Rayen

I didn't get to do too much on my vacation, so I indulged in a shopping trip last week to wrap it up on a positive note, and acquired this beauty from an antique mall for basically a song. It's gorgeous, the palette is unique and it just said "Take me home with you so I can live on your couch before some miscreant buys me and I end up a dog quilt." The flowers are hand-stitched. Sigh. How could I resist? She'll be much happier with me anyway. At the same antique mall I got a nice bundle of green scrap fabrics very cheap; these are also a contender for the next tote in my calendar project. Finally we stopped by the Russel Stover outlet so I could buy a little sugarfree candy, and I found these new chocolates which are absolutely delicious. Great way to end my vacation. :)

While I was wrapping up the spring cleaning I found not one but two blind date with a books that I was unable to gift to the intended recipients. Since those two folks are now out of my life I could have donated them, but where's the fun in that? These became my reward from the Universe for finishing the spring cleaning. :) Here's the first one, which was the Christmas paper wrapped bline date. Bit of trivia: one of the first novels I wrote was set in a carnival, and like haunted house stories I've always liked them. So, definitely looks interesting. The second was this one, and now I understand the brown paper wrapping. :) I love a good farce, especially if it's spicy romance, so this one should be fun to read. Thank you for my surprises, Universe!

Last night I slept almost seven hours, which hasn't been the case for a while. The nighttime decongestant I took probably helped, but I can't resort to those every night to combat my insomnia. I use the last hours of the day to crochet and get myself in a meditative state, and that's helpful when it's time to go to bed, too. I'm just battling on top of everything else chronic pain, a hamster wheel-running mind, and that ever-present old age reality that if I go to sleep I am not guaranteed to wake up again. Sleep is absolutely important at this stage of the game, so I'm working on changing up my evening routine to calm my thoughts and manage the pain problems. Meditation is my first resort. It's helped me throughout my life, but I've gotten away from it in favor of repetitive mindless tasks like sewing and crochet. I'll be meditating for a few minutes before I go to bed and see if that improves the quality of my sleep. Dressing comfortabl...

Love Beyond the Grave tells an epic love story between a mortal warrior general Duan Xu (Chen Feiyu) and the ghostly sovereign of the spirit world He Si Mu (Dilraba Dilmurat) against a historical backdrop of war, scheming conspiracies in both worlds and terrible losses. Si Mu has incredible powers and commands respect from all the other immortals in the other world, while Duan Xu kind of has the same role in our world, and with as many if not more problems. This is a long 40-episode xuanhuan (general fantasy) story, and in a way it takes that long to play out the epic plot. Every time I thought these two could have some time for each other, fate decided otherwise. Duan Xu is quite noble, and temporarily gives up his senses so Si Mu can experience life as a mortal (she has never been mortal and has no senses of her own.) Meanwhile, Duan Xu is trying through his efforts to reclaim some territories taken over by the enemy to stabilize a very rocky governnment and help friends at ...

To cheer myself after the social media incident I went to one of my favorite antique malls and invested in four blind date/mystery items. Two are blind date with a book bundles ($8.00 each), one is a bag of mystery bracelets ($10.00) and the fourth is just a big mystery box of something green ($2.50 because the booth was having a half off sale.) The first blind date with a book bundle was labeled cozy mysteries, which I enjoy. I have not read either author so this was a nice surprise. I also got a bookmark, hand cream, tea, and stickers that were tucked in the folds of the wrapper. The second blind date bundle. I have read this author before, who basically writes the same story over and over, and I really don't care for that. But that's the gamble with blind dates. To be fair I'll read these anyway. The mystery bag of bracelets was the most expensive item, so I was hoping to be wowed. And I was! I don't have a lot of silver bracelets, so I...

I just emptied my personal e-mail box completely for the first time since 2017. Yes, it was stuffed with nine years of e-mails -- well, not every e-mail I received, of course. At first there were a few from friends that I saved to reread when I was feeling blue. They weren't much, but served as proof that I actually had friends. I also saved the not so nice ones, the kind with digs, veiled insults, and unkind remarks that hurt me. It took me a long time back then to end relationships with bullies and toxic people, and I would pour over those nasty e-mails, usually thinking I was reading into it too much because hey, they were my friends, right? At least, that's what they kept telling me. After Mom died, the blinders finally fell off, and I saw people for who they were, not for who I hoped they were. That's when I began cutting ties with the not so nice folks. I was aware that I should have gone through all my saved e-mails and just let them be marked read. ...