- I ended up tapping out of work on Friday, because my stomach/innards started doing the thing that sent me to the ER, and I needed to take meds and fall over RIGHT THEN. Things slowly got better, but I pretty much crashed on the couch all weekend, watching tv and doing hand sewing. Buttons. Many buttons.

- I still have many medical appointments to schedule. My labs and ultrasounds all came back fine, but apparently I have some ovarian cysts; those plus some other possible pelvic issues may be the cause of my sudden-onset abdominal pain. Therefore, time to find a GYN and make an appointment. Lets's see how far out the ones suggested by my GP are booked, whee.

- My boss moved our 1:1 to today (instead of the usual Wed. time) because she wanted to talk to me about having a mentor to help me hone my skills in writing leadership & exec communications. The big things I need to improve, apparently, are giving the tl;dr version with the important info, the "why" behind the issue, and to call out the areas where I don't have the answers; in fact, it's good to point out where I don't have answers. I'm all for a mentor, but that last bit of pointing out where I don't have answers freaks me out. I'm supposed to be perfect, dammit. (Cue laughter from everyone around me, yes, I know.)

She also commented that I'm doing really well, and this is all to set me up for future success to get the promotion. This leads me to believe that maybe I'll get a decent review.  Now let's set the timer for when the Brain Raccoons will start screeching.

- My duster from Market of Stars arrived. The print is gorgeous. The fabric is much lighter than I expected. And the shape is a little more square than I expected. It's beautiful, but ... let's put it this way, I'm glad I didn't spend my own money on it. I'm sure I'll be able to figure out a way to make it look better than "Hi, I'm wearing a square of fabric", but it'll take more finessing than I expected.

The title is because every time there's a Rapture predicted, I listen to Astro Zombies. It seems appropriate.

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As some of you may have noticed from my shrieking on social media yesterday, My Chemical Romance announced tour dates for 2026. The closest they're coming to me is San Diego or L.A., and yes, discussions are being had about which show I should try to purchase tickets for. EXCEPT that I'll have to purchase those tickets later, because they go on sale on Friday, right when I'll be in the office for an all-day meeting. 
:: wails ::

The Stroppy One pointed out that more tickets always become available closer to the concert dates, and while I know he's right, that doesn't sooth the wailing fangirl part of my brain. Stupid work calibration meetings.

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Yesterday I discovered the clothing company Market of Stars, and specifically this duster. I flailed a lot about in on Bluesky and Tumblr, because my god that is pretty and I already thought of two different outfits I could use it with. To my complete shock, someone who's followed me for years and years sent me the money for it, saying they wanted to spread some kindness. I am shocked but grateful.

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IG has started showing me a lot of witchy content. Not just the aesthetic IG witches, but people who's approaches are similar to mine. I don't know why the algorithm started doing that, but I prefer it to the hordes of "alt" makeup tutorials done by baby faced, dripping with collagen youngsters. (I found all of them adorable, but found myself muttering "Okay, now show me how to do that with permanent eye bags" a lot.) 

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As many of you know, my company hosts the all-hands Company Kick-Off event at the beginning of every year in Phoenix AZ, and there's always a costume theme for the first day. The 2026 theme is ... teams. Any way someone wants to interpret that, but of course all the examples were sports-related. But! I came up with a brilliant idea and presented it to my team: we all carry notepads and oversized pencils, and ta-da! We're the writing team. My peeps liked it, so that's what we're doing.