Day One:
Category: Humor
Only Five? No Can Do.
I’m definitely going over that limit.
Toothpaste
Clean water
Indoor plumbing
Shelter
Food
Drinking water
My cat
Kindness
Bumblebees
Flowers
Trees
Notebooks
Pens
OK, all stationery products – I have a bit of an obsession, all right?
Sleep
Music
My car, Koko (NOT the Audi Q3)
A hot cup of tea
Books
WRITING
Feeding squirrels and birds
Singing in my car (technically it’s performance art)
Brownies
Forehead kisses
Holding hands with the right person
The warmth of spring
Tennis
Finding cash on the ground
Making people laugh
All things Parisian
Pink skies
French fashion
Chocolate milk
Hummingbirds and their nests
My neighbor’s dog, Petey
Waking up to another day
Only One?
It isn’t possible for me to answer this question with just one book, so I’m going to list them all. There may be a few that I have forgotten, but these are the ones I have in my bookcase.
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. This is my favorite novel. Ever. It was required reading in American literature class, and I’m so pleased to have been introduced to this amazing wordsmith Ms. Hurston.
The Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon.
Any and all titles by Bill Bryson.
The Buenos Aires Broken Hearts Club by Jessica Morrison. This is a fantastic novel. I’m not sure if it’s still in print, and I don’t believe the author ever published another novel, which upsets me to this day.
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon.
I, Elizabeth by Rosalind Miles.
The General’s Mistress by Jo Graham.
The next three novels are a series by author Diana Norman. Sadly, she has passed away and there will be no more novels in the series. The first book is A Catch of Consequence, followed by Taking Liberties, and last but not least is The Sparks Fly Upward. This author also wrote under the pen name Ariana Franklin. I was today years old when I found that out, so I am excited and will try to get my hands on the novels she wrote under that name.
The next one is the first book in the “Undead” series by Mary Janice Davidson. I thought the first book was the best: “Undead and Unwed.”
Next up is author Katie McAllister (a pen name), with Men in Kilts and Improper English being my favorite titles from her.
Jane Austen – the whole catalogue.
Tess of the d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy.
Villette by Charlotte Brontë.
Sons and Lovers by DH Lawrence.
Mary Queen of Scotland and the Isles by Margaret George.
Forever Amber, by Kathleen Winsor (this is a particular favorite of mine, though it is rather sordid, especially for the time period in which it was written.)
And the last one is Absalom! Absalom! by William Faulkner. Just kidding. I despise this book. I had to write a paper on it and I hated every second of it. I don’t particularly like Faulkner nor his writing style, and that’s being polite. Faulkner perfected the run-on sentence, and that’s being polite.
That’s my list. What are some novels that you can’t get enough of and read over and over again? Let me know in the comments!
Is That The Alarm? Ew.
Daily writing prompt
What are your morning rituals? What does the first hour of your day look like?
The first hour of my day depends on what day of the week it is. Mondays look a lot like:
I meant to do that. Once I get up off the ground, I meander with one eye open and several bruises (and maybe some broken bones) to my computer and fire it up. I contemplate Monday, and always come to this conclusion:
After I eat my gummy vitamins, I feel a little bit more awake. It’s usually at about this time that my computer has updated over the weekend and will insist on a restart after I’ve connected to the Internet and have opened all of the apps I need.
On especially chaotic Mondays, which is really all of them, sometimes my Internet will disconnect for no reason at all. And then what happens? You guessed it – another restart.
Some days it happens more than once, and I want to unalive my computer. I don’t, of course (because it’s not alive…or is it?), but I wish I could.
And that brings us to 9 AM – my second hour of work. That’s when things get a little weird and I start to get a bit hungry. I have a small lick of my laptop, and I’m ready for hour two of my day.
Happy Monday everyone!
A WordPress Prompt
Daily writing prompt
If you could have something named after you, what would it be?
The title is the answer.
The rest of this post is
Everything and Nothing
On a bad day, nothing is funny.
But I rarely have a day where it’s so bad that I can’t laugh at something.
Last night, I had a really bizarre dream. it was totally out there, unrelated to anything I had done all day yesterday. I remembered it this morning, which is not common for me. My mind remembered every detail. I can’t say much about this dream because it was really over the top, but I am still laughing about it, and adding my real time commentary as I think about it out loud.
I can find humor in almost anything. It’s one of my coping mechanisms, and I developed it early. It truly is a lifesaver.
Happy Fri-yay everyone.
Happy Mermaid Day
Today is international mermaid day. To celebrate, here is my offering. Mermaid hair, don’t care. I also have mermaid leggings, but I think that’s paradoxical to what mermaids are all about. You know, the fishtail and everything. Also, if there are any Mermen out there, I’m not sure when your holiday is, but you’re welcome to celebrate today. 🧜🏻♀️🧜🏻♂️
I’ve Named The Rental Car
I dropped off Koko at the body shop this morning. I waited for the Enterprise guy to come pick me up. He shows up in a long, black coat and ushers me out to a waiting Buick Enclave. He opens the rear passenger door and I very ungraciously get into the luxury vehicle. I feel like paparazzi are going to appear from behind the various cars in the lot waiting to be repaired. (I will not discuss how far away I had to park from the building, and I hope that Koko is safe out there.)
So I’m sitting like a child in a large chair in the back of the Buick, sliding around on the leather seats on the turns and the guy tells me that they have reserved an Audi Q3 for me.
If I hadn’t already been sitting down, I would have fallen down. I have a Honda. I’ve only had mid-range cars. Ever. Even rentals that I’ve had before have been Toyotas or something similar. My first thought was this rental is going to cost me a fortune. My second thought was this rental is going to cost me a fortune.
When we got back to Enterprise, and I saw the car, well…
I filled out the appropriate paperwork, etc. and we did the standard walk around the vehicle. Then the guy told me to get in the car – and that’s when technology hit me in the face. It took me 10 minutes to figure out how to adjust the side mirror. It took another five to figure out how to turn on the radio and adjust the volume. I realized I was driving one of “those cars” that the engine turns off when it is stopped. It is very annoying to hear on other cars, and it is still annoying when you’re driving one. It sounds like the transmission is about to fall out, which is never a good sound to me. I don’t know how it saves money on gas, either, but whatever.
As I neared home, I didn’t really want to stop driving the Audi. I was thinking of names for her while I have her for two weeks. I backed into my driveway per usual, and though it was not my best effort, it’s OK – there are six cameras on the thing to let you know where you’ve gone wrong. I got out, walked around her and decided what her name is.
Her name is Katerina.
It Hasn’t
*sigh*
What if – and this is a big what if – my job is technology?
Ask WordPress
Daily writing prompt
How often do you say “no” to things that would interfere with your goals?
If your goal is to wake each morning, crack open Jetpack and smile to yourself, knowing this day is going to be wonderful because of the insightful prompt…
You may want to consider sleeping in.
“It's Amy,” I said. 