Music reviewers this week 🤝 the phrase “Swedish pop masterminds”

Recently I experienced a minor depressive slump that made me shun social media and do other boring things like reconsider my eating habits (again) and take up irregular swimming (again). I also signed up or agreed to a whole bunch of things just to make the forthcoming days look different. Iykyk.

My best friend just celebrated ten years together with her now-husband, Taylor Swift got engaged, and I just completed my first ever cryptic crossword. So we’re all winning in our own ways.

I saw an absolute legend the other night. Laughed until I cried… and then I just cried. Adam Kay is unbelievably talented, and so generous to hang back for signings and photos. Do yourself a favour and go to a show if you can. Not pictured: me doing the polite hand-hover behind his back.

We don’t have “I voted” stickers here, we just have these: democracy sausage sizzles. Most voting locations are community centres or schools, so they run a bbq to fundraise with the elevated foot traffic. My local levelled up with a hotdog bun this year!

I was up at 3am yesterday, then up at 5am today. I guess I’m slowly adjusting to my home timezone. I have gone to sleep without eating dinner both nights, though.

Today has been full of ups and downs. I slept past breakfast, wandered leisurely around NOLA for our last day there, rushed back to the hotel, flew business class for the first time ever, arrived in NYC dazed and excited, then found out my great aunt has been admitted to the ICU and intubated.

I had dinner at Hard Rock Cafe in New Orleans last night and they played One Way or Another and One Thing (including music videos) and I got emotional in the middle of dinner

I’ve been carded three times in the last two days. I’m telling myself it’s not that bad because the legal age here is 21 instead of 18, however, today the flight attendant told me I look 15. I’m 26. 💀

Thank you, bees!! We can’t wait to see you next year!! #221bcon

It’s been a nerve-racking, exciting, hilarious, delightful, emotional weekend. Thank you to everyone who has been welcoming to me and my closely held bundle of nerves. It boggles the mind that I’ve travelled across the world and been met with so much kindness here. 🐝 ❤️ #221bCon

I just made tea with the drip coffee machine in my hotel room, then realised there was no milk and added a few capsules of a “non-dairy creamer”. The resulting concoction manages to both taste like black tea and have a cream aftertaste.

This will be my fourth day in the US and I’m gonna be honest, I am not sleeping well for no discernible reason 🤷🏼

HELLO I was very nervous tonight and didn’t mingle with everyone I recognised but tomorrow is a new day and I’m so excited for panels to kick off! #221bCon

I’ve landed in the US, gotten to the customs line and… the ESTA processing system is down lmao

“What are you going to do, not bring me?” 😭

I’m dog-sitting for my sister at her place and I had to call my mum this morning to ask how to open the two childproofed drawers, so there’s that.

Not to make this all about me because I can only imagine how the average American is feeling right now - but the US tariffs causing the Australian dollar to plummet two days before I get on a plane to America was not something I’d planned for

Another day in editorial where I get a weird email congratulating me for being weirdly overinvested. (We were discussing the fiction-related question: can someone whose wrists are zip-tied together wiggle their hands behind their back and then from behind their back to in front of them?)

Not friends or lovers but a secret third and far worse thing

I’ve had my kitten for four months and love him dearly. He is six months old (got him at nine weeks) and teething. Tonight my mum said “if he doesn’t stop attacking me after he’s teething then he’s going” and honestly I’d have to move out and take him with me. There’s no other option.

Apple finally allowing schedule send for imessage has hugely impacted the way I text my friends. Just sent 1am texts to my best friend, but scheduled for 8am because she is a junior doctor and the thought of either a) waking her up or b) not telling her the things is intolerable.

Love to see the Streisand effect strike again with Careless People, a book I probably never would have heard about were it not for Meta’s attempts to squash its promotion

The Australian government texting me like “hey you’re 26 now, you need to get a cervical screening, we know you’ve been putting it off for a year” as if I don’t go through life pretending I don’t have a uterus. If they made it free I would go. Since it is not free, I’ll give it a few years.

