scijessreads

It’s been a minute since I let out with the random musings around here. Mostly, life has been following the normal routine. But in vacation mode. Reading, keeping cozy in my nest bed of blankets or with a fire (we had a cold snap here), exploring new coffee shops and eating all the pastries and food. Taking the dog out to hike (a short one, as miss pup is getting up there in years and the stamina is not what it used to be).

The colder weather has definitely made it easier to curl up under all the warm blankets and be a book reading hermit. I’ve also slowly turned my bed into a giant queen-sized daybed “nest.” All the pillows, some squishmallows, and lots of layers of blankets. I blame all the omegaverse books I’ve read on the fact that a nest-like bed sounded good. And it is. So easy to just curl up in the cozy and not want to leave. What can I say? I have a thing for soft and comfortable and warm. The best place to curl up in a blanket burrito.

Beyond that, I’m still attempting to write, although that has slowed down a bit since classes started back up and work has taken precedence. But I started going to a writers meetup to have some time to focus on it. I’m also still going to a local silent book club each month. It’s a chance to meet other readers, and find new places around town. Most recently we were at a local coffee shop/bakery that I hadn’t been to before. It was so cute, and now is on my list of places to go back to.

I’ve been better at keeping at least one weekend day to myself, and not doing work. And I hope to continue this. It helps keep me from letting work follow me home so much, which is easy to do when in higher education and not having a set schedule and always having stuff to work on. I learned a long time ago that I burn out fast if I don’t have some form of separation from work and home. The pandemic made that abundantly clear that I couldn’t be a good work-from-home person. I need home to be home (at least, mostly).

I’m going to end with a quote from a recent book (that I still need to read the sequel to).

Be wary. Be clever. Be good.

One Dark Window (Rachel Gillig)