shadowkat: (Default)
[personal profile] shadowkat
1. I keep buying cheap books rec'd on SmartBitches. They are between $.99 and $2.99 on Kindle. Almost bought one of the ahem, sex toys, advertised on the site, but decided against it. (It was a cute little...rabbit. Seriously you have to see this thing to believe it - so I'm providing a picture:



According to the reviews on the site - it doesn't actually work, nor does it really look like a rabbit.

Oh, and they have a cute little unicorn.




Remember when these things were all pretty much phallus shaped? Well not any more. What can I say? Sex toys are coming up in the world.

Menopause has helped calm that part of me down, finally. No longer annoyingly horny. (Although I knew how to take care of it - which boggles my mind is other people don't.) The pluses of menopause? No periods. Sex drive is calmed down. Weirdly free of the whole thing. The cons of menopause, outside of the fact that you can't talk about menopause without people freaking out on you? (People are weird about anything related to sex or male/female sexuality, we've discussed this.) Are hot flashes and night sweats (although that could be diabetic related - I've been seeing a pattern). Also frequent urination (also potentially diabetic related). So maybe no cons? Outside of not being able to give birth - which is only a con if you particularly want to, and I do not.


My mother raised me to be able to discuss sex and human bodily functions kind of freely?

Mother: It's the human body, what is people's problem?
Me: They feel it is private.
Mother: About what? We all have bodies. We all do these things. It's not top secret or anything.
Me: Well you don't like to do public displays of affection or openly talk about your sex life -
Mother: That's different. Although -
Me: I don't want to hear about your sex life. Please stop.

This comes to you courtesy of all the Valentine's Ads that I feel inundated with. Gad, I hate February. And it always feels interminable. This year feels interminable. I felt like January lasted a year. I am losing patience with this year. Speed up already. 2024 has barely begun and I already want out of it.

2. I keep getting these emails from Jeremy the Moon Card Reader. I'd mind, except they are oddly inspiring and reassuring. Possibly what my Unitarian Universalist church society would call siren calls? One told me to embrace my inner goddess (that was the gist - it wasn't that short, they seldom are). Another to face my fears - and be open, and let go of biases.

3. I'm thinking of creating picture books of my artwork using an online "photo book creator", although Adobe Photoshop may make more sense. I got the hardware for it. One would be the people I see on the subway, and the other about a bird breaking free of its cage. I'll do markups, then maybe shop around for an agent or publisher?

Also considering writing a fictional novel about my paternal grandparents and great grandparents. I got one too many stories in my head and no time or wherewithal to write them all down.

When I retire? I'm becoming a full time artist and novelist. What I'm doing on the side as a hobby, is becoming my gig. I am tired of shoving it off to one side. Half of today, I had my grandmother's voice humming in my ears as a child...along with her story.

4. My hands can't handle any additional handwashing. They are getting rough. I keep putting lotion on them. I think the soap at work is the problem. Also the fact that I wash them about six times at work (every time I go to the bathroom, and before/after lunch.)

5. Started a new book entitled "Wedding by Dawn" - I like the main female characters, who have stolen a ship, sailed to Italy, and are attempting to start a new life in Malta. One wants to study to be a surgeon, and the other is going to export goods and run a shipping line - she's great on a ship, even though she can't read or write. This is...god, I don't know when, sometime during the Regency period? It's pre-1800s at any rate. She was wearing a tri-colour hat (?) and the hero a wig, and his hair tied back. So thinking early 1800s or late 1700s. But were there women surgeons back then? I don't know, maybe there were? Historical accuracy in romance novels doesn't bother me, I kind of hand wave it. I don't expect historical romance novels to be factual in any way. Historical novels - yes. Historical romance - no. I'm less lenient about mystery novels - mainly because unlike historicals - they are plot centric, and kind of dependent on the world. Romance novels are character centric and dependent on the emotional arc and motivations of the characters, plot and world be damned.
The plus side of this one - no pining. The pining is to get away from the men. Or get the money to save the estate. The characters are very pro-active, and do not want to be attracted to each other.

Basically enemies to lovers trope - which I adore. Because - no pining. It's more banter. Bickering (which can be annoying - if it doesn't lead to banter). But no pining or yearning. Even the fantasy novels I was reading were plagued with pining, so too were the horror novels. I had to find a romance novel - a Harlequin - to get no pining. That's just sad.

Of course it's early still - we could end up with pining down the road.

6. Going to bed. Tired. Maybe I'll sleep? That would be nice - to sleep through the night, no getting up in the middle of it, or waking? Been having funky dreams though - so obviously I have been sleeping - just not as much as I want to.

7. Almost forgot...I have a picture from my walk down the train platform at lunch time. (I walk the train platforms at lunch time now, no one is really on them, and its quiet. Well, except for various co-workers who are also doing it.)





Date: 2024-02-10 07:27 am (UTC)
svgurl: (Default)
From: [personal profile] svgurl
Nice pics!

What lotion do you use? I have recently started using Vaseline Dry Hands Rescue that is apparently specifically meant for hand washing and I've found that it made a huge difference for my hands, which were pretty dry thanks to all the washing and the chilly weather.

Date: 2024-02-10 10:00 am (UTC)
trepkos: (Default)
From: [personal profile] trepkos
I don't think menopause has had any lowering effect on my sex drive - but that unicorn ... I mean, I love unicorns, but I can't see where it would fit ...
Also, I got prescribed some really thick handcream, called Unguentum M. Made by Almirall ltd. Seems to work.
Edited Date: 2024-02-10 10:05 am (UTC)

Date: 2024-02-10 05:04 pm (UTC)
trepkos: (Default)
From: [personal profile] trepkos
Maybe they are making sex toys for ducks now? They have notoriously twisty ... whatever their equivalents of vaginas are.

Date: 2024-02-10 12:51 pm (UTC)
oursin: Photograph of James Miranda Barry, c. 1850 (James Miranda Barry)
From: [personal profile] oursin
'In the eighteenth century, a few women worked as ‘doctresses’ and ‘surgeonesses’, having received some form of training similar to male practitioners' - that would probably be because it was a family practice and everybody took part. But they would not be admitted to formal training, which was increasingly the norm by late C18th, one reason why Margaret Anne Bulkley became James Miranda Barry.

While a lot of vibrators were phallus-shaped, a standard massager sold as for the relief of achey muscles was likely to be just as effective and less embarrassing. Those look twee and probably a bit useless.

Date: 2024-02-10 03:40 pm (UTC)
oursin: My photograph of Praire Buoy sculpture, Meadowbrook Park, Urbana, overwritten with Urgent, Phallic Look (urgent phallic)
From: [personal profile] oursin
Women had more chance of some surgical training in C18th (informal via family) than by early C19th, up until the admission of women to the medical register, which, apart from 2 exceptions which led to closing of loopholes, was 1877.

There was a medical school on Malta, but as it was founded by Jesuits I doubt it was female-friendly, even after the Dominicans took over. Maybe she was going to drag up?

I once did a TV interview in front of a case of sex-toys, mostly rather alarming dildos: but I don't think the programme ever got completed, or if it did, accepted for broadcast.

Date: 2024-02-10 06:45 pm (UTC)
trepkos: (Default)
From: [personal profile] trepkos
Not sure how historically accurate the TV series "Versailles" was, but in it, Louis XIV had a female doctor, whose father had taught her.

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