Highly Recommend #1

It's been a week, gang, but that's where great recommendations are found. 

Books:  Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect/Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret (Ernest Cunningham series #2 and #2.5) - Benjamin Stevenson - ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 

who doesn't love a good train Whodunnit??

Having listened to the first book in the series, Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone a couple of months ago, I listened to both of these books last week while curled up in a ball on my couch cursing my digestive system and laughing my ass off. Stevenson's narrator Ernest "Ern" Cunningham is a character I want to be friends with. He's an Everyman of today surrounding by, well, family and friends who are...murderers and liars! Maybe not entirely murderers, maybe not entirely liars, but yes, there are absolutely murderers, just maybe not who you, or even Ern, think. What I love about these books is how relatable Ern is, and narrator Barton Welch's voice sounds so familiar and safe. He draws you right in so it's nearly like you've known Ernest for ages. Ern writes books about how to write murder mysteries, following the rules of the very real non-fiction book 10 Commandments of Detective Fiction by Ronald Knox, so we know that there won't be any ghosts, unreliable narrators, etc. We also get Ern's hilarious mental asides, no surprise there, since Stevenson is a gifted stand-up comedian in Australia. I highly recommend this entire series because of the cleverness, hilarity, and Agatha-Christie-meets-Benoit-Blanc-like mystery reveals. (Can be found on Libby, Hoopla, your local library)

Movies/TV:  Leanne (Netflix) -⭐⭐⭐

Leanne Morgan makes me lol, ask my downstairs neighbors.

Leanne Morgan is adorable. I stumbled across her show a week ago and have seen it twice now, along with both of her stand-up specials (Netflix, Tubi - the newer, Netflix special is better than the older Tubi one, I said what i said, we can discuss it later, if you want), so the laughs she gave me were definitely worth it. There are some things I don't agree or connect to with Morgan on, like most comedians and people in general, but for the most part, I just kept laughing and enjoying the stories she shared about her kids and husband, her sweet lil parents, and her wild college days. Leanne Morgan has had Fun in Life, and it shows in her act here. 

Read the Directions First (damnit) - ⭐⭐⭐⭐

life, or constructing a pack-n-play, is just easier when we don't rush through it.

So, a little about me, I'm an Aries, which means patience is something I've had to work really hard at channeling when waiting in lines, on the phone, or for anything. When putting things together, I dive right in and generally figure it out quickly, and when I can't, I get mad like a toddler on two hours of sleep. But after over two years of meditating nearly every day, I see how that isn't entirely...what's the word here...helpful. So when I bought this pack-n-play for when my tiny great-nephew comes over, I actually expected it to be pretty complicated, lots of working parts, etc. But, as my niece (another Aries) pulled it out of the box, it had nothing to put together! Easy-breezy, I thought. Then I let my niece set it up...she, at least, doesn't get mad like an overtired toddler, but instead gets frustrated until I ask if I can help. After we took a few deep breaths and encouraging words, we went back to beginning and got the instructions. So yeah, it takes two Aries to put together a toddler play-and-pack (but only so nothing is burnt down when one of them doesn't intuitively figure it out). Enjoy your astrological joke of the day!

Meditation - ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

this is me now, blissed out every day, high on meditation.

As of writing this, I am day 90 of meditating at least once a day and I've gone and shocked myself. I'm so laid-back and emotionally non-reactive, watch out world! I enjoy a good guided meditation as soon as I wake up or right before sleep, but there are so many different ways to observe your thoughts or feelings without engaging with them. That's the whole point of meditation anyway, to not react to the stories your brain keeps trying to tell you, or the emotions constanting bubbling up, and redirecting your attention when you do, going back to simply observing without judgement. It takes anywhere from three to 60+ minutes a day, is free, and can be done anywhere. But also, yeah, some people should not meditate, and sometimes it doesn't help certain people in certain situations. Like with anything else, try it before you commit to a daily practice, or ask your trusted wisewoman. 90 days of meditation, please clap for me, what an amazing feat of the mind. If you'd like to try it, or expand your own practice, make your way to Insight Timer; they have hundreds of meditations to choose from.

you're welcome ;)