A Most Unreliable Narrator Issue #158 Starry Night

When you wish upon a star

Dear Internet,

Hiatus

Hi there. How’s it going?

Damn, July went by fast. Friends and relatives were here or we were traveling every weekend but one in July. August looks to be the same. Coupled with work and regular life shit, I don’t think I could have kept up the newsletter in a timely manner. I’m so glad I took time off.

I think I’m going to do a hiatus twice a year: one in summer and the other in the winter. We don’t travel, or really move, that much in the winter, but this year we will be in the EU for over two weeks in November. It’ll be easier to take a least a few weeks off then.

The wedding reception I threw for us was a lot of fun! Except for a few couples who couldn’t make it, we drank and ate all night long. We would have closed the bar at 2 a.m. (when selling and buying alcohol ends for the night), but the pub closed at a 11! A bunch of us roamed the streets looking for another bar to continue the revelry, but all but one was closed and that one was slammed with the youths. We explored before going to the hotel to rest. The Canadians came for the reception and they're enjoyable! They drunkenly tried to get us to use the scooters which Mr Lisa and I vehemently denied. I have zero balance. Me on a scooter is dangerous and laughable.

The four of us had such a good time, we will meet in Vegas in December for a short weekend of debauchery. Tickets and hotels are booked and I’m looking forward to that.

Where’s Lisa?

The next few months is going to be a lot of travel. This month, I’m heading to Iowa to hang out with Erika and go to the Iowa State Fair. I’m super excited for corn fields! Butter cows! Many things fried! September is a girl’s trip to The Keys with some friends. October, we head down south, November is our Euro trip, and finally, Vegas in December.

Next year we’re tentatively going to Ireland in April. The owners of a local Irish pub we frequent are from Ireland and they organize “off the beaten track” tours around the Emerald Isle every year. We do not have any other plans for trips in 2024. Yet.

This year we planned all our trips out at the beginning of the year and there is some folly to that. I get four weeks and Mr Lisa gets six. With all the trip planning, I left myself a few days wiggle room but looks like I’ll be pulling PTO from next year to make up for gaps. Mr Lisa still has 1.5 weeks left so he’s taking some time off to fuck around this fall. I’m hoping if we don’t make the trip to Ireland in April, we go later in the year. Or to Scotland. Mr Lisa has never been to Scotland (I have) and I think he’ll love either country. (I haven’t been to Ireland myself but I do have friends who live there. One is an expat who moved over there about a year ago and so far, it seems like she loves it.)

Jane Fonda is My Hero

I continue to swim 2-3x a week. Twice at least because that is my lesson and I try to get in once on the weekend. Once lessons are over, I plan to keep up the day and time and just do my laps. Keep up the routine! Mr. Lisa is not a fan of waking up nice and early, so I may swap to after work so he can hit the gym too. If I get in at least twice a week for 30 minutes, or one mile (1760 yards), I’ll be happy.

(Hahaha! 1760 yards. A DREAM!)

The Apple Watch has a built-in workout app and under that app you can pick your workout. I choose Pool Swim and do my thing. What I really love is the data it kicks back:

How in the fuck did the magic watch know I was doing kickboards vs freestyle? Do I really want to know how it knows? (No, I do not but when the revolution happens, I’ll be on the side of the resistance.)

There are pauses (instructor talking to me) and swims that interchange strokes, so the timing is off. But I don’t know what kind of time to look for so I don’t feel like I’m not making goals. Kristin tipped me off some YT videos of swim tips from triathletes. No, I will not do tris but any help is good help.

The goal is to find a master’s league to compete in. I’m feeling pretty encouraged by my instructor. I’m picking things up quickly and eventually I’ll just get my time up. I’ve dropped running as the ultimate exercise goal because running is boring, even with podcasts, and I like the way my body feels when I swim. And I get excited about swimming. When we start our lesson, I do a lap and then another lap at the end. We work on kicks, breathing (blow those bubbles!), and strokes. I could probably do only laps now but I’m hesitant. Don’t know why, I just am. I still haven’t learned how to do the flip at the end of the lane to start the next lap so maybe next week.

Social Meedja

As it is written, so it shall be: Twitter is now dead and replaced by X which is why? I’ve deleted all my Twitter accounts except for @heroineinabook and @excssvlydvrtng which are now private. I moved and post on both accounts to their Mastodon counterparts @heroineinabook and @excessivelydiverting.

I’m genuinely surprised @excessivelydiverting is doing so well on Mastodon. There are not a lot of Austen/Bronte accounts (um, I don’t think I’ve found one) on Mastodon but people seem to like the updates I provide and the general Austen/Bronte chit-chat. The Twitter account was active and so many Austen/Bronte related accounts to follow. Despite all of that, I’m gaining users and people seem happy, so moving that account over I feel is a good choice.

I got on Bluesky and so far, it’s fine. I like Mastodon a lot better because following hashtags allows me to curate a list to follow both niche and broad. I’ve met loads of new people via Mastodon and it’s just overall fun. I’m noticing Bluesky takes more work. I’m trying to piecemeal the content across the two services, so if someone follows me on both services, they are not getting duplicate content.

I posted this on Bluesky Thursday morning:

And it’s true! How I interact with people varies from site to site. I accidentally found a friend on Bluesky that on other sites they are quiet but good lord are they chatty on Bluesky.

