet and peaceful in their house, which was also nice because it allowed me to finish one of my coloring pages and start on another. 

I really love the way this page turned out for me.

I really love coloring. It’s very peaceful, a nice way for me to relax and do something stress free. It also makes me feel like I’ve really accomplished something, even if it’s just filling another blank page to life. 

Speaking of which, if we were having coffee, I’d tell you I’ve been working on writing more in my journal. Right now, I’m trying to write in it once or twice a week, whenever the need calls for it. I think this is pretty realistic because I know there are going to be times I want to write, but not want to post on here. But right now, we’ll just have to wait and see how it goes. I know I’m currently optimistic about it because I really believe I can do it. I’ve also been working on a poem too, which is currently called “Forgiveness.” I’m not sure if I’m done with it yet, but once I am, I’ll be publishing it here for you all to read. 

I’ve also recently watched Thirteen Reasons Why on Netflix, which was released March 31st and wrote a review about it. I’ve actually watched it twice since it’s release, because I enjoyed it so much I had to see it again. I even got my best friend to watch it and am letting her borrow my copy of the book now that she’s watched the show. I’ve also recently finished reading Wintergirls and am now planning on reading All the Rage, which I’m hoping will be a much better read. After finishing Thirteen Reasons Why, I’m now watching American Horror Story to see what it’s like. So far, it’s interesting, to say the least. But I haven’t made an overall opinion of it just yet. 

If we were having coffee, I’d briefly talk about work. I’d tell you it’s gotten somewhat better for me. Knowing I only have one week, then it’s summer makes me happy. It means I’ll be able to work on improving my resume and hopefully get a job in my field very soon. I’ll also have more free time to write and doing other things I love. So knowing after this week I’ll get a little bit of a break makes me feel good about what’s left of work. Also, the job I was interested in at work, someone else was interested in it and talked about it before I could so the position has already been filled. But I’m actually glad someone else is doing it because I would still be at this place. 

Other than that, nothing else has been going on. Tomorrow is Easter. I’ll be celebrating by going to Sunrise Service with a friend at 7, then later going to dinner at a friend’s house. I hope you all have a good Easter with your loved ones. 

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If We Were Having Coffee: The Hours Pass Quickly on Daylight Savings

Woah, it’s been awhile since I’ve done another one of these. Sorry for that, by the way. It’s because I didn’t feel like I had a lot to say. I haven’t really been quite as productive lately, due to being off from work because of Spring Break. But after this week, I feel like I can feel you in a little about what I’ve been up to since I last did one of these posts.

So a couple Sundays ago (I want to say it was the weekend before last week, but not entirely sure), I went to Dreher Island State Park with a friend. We walked around, spent the day there and just had a really good time. I’ll put up some of my pictures below of the trip so you can see some of what I experienced.

This was probably one of my favorite parks to go to along with the other park I went to many weekends ago where I took quite a bit of photos. There was just quite a bit to see at Dreher, and I wanted to share a lot of the photos I took from that trip before I really get started because I enjoyed a lot of the park I captured in these photos. It’s definitely a place I’ll want to visit again soon. 

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you my Spring Break was actually pretty boring. I was mostly at home, hanging around the house. Though I did start picking up Okamiden to play again, hoping to finally beat it after all this time I spent away from it. I also have continued watching Criminal Minds, though I’m sad to announce I’m on the last season of the show that can be found on Netflix. Daylight savings also occurred on my last day at home before I started to work on Monday. I didn’t even realize it was daylight savings until later, but it made sense to me because it felt like Spring Break went by so slow for me until the end. But with my last day off came an unexpected snow that while it didn’t stick was quite a beauty to behold. 

While I knew the snow wouldn’t last, it was a nice beginning to my last morning at home. 

If we were having coffee, I’d also mention I started this new wonderful book series while I was at home called The Lying Game. I know you all already know about it, since I’ve posted my reviews of the books in the series I’ve read so far and quite a few of you liked them. It’s been quite an enjoyable read for me, which completely surprised me. When I first started reading the books, I wasn’t sure I was going to enjoy them. But since reading past the first one, I’m happy to say I’ve been enjoying what I’ve read of them so far. I know I still have two more books in the series left to read, which I haven’t had the chance to do since returning to work, but I’m really looking forward to them and seeing how the author ends the series. 

