The Marci Rating System

Waking up with Carole King this week!

*Monday to Friday alarm:
You've Got a Friend, by Carole King

*Tuesday & Wednesday early office alarm:
Beautiful, by Carole King

TRUTH #1: I do not need any more yarn!

TRUTH #2: But I have a coupon!

Monday through Friday regular alarm:
Can't Fight This Feeling, by REO Speedwagon

(Originally released in 1984! Made me smile when I woke up to it this morning, so it's definitely a winner.)

Tuesday & Wednesday office days early alarm:
Can't Keep a Good Man Down, by Alabama

(I was scrolling my song list alphabetically by title. It's a 'C' kind of week!)

Monday through Friday 6:30 alarm:

Eternal Flame, by The Bangles

This 1988 power ballad is a POWER BALLAD and has featured extensively in the 'music my brain plays in the background all the time' this month. I would say it's my favorite song from 1988, except that it's also the only song I'm at all confident might be from 1988, and I'm not sure if I'm feeling lucky today.

Tuesday and Wednesday 5:30 alarm:

Summer's Coming, by Clint Black

Ugh, it's going to be Very Hot on Tuesday and Wednesday, and also I'm getting up early to drive to the office for work. So I went with the first summer song that came to mind.

Happy Star Wars day to anyone who needs something to celebrate today! There are currently CUPCAKES in our house, and I predict by the end of this day of celebration there will be FEWER CUPCAKES!

I've seen WADA statements for many years -- on products, on documents, on websites... And yet I was today years old when I finally learned that it stands for World Anti Doping Agency. Thanks, thehockeyboys fanfic!

Thank you, communal_creators! That sure was A Week on the personal health and work stuff fronts, and it was really nice to have a low-stress creative goal to think about when everything else was too much.

Final results: mostly crochet, a little writing. Reached skein #5 (of a probably 8) on my current crochet project, had some thoughts about future projects.

Still not over my absolute favorite in-office interaction last week.

THE CONTEXT:
The office has two individual bathrooms next to each other down a hallway. (It's weird, idk, they remodeled? That part doesn't matter. There are other multi-stall bathrooms in other parts of the building, but obviously NOT sharing a bathroom is better, plus they're the closest to my desk AND close to an outside door. You know, in case I want to go for a lil' walk.)

ANYWAY I walked out of the individual bathroom last week at exactly the same time TWO people were exiting the other individual bathroom right next to it. They were talking to each other. I thought nothing of this. If I had thought anything of it, I would have assumed that since both of them are at least adjacent to safety/facilities roles, probably they were checking something?

(SIDENOTE: it's freezing in that bathroom, PLEASE could someone check something?)

But THEN one of them stopped and looked at me and said, 'That wasn't what it sounded like,' and I was all '??!?!?'

MY REACTIONS, IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER (I did not say any of these things):
*I have no idea what you said that 'wasn't what it sounded like,' but now I'm curious

*I wasn't listening, because I don't care

*If you wanted to get up to something in an office bathroom, you should have picked the other one; it's warmer

*I have total confidence in your ability to be better at a clandestine meetup than whatever this is

WHAT I ACTUALLY SAID (it was even true!):
*"My brain is looping Carly Rae Jepsen's 'Cut to the Feeling' at high volume right now, I didn't hear anything."

IN CONCLUSION
If return-to-office can't be useful or logical, at least it can be funny???

Audiobook update: I started listening to 'The Long Game' (Rachel Reid, aka the hockey boys book 6), and I'm currently about 5 hours in. This one is the longest book so far -- nearly 13 hours, which puts it well above my personal audiobook sweet spot of 7-9 hours.

[Note: Is there a fandom consensus on spoiler tagging? Like, the book came out in 2022, but the second season of the tv show hasn't happened yet (2027, maybe?). Are there people waiting for the tv series and trying to avoid spoilers?]

It's fun to learn what things that pop up a lot in fanfics are accurately from the book, and which things are general fannish agreement. But I wound up taking a break yesterday and listening to the start of Alessa Thorn's 'Ink Sworn' instead. The comparison is basically this:

*The Long Game: characters are stressed because they're really great at the sex part of their relationship and not so great at the part where they talk about their feelings or what they actually want, also pro-sports is dangerous and a pressure cooker even at the best of times

*Ink Sworn: characters are stressed because they're really great at turning into giant fuck-off dragons and doing magic and not so great at the part where they talk about their feelings or what they actually want, also there's a dangerous evil wizard or something

So, not that different, really! Crucially, 'Ink Sworn' is only about 8 hours long. I KNOW WHAT I LIKE.

I finished up a long-running crochet blanket last night, so today it is definitely time to finish (hopefully???) my Be a Goldfish WEEK 6 project.

WEEK SIX: Girls, Girls, Girls Who run the world? Create a work centering on a female character. We wholeheartedly welcome transgender, intersex, and nonbinary women alongside their cisgender sisters.

WOOHOO! I started working on a PSUMNT student ID for Amena over the weekend, and got bogged down with, well, all of it, but especially with trying to write 'PanSystem University of Mihira and New Tideland' in the Murderbot tv alphabet. It's SO MANY letters.

Finally I changed my goal to 'PSU Mihira New Tideland,' and I'm feeling vaguely more capable of getting that done.