Hmmm....

I was looking at a list of autistic traits, and I'd never thought of doodling as autistic 'stimming'. I did this all through school. I didn't need to really do notes back then, or at least didn't think I did, and did well enough on exams; this belief was underscored. Given that later I took notes for our Cthulhu game, initially for myself (I didn't know it would be for posterity and for the group, and that I'd be doing it 34 years later), my notes from then would suck. Those early notes are full of doodles, but little content, and of course I remember little of the stories, and I've gone back and looked at the modules, but our game master does so much improvision and modification there was no way to get the notes right, and most of the people who played are gone on to other things and are unavailable. I have tried to reconstruct them, trust me. But when I was younger and unmedicated, and therefore my memory was less impaired, I did actually remember more of my classes, and there was structure, and I comprehended most of what I heard, plus I was pretty much bored because I'd read the assignment and many of the lectures were just out of the book, so in my boredom I drew doodles in the margins and took few actual notes. It worked for me at the time. I got A's and occasional B's in secondary school and early college. Things started to unravel once I started to have a social life, and I lost the structure that I'd had in high school in school in college. I still did okay, but let's just say I only made the dean's list my freshman year. I needed to start taking notes, but if anything, I just doodled more, because it was a way to soothe my anxiety.

Also, two of the things they list that are missed in girls a lot are twirling hair and biting nails. Also me. My mom had to get this bitter stuff to put on my nails. I'm surprised my hair didn't break off, too.

PS For the last 15 years, for the game I've used a digital voice recorder that plugs into a USB-B slot into a computer and transfers a file so I can then listen and write up what happened; not so much a verbatim transcript but the gist in story form. My phone will do an AI transcript, but that actually takes longer to turn into story form than listening, believe it or not, because there have been a couple of times I've run out of batteries and I've had to use it as backup.

Well, I screwed up

Apparently, I really thought I'd transcribed the notes from the last Cthulhu game, and that we didn't actually play last Sunday when we did. I guess it's understandable as we've been sick and Brenda had to go out of state one weekend, but really! And we were at a point we could have maybe finished the Elizabethan adventure we're in right now. Oh, well. Instead, we're watching 'The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina' and 'Perfect Harmony'. I'll get the notes back on track, but needless to say, I'm embarrassed, although with my memory I'm surprised I didn't do this earlier. I was telling the gamemaster that I didn't have to do the notes, and he didn't say anything, mainly because I tend to get annoyed at him for reminding me of my bad memory. Sigh. Okay, he's on a phone call but it sounds like he'll be back in a moment, and we'll continue watching, so I should go. Just wanted to check in and vent about my lapse.

It's very quiet in the house

Just the sounds of my fans going above my head and nearby. We finally have some relief to the heat (it's been in the 90s with little to no rain for weeks), with rain in the forecast tomorrow, but I'm hot-natured, so even though it's in the 70s now both inside and out, I keep the fans on in my room whenever I'm there. But the quiet is nice. Sometimes it's good to only hear your own thoughts.

Today  I did many things but I did not go to the YMCA and do exercises in the pool like I meant to.  I haven't given up, I just had a lot to do today.  But I did have some time to myself and some relaxation time, as well as game notes and laundry and errands.

I went to the pharmacy today to get my roommate some medicine and see if they had my Lantus, as I started on my last pen of the pack.  Turns out they'd sent a request to my doctor's office for a refill and it had been denied.  The reason? They said they had never prescribed it.

Now, I have been on Lantus for a couple of years, Basaglar before that for a short time when it was on my insurance's formulary, and years of Lantus prior to that, including quite some time of it from this office, continuously up till this past month.  So obviously there has been a mistake. I'll have to call them on Monday.  I'm hoping I have enough to last me through Monday so we can get it taken care of, a pen only lasts a few days--I get 10 per refill, and they last about 3 days each.

On Habitica, the task/productivity 'game' I play, there was a reading challenge I took up to read a book called The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury.  Now I like Ray Bradbury, and it's actually a children's book, so I thought it would be good to read some fast-moving fiction. It's been such a struggle to read fiction (even non-fiction has its challenges), for several reasons.  For one thing, I think being on the Internet has made my attention span that of a gnat.  I've also apparently been a little off in how I use my bifocals, and it's hard for me to find a nice comfy place to read--I can't read in bed easily, and the comfy chairs are in the study (where my friend is often watching streaming stuff) or in his room.  Reading in bed requires lots of pillows, a folding lap desk, and a study pillow with a neck bolster.  I can read at the kitchen and study tables, when it is quiet, but the chairs are wooden and really need cushions after a while.  Still, I managed to read the whole book in a very short time, maybe an hour or an hour and a half (it's 145 pages long).  I enjoyed it--I knew all the various cultural ties to the practices of Halloween, but that was fine. And I'd figured out what happened to one of the characters.  I guess the only real thing I had a bit of an issue with it--not a lot, just a bit, were that there were no girls at all in the characters, and little to no character description or development, really.  But it is a product of 1972, and while Bradbury's writing deviates poetically from standard writing styles, he shares a common thread you find particularly in male writers of the time, and especially in science fiction writers, somewhat tilted towards action and away from characterization.  (Women, by contrast, tend to over-describe and have a lot of emoting going without driving the action forward at all)--a good writer balances both.  Still, his description of the settings and experiences are very good, and this story actually needs somewhat blank characters, as they represent certain timeframes of history in their costumes and with the exception of the one character from whose perspective the story is told,  there's no real personality among the children, and I guess there really doesn't need to be.  Anyway, I did enjoy the story, and it was a little chilling there at the end, so suitably Halloweenesque.

