I’m exhausted. My mom has gone to the ER once a week for the past 5 weeks. My kid has not been in school for a full week since the beginning of the month. I’m still tweaking my thyroid meds. I will gladly accept your sympathy & empathy. I do not require your advice or questions.
A hike at Eno River State Park
Yesterday, W, M, my sister ME, and I went for a little hike at the Eno River State Park. I’d planned a little flat loop, but we didn’t know which access to use to get to it. We ended up at the Few’s Ford access and just walked the closest trail to where we parked, which turned out to be the Buckquarter Creek Trail.
We happened upon some folks from the Eno River Association, who had set up a tent, nets and water shoes, and little bins with water in them so people could catch little water animals and learn about them. It was a beautiful serendipitous occurrence and we had nowhere to be, so we stopped to join in. M found some water striders and a snail.
After they packed up, we continued down the trail, then stopped for a break so M could play on the rocks and fallen logs. While he was doing that, a great blue heron landed a ways from us. We watched it stretch its neck down to the water, then pull its neck upright. It was huge. Eventually it flew from one side of us to the other. Its wingspan was incredible. It’s a majestic bird.
Eventually, a tree wobbled under M and he fell in the water. We didn’t have a change of clothes, so we ended our break and started walking again. We made our way to the pedestrian bridge. It was a suspension bridge, and walking across it gave me a bit of vertigo. We continued on the other side of the river, then crossed the river on rocks when I heard a family ahead of us talking about an animal on the ground. I thought it might be a snake and W hates snakes, so we went ahead and crossed.
We finished up the trail and came home for a late lunch from Domino’s.
This was a super successful adventure, so I think we’ll try a hike every weekend while the weather is favorable.
Want to read: Ghosts of the Forbidden (Glazier’s Gap Book 1) by Leanna Renee Hieber đ
I just ordered a 20 ft inflatable black cat. It will dominate the culdesac. I’m kind of hoping it becomes haunted. (RIP The Best Cat, 11/1999 - 6/2017)
My currently-planned NaNoWriMo novel is a YA supernatural rom-com set at musical theatre camp in the late 90s. It miiiiiiight have some autobiographical elements.
You can have all of the research that funding agencies can possibly provide us but if we can’t talk about what it means for our actual lived experiences and put it into perspective with our real lives, it’s not worth much.
I love today’s issue of Publish Not Perish in which Jenn McClearen draws a connection between Joli Jensen’s idea of communal writing and rejecting the narcissistic individualism of the academy.
I just played D&D for the first time in 3+ years and it was so great I almost cried.
đŽ Things from today’s Nintendo Direct that feel like gifts they’re making for me, specifically:
- Theatrhythm Final Bar Line
- Harvestella demo today
- Tales of Symphonia remastered (I never finished the original on GameCube but I loved what of it I played)
I rarely watch actual play TTRPG shows because Life Circumstances have made a 3-hr viewing a real challenge. I backed DesiQuest at the Town Folk level anyway because an all-Desi liveplay sounds amazing.
