Author: hannah.ananas

I attempted to understand what had happened with a stock market scenario in the show “The Gilded Age”. I learned a lot, but it took some creativity on making the information palatable for my brain. I understood immediately in the show that what they were doing was insider trading and that they were buying stocks while they were low, before an event they knew would raise the stock prices, and then selling the stocks when they went up. That I got. The rest did not end up making sense to me, though.

I read several posts on Reddit where people kept re-using the same words and phrases, even after the author said on repeat that those words didn’t make sense to him/her. Eventually, he/she explained it in his/her own words, using actual numbers and no special nouns. And I think I understand now what happened on the show. They lost their fortunes after they rescinded the law instead of making ‘a second or third fortune’ because they didn’t stop at just accepting the gains of the initial idea. I think it’s called ‘short selling’ or something like that, as well as… oh, I’ve forgotten it name, but it’s with an M and it means purchasing stocks with a loan of some sort. But they planned on the stocks dropping in price, and somehow were able to bet on that financially, which would have given them more money when the stocks dropped. And then they would re-purchase the stocks again at the new lower price, re-pass the law again, which would make the stocks rise again, and then re-sell those same stocks for, I believe, a third time. So, they would make three fortunes on the same exact stocks in that way. I believe.

Anyway, it made me feel tired comfortable not being part of it all. The stories of sadness tied to the stock market are overflowing and incredibly difficult to consider as being the real lives of real people – it has to stay in a show for me, it is too sad a thing to consider(!).

Ugh…

God, keep us safe and smart and well and together, please. Guide us always. Thank you for my family and home. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2025

Sometimes, it is worth the loss of sleep to stay awake and snuggle with my baby girl. Awake, I can enjoy fully what a sleeping me would have loved but not been able to experience consciously. Yes, my throat is tired and my eyes are well and ready to close for the night. No, I will not enjoy having to wake so shortly after going to bed (in order to nurse the baby). But yes, it was worth it for this hour totally snuggled up together, her head tucked right into my neck, her arms and legs curved around me. Her body like the heavy weight of a cat that doesn’t want to be picked up.

Thank you, God, for this gift tonight. In your name, we pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2025

I’m not just not a fan of the American accent on the late 1800s and early 1900s. I actively dislike it. There isn’t anything that initially I can label as wrong when I hear it. But it instantly bothers me, and every time I hear it. Thinking about it tonight, I realized what it actually is. It’s that the accent is like a watered-down version of a British accent. It isn’t fully American, as I know American to be, but it also isn’t still British either. It is a sort of middle-ground between the two. It always gives me the feeling of yelling at it and telling it to pick a side(!). I don’t even mind which side it picks. Just pick one and stop being so wishy-washy!

It just rubs me wrong every time I hear it. Ugh! Haha

Yes, I’m ridiculous, I am fully aware(!).

Post-a-day 2025

Sometimes, I just get really upset at people and their stupidity. The MC at the bathing suit beach revue in which my cousin participated seems to me to be a dumb person. However, the specific point that is on my mind tonight is when people add their own stuff to things that people write. It is one thing if one truly corrects grammar or an obvious misspelling or something of the sort. But changing the information or “correcting” it to something that is actually wrong are not okay for me.

In the revue, she said my cousin “is originally from San Antonio.” No, she isn’t. She moved there about a year ago. She was in Oklahoma for a few years before that. Galveston a few years before that. Houston before that. Austin before that. And the Beaumont area before that. That’s where she was born and grew up, you see, the Beaumont area. That is where she is originally from.

So, she wouldn’t have written in her own bio that she is originally from San Antonio. She might have said that she lives in San Antonio. Or even, perhaps, that she came from or is from San Antonio, because she just did and presently is from there. But there is no way she would have written that she is originally from San Antonio, because she just isn’t and has never desired to be so. So, that bothered me that the MC said that. It also made no sense saying “originally” for any of the ones she said, because she never said where they live now, the required contrast to mentioning a distinctly previous location. Aka she’s an idiot for having said that so many times about folks.

It reminds me of how someone ‘edited’ a submission I gave about my time in Japan to a digital magazine kind of thing. I checked my wording and grammar before sending it in, and I was intentional with everything I wrote. When it was published, several lines had been altered into horrid sentences that only halfway qualified as sentences, the grammar in them was so bad. I was horrified to have such dumb sh** associated with my name as something I had written. And as an English language specialist, nonetheless. The folks at the magazine had held the same position I had at some point, by the way, so they had been teaching English, too. Total idiots there. And such a shame to have such people teaching the language. Ugh.

