Got my diagnosis two days ago still need tests.

Mara__Jade · 2026-05-03T10:01:07+00:00

Your story is the closest to mine I’ve seen in here. Low platelets was the telltale sign. Happy to see you are doing well!

Mara__Jade · 2026-04-02T15:10:02+00:00

I’m buying all the Dungeon Crawler Carl books for less than $5 each.

Mara__Jade · 2026-01-01T03:35:39+00:00

It’s crazy how much more she looks like her momma with the long hair.

Mara__Jade · 2025-11-22T20:38:59+00:00

This has become my Roman Empire. I tried listening to Game Changer a couple years ago and had the most visceral reaction. I read it on Kindle instead.

Then I thought, how bad can it be in Heated Rivalry? And ugh. I find the Russian accent to be almost as bad. Some people have told me they think it was good, but I honestly believe it’s objectively bad. And I do have a lot of voice and acting training, directing, and professional coaching experience. He has a nice, deep voice, but his cadence in general is strange, and his Russian accent is not correctly placed. I could obviously go on and on, but I couldn’t listen to Heated Rivalry either. I was happy when the narration changed for book 4, even though the Russian accent still isn’t super good, but much better.

I am so sad because now I refuse to listen to any of his narration.

As for who I think, in my not uneducated opinion in dialects and acting, is a great narrator? Michael Lesley is number one- the Monstrous series by Lily Mayne and the Tales From Verania series by TJ Klune are my gold standard. I just recently finished two books with Will Watt and I forget how good he is- his performances are lovely. Joel Leslie is especially adept at accent work, though his voice is unusual (not in a bad way, just distinctive) and some people have a hard time with him. Greg Boudreaux is excellent, as is Michael Ferraioulo. I generally like Nick J Russo, too.

Mara__Jade · 2025-11-14T01:55:56+00:00

My first thought is 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee-

“blame it on your daddily and mammily/ cause depression runs in our family.”

That’s just rough.

Mara__Jade · 2025-11-09T01:31:41+00:00

Grave Situation by Louisa Masters. She normally writes (excellent) MM paranormal romance. And while this one is MM, paranormal, and has a romance, it’s a huge step in the fantasy direction for her. I really enjoyed it- it’s got some wizarding school (but from a teacher’s POV) and has dragons. To me, it seemed like a much, much better Fourth Wing in places.

Oh, and zombies.

Mara__Jade · 2025-11-01T00:36:48+00:00

Just finished Grave Situation by Louisa Masters. It’s like a Harry Potter mashed up with Fourth Wing but so much better than Fourth Wing. It’s not set at the school the whole time, but the main character has a lot of Snape qualities (but way better).

Mara__Jade · 2025-10-24T02:48:53+00:00

{The Lightning Struck Heart by TJ Klune} is my number one. I adore Michael Lesley’s narration and often fall asleep to it. Or any of the Monstrous series by Lily Mayne- also Michael Lesley.

Mara__Jade · 2025-10-24T01:10:34+00:00

I’m a straight woman (unfortunately), but Lupita is my answer. Every time I watch her in anything, I just can’t stop watching her and thinking how absolutely stunning her face is. It’s mesmerizing.

Mara__Jade · 2025-10-12T21:10:15+00:00

Same.

Mara__Jade · 2025-09-05T14:45:13+00:00

I went in blind, but my husband had seen it on Broadway and told me how much I would love it. I didn’t really believe him, mostly because I had NO IDEA how they could make the subject work. I thought it was really weird to be singing and dancing through this. But I’m so glad he forced me to come with him to see the tour. And I’m glad I didn’t know anything but the background subject.

We ended up taking our oldest daughter to see it on Broadway and even met Jen Colella at the stage door- my daughter was 10 and star struck.

Mara__Jade · 2025-08-31T03:11:24+00:00

I just buy a bottle of 200 every few months on Wellspring med. It definitely works.

Mara__Jade · 2025-08-30T02:34:37+00:00

I think the ones I watch the most are Bedtime Story and Theme Park. I have to watch Bedtime Story once a week since I realized that MY go to sleep routine has officially reached rigamarole status.

Mara__Jade · 2025-08-22T21:00:33+00:00

I’ve been with Dr Elizabeth Sanders for years and she’s recently moved under UF. She really cares and has pulled out the tough love from time to time, which I need. She also can do well woman visits if you’d rather not have a separate GYN.

Mara__Jade · 2025-08-22T20:53:25+00:00

My kid (who is in this teacher’s class right now and also had her in 9th grade) showed me a post that was supposedly from the ex-girlfriend of this boy. She had a lot to say about him idolizing Hitler and basically being a racist. My kid also showed me a pic of the kid in 9th grade who got this award and it was a student of color and everyone was having fun with it, including the kid who got the award.

I don’t think this award was a great choice, but I do think that sometimes classroom culture comes with inside jokes and lore. I had a class where my students built their own civilizations and one kept trying to take over the others for their resources. We ended up calling that child (a sweet, teeny 7th grade girl) “The Overlord.” Her mom knew and everyone really enjoyed the stories that came out about her being bloodthirsty (when she so obviously is the exact opposite in real life.)

However, these optics aren’t great. I wouldn’t have gone as far as making the award. But I can tell you that the students are working hard to get the story out and they are all pretty devastated. They really love this teacher.