Later, we ate dinner from Subway with a friend, who had a couple of Pierce Brosnan 007 movies on, and then we returned home and I took up finishing the laundry.  I've done my clothes and I'm working on my friend's bedding right now. I'm going to do mine tomorrow.

Tomorrow I think I'll try to get up early.  I was supposed to do a couple of shelves, pulling off the books and dusting them.  I didn't, but I can today.  I did do the game notes, which were more timely.  If I could get that and my normal Sunday pre-game chores are done really early, I might still be able to go to the Y and do some exercises in the pool and work out in general for maybe an hour, total.  Then Monday I can go back for the low-impact pool class that I took this past week.  I did really well with everything (and have been in much less pain and been able to move and bend better as a result) except this thing where you put the foam dumbbells under your knees and then balance above them.  I need something to hold on and even so couldn't do it.  The instructor suggested getting a lighter pair of dumbbells (I had the heavy ones) next time.  People were really nice and non-judgmental, though, and I enjoyed it.  The instructor was very good.  We ended with a mindfulness exercise.  So it starts out easy, gets the heart pumping, puts you through all sorts of movement, but it isn't extremely intense--just right for my level of conditioning.

I  also need to run by the library while they're open and pick up a book on hold on the zero-waste home--I've been on the list for a while.  It must have been there when I picked up The Halloween Tree earlier, but I didn't realise it was in, so I didn't look.  I also checked out CDs by Sam Smith and Rush.

Okay, I'm going to get ready for bed.  The laundry's still in the dryer, but at least I'll have my teeth brushed, etc.  Hope you're having a good weekend.

Today's agenda

1. Shower.
2. Take medicine.
3. Caffeinate.
4. Do two loads of laundry.
5. Go to the optician.
6. Go to the Rusty Scabbard [a local gaming store that's been around for ages].
7. Go pick up a couple of books on hold at the library.
8. Go to the YMCA and work out and then hit the warm water pool during open swim.
9. Do the game notes.
10. Dust some bookshelves.
11. Relax.

It's been generally a good day, except

I found out that an old acquaintance (not close, but still, one I've known for decades) apparently died a couple of months ago of heart issues. He was my age. There was no memorial. This, on the heels of a former co-worker's death this week from cancer, has me thinking of my own mortality and that of those close to me.

But before we got this news, I took YKWIA out for a birthday Indian buffet at Masala, and it was wonderful.  They even had gulab jamun, which I adore, this time!  We also did some errands.

They're having a tailgating thing at work today (it's near the UK stadium, so it seemed a good opportunity to get my co-workers together), and I was thinking of going, am actually wearing the shirt they'd bought for us, but between the news and the fact that I'm stuffed with Indian food to the point of near torpor, I decided not to go.

I've done my shelf dusting for the day.  I have some laundry to do and the game notes.  Also, I need to take things to the storage unit and put them in there, put away my laundry from last week, make my bed, and generally straighten up my room.

Tonight we're planning on watching Cats, which I have out from the library. I've never seen the musical.

But before I do all that, I really want to take about a 45-minute nap.  So I'll stop here.  Perhaps I'll write later, though.

The attack of the chatty people

I am chatty, have been all my life, to the point where my mom once said she prayed I'd get laryngitis as a kid.  'Momma, let me tell you one more thing...' was my refrain, she said.  Still, I do try to tone it down in the morning around YKWIA, because he's nowhere near toleration of it until he's finished with his second giant mug of coffee if that.  Today he's been especially testy about it.  Also, the person we picked up to take to the appointment is a very chatty, narcissistic person.  Two of us together made him rather want to curl up into a ball, I suspect.  So he's planning to have a quiet day, and I'll do stuff as needed out of his way.  I respect his need for privacy.  We're both introverts, really, although I've become more able to deal with people as I've gotten older, especially working in customer service.  But still, time to dial down the chattiness, stop filling the silence and focus on other things.

I brought the "A" is for Alibi book with me today and read a few more chapters.  I'm enjoying it; it's not a style I particularly care for, but it's nice to be reading again, and it's going pretty quickly.  I did just realise I've left it out in the car, which, since it's raining and I have houseshoes on, means putting at least my sandals on to go briefly out into the wet.  Oh, well.  I think I'll do that in a bit.  YKWIA did splurge a little by taking me out to Captain D's after we dropped the other person off, which was good because when I checked my blood sugar, it was 58. Remarkably, I didn't feel shaky.  But I was finding it harder to think.

For now, I'm going to work on some things on the computer and maybe listen to some music.  My laptop can play music through the speaker tower so I can stream some music through that.  Later I may work on the game notes for a while.  We're not playing the game tomorrow since I'm under doctor's orders to rest and apparently have some sort of infection, which I don't want to pass on to anyone, especially since the other player is about to take a trip to visit an elderly mother.  So we decided to err on the side of caution.  But if I get the notes finished this weekend, and then she's gone the next, I won't have to do them later when my memory's fuzzier about what we did.  We're on the third leg of the book Ripples from Carcosa, set in the future this time (we've done ancient Rome and Norman England already). I am beginning to hate the Yellow Sign and the machinations of Hastur.  I didn't really engage much last Sunday, as apparently not only was I tired, but coming down with the flu, but I did enjoy the story.  Hopefully, by next time we play, I'll be more involved.

I watered all the plants before we left this morning.  They're doing well.  The ones in YKWIA's bedroom are really flourishing.  I think they like him.  They're in a window seat in a southerly exposure.  The ones in my room are easterly to southeasterly, the couple of African violets in the bathroom (on the back of the toilet) get western light, and then there's his plant in the kitchen (a combination of Christmas cactus and some opportunistic wood sorrel that he likes), again, a western exposure.  The living room gets very early morning light but is fairly dark the rest of the day, which is why I was surprised my plants survived in there on the bed and nightstands for so long.

