Glacier Day: Endicott Arm and Juneau

Posted on June 9, 2023 by Thistle

Our three stops in Alaska were all back to back days. Unfortunately, the middle day was the day when I was sickest, and the lack of sleep I got the night before didn’t help. I’m not sure why I was so fitful – maybe just because I was sick – but it was the only night when I was pretty much up all night long, and then I woke up super early for a special event that was my most-looked-forward-to part of the trip.

Back when Jason and I first planned our Planniversary, we booked our cruise for May 2020 on Royal Caribbean. We’d always sailed Celebrity before, but on the dates we needed, Celebrity didn’t have any itineraries that took a side passage down Endicott Arm to see Dawes Glacier. I’d heard about this particular side trip, and how you could see the glacier and potentially see it calve, and that was a definite Must on our trip. So we booked RC, and then there was covid, and then our trip was canceled and rescheduled over and over again, each time losing money in our RC account until it was just not worth it to book with them. Honestly, Royal Caribbean left a really bad taste in both our mouths, so with the last booking, we went back to our standby. (Since then, I’ve seen photos of the food on RC, and bleagh, I’m glad we go Celebrity!!) Happily, Celebrity had available itineraries that went to Dawes and also sailed in/out of Seattle this time around!

Anyway, we had to get up super early for this part of the trip. It was very cold, and we were all dressed in jackets and beanies and such. I wished so badly for gloves, the only cold-weather gear I hadn’t brought! The ship doesn’t go all the way to the glacier, but instead it goes as far as it can safely before turning around, and you see Dawes in the distance. Ice chunks from previous calving float all around you, and the landscape is awe-inspiring.

Tbh, I was initially a bit disappointed in Dawes. We were far enough away that it was hard to see, and there was no calving – or so I thought. Later, when I uploaded my photos, it turned out that I actually managed to capture a moment when several chunks of ice had just dropped off the glacier into the water, creating a huge splash (photo with boat above). I just hadn’t seen it with the naked eye. Now that was cool! Plus, I got some of my favorite photos on this part of the trip.

That portion of the day took place around 6am, and we got into Juneau about midday. By this point, I was in the worst part of my cold, and considered bowing out of the excursion completely. The tour sounded a lot more strenuous than I could handle while sick – a mile trek into the rainforest up a 600-foot elevation gain during one stop. But the tour was also listed as “mild” (our photo safari the day before had been “medium”) and so I realized that the elevation gain and “trek” were all going to be done via vehicle. Not what I’d planned when we signed up, but doable for sick-Manda. We loaded up on a (very crowded, not particularly comfy) bus and headed off to Mendenhal Glacier and the Tongass National Forest.

Of the excursions we went on this time around, most were small-group tours. This one was the exception, taking two busloads of about 80 total people out to the two locations. It was four hours long, lots of driving, and nothing like I’d been expecting. If I hadn’t been sick, I would’ve been extremely disappointed. As it was, I just wanted to take some pictures, go back to the boat, and sleep. Heh. The glacier was beautiful, but we had less than 45 mins to explore the park. The rainforest and the gardens we went to were also beautiful, but we literally had five mins of free time to take photos at the top of the mountain and about ten mins down in the gardens. Four hours of excursion, and a total of an hour of it wasn’t sitting in uncomfortable vehicles.

Lesson learned: large group excursions aren’t really the way to go. We definitely preferred our small group excursions in Ketchikan and Skagway! At least I got a few good photos out of it, even if there weren’t nearly as many as I would have liked to have time for!

For more/better photos, see my Instagram: @pookasluagh

Posted in Personal | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Ketchikan, Alaska

Posted on June 7, 2023 by Thistle

I have to admit, this was the most intimidating post of all the trip posts I wanted to write. Why? Because Ketchikan was so wonderful, so expansive, that I’m struggling to put it into words. Jason and I took a small-group tour in Ketchikan, a photo safari led by a photographer named Mark. There were five of us in the group, and Mark took us to four very different locations for photos, teaching us about the city’s history along the way. Of the five attendees, two of us had cameras (mine, a DSLR, and another woman’s, a mirrorless), and the other three had phone cameras. Mark was able to show us all tips for both kinds, and after he found out that I’m a photographer, he often called on me to answer questions he normally poses to everyone. He also took our cameras from us at times so that we could get photos of ourselves from him, and he was able to adapt to each of our setups, whether automatic or fully manual. As a guide, he was knowledgeable and enthusiastic. The tour itself was perfect except that I wish we’d had more time in each location!

