This week was very productive. I took a job as a Direct Support Professional in a mental health assistance housing program. I’m on-call, which means I can choose my own hours (there will always be hours as mental health is an understaffed field), and I plan on working approximately every other weekend to earn a little extra money for doing fun stuff with the family. My orientation won’t be till April 14th, so stay tuned.

On Thursday, I left town for a road-trip to Texas to see my cousins. My nephew J and father join me. Friday was a lot of fun. We started out going to the John Brown museum:

Dad seemed especially excited. Dad was even more excited to eat steak and pose by a wooden bear in Oklahoma:

Then was the really fun part. J got to have a movie date with his internet friend N. They’ve known each other for a while on the internet, but he’d never met her. He was really nervous and excited. It was adorable. I wish I could have taken a picture, but they didn’t ask, and I didn’t want to impose. She was cute, and she obviously was impressed with J, because she kept covering her mouth in a nervous little gesture. It was so cute.

Saturday, we stopped in Waco, TX for a trip to a trampoline park. J saw his second cousins there:

I saw my first cousins:

While the boys jumped, my cousins and I headed to see some silos that are apparently really awesome if you watch reality TV.

Fun stuff.

Currently reading

Same as last week.

Alone

Strangled by grief

Abandoned

Lost

Why do I ever trust?

But I do. 

I always do.

And for some reason

I still do.

Abandoned again

I want to cry.

But I have no eyes.

I can still feel.

I still hold the hand of my friend

who suffers his own misery.

He cannot tell me how he feels

but I know we are still in this together.

And then he disappears 

into the cesspool.

I cannot see.

I cannot hear.

I’m drowning in my own blood and bile…

I THINK that’s what the viscous fluid in my mouth is

I can’t taste it

Please

don’t let it be from the cesspool.

I swallow

With a jolt

the other friend and I grasp hands

and clumsily half-swim to the Gate.

We reach out together

and pain sears through my hand. 

Burning as if the Gate were a red-hot iron.

Shooting neuralgic pain

in every nerve of my being.

Shrieks so deafening

blood leaks from my ears.

Ice picks of darkness piercing my eyes

Bitter, tangy acid assaulting my tongue.

I bite.

I swallow and spit.

I choke on my dismembered tongue.

I release the Gate.

It will not open.

That Artsy Reader Girl hosts a weekly meme in which we respond to a pre-determined prompt. This week’s prompt is books on my spring TBR. I don’t really plan books by season, so I’ll just list off the books I expect to read in the next couple of months.

I have been trying to read this book for a while now, but I have trouble with long books. They work a little better on audio, so I’m going to make an effort to finish this audiobook by the end of Spring.

 

 

 

 

 

This book has been sitting in my Audible library unread for quite a while. I think it’s time to break it out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Working on completing the science fiction works of H. G. Wells, as suggested in Harold Bloom’s Canon. I figured this was a good way to knock the major short stories off my list.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve been wanting to read this ever since it came out. I’ve decided to start reading the Wellcome Trust Book Prize lists, and this is on it. Yay!

 

 

 

 

 

 

This will be my April choice for my Real Life Book Club.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m reading this by the end of April for my Classics Club Spin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Currently reading Brandon Mull’s new release.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I will listen to this Wells classic that I’ve never read before. I’m very excited as I love H. G. Wells.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is another Wellcome Trust Book finalist.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And I’ll hopefully finish this audiobook of Doctor Who short stories before Spring is up.

 

 

Almost too late

we see the danger.

We could have been caught

drowned in the cesspool

because we couldn’t take the positive step

forward.

But the One friend calls.

This was a week of very little excitement. On Monday, we all went out for my nephew J’s birthday dinner (a little late because there had been snow delays the week before). Thursday I went out to a club with a friend – that was a bit of fun that I haven’t done for quite a while. And this weekend my nephew J has been staying with us. Friday night we discovered Galavant on Netflix. How funny! I’d never heard of it. Saturday we played a game of Fact or Crap (don’t ever play that game…boring) and then introduced J to Firefly. We unfortunately only got through the first few episodes before it was bedtime. Now he’ll have to wait a couple of weeks before he gets to see anymore.

Acquired

Since I’m studying Don Quixote, I went to Half-Price Books and acquired a copy of the Cambridge Companion to Cervantes, which I’ll read once I get through that gigantic novel on which I’m making very little progress. 🙂 And because I decided that I’ll break Don Quixote up with easier reading (H. G. Wells), I got a book of essays about Wells, edited by Harold Bloom. I was then at Barnes and Noble and feeling impulsive – so I bought The Bone Witch, which I think will be quite enjoyable light reading on my upcoming road trip. I used my Audible credits on The Boy on the Bridge and Time Jumpers. The former I will listen to as my real life book club choice for April. Time Jumpers is the fifth book in a series by my favorite middle grade author Brandon Mull. Finally, my dad bought copies of the second Diary of a Wimpy Kid book for D and The Adventures of Captain Underpants for M. Both were really excited about their new books, though I think M’s book was a bit too much over his reading level. He’s only 5. But dad didn’t want to get one kid a book and not get the other kid a book.

Completed

I did almost no reading. I got about half-way through this week’s Economist, and finished the last little bit of I Stop Somewhere.

Currently Reading

My hold for an H. G. Wells biography came up at the Library, so I set aside Don Quixote again and will work on H. G. Wells Desperately Mortal. Also moving back to Freeing Your Child from Anxiety. And I’m of-course listening to Brandon Mull’s new release. I really, really, really wish I could listen to audiobooks while driving on my upcoming road trip. J doesn’t mind the audiobooks, but they bore my dad silly. Maybe I’ll stick one earbud in my ear while I’m driving (which I’ll be doing ALL of). Or would that be ashamedly unsocial of me? I’m looking forward to being in Texas and maybe finding a walking path with NO SNOW ON IT. Wow. No snow. Just think. I love walking. Listening to an audiobook as I stroll along beside a lake….

On the blog

I published a few more stanzas of Facing My Demons 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, & 9.

I published reviews of Island of Doctor Moreau, I Stop Somewhere, & Killers of the Flower Moon.

I published notes on the Coursera MOOC Solving the Opioid Crisis: A Physician’s Perspective, How Do Opioids Work, Analyzing Opioid Prescription Trends,

And I started participating in Top Ten Tuesday, because I liked the prompt.