Tag: the hero’s journal

Sidequests for December Part 2

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There are mostly fails, though some things are resulting in plans for the next few months. The ones that will eventually get done include playing a board game (my boyfriend is curious about the big Descent box I’ve got sitting with my game stuff, and I’ve never really played it either, so we may break it out and try it soon), working out (owing to the revolving door nature of the most stereotypical New Year’s Resolution, and an ongoing gym membership I haven’t been utilizing), cleaning out my car (keep telling myself I will, but lazy and it’s cold out), and visiting a local museum (less than local, but I’ve been wanting to check out the museum of osteology in OKC).

There were a few that I might have done but I didn’t really pick out one particular moment or instance for it. One card said to put on my favorite outfit. I don’t really have a particular favorite, but I do have some clothes I tend to gravitate to, and I’ve worn those multiple times this month. One involves doing something kind that my future self will appreciate. I’m sure I’ve done something or other at some point or other.

Then there were simpler creative ones that I could say I definitely did. One included building a Lego set (or doing a puzzle) and I had actually bought some Lego sunflowers a few months ago. So I finally sat myself down and put them together. The other included making or crafting something by hand, and quite similarly I had bought a Woobles kit months ago and never gotten to it. So I did that. The end result is cute but also kinda not and crocheting just really cramps my hands. I don’t think I’ll ever get into it.

But sometimes you don’t know what sorts of things you’ll enjoy until you try them.

The last two are basically the same thing. One is to write a poem, and the other is to write a poem or song about something I experience that day. I don’t mind writing poems, but have been feeling fairly uninspired, so despite them seeming like simple ones to complete I’ve saved them very last minute.

I suppose it would be cheating to do one and say it counts for both? So how about two very off-the-cuff haiku.

Quick one about something that happened today:

You are a grown man
Talk on your own damn cellphone
What in the fuck, dude

First customer I helped today called his doctor’s office and then proceeded to hold up his phone so I could talk to them for him. I don’t mind when someone presents with an issue and talking directly to the doctor’s office will help solve it (usually in that case I’m dialing the doc myself). But this was someone calling for refills. I already sent a request for that as well. After I make the verbal request for him because he had shoved his phone up to my face to speak for him, he asked the office staff, “so can you just tell the pharmacy to fill it for me?” and was told that the doctor would have to review it and send the refill later. This is pretty standard for most doctor offices, but completely boggled him, and he seemed to think it was stupid that he’d have to wait.

Next quicky haiku:

quick, eager, happy
a morning smile to greet me
on this lazy day

I will try to make up for lazy poetry’ness in April. We are doing a more laid back April Poetry Month, updating either Tuesday or Wednesday every week. Since there are 5 of those in April, there will be 5 weekly poems that month. I will also be updating tomorrow with the new conditions for the 2025 Writing Challenge my friend and I will be doing, and I will update later tonight with my reading list for 2024.

As far as the Sidequests go, I think they were pretty fun, even though I mostly failed or lazied out of a lot of it. None of them were too hard or impossible, and for some that might be difficult they provide alternatives. There are some cards that don’t take a situation into consideration (farmer’s markets aren’t daily, so that would have to be a repull if you got it on a non-farmer’s market day, and depending on the weather I might not want to complete a few of the things). I might randomly pull cards on the occasional bored day off for ideas in the future. Compared to some other challenge cards and books I’ve seen, none of these were out to push you too far out of your boundaries. I definitely recommend them.

Sidequests for Dec. Part 1

On By MaryIn SidequestsLeave a comment

Looking through the remaining Sidequests, I pulled out some of the ones I likely won’t do at all. Those include dancing like no one is watching (I don’t dance period), making the lighting warm and ambient in my space (unless lighting a candle counts, which I do on occasion – I already use curtains that let in plenty of natural light because I love natural light, and I have no plans to switch out lightbulbs), and building a blanket fort (which sounds like loads of fun, but a little less so when my partner in crime has a broken arm). I also have a card saying to prep a few healthy meals, but my boyfriend keeps cooking. He usually does make plenty that I can eat for a few days, so I guess that counts? It’s maybe not healthy? But better than eating out all the time?

