The Streak is Broken

Weekly Round up #16

Happy Friday! Welcome to all the new faces here. Most Fridays, I review what I’m reading/writing/listening to, as well as other chaos from the week.

This week, I have gotten so many good doggie snuggles. Living in someone else’s house is always an odd experience - not good or bad, just odd. More than anything, it just highlights how odd I am: I don’t watch TV, I wrap myself in blankets at all times, I will open every single one of your cabinets looking for a toaster. If I was feeling philosophical, I would wax poetic about the impermanence of the material world, and what one really needs to survive, but I’m not, so I won’t.

Max: the roundest smol boi.

As I head back into the miasma of papers I have to grade, (you did this to yourself, I mutter) here’s what got me through the week.

What I’m reading:

The Book of Love came in on digital loan from my library this week, and I scooped it up. I generally don’t read new books right as they come out, so this is remarkable for me. Again, the whole: ‘I don’t want to be told what to read, when’ stubbornness.

I have only just started reading this, so I don’t have many thoughts thus far. However, the synopsis sounds like something I would like: three dead teenagers brought back to life getting caught up in a supernatural power struggle. Wundebar!

I will say Kelly Link is one of the few surrealist fiction authors I’ve read, and her work is…genre defying. This is her first novel, though she does have other short story collections (namely Magic for Beginners¹ and White Cat, Black Dog.) I also have been doing a poor job of reading library books (one of my Goals for 2024) so it’s high time I get on that.

• Great for: speculative fiction lovers, folks who want books set in Massachusetts

• Bad for: honestly me (aka people who are overly logical and cannot reason away surrealism)

What I’m writing:

Comments on papers. I’m also writing that same short story about the vampire and the cat (and maybe a vampire cat), but I am also so, so, so behind on grading that it is not even funny. Not only does it take a while, but also I encounter a paper every once and a while that inspires me to do this:

It truly astounds me how many people either: 1) don’t pay attention in class, 2) don’t read the assignment directions or 3) do both.

• Great for: my students, who probably want their grades and papers back

• Bad for: my sanity

What I’m listening to:

I am nothing else if not a pop girlie, and I will not apologize for this. One of Zara Larsson’s songs was my most listened to song on Spotify a few years ago, so it’s understandable her new album has some bangers that I’m enjoying. If I have to be sitting in stupid Rhode Island bridge traffic, I might as well be sitting in stupid Rhode Island bridge traffic ~while dancing~.

• Great for: pop connoisseurs, Swedish pop-star fans

• Bad for: those who hate electronic dance music

No New Books™️ Challenge:

Well folks, it happened. I broke my streak. I made it 50 days before I broke down and bought books. I needed to buy my friend’s gifts so that they could get here in time.

Now before you say, Marissa, you bought them as a gift, that shouldn’t count!, well, I make the rules and I say it does since money was spent on books. And also I did go and buy one for myself because if I was going to buy book presents for someone else and break my streak, then I might as well buy one for me, too. #logic.

I will be holding off on revealing said books until they have been given to their intended recipient. So the current streak to beat for the rest of the year is 50 days, which I think is a respectable start. Now to see if I can beat that.

• Current Streak: 50 Days (January 1st - February 19th)
  

Mug Moment of the Week:

This week, we have a guest mug moment. As you can probably tell from the dog photos, I am dog sitting, and am not at my house. Ispo facto, I have not been using my own mugs. I went back to my house to grab my tea kettle (I wish I was joking but no, I am insane and need a tea kettle at all times), and considered making a cup of tea just so I could document one of my own mugs, but that is even sillier than going to get a tea kettle in the first place.²

So, here is the stranger’s mug I have been using all week. It is from Starbucks and is appropriately giant sized for all of my copious cups of tea. Please enjoy the very fancy kitchen lurking in the background, mine sure as heck doesn’t look like that.

• Great for: ~variety~

• Bad for: the umpteen mugs I own

Max’s parents come back today, and I will miss the little goober, despite the fact that he woke me up at 1am multiple times by barking at ghosts. He was a very good bedwarmer. With that, here’s one more picture of Max for the road.

Max less than thrilled I was up at 6am to go teach. Same, buddy, same.

Have a great weekend and I’ll see you back here next week for a deep dive into why all the Italian women are miserable and another Artist Interview.

1. Fun fact: the only reason I picked up Magic for Beginners is because it has a version of Lady with an Ermine on the cover. I am distantly related to the lady in that Da Vinci painting, which is a much longer story for another day.

2. And for those of you saying I could just put a mug of water in the microwave: I have standards.