I would love to really garden this year, now that I have a yard to play with, but neither of us has the money to invest in plants right now.  Also, the best place for a vegetable garden would be out back behind the shed, and I found a really nice plan that would work, but there are the dogs to consider and whether they would damage the plants.  Perhaps a raised bed near the fence would work.  But that costs money to get landscaping materials like retaining wall products and mulch.  We'll see.  In the meantime, I've been looking through catalogues I found online (and one I requested from Burpee's) and have been dreaming of future gardens.  I prefer heirlooms over hybrids, and several of the catalogues are full of those.

I do like my present job, but if I could find one in my field (librarianship) which paid more money, that would be great.  I made more last year, due to the severance and contract work, than I had before, and I was pretty comfortable.  But I've taken a $5/hour hit since October and have really struggled with paying my bills.  I still am waiting for my 1099, so I can't file my taxes quite yet.  I may wind up paying, although I hope the severance taxes (which was a whopping 41%) will offset no tax withholding for the time I was doing the contract work, as the car repairs back in October took the last of my savings.  I'm going to have to have them prepared professionally this year, due to the severance, unemployment, and most importantly the 'self-employed' contract work.  Hopefully, I will get a 1099 form soon.  I talked to our chief financial officer yesterday and he said they had gone out but some of them were incorrect and they may need to be corrected, so that could be the holdup.  But also, since I moved, it may be going through the forwarding process.  He did say that he'd drop a line to headquarters about it.  In the meantime, I'll give it till the end of the month and hope I get it soon.  No sense in panicking until April.  Still, I'd like to know if I owe anything.  The first tax-related item I got this year was a form to be sent to the Fayette County school system for their share of the taxes.  That's why I need an accounting/tax preparing firm, as there are different forms for that contract work, and while they would have them all, I would not.

We do have the prospect of some overtime coming up because we have to 'shuffle' all the appointments out there into new grids, and that should involve some weekend work.  But the grids aren't ready yet, and I couldn't have worked this weekend anyway per doctor's orders.

Tomorrow I'm going to do some chores around the house, like laundry, sweeping, and the cat box--things I normally do before the game.  But I'll try to make sure I get some rest, too.  Monday I have no real plans.  I guess I'll just relax.  At some point, we have a small grocery run to make, just a few items.  Other than that, I'll have some time to rest and recuperate.  I'm taking my medicine as I should (I have to for nine more days).  I wish I knew what the problem was--I know it's not a UTI, and I don't think he'd have prescribed an antibiotic if it were residual from the flu.  It could be a sinus infection, as I have chronic ones, I guess, and I am having some sinus pain. I really was surprised he wanted me home for four days.  And I'm a little concerned because I don't have enough PTO to cover last week.  If they add the long-term sick time (which only kicks in after three days of personal time off), then I'll be about 3 hours short.  Otherwise, it'll be more like 12 hours.  That'll make for a small cheque.  This Monday is covered because of a new pay period, but then we're off the Monday after that due to President's Day, and that's on the same cheque so I won't have enough to cover that. I get something like four weeks of vacation time a year, so it accrues quickly--but not that quickly.  I actually was on track to have a week's worth of time built up before my birthday, but this has wiped out my hours completely.  I asked the payroll clerk to just do what she could.  I'm not sure I can touch the EIB because of the three-day rule.  I worked Monday half a day, and Friday half a day, so I'm not sure how that works.  I would think the PTO would kick in Monday, go through half of Thursday, and then the EIB would cover half of Thursday and part of the time I missed on Friday.  But I have 21 hours of PTO and I need 24.  I don't know if the EIB will kick in if I don't have enough PTO to cover those three days.  Sigh.

It's depressing to think about.  Oh, well.

Yay!

The car is fixed. I called my insurance's roadside assistance this morning, the guy came, and he was great. My battery was most sincerely dead--it didn't work with a jump box, so we had to back my car down the driveway in neutral. Then he showed me how exactly to hook up the batteries (I could never keep which order was which, now I think I have it). It took awhile. First, he charged for a while, then he was still not getting enough juice, so he had to rev his engine while I started the car. It finally started. I thanked the guy, who was absolutely great, let me reiterate that. Very thorough, personable, and took his time to do it right and get me on the road. I took it directly to Tire Discounters, where I got the battery a couple of years ago. Since it had a 30-month warranty, and I was at 23 months, I was definitely taking it back. So they checked it, and yes, it was bad, and they were going to replace it charging for just the labour for putting it in, but actually, they charged me nothing. Free, gratis. Which is what it should have been. I called the roadside assistance at about 9, so it took about 25 minutes for him to get there, another half hour to jump the car, given it was so slow to charge, and about 45 minutes to get the battery changed. So I was back on the road by 11. I came back home and ate some leftovers. So, for the rest of the day, I need to:

1. Take the book to the library, the one that was due the day the car went down.
2. Take YKWIA to pay a bill.
3. Go hunt down some grain-free, fish-based (no chicken) cat food for the cat who is allergic to all food we've tried.
4. Stop by the store for stuff for the game tomorrow.
5. Work on the game notes.

So, I guess I should get going. Have a great day. I'm staying away from the insanity of Black Friday. Hope yours is a safe and productive one!

Four hunting horrors and five ghouls later

So the notes went pretty fast, really. Next time (tomorrow) we go after the evil cultist/mad scientist. What can I say, this is what I do for fun.