Speaking of work, one of our co-workers had a job interview this week and it sounds like she’s been offered the position. This means now her position will be available and while it’s not exactly what I want to do for the rest of my life, I might consider looking into it. But I think before I do that I want to talk to her when I go into work this week and find out more about it. Because if it’s a full time position and I can work during the summer, I just might consider it. I need a job this summer and if this job is something I can do where I make more money, why not try it and see? But first, I need to talk to her first and get the answers I need before doing anything at all about it. 

Before I’m done with this post, I’d like to quickly thank everyone who reads/follows my blog. Earlier in the week, my blog reached up to 100 followers, which is something I take pride in. I know when I first started this blog, I wasn’t completely sure how I was going to go about creating it. I had a very basic idea of what I wanted to write about, but no exact plans of how I was going to make it all a reality. Now, I feel like everything has fallen into place and it’s become more than I expected from it. In many ways, I feel like I’ve created a home here on WordPress, made out of words waiting to be shared with like minded and welcoming individuals. Since being here, I’ve received nothing but kind words and acceptance from those who’ve commented on my posts and those whose blogs I’ve enjoyed. And I always find myself inspired to continue writing on here even on my darkest of days. 

And it’s all thanks to you. Because as long as someone reads my work and enjoys what they see, I want to continue writing. So thank you for taking the time out of your busy days to read my blog. Your welcome to come back anytime and leave a comment too, if you’d like. I promise I won’t bite. 

But now I think it’s time for me to go. I really have nothing new to say and should probably be getting ready for the St. Patrick’s Day party I’ll be going to at 6:30. But I hope you all enjoy the rest of your weekend and chat with you soon! 

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If We Were Having Coffee: Recovering From the Spring 

Hello everyone! I hope you all are having a good day today. I know I haven’t made a coffee post in awhile. I’m sorry about that. I actually got sick so I’ve been doing the best to recover before writing another one of these. I hope all of you are doing well today. 

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you I’ve been quite the busy girl before I’d gotten sick. The weekend before I was sick, I went to a park with one of my friends. It was really nice, a perfect day to be outside and walk around. I think we walked two miles or so while we were there and it was a park we hadn’t gone to together before. It was nice though, one of the national parks in our area. I actually took quite a bit of pictures, some of which I’ll include below. 

In this picture, you can see some of the seating areas, along with the tree’s reflection through the water.

This picture is probably one of my favorites of the little stream we passed as we walked. 

I really like this picture because you can see the sun shining through the trees.

When we were there, I was joking with my friend about trying one of these canoes out. But he told me there was no way he was going to get into one of them.  

While these aren’t necessarily all of the pictures I’d taken while we were there, they are some of my best shots that I really enjoyed taking. This park was just such a beautiful sight to see and I can’t wait to go there again and take some more amazing pictures and walk among all the trees. 

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you that even though I’ve been sick, I’ve still managed to keep myself busy. I’ve mostly been at work, but when I wasn’t working, I was at home, reading or getting back into watching Criminal Minds again. I also had the amazing opportunity to go to Dave & Buster’s for Valentine’s Day, which was quite a lot of fun.

The books I’ve read since I last did one of these posts are Crown of Midnight, the second book in the Throne of Glass series and The Girl On the Train. I just started reading The Lying Game on Friday, which so far is an okay read. I’ll talk more about it on here once I’ve finished reading it completely.

Other than that, I really haven’t been up to too much. Spring is finally upon us, which is probably why I wasn’t feeling quite so well for the past week. Luckily, I’m doing much better now so I can actually get back to doing some more writing in the near future. Also, this upcoming week is Spring Break at my college, which means I don’t have work this upcoming week! So I’m really excited to have a break from there. Trust me, it’s really much needed. 

Speaking of which, before I end this post, I have something exciting to share with you. One of my friends from college, who also has a WordPress blog I follow, has asked me to write a post for her blog. On her blog, she talks about psychology related stuff, with a focus on mental health. So with the post I’m doing for her blog, I decided to focus on my own mental illness journey and how reading has played an important role in it. With this post, I’ll be talking about a lot of personal stuff that I haven’t shared with any of you, but that has had a major impact on my life. It’s stuff I usually have a hard time talking about, but I’ve lately found myself more open to talk about lately. Anyway, she’s going to be posting it on her blog Tuesday, which when she does I’ll write my own post here about it. But if your curious and want to check out her blog, here is the link to it. She has a lot of good information regarding mental health so I highly recommend checking her out whenever you get the chance. 