When I planned for this trip, I kept checking the weather in each of the locations we would be stopping at. Every single day called for about 25-40% chance of rain. I bought rain gear for myself and my camera just in case, but as it turned out, we had great weather at every single stop. In Ketchikan, it was about 50 degrees and cloudy, a perfect setup for taking photos in the middle of the day. There were actually two times available for this tour and I chose the early morning one on purpose, thinking it would provide better light. I forgot that being so far north, sunrise wouldn’t be in the 6-7am hour, but closer to 4-5am. I could have taken the later tour and slept in without a problem. I’m glad I chose this one, though, because it gave Jason and me several hours post-tour to explore Ketchikan before returning to the ship for lunch.

Did I learn a lot of new photography things on this tour? Tbh, I didn’t. I did learn how to make blurred-water photos on my iphone, which was neat. I’d hoped we’d play around with the multiple-exposure shots, which were advertised on the tour website but we didn’t get around to in actuality. On the other hand, in reading about them, I did some research beforehand and found where in the settings of my camera that I can do this, so I learned something obliquely (despite not trying it out yet).

So I didn’t learn a lot on the tour, but also, I didn’t take it for learning – I took it for the “safari” part, going to all the best places to get the best photos. We started in the Creek Street area, little shops along the boardwalks and Ketchikan Creek. Next up were the docks, where I saw my favorite wildlife of the trip, giant purple and orange starfish!! Then we went up to the library, where there were really good views of the mountains, and lastly to Potlatch Totem Park and Museum. If I’d taken another excursion, or just explored on my own, I couldn’t have seen nearly so many different places. Mark really took us do see and do so many things!

In total on our trip, I couldn’t tell you exactly how many photos I took. I know that before uploading to my computer, there were 500 or so that I hadn’t deleted, and after sorting through them and whittling them down, there were about 250 remaining. Almost half of those are from Ketchikan. It was before I got sick, so I had energy and drive and absolutely no exhaustion pushing me to return to the boat, and as I said, Mark took us to so many unique and beautiful places. Afterwards, he dropped us off downtown because we all wanted to spend more time in the city. Ketchikan was walkable and friendly and honestly just perfect. I couldn’t have wished for a better day!

For more/better photos, see my Instagram: @pookasluagh

Posted in Personal | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Seattle and the Solstice

Posted on June 5, 2023 by Thistle

I have been so ridiculously busy over the last week between dealing with kittens and trying to sort through and edit around 500 photos. Oy. It hasn’t left me a lot of time for putting down my thoughts on this trip, but now it’s time!

Jason and I flew out to Seattle the day before our cruise. Travel was (almost) completely uneventful on the way there, and we made it to our hotel in good time. The Moore Hotel is an old, quirky place with all the remnants of being an old, quirky place: clawfoot tubs, old chandeliers and radiators, physical key locks, no a/c. As it was an extremely hot day in Seattle, we were warned profusely about the a/c issue, but honestly, it was the same temp as current San Antonio mornings, so while it wasn’t the most comfortable in the late afternoon, we were fine. We kept the windows open and a rotating fan on us throughout the night, and it was perfect.

I’ve seen a lot of reviews that complain about the Moore, but honestly, it comes down to one thing: if you want modern conveniences, don’t go to a historic hotel. Period. We loved it, and the front desk staff was extremely knowledgeable. They set us up to go to the pier for a decent price the next day, and they helped us out with the one glitch from our travels. The airline completely broke my suitcase. I mean, they snapped one of the long poles holding the side together into two pieces, so if I rolled it along, the suitcase would bend in half. The Moore staff was able to help us find a place within walking distance to replace my case and to pick up a few things we needed that were either forgotten, or got damaged by the broken case. I have nothing but good things to say about them, and I’d gladly stay there again.

Bonus, the hotel was on the edge of the Pike Place Market district, so we were literally a couple blocks from the fish market, flower market, the original Starbucks, etc. We found this awesome restaurant called The Pink Door for dinner (no actual signage that we could see, just a literal pink door to let you know you’d arrived), and there was live tango music while we ate. Apparently, there are acrobatic shows (from hoops and swings on the ceiling) on certain days, but we missed that. Again, 10 out of 10 recommend, but if you go, be forewarned: it is definitely pricey. It was our one big splurge meal.