And now, I'm going to take a well-deserved rest for about 40 minutes before doing anything else whatsoever, except clearing off space on the bed for said rest. :)

So nice to be off work today

My furniture is going to be delivered today, and I didn't know when that would be, so I asked off for the day. Turns out they're coming between 4 and 7 pm, so that leaves the rest of the day to be productive. I did sleep in, till 8:45, but there are things I need to do today:

1. Pay my rent.
2. Pay my electric.
3. Call the credit union with a question.
4. Get all of the boxes out of my car!
5. Water the plants in the living room (I got the ones in the bedroom a couple of days ago).
6. Look for a rose-coloured full microfleece blanket.
7. Help YKWIA get the house ready for the furniture, moving some things and cleaning.
8. Take him to pay a bill.
9. Receive and inspect the furniture.
10. Pack some.

I need to take two pillows (for the shams) and a blanket I'm going to use to protect the bedding from one of the dogs, who has very short hair but really sheds. Fortunately, the bedding is a cream colour, and she's a light gold, so it should be mostly okay. But since I'm allergic to dogs and cats, I should minimise direct contact as much as I can.

With the exception of Monday, when my mood was troubled by the horrible interview, it hasn't been bad this week. We were a little slower, about 100 people in the clinic or so a day, so busy enough to always be working, but not overwhelming. On Tuesday I sent an e-mail to the interviewing committee thanking them for the interview, answering the question I misunderstood and basically telling them that I tank during interviews due to nervousness, and I hope they'll consider me for the next step in the process, despite my performance on the phone. I hope they will. I suppose all the experts would say not to do this, but I felt I should. The new head of the committee sent an e-mail to me Thursday acknowledging it. So all hope is not lost, hopefully. I really want this job, and I think that I would be very good for the nurse-patrons.

Other things to accomplish this weekend:

• Finish the game notes, as we're playing on Sunday.
• Take off the caps of soda bottles to give to a co-worker who saves them and take out the recyclables, which are full.
• Pack some more.
• Take some light items over to storage and the new place as I can.

The plan is now to go through the books and pick what I want to keep, putting those in the U-Haul boxes. Then YKWIA can look through the ones left and those not chosen by either of us can go into some of the other types of boxes to be taken to the library. My therapist suggested just letting the movers take care of the books that are going into storage rather than me trying to deal with them a little at a time--I will be paying them to move them, anyway. That is the bulk of what I've got, after all. I've already booked the move to start at 9 am on Tuesday, August 29th. I booked them online, with a note that things will be moved from my apartment to a storage centre, that much of it is books, and with a request that a few large items be moved to the Dumpster area if they are amenable. I'm using Wildcat Moving, a local company that seems to have good ratings with the Better Business Bureau and online. I absolutely refuse to use another company, Two Men and a Truck, which is very popular around here, as they stranded a couple I know in the middle of their move with some lame excuse when they realised that the couple was not my friend and myself but rather two men. No kidding. Hometown Movers saved the day back then, and I would have used them now, but they seem to have disbanded. So hopefully, Wildcat Moving will be a good experience. That gives me 24 days to pack, including a weekend right before. I'm off the 28th and 29th for the actual move. That also gives me a couple of days afterwards to clean the apartment and turn in my keys. That reminds me--I should fill out a change of mailing address sometime this weekend, while I'm thinking about it.

Okay, I'm going to get going. I need to pay those bills, get off the computer, and get moving. The boxes will take a little time to get into the house--there are probably about 35 in the car, although the U-Haul ones are still packed flat in a bundle, at least. Hope you have a good weekend!

I'm not sure

that I've ever gone this long without blogging, except maybe when I first started this blog. I'm sorry. I've mostly been working. The other night I was at the emergency room for hours with a friend (who is okay, but it was important to go), and I tried to write there since I had my computer with me and they supposedly had free WiFi, but it wouldn't save my post, let me listen to Pandora, or was in any way helpful in helping me pass the time, and my phone was dying, and neither using their charging station nor plugging directly into a wall outlet using the stock charger seemed to work, as at the most it would go up 1% after several minutes. It was rather frustrating. The next day I was a little late to work, but my boss understood, as she'd been in the ER with her father the other day and had come in late herself. Despite being very tired I worked very hard and maintained a level of perkiness suitable for dealing with the public, although it was hard, and then went and got my friend some groceries. I was so tired that I could barely drive, and came home and went straight to bed. Yesterday was slower at work, and I was still pretty tired, but I managed to get through it, go home, and I went to bed early again, sleeping till almost eleven this morning. I got up, got a shower, and went to the library to work on the game notes for about three hours, then went and got my hair cut (it really needed it; I hadn't had it cut since the end of March), and then came home and relaxed for a bit before returning to the notes for another three hours or so. But they're finished. We are, as far as I know, playing tomorrow, now that we've recovered (mostly--coughing is still bad for both of us) from the plague, so I wanted to get those done. I did want to work on the house some, as well, especially the books, but it's 9 pm now. It's taken so long because there was a lot of investigation. Anyway, that's ready for tomorrow. I need to desperately do my laundry tomorrow over there as well, as I didn't do so last weekend, and I'm down to almost nothing (or at least comfy underwear, which I consider essential). I'm looking forward to playing, though. We are currently playing an adventure that is set in Glasgow, Scotland, so I'm learning a lot about its history, including that of Saint Mungo, the patron saint (whose Celtic name was Kentigern). I know a little bit about Kentigern, or at least the name, from The Battlefield Band's song 'The Dear Green Place'



Mungo is known for four miracles which are portrayed on the city of Glasgow's heraldic shield. From Wikipedia:

• The Bird — Mungo restored life to a robin, that had been killed by some of his classmates.
• The Tree — Mungo had been left in charge of a fire in Saint Serf's monastery. He fell asleep and the fire went out. Taking a hazel branch, he restarted the fire.
• The Bell — the bell is thought to have been brought by Mungo from Rome. It was said to have been used in services and to mourn the deceased. The original bell no longer exists, and a replacement, created in the 1640s, is now on display in Glasgow.
• The Fish — refers to the story about Queen Languoreth of Strathclyde who was suspected of infidelity by her husband. King Riderch demanded to see her ring, which he claimed she had given to her lover. In reality, the King had thrown it into the River Clyde. Faced with execution she appealed for help to Mungo, who ordered a messenger to catch a fish in the river. On opening the fish, the ring was miraculously found inside, which allowed the Queen to clear her name. (This story may be confused with an almost identical one concerning King Maelgwn of Gwynedd and Saint Asaph.)

