Dear Internet,

Sorry, not sorry, this is a day late. I spent the last few days doing a binge rewatch of Bridgerton during my downtime to get caught up when part two of season three drops this Thursday (June 13). I finished it at 12:27 a.m. this morning while giggling like a schoolgirl at the carriage scene.

Even Mr. Lisa watched with me and wanted to get into discussions about colonialism and imperialism and all other sorts of isms as the episodes rolled on. My (obsession) interest of things British monarchy and UK herself led me to explain a lot of things on how the world worked in the 1810s. Plus being a fan of Austen and Regency period in particular was also incredibly useful. I wished I owned a DeBretts!

I tried uploading various sizes and angels of the carriage scene to Facebook this morning but it kept telling me it couldn’t upload for whatever reason, so I ended up using a still. But here, at Substack, that is not the case!

Here, have quite a few spicey GIFs of the carriage scene.

Your lucky I couldn’t find the GIF when Colin is finger banging (hate this word, not sure what else to use) Pen.

Word on the interwebs is episode 5 was screened in Toronto and it was taped by an audience member and bootlegged. You can, allegedly, find it online. I did not search for the bootleg but I did start reading the play by play that was posted on Reddit and hoo boy, there is a scene in episode 5 that makes the carriage scene look tame. My order to Babeland (NSFW) has been placed! I. AM. READY.

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Summer begins for me when we get to the cabin and not on June 21^st. Kentucky starts heating up in late April and when we leave, the weather hangs out in the mid-to-high 80F (25C) which cannot be born. I am a northern girl, after all. Here, in N. Michigan, the weather is typically 20 degrees cooler than down south. It’s been in the mid-to-high 50F (10-20C) since we’ve been here. The strategically placed space heaters, thick hoodies, and warm leggings keep the chill at bay.

I just checked the weather for the week. It’ll be mid-to-high 90F (30F) in Kentucky and between 20-25 degrees cooler up here. Huzzah!

I do not know where my fascination with knowing what the temperature is at all times but here we are. I have several apps on my phone, a widget on my laptop, and a notification (also on my phone) of the day’s highs and lows that goes off every morning. Weather.com does not work well in Firefox (shitty web dev) so a tab in Chrome is always open.

I track various cities of where I live and and locations of loved ones. You’d be amazed how often my brother and I discuss the weather in our regular calls. But probably not.

The world outside is a definite emerald green after the smattering of rain we’ve gotten this week. My pollinators, which I bought a few weeks ago, still need to be repotted but we keep up with dead heading them (removing dead buds) and they still look great. I bought super cute overalls to wear when gardening which is a bit obnoxious since we hired a landscaping company. (Mr. Lisa also got overalls. We’re city folk pretending to be country folk.)

We’re having the crawl spaced conditioned this summer as well as getting new electrical run with the installation data jacks and additional outlets in Mr. Lisa’s office. He has a plan for his server rack when we move up here.

Which is looking to be winter 25/26. I did so want to do it 24/25 but timing is just not happening.

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I have started volunteering at my local library where I process interlibrary loans (ILL). ILLs exist in that if you want a book, but your library system does not have it, it can request the book for you from another library system. ILLs are also statewide. Michigan has MeLCat which is by far the most user friendly and user driven ILL site I’ve seen across several states. You login with your library card, search for the books you want, request, and boom! The book arrives at your home library within a week. ILLs come from public and academic libraries.

Many people do not know about ILLs and it’s shocking to me how many libraries do not advertise them on their website as part of general services. It brings people in the door, increases circulation (because it’s never just one book), and increases awareness that libraries do more than just process books.

I was updating my brother about my volunteer job the other day and he kept saying, “No shit!” when I explained how ILLs work. I blew his little mind when I talked that many, many, many (mostly all) libraries have a library of things (here is CADL’s) where you can check out cake pans, telescopes, and laptops amongst other things.

Libraries are way more than just books as they provide so many services from LoT, printers/copiers, language classes, computers to use, community space, and so much fucking more. Anyway, that’s my pitch for using your local library.

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Speaking of ILLs, I got three books on bipolar this week based upon recs from a recent DBSA meeting. Many people have found success with The Bipolar Workbook and another book that I cannot remember and MeL’s website is being bitchy. I also checked out Rock Steady: Brilliant Advice From My Bipolar Life by Ellen Forney. She’s an artist who I found about ten years ago when I became aware of Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, and Me about her diagnosis of bipolar. It is so rare to find non-medical books on bipolar that I cling to whatever I can find.

DBSA is going well. I have been regular on my Friday meetings. There is a meeting specifically for bipolar people on Wednesday and I’ve attended a few of those as well. The organizer said he is going to revamp the meeting schedule, time, and number of people to attend so who knows when the next meeting is.

I also had my regular one-on-one therapy this morning and that also went well. We talked about how I’m in maintenance mode because I know how to work the tools and ask for help. My therapist is flexible enough so that if I need them every week, that’s possible. I’m now down to every other week and I think the next time I see them I’m going to ask for monthly. I’m therapy-ed up the ass with DBSA and OA but I need my regular one-on-one therapist. I know very strongly if I don’t have some kind of checks and balances in my life, life will go to shit. My therapist and I are on the same page, so that’s good.