Lots of exploring, crumpets for breakfast, so many photos, and then we were off to the pier in a van with a bunch of other cruisers, some who were also going to be on our ship. I don’t think I’ve mentioned this yet (forgive me if I have – I’ve been posting across four different social medias!), but we were on the same exact ship as our last cruise in 2018! The Solstice is definitely more rundown now than six years ago, as you might imagine, so there were a few hmmm moments along the way – lights that went out through the whole ship mid-dinner one night; seats in the theatres sagging and broken; a few large windows cracked or with broken seals, etc. Still, it’s a good ship, and we were amused to see that one of the two copies of Oathbringer (that were brand new in the ship’s library in 2018) was still there, with book cover gone and half the spine pulled off. Poor, well-loved Oathbringer.

Because we’d been on the ship before, we already knew all the good places to hang out. Jason and I tend to avoid the loud, chaotic areas (like the shops and casino). Because this was a cold-weather cruise, the library and card rooms where a lot fuller than usual, so we ended up spending time up in the sky lounge or in the earth room, which were mostly empty. There were also mornings at the specialty coffee place (I was completely enamored with their iced bianco). A movie (A Man Called Otto) in the hidden little theatre. (There’s a literal joke about people being unable to find this spot despite events being set there.) A “musical Shakespeare mystery,” which I thought was going to be a singing kind of musical but instead was a mystery with pop songs played at intervals that we had to guess the names of. A world wine tour where I learned so much!

Jason and I didn’t attend any of the big evening shows. Most of them were uninteresting, and the one I really wanted to go to was on the night I was super sick and needed to sleep. After three years of avoiding crowds, I got a cold after our trip to Ketchikan that lasted 48 hours. It was just a cold, but it sucked. I napped a lot. The rocking of the boat, which was quite strong at times, was the perfect lull-me-to-sleep tonic. (I don’t get seasick on cruises and actually adore the way the rocking feels!) Being sick meant that I missed most of the events I wanted to attend (like dance and archery classes), but at the same time, it gave me time to read and play murder mystery board games with Jason. Super laid back trip!!

I think the last thing I wanted to mention about the cruise itself was the food. We’ve always cruised on Celebrity, and I’ve been told by a travel-agent friend that they have the best food. I was also told by another friend who cruises a lot that many cruise lines cut back on food quality heavily during the pandemic. I was worried that would be the case with Celebrity, too, but for the most part, it wasn’t. Or, if they have cut back, it’s only to a level that’s still superior to what I get at home, so I didn’t really notice. My favorite thing that I ate onboard was a panna cotta in strawberry puree, which was divine. I wish I’d gotten a second serving.

Post-cruise, we traveled back to San Antonio on a trip that was far more eventful, with extreme delays, an incredibly dirty Denver airport, lots of turbulence as we flew through tons of lightning strikes, and an eventual arrival back at home around 2am the next day. I kinda wish we’d stayed another night at the Moore before traveling home!! But it’s done now, and most of the rest of the trip was good (minus the stupid cold). After five years, I remember why I enjoy cruising so much. It’s unfortunate, because the cruise industry is an environmental disaster, but still. I loved it.

Random notes from onboard:

  • we saw whales breaching beside the ship!
  • it was so cold and foggy every night that being out on the decks was madness
  • we bought regular wifi on the ship, which was meant to be on one device, but they upgraded us to two devices out of nowhere, no extra charge!
  • they also upgraded our drinks package from Zero Proof (just sodas, juices, and specialty coffees) to a Classic package, so I could have wine at dinner without it costing anything – I have no idea why they did that, but I’ll take it!
  • at breakfast one morning, a waitress sang a song to a couple celebrating their anniversary
  • the staff did a really good job helping J avoid nuts on the trip – so good, in fact, that when he ordered peanut butter ice cream (he’s not allergic to peanuts, just tree nuts), they brought him a different dessert altogether, ha!

For more/better photos, see my Instagram: @pookasluagh

Posted in Personal | Tagged , | Leave a comment

SC: Mr Juicy and the Fleabag

Posted on June 4, 2023 by Thistle

Oh my, what a week it has been! First, I mentioned that I would introduce our newest foster kitten, Juice (Juicy? We’ve been told both names, so we’re just calling him Juicy or Mr Juicy for now). Juicy is a four-week old bottle baby. I don’t know anything about his history except that he was surrendered to the shelter as an orphan when he was three weeks old. He’s friendly but over-exuberant, with a propensity toward biting and aggressively-futile attempts to eat. Much like this kitten, except that he does this even when being held properly for eating. We have to purrito him to get any milk down his throat instead of splashing everywhere else. He’s at that age where his claws don’t quite retract yet (should be in the next few days) and he still struggles with the muscles that help him go to the bathroom (younger than this and he would need manual stimulation to go).

