2026 Reading Challenge Update

I'm pretty happy with how things are going. My aim was to read 24 books this year. I've read 19; I'm seven ahead of schedule, and I'm working on another three or so. I've read each month, so Goodreads has given me an 'achievement' bookmark for each one. There are 174 days left. Here is what I've read so far, in reverse order:

1. Supervisor, Manager, Leader: The Basics of Being a Boss by Mike Kraus
2. Knock 'Em Dead 2016: The Ultimate Job Search Guide by Martin Yate
3. 101 Great Answers to the Toughest Interview Questions by Ron Fry
4. Can I Recycle That? A Guide to Better Recycling and How to Reduce Single-Use Plastics by Jennie Romer
5. The Inspired Houseplant: Transform Your Home with Indoor Plants from Kokedama to Terrariums and Water Gardens to Edibles by Jen Sterarns
6. House Plants for Every Space: A Concise Guide to Selecting, Designing and Maintaining Plants in Any Indoor Space by Green Interior
7. The Lifelong Gardener: Garden with Ease and Joy at Any Age by Toni Gattone
8. The Official We Do Not Care Club Handbook by Melani Sanders
9. Painting in Watercolour: Practical Techniques and Projects for Beginners by Wendy Jelbert
10. All These Ghosts by Silas House
11. I Need a Job!: Be Noticed. Land the Interview. Get Hired. by Gary Burnison
12. CV Handbook: A Curriculum Vitae Owners Manual by Will Coghill Behrends and Rebecca Antony
13. The Everything Guide to GLP-1s: Lose Weight, Build Healthy Eating Habits, and Achieve Lifelong Weight Management by Kayley George
14. What Color is Your Parachute Guide to Rethinking Interviews: Ace the Interview and Land Your Dream Job by Richard Nelseon Bolles
15. A Good Apology: Four Steps to Make Things Right by Molly Howes
16. On Repentance and Repair: Making Amends in an Unapologetic World by Danya Ruttenberg
17. Why Your Resume Isn't Working: And How You Can Fix It Now by Wendy D. Steele
18. Unmasking Adult Autism: Embrace Your Autistic Identity, Overcome Executive Dysfunction, and Empower Your Neurodivergent Self by Neuro Nurture
19. Camouflage: The Hidden Lives of Autistic Women by Sarah Bargiela

Five more to go. Let's see if I can go beyond that. Hopefully! I've got two works of fiction I'm working my way through (these are almost all non-fiction). One is The Book of Doors by Gareth Brown. The other is Mrs. Lilienblum's Cloud Factory by Iddo Gefen. I'll be happy to add those to the list, as I do non-fiction much more easily than fiction these days, alas. I don't know why.

Okay

The ROMTech rep came mostly without a hitch [although she did accidentally bring another bike], with the excption of the escape artist dog, who managed to get through a mostly closed door (which goes in, so in theory, barricaded them in), plus a dog gate, just as she was coming through the door to greet her, but fortunately she was nonplussed by him, as he is very friendly and I kept him from jumping up more than the one attempt. She reset the program, and we talked a bit, and then she left. The nice thing is that now I don't have to get on the bike again until Friday.

I'd already made coffee and fed the animals, made my bed,  made my to-do list, gotten dressed, etc. I was hurting a bit, so I took my morning meds, including the Tylenol. I've already attempted to wake my roommate once, but it looks like I'll have to do it again. We need to do some bills before I go tomorrow. I need to do some laundry today: my clothes, my bedclothes, and anything he might have. I have PT as well. I'll need to water the plants. I didn't manage to do that last time, and they languished another week and a half while I recovered to the point I could. I need to get the walker out to a more accessible place. I called about a debt, and I need to update that file and print it for my friend so he has all the necessary contact numbers and information in case anything happens to me. Again, just being practical. Then that'll be done.

I'm feeling pretty rested. I'm not experiencing many tics. I don't feel very anxious, as confirmed by my watch. I think I've got this.

Finally

Got the first session of the day down. Called the ROMTech rep. Apparently they are open from 8 AM-9 PM. Making a mental note about that. 🙂 They don't do the straps anymore because people were stepping out of the pedals without getting out of them and getting hurt. I can't say anything--it's something I might do. He suggested wearing something with a heavier tread, so I did and it was better. Not perfect, I had to stop a couple of times, but much better. The main thing is I finished, and I increased twice. I did have to resist the urge to pedal with my knees out rather than up. I've done that for years. It hurts and it's bad for them, and the whole point is to get height in angle anyway. So I'm trying to watch my form while making sure the machine doesn't slide forward. I need to brace it with something about a foot long.