Other than that, there really isn’t too much more left for me to say. I just returned home from a baby shower a couple minutes ago. One of my Mom’s friends adopted a baby completely out of the blue so we wanted to be at the shower to congratulate her and wish her well. But that’s petty much it for me. I hope you all are doing well today and having a fabulous weekend so far. I know I’m definitely looking forward to this time off. 

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If We Were Having Coffee: Let’s Play Quidditch

Hello everyone! I hope you all are doing well today and are having a wonderful weekend. 

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you how this week felt like it was dragging on. I don’t know why exactly, but it felt like it was a pretty slow week for me. Maybe part of it has to do with not really doing a whole lot after getting off from work. The only activity I had outside of work was whenever I went to the mall to grab dinner with a friend Wednesday night. We went to Chick-fil-A to eat, then walked around the mall. My friend and I had a good time and are planning to hang out again on Sunday and on Valentine’s Day go to a place opening in the mall called Dave & Buster’s, which I’m really looking forward to. It’s an arcade gaming place where you can have dinner, drink and play games. A place I’ve never gone to and can’t wait to see what it’ll be like. 

Other than that, the rest of the week has dragged on. Even at work, things haven’t been too exciting. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before, but we have a co-worker who’s been slacking on the job. I don’t want to get into too many of the details, but it’s been frustrating to deal with because with this co-worker, we have to give them specific instructions in order for them to do their job properly. There isn’t much else we can do about it but hope our co-worker realizes what there doing and will do the best they can to handle their responsibilities. Otherwise, I don’t know what we will do. 

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you my weekend plans make up for the rest of the week. On Saturday, My Mom and I went to a South Regional Championship Quidditch tournament that took place at a park a couple minutes away from my house. We went there with some friends of my Mom. For those unfamiliar with Quidditch, it is a sport played in the Harry Potter series. A game on brooms where your team’s goal is to score more points. This can be achieved through getting a ball called the Quaffle through one of three hoops on your opponent’s side of the field. But in order to do so, your team’s Chasers have to get to the hoops your Keeper is guarding. But as a Chaser you have to be careful because each team has two Beaters whose goal is to knock the Chaser away from the Quaffle so they can’t score any points. Each team also has a Seeker, whose main focus is to catch the Golden Snitch, which gives your team 150 points and ends the match. Oh, and this sport in the series is played on broomsticks with players flying on the field. 

So whenever I heard about this championship from Mom’s friends, I knew I had to go to it. To see people play a sport in a series I love, to watch it come to life. And I loved it, had quite a blast. Every game was fast paced and while Quidditch in real life is different from the series, I still enjoyed it because of how much the game is accurately portrayed. Yes, the players couldn’t fly in the air on broomsticks, but it was definitely very similar to the sport I loved in the series. I really loved it because it was exactly what I expected. I figured it would be really fast paced and hard to keep up, and I wasn’t disappointed. Each game had an intensity I can’t describe. You’d have to be there to witness it with your own eyes. But it was fun, even if I had a hard time keeping track of each team and which team won the matches I enjoyed.

I had no difficulty following the rules of the game though. Part of that is not only due to my knowledge of the series. Whenever I was in college, our school had one of the local college Quidditch teams come to my school during my first year. The team explained to us the rules of the game as well as had those who were interested play it. I volunteered and was able to experience Quidditch for a brief period of time playing as a Chaser in one game, then a Beater in the next. That experience made me realize how difficult Quidditch physically can be as well as made me love it even more. 

Anyway, enough about that. Here are some of my pictures from the Quidditch Championship I took on Saturday. 

One of the selfies I took at the championship. 

I really enjoyed these matches, even though now my face is so red I look like Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer. I guess that’s what I get for not wearing any sunscreen. 

On Sunday, I’ll be hanging out with a friend, then this week will be over. I hope you all are doing well and having wonderful weekends too. Stay well friends and see you next week!  