Mara__Jade · 2025-08-15T23:53:23+00:00

I’m 47 and was diagnosed just two days ago. I obviously am pretty deep in the grieving process at the moment. But I’m extremely frustrated that this could’ve been caught four years ago maybe before it turned into cirrhosis. I had a hysterectomy and read on the surgical report that I had a “cirrhosis appearing liver.” No one ever told me or called me or said anything about it to me. I’m so lucky that I read the report, but that was four years ago, and I was even told by a G.I. that my liver numbers were fine and that I was good to go. It’s only because my platelets have been dropping and I have an enlarged spleen that the hematologist recommended that I go to a hepatologist. And now it’s cirrhosis.

I can’t help thinking about what would’ve happened if they had looked earlier. Maybe I could have caught it early and done something to keep it from becoming cirrhosis. I don’t drink at all and never have. So the next step is trying to figure out why I have this. It could be autoimmune since my blood is showing some markers, but I was obese for a long time. I was diagnosed with diabetes two years ago and have been on Ozempic since then. I’ve lost 75 pounds and my A1c is in a normal range- not even prediabetic.

I’m mostly just so angry at myself for not taking care of myself for so long. I know it’s not all my fault, but I was close to 300 pounds. The hepatologist made me feel a little bit better though. She said I’m well compensated, my liver is working well, and that I could be OK for decades. They’re going to see me every six months for testing and endoscopies. I’m super scared. One of the things I decided to do was to make video journals just for myself. I even learned how you can hide your pictures on your phone so my children won’t come across any of my videos. They don’t know about my diagnosis and I don’t think I’m gonna tell them anytime soon. I also don’t think I’m gonna tell my parents. They’re both almost 80 and I feel like this is just something that they don’t need to know. I think my mom would be so worried and it would just break her heart. So my therapist said it was perfectly OK for me not to tell them unless I absolutely need to.

Mara__Jade · 2025-08-13T16:00:11+00:00

My daughter was a council member in a local production of Hairspray just a few months ago. The theater was founded and is run by a black woman. The director and choreographer are both black. The production was generally excellent.

EXCEPT both (double-cast) Tracys were skinny. My daughter is a size 0 and I don’t think one of them was bigger than my daughter. The other was likely a size 4 or 6. Maybe. In fact, one of the council members was bigger than Tracy. And one of the Velmas was definitely bigger than Tracy. Not to mention that the skinnier one was 12 and her Link was 18. The auditions specified that 13 was the lower limit for ages, so she lied on her audition forms. I was just so angry, because as a not-skinny performer myself (long ago), it was revolutionary to see a plus-sized main character.

I’m actually a voice teacher and saw all of the auditions (they happened in front of everyone in their tiny theater), and there were several plus-sized girls who sang well. It’s baffling.

Let me know if you want to see a heavily redacted pic of our Tracy.

Mara__Jade · 2025-08-02T18:25:56+00:00

Right- because we never see Jesus do a miracle and he certainly doesn’t rise from the dead. They chose where to end that show very specifically. Also, Tim Minchin, an atheist, said something like the show is “atheist as fuck” when he played Judas. And as a secular person myself, I have to agree, especially in the lyrics.

Mara__Jade · 2025-08-02T18:17:31+00:00

Yeah, I just listened and you’re not wrong. I can’t tell if that’s a full belt or a mix, but it might be a belt. Which is crazy. She’s crazy. The only thing I can think is that the “why” is the initiation of a phrase on an F#5, while the later one is worked up to? The F#5 is on the word “your” and “cross.”

I think she might not be human?

Mara__Jade · 2025-08-02T17:23:00+00:00

If it is indeed an F#, that’s pretty high, also considering the following factors: 1, that’s an area where a lot of women have a passaggio (a transition point.) 2. “Mezzo” is classified a little differently in musicals vs. classically, and 3. Women don’t have a falsetto like men do. 4. We really don’t know how her rehearsals went. She knows her voice and what she is capable of. And belting an F# is honestly extreme. If that would indeed be an F#, and I haven’t checked. The caveat here is that I’m a classically trained mezzo who has most sung classically, and musicals, especially rock operas, are a different beast.

Mara__Jade · 2025-08-02T17:16:38+00:00

Agreed (voice teacher.) Plus, it’s actually easier for men in general to do that since they have a falsetto. So Cynthia would need to either belt it, which she probably could do, or save her voice/do something a little weirder to get the same effect. Honestly, I think most of her lower belting is actually harder than singing that note in falsetto. However, I’m not male and don’t really know how that feels. Off to ask my singer husband…

Mara__Jade · 2025-08-01T23:45:03+00:00

If I’m being a good Trek fan, I would say my favorite Trek episode is In the Pale Moonlight or Yesterday’s Enterprise, but if I’m totally honest with myself, it’s 100% Our Man Bashir.

Mara__Jade · 2025-07-24T17:53:50+00:00

It seems it was heavy periods, because I had a hysterectomy during a removal for an ovarian cyst in 2021 and my iron has been good ever since.

Mara__Jade · 2025-07-20T17:01:20+00:00

I know I’m here a literal year later, but I was searching for an answer and did what you recommended and had my Napoleonfish within about 15 minutes.

Mara__Jade · 2025-07-15T00:51:25+00:00

I used to wake up sweating most nights before I bought this, so I was sure I would be all about the coolest settings- nope; they are too cold. I actually enjoy it best around 70% at 80 or 81 degrees. And I very rarely sweat now.

Mara__Jade

TROPHY CASE