Posting this a week into March, but here we go!
February went not so well for us.
Life Updates
February 13: My dad went for labs to determine if he’s officially cancer free, but he still has a few spots. They have gone down, but he has to have another biopsy done, then may have to go to Vanderbilt for further treatment. The only bright side is if that is the case, I’ll get to be with them!
Also on this day Darby went for his annual checkup. We also requested a testosterone test be done to determine if it’s normal or not. I might have mentioned it in a previous post, but when he went to get neutered, the vet could only find one testicle. On the 16th, the results came back and his level was high. 😔 We’re now being referred to a specialist so they can perform a CT scan on him. I am a mess and I’m jumping to the worst-case scenario.
It looks like Darby will need to step up his content game to afford whatever expenses we’ll have coming up!
Daily Life
February 2: Wowza, it has been a chilly start of the month! It took like 40 minutes for my car to thaw out due to the sleet we had. I didn’t have our ice scraper, but I did sit in the car and read until I could drive, so it wasn’t a complete bust. I quickly went to Good Boots and Co. to get my iced Snickerdoodle latte. I haven’t went inside to do work in about a month. I just can’t bear to leave this little guy alone!
He was being difficult and wouldn’t look at me when I wanted to take his photo with the water swirl.
February 3: I wen to Good Boots and Co. to do some work. I ordered my usual, iced Snickerdoodle latte and egg bites!
Yummy as usual!
February 4: Stephen purchased tickets for The Antiques & Garden Show. I had no idea what to expect, but it was a nice day! There was a beautiful greenhouse selling for a minimum of $19,000. It was a nice setup for succulents, although some heating might need to be added since it’d be chilly.
Afterwards, we ate at Wild Wasabi. We shared Beef Fried Rice and ordered sushi rolls: Downtown Roll, Salmon Skin Roll, and the Dynamite Roll.
February 6: I took some photos of Darby with his new pet tag made by a person in our corgi group.
The girl was super nice! Linked is her Etsy shop. Please support her small business! 🙂
February 7: The Well had a Valentine’s Day drink called IGOTU BABE, and it’s really good! It’s a white mocha and strawberry latte. It reminds me of the white chocolate raspberry drink that was at Dunkin’ many years ago.
February 12: It was Darby’s gotcha day!
February 14: Stephen and I ate at Sakura for dinner. We ordered edamame, Stephen’s meal was the filet mignon, and I was craving a pork katsu bento box. For dessert, I got red bean mochi! I was only expecting the mochi on a plate, but they made it fancy with the chocolate syrup, sprinkles, and whipped cream!
Stephen didn’t like the texture of the mochi, so it all was for me! 😎
February 15: Stephen surprised me with bringing me a coffee from Honest Coffee Roasters! He ordered an iced Bootlegger, and it was so good! We will be going there soon. The coffee reminded me of Plumb Line’s Whiskey Caramel, only not as sweet and had more of a coffee taste.
February 20: Darby and I went to The Well with our new friends, Louise and Luna. Darby behaved better than I expected. After hanging out for a little bit outside, he was getting more comfortable and started to bark. We then decided to walk around the area to get some energy out. I’m surprised that he didn’t take a nap whenever we got home!! I definitely wanted to.
February 21: Darby and I went to a small hiking trail to meet up with Louise and Luna. It was such a gorgeous day! The sun was out, and it was just the perfect temperature. I also want him to be in the car and getting as much exercise as he can because if he has to have the procedure, he’ll be cooped up for a bit.
I don’t trust Darby to let him off leash, but Louise let Luna off hers. I don’t think he’d go too far, but I don’t want to take any chances. Plus, I know if he ever saw another dog, he’d forget me and run toward it, which I’m still working on training him out of that.
We saw another dog that Luna’s friends with. Her name is Birdy (sp?), and she’s a black and gray poodle. They had so much fun together! This place was really nice. I’ll be taking Darby here more often, and hopefully we can do a bit of training. He’s overall a good boy.
