Random things this morning

1. When you forget to take the trash bins to the kerb the night before, and the city is starting early due to the heat, it behoves you to get up at 5:00 AM to take the trash out and roll all three (trash, recycling, and yard waste, when in Lexington, have names, in order: Herbie, Rosiek and Lenny (for Lend a Hand). This is a somewhat perilous process in the dark, without anyone's knowledge, as you are also a klutz and liable to fall. But all went well. Still, at that point, you might as well stay up.
2. I have very short hair, but I have kept all my hair ties because they are extremely useful. I mainly use them to wrangle charging cords.  However, just now, I dealt with a sagging lumbar pillow that I have to adjust every single time I sit in the chair because the strap is stretched out by pulling it back and securing it with a hair tie. We'll see how it goes, but for now, it's at the perfect height for my back.
3. So far, I have used my extra time filing papers, mainly all the information the government sends me regarding my benefits. I know they're mostly duplicates of the notices they put on the portal, but still, some part of me thinks I should keep them. I also just had to change an asthma preventative inhaler that I've taken nightly for at least a decade (Breo Ellipta) because it's not covered by Medicaid. They cover Advair Diskus. Hopefully it will work as well. The pharmacist who works with my doctor helpfully advised me that the dosing is twice a day, though, so that was nice.  I spent 29 years with the same commercial medical insurance (UnitedHealthcare) when I was at Shriners. I knew my benefits intimately, and it was extremely good insurance: $150 deductible/$1500 out-of-pocket. Even though it was an HMO, it didn't require referrals as long as someone was in-network, and I never had issues with anyone being out-of-network in all that time. Since I've left, I've been covered by two Medicaid managed care organisations (Aetna Better Health of Kentucky and UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Kentucky), both of which use MedImpact for medications (all of them do, at least for our state) and then for two months I was on a assisted qualified health plan from Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield where the state paid about $900 and I paid $500 for a $400-$500 deductible plan (medicine did not count like it did for my commercial plan, so I never hit it like I thought I would, or I would have gone for something cheaper, although medications were probably cheaper, and the first month of the doctors' visits were cheaper; the second month everything went up, including the premium, due to me pulling some retirement income out--to pay for the premiums and medical bills. It's been very hard to navigate all the changes. I'm highly literate, great with technology, and having been to university, an expert at red tape and bureaucracy (I always said I majored in red tape and minored in line waiting at the University of Kentucky); I  can't imagine how difficult it would be for someone without those advantages.
4. Today's agenda is fairly simple:
1. Work on as many chapters as I can, proofreading a talking book for the Kentucky Talking Book Library. I am woefully behind. I got chapter 3 done yesterday, which I was sent in April.  I got the whole book yesterday...fifteen chapters to go.  Life just has gotten in the way, and I should just buckle down now and get as much as I can get done while I'm off.
2. We need to put a large shop fan together to get some air moving in the house. It's a little oppressive out there, where the central heating went out last year. I am the only one with air conditioning in my room, and there have been other barriers to putting it in the rest of the house, so we've been relying on different types of fans and using my room as a cooling area for everyone occasionally.
3. I need to pick up some medicine at the UK pharmacy today.
4. My roommate's going over to friends' tonight, so it'll give me some chance to work on the book more. It's a true-crime murder mystery from the 1890s in northern Kentucky, so it's been pretty interesting, both from an historical and story point of view. 

Those are about all I can think of for now. That's a little rambling, I know. I'm just waking up, with no caffeine (I only drink soda on weekends, and I'm not a fan of coffee or tea; what can I say? It's terrible, I'm such an Anglophile and I hate tea.)

Up

I won't say early, because compared to the weekdays I've actually slept in, getting up right at 9 am. But in the 30 minutes that I've been up, I've started a load of laundry, started a loaf of bread making in the bread machine, gone out to the car to get some Diet Sunkist from my car, nicely chilled, and am now caffeinating. It's why I drink the stuff--I don't care for colas that much, preferring fruit flavour, but it's the only orange soda I've found with caffeine. That said, I know soda, in general, is not so good for me, particularly with artificial sweeteners (Diet Sunkist uses aspartame). So I have been exploring other options. I don't care for coffee or black tea. I've tried Mio Energy and Crystal Light Energy but they are artificially sweetened as well. So I'm still looking. And yes, I like water, but I need a little caffeine to get through the day or I'm like a zombie.