I think part of the attraction of Bluesky is its closed ecosystem. You need an invite either from Bluesky’s waitlist or from someone on the service. You can’t read the timeline unless you’re on the service. It gives some protection. It’s been around since 2021 so it’s new but not new new.

If you want to be friends, you can find me across the interwebs at https://linktr.ee/heroineinabook.

(I’m also on a score of Discords and Slacks but that is server dependent.)

Oh! Another thing I did was delete excessivelydiverting.net and pointed the URL to its Facebook page. I wasn’t keeping up on the blog posts other than the quarterly update on the Jane Austen/Bronte TV and mini-series page and I was posting articles and commentary on FB/Twitter and the website seemed useless.

The Austen/Bronte TV and mini-series list is now at exitpursuedbyabear.net/streaming-jane-austen-and-the-brontes/ (updated quarterly) and put a cravat on it is also on EPBAB. Put a Cravat on It is a list of over 300 period (pre-1950) TV and mini-series (updated yearly). Both lists contain links to the streaming site that hosts it.

Fat Girl Surgery Update

In addition to swimming twice a week, I started yoga twice a week, and walking the hill near our house. The schedule is: yoga M/W, swimming T/Th, and walking on F. Weekends are free for all. Per Mr Lisa, even though the weight coming off is glacial (I know why, trying to fix it), he claims I’m getting smaller with all the exercise. I think he’s full of shit because I’ve only been on this schedule for about a month. Yoga is gentle and for balance/strength and walking is for the ass and legs. Swimming is the cardio.

Another thing I’m going to throw in is hiring a personal trainer once a week. The more I lose, the more I’m seeing body parts jiggling that do not need to be jiggling. Exercise may not help these body parts, but all I can do is try.

(Once my weight stabilizes in a few years, I have plans for plastic surgery on my tummy area. Under arms and upper thighs are creeping in as a possibility. I’d love to just love my body the way it is but body dysmorphia wins again!)

Starry Night

When I was a kid, I wanted to be an astronomer. I joined the astronomy club, read Sky & Telescope, and everything. My poor performance in math and science prevented me from pursuing this as a profession. Undiagnosed, and untreated, ADHD and bipolar (at the time) server me a rotten dish.

Fast forward many years and I got to thinking, seriously, of going back to college and get my degree in astrophysics. I would need to do at least two years of undergrad, possibly three, hope to hell to get into a master’s program, and if I wanted to go on to a PhD program, many more years. If everything went accordingly plan, if, I would be nearing 60 before I was done.

There are always lots of stories about the olds even graduating from high school at an advanced ago but I wondered if I loved the idea of more schooling at my age to be worth it?

The answer was not so much.

So, I got to thinking about a woman in her late 30s/early 40s who raised her siblings, and they have all flown the roost. Terrifically smart, she was an office manager for an advertising company. Her life is fine, but she isn’t happy being content. She wants more.

A chance encounter with an old mentor from community college days prompts her to start thinking maybe she can do it. Maybe she can go back to college, get her degree, and become an astronomer.

And thus begins the story of an advanced learner (fucking hated this term when I was in college) making a 180-degree shift. How is she going to pay for it? How is she going to live? What about her long-term partner, how are they going to support, or not support, her? How’s her family going to react? How does she feel about herself? What about her job? Is she going to be full time? Part-time? What does she expect from her education? Does she have a backup plan?

There is a lot to consider.

Luckily, I know people who know people. And by people I mean women who work in the astrophysics field. I’ve got a lovely list of women to interview when I get my head on straight.

I joined two astronomy clubs: one in N. Michigan and the other in Kentucky. I subscribe to astronomy and space podcasts and subscribe to newsletters. I’m throwing myself into her world so I can write eloquently and convincingly about this woman’s struggles and triumphs.

If I can’t do it, I’ll make sure someone else can.

In other astronomy news, I dug out the telescope Mr Lisa received for his 10 or 15 year recognition award from his place of work. It’s been so long since we’ve had it, the eye pieces are still wrapped up in bubble wrap. I’m reading the instruction manual and by the time you’ve read this, I’ll have, hopefully, viewed the Perseid meteor shower. The other night when Steph was here, I dragged her to walk ¼ of a mile to a spot for us to go star hunting. The sky was a bit hazy. We saw very little. Mars and Venus were not available, and Pluto was below the horizon.  

I also learned how to take night photos, particularly for moon and space, on my phone. One reason I bought the iPhone 14 Pro was to take these shots. Here’s hoping the sky gets clearer by the time you have read this.

Other newsletter updates and publications

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Wonderful Thing

51 Stories in 51 Weeks

I hope my short 51-word snippets have been enjoyable for you. Open rates are high, and no one has unsubscribed, and I take that as a win.

I never imagined this project would be so difficult. Writing 51 word stories is hard, takes time, and lots of imagination. I’m heavily struggling with ideas and have been pulling bits from previous works and whittling them down to size to fill the quota.

I set a reminder on Tuesdays to write them, so I don’t forget again, but it’s now Friday and I have yet to whip up a story for this Monday.

I’m making this a Wonderful Thing because I’m still working on the project and I haven’t dropped it. I’ll check in on week twenty-six and see how I feel then.