Something old, new, borrowed, and blue

Hello from the other siiiiiiiiide.

Still in lockdown, still working from home, so not really the other side, but I felt like saying it anyway.  Today marks the start of my 9th week of teleworking. So while I'm really enjoying no commute time in my day and more comfortable clothes and easier lunches and more time working out in the morning and working alongside Jim and this and that and the other, I do feel really bad for all of the people out of work or suffering from the sickness or loss of income, etc. etc., and it'll be nice when we reach "normal" again.

But enough virus talk for now! On to more exciting things like what is up with the title of this post? I'm actually kind of proud of myself for such a clever title and post idea.  (at least proud by my standards, which we all know are extremely low.)

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Something old

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I decided to brush the dust off my copy of The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail whilst I was waiting on the library to get off their sorry ass* lend me my next read, and boy howdy am I ever glad for making such an important decision.  For those of you sorry asses that don't know, this book, is phenomenal. Period. It has wit and intelligence and perfect segues and inspiration and why am I not already living in the woods in my own Walden, living off my bean patch, eating imaginary huckleberries, but am instead tied to THE MAN???  It is just so, SO good, y'all. And if you haven't read it, then you should, and you will love it and reread it from time to time and also send me a thank you note at my cabin in the woods.  Of course, it'll be from your cabin in the woods and will probably be written on a stone, written by using a sharp stone (apparently, it's really stony around your cabin), but I'll appreciate the gesture nonetheless. 😉 
p.s. I swear I'm not stoned.

Something new

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My last read, before I manhandled (with my brain and eyes) the aforementioned, was a book called The Girl He Used to Know (not to be confused with this.)  I had high hopes for it being another book I would love (like this one) or even really like (like this one), buuuuuuuuuut it wasn't. It wasn't horrible by any means, and I was nice enough to give it a 3/5 stars on GoodReads, but it just didn't do anything for me. It was an easy read and *SPOILER ALERT* was interesting reading a love story about a girl who is on the Autism spectrum and seeing how she perceives things, as well as how others perceive her (the chapters alternate between her point of view, as well as the point of view of her love interest), but again, nothing really spectacular.  There wasn't witty banter or a great plot, and the ending (which was spanned over the last 6 chapters or so) were centered on September 11th, and it just wasn't that great. In conclusion, if you're desperate, read it, but don't say I recommended it.

Something borrowed

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When I thought up this catchy title for the blog post, this was the hardest (#firstworldproblems) blurb for me to come up with, but then the perfect-est thing dawned on me that I had to vent about.  So for work, we have to/it looks really good to participate/learn in these continuing education type webinars.  In one last week regarding helpful ideas for paralegals, the former attorney leading the course was describing how to use a particular website to research case law and/or briefs that might be helpful to your (my) attorneys.  At one point, she said "And when you find these previously published briefs that could really be helpful, you should use the information.  It's not stealing - think of it more as borrowing. You're borrowing points and ideas someone else has already made or used."

While I understand what she's saying and have no issues utilizing this approach #butdon'tplagairize, it really bothered me that she thought to use the term borrowed to make it all sound... alright?  I got the impression she uses this verbiage often, considering the webinar I participated in was spread out over three sessions, and she used this "explanation" twice.  Just call a spade a spade, lady.  When I borrow a book from the library, I intend to give it back.  I don't think when you "borrow" language or ideas that you give it back. Except I guess you kind of do because you're not literally taking the text away from them and leaving them without it, but.... Okay, this post is already too long, and I've still got the blue part, but hopefully you catch my drift and agree that she should just use another word. *end rant.*

Something blue

Isn't that the most pitiful thing you've ever seen??

Oh my goodness - did we have an eventful weekend! On Saturday, Sagan seemed fine and dandy in the morning and afternoon, but then around dinnertime, he ralphed upchucked vomited tossed his cookies. Big deal, right? He's a cat and occasionally has hairballs and sometimes this happens.  Not this time - nosireee.  So then he tossed them again about an hour or so later, and not to be gross, but the substance contained... fewer cookies.  I swear this is important for the story - I'm not just being gross.  Fast forward to later and later in the evening, and more tossing and less and less cookies until it was like, poor thing - he's got nothing left in him except for bile.  (He also didn't eat or drink anything else after the initial tossing started.) So then I'm all in a panic like WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH OUR CAT?! and Nate is like I don't know, but we should plan on taking him to the vet on Monday (reminder, it's Saturday night), and then I am ferociously googling things like "feline acute vomiting" and "take cat to vet after excessive vomiting" and Nate the Great is probably like "if she's like this with our cat, what in the hell is she going to be like with kids?!?"