Also since getting up, I've also taken my insulin and Byetta (but not the oral meds yet--I'm at the end of my pill container and need to fill it up. I need caffeine before I do that, or I tend to put them in the wrong slot or even drop them, which is not good when you have cats, particularly a kitten, who is fascinated by all sorts of things dropping to the floor.

I did splurge just a bit yesterday, buying a Kindle book of a regular book that I have out from the library. It is called Orchid Modern: Living & Designing with the World's Most Elegant Houseplants By Marc Hachadourian, the curator of the Orchid Collection at the New York Botanical Garden. It's a lovely book, dealing with the history of orchid collecting, the different species, plant care, creating decorative projects like terrariums, creating a good environment for the orchids, etc., all in one substantial book and generously and beautifully illustrated. I really liked looking through it, but when it came to reading--and he has a good writing style--I found I was impeded by the relatively small typescript, no doubt small to leave room for the lovely pictures of orchids. So I got the Kindle book because while on my e-reader it would have been wasted, I normally read my books on my tablet now (which is not a Fire, but I use the Kindle application on an Android tablet. I say splurge because it was $10.99 and I don't have much money, and I am trying to get tyres soon. But it is such a lovely book. What can I say, orchids have a long history of causing mania, why should books about them be any different? Anyway, this way I can increase the text size to see what I'm reading. My glasses do correct to 20/20 both in general and with the bifocal, but the small print is still harder to focus upon. This, I think, is the most useful quality of e-books, that they can be manipulated in terms of settings so that anyone can read them who would normally have issues due to age or disability, and most books, particularly non-fiction ones, are not given Large Print editions. Also, you can blow-up images when needed on the tablet, something that the Kindle e-reader does not do hardly at all. Incidentally, I used to keep my Chrome settings at 95% and I knocked up the text and the rest up to a little above 100%. It helps immensely. No sense in getting eyestrain. I think the presbyopia is part of my hiatus from enjoying reading, so anything I can do to read more books is worth it. And I can also read on my laptop, which is a low-end 2-in-1 that folds back to be a very large tablet-like screen when you change to tablet mode and I have the Kindle application on it, as well.

Alright, I'm going to go get some breakfast. I'll probably write some more before I start my Sunday chores proper (although laundry is something I do on Sunday, that's for me, not the household, generally).

I went through three other gardening books

Which were mostly listings of various plants or some plans for some gardens.  I took pictures with my phone using CamScanner, which puts them into a PDF file, including an herb garden from Edible Landscaping and also a listing of various types of plants that are edible (and things that certainly aren't, like castor bean).  So I took a total of six books back, picked up the hold, so I have seven out, one of which YKWIA is reading, three of the others are fiction, one is a collection of Julius Caesar's writings, another a book on sites important in his travels, and then the Holocaust book focussing on a town and what happened there.  The fiction books are all fantasy; two are teen books, and they should be quick reads.  I'm hoping I can get everything read before time to take it back.  I'm going to focus on these before any others.  It was difficult to pass by the new bookshelf, which is right by the entry, without perusing the titles.  Also, I was very pleased to see the crowd turn out for the opening of the Tates Creek branch, which happens at 1 pm on Sundays.  I was there early, about 12 minutes till, and was the first non-employee to get there, as there was no one in the other cars.  But in the intervening time period, probably fifteen cars came in, and people were waiting at the door.  One man nearly ran over a woman as she was heading in.  I suspect the rush was to get to the computers. :)  But there were four other people looking to pick up their holds in that section.  Three other cars had dropped off books at the book drop while I had been waiting.  It was quite a crowd, and even though I don't work there, it warmed the cockles of my little librarian heart.