Also, I am itching where my nerve catheter was and trying so hard to resist scratching. I'm hoping it'll settle down once I get a shower. Roommate's not up yet so that's for later. One productive thing I did manage to do earlier today was water all the plants. IT was going on three weeks and they hadn't been watered by surgery day, and I was worried some might die. One was very peaked--it's a peperomia that acts a canary in a coal mine. Anyway, I got everyone taken care of.

I think I will rest a little now and listen to some music, maybe make a list for the day. I do better with lists, but I'm a bit tired. That machine takes '12' minutes' but it's really something like 45, and then about another half-hour or 45 minutes of plotzing. Then it's time for the next one, it seems.

Look what I did on July 4th

This is why I didn't post on July 4th. I was quite busy.  It took me 12 hours to put the stands together, put the plants on them, water the plants, and sweep the room/clean up. I now have things ready to go out to storage, some shelves the plants had been on, four folding ones that had been face-to-face in the windows. I had to move things around later in the week, including a weird placement for the secondary nightstand, in order to get good sun to the plants. We haven't really had a nice sunny day till today to judge the light, but it definitely needed to be done. Oh, and since these were taken, I turned the boom box around to face the majority of the room.  Otherwise, the last pictures represent the current configuration.. Here it is in pictures:

As advertised:

Unassembled:

Put together:

Placed in windows:

Final placement:

It's especially important that I keep the kitten out of my room these days

Because my aloe is getting ready to bloom, and I'm so excited, as I've never seen one do that! It came out of the blue and was quite a bit up before I even noticed it. I went to check the orchids for spikes, and there it was! I'll update with pictures when (and if) it opens.

Tonight

I kept my friend company and helped out with onion chopping as he made the tomato sauce for tomorrow's lasagna and some apples and cabbage.  He wasn't feeling well and was in some pain, so he forgot to order the challah from the bakery, so I went to Kroger and found some brioche loaves that will work.  I also finally got around to getting various toiletries I needed, such as shampoo, toothpaste, and razors.

We talked about 'The Vicar of Dibley', along with ancient Carthage as a Phoenician colony, Latin, Hebrew, etc.  In other words, it was a fairly normal night.

I started out my day getting up early to go get gas, as the light was on, and it was payday. I'm still going to be behind on a couple of bills, but unfortunately, the next paycheque is probably going to go to car tyres.  The flat the other day is no doubt foreshadowing the doom that will happen if I don't. I'm very lucky the tyre went flat while sitting in a parking lot and not while I was driving.  I have to weigh being fiscally responsible and living to become more fiscally responsible another day.  I'm probably going to go to the same place I got the last ones six years ago as they offer a free alignment and I need that too, along with a cheaper synthetic oil change than Valvoline.  I'm hoping I can find a good deal on everything, but I'm figuring it to be about $600.  I'm just hoping the doughnut tyre and the others last till I can do it.  The doughnut is original to the car, which is 19 years old.  Granted, the car still only has 83,700 miles on it.  My grandmother and then mother didn't drive it much.  Six years ago when I bought it there were only 34,000 miles on it. :)  I'd like to keep it in good working order, as several people depend on it.

I'm finally becoming a bit sleepy.  I've been a bit tired (it was a very productive day at work) but I hadn't really been sleepy.  I took the trash to the kerb and did the litter boxes earlier, but YKWIA had already gone to bed when  I treated the animals to their nightly fare, cleaned up the dishes and counters, packed things for tomorrow's lunch and caffeine, straightened up a bit and played with the kitten till he sleepily went in to be with YKWIA.

Speaking of the kitten, the only succulents left in the house are the big aloe and a bit of red velvet Echevarria that is struggling to come back out after he gnawed on it.  But at least he's been leaving the orchids alone.

Okay, time for bed. It's after midnight, and I get up about 6:30 am.  Hope you have a good day tomorrow.

