Peace, Hope, and Rats

1. What song makes you feel better?

It depends on what I need. A few examples got posted before. I'll throw Try Everything feom Zootopia as well. I use that to boost my mood at school and hype myself up for being a substitute.

26. If you could live anywhere with anyone you want where would it be and who would you bring?

I don't care where I am, but I need my Trek family with me. Being separated from them is becoming more painful every day.

27. Do you like to garden? Have you ever grown something?

I love having a garden. My classroom (and every room in my grade level) is a jungle because my plants have taken over the school. Outdoor gardening is hard for me currently because I live in the woods and there isn’t sun enough to help the plants out. I used to grow tomatoes, flowers, herbs, and all sorts when I was younger and in town.

2. What's your comfort show?

Star Trek Deep Space Nine. Those folks are literally my family.

13. What is your favorite snack?

Anything with peanut butter.

25. How many post are in your drafts right now?

I don't have drafts, I don't keep drafts unless I start a post while I'm working with animals and then don't have the time to finish before I have to drive away from their house. Then I finish it as soon as I'm home or at the next spot where I can finish. I don't like to leave things unfinished.

What song makes you feel better?

Oooh. That depends on what I'm trying to feel better about. If I need support, one about Aslan. Typically See You Again, which I don't care what people say was MEANT for Narnia. The end. Sometimes I need my father and I listen to It Won't Be Like This For Long. Both of those options make me cry, which is totally what I need at the time I'm listening to them. If I'm angry, the T2 (Trainspotting) version of Lust For Life.

14. What's something upcoming that you're excited for?

The end of the school year. I have had just about enough of this cohort who are the worst grade level I have ever seen for stressing out every adult in the building. I hate saying that as a teacher because I believe that every child deserves a chance, but when you are giving a child that chance and they shout and spit in your face about it, then swear up and down they did nothing wrong... And they do that every hour or every half hour? About everything? At some point you have to be grateful for a chance to recharge your mental health.

32. .... Doesn't exist in the version I reblogged, so I'll give you 23 instead and if I'm wrong, please tell me I'm an idiot for making assumptions.

10. Favorite classical literature.

I don't know that I have any. I do enjoy reading Shakespeare just for the sake of it. I don't know that I would call any one bit of classical literature my favorite, though. I will literally read just about anything and I do love reading "older" stuff.

17. Favorite finished book series.

Black Stallion. I reread it all the time. It will never not be the series I go to. Second to that is Narnia. I go to that one almost as often, but for different reasons.

36. Your absolute most favorite character(s) from any book you've ever read.

I mean... Shetan and Aslan.

43. Title of a book you own that's in the worst physical condition you have. Explain what happened to it. Post a picture if you want.

🍓 ⇢ how did you get into writing fanfiction? 

I think I've done this one before. It started as 1990s web chatrooms and moo clients, then progressed from there because I hated role play but loved writing.

🍄 ⇢ share a head canon for one of your favourite ships or pairings

Michael faked his death so he could live with Teyla on the sly. (I might have answered this one too, so... Trip didn't die either. Section 31 or whoever faked his death and his daughter's and he and T'Pol lived happily ever after on Vulcan.)

🥐 ⇢ name one internet reference that will always make you laugh 

Haven't got a clue on this one, honestly.

🍦 ⇢ name three good things about a character you hate

She was played by a wonderfully kind woman who went to school here at UNC.

She was intelligent on the sly in the most perfectly not at all innocent way.

Without her, we would have had much flatter story arcs.

Name the character. :)

7. What kind of common romance tropes do you enjoy and what kind do you dislike?

This one is hard because I don't really know what I like and don't like in romance. I think mostly I think it needs to feel real and I need to like the characters. Neither of those things hit the "trope" criteria though. I suppose, considering that some of my favorite couples are Belle and Rumple, Goliath and Elisa, Trip and T'Pol, and though not a "couple" Michael and Teyla... I guess the idea of someone being an outcast/different and accepted by someone who truly loves them for who they are is my thing?

20. Where and how do you find new books to read?

I walk through bookstores or libraries and wander right up to some amazing books a lot of the time. I also listen to a podcast called Writers on Writing and while maybe half of those books weren't outstanding, I've found some that were really very good there. I also participate in the Big Library Read (now Libby Reads) whenever I can and follow or create challenges for myself. Some of my favorite challenges are to read from an author out of every country, read all of a certain type of honor or award book type, read every major section of the Dewey Decimal System, read a book each month that has the number of that month in it... My favorite challenge that I created for myself was to read one book each month that focused on the animal in that year's animal zodiac calendar. THAT was how I found Three Bags Full, the book The Sheep Detectives was based off of. I find a ton of stuff that I never would have looked for otherwise.

27. What was the first book you remember reading as a kid?

There were two I remember equally. One was Little Ducky Doodle Do, not to be confused with Ducky Doodle books you find now. I loved that one so much I translated it into Spanish for my Spanish literacy course in high school. The other was Little Bunny Follows His Nose, which was less about the story and more about the book being scratch and sniff. Those chocolate mint cookies were to DIE for! As far as books I remember reading to myself, the first one I remember trying to read to myself was The Black Stallion. Yeah. I was little. No, I couldn't read it to myself. I still tried. And I still have the whole series.

31. Do you mostly read through e-reader; reading app on phone; on your laptop; a physical copy; or by audiobook?

It depends on what I am doing at the time. If I have a ton of pet care work back to back I get a couple of e-books or audio books to listen to (I have the e-reader read aloud) while I am driving between clients, walking dogs, cleaning litter boxes, etc. When I am just sitting and reading to animals, I use physical copies. If I am at home and puzzling, stitching, playing Minecraft or some other game, OR if I want to read fanfiction, I use the computer because I can have it read out loud to me while I am doing whatever it is.

I am not healing well from surgery and my surgeon (who is also the doctor) sucks at a bunch of things like bedside manner, paying attention to patients, or giving a damn about anything but getting people in and out of the office. I am in the process of contacting the hospital patient relations department over both my treatment and the direct cause of my current condition being that my genuine concerns were blown off as unimportant from the beginning.

Immediayely after surgery I moved out of my home for a month, into clients' houses to pay off a surgery bill I couldn't afford, so I was basically on the job 24/7.

During that time the last of my rats began to slow down. It was a race for me to be finished living away and her hanging on to life. I came home in time to hold her so she could spend her last hours of life cuddled at my side, watching tv together like we had always done since her last sibling passed and her humans became the only part of her mischief left.

The takeaways?

I have felt like crap since September of last year.

I feel less like crap, but in different places now.

I am no longer a rat owner for the first time since probably the 1980s or '90s.

I spent yesterday talking to a squirrel and asking if it wanted me to "pet your little head" before giving it a peanut because it was better than the garbage in the trash it had come out of.

I clearly need rats in my life.