vote!

here in the great state of tejas, we have a lot of good-hearted, well-meaning people and a few absolute rot-brained varmints. somehow, a high percentage of the varmints have gotten themselves elected over the years, and they keep saying we need to re-elect them or else all the problems we're facing are going to get worse. and it seems like every time an election rolls around, the problems they say we're facing get farther and farther from real-life problems like school funding and infrastructure, because the varmints can't talk about those being problems since they've had, i dunno, like 30 years in power to fix them and they haven't done it. so now they're running on the supposed problems of boys being turned into girls at school and ordinary people being crushed by a wave of new taxes, neither of which anybody is actually proposing.

and you know how it got this way? not by most texas voters voting for varmints, but by a huge chunk of voters staying home and letting the varmint voters win. seriously, we don't even average 50% voter participation for the century so far.

so just go vote, people. early voting gives you tons of time to do it, and if everyone just got out and did their civic duty, who knows, maybe the varmints would get the thrashing they deserve.

the look

we had another one of our talks. you know, those ones you readers are probably getting kinda tired of where he's all worried he's not doing enough.

and this time i looked at him and i said, "you know, babe, maybe you need to put more energy into appreciating the absolutely incredible fact that we have a life together."

we.

have.

a.

life.

together.

those are five crazy-big words, you know?

one after another all in a row, they add up to something enormous. something so much bigger than whether or not we've averaged at least x minutes every day chatting or y hours per week gazing soulfully into each other's eyes or z days that included us getting it on.

and then i said, "take a good long gander at this look i'm giving you right now. see it? that's my 'we-have-a-life-together' look. if you see this look on my face, you know i'm thinking, 'wow.' and once you know that, i sure hope you'll instantly be thinking and feeling 'wow' yourself. okay?"

and he said it was more than okay and we just spent a second giving each other a 'wow' look, and it's been a pretty damn good day since then.

wait, now october's almost half over?!?

i think i got a little cocky last post. yipes!

patting myself on the back!

folks, what i'm about to do here is leading by example. the thing is, a lot of people are waaaay to hard on themselves a lot of the time -- which can be productive, i guess -- but then they turn around and don't even look at their accomplishments to say, "hey! i did pretty good there!"

so get ready for me telling myself exactly that. even though probably my accomplishments aren't all that big a deal, even to me.

ready? here we go!

first up ... my book! scarily enough, i started that sucker back in 2013. 2013!!! and i wrote a whole 11 chapters in the next 9 years. but this year i've written three whole chapters already, and it only took me a month! i'm totally whomping on my average here.

next up ... my obsession with beating my post count each and every year! i really killed it last year, over 30 more posts than the year before. when i started off 2026, i was like, welp, this may be the year i end my streak. and sure, maybe it will be. but so far, i'm totally on track to squeak by. i'm averaging about 6 posts a month, and if i do that the next three months, plus throw in a couple bonus posts, i'll hit 80 by december 31 and just barely make my goal.

next after that ... i've totally been browbeating my boyfriend into more sex. it's for his own good, i swear! he spends sooo much time lately biting his nails over whether he's giving me enough attention in general (which he totally is) and, less generally and more specifically, in bed. now it bothers me only the little bittiest of little bits that we haven't gotten it on all that much the last few years ... mostly because (as i keep reminding him) even when he and i aren't getting down to it all that often, i do have six girlfriends living in the house with me, and some of them are pretty dang insatiable. so i get plenty (which he also does, because he's got seven girlfriends compared to me only having six). but he still manages to beat himself up about not paying enough prurient attention to the longest term girlfriend (me), and i don't think that's healthy for him or for our relationship, so i badgered him into promising we'd do at least something once a week. and so far, it's going great!

also, in case you haven't been reading our d&d and dragonbane adventures, i've been playing up a storm in those, and my characters are fricking hilarious.

is any of this like painting the sistine chapel or building the great pyramids? no. but i'm doing stuff. and a lot of it i'm doing pretty darned well!

probably you've got some stuff like that too, so let yourself know it, all right?

xoxo,
claire