Quirky Reads: You Do You by Sarah Knight.

Shortly before Christmas, James started asking me about books

'We've never really had the book chat, have we?'

'No, I guess we haven't'

I mean we've had the Harry Potter chat - FYI, I'm a Ravenclaw, Neville Longbottom is my hero and Bellatrix Lestrange is my mortal enemy.

What he was referring to is that while we each know the other has a love of reading, we've never really delved into a chat about authors and genres, although in hindsight this seems remiss of me.
I bore other people, sometimes actual strangers, with my book chat daily.

He's lost me in bookstores for a good ten minutes because

something has caught my eye and I've swooped towards it for a closer inspection.

When he picked 'You Do You' as one of my gifts, he did so partly because it's something I say quite often, but also because Sarah Knight featured pretty high on my list of favourite authors.

For someone who called their blog The Quirky Queen, has blue ombre hair and wears neon pink fluffy flamingo slippers, I'd love to say that being unaffected by what Judgey McJudgerson has to say is something I do with ease - unfortunately it isn't.

I feel sometimes like Sarah's voice is a more 'walk the walk' version of the voice in my head.

I'm perfectly happy to identify when it's appropriate to be a bit difficult, like when mine or others mental well being, happiness or safety is in jeopardy but with the possible exception of safety, I'm not always so good at taking what's into my head and bringing it out into the universe.

I can care far too much about what others think, whether it's the girl serving me at a restaurant blatantly making fun of me - for the record, I rock a matilda-esque hair bow - or a pass remarkable moron passing comment on how many slices of cheeseless pizza I've consumed (it was four and it was my first pizza in nearly two years, leave me be).

Something I really loved about reading this book was the section on mental redecorating, taking what you consider to be a weakness and turning or repainting it into a strength.

It's something I'm going to adopt from now on.

I won't go into much more detail about the book as I wouldn't like to take away from anything that others could take from reading it themselves but I would thoroughly recommend it.

My insecurities won't disappear overnight,
I won't wake up tomorrow and become an asshat that doesn't filter her thoughts before speech or action in the spirit of 'being me' (hopefully)
but I will certainly question which portions of what others think and expect of me I allow to influence me and will absolutely challenge myself before becoming someone else's Judgey McJudgerson.

Comments

I'm Grateful For: Autumn Joys

I did it again, I went nearly a whole year without posting anything, because I'm rubbish. If you're new here, I do this. If you're not new, you know this. I have no real excuse this year - last year was the year of opposites, I had a lot on at work, my mother and father in law died 21 days apart, I got married four months later, there was grief, there was a Canadian honeymoon, there was stuff going on. I'd be lying if I said this year had been smooth sailing, but there's been more of a sense of calm. I get to autumn and I get all airy fairy and contemplative, it's no longer about making it through the year, it's, as my boss beautifully put it this week, limping towards Christmas. Years ago, and about three blogs ago - if you can be bothered scrolling far enough through the archive I've uploaded here - I used to write happy lists of all the things that made me happy, because I was a bit like Joy from inside out - happy because happy and even when it...

Blogmas: Prattling nonsense about Christmas and Potatoes

We all knew when I posted a Blogmas post on December 1st that it would be highly unlikely I'd post daily. It's not laziness, I promise. I just don't like posting when even I don't find it interesting! My December has been very different this year. On a 'normal' year I'd be out nearly every day playing Christmas music either in the street, in a church of some sort or in a care facility for the elderly. This year, I've largely been sat on my posterior binge watching Riverdale. I've cut down largely on actually reading social media but I have been watching people's stories and posting nonsense, I just find it healthier not to engage with everything I scroll past. I think that might be what I take from this year, consume less - create more. James christened me 'Little Miss Christmas' in the past and that's actually quite a fair description, for a grown woman I am absolutely nuts on Christmas. It's fair to say I get high on t...

Stop faking it: 30 day challenge #5

Something I realised today that I have allowed to feed my imposter syndrome is the fact that I look younger than I am. I’m quite lucky in that respect, for the most part, people are kind to me because they see the youthful face and have a comforting tone and a kinder delivery. Sometimes though, it can manifest in someone being patronising or dismissive of ‘the daft wee lassie’ I don’t always carry myself as the 32 year old that I am, which can perhaps come off as inexperience or ineptitude. When I do start to carry myself as a competent and experienced 32 year old, I’ve found people who assume I’m younger can read it as ‘getting above my station’ It was a harmless comment from an older colleague talking about old money that sparked the thought process in my head but it has reminded me to address it. It perhaps comes under ‘practice it until your perfect it’ - I can work on carrying myself not so much as a ‘grown up’ but as someone who has the experience and knowledge ...

Knilly Frickers

Search This Blog