I'll give you resurrection and the spontaneous creation of fire, and the fish, of course, but we're still trying to figure out how bringing a bell from Rome constitutes a miracle. There must be more to the story, surely. Anyone with information, feel free to comment with that.

Okay, I think I'll get up and stretch a bit, as I've been typing at the computer for far too long. I will try to blog more. In the meantime, if I don't write again tonight, have a good evening, and a great weekend.

So apparently now my friend

Brenda has the crud that's been working its way through our gaming group, so there's no game tomorrow. I hadn't finished the notes yet, and that gives me more time to work on them, which I will at least try to start this weekend, if not finish them.

Later today I'm going to go over to YKWIA's and we're going to try to finish up 'Trial & Error' episodes before they expire on Hulu. It's a cute little show. I think we have five more to watch, and they've a normal running time of 30 minutes, so without commercials they're fairly short.

Okay, I've had breakfast (cheese and blackberries), checked my blood sugar, taken my insulin and some of my oral meds [I need to refill my pill reminder box], and I'm listening to the countdown on the radio. But for some reason I'm putting off getting a shower and getting ready to go out, so I need to do that. Have a great day!

I've gotten a lot of rest today

broken up by terrible bouts of coughing. I tried to do some simple things like rearrange the TV table in the living room, and it got hard to breathe through the mucous (yeah, isn't that lovely) and I had to sit down. So today I'll just rest. I've got the Bastille station (although, really, it's played a lot more Mumford and Sons in the last hour than anything else) on Pandora on right now. I may watch something later, but really, I think I'll read. I still need to finish The Paper Magician and I have five days left on the loan. I am really enjoying it, it's just I only now have a good light (I put an LED bulb in) over by the couch, and if I read in bed, I tend to fall asleep. :) I think my doctor would definitely say it's time to rest today, and I can work at other things as I feel better.

So here's my week ahead:

1. Tonight. Read. Listen to music. Relax. Pick up A from his job at 1 am and deliver him to his house. Give my (now bimonthly) libation, as I'm doing so at dark of the moon and at times I have my period. This one is the latter. It sucks to be on your period and sick, let me tell you.
2. Sunday: Request my benefits check. Check for jobs to apply for, and apply if I fit the requirements. Maybe do laundry over at YKWIA's. I need to, as I didn't last week. If not, I may do it over here at the complex, as I have detergent and softener here. It's just a matter of getting quarters from somewhere on a Sunday. A lot of places get a bit stingy on that front. If I'm feeling up to it, I should work on the bedroom while I'm at it and do a bit of excavation of most of the horizontal surfaces. The bath and kitchen are in good shape; I just need to do a few dishes and touch up the bathroom. The bedroom is the worst room in the apartment. Light a candle for my mother.
3. Monday: Check for jobs to apply for, and apply if I fit the requirements. Send back the extra computer, as they got the return labels to me. They're crediting me $15 with Amazon for my trouble. I need to work on the apartment, especially straightening up in the dining room, living room, and anything else in the bedroom. Try to rearrange the plants in front of the living room window so they won't get crushed if they try to open the windows--they open fine, but I always have to move a plant or two, with the orchids blooming, and the freesia bulb pots are on the sills. If I move things around, and they open them, as I think they're required to check, then I can minimise any damage. The African violets in the bedroom are never a problem, as they're pretty low to the pot.
4. Tuesday: Check for jobs to apply for, and apply if I fit the requirements. My eligibility review with the unemployment office, a class related to that, my pulmonary rehab, and of course the walk-through/inspection is that day. Go through my life insurance portability and AFLAC paperwork and send them in.
5. Wednesday: Check for jobs to apply for, and apply if I fit the requirements. Do some more de-cluttering and de-hoarding. I've got two boxes of books ready to go from the entertainment centre that is between the living area and dining room; I need to finish the rest, find a room for the books I'll keep, break down the centre, take it to the Dumpster area, and then move one of the other two shelving units over so that the one is back to back with the other and the space between the two areas is more open. Right now, the space has the centre on one side (going towards the hall), with two shelving units back to back with it, dividing it completely. I want to change that. I also need to take a friend in for a blood draw.
6. Thursday: Check for jobs to apply for, and apply if I fit the requirements. Pulmonary rehab, and I may be taking a friend to an event. I can't remember if he said he wasn't going after all, or if he's checking on it. It's where a mah-jong group takes over a local restaurant and plays for about four hours. :) He's been playing at the library and learning the game. It sounds very complicated.
7. Friday: Check for jobs to apply for, and apply if I fit the requirements. Take a friend for a shot. Work on the game notes.
8. Saturday: Check for jobs to apply for, and apply if I fit the requirements. Take a another friend to work at an ungodly hour (for a Saturday) for the first of two jobs, then pick him up at 1 am that night.

I'd gone to bed around 10 pm

because I was just really pooped after running around for several hours this evening, and then when I woke up, I thought that it was maybe 5 am (because it was still dark), and I should probably just go ahead and get up, because I have to call A to wake him up at 6:30 am.

