Author: Mary

Things and such.

Sidequests Week 32

On By MaryIn SidequestsLeave a comment

My sidequests for this week included going to a farmer’s market, breaking a large overwhelming challenge into smaller tasks, and organizing the files on my computer.

The farmer’s market quest was mentioned last week. Several years ago, the town I live in started having a Farmer’s Market during certain times of the year on Saturdays. It was successful enough that they decided to put it in its own building and have it year round every Saturday. Despite that, I’ve never been to it, so I texted a friend to ask if she wanted to check it out since I was having lunch with her that day anyway. I picked her up and we browsed and bought several things we probably didn’t need. It was quite crowded, but a lot of fun. There were the food vendors that you would expect – people selling many varieties of jarred fruits and vegetables, fresh fruits and vegetables, and some of the unique things they make from their farms. There were also a lot of artisans selling crochet and knit art, wood carvings, jewelry, soap, candles, and other custom made products. Two different wineries had trucks present offering wine samples.

While there, I bought cookies, a crochet cat in my favorite color, cinnamon flavored spun honey, and some loose leaf lavender tea. We sampled some of the wines at one of the trucks, and they had a seasonal flavor made from coconut lime. As strange as that sounds for a wine flavor, it tasted delicious, so I bought a bottle. I also bought two necklaces and a farmer’s market bag. It was a lot of fun. I also heard a lot of the vendors say they weren’t always there, which makes me think that it can be a different experience every time if there were other vendors not present as well, so it seems like something worth checking out on a semi-regular basis.

Last year I organized quite a lot of the files on my computer, so they weren’t desperately out of order. The organization process was pretty short and mostly just involved going through the files in my downloads folder that hadn’t been shifted to their correct locations (or deleted if no longer needed). So I cleared out that folder, and that task was done.

The large overwhelming task is a card that I keep shuffling back because I can’t think of what task that might be. I have been piecemeal working on getting things ready for some personal life changes, and took care of some things related to that this week as well. So even though I’m not going into details about it, I’ll consider that finally done.

Sidequests Week 31

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The sidequests for this week included writing down my favorite quote backwards and looking at it in the mirror, making a list of five important people in my life and what I love about them, and to do a random act of kindness.

I didn’t really plan out any of my acts of kindness, I’m mostly just attempting to harvest my memory for them from the past week. Sometimes it can get busy when you work in a customer service oriented job, and there’s not enough help and the lines get backed up, but I still do my best to take the time to help everyone, even with things not necessarily related to my job. I had a customer approach who was confused by the new back to school supplies lists because the place where I work has made them digital – you have to scan a QR code, which takes you to the app for our store chain, and from there do a search for the town and school. I took the time to go out and try to help her figure out how to do that on her phone – it turned out she didn’t have the app though. Instead, I pulled the info up on my phone to verify for her that the list wasn’t available for her grandson’s school.

It took a little extra time, but she didn’t have to struggle trying to find it later on her own, only to see that there was nothing for her to find.

Let’s see. The five important people in my life and what I love about them:

  1. My childhood best friend: I love having the one person in my life that knows probably literally everything that goes on in it and shows a genuine interest.
  2. My OK bestie: I love that we have so many common interests and get each other’s jokes (and torture).
  3. My mom: I love that she is always willing to immediately offer help, even when I don’t really need it or ask for it.
  4. My online bestie: I have always loved how easy he is to get along with. And torture.
  5. My boyfriend: The relationship is still kind of new so I feel like this could age poorly if things go downhill. But so far, I love how comfortable he makes me feel.

Hmm. It was a little hard to list what I specifically loved about each of them in that way. It makes it sound like I use them and torture them to some extend. Maybe I should try a different way of listing things I appreciate about them? Though if I do, it honestly feels way more private and like less of something I would stick on a blog. So maybe I will elaborate the list in my journal tonight, and consider that sidequest done.

A favorite quote is hard to choose for me because there are very few things I’ve had lingering in my head verbatim. Favorites tend to come and go for me, and can change over time. There’s not really any quote that’s been so significant it ever felt like it changed my life. So what quote do I choose?

It’s a Simpson’s quote. It is strangely the only quote I have memorized verbatim since my childhood. It may not even be verbatim.

I did pretty good but fucked up one of the s’s. Alas. Helps that half the letters I use look the same no matter which way I write it. (t’s, i’s, l’s, o’s)

Anyhow, with that we’re finishing out week 31! These are getting a little harder to do because there have been so many distractions lately, and so a little more shifting around has occurred. Of course, there is a pretty major reason I shifted one card a week later from this week – as a spoiler, I pulled a card saying to visit a Farmer’s Market. The local Farmer’s Market is only open on Saturdays year round, and I happened to work this Saturday, so initially shifted it because of that.