My distance from OA was far longer than I thought so I sucked it up and went back on Friday and today. I have kept the times and Zoom logins for other meetings but timing is always off. There is a meeting every Thursday on body image I want to join but they’ve ditched the mid-afternoon EST one and now do it at 11 p.m. EST same day to accommodate those fucking west coasters. I want to be in bed at 11 p.m. reading my smut.

Friday, I found a group who were so welcome and genial that I decided to stick with them for future meetings. OA’s website recommends you try a number of meetings to find one that works for you and I’ve found the group I want to hang out in. This group meets every M/W/F at 10 a.m. EST. I went today since my W/F this week is borked to attend. It felt good to say, “My name is Lisa and I’m a compulsive overeater” and be understood.

I’ve been on the train to make some changes to my diet such as going low net carb or gluten free or doing Whole30. Whole 30 is intense and I’m not in the right mind space for it. I went low net carb (40g) before fat girl surgery for two weeks and not only was I miserable, I didn’t feel any different. Lots of people record losing weight and feeling better but nothing happened for me so I didn’t find this to be helpful.

Glute Free is interesting because so many foods have gluten free versions, but gluten doesn’t make me feel like crap, so I ixnayed that.

What does make me feel terrible is sugar. I did research and found the recommended consumption of added sugar is 50g a day. When I was tracking food, I was eating up to four times of that because added sugar is everywhere. It did not help I have a Coke and high end root beer addiction, I claim to always need chocolate, and we have a great ice cream shop in the village.

On our latest grocery shop, I bought sugar free foods to replace what I have so I can keep my sweet tooth going but not add sugar into my diet. I was thrilled to discover my favorite root beer (which can only be bought in the area) has a diet version! The cost in store for a six pack is $7 but cost on the website is $12 plus $18 for shipping! Fuck that shit. I’m going to call around to see if a store can order it for me. But for the time being, I’m drinking diet A&W which is fine and fills the need.

Mr. Lisa didn’t quibble about this swap. I haven’t brought it up in OA and frankly, I’m afraid to. I don’t know what people consider going “sugar free” but I probably should bring it up at the next meeting. The interesting thing is everyone defines their abstinence and food plans differently, so it is not a one size fits all. My therapist also didn’t question this change. So, we’ll see.

Mr. Lisa told me this morning he’s also going to go sugar free along with me. I appreciate the support, but I was fine when we went grocery shopping since our junk food tastes tend to be different. But not so secretly, I’m glad he did. He’s worried about health changes as he gets older since his mom’s heath began to fall apart in her 50s and Mr. Lisa is in his mid-40s. I get this. A primary reason for the fat girl surgery was I did not want to be my mom in my 50s whose health fell apart because she didn’t take care of herself. So, I totally get his reasoning.

I’m back in the gym mode and I take aquatic classes on Tuesdays. I joined my first class a few weeks ago and I was the youngest person by at least 20 years. The instructor recommended I visit a few classes to find one I like. I went to the same class last week and the instructor was genuinely surprised I was there. This class is in the therapy pool and slower while the more active classes are in the lap pool. I’m not afraid of deep water but I was still concerned for some weird reasons. On my way out of class last week, I stopped and watched the lap pool class. The group was +20 years in my age, everyone had dry hair, and several were wearing glasses. Tomorrow I am going to that class and give it a whirl. I bought an eyeglass holder since the instructor is out of the pool while the instructor for the therapy pool is in the pool with us. Hopefully I can keep up with the boomers!

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A lot has been going on with the writing world but that’ll be an update on Wednesday!

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Wonderful Thing

Bingeing and Rewatching TV, Movies, and Books

Mr. Lisa and I tend to binge a lot of TV shows and movies. Battlestar Galactica (2005 reboot) gets watched at least once a year in one go. Same with Episodes 4, 5, and 6 of Star Wars. Pride & Prejudice (2005) is a twice-yearly event (at least) while Bridget Jones’ Diary and Love Actually are once a year. We redid Justified to prep for the spinoff last year and we’ve had talks of re-watching Game of Thrones, but high dragon content means Thursday the pug goes fucking ape shit and flings herself against the TV stand.

Books are the same. When I started reading the Bridgerton series, I read the first six plus Queen Charlotte and several of the spin-offs in one go. I’ve re-read several of the books as I watched the TV series. The Discworld series is another binge that I do every few years (there are over 40 books in the series!) as well.

The primary reason, for me, is the comfort re-watching these shows and movies bring me. With Bridget Jones’ Diary and Pride & Prejudice, there is always something new that I find with each re-watch. In Discworld, I find new easter eggs and in Bridgerton, I find how the stories interconnect. I also know what to expect. This is not to say I’m not a person who doesn’t like surprises but sometimes I want to know where something is going.

I’ve always been this way so it’s not a new trait. I’m going to re-read the other Bridgerton books in the next few weeks, TBR shelf be damned. A bonus to the Bridgerton books? Hot sexy scenes. #chefskiss

Still thwacking that damned fan,

lisa x