9 Things Making My Life Better So Far This Year (April-June 2021)
This quarter included the transition between the end of semester and summer writing time and ever-changing pandemic protocol where I live. Here are a few things that helped me stay balanced.
Foot powder (note: product name NSFW)
No, the one I use isn’t marketed as foot powder, but that’s what I use it for. It’s locally made and, crucially for me, can be ordered scent-free.
Anyway, I hate the stinky-sock feeling I get when my feet sweat all day. Using foot powder helps keep my feet dry and comfortable. Sure, my bathroom floor is permanently a big powdery mess, but it’s worth it, especially during this recent heat wave!
GMAU online taekwondo lessons
It’s been difficult for me to stick with these lessons consistently, what with work and chronic muscle/joint/nerve issues and so forth. But I thoroughly enjoy them, and I like practicing each form on my own time. They keep me active when I feel like I can’t manage a full strength workout, and even a pre-recorded instructor pings my “social etiquette” brain enough to keep me from turning off or pausing a class midway through.
Writing hour (aka structured writing time)
During the end of semester, my motivation to write “woke up” closer to the end of the day. I’d put off my daily fifteen minutes (minimum) until just before bedtime, but, then, in my pajamas, I’d find I wanted to keep on writing. So I told Husband that I was going to try to make a certain hour each night my writing hour, and he helped me stake out that time as undisturbed butt-in-seat time.
It worked for a while; once semester ended, I started to struggle more with the feeling that I should be writing all day. I’ve since found a few time structures that work for me, depending on my mood and energy level, but I still always seem to want to be typing away right before I’m supposed to go to sleep. But, hey, I guess if it works for me, it works.
The Magnus Archives (Rusty Quill podcast)
I guess I got into this horror podcast juuust after it finally wrapped up its run. It boasts (seemingly) independent horror short stories, atmospheric and creepy rather than openly violent or gory. I’m told there’s overarching plotlines that start to coalesce after a while, and even partway through the first season, I’m already getting a sense of some recurring characters at the titular archives where these stories are (in-universe) collected. Highly recommended if you like creepy stuff that resolves in an episode but still leaves the door open for more!
An optometrist check-up
(Warning: discussion of eye stuff. Skip this item if you’re squeamish!)
Hey, so, PSA: if your eye is sore for a long time, go get your eyes checked! Because, yes, it could be that you’re staring at screens all the time, orrr it turns out that you can, unbeknownst to you, have a tiny piece of plastic in your eye for a month even if you don’t wear contacts or shove random stuff in your eyes or anything else that might make you consider this an actual possibility!
Um, yeah, so that happened, but I’m also glad I went because it also turns out that I’ve become slightly cross-eyed over the pandemic (working theory: combo of strong genetic component and staring close-range at screens all the time for a year so no practice actually focussing on faraway things). So at the ripe old age of 36, I get to have separate reading glasses. Whee? (I should be wearing them now, but I’m not because I left them on the shelf on the other side of the room…)
The Angel of the Crows by Katherine Addison (SFF novel)
As described in more detail here, I loved this retelling of famous Sherlock Holmes stories with Sherlock as an angel named Crow.
The Whisperer in Darkness/The Shadow Over Innsmouth (BBC 4 podcast)
I know, I already included this when I listened to the first season (Charles Dexter Ward) last summer, but I’ve binged the last two seasons (The Whisperer in Darkness, The Shadow Over Innsmouth) this quarter, and they’re amazing. It’s like what I would have wanted The X Files mytharc to be if I’d cared about the conspiracy plot. The acting and writing are both great, and it’s maybe the only ongoing story I’ve been following that acknowledges the COVID situation in its narrative as something that’s going on in the world around its characters.
Playoff hockey
Yes, yes, I’m Canadian; confirm your favourite stereotypes here.
Watching playoff hockey is fun–everyone is playing their best, and there’s inherent drama in every situation (but not so much inherent drama that I get emotionally unsettled). I could do without the weird culture of violence where somehow other full-contact sports don’t end in fistfights but in hockey it’s expected because toxic masculinity, but, y’know, baby steps.
Gardening
Our condo has a community garden, and, although we didn’t get a space initially, we were on the waiting list. A plot became available in late May, so I’ve been enjoying myself digging up weeds and out-of-control peppermint, planting veggies and herbs, and going out to check on them/tend them every morning. I try to keep my expectations low, because I have the opposite of a green thumb, but it does make me happy just to wake up every morning, water my plants, and see what’s changed since yesterday.
Single-sentence runners-up:
Reading
Since term ended, I’m able to get through about three books a week, plus a ton of magazines, online articles, and graphic novels.
Miitopia (Nintendo Switch game)
If making cartoon avatars of my friends, family, and favourite fictional characters and forcing them to fight through a silly JRPG plot is wrong, then I don’t want to be right!
Routine
As you may have noticed from numbers 3 and 9, I’m finding it helpful once more to stick to a standard-ish schedule to keep from feeling adrift.
Writing the Other online workshop
This is a runner-up because of me, not them–I struggled more than I expected to physically sit at my computer and also to engage in normal social interaction with strangers whose work I admired, but what they offer is extremely educational and helpful for any writer.