always been crazy

My belly button is SO ITCHY!

I had my surgery on the 11th (total abdominal hysterectomy) and am mostly all healed up from that - it still hurts if I sit or stand for too long, and I get pains if I move too quick in certain ways - but the incision is at that itchy stage of healing and the surgeon had to make my incision bigger than he anticipated (because my uterus was about three times the size it was supposed to be!) so it goes all the way through my belly button and ughhhhhh. But honestly, I already feel so much better, and I just have to work on building up my blood again. My hemoglobin was at 8.2 after surgery and it supposed to be like a 12.

Things otherwise have been crazy. Mom had a seizure, fell, and hit her head, so we called the ambulance and she ended up hospitalized for a couple nights, which of course caused a bunch of paperwork with insurance/hospice. Basically, her tumor is obstructing her kidney which is somehow affecting the way her body processes blood sugar. So it's interesting. And then there's all the stuff with Tim & Jamie & the kids, and RT & Kristina got a house and had to move, and Harley is getting married on New Year's Day. Planning for Ronnie & Miranda's wedding is progressing. And Davey has officially taken over all the house bills, which is weird but makes me proud of him. It is a bit hilarious to listen to him lecture at us to turn off lights and stuff, though. Like, kid, I've been telling you that your entire life!

I'm still seeing basically all the movies, and I'm at 88 books for the year. I did rewatch the first season of The Expanse after reading the book, and it made more sense but I still don't really care for the show. I'm starting the second book now. I do have one more book in the Witcher series to read, which I'm trying to get done before the second season of the netflix series comes out.

Have a few links while I'm here:

24 Quotes on Giving Thanks, Justice, and Radical Gratitude

Devour the Soul, Reaper of Men by MK_Yujji
Star Trek, Doom || Reaper!Bones, Jim Kirk || 26k
A distress call sends the crew of the USS Enterprise to a dark research station where Bones’ past will come to haunt them all. Olduvai may be gone, but its secrets got out first.
This isn't a new read; it's actually one of my all time favorites. So good!

The Dah-Ling Store-It-Yourself by nixajane
Psych || Carlton Lassiter/Shawn Spencer || 43k
The bad news is that one of Lassiter's highest profile arrests has just escaped from prison. The worse news is that his best hope of tracking him down is a sleep-deprived Shawn Spencer.
Never a pairing I thought I would read, but this is super well done. The author has a great way with the tone of the show and the characters.

Something Dumb to Do by poisonivy
Daredevil || Matt Murdock/Franklin "Foggy" Nelson || 33k
If Matt and Foggy get married, Foggy will never be forced to testify against Daredevil. It doesn't mean anything has to change, right?

All Over Again by fmo
Marvel || James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers || 2246
Steve wakes up in 1944, where everyone is still alive. Where Bucky is still alive. It's not as simple as it seems.
short and poignant

haven't left your bed since by heroics
Hockey RPF || Travis Konecny/Nolan Patrick || 6002
"So, is it a rule that all bassists have to be really stoic and hot?" Travis asks. College AU
hot and snarky

it's hard to do these things alone by electrumqueen
Fast & Furious || Brian O'Conner/Dominic Toretto || 11k
Brian doesn't lie to cars. He doesn't lie to Dom either, but that's a newer development.
a reread, but intriguing and evokes so many feelings

jim kirk's guide to starship management: how to work with people you don't like by espressohno
Star Trek || James T. Kirk/Leonard "Bones" McCoy || 23k
step one: don't hook up with them! [edit: author has failed step one]
Excellent!

I watched Radioactive this weekend, and while Rosamund Pike was awesome, I was overall underwhelmed. I feel like it left too much out of Marie Curie's story and life.

I also watched Fahrenheit 451 and actually really liked that one. And I finally caught The Falcon and the Winter Soldier since all the episodes are up, and that was pretty great.

I realize I've been reccing fics, but I have also been reading a lot of books. Escapism, much? So I recently read:

Daisy Jones & the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid - I really enjoyed this. It had a very interesting format, in addition to being an interesting and intriguing story. I listened to the audiobook version and it was done with different voice actors for each of the parts. Highly recommend.

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins - I liked the book but I still find Coriolanus Snow completely unlikeable. I figure I'm probably biased though since we know how he turns out in the future.

Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate - It feels weird to say I liked this, given the story and the fact it's based on real events which are baffling and horrific, but I did like it.

The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls by Anissa Gray - This was a very emotionally engaging story. Life and relationships are complicated, and I kinda like that everything doesn't end up wrapped in a nice neat bow.

And a couple fic recs, to stay on brand:

The Sheppard Equation by jenny_wren
Stargate Atlantis || Rodney McKay/John Sheppard || 22k
Rodney needs to solve the Sheppard Equation before his world falls apart.
Excellent storytelling

Leading the Way by nogoaway
Generation Kill || Brad Colbert/Nate Fick || 27k
In which Nate, being an officer at heart, takes approximately 25 years to find his own dick with a map.
Super well written!

I was reading a SGA/H50 crossover and while I liked it, I kept getting tripped up every time Danny was mentioned. An AU about a sci fi show requires a lot of suspension of belief, but there is no conceivable universe in which Danny Williams willingly leaves Grace. (There was no mention of Grace at all, so maybe this was a reality in which she didn't exist, but then Danny would never have gone to Hawaii.)

I've finished a couple of books, including a YA book called Echo by Pam Muñoz Ryan that I really enjoyed. I'm currently reading Tower of Swallows from the Witcher series and Stumbling Into Grace by Lisa Harper, and listening to The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich.