On this same day, he STILL did not take a nap until his usual evening time! I struggled to stay awake and do some work. I need whatever he’s having.
February 22: Went by Dunkin’ to order my usual order, an iced latte with caramel and toasted almond. I also added some Everything Bagel Stuffed Minis since a current mobile offer is they’re free with any drink order. I liked them! I’d get them again.
February 24: I was nervous about driving to the specialists’ facility, so I drove myself there to scope out the route. It wasn’t difficult at all, so I felt better. There’s a coffee shop less than a minute away that I tried: District Coffee.
February 25: I went with my friend Kylie, Spud’s mom, to provide moral support as she dropped Spud off to stay with his girlfriend for a few days.
This is him fresh from the groomer’s to look sharp for his lady!
We met them at the Buc-ee’s in Crossville. It was my first time going, and I loved it! They had iced coffee and a jerky bar; that’s my kind of place! The jerky is AMAZING.
February 26: Stephen and I went to the L&L Market to get morning coffee at Honest Coffee Roasters. I’d been dreaming about the Bootlegger, and it was worth getting up early! I had no idea this market area existed. There were a few cute shops and restaurants to try! Looking at you, Thai restaurant, bubble tea, and milkshake bar. I’ll need to make a few trips.
Stephen ordered a Mocha and I got an iced Bootlegger.
February 27 and 28: Darby’s specialist consultation was the 27th. The specialist was able to find his right testicle on an ultrasound, which I’m so happy about, or else the other option would’ve been a CT scan and thousands of more dollars. On the 28th, he had is procedure! The testicle wasn’t in his abdomen, but near his main man part, so they only needed to make an incision and get it that way.
Stephen was able to drop him off on his way to work, and we picked him up a little before 6 PM. The assistant on the phone said that whenever she went to check on him, he tried to bolt right out of his kennel!
He was whining and whimpering in the car. It broke our hearts. 😢 He was feeling a bit better around midnight and was up trying to hide one of his bones. The little stinker. We gave him a sedative so he would sleep the rest of the night because he was very determined to hide his bone at that hour.
It was a rough night, but we made it.
Books
- The Eighth Girl by Maxine Mei-Fung Chung
- themes: psychology, mental illness, thriller, suspense, mystery, queer, LGBTQIA+
- trigger warnings: suicide, self-harm, personality disorder, rape
- rating: 3
- The premise is interesting, and this is the first book I’ve ever read where the MC has DID (dissociative identity disorder). I didn’t love it, but it was a unique story.
- Love the use of birds in this novel. The MC Alexa wants to believe that the birds carry her mother’s spirit. She died by suicide when Alexa was young. Alexa says how birds comfort her, yet one of her personalities, The Flock, torment her and put her down. Later, when one of her personalities, Runner, has taken the light, she spends a night with a woman named Robin.
- The final twists were unexpected, and I don’t see how they’re likely to happen. I feel a bit deceived by the description because we’re told one thing, and it turns out that that’s not even true for the sake of a twist.
- The Villa by Rachel Hawkins
- themes: thriller, mystery, historical fiction, gothic
- rating: 4
- It seems like every Rachel Hawkins book has one ambiguous detail. This one was no different. I’d say out of the three books that I’ve read, this one was my favorite.
- There are two POVs: present day with Emily and her friendship with Chess (they’re both authors) and 1974 with Mari, who is also a writer, and her stepsister Lara, and lover Pierce.
- Chess, the self-help author, sound exhausting and phony to be around. She seemed pretty unlikable and not at all like how a best friend should. Although, I guess we find out they aren’t truly friends.
- The twist regarding her and Emily is messed up; there are secrets and lots of jealousy involved.
- How Emily’s situation went smoothly without raising any suspicion is hard to believe. I get that Chess may have had some influence, but I don’t think it would be that neat of an ending to her big problem.
- The dynamic between Mari, Lara, and Pierce was interesting. I felt bad for Lara. The twist at the end of who killed Pierce was clever.
