The Guild, Supernatural, Hitchhiker's Guide, and Ghostbusters: AKA My Birth Week

 Hey Friends,

Last week was my birthday and there was fun things to do through out the week. I finally decided to adopt a birth week celebration, because I don't get a lot of opportunities to celebrate me. I shook off the misconceptions I had that only self absorbed people did birth weeks. So let me take you through some of the last week plus a few days.

A Little Guildie Fun 

Did some rewatching of The Guild, due to the fact I had been working on my book and a character had been rewatching it, so it got me wanting to do the same. It's also a good time for a refresher since they announced their going to start fundraising for a movie. 

If your not familiar with The Guild, it's a web series actress Felicia Day came out with in 2007 that ran till 2013. It follows a game guild who meet in real life and shenanigans ensue. This is a required viewing in the late 2000's to early 2010's section of your geek history education.

My 42 Birthday and a Misadventure in Cooking 

So like I said in a previous post this was a low key b-day. The PMDD was kindish to me that day. I started with making my pitcher of mockarita so it'd have time to chill. I used The Speckled Palate's Virgin Margarita recipe as a guide. I deviated in that I couldn't get fresh lime juice.

After this I watched a little more of The Guild and Trent The Traveler videos.  My Grannie stopped by to give me her gifts one of which is a purse that is awesome cause it's a cross body bag that holds all my stuff. 

Later in the day I began to prepared the main dish for my birthday supper from Supernatural: The Official Cookbook, Winchester Surprise:

This was my most ambitious recipe I think I've ever tried that wasn't baking. My Mom gave me some pointers before heading to church with Grannie, leaving me to my own devices with just the cookbook as my guide. 

          

Now I deviated from the recipe a bit it calls for ground pork and ground beef, well I decided to use what we had in the freezer which was ground pork sausage and ground deer meat and instead of chopping up pickles Mom suggested I use dill relish that it was basically chopped pickles. I feel the Winchesters are use what you got kind of people.

 

 

The other ways I deviated from the recipe in shredded cheese and instead of corn chips I put pepperoni on top to make an image of a planet to represent Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy for it is the birthday I become the answer to life, the universe, everything.

 

 

I decided on a side of peas. Now my Mom had instructed me that these particular can of peas needed a long boil... I over did it a bit...

 

Winchester Surprise was a hit. Mom and Grannie loved it! The drink was good, but very sweet, so sweet you couldn't drink much in one go. I don't know if the actual margarita drink is that sweet or not. Can someone let me know?

 I also had a late night s'more. It's become the birthday tradition for me.

My Birthday Haul

 

So here is my birthday haul:

Back right the purse my Grannie gave me.

Back left is my Legend of Zelda 40th Anniversary Magazine, which may have a slight error in it, but I still love it.

Front right is the complete collection of the 42nd Anniversary editions of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. I'd said I'd like the first book, wasn't expecting the whole thing. Y'all the books smell so good. 

Front center is a Lego Botanicals Dandelion. I've already put it together and it's hanging out in a vase.

Front right is a bottle of  Body Fantasies Cotton Candy Body Spray that was suppose to be a Christmas present but got forgotten.

I also got this homemade bag:

 

   

 

It was a collaborative effort between my Mom and Grannie. The strap had to get adjusted it was a little long.

 

 

June 6th

 

So the Saturday after my birthday was a full day and of course I get a lousy night of sleep. First was my family reunion. A time to reunite with family and partake of food. This year I had a cousin grill up burgers and hot dogs. Fangirl came at my invite, cause we were going out after words in honor of my birthday since she hadn't been able to come up on the day. I figured we lunch at the reunion and hit local stores to save money so we can go out on her birthday. 

I got some belated birthday wishes, and one not so good sentiment. Had a cousin's wife asked me my age I told her 42, she's like that's a good age your getting everything together in your head, then your body falls apart. It's like that's a kind of fraked up to tell some one. I've been feeling good about myself in my 30's and 40's when it comes to my aging. I've felt good physically despite my preexisting  physical issues I've had since I was in high school. I've approached all my birthdays with joy and hope once I discovered the scary tales people go on about being in your 30's, 40's, and so on is bull crap. I feared the big 3-0 back in my 20's, but as I got closer I saw it wasn't the scary beast people made it out to be, and I threw the most fun birthday with rainbow cake and ring pops. It's how I also approached my 40th. So I tend to ignore such talk and follow how my aging is going for me not someone else's aging or preconceived notions of aging.

I was a bit tired and irritable due to little sleep and the fact later that day the inevitable end of PMDD would happen. After the reunion Fangirl and I headed out. We hit up three thrift stores, a used book store, and a stop at Geek Mountain. After the shopping I went home and killed over into slumber.

 

June 6th Haul

 

 So first up is my gifts from Fangirl:

 

 

In the back is the final three books I needed in Tamora Pierce's Protector of the Small series. Then there's the blue dice bag Fangirl handmade for me, it's now holding all the loose dice Fangirl has gifted me over the years.The black box holds these beautiful fluid filled dice that have glittery things within.

They're all sitting in a dice chest Fangirl painted. It's currently housing all the dice sets my friends gifted me.

 

Now we come to the shopping haul. This is all the things we purchased that day:

 

  

 

Top right is a Superman/Wonder Woman comic I got at Geek Mountain.