Okay, time for more caffeine.  Let's get these chores over.  At least the grocery run is finished--I got a few things at Kroger and then had to go to Fresh Market for radicchio.  Most things were for a salad--arugula, shallots, the radicchio, fennel, etc.  Of course, there was milk, and I got more bread flour because I miscalculated how much would be left when we did the last run.  I use between 3 and 5 cups of flour for each loaf of bread.  I really should get YKWIA to find his ginger for me and make some whole wheat bread, because I have all the other ingredients for the bread, including the soy lecithin granules and ascorbic acid for the booster you put in the bread to help it rise.  The ginger's part of that, along with cornstarch.  And you have to put wheat gluten in, but that's a separate ingredient.  It makes a lovely loaf.  I have an entire bag of wheat flour.  But I think YKWIA prefers the basic bread even to the oatmeal one I tend to prefer.  The basic white bread just takes flour, sugar, salt, dry milk, butter, and yeast, along with water, of course, and it's cheapest to make.  The oatmeal one has oatmeal, of course, but not the instant kind, but rather quick oats, and uses honey instead of sugar.  Both make lovely loaves.  I'll have to see about the wheat though so I can use that flour.  I think you still use a cup or so of white flour in the wheat bread as well, so I can't just make it if I run out of white bread flour, but if it gets low, maybe.  I get White Lily bread flour, which is made by a harder wheat than regular all-purpose flour, but I could use the latter in a pinch.  Because I use the rapid bake, I use a jar of Fleischman's rapid-rise yeast.  You use a little more yeast if using the recipes that came with the bread machine (the basic white and herb bread) or different amounts if I'm making the oatmeal bread, which is from the book Electric Bread, under 'Outrageously Oatmeal'.  It has good recipes, some a little odd but intriguing, and recipes for spreads as well.  It was a good find.  I think that was from a book fair at work. :)

Okay, really, I'm going now.  Have a great day.

So I'm trying to caffeinate

So I can do various things around the house, but having just returned from the cold, gloomy outside I just want to crawl into bed and sleep--and I've only been up for three hours. YKWIA has been watching 'The Vampire Diaries' (he's codifying the various people into charts, it's what he does, he's a Virgo, and for all I know it will somehow make it into the game). But now he's off in his bedroom either reading or considering a nap as well. I'm betting on reading, although I just heard a big yawn. I'm in the library, trying to wake up fully. Things I should (not need, but should) do today:

1. Water the plants.
2. Do laundry, mainly bed linens, dog blankets, and a small load of my clothes.
3. Clean the toilet and bathroom.
4. Do the cat boxes.
5. Sweep.
6. Take the recyclables out.
7. Clean plastic bottles out of the car, recycle them, and put the lids in a bag to take to a co-worker who is collecting them for charity.
8. Take a book back to the library.

It's not onerous, or awful, I just don't feel like doing any of it at the moment. Must. Wake. Up. (Drinks more caffeine.)

You know you're really tired

When you fall asleep before nightfall fully dressed, including bra, because you are too tired to change.

I thought I was doing better about staying up after a long workday, but I guess the summer cold sapped my stamina. I also went the whole day without caffeine, and had a raging headache. I couldn't even bear to listen to music.

That was three hours ago. I woke up, got dressed in some shorts and a tank top, and had a fruit pop to ease my throat. It's mostly left my head and has settled in my chest, but that means less nose-blowing, at least.

But I think I'm just going to rest tonight and start doing some things here tomorrow. Specifically, I need to:

1. Take out the trash.
2. Pay some bills, online and paper.
3. Work on a book review.
4. Go through and weed books. I have between 2,500 and 3,000 books, and need to reduce them by 2/3, and at 20 or so books a box, and about 50 days, that's two boxes a day to remove from the collection, if I did the math right in my head.
5. Go to YKWIA's and do something fun.
6. Watch the Idle Hour fireworks, weather permitting, as per usual, including being able to park at the old hospital to watch. :)

Have a safe and lovely holiday. Good night.

Someone needs more caffeine

My knee was hurting and I was overwhelmingly sleepy (I got a little over 5 hours of sleep last night), so I laid down at 11:40 am and just now woke up at 1:15 pm. I feel groggy though, so I got up, washed my face, got some soda, and turned on some peppy music. Now I'm going to balance the bank account. I'd been doing that pretty much every day, and I looked at it just now and it's been since April 18, but since most of that time I didn't have any money coming in and out, it shouldn't be so bad.

On a totally unrelated note, I think my fish is lonely. He keeps playing with his reflection at the edges of the aquarium, like he thinks it's another fish. They do school, after all. So while I'm out later I may just stop by Incredipet and pick up some feeder goldfish (they're something like 19 cents a piece) and put them in the aquarium, to keep him company. :)

Okay, back to going through my list. I have to balance this and then pay bills. Hope you're having a good day.

