It was a Dickens kind of week but we’re gonna focus on the positives. My book is out and early feedback has been wonderful. I managed to push my self-doubt aside just enough to make room for some writing – early work on a new gothic-flavored supernatural mystery. I’m in discovery mode with this project, so I have no idea where it’s going, if anywhere. But, frankly, any distraction from everything going on in the world these days is very, very welcome.

Stay positive, dammit!

Big breath.

Positive: it … only snowed once this week? *head desk*

Work was extra busy for me this week, but I managed to keep my phone screen time under control in the evenings and decompress in better ways. With books and scrapbooking. I finished EF Benson’s Secret Lives and read Michiko Aoyama’s What You Are Looking For Is In the Library. The latter was a recc from a friend, and a nice companion to a book I read last week, Hika Harada’s Dinner at the Midnight Library. I’ve been getting into Japanese fiction lately, and these are two cozy, slice-of-life stories that both feature libraries. Would def recommend if you’re looking for something sweet, warm, and low stress.

I’ve been getting back into scrapbooking and collage-making with a vengeance and this week I found the perfect evening relaxation activity combo: scrapbooking + reruns of Midsomer Murders. Episodes are the perfect length (about 1.5 hours) to unwind and do a couple of pages in my commonplace book. A friend sent me a little care package of scrapbooking ephemera (I love that word!), which was so fun to sort through and add to my growing pile of materials. I am probably going to write a separate post about my scrapbooking adventures because I think it’s a fun, accessible hobby to try – and no, you don’t need a ton of expensive supplies to get started.

The kids were on Spring Break this week, but everything conspired against us/them having too many fun adventures. The weather was crappy (did I mention the snow?) and my son came down with a bad cold, so they mostly hunkered down at home. Not ideal, but I have to admit that I do love having everyone close by and low-key hanging out. I did some math this week and realized that in five years, both of my kids are going to be technically adults. FIVE YEARS! That’s wild to me because (a) part of my brain still thinks of them as babies, and (b) that’s such a short time. We gotta make the most of it … not because I’m worried that they’re going to flee the nest at the earliest opportunity, but because I know they’re going to have their own lives to lead, even if they’ll still share the same roof with us.

Ugh, I think I have something in my eye …

*sniff*

Anyone got a time machine handy?

Have a great weekend — and Happy Easter to everyone celebrating!

I’m still on my positive-vibes-only kick, so let’s talk about random things I’m currently obsessed with (that makes life feel a little more bearable). Be warned: when I say ‘random’, I mean RANDOM.

Lyons Irish Breakfast Tea

The thing I have to explain upfront is that I am a former Diet Coke girlie (that is to say, a decades-long DC ride-or-die) who switched to coffee last year. Coincidentally, or not, it happened around the time I got serious about writing, and coffee is now ingrained in my writing routine. For most of that time, I’ve stuck to iced coffee, but recently I’ve rediscovered the joy that is Irish Breakfast tea – specifically Lyons.

Making regular (hot) coffee at home is a hassle to me*, but brewing a cup of Lyons is easy peasy – it comes in disposable tea bags. And if you steep it for 3-4 minutes, it’s almost as dark and flavourful as coffee, except less bitter, which I prefer. I add milk (the protein-rich kind, which is almost like cream) and one of my coffee syrups (see below) as sweetener and voila: the perfect cup of hot not-coffee that feels like drinking coffee (to someone who loves iced coffee, LOL!).

If you’re tempted to try this at home, I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to make sure you get Lyons, not some other brand, if you want that put-hair-on-your-chest experience. I have been reliably informed that other brands’ Irish Breakfast teas are much weaker (so that you would need several tea bags to get the same amount of flavour).

[*I don’t have the equipment and don’t want to spend money on it. I buy the Costco brewed coffee for making my iced coffee, and that’s the kind of convenience I love.]

Coffee Syrups

This goes along with the item above, but also with my love of iced coffee. I used to put flavoured creamer in my coffee to sweeten it (and I like it very sweet, lol) until I discovered coffee syrups. Sugar-free and fun flavours? Sign me up! Plus, if you buy them at Winners like I do, they’re hella cheap. The brand I buy most often is Matteo, and my fave flavours are Caramel Chocolate, Peanut Butter Cup, and Dark Chocolate Orange. I tell you, I have the palate of a toddler. Peanut Butter Cup goes really well with my Lyons tea, but I think I’m going to try some sort of Mocha flavour next, to really give my Irish Breakfast that extra coffee kick.

Nest Lychee Rose Perfume

I have always had a weakness for rose-forward perfumes. It’s one of my fave notes. A while back, I spent many months searching for the perfect ‘jammy rose’ perfume. I ended up with a few fragrances I love, but none that completely scratched that itch. Well, a few weeks ago, I randomly found a travel size of Lychee Rose at Winners for $17 and thought “why not try it.” Readers, I’m obsessed. It’s the perfect sweet (but not cloying) jammy rose. I spray it before bed most nights now, and it dries down overnight to a beautiful soft rose so I wake up smelling like … well, you get it.

