It’s hard to believe that today is the last day of August. Where did the summer go? There’s a whole list of summer-related activities I wanted to do this year but alas. Unlike last summer when I had to practically raise a puppy, I really don’t have much of an excuse on why I couldn’t knock some things off that list. Maybe I took the phrase “lazy summer days” too much to heart?
Despite my lack of activities these past 3-4 months, I’m actually looking forward to autumn. And, yeah, I know that fall technically doesn’t occur for another three weeks, but in my mind, it starts once Labor Day weekend is over. Although, I’ve already seen Halloween decorations in certain retail stores and Starbucks is selling their Pumpkin Spice drinks, so I guess corporate America believes that summer ended last month?
Anyway. Spring is actually my favorite season, but there’s something about autumn that usually brings about all sorts of exciting changes. I’m not in school anymore – so I don’t have to stress out about the upcoming school year – but I’ll be meeting my new bible study group in three weeks. To be fair, most of the individuals from my last group will be sticking around, but now we’ll be receiving a round of new people too. And there’s been a slight change in leadership (because two of them got “promoted”).
College football has also started! I was heartened to see MSU win yesterday, but I don’t really want to discuss the quality of their gameplay. NFL is still in preseason, but my brother has always been passionate about football, so the TV constantly has some sort of football game on during the weekends.
And I don’t know about you, but I’m beginning to get tired of BBQs. Bring on the cider and donuts! Or apple crisp anything. I don’t like the taste of pumpkin, though, so you can keep all your pumpkin products to yourself.
I also think fall fashion is the best. I can start wearing boots instead of flip-flops. And even though I’m not much of a sweater person, fall clothing is all about being cozy minus the bulkiness of the winter cold.
Know what else occurs in fall? More books!
Spring is the season to promote debut authors, summer is for the beach read, and autumn is for the heavy-hitter/popular authors and books more on the literary side. (And winter is basically used to promote holiday shopping. It’s purely a business thing. The publishing houses hope that the novels they sell in autumn will carry them over financially until the spring.)
During the month of September and October, there are nine books being published that I plan on picking up. My birthday is in the middle of October, so these books always serve as easy gifts from my family. Because I’m told I’m difficult to shop for.
However, this isn’t good news for my pile of unread books sitting on my dresser. It’s currently at 17. I was able to catch up a little during the summer - since I wasn’t buy that many books - but still.
Last week, I finished reading SEAFIRE by Natalie C. Parker. I was pleasantly surprised by its non-stop action. Definitely had a summer vibe going for it. I mean, the best way I can describe it is that it’s about an all-girls crew of steampunk pirates. (The term “pirates” is usually reserved for thieves, which they weren’t, but they spent more time sailing the sea rather than setting foot on land.) Haven’t fully decided which book to read next, but I wasn’t planning on taking a week off. Not if I would like to read at least 22 books by the end of the year. (SEAFIRE was Book #17. And I tend not to read any novels in November.)
The one thing I’m not looking forward to in autumn is raking leaves. Our trees dump so many leaves, and they like to spread out the whole process for three entire months. But at least all the bright foliage throughout Michigan looks pretty in the meantime.
Saturday, August 31, 2019
Saturday, August 17, 2019
Discovering a Hidden Talent
On Wednesday, I spent a couple of hours in the evening hanging out with a group of friends. The last few times my friend invited us to her apartment, we would watch a movie. This time, though, she decided we should shake it up and have a game night. You know, after we spent the first hour catching up with each other about our lives.
The first game she retrieved was her unopened Ultimate Werewolf card game and tried to understand the instructions. The poor girl probably spent a good twenty minutes studying everything before realizing that she had bought the expansion pack but did not possess the starter kit. So that idea got tossed aside.
The eight of us then migrated to her kitchen table, and we played a few rounds of Nertz. Mainly because my friend (whose apartment we were at) wanted to practice on us because another friend of hers was always beating her at this online game.
Most of the people, myself included, had never played the game. Thank goodness I was seated next to a girl who had, so she helped me out. I did all right, but I certainly felt overwhelmed at times. Keeping track of 32 piles in the center of the table at the same time, along with my own deck, started to become stressful.
But at least I was doing better than the Graphic Designer sitting on the opposite end of the table from me.
“I’m so confused!” she exclaimed. “My brain was not made for this. I’m a creative, right-brained person.”
After a few rounds of Nertz, when it became clear that the same two people were always winning, we stopped and moved onto another game: Taboo.
I feel like I must have played this game at some point in my life, but I couldn’t recall. And once again, half of the other girls had no idea how to play. But we were able to split into two even teams, and away we went.
