This comic‘s so perfect for swaps past (& future)?

(Though honestly, I‘d rather be swinging in a hammock strung betwixt two trees, basking in the warm sunshine. I‘m the last image from October to March, at least. There are no gradual stages of cozy. It‘s all or nothing, baby.)

Thursday night homework sesh. ✌🏻

I need something to keep my textbook open whilst I quote from it. I was imagining a clear book weight/page holder, but the only options I'm seeing on Amazon don't seem great (one is only large enough to work for paperbacks and the other isn't actually transparent). *Links to products I've found in comments.

Does anyone have a recommendation for a product they love?

Thanks!

“Why are the fang teeth called cuspids? Cuspid is almost Cupid. Love bites.”

Tbh, much as I love children‘s literature, I‘m just so sick of middle-grade right now. I want an adult novel! I crave one like I crave tiramisu. Like I crave COFFEE. I was so spoiled for the past decade — reading whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted to. This grad school stuff is for the birds...🐦

Also, how gross is the above expression? 😂

If the sun‘s not out, I don‘t want to be either. I‘m like a reverse vampire.

“Y‘all ain‘t from round here, obviously, so where y‘all from?”
Genie spoke up first. “Brooklyn.”
“Brooklyn,” Ernie confirmed...
There‘s something about calling out Brooklyn that makes you feel like you‘ve grown a few inches, maybe sprouted some hairs on your chin, or an extra lump in your bicep. And when you say it, your whole body goes into the word.”

I‘m not a fan of big cities & would *hate* living in one, but I LOVE reading about NY.

We got a new couch today. It‘s green. 💚 Moxie‘s showing her approval by indulging in a snuggle-nap. Sunday-life is good.

While this middle-grade historical fiction novel is important & written in a way that will connect with some readers (especially older, reluctant readers), I struggled with it. Tingle‘s writing is simple, direct, & repetitive. His style is evocative of an oral storytelling tradition & emphasizes that the Choctaw are a people who‘ve long been ignored in the US; it seems to ask, “Are you paying attention? Are you listening YET?” 👇🏻

Realizing that I saved this & never shared it!
#wondrouswednesday

1) Adam & I over the years: Buffy the Vampire Slayer; Calvin & Hobbes; Fidel Castro (beards are hard!) & Mother Nature (I should be sad); The Route of All Evil (or Highway to Hell) & The Bare/Bear Minimum. (They aren‘t all “couple‘s costumes.”)

2) I‘m passionate about:

•The way that green trees look against a blue sky.
•Breakfast foods.
•The laughter of little children. 😂😈👇🏻

#TodayILearned that it‘s “champing at the bit” not “chomping at the bit.” 🤯

https://grammarist.com/usage/champing-chomping-at-the-bit/

Also, please tell me more about this #TodayILearned #TIL tag. I don‘t actually know what I‘m participating in. 😅

@JoScho I cannot describe how perfect this print is! It captures my lapsed Catholic soul & vaguely-Pagan present so aptly! I‘ve got some deep-diving to do on St. Melangell: time to fall into a “rabbit hole”, if you will. 😉🐇🙏🏻🍃

Thank you so much!
#basicwitchswap #BWS

Sharing the beginnings of a Halloween playlist with a few minutes left on the clock! Something tells me Spooky Season doesn‘t end on the 31st for most of us...& might never end. 🌚 I‘ll continue to work on this for awhile & will get many car-rides worth of listening material out of it, I‘m sure.

Let me know what you think (& if you have suggestions)!

https://open.spotify.com/user/adumbwaz/playlist/6zQjl2Of5pkLRyF02IkzNz?si=Q4qd1l...

Here I am, dressed as @Meaw_catlady for Halloween! 😽 (Not really, but it totally works, right?) And @sprainedbrain , my brain is dressed like you (every day), you just can‘t see it. 🤕😍😂

Thank you both so much for hosting the #basicwitchswap ! I think it was a great success. Have a spooky, GRL PWR-filled night, everyone!

✨🖤🌚🔮🎃🍁🍂

@JoScho There were so many goodies in my #basicwitchswap box to unpack! Everything is glorious. I‘m so excited about the Anniversary Edition of Bunnicula! I don‘t own it yet, though I recently convinced a kid to read it with zero words; I just showed him the cover & it did all the work for me. The bag is perfection, the candy will be our dessert tonight, & I‘m going to read the short stories to my husband before bed (he always asks for some). 👇🏻

Wrapping as black as my soul. 🖤🌚

And a quick break for Chinese Delivery!

To Be Contin-BOO-ed! 👻

#basicwitchswap #BWS
@JoScho

And so it begins! @JoScho I‘ve barely opened anything & it already looks so magical! Moxie‘s clearly enchanted.

