Author: Angel Beldam

Quote:

Book:

Well-written historical mystery with several queer secondary characters. Be warned though, they don’t have happy endings. I listened to the audiobook and the narrator, Davina Porter, is one of my favorites.

Thing to Remember:

There’s so much dismantling required in order to get good at setting boundaries. I have a way to go, but I think I’ve gotten much better at it. I still find myself allowing push back, especially from my son and my mom. However, I am so much happier and healthier now that I have learned to set and enforce them. I am so glad Tennessee is good at respecting boundaries.

It’s About Time:

Y’all I’m so excited the Women’s World Cup will be starting this week! The U.S. plays it’s first game an hour before Tennessee’s plane is supposed to land…I’ll have to see if it’s going to be broadcast on the radio.

This is the Last:

This is my last Sunday post as a Colorado Resident. The butterflies went berserk as I typed that line. I will miss living here, but I am so ready to start my new life with my soon to be wife. In case you were wondering why this entry is so late being posted, I had another farewell tour stop this morning. Then I took advantage of my mom and her best friend being here and willing to help me with my sorting, purging, and packing. I will be ready in time.

Have a great week my friends!

Today’s poem is another from one of my favorite books.

Woke up before the alarm y’all. It’s been a bit since that happened. Likely it’s due to the fact I slept pretty well last night. I’m even pretty sure I know why.

I finally have more than one box packed!

My mother was a huge help and she only said one semi-passive-aggressive thing the whole evening. Probably that’s to due the fact that I also ticked off several things on my to-do list for her.

Don’t get me wrong, I had no doubts that she would help me, but it was nice that she kept the passive-aggressive remarks to a minimum.

So I love my mom. I even like her almost all the time. But she has this tendency to be snarky.

No, that’s not really the right word. Snarky implies intent and an edge. She doesn’t really seem to even know she is doing it and it doesn’t really have an edge, at least not anymore. That could be because I no longer let it cut me though. Who knows?

All I know is that I’m grateful for her help and that she loves me. No matter what, I never doubt that she loves me.

I got pretty lucky in the mom lottery. I know I complain about things she does and says that drive me crazy, but I know she’s a great mom and a good person.

I can’t wait to start my life with Tennessee (only one more week!) but I’m going to miss my Mom.

It was so great to see my work friends last night. We’ve known each other a really long time and even though we no longer get to meet for happy hour regularly anymore I still feel close to them.

We’ve seen and supported each other through marriages, divorces, new babies, babies leaving the nest, and the deaths of loved ones. We’ve celebrated promotions and commiserated bad bosses, the vagaries of political appointees, and new administrations.

Even though I’ll still be able to chat with them every day, knowing we can’t just meet up for happy hour anymore makes me sad. I’m going to miss them.

I love how even though they are going to miss me too they are delighted for me and can’t wait to hear about my adventures in the wilds of Tennessee. They teased me about being in a town with one stop light near the courthouse.

I laughed and said there are two, thank you very much, as there’s one by the Walmart also. Actually, I think there’s a third one down by the high school too. I’ll have to ask Tennessee for clarification.

Speaking of my new hometown, just a quick update:

Daizy has been found and is home though it seems there may be some woods-related internal issues they are going to have to deal with.

The Cookie Jar is going to re-open! No date for now.

No word yet on if the rooster has a name.

PSA

On a more serious note, if you have a tankless water heater made by Quietside still in your house–it was recalled in 2015 as a fire hazard. We just found out yesterday.

There’s a number for how to get a repair kit but it could take weeks to get it and a tech out to fix it. I can’t leave my mom here knowing every time she takes a shower she risks a house fire. So today the new one gets installed.

Be careful out there my friends.

O-M-G y’all. I overslept this morning. Somehow I dismissed three separate alarms on my phone. (the one to start the wake-up process, the one to start writing, and the one for it’s almost time to start work so finish writing).

The only reason I woke up when I did (5 minutes before I needed to start work so that my day ends in time to get ready for my next farewell tour event) is because I heard Aspen howling. She was in a panic because Mom’s alarm was beeping non-stop.

I literally stumbled to her room and couldn’t get it to stop so I yanked out the battery. Then I saw what time it was and then I panicked. I managed to sign in on time, but it felt like It took forever to wake up.

And before anyone gets weird I am writing this on my lunch break, not taxpayer time, so if you find any errors, keep it to yourself because this is a rush job.

Aspen has recovered, lucky dog, but I am still feeling frazzled. Hope your day is more relaxed.

Be well, my friends.

Yesterday was supposed to be the last day of the insane schedule I put myself through. Turns out the universe is not quite ready to finish punishing me for over-committing myself.

Like the last dog-sitting stint, my friends are stuck in an airport far, far away.  This time at least I have nothing else planned so I’m able to hang out with sweet Gabby for another day without complications…well, I did have to order another dinner from door dash.

I was/am happy to help all my friends and I got so much from that conference, but I am exhausted.  

It’s not like the ridiculous pace stops once I’m home either. I literally have only one day on my calendar between now and the time I leave for Tennessee that does not have a happy hour, dinner, or activity planned. And I still need to pack.

All that being said though at least I’ll be in my bed tonight and for the next ten nights, then I’ll be in hers…or rather ours…and I can’t wait!

