Cloud9Shopper

I feel bad for Haddie honestly (I’m on early season 2). I mean, in the pilot everyone misses her soccer game and then recently Kristina was completely over-involving herself in Haddie’s campaign for class president. And don’t forget how Amber slept with her boyfriend… I was watching a recent episode where everyone was yelling at each other in Adam and Kristina’s house and I just thought about how stressed out I’d be living there. Which is a shame because I like Peter Krause in 9-1-1 and that’s part of the reason I started watching him in Parenthood.

I’m watching Parenthood for the first time and while I would say this is more eye roll worthy than making me “irate”, Julia being all put out that her daughter wants to be a beauty queen for Halloween. I mean, this kid can’t be older than five, and while I get that a career-driven woman would want to raise her daughter to avoid stereotypes and encourage education…it’s Halloween and this is a little kid. It’s not going to define her whole life trajectory or ruin her chances at college just because she wants to wear a tiara and pretty dress one day. I was Miss America for Halloween in elementary school too…I still went to college and have a career path and was never actually in a beauty pageant. Julia needs to chill. Also, Lauren Graham’s character in this is like watching Lorelai Gilmore’s worst traits in a different universe.

TL;DR: I have a weird anxiety about giving up social media even though I wish I could. I worry about missing out and not feeling connected to others. So I’n giving up Facebook for Lent (to be clear, the app/feed part. I’m still keeping Messenger to talk to family and any friends that use it.) I may also give up Instagram, but I’m undecided. (I just realized a couple of my favorite dog pages are active there and I don’t want to lose out on cute dog posts until Easter.) And to be honest, it’s giving me some anxiety. Like do I care that my friend’s super special perfect daughter (only child, friend constantly brags about her) made the Dean’s List and is of course as perfect in college as she was in high school? Yes, that stuff I could be fine not knowing, especially since I’m not super close to that person. But like it or not, most everyone uses social media these days to stay connected and post events and I worry about not knowing about things like hobby classes I may want to take or missing out on posts about church events. Even with church, though, those are posted in the bulletin so I doubt I would miss that much. Also, if someone I do care about has a big life event I would miss out on that. It’s also part why I can’t quit Reddit. That doesn’t serve the same function as posting about church events or talking to my family, but it does give a community to discuss common interests or other life and work topics. Part of me worries about pulling the plug on it and wondering if it would be weird to watch an episode of a show and not go running online to post about it or discuss a “ship” or whatever. Rationally, I’m sure plenty of people do this…watch a show, enjoy it, but don’t feel a need to post online and join a fandom. I feel like quitting Reddit would have me wondering what I was missing and longing to be a part of a community and eventually making a new account. Or maybe it would only feel weird for a few days and I’d adjust. Seemingly, I talked to two coworkers who really aren’t on social media and seem just fine with that. I think one uses just Facebook and the other isn’t really on anything at all. I wish I had that confidence. At the same time, I imagine what it would be like to do things after work like focus more on my workouts or my books instead of flopping on the couch in exhaustion and scrolling Reddit and Discord. That part of it feels easy….like it’s an escape from a long day.

The whole plot of the new show Doc where the main character has a major brain injury in the pilot, has what looks to be a fairly major and extensive surgery (I’m not a doctor so only saying what I’m seeing/thinking), loses eight years of her memories, and has already re-passed her boards and will be practicing medicine alone again. All within the span of eight episodes. I love medical dramas and can accept that they’re not always realistic (same as any show) but come on. The big plot is basically resolved so I feel no reason to keep going now that it will basically be like any other drama/soap and turn into being about her love life. It’s like when I could guess the ending of this book I was reading about 30% of the way through and quit because that’s just a little too much predictability for me. I don’t really care about her love life with a much younger and subordinate doctor. The show got renewed for a second season so I accept that I have an unpopular opinion about how absurd and trite the whole thing is.

Ice Princess is one of my guilty pleasure favorite movies. Will have to watch it this weekend.

Renewed for another season. I’m surprised to be honest but the ratings have been good, so goes to show how much I know. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/doc-renewed-season-2-fox-1236147743/

Well, now that Amy passed her boards, I’m glad the show is over. /s No, seriously. I don’t see the point anymore. I think I’ll just watch more 9-1-1 Lone Star on Tuesdays now. (Fan of the OG 9-1-1 but watching Lone Star even though it’s over because I want to check it out.) Doc is really just like every other medical drama/soap opera now with the big plot pretty much resolved.

Show-off singers. Whether it was the guy behind me at Mass the other day who was practically shouting as he went up an octave on a song that I already can’t stand (it’s like beating a dead horse; the choir director loves this song so we sing it over and over and over) or the national anthem singer at a sporting event treating it like their audition for The Voice or American Idol. (Also: how are those shows still on?) Even as a choir member and sometimes cantor/soloist myself, I know good church choir singers are basically a dime a dozen and I hate when someone tries to act like they’re above everyone else in the choir. I’ve also sat through many a mediocre performance at a hockey or baseball game from a singer trying to do vocal gymnastics or go up super high on the last “o’er the land of the free” or who got the gig because they won some local beauty pageant even though they have no singing talent. It reminds me of Maya Rudolph’s Pamela Bell skit on SNL in the late 2000s/early 2010s:

And then they’ll make another post crying about how awful their job is and how much the CEO is “controlling” when they’re told they have to return to the office.

