Random Acts of Adulthood

Alternative title for this post: I might just be a lady with a lisp from now on. I've been lucky to see the the corona-break in a pretty positive light (aside from the light that illuminates how empty the bank account is without paychecks).  It has been a time of positive change for my depression and bipolar II symptoms. Right about when the coronavirus hit and "shelter in place" went into effect I started taking the medication Abilify (generic name: aripiprazole).  My doctor suggested it as a supplemental medication to take with my antidepressant to try to boost its effectiveness.  I've tried this type of thing with Welbutrin before, and it didn't do anything (not good, not bad, just no change at all), so I wasn't expecting much.  I've been dealing with severe depression for over 15 years, and you kind of lose hope when it comes to "let's see what happens!" Holy shit.  This medication has been GOLD for me. Within two days of startin

In 2001 I signed up with Ancestry.com for the first time. I say "first time" because I have cancelled and rejoined countless times over the past 19 years as my budget allowed.  At that time, I still couldn't find a damn thing about my Dad's family beyond what I already knew. All Ancestry had at the time was the info I put into my tree myself. Since 2001, genealogy resources have grown in leaps and bounds. This is in part because more people are using sites like Ancestry.com. Other reasons, I'd say, are the digitalization and indexing of old records from around the world, as well as increased access via the internet to heritage groups and fellow researchers. Around 2013 I learned about setting up Google Alerts (you choose keyword(s) and Google emails you when it gets new hits on that) I had set some up for the last names in my tree. Lo and behold, one day I got a notification that Google had a link for me to check out related to Tscherne.  It didn't have

If you grew up with an uncommon, oddly spelled or hard to pronounce last name, you're in good company.  With a name like "Tscherne" you can probably imagine all the ways people have attempted to pronounce it and all the incorrect spellings people came up with. My siblings and I would typically have to have pity on the poor person trying to figure out how to make sounds consistent with a last name with 6 consonants and 2 vowels, one of those vowels only finally coming into the mix after 4 consonants.  I can't tell you how many times we all went through hearing things like "Next up is (first name) T...Tch...Tich....Ch....Sh...Tuh...Tech..." and us finally just standing up so the person could catch a break from having to settle on some collection of sounds that never resembled how we actually pronounced it (which is "Tish-ern"). I was always curious about our name and where our ancestors came from. The only people I'd ever heard of with our na

Allow me to present to you, dear reader, an amazing coloring sheet courtesy of Bibliothèque municipale d’Angers.  I came across the image while looking through  Color Our Collections , a collection of art-as-coloring-sheets I found online. There are coloring sheets and coloring books to download from over 500 museums from around the world.  While there are some very lovely coloring sheets I plan to print and color, I couldn't pass this one by without sharing it with the world. Allow me to present our cast of characters: First up we have what I assume is a monkey. The name "David" is between him and the man, and probably refers to the man, but I prefer to think of the monkey (?) as David. Possibly because he looks like that National Enquirer creation of a boy covered in hair. So, David the Monkey. Next up is the angel with the sword. I don't know if she is supposed to be helpful in a "Mom" way, like "David the Monkey, you forgot

When I was much younger, before the days of computers, I used to create floor plans on paper of houses I imagined. Huge bedrooms with private bathrooms, intricate pools with snack bars, cat rooms, dog rooms, double staircases, elevators, etc. Basically, anything my young, middle class heart desired. I never lost that love of creating homes, but I did lose the...habit? of doing it very often. Enter: Sims 4 My kids play Sims 4, and I love when they give me "house tours" of their creations.  Kid 1 prefers to focus on what a house looks like from the outside, and Kid 2' focus is on the the inside and the configuration of rooms, stairs, and hallways. Seeing both kids create these houses and buildings in a virtual world brought back that desire to make my own "imaginary homes" again, and give young-me a digital upgrade. About a year ago I saw that the game (just the base game, not any of the extras) was for sale for something crazy like $5, so I finally took the