Today a colleague was talking about how an author spent two years going to literary festivals and meeting people before they even published their book, so that they had contacts by the time they did. I said, “It’s like an unpaid internship but for authors.” Everyone laughed and I was very pleased.

Forgot to mention that I was talking to my best friend’s dad two weeks ago and mentioned I’m visiting New Orleans. He unironically said, “Do you like jazz?” and my friend and I met eyes meaningfully.

Part of me can’t believe I have the audacity to get annoyed when my cat resists being moved from his tower to his bed at night, because I also love to sleep on the lounge instead of in bed.

Con is just over a month away, how are we feeling???

Join me for my newest story! Its a soulmate Johnlock. There is angst but with a happy ending. Enjoy! archiveofourown.org/works/635914...

My best friend is getting married in three months and I just had a thought in the shower about what I could say in my maid of honour speech so I thought I’d make a note. Long story short, I think I’ve drafted the whole speech.

Alright, now, freaks and geeks… when @fandomtrumpshate.bsky.social opens in the morning, bid early, bid often, bid as much as you can! Let’s all take steps to defeat fascism with gay romance!!

Taylor, Hozier, Chappell Roan. No question

I was feeling really sick yesterday so naturally I took the afternoon off work so I could rest. Then I hydrated to the max and took painkillers so I could go umpire a match at a sprint for 40 minutes. Because, you know, priorities, prior commitments and not wanting to let anyone down. Yeah.

My birthday was Sunday and when we were driving to dinner I had the sudden epiphany that it was a year ago I went to Eras two nights in a row 🥹 I miss blondie

I felt like Mr Collins from Pride & Prejudice last night but my mum made this chicken curry and the potatoes were out of this world

It’s my birthday today (:

This quiz told me to get up even though I’m not actually down bad

My best friend’s dad has been half-heartedly trying to set me up with every eligible male for years (it’s kind of a joke; he knows I’m queer and not interested). Happened this weekend and my best friend said across the table: “Dad, she’s quite literally basically almost a lesbian.” I had to laugh.

Just saw someone call an em dash a “funny fat dash with no spaces” while giving writing advice. Granted, this was on linkedin, but still lol

What if he’s written “mine” on my upper thigh only in my mind?

In the absence of new Criminal Minds I’ve been speedrunning The Rookie (I know it’s copaganda but it is, crucially, mostly lighthearted). I’m now up to season 4 and dying for Chen and Bradford to get together. Forgot what it was like to root for a straight couple this hard.

I know pets aren’t for everyone but I’ve struggled for a long time with depression and anxiety that is often debilitating, and getting a cat that relies on me to feed, entertain, love and care for him has changed my life completely.

Presenting without comment the observation that my kitten is way better at fetch than my dog.

Posting incessantly right now because I accidentally read the Gaiman article before sleeping and now my brain is spinning out instead of shutting down

Realised the other day that I’m constantly lying to my kitten. Whenever he makes a noise I either mimic him or say “I know” even though, in actual fact, I do not know anything at all

TMI but it’s hello darkness (mouth ulcers), my old friend time

Not to be dramatic but I’m pretty sure my kitten has taken up all the remaining brain space I used to have that wasn’t dedicated to work. Like my whole day is cat. I am always thinking about, caring for, playing with and/or worrying about this cat. I guess this is just my life now.

I’ve been watching The Rookie and let me tell you, it was SUCH a jump scare to hear a character randomly switch accents from believable American to believable Australian. And then he pronounced Melbourne correctly so I knew he had been Aussie the whole time!!!

I just googled “corporate speak for clean up this mess” and got no usable results, the internet is dead. (Trying to finish an email professionally that basically boils down to: here is what you did, here is what you should have done, now fix it.)

We’re seven days into the year and I’ve already done my first round of removing books from my cart and adding them to a wishlist instead. My pulse is racing. You almost got me, Penguin three-for-two-plus-free-calendar deal.