Jenn D’s December Recs
December has come with its warm weather and humidity (I am sweating to death), its resplendent wildlife (the mosquitos are eating me to death), and the frantic wrap-up of year two (2!) of living with this pandemic (which hasn’t killed me yet). People still aren’t wearing masks. We’re on iteration 5,431. Battling hopelessness and awaiting news of when my kids can be booked in for their vaccines is a whole thing. But yay! We survived! We are alive and it’s okay!!
And I do have a lot to be grateful for. And a lot to recommend! So let’s get to it!
Firstly, it’s Spotify Wrapped time, and it’s fun to see what I spent all year listening to. It’s just a delight to pore over my own repeated listens and agree or disagree. My song of the year was I’ll Go Running by Squirrel Flower, and it holds up. I am proud of that choice!
I finished up all of my teacher quilts with time to spare, but it meant I had a lot of time at my sewing machine. I have my set-up organized so I can put my iPad on a shelf behind my sewing machine, pop in headphones, and listen to a show while I sew. It works pretty well, I must say! Anyway, I caught up on three seasons of the Expanse (I watched seasons 3, 4, and 5 in two weeks) and oh, my heart. It’s still an incredible series. I guess the last book is out so I’d better catch up on those, right? Someday?
I also accidentally watched the first six episodes of the Wheel of Time series in one sitting, and it’s really enjoyable! The scenery is of course amazing and I’m loving the cast a lot. Some of the characterizations made me side-eye a little bit (what are they doing with Mat Cauthon?) and Perrin getting a wife just to accidentally eviscerate her was a real 1998 male-writing-a-heartbreaking-series mood (honestly, did they even READ the books?), but Moraine is gay and Lan is amazing and Nyneave is exactly as she should be so I’m going to keep watching. Probably. If I remember.
Also there’s new Bluey, so that has been great.
For the second part of this, I thought I’d talk about what I’m recommending for myself for 2022. I’m going to be gentle but also forward-thinking. I’m going to stretch myself but not to the point of fraying. It’s been a rough couple of years, but my brain needs to do something that’s not the same stuff. So!
The first thing I am going to do, in the new year, is go away by myself for a weekend. Just me, and whatever food I take, and my laptop, and I plan to hole up this little cabin in the bush for two whole days and nights. I am hoping to get a lot of structuring of my five-book series out of the way, and actually start working on the coherent narratives of the series as a whole. I will bring all of the rainbow post it notes and a roll of kids’ paper to plot it all out. That’ll be fun, right? :)
The second thing I am going to do in the new year is to commit to learning new skills. I’m not great at dressmaking, and I have begun to understand that I can’t teach myself this particular skill set! So I am signing up for a drafting class to learn how to draft and fit patterns to myself. I’m really excited about this as I’d like to make more dresses for myself! And for them to fit! That is the dream.
The third thing I plan to do is to read the entire Wheel of Time series, all 14 books, from start to finish, in 2022. I’ve had up to book ten read for ages, but I should really finish them. (For context, I began reading these as a preteen back in 1995! So it’s really TIME, hey.) I’ll probably only set my Goodreads goal around the 50 book mark, max, so I can really dive in and worry less about having to cram in quantity, not quality.
So, I hope you have a great holiday season, whether you celebrate or not, whether you’re in warm climes or cold, and I hope you get a nice big rest and recharge before the new year. Until then, take care. See you in 2022!