Honestly, I wasn’t expecting to pick up another bottle baby. I asked for one of the two smaller groups on the foster list, but they asked if we could take Juicy instead. You know how everyone always says that two kittens are better than one? It’s so very true. Singletons are incredibly difficult to care for. You have to teach them everything. How to play, how to fight without hurting others, how to snuggle, how to eat, how to be a cat. With groups of kittens, they teach each other, finding the right boundaries, and we can focus on helping them learn the difference between “cat” and “human” when it comes to play and affection. Singletons often lack a lot of social skills, especially when orphaned young. Juicy was clearly orphaned before he had a mom or sibling teach him not to chomp on things. He bites HARD, harder than any other cat I’ve worked with. It’s not meant to be mean, he just doesn’t understand. I’ve been training him by giving a high-pitched yip of pain when he does it and pulling away, and already I’ve seen his bites get softer. But this is a job I prefer kittens do together, rather than with me.

Especially now, with Fleabag in the house.

Here’s this story: I went to pick up meds for Juicy on Thursday. A woman arrived at the same time as me, two toddlers on her hips and a cardboard carrier. She asked the shelter if they had room for an intake, as she’d rescued this tiny kitten from the street after it was almost hit by a car. She’d been to several vets that turned her away, and the shelter was also full with a waitlist of 15 ahead of her. They were advising her to go to Animal Care Services, a location about 30-45 mins drive away, as she was near tears. She hadn’t planned to be out with her kids so long, had six animals at home already, and her family was leaving to go out of town in a few hours.

While she was there, I took a look at this kitten. It seemed about 7-8 weeks old at first glance, dehydrated but uninjured, and crawling with hundreds of fleas. I was not going to let that baby just die, and so yes, maybe I’m just a sucker, but I brought her home with me. L and I scrambled to convert my bedroom/bathroom into a makeshift foster care situation. We washed and scrubbed the kitten twice, picking off fleas with tweezers between washes, and we still didn’t get them all. Flea baths, blankets, litter box, water, but no food yet because she needed to warm up completely first. I scheduled a vet visit for Monday, the earliest time they had available. L put flea meds on our other cats in case the fleas spread in spite of our best efforts. (Fleabag herself was too young/small for the topical meds we have.) Jason left work early to come help, because in addition to everything we were doing for the new kitten, I had to care for Juicy (who needed to be fed every 4 hrs) and take L to an afternoon doctor’s appointment.

The kitten, who we’d accidentally named Fleabag because it was the first thing that popped into my brain when the vet asked me, was becoming more lethargic. We knew she was dehydrated and possibly anemic, given the number of fleas on her, so Jason began a pedialyte treatment via oral syringe while L and I were at the doctor. By evening, she’d become more alert but still hadn’t eaten (and she barely weighed 1.1 lbs despite being at least 6-7 weeks old!), so we had to syringe-feed her watered-down kitten food. We didn’t know if she’d last through the night, but she did, and by noon the next day, she ate a little on her own and her nose had a slight cool, damp feel to it for the first time. Our vet had a cancellation, so we were able to get her in Friday afternoon for dewormer and such. All out of pocket, of course, because unlike official fosters, no one helps with the babies you rescue on your own. (Note: The woman who found the kitten took down our Venmo info and sent us some money for the intake fee at the shelter, which was very kind of her. Every little bit helps!)

(Let me just take this moment to say: please, spay and neuter your pets. If you feed strays, please get them fixed, too. This kind of situation is so preventable. A full half of kittens born outside will die, often miserable, starving, illness-ridden deaths. TNR – trap, neuter, return – works and it saves lives. Please find local resources that can help, low cost clinics or TNR organizations who will come to you. Don’t just assume someone else will do it. This takes all of us.)

Thankfully, Fleabag is doing marvelously well. We discovered that she prefers kibble to wet food, and she has perked up enormously, though she has yet to gain any weight, so we’re not entirely over that hurdle. She wrestles with the bath mat, she’s stepped into the main room briefly, she’s purred in my arms even though she runs if you try to pick her up still. A typical curious kitten raised outside and timid around humans, in a brave new world that she doesn’t yet realize is the VIP life. Juicy is also doing well, and we can’t forget him, because he is The Darkness, and he says that no one should forget it. But also, I’m now caring for two different singletons with two different and unique challenges, and I’m beyond exhausted. TBH, I’m considering returning Juicy back into the shelter’s care, to be fostered by someone else while I’m unofficially fostering our little Fleabag. So far, I haven’t had to care for both alone, and maybe by the time J goes into the office again on Tuesday, Fleabag will be independent enough that I can spend more of my time on Juicy’s socializing and needs. This is not a situation I’d gladly enter another time, though. Oy.