I read the last chapters of Prince Caspian to my children today. I may have mentioned this before, but if not, since the pandemic, I've been doing daily videos for my kids (the church's children) on our private fb group in addition to Sunday school lessons. It's a lot of books, lol. While most of them are obviously short children's books, I've also done a couple chapters at a time from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian. Trying to decide now if I want to go on to Voyage of the Dawn Treader, or switch to another favorite like The Hobbit or the first Harry Potter book, or pick something more kid-like, maybe the Ralph books or the Bunnicula series.

Links:

First vaccine to fully immunize against malaria builds on pandemic-driven RNA tech

The Desperate Plea of the Hellbender (Don't build cairns when you're out hiking!)

an interesting article about the series finale of Lost

Levar Burton talking about the Dr Seuss thing

what a way to make a living by attheborder
Good Omens || Aziraphale/Crowley || 5557
Without any more assignments coming from Downstairs, Crowley is struck with a bad case of the doldrums. It takes a bit of trial and error, but eventually a solution is found. (Or: the one where Crowley becomes an Uber driver.)
Not only was this a fun read, but I really appreciated the writing style!

Movie updates: I watched The Other Guys (which I hadn't watched before and found decently funny) and Poltergeist II (which I have seen, more than once, but it's been a while) over the weekend with mom. After youth group last week, I went with Davey, Bebout, Lily, and Mariah to see IT Chapter 2 (because the girls are too young to go without an adult). It was actually funny, and wasn't as bad as I thought. I did not see the first one. (I've seen the original.) But I like several of the actors in this one so it was okay.

Sunday, though, Davey and I went to see The Peanut Butter Falcon, which was fantastic. It was a great story, and I appreciated the cast. Highly recommend.

I finished one of the books I have on Brethren Heritage, and am about halfway through a book Jimmy Carter wrote about his mother. I read a few mediocre fics off my AO3 "to read later" list.

In RL this week: Davey got another reckless driving ticket, two of our church members passed away, Miranda told her therapist she was contemplating suicide and was almost admitted as an inpatient but instead they adjusted her meds but she's been extra extra this week, my sister Shannon was in the hospital for the past two days, Davey's friend Riley had a house fire and she had to be treated for smoke inhalation and can't return home for a few weeks, a 4yo in our community who has been battling cancer passed away, Illiana got an infection in her finger and is on two different courses of antibiotics, Jesse (one of my youth) has a high ankle sprain and is in a boot so his football season might be over, my cousin-in-law Sarah is going through a bunch of stuff and now has to make her eighth grade daughter switch schools in the middle of the school year. It's been funtimes.

Okay, so I'm planning on spending a lot of time away from the internet this summer - camping and the creek and whatever. And I am heading to both the used book store and the library this weekend, so I need book recs. I already have a list of books I want to read, but if there is something you think should be on my MUST READ list, please tell me in comments? Any type/genre/whatever, just book recs. Thanks! <3

SUCCESS!!! I totally obtained a copy of Fire on the Mountain for my brother! (also, books for myself and Harley, b/c I should NEVER be allowed in a bookstore when I have money, lol) I have a favor to ask, though. I know that most of yall have a used bookstore that you're partial to, so if any of you find any books by John Maclean (other than Fire on the Mountain, obviously) or any other true stories about forest fires or smoke jumpers or anything like that, grab them for me? I'll make it worth your while.

Have any of you read anything by Brian Keene? I picked up Urban Gothic because the cover caught my attention and the cutie at the checkout was telling me that he really likes Brian Keene, and that most of his other books are about zombies and stuff, so I'm kinda excited to read it.

I do have my copy of Shadow Magic, but I haven't started it yet. I did know it's not about Royston/Hal and Thom and Rook and the Dragon Corp, as much I as would love to read more about them, even though apparently some of yall didn't and thus were disappointed. I'll let yall know what I think when I do get to read it.

Work is stupid, omg. Yep, second week on the job and I'm already complaining, lol. First off, they have no place for any of the new hires to sit. So I've been stuck sitting with someone all week this week, with them listening to me take calls and I actually do it better than most of them. Not just the system, but the entire call center personality all together. It's almost scary. But today Brandon was setting up the computers for my training class (there's another training class that started this week and are supposed to be on the phones starting tomorrow) and I asked him whose system he was setting up and he told me and started going down the row of who was assigned where and he never said my name so I asked where I was, and he went back through his list and started shuffling his papers around and was like "well, we don't have everything quite figured out yet." DUH! I'm not even on the list!! Then a little later he was setting up a new row of computers up against the wall, so whoever sits there is going to have their backs to the rest of the call floor and will be set apart from everyone, and he was like "we'll let you have one of those seats, we wanna keep you cut off from the rest of the world" and I was like "dude, I've been cut off from the rest of the world for YEARS now, it's not that big a deal." Also, we had a meeting in the training room this afternoon to go over a few things and Marc asked if anyone spoke any language other than English and I almost blurted out "I speak fluent fangirl!" b/c that's my standard response to that question. But I didn't, which is okay because no one would have gotten it. Also also, it freaks me out whenever I find Brandon staring at me (and no, don't tell me to bite him. I know that's exactly what a few of you are thinking. Yall shouldn't encourage my inappropriate thoughts!), which is a LOT but it was worse today, obviously, b/c we were back in the training room. Whatever.

Johnathan came by in his car today. My teenagers are growing up, what the hell is that about????

Yall know what? My daughter would be TEN next month. TEN!! That really makes me feel old.

Tomorrow is shutyourface's birthday!! Yall should all go wish her a happy one!! <33333