I finished The Partner Track tonight. Five stars all the way around for me. In addition to what I said above, I did like the climax of the book where the main character, Ingrid, realizes she was so caught up in doing for other people that she has never really done for herself and “said yes” to herself. I found it to be a really inspiring message regardless of what path you’re on in life. I won’t spoil what happened that leads her to that realization, however. It does end happily, but not before you get a moment of pause where you wonder if she blew up her life. Next up for fiction reads is Normal People by Sally Rooney. I also just picked up a nonfiction/self-help book called The Fangirl Life, which is about turning your fandom life into positive energy for your real life and, of course, how to navigate fandom drama and trolls. I’m really excited to share that with my fandom friends since I’m sure there will be some good discussion points. This is actually on my to be read list! Someday, anyway. I also told my coworkers about it since they are also cat people.

Has anyone else ever felt like they’re at an “in between” age or phase of life somewhere? Like you don’t belong with people younger than you but also not people who are older and wiser? I’m turning 40 later this year. I used to be really freaked out about it (not as much now), but I noticed at church I feel too old for the “young adult” activities even though our diocese defines young adults as 18-40. (Like, my church is planning a trivia night and the young adults are planning it but I want no part of that and don’t really like trivia anyway.) I generally am starting to feel some disdain for the contemporary music selections and appreciate singing with the adult choir and doing more traditional stuff. (For the contemporary music it does depend…some modern church songs I like and others I wish I could shred every copy of it in our choir loft.) But I also don’t feel as if I belong with the women largely in their 50s and 60s who are part of the ladies’ organization. (A lot of Catholic churches have one women’s group and one men’s group, for context, that do community service activities and other projects in the church.) Like I am an adult but I feel like an in between one. Maybe because I am also single and largely happy and never wanted children. (I do hope I don’t come to regret never having a child, but so far it hasn’t happened.) Maybe it would be easier to fit in if I’d had kids and were married because you can discuss those things with people and feel accepted in a room with mostly married couples. But I guess there’s no way to tell. I also don’t own a home…again I am thinking about that but am worried I won’t get there. I would be upset if I missed out on home ownership. Maybe I’m feeling this way because I am an adult in some ways, but still feel behind and like not a full adult in others.

I haven’t moved away from Kindle entirely in my journey to buy physical books because I want to have my Kindle for travel and other times where it’s not practical to take a paperback along. I don’t download anything to my computer though so hopefully things will be OK. Otherwise I will just focus more on buying physical books and maybe get a tote bag for carrying them back and forth.

It’s been three and a half months since I’ve been promoted, and while I’m still largely happy, it’s also safe to say the honeymoon period is over. 😂 I’ve been officially turned off to working in HR for my career and would like my next role to be more behind the scenes. I still have to deal with customers…in smaller numbers, yes, so I’m not in a phone queue all day but we get the people who are dissatisfied after talking to a supervisor. When I was talking to a friend about some of the craziness, she said “if you think (thing I was telling her about) is bad, HR is more of the same.” I thought about it for a little bit and realized she was right. I’m not planning to hit the job market just yet to ensure I build up enough experience in my new role and I still like the company culture at my current place, so I will not go into an “I’ll take anything to leave” situation. My plans are still to keep an eye out for a move either internally or elsewhere in another year or two. I would like to eventually end up in a communications role or find something else without any customer contact. I do much better collaborating with my coworkers behind the scenes to get things done. But for now, I have learned thanks to my early career mishaps that it is better to build tenure and relationships in one place for a while, plus have a paycheck I can live on, while I make long term goals and think of ideas for the future. I don’t always have to hop the second I don’t like something, and I can be selective about where I go in the future to put myself in the best position. I also learned that the hard way thanks to being on the market in 2023 and 2024 and never finding that “something better” until the promotion came along. Besides, even this current job, even if it’s not what I want to do for five or 10 more years, is better than being on the frontline in a call center pit.

When you order something online and the business is quick to put a pending charge on your account and then conveniently tells you your order is delayed. I ordered a laptop from Best Buy yesterday morning and their website said I could have it by today. I liked the model and thought the shipping was a good deal so I place my order, I got a UPS tracking number, etc. This morning when I’m checking my emails? They let me know at 3 am that my order was delayed and that I should get it between Friday and Monday. And they won’t let me cancel the order but expect me to wait until March 6 (!!!!) for a refund and a cancellation if it doesn’t ship which they claim is “unlikely.” I’m sorry. But who can be without a laptop for almost two weeks in this day and age (there are way too many risks with using a public computer for me to find one to use; I will only do that for impersonal tasks that I otherwise can’t wait several days to do) and how is it acceptable to say I need to wait two weeks for a delivery before I can request a refund? If anything I should have that option available to me if I don’t have the computer in my hands by this coming Wednesday. Telling me it will be two weeks before they refund me when they printed a shipping label and put a charge on my bank account is ridiculous. I know it’s only pending but guess what, I still can’t use the money! 🤬 Oh and when I looked on their website they are still saying if you order the computer today you can have it by Saturday. I guess they only bait and switch after you order and they hold the money

I think this is what’s bothering me now that you mention it. And she’s seemingly not struggling at all with treating patients. Impressive. Even I once wrote a fanfic about a character with a regular old concussion (she was able to recover at home, no major surgeries or anything super dramatic) and had her miss two weeks of work. 🤣 And I relied on Google and some episodes of medical shows to help me so I didn’t do much worse haha. I can’t see this show lasting longer than 2-3 seasons at this rate. But I will probably be wrong and we’ll be here discussing Season 8 soon enough. (Eight years of lost memories, eight seasons.)