- This was a fun book. It’s less than 300 pages and a quick read.
- The Prisoner by B. A. Paris
- themes: psychological thriller, mystery, suspense, crime
- rating: 3
- The book’s jacket has two typos, and Goodreads has Ned’s last name as Hawthorne instead of Hawthorpe, so I’m taking 1 star off because they’re so glaringly obvious and it bothers me immensely. The book jacket has Amelie’s husband’s name as Jed when it’s Ned. Next mistake is it says Carolyn, a woman she meets, offers her a job at a magazine she works at. Carolyn offers Amelie the job as her housekeeper, and Carolyn doesn’t work at the magazine. Ned is the one who asks her early on in the book if she wants to be an assistant for the magazine.
- I mean, the fact that they’re on the book’s jacket and they were overlooked makes me question how on earth that was missed. A typo in the book I will sometimes understand, but the jacket?? I had a mini rant about it to Stephen. He was more compassionate than I was about it.
- The premise is really interesting: right off the bat, the MC has been kidnapped. She’s in a pitch-black room and only the bathroom light turns on, but it’s when the door is shut. The main room is just darkness.
- I’m picturing myself in this situation, and I would be a complete mess. I have cleithrophobia—the fear of being trapped. I just learned about this word a few weeks ago because I was talking about me being afraid of having no way out of something.
- Yeah, the thought of just being in a space with no exit terrifies me, so I wouldn’t have done well in this situation.
- We get dual timelines of Amelie’s past and present, and they’re super short chapters that sometimes alternate.
- Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney
- themes: thriller, mystery, suspense
- rating: 4
- There has been lots of buzz about this book, and evidently Booksta has deemed Alice Feeney the queen of twists. Most of the twists were good, but I feel like there were too many red herrings and they created minor plot holes/unanswered questions and didn’t really serve a valid purpose other than to make us turn on each character.
- Amelia and Adam were both unreliable narrators, and they gave me as the reader reasons to believe that they were plotting sinister things against one another. One red herring that seems like a weird plot hole is the mention of Adam knowing which creaky steps to avoid in the chapel since he’s never been there before. Turns out, there’s not a real reason why, but it later served to throw us off.
- The anniversary letters were super fun.
- Read Goodreads reviews, and I agree with the majority of people. There are a lot of one-liners that are like “fortune-cookie wisdom.” They could’ve been cut down. Feeney’s writing style, I didn’t fall in love with due to this, but it was a good story. The liners make the writing awkward. I’m sure if you flipped to a page, you’d find at least one, or you’re always near one. A few examples of some of these lines:
- “Stories teach us about our past, enrich our present, and can predict our future.” – Page 92
- “Tiny nuggets of buried regrets sometimes slip through the gaps, but the heaviest of memories tend to sink rather than rise to the surface” – Page 103
- “Changing love into hate is a much easier trick than turning water into wine.” – Page 257
- I probably didn’t get the really good ones, but I just thumbed through the book and landed on those.
Below is the Instagram post I shared of the review.
- How We Disappeared by Jing-Jing Lee
- themes: historical fiction, war, WWII, Asian literature
- trigger warning: rape
- rating: 3.5
- I don’t think historical fiction is my cup of tea, but this was a heartbreaking read. The story tells what happened in Singapore during World War II, something I learned, and it was brutal. Not many survived, and women and girls were treated poorly. This book I could pick up and put down with no huge desire to find out what happened. It took me about 4 days to read this book, but it felt much longer than that.
- How the novel ends is open-ended, leaving the reader to decide what happens. How Kevin’s and Wang Di’s lives connected took me a minute to figure out, and it was a new twist, but I don’t feel fully satisfied with it.
- Wang Di’s life in the black-and-white house was gritty and difficult to read. She was taken away from her family to serve as a “comfort woman” for Japanese soldiers. She was treated as if she weren’t human, and I can’t imagine this sad reality.