Well, today's been pretty much a bust

Mainly because I've been moving slowly with the temperature change and I've had no caffeine to speak of. I didn't even get up and take a proper shower till about 3 pm. I've gone out now and spent $3.54 of the last $3.74 I had on caffeinated soda, so I can get through the weekend. I really should break myself of this stuff, or at least learn to drink coffee.

So except for some music listening, I've done practically nothing of what I should. I'm usually better motivated than this. On the other hand, I'm not going to beat myself up about anything. Brenda is in North Carolina, so the notes do not have to be finished tonight. I think I can go to the library the day after Thanksgiving and do my research (although I will have to take that book by the book drop tonight or tomorrow morning, as it's due). Reading I can still do. The closet I can work on this weekend, before my session on Monday. So it'll all work out.

Being home, resting, and watching the autumn colour out my front window, the birds, the folks walking their dogs, all reminds me of the three months I was off with my ankle break four years ago. It's hard to believe it's been that long since I was hit by the car. It's the longest continuous time I have ever been at my home. I tend to find reasons to be out of it. You'd think I'd be comfortable alone and at home by now. I am much better, though, very much so. But I still tend to stay over-long with friends as much as I can so I don't face a silent apartment. I always feel lonely here, I guess.

I found out the other day the downside of questing with a party on Habitica. Someone didn't do their dailies, and the entire party took so much damage that I lost all my health (although it did let me revive), a level of experience, all my gold, and a special item. None of us were pleased. I nearly left the party over it. But I stayed, and things have been better. I have discovered that I'm probably the oldest member of the party--there's a 25-year-old Dutch student, and an eleven-year-old who has something like three accounts and has a lot of levels that I think he finagled somehow, rather than building up over time. But hey. To each his own. I'm at level 109 after almost a year. It would have been 110--I'm almost back to that, at least. I've found all the regular pets, plus two special ones, have made all the regular pets mounts, and found them again. There is a key you can purchase in the shop that will let all your beasts and mounts go, and you can start collecting them in your stable again. I'm considering it. The achievement stays, but I'd get to use the eggs, hatching potions, and food I find to start over with that. There is also an orb that can, for free, start you out in another class after level 100 is achieved, so you can work towards going through all the classes (mage, rogue, warrior, and healer). I think I'll wait till my anniversary, which is in December, for that.

I've nearly completed the Earthsea and Greek reading challenges. I'm only 1% through Aristotle, but once I get through his complete works, and hopefully can do that before the end of December, then I'll have completed that. I'm working my way through The Other Wind now, and the bonus is Tales from Earthsea. So, it's coming along.

Okay, Sabbath ends shortly. I think I'll read some Aristotle now that I have woken up and it's nice and quiet, in case YKWIA calls after dark. Actually, I'll probably call and check on him. Hopefully he had a nice, quiet day. I suspect he has been more productive. But you know, I rarely have an entire 'day off', so I'm not going to feel guilty about not doing much. And there's always tonight. But first, there's Aristotle.

PS I did look to see how much the bread yeast was, and it was on sale, but for $4.99 a jar, or $4.49 for 10 packages. Too rich for me. Maybe I can borrow some from YKWIA to get me through till Wednesday. Because we normally would get paid on Thursday, which is Thanksgiving, we should be paid on Wednesday this week. Here's hoping.

That took way too long to recover

I fell asleep while propping my ankle up, and slept for about an hour and a half. It was good rest, mind you, but not what I planned for my day. I got up at 11:30 am, took a shower, and headed over to Kroger for some soda so I could get some caffeine in my system. I know, coffee would be better, and I actually have some coffee and those little Land O'the Lakes Mini-Moos, but I only imbibe coffee occasionally, to be honest. I'm just not into it.

I managed to find a parking spot that may have been a 10-minute spot (it wasn't marked as such, but there were several in that lane that were, so they may have meant it to be). I just ran in, got three items, and was out in probably 6-8 minutes, so it was okay. Driving back actually took longer, since I went the back way to avoid the traffic and got caught just as a light turned red.

I'm eating lunch at the computer, which I probably shouldn't do, as I'm still finding an occasional ant on the computer desk (or even me). But I'm being careful of not getting anything into the laptop keyboard. When I go back to the store with A, I need to make a list, including snacks for tomorrow's game and ant bait, because they're just not going away. Don't get me wrong, I like ants and insects, but not when they're invading my home and food. There's a whole line of them along the window sill right now.