Top left is a blue bunny Fangirl found cast off in a random section of Goodwill, she gifted him to me for the Blue Bunny Army, I'm naming him Ford after the character in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Middle left is my Goodwill find: Greenwitch by Susan Cooper, the next book I needed in the Dark Is Rising series. 

Bottom is Comic book bags from Geek Mountain, cause I have naked comics in my collection.

 

Ghostbusters Day

 

Lastly is Ghostbusters Day, now the 8th was outside my birth week this year, but it's close enough so I'll count it. Ghostbusters is a special franchise to me, because I was born the week it premiered in theaters. The day started by ducking out for my Mom's doctor appointment and after that was dragged out way longer than we thought we returned home. I got a late start watching the Ghostbusters movie. Like the 40th anniversary viewing I decided to eat a s'more during the Stay Puff Marshmallow destruction scene, it adds a another level to the viewing:

I got the idea for this from The Baby-Sitter's Club #9 The Ghost at Dawn's House. In one scene of the book the girls make s'mores to eat for that end part of the movie. It was a good idea, Mom mom even joined in the fun.

 

Okay that was a long post at least it felt like it writing it, then add in just bad attention span and power going out while trying to write it, it took much longer. So I hope your weekend is good and have some fun out there. See ya!

 

*Thrifty Geek* 

Being Creative With Mental Health Issues

Hello Friends,

I've never made it a secret here that I have mental health issues. I've often mentioned  my Mental Health Hydra. I have been diagnosed with severe Anxiety, Depression, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and Bipolar II. It's not fun in my head, it's made a lot of things difficult, especially creating things. I'm a writer. I write stories, poems, blogs, and book reviews. I can tell you my brain being wired in the way it is has effected me creatively. So one of the things I deal with is when people give their opinions on things my brain automatic goes "Their right, your wrong, we have to change or else we're doing wrong" or something to that gist. 

An example is this one time the Captain, my sister, and I were discussing an album we listened to growing up. They ended up mentioning how they hated this one song, the problem was it was one of my favorites. Now for most people this is no big deal, but to my frelled up brain it's a trigger where my brain screams we can't enjoy this anymore cause other people hate it and my brain treats what they say as fact, instead of the opinion it is. 

Now let's add in the internet where everyone has an opinion and tells you how to do everything, and your brain instantly believes everyone is right but you, plus cancel culture, which is a field day for your mental health induced perfectionist issues. This leads to so much stress for the creative cause your worried first about doing everything "by the book" or "right" so people won't toss your work out and leave your written world unwritten. It's a nightmare. This is why my book series has taken so long, I'm so psyched out about upsetting people, even though I have researched the heck out of everything, and have been mindful of so much, but I've obsessed over minor details so much and being swayed by people's opinions that I lost the whole focus of my original point to my stories, just to have a fun geeky time. 

The Latest Example 

Yesterday is a further example of these issues. First I like to note I was going through PMDD, which is Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder, so my mood and mental health were already all over the place. I simply went to find a link to how to format your poetry collection for submitting for publication. I was already overwhelmed by all the information, when this same page was even commentating on how you capitalize your poetry could cause people to see you a certain way. I'm stressing cause I've just went creatively with what my gut tells me and it has went in the direction that my current style is, but now I fear I won't get published cause I don't write the "right" way. This led to an anxiety induced editing of three poems and the more I edited the more I was unhappy cause it wasn't feeling like my poem anymore. Then I tried to calm myself down saying you don't have to do it everybody else's way and sought out modern examples that were like my capitalization and punctuation style, and I did find my capitalization style with one award winning poet, and there was another who had poems who's punctuation was like mine. Then I remembered I had two single poems published despite my unique style. Then a person on my discord reminded me is poetry is messing with language and that what I choose to do with my work is valid, and that e e cummings and Don Marquis would be supportive. I did make me really look at my poems and I realized I'm actually a blend of old and new styles and I'm fine with that.

Universe Being Inspiring

Despite this reassurance that I'm on the right path I still was anxious, again probably motivated by my PMDD, I conked out again. When I awakened it was dark, it was around 9:30 or 9:40ish. I went out on the back porch to watch the lightning bugs, fireflies to the rest of you. I noticed it was still a little light, so I put my shoes on and was met with beautiful sky sight. As I stood there taking in the sights and sounds I felt inspiration like I hadn't in a while. I also felt peace with my creative decisions. It's like I'll do this creative thing my way. I'll be like Rune from Mercedes Lackey's Bardic Voices, if the conventional doesn't want me then I'll be unconventional. That's my philosophy deep down when you remove all the fear my mental health instills in me, a girl who shrugs off convention. Speaking of Philosophy, it's also a great filk song, written by Mercedes Lackey if I'm not mistaken, that I think fits this section of the post. 

Then as if the universe wasn't already delivering messages I pulled this card:

 I think the universe is making it clear: Do it your way. If the conventional overseers of the creative spaces will not have me, then I'll make my own way, even if it's just here on my blog.

Inspiration On June 4th 2026 

 Awoken from a mentally anguished induced sleep 

The sky still clings to daylight 

As two bright celestial bodies hold it up in the west

Lightning bugs do their flashing dance amongst trees and over fields

Western winds bring  that interstate clear

A sound that beckons to the younger dreamer

The older dreamer makes a decision to write her style

Whether it's loved or not 

 

 I know this is all over the place, but it was what was on my soul and may there's other creative souls that needed to hear this message. Have a great weekend guys and go create something uniquely awesome.

*Thrifty Geek*