But then I found out afterwards that this week (8/3 to 8/10) is Farmer’s Market week! So it’s a perfect opportunity to visit one if you never have.

Sidequests Week 30

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The sidequests for this week were to pick out my best pair of socks and wear them, to write a story for 5 minutes, and to have my favorite meal.

I decided to use a foot mask at the beginning of this week, and while the skin is peeling afterwards, it’s usually a good idea to wear socks. That way you don’t leave large flakes of dead skin everywhere you walk. It’s super disgusting, but the process does leave your feet very smooth! So I pretty much went through all of my socks this entire week. In fairness, I don’t own a lot – I own some nice cushiony cotton socks for work, and I have some kitty ankle socks I had received as a gift, so I wore those to bed.

I also filled the week with quite a few of my favorite meals. I had pizza, and chicken, and made cinnamon rolls. Then to finish out, I made a soup I enjoy a lot. It makes a lot, so I’ll be able to eat it for dinner through half of next week.

The story that I wrote yesterday was the result of writing for 5 minutes. In truth, the entire story took me closer to 15 to write and post, so I exceeded the 5 minute mark, although I did do it fairly last minute (Sunday.) Sometimes these cards get put off for the weekend though.

Last Words

On By MaryIn Prompts, WritingLeave a comment

The prompt cards for this were “grandparent” and “phone call at 3 a.m.”

It was fairly easy to see that it had to be the most generic of generic ass ghost stories. So, here you go.

          Dana woke as the phone ring, her hand grasping for the device blindly in the dark. As she raised the lit screen to her face, she grimaced and cursed. Who calls at 3 a.m.? The number was listed as unknown. She answered it, angrily growling, “What?”

          The line was silent, then cut out. Groaning, she slapped the phone back down onto the bed next to her. She lay awake, anger coursing through her, unable to sleep. She was still awake when her alarm clock went off.

          The news was surprising and not surprising at the same time. Her grandmother had been in hospice for a long time, her health fading fast. She was unable to talk coherently or take care of herself, and hadn’t been able to for the longest time. The nurses had warned her mother that she was no longer eating. She had died sometime in the middle of the night.

          Dana cried some in the bathroom at work, but mostly managed to hold it together. Her entire family had known this moment was coming. Every phone call from the nursing home was always met with some level of dread for the news it might carry. But even knowing what was going to happen hadn’t quite cleared the sudden shock of sadness that Dana felt when she finally got the message from her mom. It didn’t help that she’d had so little sleep.

          The shrill sound of her ringtone woke her again. Dana sat up, frowning at the screen. Unknown caller. 3 a.m. again. She groaned and grabbed the phone, ignoring the call. Tomorrow I’m going to turn the ringer off, she told herself.

          Even with the ringer off, the screen lighting up and the vibration of her phone still brought her to consciousness briefly. Not enough to annoy her as badly as it had the previous nights, at least. As she drifted back to sleep, she saw that it was 3 a.m. again.

          The wake was simple – her grandmother had outlived many of her friends, so it was mostly a small family reunion. As sad as the circumstances were, Dana did enjoy the chance to meet with her cousins, whom she hadn’t seen in a few years. Her favorite cousin, Rachel, was a little subdued and looked pale. “What’s the matter?” Dana asked her when she had a chance to speak to her alone.

          “I got a strange phone call. The night grandma died.” Rachel sighed. “Some woman’s voice just said “I love you” and hung up. I didn’t even think about it, but I was just talking to your mom and she said grandma died at the same time as the phone call. I remembered because it was such a weird time of night to call.”

          Dana felt a shiver run up her spine. “What time?”

          “3 a.m.”

          Dana felt the blood drain from her face and her mouth gaped open as she struggled for a moment over whether to tell Rachel about the phone calls she had received or not. After a moment, she decided to keep it to herself.

          That night, Dana didn’t sleep. She sat up, anxiously glancing at her phone as the time ticked closer to 3. When the phone rang, she grabbed it, immediately answering. “Grandma?” she asked.

          The line was silent for a moment. The slightly tinny, staticky voice of a woman came through. Faintly, it said, “I love you.”

          “I love you too,” Dana said immediately, but the line was already dead.

          The phone calls stopped after that.

Sidequests Week 29

On By MaryIn RandomLeave a comment

The sidequests for this week were all fairly simple ones – I needed to do a load of laundry, watch a documentary, and learn something new about space exploration.

I do laundry weekly, so that was done with my weekly cleaning.

And then I knocked the other two out at the same time by watching a documentary about the Hubble telescope. While I’ve always enjoyed the images that the Hubble produced, I wasn’t very aware of its history. The documentary I watched is available on Disney+ and is called Hubble’s Cosmic Journey. It’s not very long at all either.

So that was a very simple week.