I'm not sure when we're going to the store. They were going to spend some time together and do errands out on the bus (which is good, but it's raining, so they probably are getting wet). The rain is still making me sleepy, and I've feeling a little overwhelmed by the house. Maybe I need to break down what needs to be done on a pad of paper and go from there. And I need to remind myself that it doesn't all have to be done today. I can spend some time reading or listening to music or watching DVDs and that's fine, too.

No bracing tonight

I just noticed that the arm that is hurting has a slight lumpiness and redness where I've been bracing it.  Maybe it's been too tight,  or worn too long.  So I'm going to leave off the night brace and reevaluate tomorrow.  I shouldn't have to wear the day brace until I start cleaning house tomorrow,  and of course,  won't be while actually using water,  like washing dishes.  Maybe that will help.

PS I have had far too much caffeine today.  I was talking super fast earlier,  and I'm just now winding down, and it's almost 1:30 am.

Despite that, I'm feeling much better in general today

One, my hormones are probably settling down now that my period has ended, so no more crying fits for little reason. Two, I had blessed caffeine. I know soda doesn't has as much as coffee, but apparently three days of no soda equalled headaches and extreme lethargy for me, whereas today, when I was able to get fountain drinks at work with the promise to pay for them on payday, I was positively bouncy and talking a mile a minute. So I guess it's safe to say I'm addicted to that little bit of caffeine.

I found out today that one of my co-workers in scheduling will be out for two to six weeks, so I'm going to fill in again twice a week starting next week, for awhile. I think I can get everything done, still get to my appointments, and help them out. We'll see. I'll most likely be in checkout most of the time, for about five hours a day.

I don't know

If it was the snow removal or wrestling with the heavy broken lamp,  but my arms are aching badly,  enough to wake me up,  and it isn't being touched by ibuprofen.  :( I think my swiping in my keyboard is suffering as a result,  because I changed from one keyboard to the other on my phone and it only helped marginally. Maybe I should just give it a rest and try to go back to sleep. But I'm absolutely wide awake,  having drunk too much caffeine today. Reading involves holding a book or Kindle.  Working on the computer involves typing.  I think it's time for something passive like listening to music. Good night.

Cool!

Lynda.com is here!

Holders of Lexington Public Library cards can now take courses at Lynda.com (a LinkedIn company) for free. From the Lexington Public Library's description at the above link:

Lynda.com helps anyone learn software, creative, and business skills to achieve personal and professional goals. Users receive unlimited access to a vast library of high quality, current, and engaging video tutorials taught by great teachers who are also working professionals.

Why Lynda.com?

• Access to 3,599 courses and 274,000 tutorials.
• New courses added every week to keep your skills up to date with the fast-changing pace of technology.
• Switch back and forth between devices without ever losing your place.
• The playlists feature lets you create and manage a list of courses you want to watch, and bookmarks tag specific videos for reference.
• Courses are presented in small chunks, so it’s easy to find quick answers to specific questions. You can also watch an entire course from end to end if you choose.
• Instructors are respected professionals in their fields, and passionate about sharing their expertise.
• Compelling videos use screenshots, narration, live action, smart boards, charts, graphics, and audio.
• Creative Inspirations series goes behind the scenes with creative professionals and industry veterans to show how extraordinary products, ventures, and careers come to be.
• Read along with closed-captioned transcripts—or search the text to quickly find information within a course.
• Earn certificates of completion for each course viewed, and show coworkers, friends, and potential employers what you’ve accomplished.

The link to get there is at the page above, or you can click here: http://www.lexpublib.org/sites/default/dbforward.php?dbname=43220 and save it to your browser favourites/bookmarks. Apparently library access is not available through their mobile application, so check out the caveat at the bottom of the announcement page on using it on a mobile device through the broweser. Hope you enjoy this! I've looked through it and there's a lot on Microsoft Office, particularly Excel, some on personal finance, lots of technology stuff.

And it is now raining cats and dogs. Time for a nap, caffeine be damned.

