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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: Off to Work We Go

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Hello everyone! I know it’s been awhile since I’ve done a coffee post. But I hope you all have been doing well these past couple weeks.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you I went on a mini writing hiatus. I honestly can’t remember the last time I wrote on my blog besides my two recent book reviews. I know I definitely haven’t done one of these posts in a while, that’s for sure. This hiatus wasn’t planned or intentional, just sort of happened and I went along with it. Actually felt nice taking a little bit of a break from my blog for a little while. But at the same time, it’s good to be back.

I miss writing. Whenever I do it, I’m always enjoying every minute of it. But at the same time, I have to be in a certain mindset to do it. I could go more into that here, but I think I want to do a post about it instead. I think it would be a fun post to write too so I think that’s what I’m going to do.

Speaking of writing, I haven’t done too many more posts for Creative Academy either. Mostly because I’m trying to figure out what I want to write about for the next lesson. I have a couple ideas in mind, but will just have to wait and see what happens.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you I’ve officially started back to work. This week was my first full week back at the dining hall. Most of the first couple days was spent setting up our café for Wednesday’s opening. But also put in some hours helping on the line and register downstairs too. And so far, it’s been pretty good. I’m trying to be more positive about things in life, work being one of them because I don’t always like my job. It’s not the place I want to be, but it’s better than being unemployed. So I’m trying not to be the way I was when I was at work last year. I think requesting to have weekends off this year will go a long way towards me not feeling quite as discontent there. That along with trying to leave all the work negativity where it belongs: at work. I think just having this type of outlook on work will benefit me there in the long run because I won’t be bringing all of that negativity with me home. We will just have to wait and see if it works, but right now, things have been going well with it. Friday I didn’t work dinner shift because we had some serious storms going on here. The power went out around campus and everything and they figured they wouldn’t need me. We had this type of weather last year where we were out of work for almost a week and I don’t live close by so they wanted me to get home safely. So this weekend came to me earlier than expected, but not going to complain because I felt like I needed it. But so far, things at work have started off pretty well. Fingers crossed they continue to be that way for me in the days to come.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you I’ve finished several books since I’ve last done one of these posts. All of the reviews for the books I’ve recently been reading can be found on my blog. But the book I’m currently reading now is called Nelly Dean. It’s a book based off of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, a story considered a classic by many but a book I myself just didn’t enjoy in my English Literature class at college. But the good thing about this book is that it’s told from the perspective of a different character than the original, making it more of an enjoyable read for me. It’s also helped make the characters in the classic more relatable to me and actually like them a lot better. So even though this book is about a cast of characters I originally didn’t particularly care for, I find myself starting to warm up to them a little bit now.

Along with reading Nelly Dean, I’ve also been playing video games a little less frequently. I started playing Transistor the other week and have been playing it a little less due to situating myself at work and been interested in playing Minecraft again due to one of the YouTubers I watch who did some videos of playing a Pokémon world in the game. I haven’t started playing yet due to wanting to finish watching these videos, but I know I’ll be playing some of it again soon in the near future. Will probably be doing a post about that too once I start back on it.

Other than all of the above mentioned, I haven’t done too much. Just settling back into work, attending my best friend’s son’s birthday party yesterday, and going to work on another job application today. Hope you’ve all had a good week and can’t wait to hear what you’ve been up to!

 

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If We Were Having Coffee: Catching Up On Life

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Hello everyone! Sorry for not doing one of these posts in two weeks. I’ve had a lot going on the past two weeks that I wasn’t available to do one for you. Hope you all are doing well this week and are having a lovely weekend.

