Do You Thank Siri?

Note: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. If you make a purchase through them, I might make a commission at no extra cost to you.)

So, I read everywhere that Saturday was National Coffee Day. And I want to tell you 3 things:

1. More like international, because everything is international to me, and why should US residents get all the fun?
2. EVERY DAY IS COFFEE DAY in my house. Sometimes, three or four times a day.
3. Today is, in fact, International Coffee Day. I was wrong. Or something.

Neil made me coffee on Saturday, and then took Isla out to the toy shop. They came back with this scary puzzle. Which we put together yesterday, and I like to call ‘Cats on Cat Nip’

Seriously, how scary is that? I looked it up, and if you’re into scary puzzles, you can get one here.

And speaking of puzzles, a recent weekly writing prompt around here was PUZZLE, and the answers to the prompt are:

There’s Ritu on the importance of reading and puzzles with kids.

Deb’s list of 10 puzzling things.

Anindya’s mysteries of the human brain.

Carol’s short story Unsolved

Susanne’s thoughts on team building exercises.

And real talk, I started this post last night and had to stop, because the cats in the puzzle on my kitchen table were staring at me.

They still are.

There’s also Hungry, Hungry Hippos on the table, and We’re Going On A Bar Hunt

And so, I’m trying to blog, pretend this is coffee talk, but I’m at the kitchen table surrounded by junk, with the dishwasher chugging away.

I’m thinking I need to change my writing and blogging routine.

I might cut out Netflix, maybe. And even though I don’t really sleep, I want to get out of bed earlier. Get more words on the page and then the screen. Maybe take part in Blogtober.

And does anyone need an accountability partner for NaNoWriMo?

Neil takes Isla for a drive every Saturday. Sometimes, I go with them. But sometimes, Isla tells me to stay home and WRITE.

Well. Maybe tell me not to write. Because y’know.

PRESSURE. SILENCE. WHERE ARE MY PEOPLE?

Because on Saturday, I got so lonely I used Siri for a Google search. And then I said, ‘Thanks, Siri.’

Do you thank Siri?

What does that say about us? Are we lonely, or just really polite?

I need to change how I do things.  I say I need the quiet and the space, but when I get it, it’s really quiet and I write less. I write less and I thank my phone.

I think one of my issues is this. Aside from Isla (who is four) and Neil (who’s not four, but y’know), everyone else who comes in this house is paid to be here.

That’s fine, and they’re great, I appreciate them, really I do. But I miss my own friends, really I do.

When I was 12, I moved to Scotland. I left friends in New York. Thanks to Facebook and those friends not being idiots, I’m still friends with them. A really freaky thing is that I’m still in touch with friends I had when I was Isla’s age.

Moving on, when I was 21, I left University 1. When I was 23, I left University 2.

I had friends in both those cities. None of whom can come to my house for coffee or ice-cream or beer.

Because we live all over the place. And I live on an island off another island, and before that there was Long Island. That’s a lot of freaking islands.

I understand all the random baggage that comes with being a third-culture kid, (I didn’t write that article or coin that phrase, but I get it.)

I appreciate that I can make friends from anywhere, because I’m from nowhere.

But nowhere kinda sucks when your friends and half of your family is everywhere else, and you can’t meet up easily because you’re grownups with jobs and you don’t have a teleportation device.

That’s one of the reasons I started blogging, to talk about the interestingness of being from nowhere, how you gave up fitting in at either place, because no one believes your weird, albeit not fake accent, how your childhood was about leaving and adulthood is about finding and keeping.

But I realize that I don’t blog about any of that, because people read me for the other things, and the out-takes, the book recommendations, and virtual coffee.  Hi.

Where are you from? And have you written your words today? And perhaps the most important question: Do you thank Siri?