- It wasn’t a bad story, but I don’t think I’d read it again.
- Black Paradox by Junji Ito
- themes: manga, graphic novel, horror, fantasy, science fiction
- trigger warnings: attempted suicide
- rating: 3
- I don’t know what I expected with this, but I don’t think it was for me. The story was bizarre, haha. After grasping the off-the-wall occurrences, I was curious as to how this story would end.
- I feel like I was more concerned about reading the story than admiring and really looking at the drawings. After I forced myself to give each one attention, the pictures were drawn really well and detailed.
- This wasn’t for me, but it was a quick read that I read within an hour or so.
- The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix
- themes: horror, mystery, thriller, suspense
- trigger warnings: animal cruelty/murder
- rating: 4
- This book was really fun! I’m not super familiar with Halloween movies, but each final girl’s story was a franchise. The newspaper blurbs, threads, and reviews were a nice touch to include in this book. So many details! I would read this book again. It was pretty good. Lynette’s precautions sounded exhausting, but for what she’s been through, I don’t blame her, though the days would be extremely short. The big reveal was a little disappointing to me, but it was a fun read overall.
- The Life We Bury by Allen Eskens
- themes: mystery, thriller, crime, suspense
- trigger warnings: child abuse and neglect, rape
- rating: 4
- Even though the concept is far-fetched—college kid seeks out convicted murderer to write a biography for an English assignment, then turns into solving a crime—I enjoyed this book. So, the guy ends up not being the murderer but spends 30 years in jail. Very sad way to live a life. The real murderer wasn’t hard to figure out since it was a bit obvious.
- Joe gave me the ick, and maybe this is why I don’t read a lot of male MCs. He had a crush on his neighbor, Lila, but she gave him all the signs of her not wanting to communicate/associate with him, yet he kept pressuring her and wouldn’t leave her alone. Eventually she lets up, but that was gross. He even uses his autistic brother, who Lila liked spending time with, to coerce her into having dinner. She becomes engrossed in the mystery, but still, back off, Joe. *insert Demi Lovato comments: GET A JOB, STAY AWAY FROM HER*
- A Quiet Retreat by Kiersten Modglin
- themes: thriller, mystery, suspense, psychological thriller
- trigger warning: domestic abuse
- rating: 3
- The cover is gorgeous, and it was one reason why I chose this book. This is a popcorn thriller, a term I just learned. Premise was cool, but the execution fell flat. Characters didn’t have a lot of depth, further details weren’t really provided (like who sent this invitation), and I didn’t feel any emotion when something happened.
- Things were cleaned up neatly, though it was a huge mess.
- Bummed about Paul’s character. Come on, you couldn’t have let him be a good guy? Didn’t like that he was the poor guy Lessa’s snobby parents despised, but to make him abusive bummed me out.
What a coincidence: How We Disappeared and The Life We Bury mentioned soldiers/higher ups sexually abusing (Asian) women. Disgusting and so cruel.
Orders
February 2: My Variegated Echeveria Orpet arrived! Now that I’ve acquired this plant, I will do my best to not buy any more succies for a bit. This is another super rare succulent that my seller was able to snag for me!
It’s even more gorgeous in person! I can’t wait until it adjusts into its new home and the variegation is more vivid.
February 21: There was a succulent flash sale on Instagram on Friday, the 17th, and there was a succie that I really want; it’s hard to get and super expensive. The main lady I’ve been buying from shared a few plants as a preview and the Variegated Echeveria Chihuahuaensis was one of them.
I was glued to my phone waiting to claim it. I would have been devastated if I hadn’t claimed it. It’s such a beauty!!
The top succie is called Echeveria Missing You. They’re absolutely gorgeous! I’m in love.
That’s All For February!
February was a rough month for us, and March will start off a bit rocky since my dad’s Vanderbilt appointment is on Thursday and Darby will be in recovery.
Wish us luck, prayers, vibes; we’ll take all your kindness and whatever you’re sending!
