tiffanyshearn

Lazy Weekend

This past week was relatively relaxed, and that carried into the weekend. My nephew’s baseball game had a time change that was not well communicated among the opposing team’s parents, so only two players were on time. Instead of a game, they ended up playing against those two along with a handful of parents in a game/batting practice.

My husband and I did not hang around for that. Don’t judge us. It was colder than expected, and we are just the aunt and uncle. He did wave to us, so he saw us there supporting him. We do want him to have the support he can take with him as he grows up.

Sunday, we scheduled a homemade pizza lunch with my sister and the kids. I had purchased some pre-made crusts earlier in the month. We cooked up some topping and shredded a variety of cheese. Of course, my niece only wanted cheese. My nephew was daring enough to add some chicken to his half. I thought they turned out pretty good for a fun and relatively easy meal.

Mine has ALL the toppings!

Beyond that, I have been at my computer most of the weekend. I am editing book two while waiting for this round of readers to finish up book one for me to run through it again. Book two will pass to my alpha readers once I finish this revision.

Between chapters, I also put in some Dungeon Master time. I am running Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage, and we are rebooting the campaign in June now that everyone in the group is vaccinated. I am reading through the book again and updating Realm Works with some additional notes. My DM style is to have a lot of prep and helper files to try to make the world real for my players. It helps me with improv in-session by having potential options at hand when the players do something crazy.

I am excited to get started again. The reboot session in June will not be new material. We want a refresh of the first session a year ago. I have planned some mock encounters to get everyone back in the RPG habits. There will be so much side chatter getting to visit again that introducing new material would only frustrate me. Instead, it will be prep, practice, recap, and hanging out. I will be sure to share some of the mock encounter antics after the session!

Big Cat, Little Cat, and I all hope you had a great weekend. Until next time!

Fully Vaccinated

I just received my second dose of the COVID vaccine, so I am protected against Covid as of two weeks from now. These shots are an enormous milestone for me for a couple of reasons.

The first reason is because of my needle phobia. It is not a fear where looking away while it happens is enough. I have suffered panic attacks, fainting spells, dangerously low blood pressure, and persistent nausea when exposed to needles.

My workplace did the bloodwork screening for free onsite. That one where a nurse pricks your finger for a toothpick amount of blood to check your basic numbers. I tried to go two years in a row when it was mandatory for insurance reasons. Both times I ended up waking up on the cafeteria floor.

It is a frightening experience in that moment of waking. I cannot remember where I am or how I got there. Strangers surround and hover over me, speaking to each other and asking me questions. Others linger in the background to catch a peek at the excitement. It only takes a moment for my memory to return. In that time, I freeze and wrack my brain for how to react before it starts coming back.

I found it was not even exposure to actual needles that could trigger such a reaction. In a pre-op consultation, my doctor sat with me to explain the procedure and the IV I would have during the operation. I felt feverish. My vision narrowed, whiting out from the perimeter toward the center. I passed out in the chair, hitting my face on the counter next to me on the way down.

I have worked with a counselor to steadily take steps to bring this from a phobia down to a reasonable fear. It has taken me many years to arrive at this stage. Last fall, I got the flu shot and barely managed to avoid unconsciousness. This year I have had two Covid vaccinations and made it out of both only feeling a little woozy (thank you Husband for being my driver!).

Showing off my band aid and sticker.

The second reason this is an important milestone for me is that I have a handful of people in my life, very close to me, who are at higher risk of dying from Covid. Some of them are young, some are old, but each has a factor placing them at risk. I could not have predicted a need to vaccinate against a pandemic all those years ago when I sought help to address my phobia. Today, I am immensely grateful I took action then so that I could take action now to protect the people I love.

Stay safe everyone!

Happy Mother’s Day!

This is the first time in 17 months that these 3 (four with my niece) generations of women have been able to gather for anything beyond grocery drop offs. We have been diligent about keeping our bubble small, and my grandmother could not go out for visits until after vaccination.

I am grateful that everyone in this picture is still around today for us to be able to celebrate Mother’s Day together. I promised everyone burgers and dogs, rain or shine, and the weather cooperated with me enough that I was not grilling in the rain. The sun was out enough that we even spent some time in the backyard.

