Monday, October 30, 2017

never ends


I've been dealing with skin cancer for over 20 years.  I'm so sick of this shit.  I lead a 95% healthy lifestyle (I eat the occasional piece of dark chocolate and don't always handle my stress well - duh). 

I thought I'd finally gotten a handle on it and slowed down the progress.  Nope, only temporarily.  My body is riddled with it again, and I feel like I'm still eating and living exactly the same.  The one on my face has mostly disappeared thankfully.  But I found a few more on my body.  Fuck.

I refuse to spend the rest of my life getting chunks of me cut and burned off.  Aren't the fucking migraines enough of a burden?  Why is life so goddamn hard so much of the time? 

Saturday, October 28, 2017

social science observation


I asked Einstein his opinion on which pair of eyeglasses he preferred on me for a professional setting.  He immediately picked the darker pair.  I prefer the lighter pair for aesthetics, although the darker pair is more comfortable.

One of my sisters is very corporate-minded, so I asked her.  She picked the lighter ones and said the darker ones were more intense looking.  I almost left it at that, two to one.  My curiosity got the better of me, so I asked my other sister who is less corporate-minded but still has fashion sense.  She also picked the lighter ones.  They very rarely agree on anything.  Ever.  I decided to ask another male friend, who immediately picked the darker ones because they are more intense (same word choice).

At this point, I figured why the hell not and asked one of my brothers who is not corporate in the slightest.  He also picked the darker pair.

Three votes by women for the lighter pair, and three votes by men for the darker (intense) pair.  Is this why I'm being paid less than my male counterparts?  Is this why I've been sexually harassed at work?  Because as women, we subconsciously choose to be less intense? 

I tried to control for scientist bias by texting the pics in different orders and not asking anything other than which ones for work.  I wore the same shirt and tried to strike the same pose in both photos (my stupid, smirky smile).

I haven't decided on which pair to wear, but I'm leaning toward trying something new and getting out of my comfort zone.



Wednesday, October 25, 2017

witchy Pikachu


I went out to dinner with my dad yesterday and saw a witchy Pikachu on my Pokemon Go map.  Much to my regret, I was too embarrassed to ask him to detour into a shopping center so that I could catch it.

How does one explain to a senior citizen that his grown daughter would like to catch a virtual children's character (wearing a Halloween costume) on her smartphone? 

My disappointment was abated somewhat by already having caught one right before I met Pops for lunch a couple days ago.  :)



Friday, October 20, 2017

sleep - my safe space


I made up my bed yesterday with all of my new accoutrements.  It was way fluffier than usual and felt like sinking into a cartoon cloud.  Eight hours of sleep later, and I feel fantastic!

My dad took me to Thai lunch and then to shop at Costco.  My cupboards and fridge were still pretty bare from Hurricane Irma and the aftermath.  $273 later, and everything is full again (including my credit card bill).  My freezer is overflowing with food for both Kitten and me.

It had been so long since I went to Costco, that I might have gotten a teensy bit carried away.  I even bought a case of antioxidant water (wtf?) because he told me both of my brothers love it.



And I switched out my pack of pierogi because I fell for the slick pierogi salesman doling out free samples.  We had just come from a scrumptious lunch, and we ate even more food at the Costco buffet, although I drew the line at flavored yogurt. 

My dad's eyebrows kept raising as I added more and more food to my cart.  He was worried that I wouldn't have enough room in my kitchen.  I tried to tell him that it was really empty, but he didn't quite believe me until I managed to put everything away with room to spare, including the 2.5 liter container of coconut oil.

Wednesday, October 18, 2017

puppies!!


One of my brother's mastiffs had puppies two days ago.

FIFTEEN PUPPIES!!

She started birthing at 2am and finished around 9pm. She cannot nurse all 15 at once, so my brother has been feeding some with an eyedropper.

Dad and Mom a few days before

Five born so far


d'awwww

Mom went outside for a bathroom break and had one on the front lawn
Mom getting tired


Monday, October 16, 2017

topper revealed, with gratuitous cat pics


What's all this?
What's in here?

I'll just jump in and look
Now what?
new fluffy topper
A cover is recommended.  Sigh


P.S. I ordered a new mattress protector today.  And bonus hair-care products because I have that addiction, too.

Sunday, October 15, 2017

mattress pads, protectors, and toppers?


