Month: October 2019

I Can’t Stop Reading This Novel

I Can’t Stop Reading This Novel

by Lauren ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Y’all, I love to read. I read all kinds of books. I listen to Currently Reading and What Should I Read Next?. I have a rather massive library. But The Lager Queen of Minnesota is SO good and has completely sucked me in. Is it overdue at the library because I got a late jump on it? Yes. Does it have a massive waitlist and am I screwing them all over by keeping it? *Cringe.* Yes. Is that stopping me? NOT AT ALL.

As a beer lover with a homebrewing husband, this book is especially fascinating, but I have it on good authority (*cough*ANNEBOGLEonCURRENTLYREADING*cough*) that one does not need to love beer to fall in love with this book. Currently Reading even has a minisode interviewing the author.

Seriously it’s SOOOOOO GOOOOOOOOOOD.

So what do you need to know?

  1. It’s not all about beer. There are also pies. And relationships. And Arby’s.
  2. Strong female characters dominate the interwoven narratives.
  3. The writing is fantastic, and so is the character development. I care about every single character in this book, and that’s saying something.

I’ll come back and post a follow up when I finish – hopefully in the next couple days or JeffCo Libraries will be taking alllllll my change.

I Have a Splinter in My Foot, or, Musings on Patience

I Have a Splinter in My Foot, or, Musings on Patience

by Lauren ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

This summer, my patience was tested by a number of circumstances. I can withstand children melting down, applying to job after job, and long waits before exciting things happen.

But apparently one of the limitations of my patience is the splinter in my foot.

So about a week ago, I got this splinter. I’m pretty sure it’s metal – we were taking apart and cleaning my outdoor sconces not long before I stepped on it (while sitting at the dining room table! COME ON!). When I initially tried to pull it out, it broke off.

It hurts.

I tried to get it out – with a sewing pin and tweezers and a baking soda paste. My husband tried to get it out, adding pointier tweezers to the mix. My mother-in-law, bless her, tried to get it out (she was in town, and why not ask for a little surgery?), soaking it for 20 min and then applying her gifts with all of the above. Then they tagteamed it. It went straight in, and every attempt to get it out was pushing it deeper into my heel. They decided that, in order to get it out, we’d need to excavate the area . No thank you.

Well it’s still in there. It’s closer to the surface of my skin – my heels are SUPER thick, so it’s taking a while. But I am weirdly obsessed with it. I’ve even had multiple dreams about it.

This reminded me that it’s easy for me to pat myself on the back for virtue that comes easily to me. Here I was thinking I had developed this incredible patience, when really, those instances of patience were not as hard for me personally to deal with. I was less uncomfortable having to be patient in those circumstances than I am in this one.

While this impatience does make sense psychologically – after years of chronic pain and illness, of course I would be more sensitive to physical pain, however stupid – it’s also a humbling reminder that I’ve not “mastered” patience. I mean, duh, but also, oh.