We had some helpers interested in pond vacuuming give us a hand.

We kept it small. Just family chatting about nothing and everything as we do. Unfortunately, the ducks that had been enjoying our little pond for a few days departed Thursday. My niece and nephew were not able to sneak a peak at them as a result. I’m including a picture at the end of this post to prove that they did, in fact, exist. We are still doing spring cleaning on the pond, but even that part is interesting enough to children for them to provide a bit of help.

We were also able to watch the Seattle Sounders get a win while everyone was over. All around, a good day for this family. As this weekend was packed with cleaning the house for the first visitors in over a year and hanging out with family, I will keep this post short and sweet and end here.

Happy Mother’s Day to all of my friends and family I could not see today and to all of you reading this. I hope you each had the chance to celebrate in a meaningful way.

Temporary visitors to our pond this spring.

Baseball Season

This Saturday was my first baseball game for my nephew. He is at the age where they are doing coach-pitch and only have three innings. I like that they are focusing more on exposure at this point. Each team member gets a turn at bat and then they rotate to the other team. The coach also did a good job of switching up the field positions they each played.

Reaching first on his first at bat of the game.

I’m fairly certain every kid in the game reached first at least two of their three at bats. One of them got ahold of a pitch and sent it to the outfield. That is effectively a home run at this age… Unfortunately he then forgot to touch home plate. Whoops!

Playing second base. Not paying attention to the batter.

My sister naturally thinks her son is the best player on the team. I think all have a great deal of enthusiasm. They can all throw. Not far or accurately, but they can throw. Catching? Well, the ball eventually finds its way into someone’s hands. Overall, a great effort. I know most of them were paying attention to more of the game than I did playing softball as a kid. I can’t wait until my niece’s soccer team also starts up again in the fall so they both have their sports again.

Go bats!

A New Threat

Her body told her it was time for another break. They were demanded more and more frequently, and she suspected the beginning of a fever. She eased herself to the ground and off her cut and blistered feet, taking as much care as possible for her other bruises, breaks, and lacerations. When her rear finally touched the ground, she was breathing more heavily from the effort than from simply walking along. Once it was done though, and she lay still, her aches and pain became a pulsing numbness.

Were it not for the healing ribs, she would have heaved out a sigh of relief, but she wondered if she was actually feeling better or worse. Moving up her body, she consciously worked to relax every muscle. Calves, then thighs. Tighten. Relax. Butt. Abs. Her efforts aborted at her shoulders. Every muscle tensed suddenly at a new noise coming from behind. Skin prickled as every hair stood on end. Something instinctual told her this sound was very bad. There were ticking, or clicking, noises along with what she would best describe as many scurrying legs. Her stalker hissed and growled at this new player.

Perhaps my stalker found other prey? No, she is an ambush hunter. This hissing and growling is defensive posturing. With that thought, a more disturbing question arose. What would be attacking a natural predator?

Whatever it was could not be good for her. Any doubt the cat was the one in trouble vanished with an eruption of yowling cries cut suddenly and sickeningly short. The cat was not well-fed and might not keep this new hunter – or hunters? – sated for long. This was the reason the forest was so barren. The thought washed over her with uncomfortable certainty. Fear and panic, so long held at bay, surged to the fore and held her paralyzed.

The world froze with her. Nothing moved, nothing sounded in the woods as she held her breath, her eyes darting from shadow to shadow. The shuffling resumed and threw her fear up another level, but it also startled her into action. With teeth clenched against groans of pain, she pushed back to her feet and set off at a rapid pace.

Sometime between fighting down the fear of her pursuers and the pain drilling into her deeper with every step, the sun finished its course through the sky. The chill settling in was simply another minor discomfort, but she could not continue in the complete darkness descending. It would be hours before the moon rose enough for her to travel safely, if she was able to continue at all. She found tears on her cheeks she had not even known she shed. Her body betraying the agony her mind denied. It lanced through her with the effort to lower herself into a resting position. Exhaustion, rather than relaxation pushed her drifting into blackness.