It was 12:45 am.

So now I'm awake, it's in the middle of the night, and I have to wake up early so I can get A up and then take him to work. Sigh. Maybe I shouldn't have had coffee after all, although that was hours ago. I haven't had any caffeine of any sort (my last was a soda at 3 pm) too late.

I'd taken my meds and done all my normal bedtime things except turning the aquarium over to the blue light, so I did that. Now I'm listening the the Bastille station and contemplating whether I should do any of the three or four things I meant to accomplish tomorrow, namely:

1. Finish scoring for Doody's Core Titles (it's due Sunday, and I'll be busy then).
2. Get that job application in (I need to get one in by end of week, which is Saturday).
3. Do the game notes (due by midnight Saturday night).
4. Do a 10-15% water change for the fish tank.

I suppose I should tackle them in that order. So the plan is this: try to go back to sleep, wake up early, call A, get ready (I normally just go over in whatever I sleep in, which scares them sometimes), take him to work, come back, make coffee/eat breakfast, and start working on my list. It's supposed to be sunny and a little warmer, so I may open the windows, since most of that is on the computer, which is next to the living room windows.

I am so not sleepy now, though. :( Maybe if I just lie in the quiet, dark room it will help, but I think it'll be awhile before I get back asleep.

I had four goals tonight

1. Finish the game notes, even though it meant reliving the loss of the character. [Check]
2. Get the living room in serviceable shape so I can sit on the loveseat and actually watch something if I'd like. [Check]
3. Get the dining room in enough shape that I could get a bucket from the bathroom to the aquarium (which is in the dining room). [Check]
4. Fill up the aquarium and then vacuum it as thoroughly as I can. [Check}

I'm hoping the one remaining goldfish (which is the biggest, prettiest one I had) will not die, with this major influx and change of water. But I'd let the aquarium languish, to the point where it was too low to keep the pump on, and there was a lot of Java moss, too, which tends to choke the remaining water. I have most likely the dirtiest aquarium known to man, mainly because I can't get those stupid 'self-starting' vacuums to work, and I've gotten enough knowledge of aquariums and infection control that I didn't want to do the old 'suck on the hose until it starts' that we did in the old days. I have three vacuums, two large, one small, all 'self-starting'. The small one is actually for the three-gallon betta tank that is currently not set up.

Well, I took an old Tidy Cat five-gallon bucket (not a liquid five gallons, but you get the idea), and filled up the bucket three times with water, and put it in the aquarium, which brought it up to the right height. I also changed the foam and activated charcoal in the filter (but not the anti-ammonia pellets--you should always keep some of the medium so that good bacteria that eat nitrates and therefore keep down algae blooms spread throughout the filter). I then plugged in the filter and discovered, to my dismay, that the heater had been plugged up all this time, in not so much water, which I don't know what that does. I think it shut itself off, at least. I cleared out some of the Java moss and then I let the filter run for a couple of hours, till the milm was settled on the floor of the aquarium and the water was clear.

Enter the turkey baster. Years ago, a former friend had given it to me as a gag gift, which had nothing to do with eating, as I don't eat poultry. It was still in the original plastic, some time ago, because of course I rarely throw anything away. I had used it once before to start the suction on the vacuum, and tried again. But the large vacuums have very long hoses, and I am too short to properly get the water and detritus into the container from my height, with the hose on the bottom floor of the aquarium and the container on the floor of the apartment. I decided to try the smaller vacuum, with a shorter hose, used the turkey baster to get the suction going, and then vacuumed two two-litres and a gallon milk jug's worth of gunk and water, which I capped and saved to water the plants with, as it's good fertilizer.

I then planted the plants back in, righted the tree branch and gargoyle, and found the little cave the fish like to go into. I replaced the lost water with six two-litres full of clean treated water and got some of the algae off the glass top. I certainly didn't get all the sediment, but I didn't want to shock the fish's system any more than I had done already. I then put away everything, scrubbed my arms down with soap and water, and I'm going to wait and see what it's going to look like when everything settles, then wait a week or two, and vacuum again. If I can get it looking halfway decent, I'll check the water (my chlorine, ammonia, and chloramines are always fine, the pH is hard, given that we're sitting atop lots of limestone, and my nitrates (but not my nitrates) are always very high, which is why I've had feeder goldfish in the tank for years. Of course, goldfish are very 'dirty' fish. They poop a lot, which causes the milm to build up, and the nitrates. Maybe if I can get things under control, I can go back to other fish, like livebearers and plecostomuses, while keeping the goldfish. You are probably thinking, just set the three-gallon up and put the goldfish in there. The problem with that is that goldfish actually need quite a bit of room, and goldfish bowls actually stress them out, and they die quickly. And while they usually prefer colder water than livebearers, mine's use to warmer water. So there's that. We'll see how it goes. I've had trouble with this set-up since I put the aquarium back together years ago. It never matured correctly, even with adding nitrate-eating bacteria and letting it 'cure' before putting fish in. I never had that trouble before, and the aquarium has been up most of the last thirty years, and the only thing I've really changed is the type of filter (better than the old undergravel ones) and that worked for years, and I've put an LED light in rather than flourescent, which provides more natural and long-lasting light. So I don't know. I did fine for over twenty years. Maybe it's somehow how the aquarium has aged. The gravel is the same gravel, albeit having been washed with water (not soap or anything) between set-ups. In the meantime, I'll cut the long hoses down to a better length. Anyway, here's hoping that everything's going to get better, and I get to be a better 'fish mom', not letting stress make me ignore the poor fish and the tank.