#basicwitchswap #BWS

It‘s Midnight in New England & I‘m just repeatedly refreshing the hashtag to see if anyone‘s opened their #basicwitchswap box yet. (I decided to wait until morning for mine; I‘m not a morning person so I‘m counting on it (& coffee) to help perk me up). I should probably go to bed, now, though, huh? 😅

Happy Halloween, Blessed Samhain, & Happy Opening Day, all! 🎃🌚

I came up with a new pet theory tonight about why my astrological symbol(s) never fit: reading makes Pisceans, Cancerians, & Taureans out of us all. Fight me on it (it‘s very undeveloped so you might win 😅).

I‘m subtitling my imaginary article, “She is too fond of books, and it has turned her astrology to mush.”

I *loved* this middle-grade novel about a biracial girl, Malú, who moves to a new city with her mother (whom she calls the “SuperMexican”). Kids will get a crash course in punk rock, Spanish 101, & zine-making. And they‘ll learn valuable lessons along the way, such as “turning an insult into something you embrace is a good way to empower yourself” & “Day of the Dead isn‘t just Mexican Halloween.” ??

This book about female anger: its historic, current, & manipulative suppression; its insurrectionist release; & its power to change the world (largely through politics) is nuanced, carefully-researched, & passionate. Well-worth the read (or listen)!

*Likely the shortest review I‘ve ever written, but this in no way reflects the time you should spend with it.

“She was my rock, confidant, co-conspirator, drinking companion, and life-saver. Whatever was required. The word “friend” didn‘t begin to cover it.”

#femalefriendship
(bridesmaids shown; all friends for 15+ years)

In love with this idea & these “lazy” Halloween costumes!

https://www.google.com/amp/s/news.avclub.com/nobody-does-lazy-halloween-costumes...

The Pied Piper is coming. Hide yo kids...

Would you be in my Book Club?
#myidealbookclub

• “Once Upon a River” - Diane Setterfield
• “Feast Your Eyes” - Myla Goldberg
• “City of Girls” - Elizabeth Gilbert
• “Salvage the Bones” - Jesmyn Ward
• “The Memory Police” - Yoko Ogawa
•”I Like to Watch: Arguing My Way Through the TV Revolution” - Emily Nussbaum

*second half in comments below 👇🏻

My book club is nearing that time when we choose books for the coming year. There are 6 of us, so we each get to choose 2 books. It makes sense & it works for us but OH! That I could choose all of them. 😉 If you were in charge, which 12 would you pick? I‘ll share my list in a separate post. Feel free to play! Share & tag! #myidealbookclub

(I‘m hesitant to post this given the current link sensitivity but Nolite te bastardes carborundum*, right?)

My #basicwitchswap package has been sent! There was room on the broom at the post office today (& room in my schedule to find the time to finish wrapping & get it there 😉). It should arrive Friday, October 25th.

Can‘t wait ‘til Opening Day! 🖤🦇🧙‍♀️🔮🌚

“Been working on a story.”
“What‘s it about?”
“A family of Mexican vampires,” he said, and hissed. “They gotta figure out how to keep a tan and avoid the sun at the same time. But it‘s, like, the 1800‘s, so there are no tanning beds...”
“Like I said before, you‘re weird,” I replied.”

100% would read. 😅🧛🏻‍♂️🧛🏻‍♀️📖
btw, we started watching “What We Do in the Shadows.” Thanks for all of your #spookymovierecs!

I‘ve been listening to the tagged book & thinking. I came up with an idea that I think could be BIG if organized & promoted properly:

Treat March 1st (the first day of Women‘s History Month) as if it‘s New Year‘s — but instead of making New Year‘s Resolutions, make #feministresolutions. Hashtag it, convince the other women in your life to do it, & the men, too. Make it go viral! Feminism is for everyone. 👇🏻

“Most women I knew did not want the “opportunity” to patrol the borders of patriarchal overreach; we felt torn about both the vague prospect & the observed reality of these men losing their jobs. We thought of their feelings & their families, fretted that the disclosure of their misdeeds might cost them future employment, or even provoke them to harm themselves. But this was something else we were being compelled to notice: 👇🏻

❤️Providence, RI
🧡33
💛I‘m a Library Technician (the last part always makes me feel like I work on a library-spaceship or something; like I wear a jumpsuit; like I‘m Kaylee Frye)
💚Married
💙she/her
💜It‘s a mish-mash of my name (Alyisha) & a reference to the Mona Lisa. It was my AIM handle back in the day. I use it for pretty much everything. 😏

#gettingtoknowyou

Would you look at that? I have a palindromic amount of followers! That‘s neat. Thanks, pals! 🙌🏻🥳

BONUS POINTS if horror is:
a) absent
b) mixed with comedy
c) more atmospheric than horrific
& potentially,
d) expressive of feminist rage

🖤 I‘ll go first:

•Beetlejuice
•Practical Magic
•An American Werewolf in London
•Rosemary‘s Baby
•Lizzie
•Shaun of the Dead
•Wolfcop
•Ghostbusters
•The Babysitter
•Buffy the Vampire Slayer (though I prefer the show)
•The Lost Boys
•Hocus Pocus
•Casper (because I grew up in the 90‘s)

#spookymovierecs

“She was always paranoid that I‘d break a bone if I so much as looked at my skateboard. Or, maybe even worse, fall and show my underwear to the world.”

