The Marci Rating System

Things I planned to post about today:

*links to some fantastic articles starandrea sent me ages ago

*an update on my far-traveling new lunchbox (it's arrived!)

*why the fleeting joys of cat toys should be celebrated

But it's raining? And I'm supposed to log back in to work today after a week off, and writing anything coherent seems Very Challenging.

It's Monday! It's raining! Let's just get through this day and not worry too much about it!

well well well, if it isn't another Monday, and I'm feeling ::checks notes:: oh yeah, completely overwhelmed by all the stuff I want to do today!

on the 'not the worst problem to have' side of things, it's a lot of things I genuinely do want to do! (crochet weekend did not wind up actually including much crochet...) and it's nice to feel like there are things I'm looking forward to doing

on the 'this is still not a fun feeling' side of things, it's, you know, not a fun feeling? I have a list (I have So Many lists), and that does not help as much as I would like to imagine it would

NEVERTHELESS! let us persist!

Ahhh, nothing like the first day of a month -- so fresh! so new! so full of potential!

my Musical Victory this holiday season:

*After literal YEARS of thinking I had the song 'We Need A Little Christmas' sung by Johnny Mathis, and being disappointed that I didn't, I have PURCHASED THE SONG!

*This is a lot harder than it used to be? I do not want the three-month trial period of cloudtunes or whatever, just take my one dollar and twenty-nine cents and give me the song, please!

*Since I managed to figure it out, I also purchased 'Driving Home for Christmas' sung by Chris Rea. That should cover me for new Christmas tunes for another few years or so!

Current word count: 1903

Last sentence written: "I'm a SecUnit, I can do multiple things at the same time."

Plans for today: write more words? I guess?????

It's Monday! A work day! How did this happen??? All the things on my 'looking forward to today' list are non-work things, but surely I can fit in my 'I get paid for this so I definitely want to keep doing it enough that they'll keep paying me' work too.

[SPECIAL WEATHER NOTE: We've had enough 'rain is predicted but then doesn't happen' days recently that I genuinely didn't expect it to rain today. But when I stepped outside, it sure does smell like it's going to rain! It hasn't yet, but I might be convinced!]

Audiobooks sometimes have the odd side-effect of reminding me just how much I don't learn by listening. My current audiobook is a whopping 18 hours long, which is Very Long compared to my usual listens, and also has a lot of fantasy names.

After ten hours of listening, I can remember exactly FOUR of the names in the book. No, wait, five, but that's because #5 has a nickname that's an english word.

(Also, two of the names I only know because I saw them written in the book summary, so I probably shouldn't count them.)

This isn't a problem, exactly, although it does sometimes make it awkward when I want to talk about an audiobook. I'm reading a book! It's about some people! No, I don't know their names. There are dragons! I also don't know the dragons names. It's a fantasy setting! I don't remember the name of the city either.

We're 25% of the way through the no_true_pair 2025 eight-character challenge!

This is my first year participating, where 'participating' means 'I am writing but not actually posting, because I am feeling emotionally fragile and cannot bear the thought of anyone perceiving my writing at this time.'

But I'm posting them in a private sticky post in my journal, and they will definitely be shared at some point, and I'm having a great time! Truly an exceptionally fun challenge!

Last night I actually WOKE UP in the night and thought 'I'm a little chilly' and I was a little chilly enough to wake up enough to do something about it. I turned off the fan! I got another blanket! (Had to really think about this one -- you'd think with approximately eleventy-hundred blankets around, it would have been easy, but no! Also I was mostly asleep still. But I found one!)

Now, to be fair, I was feeling a little over-warm again by the time morning actually rolled around. And also I didn't manage to quite unfold the blanket all the way and apply it to the bed in the traditional way, lol.

But STILL! Very exciting development in the 'summer too hot' situation.

(Also, the wind has been coming in the BACK of the house last night and this morning! That's the WINTER direction!)

my phone's weather app: Air Quality Alert started at 4:56 am

me, physically startling back from the terrifyingly red sun rising over the trees: YOU THINK?!?!?

My workplace is great at saying things that sound like things I very much agree with, but I have learned to check and DOUBLE CHECK the fine print, because so often they present us with things like this:

work: HEY let's do something fun! [literal text says "it's time to take a moment to relax, renew and refresh!"

me: that sounds good, right? relax, renew, refresh -- heck yeah, I'm so on board!

work: join this challenge! two weeks!

me: a challenge to relax?

work: haha it's a step challenge! [the literal text says employees can: "push themselves to new limits"]

me: but that doesn't sound refreshing OR relaxing

work: also it's a competition; the only measurement is number of steps

me: ...I'm still stuck on how that's relaxing

work: nobody likes a loser, so TEAM UP and CRUSH THE COMPETITION

me: but our competition is... also our coworkers? I don't see how this helps us reach ::checks text:: "a shared goal of wellness and community"

work: WHY ARE YOU ASKING QUESTIONS WHEN YOU COULD BE STEPPING UP FOR YOUR TEAM