I need caffeine

So, I slept till 10:45 am today after getting to sleep about 12:30 am. But still, a good amount of sleep. I got up, ate the last two breakfast sandwiches I had, and called my friends to see if I needed to come over at some point today for a project that we need to do together. I investigated it a little, and we could either order something online and it will take it up to a month to get here, or I could take him to another city in the state and get it within a couple of hours, and I'm off a day next week and could do it in between my two doctors' appointments, I think. It was all gloomy outside, and I hadn't heard back from them, so I went back to bed until A called me at about 1:45. I told him the options, and he'll get them to my other friend, who also asleep, as he'd had insomnia last night. So I decided I wasn't getting much of anything done, so I'd go in search of caffeine and also check the pool out.

The Coke machine in the laundry room was out of Diet anything, and since I had locked the apartment already and was unshowered and in just an old shirt and shorts, but otherwise presentable, I drove up to the Circle K nearby and got a couple of Diet Sunkist drinks and some ice. It should jump start me somewhat.

The pool was deserted. It's cloudy, and not as warm and muggy as I thought it was. The sun keeps trying to peek out, but fails for more than a few minutes, so I haven't decided on the pool. It's only 76 degrees and there are scattered showers popping up all over the radar map around us. In fact, all of the weather applications on my phone report rain for Lexington at the moment, so it may be raining nearby. Maybe later this afternoon.

With the Fourth on a Saturday, it's a little interesting. I'm off work. City offices, trash pickup, etc., are off. I've seen the mail run (I guess they'll be off tomorrow) and FedEx come by. [Yay, this moment, the sun totally broke through the clouds, although I don't know how long that will last!] I'm assuming the banks are on holiday today and tomorrow, as at least two people I know got paid early. [And now I hear thunder. :(]

A said he looked at the weather and while tomorrow may be cloudy, the chance of rain is highest after midnight, so the festivals, cookouts, and fireworks may just go off as planned. I usually go to the Festival downtown, and watch the parade (we're the only ones they allow, with our badges as proof). I'm not sure if I'll do that this year, as it depends on the weather, what my other activities are, and the like. But I definitely want to go watch the Idle Hour fireworks, and I can park at the hospital I work at and then just spread a blanket on the front lawn to watch.

Okay, I've had a couple of glasses of soda. I think it's beginning to kick in. The sun is still shining, and I can hear cicadas. A butterfly just went by the window. It might turn out to be a nice day after all.

Apparently I am withdrawing from caffeine

I was irritable to nearly the breaking point earlier and went through all the usual suspects such as not taking medicine, wonky blood sugar, or premenstrual syndrome, and realised that they were not the culprit, but rather the fact that I've cut down on my soda intake, the way I get my caffeine, may have something to do with it. I've had only two 20 oz. diet drinks today; everything else is water. Once I realised this (and took some ibuprofen for my headache) I did better. I played the game and enjoyed myself, although I did discover the string cheese I bring is actually a far worse culprit sodium-wise than most soda. There's 200 mg of sodium per serving. Brenda brought some veggies out of her garden for both of us, yay! Here's to squash and snow peas and various lettuces.

I don't normally post on Sundays, but thought I'd write a short bit. I'm home now and I've been looking for a book for a friend (one of those questions librarians get where they get very vague plot points and description, that we see as a challenge). I should go on to bed, though, as I must be up very early to take said friend to an appointment. I have to get over there by 7:15 or 7:30. At least that's what I'm shooting for. So I'm going to go on to bed. Good night!

My headache's back

But maybe that's from too much caffeine. I don't know. It's not a migraine, although I'm a little light-sensitive. I don't feel super wide awake. I've been drinking water for awhile today, but had quite a bit of soda earlier.

I have been on the phone in some capacity about 70% of my day. Two people have come to my home, one being Brandon with the soda. The rest of my time has been spent on game notes or on the computer in some fashion. I've watched several clips from 'The Big Bang Theory', for example. I'm almost halfway finished with the notes. Also, I got my product key for the free Windows Media Center to accompany Windows 8 and installed that. I also did a very thorough baby-wipe bath, including my poor 'good' foot, which has been carrying so much of my weight. I'm not sure it will ever be soft and happy again. I'm actually going to have to invest in a pumice stone. I think I'll wait to wash my hair till tomorrow, though.

It's rainy and icky outside, with a possibility of some small amount of snow overnight. Fortunately both the days I have to go out this week are supposed to be in the 50s and sunny. I'm not sure exactly what I'll do when it gets icy and snowy--still plug my way on my hands and knees up those stairs, I guess.

