I am so tired. Not, “I’ll heat up some leftovers, sit on the couch and watch a movie, then get some sleep and feel better in the morning,” tired. This is 13 years of chronic illness tired. It’s, “I haven’t eaten or drank in 6 hours and have spent the past 3 trying to force myself to just stand up and walk to the kitchen.” And, “Even if I could stand up, eating and digesting food takes more energy than my body has right now.” And, “I needed to turn off my space heater 2 hours ago and now my room is sweltering hot because standing up, walking three feet, and then walking three feet back to my chair is too much for me.” And, “I wanna watch a movie, but I can’t keep my eyes open today, but I also can’t lie down too long to rest or I get headaches.” I don’t have the help I need or a place where I can just heal. It’s hard. Honestly, back in the day when doctors prescribed staying by the balmy seaside and relaxing for a few months as a treatment, I think they had it right. Wouldn’t cure me, but it would help. I think that would help a lot of people.

And then, a couple weeks ago, my washing machine broke. So that stress, and having to squeeze the water out of my clothes one by one with my hands (it runs, but I can’t use the spin cycle), was extra exhausting. I still don’t know how the new one will be. I think it’s going to be too deep and I’ll have trouble reaching the bottom, but it seems like every machine is weirdly thin but tall now. I’m convinced the people who make products have never used the products they make. Not just their own product, but any of that type of product.

But, when I did have the energy… Can you guess what I did? Can anybody guess what I did? 😅 That’s right, I played Baldur’s Gate 3! Words cannot express my love for this game. I decided to do a playthrough with just my character and my favorite companion (Gale), instead of all 11 or however many companions. Because at different events or interactions or cut scenes, oftentimes a companion will chime in and say something. But it’s usually randomly chosen, or sometimes a certain companion has priority. So there were a lot of Gale things I’d never seen. And it was fun seeing his romance again.

And to wrap this up on a positive note, here are some cool videos of some really skilled people I found recently!

Blog/Bookish Updates:

Nothing.

Books I Received for Review:

I grabbed an audiobook copy of Forging Silver into Stars by Brigid Kemmerer from the Libro.fm ALC program! Magic, Romance, queer rep. I can’t remember the specifics, but it sounds good! I also got The Nightmare Before Kissmas by Sara Raasch audiobook from NetGalley, a book I happened to mention in my recent post about books I’m excited for! It sounds like a cute queer romance with holiday themed characters.

Books I Finished:

If you’re considering buying any of these books from Amazon, I’d really appreciate if you’d use my affiliate link!

Evergreen by Devin Greenlee – This was a sweet teen romance with a dryad MC. I liked it.

✨ Cursed Cocktails // Sword & Thistle by S.L. Rowland – I loved the first one, the coziest of cozy fantasy with just a touch of romance. The second one, about different characters, didn’t quite work for me, but still not bad.

Til Death Do Us Bard by Rose Black – DnD-esque fantasy about a character rescuing his husband and saving the world. Another one I didn’t get super into but still enjoyed well enough.

Tristan and Lancelot: A Tale of Two Knights by James Persichetti & L.S. Biehler – A cute graphic novel with an Arthurian retelling and magic and fae and colorful art.

Gravity Lost by L.M. Sagas – I didn’t love this the way I loved the first book, felt more focused on plot and action than characters, but it was still good, and I’m still looking forward to more with this crew.