I wasn’t super intent on picking up trash around my neighborhood, but I’ve had a friend that’s been on a mission to pick up a bag of trash a week for a year, and she’s been way ahead on her goal for that and still going. I asked her if she would do a bag for me as well, and she obliged.

Some of the easier ones have also been done. I baked something from scratch quite a few times this month. Last week I made cinnamon rolls as part of a holiday thing for work, and made 3 trays of it. I also said the ABCs backwards, probably very incorrectly, and I splurged on some spendier chocolates to snack on as well.

One was unintentionally completed the other day. My boyfriend usually leaves some of his stuff on the front porch when he goes out to sit and smoke, and someone stole his brand new earbuds he got as a gift. The app showed them at a neighbor’s house, but I thought that was strange because the neighbors in question are an older lady and her wheelchair bound father, and I doubted they’d be roaming the neighborhood snatching things off porches. We asked nicely and she let us walk around her property, and then we climbed into the concrete ditch to walk up and down it a bit and check. I think that counts as somewhere nearby I’ve never been before, because I’ve never walked along any of the ditches here.

The other two easy ones included getting a new plant for my space (the third and final one) and going to a local coffee shop. Since it’s Christmas, the available plants included poinsettias or mini living Christmas trees, so I got one of the trees. Both options are poisonous for cats, but the tree might actually be able to survive outside. We’ll see. There’s also a local coffee shop on my way to work that opened up just this year, and I enjoy having an excuse to visit them.

I don’t know for sure if I will complete all of the remaining sidequests, but they’re fairly simple ones that I have the means to do. I’ll do another update closer to the end of the year with the remaining cards.

As for the reasoning on why they got derailed – my boyfriend got hit by a car when he was coming home from work on November 24th. He was on a scooter. The driver was a 19 year old boy with no driver’s license AND no car insurance. He has a separated shoulder joint and a broken arm, and had loads of bruises that have mostly healed up. He also possibly had some broken ribs because he hasn’t been able to get comfortable/is very sore all through his chest and back, and a mild concussion that they didn’t think required a neurologist. Because it involved a vehicle, his insurance initially pushed back saying the car insurance should pay, which is problematic when the only person in the accident that should have had car insurance didn’t. He’s been out of work (thankfully his job is safe, they already told him they’d take him back as soon as he was well), and very miserable, but we’re getting it figured out.

Sidequests Week 45

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A late update! Another cat with ringworm. Fun times.

This week’s were pretty simple, but I still kind of failed this week’s sidequests as well. They included watching or reading something that makes me laugh, writing a letter or email to an astronaut, and puring my closet of old clothes and donating them.

Finding something that makes me laugh isn’t hard, I rewatched the new Deadpool movie, and have been reading a book series called Dungeon Crawler Carl that does have moments that make me laugh out loud. But that was the only one I really completed.

No matter where I shuffle it, I don’t think I’ll be writing a letter to an astronaut. Reaching out to random strangers to bother them isn’t a thing I’m comfortable doing, even when I’m a huge fan or thankful for someone’s service. If writing to an astronaut to spread a little positivity is something you’ve never thought of but now kind of think is cool, the card does say that the mailing info can be found on NASA’s website. Browsing the site myself, it’s a little hard to find. They do offer their social media links if those exist. A google search says that letters can be sent in NASA’s care addressed to certain astronauts, but that particular address is provided as answer to a question from 1998 – it could still be valid, I suppose. It actually kind of sounds like this is a bit harder to complete unless I choose an astronaut first, do a bit of cyberstalking, and then use the contact information on their personal sites or DM them through social media.

The clothing purge is a bit harder as well because I’ve already done it from another deck earlier in the year and I’m not the sort of person that owns and buys loads and loads of clothes. I have some clothes that are close to falling apart, but I would feel donating something like that.

So kind of a fail week, after a missed week. Kind of reminds me how it became harder to stay on top of the writing challenge at the end of last year as well.