April 2021
Hello everyone! April was a strange month for me. As the weather flips and flops, so does my mood. I’ve been both very sad and very happy this month! Luckily, there has been a lot to keep me preoccupied this month. Let me tell ya about it!
New Tech
I have had my old laptop since before I met Matt. It was getting slow and didn’t run the games I wanted to play anymore, so I’ve been wanting a new laptop for a long time. This month, I was able to make it happen! Matt took me to Micro Center and while I wandered around, he found me the best bang for my buck. Now I can play the Sims all day without it crashing every five minutes! It’s been nice!
I’m also excited about the speed of the new laptop when it comes to writing. My old laptop would lag pretty bad, to the point that when I would write it would be a few sentences behind what I was typing. This distracted me a lot because I’d see all my typos as they’d come a few seconds after I had typed them and have to go back and fix them. Now when I write, it keeps up with my fingers!!
Part One of Two
This month, I got my vaccine! Well, the first part of the Pfizer, to be more exact. I was worried about how I would feel afterwards, worried about how bad the needle would be, and worried about the whole process.
The process Matt and I went through wasn’t as rough as I expected it to be. We went through the county website and down the the fairground to get the shot. We never had to get out of the car! Instead, the organizers corralled us into various barn-like buildings and got us into line. A nice fireman gave us our shots, and we went on our merry way! Well, after sitting in the waiting lot for fifteen minutes.
After the shot, I fell asleep for what felt like a year, but was actually only about two hours. The rest of the day was foggy because I was so exhausted from the shot. Luckily I didn’t have to work that day, so I got to be sleepy all over the house instead!
I’m worried about the second dose, mostly because I can’t really take the day off the next day if I feel worse than the first shot (which I have heard is very possible). Our GM and her husband (another important manager) are going on vacation that week, and I have to help run the store while they’re gone! I’m hoping lots of water and rest the day of the second dose will help me the day after.
Not a Line, but a Circle
The first half of the month, I felt off. Everything was a lot grayer than normal, as if the saturation of the world was turned way down. Nothing was as funny as normal, and all I wanted to do was to be left alone on the couch. I thought the feeling would go away, but as the month pressed on, I couldn’t shake it. It was frustrating!
One day at work, we were talking about Steve, my coworker who passed away in January. I don’t remember what the conversation was about, but I do remember something clicking in my brain; I was depressed, and I was still grieving my friend.
At that point, I got more frustrated with myself. I was supposed to be done grieving! It’s April, it’s been long enough. That’s what I told myself, but as I sat with my frustration and grief I realized something: The grieving cycle was not at all linear. Once I got to acceptance, I thought the anger and sadness would go away. As the past month has told me, that is absolutely not true.
It took a lot of crying, writing journal entries, and general processing skills to overcome this wave of grief, but I think I’m through it now. Unfortunately, as long as I work where I do, I think I’ll go through waves of missing Steve. Fortunately, however, I’ve got all the time in the world to process any emotions that come my way. That plus a great support system and friends that are still grieving as well makes me feel less alone.
Mortal Kombat
First things first: I know nothing about the actual lore of Mortal Kombat. All I know is that I love fighting games, I love the theme songs, Jonny Cage is my guy, and the old movie is campy and awful and I love it.
That all being said, I watched the new movie and liked it quite a lot. I went in blind, not really knowing much about any of the characters or any plot that could possibly be presented in this reboot. I knew that diehard fans might not like the movie, but as a casual fan, I enjoyed what I saw.
My only “problem” with the plot is how predictable and lackluster it was. I say “problem” because I actually enjoyed how not great the plot was. Compared to the old movie, the plot was amazing!
The fact that the new plot was kind of bad added to my enjoyment because I like movies that either don’t take themselves seriously or take themselves way too seriously…Mortal Kombat was definitely the latter. The actors really put their all into their performances, and I honestly think they did a great job with the material they had been given. I especially liked Cole Young, the original character they made for the movie. I thought his arcana was silly, but when I really looked and thought about the movie, his power made sense. Without spoiling the plot, I will say that Cole is there to protect his bloodline, just like his ancestors before him. It made sense to me!
If you’re a casual Mortal Kombat fan like me, I’d say give the movie a chance. The characters made the movie for me, since the plot wasn’t 10/10 and the effects weren’t anything to write home about. I enjoyed watching the actors do their thing, and I enjoyed laughing at the absurdities and goofy parts. It’s a solid hour and fifty minutes, so it’s not too long, and the soundtrack is killer. Go check it out!
Music Obsessions
This month, I have listened to about three songs over and over: “Yucky Blucky Fruitcake”, “Slumber Party”, and the new Mortal Kombat theme from the movie. As expected, I threw all three of those songs on there so you all can have them in your head too.
As for the other additions…The Weeknd released a remix of “Save Your Tears” with Ariana Grande, and Demi Lovato scooped Grande up for her new single “Met Him Last Night”. Ari, as usual, stays winning in the pop world. I threw some Paramore on there after hanging out with my Paramore loving friends earlier in the month, threw some Prince on there after it snowed twice (twice!!) this month, and I heard a great new version of “Koopa’s Road” from Super Mario 64 that I enjoyed too much to not include on this month’s playlist.
The other songs are songs I’ve been listening to while sitting in the back of my dad’s car as I write this (we’re going on a day trip!) to flesh out the playlist for the month. Oh, and Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist featured a great cover in one of their episodes this month, so you get that too. Here’s the playlist if you’d like to listen!
Thanks for reading the monthly wrap up, y’all!I’m happy you guys like to read about my life as much as I like to document it. I’m hoping that next week, I’ll have something new for you guys! I’ve got lots of ideas swimming in my head after taking time off to write my novel last week, so I’m sure I’ll have something enjoyable here in seven days or so.
In the meantime, feel free to follow me on Twitter to stay notified as to when I post the blog each Monday! Stick around on there to see funny memes and Mary-isims, though. Those are the stars of the show.
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Thanks for reading, as always, and I’ll see you all here next week for something new!
