Thank god I anxiously double-check my time off requests because I definitely didn't realize I still had to work today until like 5 PM yesterday, woopsie
(I'll drive to Milwaukee after work, which was the original plan but I forgot cuz.....moving exhaustion)
Time to start returning to some routine and normalcy!
Unpacking/etc is still ongoing but has progressed nicely; the living room area looks mostly like a living room and the kitchen is basically done. We've had to make a run to Goodwill already with more donations due to a combination of household mashing together creating duplicates (we do not need two butter dishes, for instance) and Sophie having quite a bit of stuff she wanted to donate pre-move but ended up packing and bringing with her (logistics issues). Tomorrow after I get off work we're gonna take what will probably be one last load and then from there it's just finishing unpacking the boxes themselves, which will mostly be Sophie's doing with my support.
It's nice! There's some adjustment, for sure, but so far I like having my partner living with me. It helps we have separate bedrooms, since I will be fully honest that I am prickly about my personal space and while Sophie isn't as prickly, we definitely have very different sleep times/sleep hygiene and no desire to sleep-cuddle. It's weirdly taboo in monogamy to not sleep in the same bed but like............don't wanna? Sophie sleeps in a warm dark cave and I flop on top of my covers with eleventy night lights on, it's easier just to have our own bedroom spaces and hang out in the shared space or, you know, still hang out in each other's bedroom but go back to where we're comfortable when it's unconsciousness time.
Anyways, in the midst of all that, my friends Greggo and Masque came down and we hung out for a few days! We played lots of Magic the Gathering, did a marathon round of a specific board game I'll likely do a longer post about later this week, and in general had a good time being in each other's company. We also helped Greggo do a Big Life Change thing, so that's super exciting for them and I'm glad I was able to assist with it.
All of the above does mean I am pretty well exhausted, plus my PTO ends tonight and tomorrow is my Monday, so I am gonna flop into bed, maybe watch some of an Animal Crossing challenge playthrough I've been background-watching, and either read or space out until I'm ready to sleep.
oh Sophie and I do have what is more or less a shared scrapbook/junk journal and we worked on it today, here's my contributions
Finished the Scribing quest chain in ESO!
My overall thoughts:
1) Votary Nahlia did end up feeling a bit like what we would call a Mary Sue, back in the day, and not in the "be cringe be free" fun way; I think this would've been alleviated simply by sharing her importance with the other Votaries who were present and who we even briefly meet and interact with, but instead having to constantly turn to this random OC Don't Steal writer's blorbo felt a bit exhausting
(it also felt a bit unearned when the Crow just, hands her ownership of the Scholarium, like hey let me talk to you about how this bosmer is an absolute dingdong with no leadership skills and only minimal intellect or curiosity, even though I will admit she's a whizz with portals)
2) I think the steps where you just found the purple circles, stood in them, and dispelled wards needed to be cut way back or eliminated entirely tbh, I didn't mind doing the various chores the Luminaries sent you on (I actually liked this, gives you a reason to explore some different areas) but having to just..............stand in circle, press button, over and over, was not super fun or challenging
3) the attempts at a wise riddles god and a whimsical trickster god (or spirit or guardian whatever the Luminaries count as) were not successful for me at all
(I'm not good at riddles/wordplay which is why I don't write those things, if you're gonna do the thing you have to really workshop it and commit)
anyways it was close to being a perfectly fine quest chain and I even thought the ending was sweet, but good lord making me run around to press A in a circle eight thousand times is extremely giving FF14 in terms of pointless quest-padding
I had a whole post written up about The Book Eaters but Elsewhere ate it, the tl;dr though is I think I'm kinda done for a long while with books that involve the patriarchy directly vs womanhood/motherhood/women's rights/etc
like it was an interesting and unique book! I enjoyed and can recommend a lot of things about it, but I was so immediately done with one of the core concepts (women in the book eater society live lesser lives and are treated as property) that a lot of the plot felt exhausting to me instead of thrilling
obviously it's fine to write about those things and I don't even think the book did a bad job of it but I'm motherfuckin' tired, man
to tl;dr further I am tired when become Handmaid's Tale for the thousandth time, especially in light of the,
gestures at world
..........everything