Serenity & Spice

Lately, I feel this pressure to do something. Create a work of art or destroy something beautiful. In the end, my stress with the ever-changing world around me and the constant stream of life-altering events have me lying in bed staring at the ceiling, waiting for the next crisis to occur.  During this pandemic, I did accomplish something. I wrote half a book about zombies. Last November, I participated in National Novel Writing Month or NaNoWriMo . I wrote the beginning of an atompunk story about a family that lives in a dome society created in 1955. It’s filled with 50s references, conspiracy theories, and zombies, but I only managed to finish half of it. Life gets in the way. I also made a coffee stout in honor of the month.  The blog post I wrote about it was probably one of my most popular.  As during most times of significant change, one is expected to keep themselves busy. I made my first mead earlier this month, and it's currently going through its second ferme...

Now that Thanksgiving has been canceled this year, this may be the perfect time to take off some of the pressure we tend to put on ourselves for our own emotional and psychological well-being. We don’t have to roast a turkey or talk about the election. Now that we can’t gather in groups, some of the normal holiday stressors are almost non-existent.  Maybe that in itself is stressful. This weekend, Lost Forty Brewing came out with their annual triple barrel aged Nighty Night Imperial Stout. Usually, there is a big festival with games and booths, but this year, it had all been extremely scaled down for obvious reasons.  The release had been delayed by a month.  As the festival and beer are zombie-themed, it usually takes place around Halloween. For this year, they rebranded and called it the Year From Hell.   Social distancing guidelines were strictly enforced with pre-sale available online beforehand.  I, like most people, picked up my order and went home....

I have decided recently that I am going to stop planning my future.  That’s not to say that I won’t save money for a rainy day or contribute to a retirement fund.  I’m going to stop trying to answer the question, “where do you see yourself in five years?” I’m going to stop chasing after jobs I will never get.  Stop looking up houses on Zillow and fantasizing about a future that might not happen. Let’s face it. It’s pretty risky for most people to be making big financial decisions right now. We could be living in a zombie apocalypse come January.  For right now, I think I will stay where I am and focus on what I can control.  It’s where I might need to be.  I think I will write a book this month. For those of you who don’t know, I will give the obligatory breakdown of what NaNoWriMo is. The goal is to write 50,000 words during November or one novel. This will be my first time participating even though I have never finished a book before. Usually, there is th...