Posted in Personal | Tagged , | Leave a comment

May 2023 in Review

Posted on June 2, 2023 by Thistle

May can pretty much be divided into pre-vacation and vacation, an even split down the middle. As such, I had very few of my traditional May PTSD issues. There were enough near the beginning to get me to re-listen to What Alice Forgot, my go-to book this time of year, but only once, and only barely. Now I just need to plan something in late July/early August, something that will get me out of the heat and take me out of my typical seasonal depression, and I might escape this year mostly unscathed by very old scars!

Reading and Watching
I read six books this month, including one reread. It was honestly a brilliant month for books. While one of the books was just okay for me, I had five others that were great: the ending of a long-time favorite series, an installment in a series that helped me regain the interest I’d started to lose in it, a reread of an old favorite, a fascinating and complex book that took me way outside of my comfort zone, and a circus-horror novel that was so good I read it twice in a row. Before Hide, I was fully prepared to list The Last Remains as my favorite book of the month. It’s a comfort read series, and honestly just a fabulous wrap-up. Hide, however, lit my soul on fire and I’m still thinking about it long after reading it.

I didn’t watch much this month. A lot of shows wrapped up their seasons and I didn’t start anything new. On the ship, Jason and I did get to see A Man Called Otto, which was nice.

Goals
Finished two of the big ones: going on our Alaska cruise, and seeing Alaska (state #37 on my list – only 13 to go!). I had hoped to do some of my specific photo projects while on vacation, but the timing was all wrong. Very late sunsets and early sunrises. The one port we were docked at late at night, the boat still moved just enough to cause micro-movements. Etc.

The Ferals
I haven’t talked about this much, but there’s been a bit of a chaotic shuffle on this front. First, we turned in Sassafras, who got adopted immediately as expected, and then we were foster-free until the last couple days when we picked up Mr Juicy, an almost-four-week-old bottle baby who is pure chaos incarnate (pic below). More on him later. But I do have further news about the actual ferals in our yard, too. Lord Grey and Unicorn have pretty much stopped coming to see us. When the two of them became friends, Unicorn brought LG to his home base, which was apparently the same colony that our tabbies came from, by the hoarding house. Why the colony caretakers never TNRed him is beyond me, but whatever. Anyway, I’ve seen him and LG both lounging around on their driveway, on their bins, inside their garage and even on cat beds there! They’ve been sitting fairly close to the caretakers, and Unicorn ran up toward me once when I passed by. Hopefully they’re both getting super social under that colony’s care.

Meanwhile, we moved the food in our yard to the solid ground next to our deck, to keep it away from raccoons and such. It turns out Feather prefers to eat from our yard still, and she likes the food so close to our deck, which allows her to eat within a hiding nook. Plus, now we get a lot more birds and such up by our yard, and that’s fun. Unfortunately, it’s definitely kitten season, and our neighbors saw a kitten just a few nights ago on their backyard camera. It was eating the food that they set out for the raccoons (ha!), and ran toward our fence. We haven’t seen it, but this is what happens if ALL the cats aren’t fixed. This is why TNR is so important – if you’re feeding cats, you should be fixing them, too!!!!!

Health/Fitness
You know how people say that they gain so much weight on cruises, eating all that food? Y’all. I’m completely the opposite. I eat so well on cruises. There are so many options for fruits, veggies, proteins, carbs, etc. I eat desserts at each meal, sure, but the desserts are so small! The dinners, brought out in appetizers and entrees, allow plenty of time to eat slowly in a natural way. So I had desserts and alcohol and plenty of food…but I also ate so much more produce, and I walked tons, and I came home lighter than I was when I left. (physically and metaphorically, tbh) It’s funny, because I wasn’t super active on the cruise. In fact, two days in, I got a cold and was sick for 48 hours, so I spent a lot of time lying in bed when I wasn’t out eating or on excursions. The other days, I lazed about reading, playing board games, and napping. But you have to walk across the ship to get to the dining rooms. It’s often not worth waiting for an elevator if you’re only going up or down a few floors. I was having so much fun with the Ducks that I kept leaving my room to go check on their hiding spots. My phone – which only picks up steps while in my pocket, so it’s not always very accurate – noted that I was averaging almost 10k steps a day, while I was pretty sedentary. I’m honestly hoping this burst of micro-fitness, just moving around more regularly, will snowball into more exercise now that I’m back at home!