If we were having coffee, I’d like to let you know what all I’ve been up to since we last spoke. I’d tell you about socializing with some old and true friends. I’d tell you I went to my best friend’s husband’s birthday party on a Saturday two weekends ago and got so drunk that I was hungover the next day. But I’d also tell you the party was fun and that I had a good time seeing my best friend once again. I’d also tell you about seeing my old friend from middle school that following Tuesday that I haven’t spoken to and really spent time with since high school. I’d tell you we were playing Pokémon Go because she’s become as addicted to it as I’ve been. I’d also like to mention I also saw her husband and daughter who I met briefly once a December a couple years ago. I’d tell you we all had a good time, and that it felt nice catching up with her, just like old times. We talked a lot about the stuff we did when we were younger, but also talked about how much things have changed over the last couple years. But also said we definitely need to do this again, and made sure we made plans to hang out together.

On that Tuesday after we hung out, I went to our Neighborhood Association National Night Out. My Mom is a part of the association as secretary and the person they had set everything up did a really good job. Unfortunately, the event didn’t last too terribly long because it began to pour minutes after it all started.

I also saw my sister the following Sunday after missing the opportunity the previous weekend to spend time with her. We met up near the college she attended, grabbed breakfast and walked around campus for a little bit. It looks like they are doing some construction around campus for the bridge program students, which really had Laney in quite a tizzy. But it felt nice to see my sister again, even if it was only for a brief moment.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you I’m sorry for not writing as many blog posts. Part of the reason I haven’t done quite as many is because I’m not sure what I want to write about on my blog next. That, along with using the new platform and taking the online course, for which I’ve already written two new posts, I’m hesitant still about posting the same material on two different sites. Mostly because for the class I can’t do that so I’m just treading carefully right now. Though I think I know what I want to do, or what I plan on doing, to say the least. Since I’ve been taking the online class, I originally wasn’t planning on doing any posts on that site until I completed the course. However, I think this might be counterproductive to me. Because if during the time I’m taking the course I decide to write video game reviews, I want to post them both on the site but on my blog as well. Not because I don’t want to post any of my other posts on my blog, but because I normally like having my video game reviews on my blog and would prefer to keep it that way, if I can. And the posts that I’m doing to complete the course are usually more specific in nature, I’d prefer to keep them on the site than have them both here on my blog and their site. So instead of sharing all of the posts for the course on here, I’m going to share them on my Twitter, and then at the end of the course talk about my whole experience with it and what I learned from it on my blog. Then from there, put whatever posts I decide to write on Now Loading onto my blog too so that you guys can still read what I’ve written. I hope that isn’t too confusing, but just know I’ll still be blogging on here, but I’ll probably only be doing reviews or some of my own writing unless I can think of something that I don’t want to post about on the other site.

In other news, I’d briefly like to mention with that I’m going to start playing some other games. While I’m still playing Pokémon Go currently, I’m not really playing too much else at the moment. I just started playing Transistor yesterday, which I’m pretty excited about because I’ve been wanting to play it for a while on Steam, but just hadn’t gotten around to it yet. So that’ll probably be the next game I post about on my blog while still deciding what I want to talk about for assignment three at Creators Academy. I think I’ll probably do my next assignment on The Hunger Games again like I’d planned on doing, but still trying to figure out what I want to talk about with it. But I’m also interested in playing No Man’s Sky at some point, though I’ve been hearing there’ve been a lot of issues with it on PC. So I’ll probably wait until the PC issues are fixed or until I can get a PlayStation 4 to play it because I don’t want to deal with those issues on my computer, if I can avoid it. Plus, I want to get a PlayStation 4 in the near future anyway so I might as well save up my money and wait until I’m back at work making some money to get it.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you I’ve finished reading both Shadow Mountain and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. I enjoyed reading both books, but for very different reasons. You can see the reviews if you want to know more. But with the Harry Potter book, just be warned that my review has a lot of spoilers about what happens. So if you don’t want your reading experience to be ruined, I’d suggest you to wait until after you’ve read it to check out my review.

I think that’s it, that I can think of right now. I know I have a lot this week going on because my work is having a meeting this Thursday and I’ll be hanging out with my friend and catching up again tomorrow. But I’ll let you know how I’m doing again in my next coffee post. Until then though, I hope your all doing well and have had a wonderful weekend so far.  

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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.

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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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