Come to think of it, I'm kind of aching. Maybe the headache is weather-related. I've had it since before the cold front came through. Hope I'm not getting anything; I have been sniffling all day, blowing my nose, and thought it was my allergies, but I have been around someone who had a bad cold not too long ago.

Plus, I'm tired. I think I'm going to go back into the bedroom and listen to some soft music. Maybe that will help my headache. If I don't post anymore tonight, I hope you have a good night.

Blessed caffeine

Okay, I caved. My headache was such that I still was in bed for two hours before I managed to sleep last night, and I woke up with one, too. Bless Brandon for stopping by the store and getting me some soda. I'm going to drink it in coffee mugs to try to stretch it out, altering with water, so I don't overdo it. That's the plan, anway.

Now that I've had a little soda in me, I feel more up to facing the day. So on my agenda today I need to make some phone calls, work on game notes, so some dishes (plastic ones this time, so no loading the dishwasher) and try to wash my hair/get cleaned up. That's not too bad. The busy part of the week will be Thursday and Friday, when I need to go out back-to-back.

So, on the days that I have too much caffeine

I have no trouble staying up for long periods of time, but it takes a couple of hours to wind down into sleep at best. On the days without, I'm up for a couple of hours and then sleep very soon. Obviously I need to find a balance, or somehow just break the caffeine cycle. My caffeine comes in the form of Diet Soda, so it's not as strong as coffee. I don't drink tea. I don't do energy drinks. But it is definitely an issue with my sleep-wake cycle.

On an average workday I have two-three 20 oz. sodas, and then rarely have any at home. I don't have trouble sleeping then. But at home I'm drinking more than that, a whole 2-litre a day or five-six 12 oz. sodas. So I've got to throttle back on it. It's not like soda's particularly good for you, including and especially the diet ones. YKWIA has been getting on to me for years for my soda consumption. So even though I'd like to get some more and I'm sure I could ask someone to bring me some, I'm not going to. I'll try to go a few days and see if my sleepiness abates. If not, then I'll try to go back to my norm instead of the way too much I've been drinking.

Is it wrong

to turn the air conditioner back on even though it's November because your apartment is stuffy and you can't open the windows? Granted it's 60 degrees outside, not hot, but practically balmy for this time of year. I actually got to enjoy it a little, too, as it was appointment day.

So now I'm home, and tired, but I'm going to stay up anyway because I really need to start building up my stamina, as YKWIA has suggested. I've been up since 9 am, so 9 hours so far. Let's see if I can stay up a little longer. I've had caffeine, so I shouldn't be crashing as much. But hopefully I've had just enough without going 'bazinga!' again and not sleeping at all.

Bazinga!!!

Okay, I can't complain about insomnia tonight. I slept part of the day and drank way too much soda after several days without caffeine. So if I seem a little chatty into the night, well, it's the caffeine. :)

Sometimes I think the universe laughs at me

It wasn't a big thing. I just wanted a diet drink today. But when I changed purses, I realised somewhere on the way to the bus stop that I hadn't moved the change (which is the only money I have until I get paid tonight) in my purse pocket to the new one. So all day I had a lack-of-caffeine headache and was sluggishly trying to move along, although it took some effort. I also forgot to bring my lunch, although I had some peanut butter at work. I did have about 40 cents in my pocket, and so I as able to buy a couple of pieces of bread for a peanut butter sandwich, and then later I had some tuna, but that was all for the workday. I found myself thinking, 'I know it will be six o'clock by the time I get home, but I'm going to have my cola.'

So the bus was 15 minutes late, and I finally got home, and looked in the purse, and lo, there were no quarters to be seen. It was then that I looked in my wallet (which I had had with me all day today) and discovered that at some point before today I had transferred them. So that's a forehead smacking moment.

Then I walked over to the laundry room, pressed the button to make sure it was not sold out already, and then fed the coins in and pressed my selection again. It went through major gyrations, but no cola came out and it said proudly, 'Sold Out' on the small screen. I got the change returned and sadly walked back to my apartment.

So, no cola. Oh, well, they're not good for me anyway. But yes, I firmly believe the universe was laughing at me.

On a brighter note, I came back and made some basmati rice and some chickpea curry I found in the back of my cupboard. It was delicious. Also, I had a little milk left over from when I had it for cereal, so I went ahead and had that with my meal. So everything turned out okay, although I still have my headache.