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If We Were Having Coffee: Super Bowl Sunday Weekend 

Hi everyone! I hope you’re having a great weekend so far and that this week hasn’t been too bad for you. 

If we were having coffee, I’d let you know why I haven’t been writing as much on my blog. I’d tell you my laptop is permanently unusable and that I need to get a new one. I’ve been using my tablet for all of my writing needs and will continue to do so until I have enough money saved up to get one. But until then, I’ll continue doing the best I can to bring some fresh content to my blog in the near future. 

I’d also tell you about work. It’s been okay these last couple weeks. I still feel the same way about my job as I did last year. But I’m actually trying the best I can this time around to stay positive and not let all of the negative energy there affect me. Some days it’s easier said than done for me. But the good thing is that the hours have changed to where I’ll be getting off work earlier than I used to. There aren’t as many students here this semester so they’ve been cutting hours. And I also did ask about getting off earlier because it’s easier for Mom and I. It saves her gas money and she doesn’t have to worry about going back and forth to come and get me. Plus, it gives us a couple extra hours to spend together at home. And so far, it’s been a really great change to my schedule. It allows me a little time at home to relax before bed away from work and I don’t have to deal with whatever is going on at work when I’m not there. I also go in earlier too so I’m not hanging around, waiting for my shift to start. 

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you that I feel like things have been crazy here. Not here as in my life, but in the United States of America. I don’t want to get too political on here, but I do feel like this briefly needs to be addressed. Ever since Trump has been sworn in, I’ve just been feeling a little uneasy. Also more aware of what’s been going on by reading more of the news on a daily basis. I know it’s mostly because I’m not at all a Trump supporter (and probably never will be) and because the things he’s doing aren’t necessarily great or going to really benefit our country in any way. I don’t know what’s going to happen in these next couple years, and I’m trying too hard not to think about what he’s done already. I just know I’m feeling angry about him being our president because of the choices he’s already making and also mentally preparing myself for what’s to come next. I just don’t think he’s going to make a good leader for our country. But unfortunately, we are stuck with him right now. 

Anyway… I’d also want to tell you that I’ve slowly but surely started back to reading again. Just with these new work hours, I haven’t done as much with my free time as I’d have liked. Mostly been watching some of my favorite Youtubers play Undertale. But now I’m continuing to read Crown of Midnight, the second book in the Throne of Glass series I’ve started. I’ve also since this weekend started playing the game Fire Emblem Heroes on my phone. I saw someone I follow on Twitter posting pictures of their team in the game and it intrigued me enough to want to play it too. I also was interested in playing it because I’ve never played any of the Fire Emblem games, but have always wanted to. So that’s something I’m going to do now with this game. Once I’ve played it for a little while, I’ll post my review of it here on my blog for you all to enjoy.

And that’s mostly it. This weekend is also the Super Bowl, which I’m not too excited about because I don’t like football as much as I used to. I do however have family that lives in Boston so I know they will be cheering on the Patriots to win this game. But even though football isn’t really my thing, I hope everyone that does enjoys the game enjoys what’s left of the weekend. 

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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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If We Were Having Coffee: Another Hard Day’s Work

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Good day everyone! I hope you all are doing well this weekend and have had another wonderful week.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you it’s been another good, busy week at work. I forgot how busy our café gets, but it’s nice seeing all of the students again. Nice seeing familiar faces and becoming acquainted with some of the new student body. It’s nostalgic in some ways to me because of the times when I was at Columbia College.

Being on campus in this capacity makes it hard sometimes because I do miss college. I miss the environment I was accustomed to during my last four years of schooling, the learning, and all of the different discussions about texts in my classes we had. But at times, I don’t too. I don’t miss the amount of effort I put into getting my work complete, the amount of hours I spent working when I wished I could’ve spent more time with the small amount of friends I’d made at Columbia College. I reflect on these things, a little wishing I’d done things differently. But also knowing at this point I can’t turn back and that things worked out the way they were supposed to.

College made me realize how hard I have to work at things to get what I want out of life. As a student, I’ve always struggled with keeping my grades up to good standards. So I’ve always had to work at getting good grades, even when other aspects of life tried to hold me down. College made me appreciate my work ethic and helped me improve it in order to chase after my dreams.