I admit to still being anxious about the move. Will I be able to adjust to small-town life in a very red state? I’m sad that Tennessee is worried that I won’t be happy there. I want to reassure her that I’ll be happy so long as we’re together, but I’m not sure I’m doing a very good job of that.

I have lived in a small town before, in Oklahoma, but that was a military town. By its very nature, it’s still pretty conservative. However, with the military comes the diversity and transience that airman or soldiers and their families bring which forces the outside world into its midst. The town doesn’t get to be insular. They can’t afford to be because local businesses depend on the goodwill of the military community.

Dunlap is not a military town and, according to my fiancé, until fairly recently it was a very traditional small southern town. Lately, however, there has been an influx of new blood as it is slowly becoming a bedroom community for Chattanooga. Hopefully, these new residents bring some cosmopolitan with them. Sadly though, those who move out past the suburbs do so typically because the city is too dangerous and they want to move to a safer place which usually reads as whiter and more conservative.

We’ll just have to wait and see because until I actually live there I won’t know if I can be happy living there. I do know that I am taking the right action, making the right effort, and doing the only thing that’s right for my life right now. I need to be with her. I don’t know that I’ve ever wanted anything more. Any decisions after that we’ll make together, whether we stay there, come back here, or scoop Mom up and find a new place altogether for the three of us.

Besides, the idiosyncrasies of small-town life might just be pure gold for blog entries and maybe even a book or two, so how can I not give it a chance? At the very least, I need to find out if that rooster has a name, if the Cookie Jar is going to re-open after the fire, and if Daizy, whose been missing for days, has been reunited with her family.

Be well, my friends.

Sorry y’all…got nothing in the tank this morning.

Quote (or maybe poem) of the Day:

“That Vizzini, he can *fuss*.

Fuss, fuss…I think he like to scream at *us*.

Probably he means no *harm*.

He really very short on *charm*.

You have a great gift for rhyme.

Yes, yes, some of the time.

Enough of that!

Are there rocks ahead?

If there are, we all be dead!

No more rhymes now, I mean it!

Anybody want a peanut?”

If you don’t know what this is, I’m not sure we can be friends.

Books

“Stars Collide” by Rachel Lacey

Sapphic romance I read for one of my book club groups. I used the audio function in Kindle Unlimited to listen to part of this book. I didn’t even know that was a thing until this book. The book was cute and fun and a nice easy read

“Weyward” by Emilia Hart

A cross-generation book about the witches of the Weyward family. It was such a good book, or at least most of it was. I can not attest to the last 40 minutes of the audiobook because I didn’t pay attention to how much time I had left on my loan from the library and it got yanked back before I could finish it…and the finale was almost at the peak! Now I have to wait another 12 weeks or buy the book. I haven’t decided yet.

Show I Binged

I binge-watched season two of Home Street, an Irish crime drama. I love my Brit Box subscription from Amazon Prime. I love the characters of this small town on the Irish coast. I hate that this series ends each season with a cliffhanger! Okay, I don’t hate it, but now I have to wait until they release season three. I really need to find shows that are finished with production.

Social Group Question

Where is one place you’ve traveled that you would tell everyone to go at least once in their life?

I thought about this for a long time and realized that I wasn’t able to answer it because I could not narrow it down to just one place. It got me thinking about how many amazing places I’ve been, and I think I might start doing periodic blogs on some of the most memorable. Might be fun to reminisce.  

My Wish

I’m meeting several different friends today as part of my ‘farewell tour’. My wish is that I could exist in two places at once. I have no regrets about the decision to move in with Tennessee, but if it were possible that she and I could be here or if I could bring all my friends with me there, I would totally make it happen.

Be well my friends.

Yesterday was pretty much a bare minimum day and I don’t expect much more from today. Frankly, I am exhausted. If it wasn’t for the fact that this sweet dog needs to go out I would not have even gotten out of bed this morning and I might even have called in sick.

Hopefully, the little shots of coffee my espresso-size Moka pot makes will gradually do their job. I don’t have high hopes, especially since it’s so gloomy outside. Of course cool and cloudy is not such a bad thing in the middle of July. At least the dog and I aren’t experiencing heatstroke when we leave the apartment.

As I write this I am listening to the sounds of this space. The balcony door is open, and I mostly hear the cars on the major road just a block from here. It’s morning rush hour traffic and I’m very glad I don’t have to be in one of those cars. I am going to miss that sound. From my window at home, it’s not nearly as loud but it is still part of the background noise of living here.

Two weeks from today my fiancé flies in to help me drive my stuff to my new home. Just that thought has me perking up (the shot of caffeine might be helping too). I’m getting so excited y’all.

I am nowhere near ready, but that doesn’t matter, which is very weird. I should be getting frantic about how much I still have left to do, but I’m not. I have faith that I will be able to get it all done. Mostly that comes from knowing that if I forget anything I can just buy another or have my mom ship it to me. It does take a lot of the stress away.

Just a little side note that has me a little less stressed also…I discovered DoorDash has finally arrived in Dunlap, Tennessee. I had a dasher pick up some basil plant grow pots and a bag of Funyons from Walgreens to deliver to the fiancé’s front porch.

There aren’t a lot of options, granted, but there are options, and she was delighted by the surprise.

It’s the little things, right?

Be well my friends.