Anyway… present frustrations that were on my mind especially strongly tonight.

God, make us well and keep us safe and together, please. Show us your will clearly. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2025

My husband has an interview when he wakes up. He’s in a different city for it, even. He’s staying in a hotel that is supposed to be good for networking for him, though I’m not sure if he did much of that today, given that he seemed to have passed out as soon as he arrived… hmm… poor planning on his part for that, I guess.

Nonetheless, he has an interview. It, in a way, is immensely important. I believe he is good enough and the right stuff to work at this company. We shall see if he prepared appropriately to show that via the interview, though. He has a tendency not to plan ahead appropriately for certain things. Which I’ve already mentioned… I am hoping he truly did prioritize and plan appropriately for this interview, and that it shows well in the interview.

God, help him to be true to himself, to the best version of himself. Grant him ease and grace in his interview process, that he be evaluated truly for all that he is and aims to be and do. Help him to be proud of himself. Guide him to have a clear path forward in supporting this family financially, while being fulfilled mentally and emotionally in his work. Please, keep him safe and make him well. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2025

I always wondered what Lizzie was reading at the start of the 2005 film of Pride and Prejudice. I finally paused the film to read the text while it was onscreen. Of course, after I read a single half-sentence, I knew it was Pride and Prejudice. However, I doubted myself. Upon closer inspection, I felt my determination had been wrong. The names were not right. Cardy… Sophie… Katherine… and the home called Eastley.

But the words were just so familiar to me. Then it hit: Cardy is simply an anagram of Darcy. The names had all been changed, but the rest was all the same. She was, indeed, reading the final pages of the book whose story this film was merely beginning. How fun(!).

Post-a-day 2025

Sometimes, we really look forward to something, and then it turns out to be a total disappointment.

And it really sucks.

I suppose the lesson to learn is that things don’t always go the way we hope and wish, but that doesn’t mean to give up. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and all your mind.

It still sometimes hurts when the disappointments arrive, perhaps more so knowing that someone else is aware of the hurt it will cause and is causing, yet does not intervene or reach out clearly or directly to soothe.

God, help us to be well and loving and together, please. Thank you for our home. Keep our family safe and well and together. Guide us always to be our best selves, the people you made us to be. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2025

It’s always intriguing how I will have something specific in my mind – like how I’d really like to find this swimsuit in a size Large on the clearance rack – and then that exact thing will happen – yes, both the ones I was considering happened to be there when I checked, though there were only about ten items total on the rack! That happened on Wednesday.

Tonight, another such event happened. I’d had a feeling earlier this week, and several times, that our old neighbors would invite us to spend time with them this evening, and that it would be last-minute. I even agreed to plans with the stipulation that they would finish in time for meeting up with these old neighbors. No, they do not usually invite us over on Friday nights. It has happened twice ever, and not very recently. But I just had this feeling.

The other plans ended up failing out, so I was home alone with the baby, wondering how to proceed for the rest of the evening and night when I got a text from… the old neighbors. They were inviting us over to hang out. They apologized for the last-minute notice and for not thinking to invite us to dinner with them and another couple with a baby (current neighbors), but said they wanted to hang out with us if we were up for it, since they hadn’t seen us in a while.

I responded, “Yes, please”.

And my baby and I had a great time with them tonight. We stayed way later than I expected, but it turned out okay. None of us has to be up early tomorrow, aside from just managing our children, so it should be okay. (My husband was at his first day [night?] of work in a new job!)

So, yeah… those were fun plans that hasn’t been made yet happened all the same. Very cool situation.

Thank you, God, for your love and your joy. Keep us safe and well and together, please. Help us to be our best selves and to pursue and follow you and your will. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2025

I just don’t want to do it all… and then I feel terrible for not properly wanting some part of what is clearly a gift from God… and it sucks even more than it already did. And then I clarify that I want to be in this life and to do it all – I just would like to have a rest from the intensity and the struggle of it all for a while, so I can regroup and dive back in with air in my lungs and prepared courage and confidence.

Post-a-day 2025

I can’t handle open doors when I sleep. There’s just something about it that gets to me. I don’t recall ever thinking there were monsters in the closet or anything like that… Under the bed? Totally. But behind some door? No. There has just always been something about the energy of a door’s being left open that has always made it hard for me to sleep. A gentle crack can work. But not a true open door.

And so, I will be getting back out of bed, yet again, this time to close my husband’s closet door.

Post-a-day 2025