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A new lake

For those who haven't heard, Western Washington is in the middle of a "100-year" weather event, breaking tons of records for rainfall. Rivers all around us are overflowing, and just today, three cities south of Seattle have emergency evactuaion orders because the Green River levee failed. Our house is safe from that because our neighborhood is hilly, and even on our own street, our house is on its own hill. Last night's rainfall through this morning was actually the second wave. And it was raining so hard this morning that Tilly refused to go out for her morning pee break when we woke up at 4am.

I took the city route to my class in Mill Creek this morning because I stopped by WinCo for a few things on the way, as I usually do. Frustratingly, it's now been a couple of months or so since they've had their brand of frozen breakfast sandwiches in stock. I've tried other brands and they're all more expensive and less tasty, so I'll be patient for theirs to return.

The more pleasant way to travel between here and Mill Creek is the Lowell Larimer road, which runs along the valley farmlands east of here heading south. I should have realized what it would look like when I headed down the hill after class to that road, but I definitely wasn't prepared. The entire valley was submerged. Luckily the houses along the edge of the road are a little higher than the water level I saw, but I could also see that it had been higher because there was debris everywhere. Both roads across the valley were closed, and I could see one of them disappear into the water not very far away as I turned off it.

On top of all that, we're also under a wind advisory. That's one that can affect us a lot more at home. We live in Forest Park, and the name is appropriate, with tall trees everywhere you look. Five of them loom right outside my bedroom window, in fact. I was in the back yard a while ago just starting to shovel some dog poop when the wind picked up and branches started falling all around me. Shoveling can wait!

I won't complain much about conditions around here or any delays I might encounter as I drive because a lot of people in the area have lost everything. I will say I didn't think anything like this would be happening when I agreed to cover a class in Monroe this Thursday a few weeks back. I'll leave really early for it because other routes are under water so there's probably going to be a lot of traffic. Though I suppose it's coming back that's more likely to be slow.

The little notification bar in Windows just told me we're expecting another inch of rain tomorrow.

Entry tags:

heated rivalry

Heated Rivalry

Wow, so I read Heated Rivalry in anticipation of the tv show, and tbh I did not really like the book! But I am head-over-heels for the show, oh my god. It's hitting all of my feelings. I saw someone on meme say that it has disrupted their Seasonal Affective Disorder, and honestly same? Wow.

I think the serial nature of its release is contributing here - I had not realized just how much I missed the weekly anticipation of a new episode! More streaming shows should be like this, tbh.

Anyway, I have fallen hard enough that I am writing a soulmates (TiMER) AU on bluesky in between trying to wrap up my Yuletide assignment. I am furiously refreshing the What Chaos youtube channel in breathless anticipation of their next episode reaction (already 2 days late!! get on this, guys!!). I am buying every song on bandcamp (because the music is STELLAR, like for real, haven't seen music cues this great since my SPN days). I am eating up every rec and little detail and gifset that crosses my path. I've watched all of the current episodes at least twice and will almost definitely rewatch Friday's episode again today.

I'm going to be home for the holidays visiting family when the final episode airs, and I am already trying to decide if I will get up early to watch it or if I will have to wait until after everyone else goes to bed that night to finish it.

If you are watching this, please come yell with me about it!

Entry tags:

Future's — made of — temporary insanity

Okay, I really thought my crafting hyperfixation of the month was going to be beading on a loom. Earlier this year, I picked up a book about it, thanks to a need to spend over $10 at a thrift store, and then a few weeks ago, I saw a plastic bead loom at Michael's and nabbed it. Obviously from there, I realized the kit was not sufficient for My Vision, so I headed back to Michael's and dropped a truly silly amount on beads and weird needles. Have I started beading, which I'm excited to do? No, obviously first I have to clean off my crafting table, which involves SO much organizing, purging and Gingko-wrangling, so she doesn't eat or destroy any of the above.

Then, over Thanksgiving, YouTube slammed me with an unexpected interest.

yooon_ie lives in Chicago, apparently close enough to the West Loop Goodwill that she can stop by often enough to pounce when she finds a vintage Coach bag in the wild. Her parents are a cobbler and a tailor, according to her telling, and she's got all kinds of amazing skills and know-how for taking these designer objects in tragic condition and rehabilitating them in a flash.