My current mattress pad (protector? I'm still unsure of the distinction) is old and decrepit.  But it's under my sheets, so I see it only when I'm changing them.  Then I get busy and forget all about buying a new one.  Until the next time.

I realized I had a sheet addiction when I bought my seventh set.  Seven!  The old ones were starting to discolor, but they felt so soft.  And my favorite purple ones started to lose elasticity (don't we all), but I can't find any of that exact color to replace them.  I bought some new ones, but they turned out to be aubergine instead.  Completely different.

My brother recently got two new dogs, giant mastiffs of course, and was talking about how he tries to keep his furniture clean but he was running out of cover sheets.  I made the executive decision to donate my old, so soft, discolored, and stretched out sheets to his puppies.  It's a good cause, right?

Therefore, now I'm down to (only?) four sets of sheets.

But back to my mattress pad...

A friend highly recommended the Purple brand (sadly they aren't purple colored).  I started researching, reading reviews, and fell down a rabbit hole.

Ad that's how I ended up buying a topper.  WTF?  It arrived and looks like it needs more protection than my mattress.  Stay tuned.  I'll post pics later.

Yeah, I know I usually write about soul-searing anguish.  Isn't it nice that today's biggest problem (it's not) is only bedding?

Friday, October 6, 2017

pride goeth before a fall


I've been feeling better lately and thinking maybe I can get my life back on track finally.

Until I went to bed at 2:30pm with a migraine.  I took meds, but it kept getting worse.  I took more.  And still more.  Kitten came in and snuggled with me for part of the day.  I didn't realize until today that she wasn't feeling well either. 

I hope my pain didn't stress her out.  I wasn't able to feed her last night, but that's why I keep emergency kibble out for her.  She doesn't love it, but she ate it.  And then she got sick all over the carpet.

Tuesday, October 3, 2017

meetup


I tried my first Meetup group.  I was a teensy bit nervous because I'm shy at first.  Or I have social anxiety.  Or I'm lazy.  Or something. 

This was a walking group.  How hard could it be?  

Four and a half miles in a little over an hour is how hard it could be.  I'm no longer deathly anemic anymore, but apparently I'm not fit as a fiddle either.  The gym is way easier.  I can rest as needed.  We were on a trail, so I needed to keep up. 

I got sweaty before we ever left the parking lot.
 
I felt the blisters form after two miles. 

By the time I got back to my car, I was soaked in sweat.   Ewww. 

I met some really nice people though, which was the whole point.  My local friend group has been shrinking over the years, and I'm feeling the need to expand it.  

One lady was a mountain climber from Munich.  Another man knew all about various fruit trees.  He was a wealth of knowledge about many places. 

My non-local friends warned me not to meet strangers in parks and go on a trail with them.  Because they might kill me.  I was wishing someone would at about mile three.  

I had plans to go grocery shopping after.  Nope.  I thought I might have a snack when I got home.  Nope.  I had two bites of fancy cheese and immediately soaked in a hot Epsom salt bath with peppermint oil.  That helped.  

Remember my tweaked knee from yesterday?  Yeah, I had forgotten, too.  Now I have two tweaked knees.  The stairs are fun today.

Monday, October 2, 2017

hurricane cleanup: round two


I was told by my city that I had been given misinformation earlier.  I now needed to move the remains of my tree 50 yards to a main road.  (I don't know distances.  I completely made that up.  Anyway, it was far.)  And the tree cuttings were heavy.  And large.  And heavy.  And it was hot out.  Until the rain started pouring down in buckets.  Then I felt like I took a shower in my clothes, but it was cooler to work in, and I wanted to finish the job. 

My friend came over to remove the come-a-long and chain still holding my tree to another tree.  And to add wood struts to brace the tree.  He graciously offered to help me move the giant pile of debris.   It took us both a couple of hours.

By then we were starving and went out for seafood.  Yay!  I had conch fritters, and we surveyed the hurricane damage at the beach.  Most of the cleanup was done.  The giant piles of sand were completely gone.  The shattered, impact-resistant glass was still in windows though.  Parts of signage and building decor were missing.  And of course, there were the ever-present piles of foliage debris.

I tweaked my knee at some point.  It's not bad, but it reminds me that I probably didn't use proper form the whole time. 

I slept nine hours that night.