What Happened in January?
Hello everyone! I hope your January has been going well. Mine has been both slow and fast, as I think every month will be from now on (thanks, Being an Adult). Business at work has been very slow, but as for the Administrative Assistant/Orientation Leader part of work, it’s been very busy. I’ve been doing lots of paperwork! Honestly, when it’s not the main focus of the job, paperwork is kind of fun.
Life outside of work has been a little crazy. While I won’t go into too much (mostly because all of it is Boring Adult Stuff), I’ll go into the Important To Me stuff now! Let’s see…
My Oyaya
Oliver, my old boy, got real sick at the beginning of the year. He’s always been kinda rough in terms of health, but this time was different. I knew it was time for him to leave us, and even though I knew it would be okay, it still was the hardest decision I have ever had to make, save for when I had to put his brother Max down.
My dad got Max and Oliver when they were kittens. We planned on only getting Max, but Oliver wound up coming with us as well because he burrowed between me and the couch we were sitting on, and I fell in love.
That was in 2005, and over the next 15 years, Maxi and Oyaya gave us so much love. I learned how to be responsible for something other than myself (which for a middle schooler is quite an accomplishment). I also learned that being a Cat Mom is hard, but very rewarding!
Maxi and Oyaya were the lights of my life, and the past few years without Maxi really showed me how much the brothers depended on each other. I had to groom Oyaya extra because Maxi wasn’t around to help his brother keep clean, for example. The last few years with Oyaya were quiet, but so good. I’ll miss cuddling with both my boys.
For now, we’ve got Freya, our indoor/outdoor cat! I love her and her evil, stinky self. I guess she starts a new chapter in my Cat Mom life; a chapter without my boys. I’ll have to learn her personality better, as well as whomever else we bring into the house. Matt and I have already talked about getting a new pet, whether it be a cat, a dog, a frog, whatever. I’m not sure I’m 100% ready for a new pet, but I know when I do get one, I’ll be excited to start the next chapter with them!
Singing With The Moon
One of my goals for the new year is to connect more with my witchy side. I tend to get lazy and not do any rituals (and if I do, they’re very small and very quick…not the way I want to do them!). This year, I’m trying to be consistent and connect with the Moon more by doing full and new moon rituals.
They’re not flashy or anything. For January’s full moon, for example, I lit a few candles, made some moon tea, and cleansed my crystals. I also wrote out what and whom I wanted to extend forgiveness and gratitude to, since that topic aligned with what the planets and stars were doing up in the clouds astrology-wise.
I’ve been following the Moon journal I bought in Seattle, “Moonology” by Yasmin Boland. She is very good at opening my mind up to what I really feel and want for myself as well as the people around me in the prompts and guided meditations she’s included in the journal. While we don’t share the same depth of spirituality, I enjoy following along in the journal because it helps me clear out my thoughts and plan ahead.
January’s Music Obsessions
I’m not even gonna lie to y’all: January has been pretty slow in terms of new music for me. I’ve been busy not listening to new stuff and really focusing on old stuff. Like I always say, it be like that sometimes.
However! That doesn’t mean I haven’t been paying attention to artists I enjoy. Megan Thee Stallion and Normani came out with a song for “Birds of Prey”, the new Harley Quinn movie. The lovely Crywolf released a new single, which is always exciting. FM-84 released a new single as well, a straightforward, retrowave delight. And since I’m currently obsessed with Justina Valentine, I threw her song “Strawberry Soda” on there as well (although they don’t have the uncensored version on Spotify, so that kinda blows, but ehh).
I’ve also put some stuff from my Discover Weekly on there, as well as some probably-new-to-you songs and old favorites of mine. If you’re interested in checking out what I’ve been listening to, click here!
I also have to give a shoutout to Alex Yoder, the composer of the new Game Grumps game, “Soviet Jump Game”. Matt and I are obsessed with the game not only for the battle royale/old school gaming feel, but because of the banging soundtrack. Seriously, this soundtrack is everything. “Nuclear Bunker” is the best song, hands down, but the entire soundtrack is amazing.
Listen to the soundtrack, but also consider buying it and supporting the game because it’s great! It’s still in Early Access on Steam, so it’s only getting better. All of the links are in the video’s description, so I highly suggest just going to YouTube directly from here (if you click on the video you can get there, I promise!).
Aww Shit, Here We Go Again
I bought Stardew Valley the month it came out on a whim. I had heard great things from the reviews, and I knew it was kind of like Harvest Moon (one of my favorite game series), so I took the plunge and bought it off Steam.
If you’re not familiar with the game, Stardew Valley is a game created by Eric Barone (akaConcernedApe) and published by Chucklefish. It’s centered in the peaceful Pelican Town, where your grandfather has left a farm in your care. Not only do you care for the farm, but you find that there is an empty community center just waiting to be reawakened to its former glory!
In the game, there are villagers to befriend (even marry) and monsters to slay, among other things. It’s just a fun, peaceful game with a great story and a great soundtrack. Like I said earlier, I’ve been playing since it released and I absolutely love it.
3/4 farms are ran by the fictional Mary, generally because it’s easy to make myself in the Create-a-Farmer screen (something I can’t say for other character creator engines). This time, however, I wanted to play as a guy! So, I fell back on my classic Mary-Plays-a-Man-in-a-Game character, Claude.
I’ve been having lots of fun this time around, mostly because they’ve added interesting updates since the last time I played (I mean hello, Night Market!?). I’ve also changed up what I originally planned to do on this file and just the other day, I married Emily, the clothes designing, crystal loving, blue haired girl that lives in town. I originally planned on wooing Sam, Emily’s cool next door neighbor, because in my other save files, I married Sebastian and Shane. Keeping with the “S” tradition sounded Cute and Fun, but ultimately Emily won Claude over.
As you can tell, I lose myself in Stardew Valley sometimes.
I’ve even got Matt playing it! They have co-op now, so I bought the game for him and we have our own little farm too. We don’t play as much as I would like to, but I enjoy when we do! I’m showing him how to play the game right now. It’s fun to watch him find out the cool stuff on his own!
If you like farming games and visual novels, Stardew Valley might be the game for you! Interested? Go check it out here! If you download it on PC, maybe we can play together!
That’s it everyone, just a little handful of what I’ve been doing this month. This is honestly a smidge of what I’ve actually been doing, but to me this is all the important stuff, the stuff that defined my January. I’m hoping next month will be a good one as well! It’s the month that Matt and I met, and it’s the month that work should be picking back up…those two things alone have me excited for what’s to come!
If you’d like, follow me on Twitter to follow my daily shenanigans, as well as to be the first to know when a blog goes up! Right now, I’m working on a food-related post that I originally planned on posting around Thanksgiving. I’m thinking that post will see the light of day soon…so come back next week and see what’s going on!