I am fascinated. It's related to the emotional satisfaction one gets watching a pet groomer rescue a terribly matted stray from neglect, though with less body horror. There are so many videos out there; I definitely spent more than one evening just working my way through everyone's shorts, which all follow the same pattern with the same ASMR. And so, the urge rises: I want to experience this! I want to find a mistreated designer bag for $8.99 in a back rack at Goodwill and treat myself to Real Luxury Like They Used to Make! I've never been a bag girlie or even a girly girlie. This, like my sudden realization that makeup is fun, actually, is all very new on my end.

Here is the problem: Because it is maximum load USPS season, everything I'm splurging on is very slow to come in the mail. I can spend the money and absolutely nothing about it is real because it is taking two weeks to get here. I became briefly insane last Sunday and decided it was worth it to buy a new bag from Coach Factory, and the delivery date keeps dropping back, and like!! Then I remembered DePop was a thing and immediately stayed up until 2 AM this Saturday bookmarking candidates (because I spent the weekend exploring varying thrift stores and coming to understand that thrifting is a persistence predator's game). Yesterday I tried out the "make an offer" button and then the seller accepted basically immediately?? So I DO have a glorious vintage '90s minimalist Coach purse (Swinger in black!) coming my way, for too much money STILL because of fees, but Amazon has not come through on my freaking saddle soap/horsehair brush/Leather CPR order, so obviously nothing exists until I can see it and hold it in my hands!!! And even then!!!!!

I am but a humble public media journalist, my poor bank account cannot take this ADHD object-permanence nonsense. All of this absolutely did start because my therapist poked me in the forehead and reminded me that it is good, in fact, to treat yourself and that it is hard to do things like date (more on that another time!) when you feel like a feral gremlin all the time. (That said, I do have a story in mind about this bag rehabber community that I hope to publish for Mother's Day, so maybe I can write it off for my taxes at some point.)

All of this does fall a bit into perspective given the real ballgame I'm warming up for: This morning, I spent an hour with a realtor who's going to help me, fingers crossed, Buy a Condo in the next few months. Speaking of money that absolutely isn't and cannot be real to me. But she's got sassy realtor energy and I am really excited to get started For Real on this search. ✶

The white elephant in the room

For many years now, I speak out against compulsory gift giving a lot when Christmas rolls around. It just sickens me to see what's supposed to be a happy time of year turn miserable for so many people because they feel obligated to buy a bunch of things nobody needs and they often go into debt doing it. Personally, I've called "gift truce" with everyone except Garrett and his mom.

I wasn't originally planning to participate in my YMCA work party white elephant gift exchange last night, but when I was shopping for food to bring in the morning, something jumped out at me. Near the registers I found a great big Hickory Farms display! When I was a kid, Hickory Farms was a shopping mall staple.

Watch on YouTube

A lot of malls in the US have closed down and, while some are still busy, many that remain are dying or being redeveloped. I was about to say there probably aren't any Hickory Farms stores like you see in the commercial above left, but I just searched and discovered there are a few in the area! I was unlikely to ever stumble upon one, so it was cool that I found their stuff at WinCo. Good food is an easy exception to my disdain for gifts, especially in a situation like a white elephant where there's a good chance it'll end up with someone who really wants it.

And boy did it ever last night. The woman who opened it practically shrieked while laughing about it. Turns out she got summer sausage the last two years in a row AND she's from Ohio and didn't know until I told her that Hickory Farms was a nationwide business. Super funny.

I messed up my own white elephant experience in a big way. The hope when you draw numbers is that you'll get the highest one you can so you have the best chance of stealing the gift you want most. I went up to the tree and grabbed one as number 5, but someone else said she had number 5. I misread my slip and was actually 15 out of 16, so I could have had the second to last draw. Nobody wanted to steal my peppermint tea, silly mug, and weird socks. Garrett took the tea and I left the other stuff in the bag for now.