Over at the Tates Creek branch of the Lexington Public Library

Picking up and dropping off books, and also doing some job searching for A and myself.  I've been here almost an hour and a half and have founds some leads.  I'm going to have to call the University of Kentucky to see if there is any way I can pickup my transcript in person on Thursday (part of my transcript is on microfilm, so that might be an issue) so I can apply for a job in Paris, Kentucky as an assistant public library director.  I only have unofficial transcripts, which do not include the information from pre-1988, but I don't have the money to go ahead an order my transcript and get it in time, and won't till Thursday.  If they won't be able to help me in person Thursday or Friday, I'll see if I can borrow the money to get the ball rolling Monday.  The job closes on Friday.  In the meantime, I've tweaked my application materials and just have to finish a cover letter.

Okay, I'm going to go pack everything up and go check out the books.  I have found several new ones, one on herb gardening, one on mediaeval Europe, and one on historical city maps.  I'm also picking up a book for YKWIA.

I'll write later.  We aren't going to play tomorrow due to the game master being ill, but I may finish the game notes tonight anyway.  But I actually have a little time to myself, so I'm going to try to make the most of it. :)

Today

a friend called me about 6:30 am to help me wake up and I chose to go back to sleep for awhile. I still got to work on time (rather than early), though, but three days of insane earliness was probably enough.

Today was payday, thankfully. I got caught up on a lot, but there are still two bills out there I can’t do. But I have a full gas tank, so I can go visit my mom Saturday, and I was able to pay other bills that were overdue, including my electric. I paid the bank (which had been at a deficit since the cascade effect happened, prompting me to move back to the credit union, where fees are less and it’s non-profit). But funny thing, even though I paid in cash, PNC refused to let me close the account today because the cash would post tomorrow. Cash. Crazy. It’s a minor annoyance, I know, but I don’t see why I should have to wait when cash is legal tender and it’s not like they have to examine the $20s to verify they’re real or anything.

I was also thwarted by Time Warner Cable. Yesterday I called to see how much it would be to turn my cable back on and was quoted a figure just under $74. I specifically asked if this would still be the case today or Friday, since I got paid (I thought I was getting a cheque today, so thought I might have to wait till Friday for it to post, but it turns out the automatic deposit went in fine). She assured me that everything would be the same. So I go today and the clerk told me that the woman had been mistaken and must not have looked at the account carefully. Thirty minutes before I called, my account had been closed, raising the amount I needed to pay to $191 or so. Very different from $74. Sigh. I can’t do that. So for now I guess there's the 5GB/month hotspot through T-Mobile that comes with my unlimited phone data plan and the laundry room, which has free WiFi. The good thing is after that I dropped some things off at Goodwill that had been sitting in my trunk and went ahead and called Vonage, which is only about $10 a month, but doesn’t work without cable, and my account was set up to be debited tomorrow. They put the phone account on hold for two months until April to give me time to get service back without having to pay for my phone. Vonage has very great customer service (they once comped me an entire month when I was struggling), and I would highly recommend them. Apparently I have been a customer for 10 years and 5 months. :)

I went to Costco and got a few things for myself and some stuff for friends, who paid me back tonight. I took A to YKWIA’s and we got some stuff at the store for there, and I left him to visit. Now I’m home. I’ve eaten an Everything bagel (2 sleeves of 6 for $5.99) and Havarti cheese (32 slices for $7.49), and I drank some orange juice ($5.99 for a gallon). So my stomach is happy. I also got some tuna. So I have some basics and can go to Kroger tomorrow for some fruit, etc.

When I came out there was a lovely sunset, so many pinks and yellows and oranges—it looked like the sky was afire. I took a picture, which doesn’t do it justice, but you get the idea:

Now I think I’ll do some reading and listen to some music. Those are the only things left on my to-do list. I should do the game notes, as I’ll be visiting my mom on Saturday and we will be playing Sunday. But tomorrow is another day. Good night!

Well, that was decidedly odd

I've been burning the candle at both ends, by working long days, doing errands and going to appointments with friends and for myself, visiting my mom (who was transferred to the rehabilitation centre within the nursing home my grandmother used to be in, closer to their home but further away from me), and basically getting about 4-5 hours of broken sleep at a time. So it's probably no wonder that I haven't written much.

I came home about 6:30 or 7 tonight, had a quick bite to eat, and then laid down for a bit. I shot for an hour's nap; I got two, with Pandora in the background and my fan running (I was terribly hot). I'd been having some trouble breathing today, which is why I didn't go get my allergy shots today. Anyway, I slept well. Then I woke up, went to the bathroom, and then the kitchen, where I grabbed something to drink and some string cheese, and I had my glasses off (you know, you get used to your house and can do certain things, even if you're nearly blind without them). But I did notice the light in the aquarium was off, which was odd, because it was on when I got home, and I didn't turn it off. I have several LED bulbs in the aquarium hood--one might have gone out, but that is unlikely, as they're not old and LEDs last a long time. So I went and got my glasses, turned the light to the dining room on, and tried the light. Nothing. I looked around to see what could be amiss, and it turns out the large and one small, heavy pictures on the wall, maps of the world, had fallen off somehow, fortunately straight down, so they didn't hurt the aquarium (29 gallons of water and fish on the floor would not have been good), but they did unplug the light and the pump. So I've plugged those in and I'm going to check and make sure the pump is putting water through in a minute. But it was weird.

