This week’s sidequests included a few that got shifted around. One was supposed to be next week’s, but the perfect opportunity for it arose this week. The other was supposed to be a few weeks ago but kept getting shuffled back because my schedule kept interfering with it. The sidequests included fixing something broken in my home (or if nothing is broken, learn a life hack to make a task easier), to go to a restaurant I’ve never tried but always wanted to, and to write down the things I want to accomplish.

The broken item one was moved up because… quite conveniently (inconveniently?)… my oven broke this past week. I recently started dating a guy who noticed that the oven light was out and decided he wanted to fix that for me. When he went to pull the bulb out, it zapped him and caused a power surge that made the oven’s control panel die. The stove appeared to work fine at least. He felt really bad about it and offered to buy a brand new stove/oven similar to what I have, but in researching it, it looked like the oven control panel just needed to be replaced. I reassured him I could probably hire an appliance repair person.

When he mentioned it to a friend of his, his friend noted that it was an easy thing to switch out and he could probably do it himself if we got the part. With a little bit of research, I found that the part had been discontinued, but was still being sold used on eBay for roughly about $50. I ordered it and when it arrived he took care of fixing it, noting that it was so easy I probably could have done it myself. The new control panel didn’t come with the faceplate, so we used the old one, but it got a little damaged pulling it off. I’ve ordered a new one and will fix it myself next week from what I learned watching my boyfriend fix the oven.

We also got the oven light replaced, so everything works now.

The next task that I had been putting off involved going to a restaurant I’ve heard of but never tried. There’s a local German restaurant that’s tucked away off the main boulevards but I’ve always heard it was good. I’ve never tried going though. I mentioned it to a friend, but because of some trips she was going on and my work schedule and the times the place is open, we couldn’t work anything out. We did finally work out something for this weekend though, and went to Mutti’s German Restaurant. They seem to specialize in pork schnitzel, which I’d never had before. It was delicious. They also had an array of cakes to choose from that all looked so good that we each left with slices from two different cakes. We’re definitely going to go back at some point.

The last one is to write down the things I want to accomplish. I’ve never been great at setting goals or following through with them, or New Years Resolutions or anything of that sort. But I do have 3 major goals for this year:

1. Finish the rewrites and edits and publish my book.
2. Lose weight! (isn’t that everyone’s goal though?)
3. Try to update the blog more regularly with a short story, a poem, and a painting. (I have done awful at this. I make no apologies.)

Maybe I can at least accomplish one by next year? We’ll see.

The sidequests for this week were to pour and finish a tall glass of water, compliment someone, and learn something new about my town’s history.

The water was easy – I didn’t really pour it into a glass, but I do try to finish a bottle of water most days. I fail most days too, but I did succeed a few times, so I’ll call that a win.

It’s hard for me to compliment people because they always assume I’m being sarcastic and insincere. When I attempted to compliment someone, the response was, “Don’t condescend me!” Alas. But the attempt was made.

Learning something new about my town’s history was a little happenstancey – I already knew about Chief Quanah Parker, but recently a post was circulating on Facebook where someone shared pictures of his house. Apparently there was bad flooding several years ago and the property is badly damaged, they didn’t think it was going to survive much longer. So the poster had taken as many pictures as possible to share for posterity.

Officially halfway through my sidequest decks!

The sidequests for this week were to spend 5 minutes in silent reflection, to read by candlelight, and to go to a place that means a lot to me.

Is it cheating if the place that means a lot to me is my own house? It’s nice to have your own space. On my day off, I spent the entire day at home, and while I did get some cleaning and laundry done, I spent most of it napping, lounging, and reading.

Five minutes of silent contemplation is also easy. Not quite the same as meditating, so I counted my journal writing time toward this sidequest. It does require some contemplation, after all, to reflect on recent events and to plan for future ones, which is most of what goes into my journaling.

The reading by candlelight was too much of a strain on my eyes and I quit after 1 paragraph. So there was a bit of cheating there because I did not do it very long. I am very grateful for electricity, but I was already thankful for that owing to the fact that it’s summer and over 100 quite regularly here, and I get to stay quite comfortable despite that.

So, kind of easy and cheaty this week as well, and I have been slacking on writing and poetry (and everything else!) Oh well! I am halfway done at least.