I’m so happy that I snapped up two (travel) vials of this when I had the chance, because I have a feeling the first one won’t last long. And the downside of Winners is that you’re never guaranteed to find the same amazing bargain twice. As much as I love this perfume, I’m not sure I can bring myself to pay full retail price for it 🙁

But let this be your PSA: do not sleep on Winners’ beauty and make-up aisles. It’s where I buy almost all of my skincare because you can find everything from sold-at-Sephora brands to Korean brands for a fraction of the price.

Ring Stack

With the exception of my engagement ring/trinity band combo, I don’t really wear any jewelry on a daily basis. Or, I should say, I didn’t used to. Because now I have this stack … and I am obsessed. I never take it off*. The gold (wedding) band belonged to my dad, and he gave it to me after my mom passed away to keep for my kids; I started wearing it and now it’s too sentimental to take off.

The other two rings I thrifted on the same day and I have a feeling they were always meant to be worn together. I mean, they just look made for each other, don’t they? The only markings on them is a 925 stamp, but I suspect they are vermeil or gold-filled because the finish hasn’t worn off even a little bit after months and months of daily use (even after I stopped taking them off in the shower). I’m especially impressed that none of the small stones in the band have fallen out or been damaged; they go all the way around, and in the past I was always worried about damage with this particular style. I only wish I knew the designer or brand who made them because I love both the aesthetic and the quality so, so much.

These rings have completely sold me on the benefits of fine/semi-fine jewelry. I love being able to wear pieces every day without worrying about taking them off to do daily activities, or else risking tarnish and damage.

[* unless my fingers are doing their weird thing where they randomly shrink in size and then I have to take all my rings off because they swivel too much and drive me crazy. I think it’s connected somehow to my Reynaud’s, but I’m not sure. Aren’t bodies weird and grand?]

I was reminded this week that life doesn’t conform to nice, neat, expected narratives. I published my second book, but instead of a big celebration – or even the usual transitory feeling of relief that is my AuDHD brain’s response to accomplishments – you know what I got this week? An absolutely paralyzing sense of self-doubt, the likes of which I haven’t experienced since, oh, my first forays into the query trenches, maybe. If my books weren’t already ‘out there’, I would probably not have the nerve to publish them in my current state. Lovely, right?

You might think it’s not a big deal – after all, they’ve been written and published and exist – but it kind of is. Because this is a critical time for marketing (more so than usual, and it’s always important) and it feels impossible to do anything of the sort in my current frame of mind. Like, I want to hide myself and my books, not throw us into the spotlight. I’m also supposed to start working on a new book and, well, you can probably guess how that’s going. (Hint, it’s not.)

I’m not saying this to invite pity but merely to share the reality behind a situation that might seem fun and glamorous from the outside. Does being an indie author seem glamorous? OK, maybe not … but you know what I mean.

Thank God for a few distractions! Last weekend, I rejigged my streaming subscriptions and signed up for a free trial of AcornTV so I could finally catch up on Midsomer Murders. My timing was impeccable! This was my comfort show a while back, and guess what? It still delivers. Once I finish the new seasons I haven’t seen before, I’m probably going to do a whole series rewatch from season 1.

There was also happy book mail this week when my secondhand copy of EF Benson’s Secret Lives arrived. It’s such a shame that most of his books appear to be out of print and/or difficult to get. After bingeing Mapp & Lucia, I needed another fix of witty, delightful slice-of-life shenanigans. I haven’t finished Secret Lives yet, but it’s a hoot (though, perhaps, not the same perfection as the Mapp & Lucia books). Bonus points for featuring a main character who is a prolific romance writer.

My other major distraction this week was the internet brouhaha over Lindy West’s new book, Adult Braces, her profile by Scaachi Koul in Slate, and her partners’ email responses to that Slate article. I am not a major reader of confessional memoirs, so this is not a book for me, even though I adored Lindy’s Sh*t, Actually and appreciated her perspective and writing in The Witches Are Coming. But as someone who’s floated on the periphery of the same online spaces (starting from the Jezebel years), it’s been really fascinating to watch this discourse unfold. In many ways, this feels like very much like early 2010s internet drama – which is oddly nostalgic! But it also had serious/dark undertones, and it gave me a lot of food for thought: about the boundaries between memoir (testimony) and fiction (narrative), the boundaries between writer and audience, and about what feminism means (and looks like in practice) in 2026.

The discourse also made me think (again) about my own choices and boundaries, as someone who’s been personal blogging for almost twenty years. Deciding what to share, and how much, is like walking a tightrope. To foster authentic connection, which I value, some degree of openness (and the vulnerability that comes with it) is necessary. But I also value my privacy, and there many parts of myself and my life that I find difficult to share even with my closest friends. And, then again, I despise falsity – whether intentional, by omission, etc. – and that also informs my choices about what and how I share things online. I want to be a real person on the internet, and not a persona or brand, while also being a private person. I think that I’ve mostly succeeded; at least, I feel generally comfortable with the choices/compromises I’ve made. It’s possible that I could have been more successful had I made different choices, but I don’t think the compromises would have been worthwhile to me.

Anyway, if you’ve also been following the Adult Braces saga this week, I would love to hear your thoughts!

Have a great weekend!