So the tossing continued to the point where it then started to contain blood (so sad, I know...and also gross - sorry), and it was 10:30 p.m., but we were like "okay - we need to go to an ER vet." So we did, and Sagan was a terror like he always is at the vet, but we didn't have to experience it because with COVID, no one was allowed in the vet, so they came to the car and got him.  Long story way too long - we went home with him that night after no sign of what the hell happened and then we had to take him back to the vet 12 hours later on Sunday morning and they sedated him and took x-rays and still NOTHING, and then he had a massive diarrhea explosion at the vet (thank god we were confined to our car just waiting on the verdict at this point) and they offered to keep him overnight but wanted thousand(s) (yes plural, and no I'm not kidding) of dollars to keep an eye on him, but we were like, please don't send us to the poor house, we'll take him home with us and administer meds and keep our own eyes on him.  And here we are today:

Already hard at work plotting his maniacal revenge for 2 vet visits.

So they shaved his arm for the IV because he got dehydrated after all of the aforementioned tossing and not eating or drinking, and now we think (and we're super hopeful) he's on the up-and-up, and so we can now make fun of his ridiculous appearance. :) And also really love on the little booger.

In a nutshell, we think these may have been the culprit because of reviews online that sounds similar to our problem, but maybe Sagan was just constipated and wanted to make a big show out of it!

*just wanted to clarify that anyone who knows me knows that i freakin' love the library and basically everything I say on here is nonsense and that librarians are heaven sent and should be paid millions of dollars.

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Updates from just around the riverbend

Waaaaasssssssup, my betches!*

I guess you could say it's been a hot minute or two or three since I last checked in, but we're alive and well over here and things couldn't be peachier!

Yesterday was Thanksgiving (holla), which is definitely moving up my list of Holidays Thou Art Loves.  I mean, who can complain about a holiday centered around eating and getting together with family and friends.  I'm going to begin writing my petition tomorrow to President Trump (*shiver*) that Christmas Eve going forth (after the 2018 holiday season - - -don't want to give the retail industry a heart attack this year) shall be deemed the fourth Thursday in December.  That way, we can all just have a nice, four-day weekend every year to celebrate and buy each other tons of crap we don't end up needing after about a month.

It irks me to no end since I've ventured into the bizz-world (and left behind the school-year-calendar days of yore) that we have to tango with families year after year to see who's doing Christmas when and how flippin' weird when it falls on a Wednesday so you end up working Monday and Tuesday (lookin' at you gub-ment) and then get Wednesday off, but have to go back Thursday and Friday, and no one is really there who has a say in the matter and the ones who HAVE to be there because they don't have a say in the matter aren't getting work done anyway! *whew*

In summary, please sign my petition.

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Nate the Great and I both had Thursday aka Needless Turkey Murder Day off this year, and we both took off Black Friday.  Here's looking at you 4-day weekend!  However, because of a little thing we like to call UNOh-no-when-will-Nathan-be-done-with-school, Nate's been hard at work starting/middling/completing projects and assignments before the end of the semester in about 2.53495 weeks.  So we said "See you in a few weeks Shreveport familia" and kicked it back real cool in The Big Easy with Sir Mix-a-Lot Sagan.

There we are, hard at work.

It's been quite nice.  We're on day 2 of 4 today, and while he's been hard at work doing schoolness, I've been making it a point to work out each morning and take care of things on my to-do list that I'm too lazy can't get to during the week.

We also had our first Completely Vegan Thanksgiving, and it was grand.  We both still over ate (and over drank....we haven't had booze in 11 days before last night...trying to get in ultimate shape in early 2019!), but it was quite tasty to put it lightly.  We had Corn Souffle (which I vegan-zed, and we couldn't tell a difference), these Heavenly Green Beans (which were top notch --we'll fo sho be having them again before next year) and homemade Drop Biscuits that I found in this gem.  Photo overload commencing in 3....2....1...