Favorite Photos
These obviously do not include vacation photos. Those will have their own dedicated post. I’m currently about halfway through sorting and editing around 500 photos, so it might be awhile. In the meantime, though, here are my non-travel faves:

Clockwise from top left: L “models” pink short for my sisters; luminescent fungi; Mother’s Day treat at Nowhere; sweet little Sassafras; a mix of Mistflowers.

Highlights of May
I’m excluding all the fun moments of vacation. This would be waaaay too long if I tried to include all of those!

  • coffee dates with Sisa
  • my telephoto lens arrived!
  • watching Sassafras interact with some of our permanent kitty residents
  • game night with the girls
  • purple mascara
  • talking with Ember for Mother’s Day
  • 90s escape room
  • Sassafras getting adopted within hours of availability
  • dinner/pastries/book-hunting with friends a few days before vacation
  • brief visit from my youngest sister in her break between semesters
  • dying my hair purple

Coming up in June
All I want to do in June is catch up from May. I’m way behind. At least I have no events or anything in June. It’s a good month to try to catch up!

Posted in Personal | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Hide, by Kiersten White

Posted on May 31, 2023 by Thistle

I’m not going to give a real description of this book because the more you don’t know, the better it will be. Here are the bare minimums: horror genre without tons of gore, social commentary, a competitive hide-and-seek tournament, and a creepy abandoned amusement park. Those are the elements. From there, best to go in blind.

This is quite possibly the best book I’ve read all year. I actually read it twice, the first time for the story, the second for the deeper elements. The plot and the characters were perfectly written. The writing itself was exquisite and visceral. The social commentary was scorchingly on point. This is a book that I will be buying and keeping and likely rereading many times. I can’t recommend it enough. Instead of trying, I’m simply going to pick out some of my favorite quotes, passages that made me fall deeper in love as I went through the story.

*****
The topiary trees have shifted like nightmares, taking something known and distorting it until the familiar becomes monstrous. She looks away from an agonized, swollen head screaming leafy terror at the sky.

The trees around her go silent. And then she hears a heavy footstep. And another. Something about the slow, deliberate pace drains all her anger and replaces it with fear. She sinks down into a crouch, closing her eyes, reduced to a child’s logic. If she can’t see them, they can’t see her.

“Cool story, man,” Ava says. “Tell me about how you walked uphill to school both ways, twenty miles in the snow, and how going to school didn’t put you in six-figure debt, and how your first house cost less than a car, and then I’ll tell you a story about how your generation fucked mine over.”

A single scream careens through the park, echoing and being torn apart as it looks for purchase in their ears. In any ears.

The idea that there’s an end point, a goal, is gossamer floating on the air, sparkling and ephemeral.

She can sense the resentment radiating off of Jaden as they trudge back toward camp, like the Axe Body Spray of aggression, stinging her nose and making her heart skitter with anxiety.

It makes her want to scream, this feeling, this hope that feels more dangerous than anything stalking them. Because the hope has already found her, already snared her, already sunk in its claws that will absolutely eviscerate her when it’s ripped away.

Mack lies on her side, curls around her own emptiness, and falls into sleep like stepping off a ledge.

It’s not a swing ride anymore. The chains for the swings hang down like strands of unwashed hair, clumped together in some parts, broken short in others. A few of the chains still have swings at the bottom, or what’s left of the swings, anyway. The thick central pole seems stable enough, rising straight up to where the system of swing arms extend out. The whole thing is stark and depressing, like a giant denuded umbrella.

She sorts through her memories, reports what happened as though typing it up after the fact, removing herself and her emotions. Nouns, verbs, stripped of feelings.

“We know they are all worthless, scrounging, contributing nothing. Drains on the society we help build and bolster. They are too good for a week of honest labor? It makes me so angry, the entitlement, the laziness.”

This should never have been her fight. But isn’t every fight her fight, whether she benefits from it or not? She’s so tired of having to fight.

Daylight pierces the trees, the ivy, the feral topiary.

Her eyes look like blank hollows, her face white, her hair black. Like an artist’s impression of a person, but one they didn’t think was worth finishing. Tear it out of the sketchbook, start over.

Posted in 2023, Adult, Prose | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Deadly Little Scandals, by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Posted on May 29, 2023 by Thistle

This book is the follow-up of Little White Lies. Because I liked the first book, I knew this would be a good one to bring with me on vacation to read on the airplane and throughout the week. No chance of starting it and deciding I didn’t like the writing or characters. And yes, it was like connecting with an old friend, the familiarity of it. It didn’t take me long to get into the story, and the mysteries inside were interesting. Unfortunately, the conclusions strayed dangerously close to one of my least-favorite book-tropes. There was a point when I thought I might end up despising the story. Thankfully, though, it backpedaled away from that particular trope, and while I still wasn’t enamored with the direction we went, it was better than the alternative. In the end, I though the book was okay, but I also donated it to the cruise ship’s library rather than bringing it home.