There are a few things I need to do this weekend:

1. Get up early tomorrow and go over to YKWIA's house by 8 am and get him up for an appointment.
2. Take him to said appointment.
3. Go get some of his medicine from the pharmacy.
4. Pick him back up.
5. Take him home.
6. Go to the library and return a book. Read off the small amount of fines I have (they've got a fine read-off through tomorrow).
7. Go to work and get some hours in, doing the extra work I agreed to do, which will help keep me from being as short from the holiday for Christmas day from Monday.
8. Come home and work on:
   1. A book review.
   2. The game notes.
   3. The house.
   4. Watch the ball drop at midnight.
   5. Pick up A at 2 am from work on New Year's Eve downtown, hopefully without getting struck by a drunk driver.
   6. Get over to YKWIA's at 9 am Sunday to clean house for the game.
   7. Play the game.
   8. Pick A up at midnight from work. At least I don't need to work Monday due to the holiday, unlike normal, when I struggle to get up in time on Mondays.
9. For Monday--I have physical therapy with YKWIA in the middle of the day. Otherwise, I'm going to try to work on my own house and try to get caught up on my rest.

So, yeah, still busy, and starting the year off just as hectically. Oh, well. Anyway, I hope you all have a good New Year. 2016 has been pretty sucky--here's hoping that 2017 will be much better. Granted, I'm scheduled for a lay-off, but I might do better in the long run.

Feeling pretty well post-procedure

I had gotten rest on Thursday to the point that,  coupled with too much caffeine,  I didn't sleep much that night. So at 5:45 am I stopped trying and got ready,  went by the gas station and bank,  got breakfast at McDonald's,  and went on into work at about 6:45. I had just a little cramping and spotting this morning,  for which I took ibuprofen,  but then was feeling better in the afternoon,  so I didn't take anymore.  I haven't bled anymore,  either. I worked 9 1/2 hours,  then went home,  took an old flash drive and transferred the files from it,  deleted them from it,  and then put a friend's resume in two formats on it.  I then took it over to him along with some hard copies.  He's going to take it to the library and learn to upload them in job applications. Yes,  I could shown him,  but it makes him more independent to have a stranger do so. Also I got a call from the hospital checking on me,  which was good.

I went by the bank and deposited a cheque,  took him to the grocery,  returned a book to the library,  and we went back with a huge bag of dog food that he carried in.  My other friend chided me for carrying in a bag with light bulbs,  sandwich bags,  and hand soap because it might hurt my womb.  I assured him it was light and I was fine.  I couldn't handle the dog food,  of course,  but this was really light.  :)

Then I took A home and sat with him in the car,  practically making him call AT&T because he's had a Go flip phone for months, set his voicemail up when he first got it,  promptly forgot his PIN,  and hasn't been able to get his voicemails since. He's trying to get a job,  so this isn't good.  He talked with the guy,  we reset the PIN,  I got his voicemail set up again,  and he now knows the new PIN and how to get and delete them.

Then I came on home,  ate a sandwich,  and got a little nauseous and realised my main symptoms now are gas and bloating.  I think they may put gas up inside you during the procedure,  judging from a quick search on D&C with those symptoms. It's apparently common.  I went ahead and laid down,  hoping it would pass,  about 9:30 pm.  I didn't realise quite how tired I was. I woke up around 1 am because the water was running down in my CPAP (it smells odd when it does,  as it's basically a hot plate running out of water,  so it's got a slight burning smell then).  I unplugged the tree and the star lights,  hunted down a AAA battery for my thermometer/humidity gauge/alarm combo,  finally finding one in a pen light I wasn't using,  and took my insulin.  So I'm ready to go back to bed now,  but thought I'd post an update.  All told it was a good,  if busy,  day.  Tomorrow I plan to work on the game notes, get my rent taken care of,  go to the library to research for my interview Monday,  and then head over to YKWIA's and spend some time with him.

Have a good night,  and a nice weekend.

I had a rare sleep-in today

It's turned very cold, just in the 40s, and I did get up early this morning and turn the heat on, although I must say, my little apartment stays pretty warm, as it hasn't kicked on yet. It's hard to believe that yesterday was sandals and open windows.

YKWIA is supposed to e-mail me if he needs me for anything (he can't call, it's Sabbath), and so I slept-in, then listened to some music in the bedroom, and now I'm up making lunch (farfalle and Italian tomato sauce), and baking my last loaf of bread, this time oatmeal bread. That'll take a couple of hours at the most. I'm thinking about going to the library and doing some research from their system to make sure I understand all their databases, etc., in case I get called about one of the positions I applied for. I also need to go return a book, and maybe take a few others back.

Other things I'd like to do today:

1. Work on the game notes and get them out of the way.
2. Work on the closet.
3. Read.

That's it. That and the library. I'll also need to pick A up tonight at 1 am, and maybe after Sabbath (after sunset) I'll hear from YKWIA, so my plan is to do those during the day. At least the sun is breaking form the clouds, so maybe there will be more light in here to work by and I won't have to turn lights on all over the place.

I think

I need a quiet night alone. I'm not feeling the greatest. Not sick or anything, but I feel stressed. I was going to get my rent situated today, but realised only late this afternoon that the banks were closed for Veterans' Day, so I'll have to go tomorrow before I take a friend to an appointment. My stepfather just texted me to tell me my mom is in the hospital. :( I'm hurting a little, and where I didn't have a period last month, I'm making up for it now, so I just feel cranky, bloated, and generally and overall blah.

Breathe.

I have to get A tonight from work at 12, but otherwise I'm free for the evening. I'm going to try to do some reading (I'm reading Ursula K. LeGuin's Tehanu. I read the first three books of the Earthsea Cycle years ago, but I'm trying to finish it out.) I should work on the notes tonight, too, as I may be driving to Danville to see my mom after my friends' appointment. And there's the closet to tackle this weekend as part of my therapy.

But for right now, I'm going to lie down and take a short nap with some music on, and try to relax.