Corn Souffle bay-bay...made with vegan butter and vegan plain almond milk yogurt instead of sour cream.  SO GOOD!

Aptly named Heavenly Green Beans

A hottie testing a hot biscuit...yum-mie! ;)

Naturally, I had to test it, too!  And Jim subtly included his thumbs-up approval.

My first plate...but not my last.

(sorry for the crap-quality lighting, futureCourtney.  You prepared and ate this for dinner, so natural light was a no-go.)
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I've been trying to read some of my new book that I took a chance on, and so far it's not half bad.  I just blazed through Liane Moriarty's new release, Nine Perfect Strangers, because 1) I'm a fan-girl and 2) the good ole NOLA Public Library only loaned to me for 2 weeks (compared to the usual 3 weeks, not counting the 2 renewals allowed) because it's a new release and in high demand.

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I really wanted to love it since I loved a few of her previous ones, particularly this one and this one, buuuuuut it just didn't hit the spot exactly.  I will say that it was still an enjoyable read and the lady knows how to write, but this didn't top the list for me.  I did tell Nathan that I bet this one will be made into either a movie or a show...and this is coming from a non-bettin' woman. ;)

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I want to do a better job of blogging more (burnt record, volume 7), as well as somehow documenting recent reads because I figure that will be fun to read back through one day when I'm consistently up at ungodly hours trying to get a little one to eat, and then I can sob even louder as I remember the days when I actually had time to pick up a book...but we'll see what I can do.  P.S.  I'm not pregnant.

So...in no particular order:

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Troublemaker:  Surviving Hollywood and Scientology by Leah Remini
This was a really enlightening read about the world of Scientology.  Holy graham cracker is it a messed up world!  I learned a lot, and I'm curious to pick up another Scientology read in a few weeks by the lady who was married to the head honcho.

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The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Oh, John Green.  Boy, you know how to write!  I was a little skeptical about picking this one up since it because so popular and was made into a movie, buuuut there's a reason for that.  It's YA fiction (which is right up my alley..ain't no shame in the game), and it was an enjoyable read.  I watched the movie afterwards even though the book is ALWAYS better, and my theory held true.  There's just so much they leave out and details and nuance and look at me pretending I know how to critique movies with big, fancy, French words. ;)

Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell
I LOVED this!  I've previous read her book Attachments, and I really liked it, but this one soared high and above.  I can only hope that my teenage daughter comes to me one day asking for a book suggestion because she's hit a lull, and I will literally go buy this and throw it in her FACE and reread it with her.! P.S.  Again, not pregnant.

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Dumplin' by Julie Murphy
This was cute, and I really liked that I fully grasped all the southern references (like things in Texas and homecoming corsages), but after reading the last sentence and realizing it was the end, I audibly said (and I kid you not) "That's it!?!" Nathan was on the couch and replied "Did you not like it?"  I just didn't expect it to end how it did and because of the way the chapters were set up in my copy NOLA Public Library's copy, I had no idea another chapter wasn't ahead.  It was cute and fun, but I only just liked it.

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Girl, Wash Your Face: Stop Believing the Lies About Who You Are so You Can Become Who You Were Meant to Be by Rachel Hollis
I jumped on board this gravy train because it was a new release and already turning into a bestseller, and I'm glad I did. The format was a chapter for each of the 20 lies we (as women) tell ourselves, and I liked a lot of the points she made. Two quotes I really, really liked were:

"This is true of race, religion, political affiliation, sexual orientation, socioeconomic background, and any other category we can dream up. Doing life with people who don't look or think or vote like us is the whole point--it's our call to arms! Love thy neighbor wasn't a suggestion; it was a command, you guys. How in the world are you going to love your neighbor if you don't know your neighbor? I don't mean waving hello at the grocery store; I mean actually pushing ourselves outside of our comfort zone and doing life with different kinds of people . . . even if we wonder if they're getting it all wrong. Heck, especially if we think they're getting it all wrong. We need to be in a wider community not because we're attempting to sharper their clarity on a subject but because we're hoping to soften the edges of our own hearts."

"Every year you close a new chapter in your story. Please, please, please don't write the same one seventy-five times and call it a life."


...til next time!


*the one person on the interwebs who mistakenly stumbled across my blog at 3am and was like "WTF is this crap - - I need help studying for my law degree."