For those of you who aren’t sure what Taboo is about, you basically have to describe a particular word for your teammates to guess. Except there are usually six words relating to the topic that you cannot say while describing the chosen word; otherwise, the other team gets the point. Your goal is to collect as many cards/points for your team.
I was a bit skeptical of my skills for this game - especially since it requires a lot of talking - but after the first round, I discovered that I had ran through the most cards within the minute. Some of the other girls began to pick up on how well (and quickly) I could describe the item for my teammates without slipping up on the forbidden words.
Eventually, it had had dawned on me why I was surpassing everyone: I am a writer. And I was the only one.
In my head, I essentially have a working Thesaurus. I mean, when you’re writing, you don’t want to constantly repeat a certain word or phrase. Therefore, you use a different word that means the same thing. Can’t use the word “small”? No matter. I can describe something as “little” or “tiny” instead. No big deal. I can work around it.
At one point, I was a little disappointed in my two teammates (because the third one had to head back home) about not knowing a certain word. I had to get them to say, “tweet,” so I used the word “avian” instead of bird to reference the noise they make. The Graphic Designer and the another girl stared at me with blank faces. They didn’t know what “avian” was. After I repeated myself, the girl who works in Finance (whose place we were at) jumped in and had to inform them of what it meant.
“Avian” is not that uncommon of a word, is it? I know it’s not as popular as canine or feline, but c’mon. After all, “avian” and “aviation” are both derived from the same Latin root word.
Ah well. This is not the first time I’ve used a word in a conversation that the other person had no idea what it was. Last month, I had used “tirade” to my brother’s confusion. I also once said “sporadic” to a friend, and I had to explain it to her once she expressed her bafflement.
Either way, it’s always heartening to see my talents actually useful for something. Even if it’s just to win a silly game among friends.
The first game she retrieved was her unopened Ultimate Werewolf card game and tried to understand the instructions. The poor girl probably spent a good twenty minutes studying everything before realizing that she had bought the expansion pack but did not possess the starter kit. So that idea got tossed aside.
The eight of us then migrated to her kitchen table, and we played a few rounds of Nertz. Mainly because my friend (whose apartment we were at) wanted to practice on us because another friend of hers was always beating her at this online game.
Most of the people, myself included, had never played the game. Thank goodness I was seated next to a girl who had, so she helped me out. I did all right, but I certainly felt overwhelmed at times. Keeping track of 32 piles in the center of the table at the same time, along with my own deck, started to become stressful.
But at least I was doing better than the Graphic Designer sitting on the opposite end of the table from me.
“I’m so confused!” she exclaimed. “My brain was not made for this. I’m a creative, right-brained person.”
After a few rounds of Nertz, when it became clear that the same two people were always winning, we stopped and moved onto another game: Taboo.
I feel like I must have played this game at some point in my life, but I couldn’t recall. And once again, half of the other girls had no idea how to play. But we were able to split into two even teams, and away we went.
For those of you who aren’t sure what Taboo is about, you basically have to describe a particular word for your teammates to guess. Except there are usually six words relating to the topic that you cannot say while describing the chosen word; otherwise, the other team gets the point. Your goal is to collect as many cards/points for your team.
I was a bit skeptical of my skills for this game - especially since it requires a lot of talking - but after the first round, I discovered that I had ran through the most cards within the minute. Some of the other girls began to pick up on how well (and quickly) I could describe the item for my teammates without slipping up on the forbidden words.
Eventually, it had had dawned on me why I was surpassing everyone: I am a writer. And I was the only one.
In my head, I essentially have a working Thesaurus. I mean, when you’re writing, you don’t want to constantly repeat a certain word or phrase. Therefore, you use a different word that means the same thing. Can’t use the word “small”? No matter. I can describe something as “little” or “tiny” instead. No big deal. I can work around it.
At one point, I was a little disappointed in my two teammates (because the third one had to head back home) about not knowing a certain word. I had to get them to say, “tweet,” so I used the word “avian” instead of bird to reference the noise they make. The Graphic Designer and the another girl stared at me with blank faces. They didn’t know what “avian” was. After I repeated myself, the girl who works in Finance (whose place we were at) jumped in and had to inform them of what it meant.
“Avian” is not that uncommon of a word, is it? I know it’s not as popular as canine or feline, but c’mon. After all, “avian” and “aviation” are both derived from the same Latin root word.
Ah well. This is not the first time I’ve used a word in a conversation that the other person had no idea what it was. Last month, I had used “tirade” to my brother’s confusion. I also once said “sporadic” to a friend, and I had to explain it to her once she expressed her bafflement.
Either way, it’s always heartening to see my talents actually useful for something. Even if it’s just to win a silly game among friends.
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