Posted in 2023, Prose, Young Adult | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Sunday Coffee – And we’re back!

Posted on May 28, 2023 by Thistle

Obviously this photo isn’t from today, but it was too good not to use!

We are back from our week-long adventure to Alaska, and I’m in the process of unpacking and catching up from my week away. I have so much to write about: things we saw, places we went, things we did, books I read, etc etc. However, I have so much going on that I’m going to save all that for when I have time to really sit down and think about what I want to write. In the meantime, I’m going to leave you with the thing that tickled me most on this vacation: Ducks.

This is my fourth cruise, and I’ve never before seen or heard of cruise-ducks. But on our first full day of the trip, as we walked out of the elevators, Jason reached up and grabbed a bright pink rubber duckie stuffed between the panels. That was our first Duck, which J named Emily Duckinson (and even wrote a poem to go alongside her), but we proceeded to find four more Ducks over the course of the week: one in green fatigues, a black 8-ball duck, one in a sailor suit, and a miniature green duck. We re-hid all but the 8-ball duck, with varying degrees of hiding success. The first, we actually watched the folks who found it, and they placed it on the back of their father’s wheelchair. The second, I hid behind some library books, right at the edge of the books so it would be easy to see, but days later it still hadn’t been found, so eventually I had to move it next to the books instead. The others, we hid by pieces of artwork, and they were all eventually taken. All but the miniature one, we originally found jammed up between the panels of the elevators.

It was a highly amusing part of the trip. I don’t know if cruise-ducks have been a thing since before we were on our earlier cruises or not, but we’ll definitely be keeping our eyes peeled for them if we ever travel via cruise again!

Posted in Personal | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

She is a Haunting, by Trang Thanh Tran

Posted on May 22, 2023 by Thistle

From Storygraph: When Jade Nguyen arrives in Vietnam for a visit with her estranged father, she has one goal: survive five weeks pretending to be a happy family in the French colonial house Ba is restoring. She’s always lied to fit in, so if she’s straight enough, Vietnamese enough, American enough, she can get out with the college money he promised. // But the house has other plans. Night after night, Jade wakes up paralyzed. The walls exude a thrumming sound while bugs leave their legs and feelers in places they don’t belong. She finds curious traces of her ancestors in the gardens they once tended. And at night Jade can’t ignore the ghost of the beautiful bride who leaves cryptic warnings: Don’t eat. // Neither Ba nor her sweet sister Lily believe that there is anything strange happening. With help from a delinquent girl, Jade will prove this house—the home they have always wanted—will not rest until it destroys them. Maybe, this time, she can keep her family together. As she roots out the house’s rot, she must also face the truth of who she is and who she must become to save them all.

This is one of the strangest and most haunting books I’ve ever read. Let me start by saying that I know next to nothing about Vietnam or Vietnamese history, culture, language, etc. I went into the book knowing that there would be a lot that I didn’t understand due to my own ignorance, and this was true. On top of that, though, much of the book is rooted in a funhouse-type distortion, abstract and surreal but close enough to reality that you end up questioning your perception and understanding. What is it that I’m not catching because I’m ignorant, and what is it that is purposely skewed out of level? That made the narrative a minefield that personally, I adored, but I can see people either loving or despising it in equal measure.

However, this is not just a tale of funhouse horror. There are the true horrors that the paranormal bits help to illuminate. I may not know very much about Vietnam’s history, but I know generally about colonialism and the havoc it wreaked across the world. There is a lot in this book about colonialism – in the past, in the study of the past, in its effects on the native populations, not to mention the effects on those displaced by the violence of colonialism. There is a (white colonist) character from the history of this book who says about the Vietnamese, “They are all parasites.” Parasitic connections – symbiotic and otherwise – are a major thematic element of She is a Haunting. I found that quote to be particularly ironic, as in reality, it was the colonists who were the parasites: an invasive species, literally, who came to root out those people who lived in an area naturally.

