Heartbeat Monthly (32): January 2023

Posted by Jessi (Geo) on January 29, 2023 | 0 Comments

January haul

Bought

The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea, Fairyloot edition (eBay)
To the Bitter End Illumicrate box (eBay), sans sword replica
- Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff (sprayed edges)
- EotV enamel pin
- Manon & Abraxos pouch
- Wild & improbable shoe charms
- These Violent Delights pin
- Always Victorious magnets

Gifted

I got an awesome care package from Christy (@cbookaddiction), THANK YOU CHRISTY! You’re the best!!

Warriors 1-3 boxed set
A House With Good Bones by T. Kingfisher, ARC
‘Per aspera ad astra’ mug
Harry Potter book sleeve
‘I’m reading right meow’ socks

Won

Delicious Monsters by Liselle Sambury, ARC

January Wrap Up

Books I read

Five Found Dead by Holly Jackson 🎧 – ★★
Silver in the Bone (Silver in the Bone #1) by Alexandra Bracken – ★★★★½
Black Tide by K.C. Jones 🎧 – ★★★★
The Alchemists of Loom (Loom Saga #1) by Elise Kova 🎧 – DNF
The False Prince (Ascendance #1) by Jennifer A. Nielsen 🎧 – DNF
The Midnight Lie (Forgotten Gods #1) by Marie Rutkoski 🎧 – DNF
Flowerheart by Catherine Bakewell – DNF
Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys 🎧 – ★★★½
These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong 🎧 – DNF
Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett 🎧 – ★★★★½
Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh – ★★★½
We Are All So Good at Smiling by Amber McBride – ★★★

Pages read: 3,113
Average rating: 3.5
Favorite book read in January: Emily Wilde
Least favorite book read in January: Five Found Dead

Books I reviewed

What I’ve been up to this month

My last update was in early December on my Heartbeat Monthly: The Yearly Edition, Oops post, and as of writing that I hadn’t updated for the end of November, either. Adam and I ended up getting Covid the last week of November, right before Thanksgiving. Sadly, it kept us from friends and family at the holiday. However, it was super lucky for me, because I had a 5 day weekend and didn’t have to take off of work! I only called off one day – the first day I was sick – and by the time my extended weekend was over, I was already symptom-free and testing negative. It could definitely have been much worse! I’m very thankful I didn’t have to take a whole week off while I was sick. So basically, I spent almost all of November sick, because I talked about how I got sick on vacation (in which I thought it was the Wellbutrin), then got better, then got sick again when I got home. Then, I started getting better again, only for us to get Covid :(

In early December, I started having some rib pain. It was just a little sore at first, but after a couple weeks it started turning into a stabbing pain; so I found a chiropractor, convinced I had a rib out of place. We did a couple of adjustments over the course of a week, with no improvement. We did x-rays and found out it was actually my spine. I have a couple of thinning discs, resulting in a few vertebrae almost touching, and it was throwing off the articulation of my entire rib cage. We adjusted for that and I started to feel a bit better.

Then, I was at work, and I twisted the wrong way and FELT a pop in my ribcage – I almost passed out, it hurt so bad. I went to the chiro immediately, and we did x-rays again. Nothing was visibly out of place. It was wild to see the x-ray be so perfectly normal when I was in so much agony. It hurt to move and I could barely breathe. He adjusted again, and I followed up at home with stretches, ice packs, and NSAIDs. After spending weeks in pain, I was finally doing a little better. I’m pretty sure I had a subluxation and the pain was from really irritated tendons/ligaments/muscles. Between ice, a heating pad, a massage gun, icy hot patches, a TENS machine, and NSAIDs, I started feeling better after a couple weeks of taking it easy. It’s just really hard because my line of work (dog grooming) is not something I can do with a messed up back. I broke down crying at the thought of not being able to do it anymore. Now I’m paranoid that any time I turn or bend the wrong way, or do anything strenuous, that it’s going to happen again. You don’t realize how much you take being able-bodied for granted until it’s taken from you. I’ve always been of good health, so the last few months have been a major struggle for me. I’m a terrible patient and don’t rest well. I hate not being able to do things.

It’s doing a lot better now, but I’ve had to cut back hours at work and take it easy. I’m quite sore at the end of each day. But, I’m taking some anti-inflammatory vitamins, back to walking 2 miles daily, and back to lifting in hopes of getting my core and back strength back up to what it was early last year. I think staying active will help a lot – I’m convinced that if I hadn’t stopped weight lifting, this wouldn’t have happened. And those things are definitely helping!

Current obsessions

Movies: AVATAR 2!! I meant to go see it the week it was released, but between both of our schedules and the holiday craziness, we kinda just forgot about it. We finally went and saw it on the 2nd and it was awesome!! I want to see it again already!

TV: I finally started watching Handmaid’s Tale, and I’m hooked! I don’t know why I haven’t sooner. I guess I didn’t realize it was dystopian, but my friend watches it and was talking the show up, so I decided to give it a try! I binged the first two seasons in a week, and as of this post I’m currently two episodes into season 3.

Music: the Hail to the King album by A7X. I hadn’t listened to it in a long time and I listened to it about 7 times in a week XD

Food: We subscribed to a meal delivery service – Every Plate – and it’s been amazing! I do 4 meals every other week and it’s been wonderful to have everything put together for me. It’s kickstarted me back into meal planning again, and we’ve been able to try so many yummy new recipes! I’ve been very happy with everything so far! There haven’t been any meals I haven’t liked. I was doing Hello Fresh for a while, which I did enjoy (they have great meals too!), but it got too expensive. I had a coupon, and it showed one price (which was supposed to be good for 4 boxes), but they charged me a different price and it was almost double what I thought it would be, so I cancelled. It was SO pricey! For three meals a week for two people it came out to almost $10 per person, per meal. Every Plate is $7 per meal! It’s the same price for 4 meals as Hello Fresh was for only 3. It doesn’t cost much more than what we were spending in groceries and it’s super convenient!

Games: Yoshi’s Craft World on Switch!