Of books and eclipses

I think I figured out my book review for Everything Grows, but I admit I went a little wishy-washy on the nostalgia factor. Mostly because it's entirely possible that it's user error, or, y'know, just because it doesn't feel like '93 to me doesn't mean that it won't feel that way to everyone else who reads it.

So you get my more in-depth musings. Sorry. :P
Book blurb: Fifteen-year-old Eleanor Fromme just chopped off all of her hair. How else should she cope after hearing that her bully, James, has committed suicide? When Eleanor’s English teacher suggests students write a letter to a person who would never read it to get their feelings out, Eleanor chooses James.

More accurately: In this LGBTQ+ YA coming-of-age novel, a teenage girl grapples with the suicide of a classmate and her mother's depression, while discovering her own gender and sexual identity.

( Thoughts. )

In other news, I watched the lunar eclipse last night. It was cold as fuck and I'd like to take a moment to flick off The State for saying the thing started at 9:30 because no the fuck it did not. But I did get to try out my new HK coat and once Mums adjusted the laces in the back, it fits rather nicely. I'm sure it has the not-so-added bonus of making me look short because it's a longer coat and since I'm not 99% legs, I'm pretty sure that not even my slightly taller than average height can really off-set that. Sigh. But it's blue and pretty and the lining is beautiful and I'll take a picture later.

Back to the eclipse. So I took a walk after dinner and then another once the eclipse started. The second walk was mostly to get away from the neighbors across the way who would not shut up and were very, very loud. When I came home they were at it again, but in the time it took me to check back in with Mums and then peek outside again, they'd gone inside. I'd hoped that was the end of them, so imagine my annoyance when I went out for the main event (when the red should've appeared but really, all we got was a rusty-brown) and they appeared and did not shut up for almost the entire thing. The dude kept comparing the moon to a hazelnut (I stopped counting after he did so at least three times, and not just all in a row either) and Mrs. Chatterbox, when discussing the odd times of eclipses, bemoaned the solar eclipse happening in the middle of the day. I can only hope the lady 2 doors down from us had the same expression I did (they did not invite me over to their chat so I stayed leaning against the car so my neck didn't get a crick in it) because wow. Just... wow.

Almost as wow was them all shutting up for approximately 14 seconds before the Chatterboxes solemnly said, "Silence is golden." How would you know? You haven't shut up for the last half an hour! I had to actually clench my teeth to not say something at that point because I was that annoyed. The only time they bothered to lower their voices was when they were discussing the one thing I had any interest in: the asshole down at the dock who is building a house and thus killing the dock access... and how he conveniently got waterfront land for 50K. Like that's fishy all the way around but this is the thing you choose to speak about in hushed tones? Like I'm working with him or something? Rude.


Ranty, I know. Had to dose Ozma today for her fleas and now she's hiding out in Mom's room and my jealousy knows no bounds. ;_; Why you no snuggle with me anymore, cat? I even cleaned your box out yesterday and filled it with extra litter. Sigh.

In other adulting news, I finally remembered to ask Mom if there was a reason we stopped using the dishwasher and it turns out that no, no there was not. So I'm running a test load through and we'll see how it goes.

Debating whether or not to binge the new season of Grace and Frankie...