And then, in addition to the horror elements and the historical elements, you have a story of family dynamics over the course of many generations. Families who reject, families who accept, family members who hide themselves or who walk away. Each member carries some kind of emptiness, a yearning for a place to truly belong, as they are stuck between countries, cultures, languages. There is a part that I cannot understand, where a young child is held responsible for an adult’s actions, and I don’t know if that action is understandable, or even relatable, within the culture of this family, or if it is simply a reprehensible thing that happens, as reprehensible things do. Again, all of these little elements lend themselves toward a dreamlike (or nightmarish) reading experience.

I have a few last notes that are more personal notes on reading the book. First, I loved the queer representation in the book, especially to have a bisexual narrator. Second, it felt very strange to have the parents of the narrator be younger than me, to exhibit signs of a generation after mine (like collecting Live Laugh Love-type signs). I’m used to being about the same age as the parents in YA, so now I feel even older than usual. Heh. Third, I misread a line at one point, carrying over words from the next line, but loved the misread quote so much that I kept it (emphasis on what wasn’t actually written): “The words sink in deep, more intimate than a knife in my chest.” Lastly, I want to set up and take photograph to look like that book cover, which is one of the most incredible I’ve ever seen.

Posted in 2023, Prose, Young Adult | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Mother’s Day: A Twist

Posted on May 18, 2023 by Thistle

For the last few years, I’ve struggled with Mother’s Day as the pandemic first trapped everyone indoors and then all my kids started to leave home. Doesn’t help that the holiday falls smack in the middle of the most difficult time of year for my mental health! Last year, for instance, I was meant to be on a plane to Seattle but the vacation had been canceled; so I went to a breakfast place, only to find out that the line was too long and conflicted with other plans; then went to a pretty disappointing Escape Room experience; then found out in the evening that our rebooked vacation had to be canceled and rescheduled again. I mean, that’s a pretty terrible Mother’s Day all around! (Photo: Mom-scars!)

This year, I had zero plans. The day fell less than a week before our vacation (6th or 7th rescheduling by this point) and I didn’t want to spend a lot of energy dealing with the day or trying to make it special in any way. I knew Jason had gotten some gifts, and I figured we’d go out to dinner. Done. That was all I needed. The day before, I’d gone out to a bunch of shops for last minute travel supplies but still had a few more errands to run, so that was on my personal agenda.

Sunday morning, Jason yelled out to me: “Hey, do you have anything scheduled for 1:30?” I didn’t, but apparently then I did. Heh. So the day went like this:

Late morning, J and I headed across town to REI, where I needed to pick up a rain jacket for this trip. While there, I checked out their re-supply area (for items that have been returned) and found a pair of Hoka Bondi shoes in my size that looked brand new. Per the description, they’d been worn around the house once but were too small and immediately returned. Hokas usually cost around $160+, but these were $85 and all of my good exercise shoes are 2+ years old / wearing out at this point, so I def grabbed those up! This trip took longer than expected, so we rushed home for a quick lunch before heading out to our 1:30 appointment at…an Escape Room!

This is actually the third time we’ve done an Escape Room on Mother’s Day, and unlike last year, this year’s Room was far better! It was 90s themed, and to solve the room, we were figuring out clues to correctly guess the answers to three mysteries. The throwback portion was awesome, right down to the Pogs and pencil box with the drawn S on it (iykyk). There was a mix tape of 90s rock/alternative hits playing the whole time, a weird eclectic mix that included everything from Under the Bridge to Wonderwall. We only used a single hint, and finished with about 11 mins remaining. The guy manning the room took a photo of us with the poster wall behind us afterwards.

After the escape room, we went down to Nowhere Bookshop because they had Mother’s Day vegan cupcakes, pink lemonade, and rosé prosecco. J and L both got lemonade with flavor mix-ins and glitter, ha! Then we popped over to the animal shelter where Sassafras had been waiting for her new home for days, since we were close by. When we asked to see her, the poor woman at the front desk looked so apologetic. It turned out, she’d been adopted within hours on her first day at the shelter, but the website just hadn’t been updated all week. She’d been getting calls about her for days – I’m sure she worried we’d be angry! We were just so glad to hear she found her home, though.

It was a fun afternoon, and instead of running the rest of my errands, I put them off for a day and had some downtime before we all dressed up a little and headed out to my favorite restaurant, India Oven, for dinner. They were giving all the mothers roses at their tables, which was lovely. My korma was delicious, and we got kashmiri naan for dessert (it’s really one of the best desserts in the entire world, it’s soooooo good!).

I talked to my oldest child in the evening – and had talked to my middle child from Korea the night before, because of the time difference – so all in all, it was a nice day. Definitely different from the last few disasters, heh. Maybe I should make no plans for future Mother’s Days, yeah?

Posted in Personal | Leave a comment