So while I might not necessarily be content with my job, looking at it through this lens has helped make my life a little bit easier. Made me want to continue doing well at my job despite all the difficulties and stress I’ll continue to face while I’m there.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you there’s something I forgot to mention last weekend. I briefly realized it after posting last weekend’s coffee post. I know I’m late to the party in mentioning this because you all have probably already noticed it, but I’ve changed the look of my blog. It’s something I’d been meaning to do because I was discontent with the way it looked. I wanted to make it look more personal, more like something I would want to check out. Something that looks close to the way I want my blog design to look in the future.

So far, I really like it. I think it definitely looks more personal, is easier to grab a reader’s attention, and easier to access. Plus, it looks more personal to me too and I can’t seem to look at it enough. It’s very close to the way I want my blog design to look, minus a few little things here and there that can always be tweaked to my liking. But I definitely think it’s an improvement in comparison to my previous look of my blog. I definitely have an easier time seeing all of my other posts with it and think it’s very welcoming to every person who decides to visit. But what all do you think? Do you like it too? Or are there some ways it can improve? If you have the time, please let me know because I’d love some feedback on what all I can do to make my blog better.

Speaking of my blog and writing, I hope I’ve been doing a better job of keeping my blog updated with new posts. Now, I know I’m not going to always be able to write and publish something new for you all every day. But I do want to continuously keep my blog up to date as frequently as I can. Write as many posts to be published as I can whenever I have the chance. So I’m hoping that’ll continue in the weeks to come and that you’ll continue coming back to check out my posts.

If we were having coffee, I’d let you know I finished reading Nelly Dean this week. I found it to be a much more enjoyable read than I was expecting. Since it’s based off of Wuthering Heights, I wasn’t sure if I’d really enjoy it or not since I didn’t enjoy reading that book in college. But I did end up liking it just because of the way the narrator of the story portrayed the characters and the experiences she faced while living in that household. And now that I’m done reading that book, I’m starting to read The Dark End of the Street, which is a set of fictional stories about crime and sex and how they both go hand in hand. It’s been pretty good so far, though I’ve been facing some serious déjà vu while reading these stories. I’m not one hundred percent sure, but I really feel like I’ve read this book before. Mostly because the stories I’ve read so far just seem very familiar to me for some reason. I don’t remember for certain if I have or not, but I’ll keep going and see what happens.

I would also tell you I’ve also been continuing to watch Pokémon Minecraft videos. I just finished the first series of the ones I was watching last night and started on another I think I’ll enjoy. It’s the same Youtuber, but a little different than the previous ones I was watching. Hopefully, I’ll enjoy it as much as I did the other ones, but only time will tell.

If we were having coffee, I’d also tell you my older sister recommend an amazing podcast to me called Harry Potter and the Sacred Text. It’s about looking through the chapters in the series as if we were reading a sacred text, like the Bible and other texts people tend to read in that way. But the two speakers in this podcast are taking each chapter in Harry Potter and having an open discussion about them with regards to a theme they follow and how they as readers can relate to what’s going on in the story and that particular theme.

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From what I’ve listened to of the podcast so far, it’s been nothing short of amazing. I’ve only listened to two of the podcasts, but what I’ve heard gives me hope that the discussions will continue to be more enlightening to me and continue opening me up to love reading Harry Potter more with each passing day. So I hope that as I continue listening to this podcast that I’ll continue enjoying Harry Potter as much as I have in the past.

I would also briefly like to mention my best friend and I are planning on going on walks together Saturday mornings. She had messaged me yesterday night while I was walking with Mom about going to one of the parks here and walking together.

We had briefly talked about doing something like that whenever we had gotten together for the cystic fibrosis walk a couple months ago. It was something we thought would be a whole lot of fun to do, but then never really talked about it again afterwards until yesterday. Since I enjoy walking and she’s been wanting to do more of it, when she brought it up yesterday, I was really excited about it. While Erin and I are really close friends, we don’t always hang out together very often. Mostly because her health isn’t always the best or because I was always working on weekends so I didn’t really get to see her as often as I’d have liked. So when she messaged me about this yesterday, I was really excited because it would give both of us the chance to hang out together a little more often than we normally do and now gives me something else to look forward to on weekends.

I would say I’ve had a good week, all things considered. Hope you all have been doing well and can’t wait to hear about what you’ve been up to this past 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: 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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