I have some things to talk about that aren’t just Baldur’s Gate 3 this time! I mean, they’re not exciting things, and some are bad things, but still. At least it’s something different.

I’ll start with the bad. This has been a cursed month. You probably already know I live with my parents because chronic illness, but they’ve both been out of town for weeks. My microwave started making a burning smell before my mom left, so she had to quickly go buy a new one. A week later, lightning struck nearby, and then the wifi/cable went out and the AC broke. I spent one awful night in the heat and ridiculously high humidity, then with a bad headache when I caved and used this room AC thing that, well, gives me bad headaches. Thankfully the neighbor fixed it all the next day. Then a few days later, my space heater broke. Then a few days after that, the power went out for hours. Also (TW for bugs) found one of those giant centipedes in my room, and either it’s still alive, or it died and will be an awful surprise at some point in the future because I think it burrowed into one of my books when it ran away. Not sure which is worse.

I can’t help but think, “It could be worse.” But also I’m exhausted. I’ve had more headaches than usual. Other symptoms are acting up, maybe from stress, maybe my body is just falling apart. I don’t know, but the extra health issues only make me more stressed. And who knows what might go wrong next. So I barely made any blog posts this month, and I’m behind on comments, as usual. It is what it is. But if you’ve left any comments, I have read and appreciated them ❤️

Now for the good!

I feel like I’ve rediscovered my love of gymnastics. I’ve been watching videos from a couple gymnasts on YouTube, but videos that are the silly things you do at gym, or learning old-school skills just for fun, stuff like that. And I love them because they really capture what gymnastics actually was for me and what I loved about it. (Though these people are far better gymnasts than I ever was, and their skills are still impressive.) Competitions are not really fun to watch anymore because the artistry has gone from the sport, and everyone does the same few skills and just tries to do more flips and more twists. And of course competition videos don’t capture the fun, the flip competitions, the silly little tricks you try, the unique relationship between gymnast and coach, the falling on your face repeatedly, the excitement when you finally catch or land a skill for the first time. And since becoming chronically ill, thinking about my pre-illness life, especially thinking about gymnastics, can be painful. But this has been nice. I always smile watching these videos of people having fun. This video below? My friends and I used to try all sorts of things like this at gym when we found them lol.

I watched numerous movies. Lisa Frankenstein. Bottoms. Heathers. Can’t say I cared too much for any of them.

I started playing Cats and Soup again! I used to play the Netflix version, but they stopped adding new stuff a long time ago, so I stopped playing. Now I’ve downloaded the normal version. You have to deal with a lot of ads, but the good thing is, you can get more stuff because of the ads. With the Netflix version, you just got what you got. Some things still require real money (a ridiculous amount of it), but none of that is necessary, so I’m having fun with the free stuff.

And I did still play some BG3! I’m doing my first evil playthrough. Not sick of it yet. I truly did not expect to love it this much when I bought it.

Blog/Bookish Updates:

Nothing.

Books I Received for Review:

I received Geist Fleisch by Christian Baines, from the author. It’s a gay historical paranormal romance book, part of a 10-book collaboration of 10 queer male authors!

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!

Once again only read four books, but I’ve really had quality over quantity lately. I’ve been on a great streak of great books!

Trespass Against Us by Leon Kemp – A spooky YA haunted house story with a mystery I was pulled into and imperfect characters I really liked.

The Diablo’s Curse by Gabe Cole Novoa – I did have an issue with the ending, but I otherwise enjoyed this YA treasure hunting, mysterious island story about a human and a nonbinary demon.

Breeze Spells and Bridegrooms by Sarah Wallace & S.O. Callahan – This was an absolutely adorable enemies-to-lovers historical, magical romance. So sweet, once they got past the initial issues.

Running Close to the Wind by Alexandra Rowland – I haven’t quite finished this one, but I’m close. And it is such a fun book with such a ridiculous protagonist. All the characters are ridiculous. This has made me laugh out loud.