Confession: I did actually take these pictures in the middle of the month but never got around to uploading them. So you’re getting them now. Not much advancement has been made on the reading/writing front since then, mainly because I spent the last two weeks of September at a work conference of sorts and then on vacation. (More on that in a bit)
Mug lore: Once upon a time (we’re talking my high school years here, so basically ancient history) I was obsessed with sheep. I have no memory of what sparked this obsession though I suspect it’s a natural part of the evolution path for a those of us who start as horse girls. My best guess is I thought it funny at a time when most people’s favorite animals seemed to be wolves or koalas (in keeping with the cute/dangerous alignment) and at the time I was determined to be “not like other girls.”
As a result of this obsession, I received a lot of sheep items. T-shirts, ornaments, knick-knacks and the like. One of those gifts was an Irish Wooley Jumpers mug. I believe was purchased at this gift shop along the East Coast (but don’t quote me on that. It was a while ago). This mug has the unique distinction of being the first one in my “collection” as it were. I still lived at home in high school, so all my mugs were group family mugs. This was the first one that was mine alone. It made it all the way to two separate college campuses across six years before returning to the Portland area. It’s also held up remarkably well in that amount of time with very little scratching on the design and no chipping at all. It remains one of my favorites to this day.
What I’m drinking: My go-to for chai is now Vahdam, an Indian brand that puts all the other western brands I’ve tried to shame (looking at you, Smith’s). I get it as loose leaf, and it comes in small pellets rather than the long twisting dried leaves or smashed bits of leaf refuse I’ve come to expect. It’s good on its own but with a bit of honey and half-and-half, it becomes divine. The weather has turned colder here and it’s a perfect drink for fall.
What I just finished reading: Rage by Stephen King. As part of my nonstop King summer reading plan (completely unintentional, I swear. I was just really feeling it for some reason) I picked up the Bachman collection: four books he wrote under a pseudonym early in his career. Rage is about a school shooter, before that really became a thing. It was a fascinating read but ultimately rather wandering. Not great, not terrible, just okay.
What I’m reading now: The Long Walk also by Stephen King from the same collection. At some point over the last month, my King enthusiasm from the summer waned significantly. This book isn’t bad by any means, but it’s taking me a long time to get through which usually isn’t a good sign. I might also simply need a break from the nonstop King. A venture into another author’s work could be the spark to rekindle the flame. We’ll see.
I also made it about 35% of the way through a separate thousand-page book this month before surrendering and sending it back to the library. Usually I power through but all the interest I had in the first section faded as soon as we jumped forward in time to a bunch of characters I did not care about. I tried to give it a fair shake but in the end, I just couldn’t do it. I may write a more in-depth review of the book later just because it felt like such a baffling narrative decision.
What I’m writing now: Closing in on 80k words on my work in progress. This last section has been a slog, not helped by the constant interruption of my writing schedule by shifting work hours and vacation. I don’t regret taking time off to witness Big Hole:
Buuuuuut my writing output definitely suffered from my loss of routine (as this blog posting schedule also shows). We should be back to business for October, however, which is good. I only have three more months to complete my goal of finishing a novel this year, so it’s time to get back to work.
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