#currentlyreading “The First Rule of Punk” in preparation of my next grad school assignment. It was an Honor book for the Pure Belpré Award in 2018.

Kate DiCamillo truly pulls no punches. While the story features a ten-year-old protagonist & is written for an audience of the same age, it touches upon issues such as: loneliness, grief, single parenthood, alcoholism, racism, sexism, ageism, & imprisonment. It‘s easy to become distracted by the cuteness of the titular puppy & forget the vulnerability, hollowness, & hope at the book‘s core. Don‘t forget. It‘s everything. Well done, K.D.! 👏🏻

Halloween gifts > Christmas gifts.

Wrapping happily by the light of the moon tonight! (Okay, okay; I actually have the giant overhead light on...but that‘s nowhere near as atmospheric). 🖤🦇

#basicwitchswap

Littens who are involved in Youth/Teen programming: please take this idea & run with it so that I may live vicariously through you!

Also, if any #NewEngland Littens would be down for a spooky, themed December meet-up/book swap, it‘s something I‘d definitely consider!

I‘m creating a hashtag just in case: #NightmareBeforeChristmasMeetUp

@JoScho My #basicwitchswap box arrived on Thursday! It‘s VERY heavy (I already feel spoiled 😍) & sounds a little jingly ( eek!🤞🏻). I can‘t wait ‘til Opening Day! 🖤🔮🦇

I‘m just realizing that I never reviewed “Wild,” though I finished it almost a week ago. I LOVED it. I totally get why Lorelai Gilmore wanted to drop everything & hike the PCT (despite her nature aversion). Personally, I have friends who‘ve hiked the ACT & I know it‘s not in my future (I wish I‘d never heard them utter the phrase “period-shits in the woods” but I did — & now you can share in my misery). But Strayed‘s writing is gorgeous.👇🏻

I‘ve been missing Litsy lately! I had 2 projects due for grad school today, & I officiated a wedding this weekend...so I haven‘t had much time for posting (or for reading). But officiating was fun!

I love claiming a spiritual role that has long-been been denied to women as my own. I love coming up with words & rituals that matter.

Here‘s a pic of me strutting my stuff down the aisle (my husband, who was the photographer, was testing the light).

Picked up the last item for my #basicwitchswap today at the Oddities Bazaar in CT hosted by The Frankenstein Twins. Wish I was sending it out early so I could caption this “A”head” of the game“, but alas...

Box‘ll go out this week!

Amy Krouse Rosenthal was an even bigger (& smaller) & even more beautiful soul than I knew. Her memoir confirms this. Reading it reminded me of something Sylvia Plath wrote in her journal: “Living with him is like being told a perpetual story: his mind is the biggest, most imaginative I have ever met. I could live in its growing countries forever.” What must it have been like to live in her world, day after day, & not only for 32 (or 317) pages?🌈

How is it possible that these are the near-final words on the penultimate pages of this memoir? 😭

Part of me wants to frame these words & hang them.

I could do a series.

This selection; then Merricat‘s “Melody, Pegasus, Gloucester” (is that tempting fate?); & finally, Mary Oliver‘s “One, Wild, & Precious.”

“About my midlife crisis. I did not get a sports car... I did get: weepy, chronically weepy. I wouldn‘t describe the origin of my tears as “Boo-hoo, I‘m so old,‘ but more, ‘Oh my, here I am, living, and I would like to keep on living, preferably perpetually‘... I didn‘t exactly have a midlife crisis. I had a midlife cry-bliss.”

😭😭😭

🖤👻🖤

💖 All of the Above 💖

Working on my Major Author/Illustrator project for my Children‘s Services & Materials class, & reading the tagged. I was supposed to focus on an author I don‘t know very well. I might be cheating a little. I mean, I don‘t know *everything* there is to know about Amy Krouse Rosenthal. Can one person truly ever know another? 🤔🤓

#sorrynotsorry #authorcrush #RIPyouwonderwoman

“I was a terrible believer in things, but I was also a terrible nonbeliever in things. I was as searching as I was skeptical. I didn't know where to put my faith, or if there was such a place, or even what the word faith meant, in all of its complexity. Everything seemed to be possibly potent and possibly fake.”

#highlyrelatablecontent

“I didn‘t feel like a big fat idiot anymore. And I didn‘t feel like a hard-ass motherfucking Amazonian queen. I felt fierce and humble and gathered up inside, like I was safe in this world too.”