Currently [Vol. 17]

Considering how short this month has been, I’m surprised just how much I managed to fit into February. I read a ton of books, watched a lot of TV (due to a virus and weather being rude to my joints), made a pretty big decision … you get the idea. There’s a lot to cover in this post, so let’s get into it!

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Currently, I’m … 

reading … The Handmaid’s Tale; Life after Life; Three Sisters, Three Queens; A Column of Fire; Drums of Autumn – The Handmaid’s Tale has been on my TBR list for a while now, but I finally bit the bullet because my sister has a copy and she’ll be moving within the next few months. I wanted to read it before she left and took it with her. I think I finished it in 2 days – I couldn’t put it down. Next up: the show! I started Life after Life at the end of January, and it was another where I kept reading and reading. The premise is a woman gets reborn in her life over and over; I say “in her life” because she is born to the same parents in the same year living the same life every year. It was a really interesting read! (You should be forewarned, though – it has rape, the Holocaust, Hitler, WWII, and more in it.) Next, I read Three Sisters, Three Queens, which is about Margaret, King Henry VIII’s older sister; Catherine, his first wife; and Mary, his younger sister. It’s told from the perspective of Margaret, who goes on to marry the King of Scotland, and it follows from when Catherine arrives in England to marry Henry’s older brother to when Henry forcibly divorces her. It was so good that I had a book hangover after; I just needed to sit and ponder the book. I can’t recommend it enough!

I’ve also been listening to A Column of Fire on Audible. It’s about a young man who becomes a spy for Elizabeth I (yes, I’m a fan of books about the Tudors) and his family, as well as a French spy for Mary, Queen of Scots’s family. It’s in the same series as the books Pillars of the Earth and World without End, but you don’t need to read those to read A Column of Fire. The only connection between them is that A Column of Fire takes place in the same town as the other two books, just hundreds of years later. (Pillars of the Earth is in the 12th century, World without End is in the 14th, and A Column of Fire is in the 16th.) Finally, I’ve also been reading Drums of Autumn, which is the fourth in the Outlander series. They’re filming the fourth season of the show right now, and I wanted to reread the book well before the show came out. Now that I’m reading it, I’m reminded of just why this is one of my favorites in the series. The Frasers are in the colony of North Carolina and are creating a homestead after years of not having a home, and their daughter Brianna is in the 20th century finding her way without her mother, who has gone back to the 18th century.

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hoping for … a successful surgery, calm recovery, my new POTS medicine to kick in – As I announced on Facebook, I’m having a kinda-intense ankle surgery on March 15. I’ve had this surgery before, but on my other ankle, and it works wonders, so I’m positive. But I’m mostly hoping that we can do everything possible for my ankle this surgery and then I’ll never need another ankle surgery again. They’ll put in a screw to fuse my ankle and, if necessary, do a bone graft to fill in cysts on my ankle. Those cysts are the only part of this surgery related to RA; everything else is from another condition. But if I need those cysts filled in at some point in my life, I would rather do it now so I never have to have ankle surgery again. I’m also hoping for a calm recovery, which feels like wishful thinking, to be honest. My body will flip out because of surgery. I’m just hoping that it’s manageable and I’m not hospitalized any longer than I have to be. On another medical note, I started a new POTS medication a few weeks ago. It’s only doing small things right now, so I’m hoping that it kicks in so my POTS is managed before I have surgery.

listening to … my working playlist mostly – I’m been pretty loyal to this playlist this past month. It has most genres of music out there and lasts for 8 and a half hours! I update it regularly.

looking forward to … being on the other side of this surgery, being done editing TLM – I won’t say much about the surgery because I’ve already said a lot, but man am I looking forward to be over the surgery and onto the recovery. The recovery is rough, but I honestly just want to get it over with. As for TLM (my second novel), editing it has been really difficult. I have such an emotional connection to every aspect of it because I wrote it, but I know that it’s for the best to get rid of or change some things. It still needs to go through a couple more rounds of my editing it before I take it to a professional, and I’m looking forward to getting to that point.

wearing … simple makeup, my favorite new sweater from Madewell, my claddagh necklace, comfortable and stylish clothes – I got knocked out for about half of the month because I got a virus and a sinus infection, and then we had weather all over the place that left me barely able to do anything at all. Because of this, my motto this month has been minimal makeup and comfortable clothes.

Sweater | Pants | Shoes

Foundation | Powder | Mascara | Eyeliner | Brow Gel | Liquid Highlighter

thankful for … my awesome medical team, my support system, and Harley – I am so, so grateful for my amazing medical team. They work together to help me and pretty much everyone is on board to prepare me for surgery as much as possible. But I wouldn’t be able to do this without my support system, namely my family and friends. They make all of this a lot easier to handle. And of course Harley makes me feel better, too! He’s getting so big.

loving … reading regularly again – It was really hard to read for fun when I was in school because I was reading so much for it, but I’m fully back into the swing of reading for fun regularly again and it’s amazing. I hope I can keep this up.

feeling … slightly nervous for surgery but happy that I’m almost off of steroids for the time being – I think the first thing here is self-explanatory, but I need to talk about something I’m super excited about: I’m on the lowest dose of steroids that I’ve ever been on in 4+ years. I’m currently down to 4mg a day, and on Tuesday I’ll go down to 2. This is only temporary because I have to go on a stress dose for surgery, but I’m SO happy to be down to this dose. I’ve had to decrease it really slowly (2mg every 2 week) because of how long I’ve been on steroids, but I know now that I can do this. I might be able to go off of steroids after my body calms down after surgery. It’s an amazing feeling.

watching … The Bachelor, Daredevil, Luke Cage, the Olympics, CSI, Elementary – So I didn’t start watching The Bachelor in January when it started, but when I got a virus the first couple of days of February, I got all caught up. To be completely honest, I read the spoilers and then new that I HAD to watch it. The finale is going to be good, let me tell you. I also watched all of Daredevil and started to watch Luke Cage. I’m hoping to watch The Defenders when I’m on bedrest, and since that’s about multiple characters from multiple Marvel shows, I want to watch the other shows before I watch The Defenders. Daredevil was really good, and I’m a little sad that none of you told me that it’s about a sad, dramatic Catholic asshole because I would have watched it a lot sooner if I knew that. I’m only in the first few episodes of Luke Cage because of the Olympics, but I’m loving that so far.

And the the Olympics! Oh my goodness, how I love the winter games. I always forget just how much I love it. I’m a Maine girl, so I love winter and pretty much all of the winter sports. Plus, someone from my high school was on the biathlon team! She was a senior when I was a freshman, but it was a small enough school that I knew who she was. I am, however, annoyed that all of the hockey games were in the middle of the night because I. love. hockey. And for some reason, that wasn’t one of the sports replayed during the day! So I’m bitter about that.

But I also watched CSI and Elementary. I had seen pretty much all of CSI except for the last season, so I got caught up on that, and I’ve started rewatching Elementary. I’m trying to reduce my TV time in the evening, so I’m starting with watching something that I’ve already seen while I read because I’m used to the stimuli. Then, thirty minutes to an hour before I go to bed, I turn off the TV and just read.

Enjoy an extra Harley pic, just because!

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