I feel awful

This is not how I wanted to ring in the new year--not at all. My chest cold has moved into my head, which is a little odd, as it usually goes the other way. I got up and took my medicine after a bad night of being up and down, so I'll probably just head back to bed after I drink something. On top of everything else, I was in bed last night when the kitten, who usually goes for succulents, decided to nibble on my bamboo. So he got summarily removed from the room and the door is closed right now. He loves the succulents, the juicy, thicker, probably sweeter leaves. He pulled a Hawthornia up like a bonbon out of its little pot, and I found it yesterday by accident and put it back down in the soil to see if it will root again, even though it's been a little nibbled on the outer leaves. I don't hold much hope for it, but still. The only plant in the house that is questionable as far as being toxic to cats is his favourite, the aloe, which doesn't appear to hurt him but can cause mild vomiting in cats. All the others are safe, and the toxic plants went to our pharmacy. He's denuded most of my red velvet Echevarria. I'm hoping it comes back. But it is frustrating. He was no doubt weaned a little early because he's a very orally fixated cat, and he loves to put fingers and just about everything else in his mouth. But for the most part, fortunately, he's leaving other plants alone, including the orchids. I have two of those blooming right now and then three others have put up flower spikes, so soon I'll have almost half (I have twelve, between what was at work and what was at home), one Oncidium and eleven Phalaenopsis species. The Hawthornia plants are each in two tiny pots in the same pot with a Phalaenopsis, and I'd been having trouble watering it in a corner, so I moved it out and that's when the kitten pounced upon. But he didn't hurt the orchid.

Here's what's blooming at the moment:



By the way, here are some links you might find interesting related to this post. The first is an article on types of orchids used as houseplants:

20 Types of Orchids to Use as Houseplants

The others I keep as a bookmark on my Chrome browser (both on the computer and the phone, in case I'm plant shopping and need to know if a plant is safe. It is the ASPCA's guide to Toxic and Non-Toxic Plants List -- Cats. There is another one for Toxic and Non-Toxic Plants List -- Dogs I also have. But they also have one for horses. It's very good, explaining the effect of each and including those that are good and bad for pets. For example, I loved my shamrocks, which are not true shamrocks and are actually Oxalis, and I had them in the library for years, and then at home at the apartment. But they can cause kidney damage in cats. So they can't be here, as there are two cats, an older one that doesn't really bother plants and the kitten, who is about 9 months old and is into everything. So off to the pharmacy they went. They're looking a little sad there, but they've had a good run. I need to tell them the window's too bright for them.

Alright, I'm going back to bed for a while. Here's hoping that medicine kicks in.

Sigh...

So the kitten has a thing for succulents--just succulents as far as plants go. He has ravaged the red velvet Echevarria, pulled up and nibbled on various aloes, and yesterday while watering the plants I made the mistake of moving an orchid that has two tiny Hawthornia plants in their own tiny pots from a corner so I could water the little ones easier and lo, and behold, the kitten plucked one out just like a bonbon and I have no idea what happened to it. It's just succulents--he leaves the orchids, violets, and bamboo alone, thankfully. The zygocactus he gets occasionally. He likes the leaves thick and chewy, full of sap, apparently. This is why I took so many plants to my office in the first place, and then I found another place for them when I was told to remove the plants at work by my former boss. Speaking of which, we went the other day and the shamrocks were dying. I need to tell them to either water more or get them out of the really big southern window before they're crispy. Everything else looked fine.

Meanwhile, I was cleaning up the soil in the bedroom when I heard a crash and crockery breaking and turns out my roommate accidentally knocked off an African violet from the toilet back, saving the violet itself, which is in a plastic pot, but the saucer underneath broke in two and soil got all over the place. Sigh. At least the saucer didn't break the tile, too. It hasn't been a good day for plants.

I'm pooped, and it isn't even game time

Today I've:

1. Laundered my bedding and clothes
2. Changed out the spring and winter clothes, put spring clothes away, packed up the winter ones, and prepared to take them to storage
3. Swept and mopped the floors
4. Cleaned the bathroom
5. Taken out the trash and recyclables
6. Cleaned the cat boxes
7. Started a loaf of bread

Yesterday I cleaned a very dirty shelf with magazines and did YKWIA's laundry, and that was enough to make my back hurt quite a bit, so I laid down for awhile while he helped a friend out at his house who is battling cancer.  They called me to go get Subway and we all ate and visited, then we got home about 8:30 pm.  I think we were both done in by midnight (he's been over several days in a row and took the bus out Friday, getting lost on the walk over there, and probably walked four miles back and forth until he found it), and we .were up by 7:30 am.  I have no real reason to be as tired as I've felt lately.  I've done some housework and of course, I worked at the medical centre, but still, I'm just tired all the time.  I've been up doing my stuff and listening to shows he's watching (he finished the 'Almost Human' DVDs and we watched a couple of episodes of 'Up the Women'.  I unplugged my tablet, which has been on the charger for two days and really needed to be unplugged and just turned off.  He's got a lot of documents to transfer to it and we're going to see if there's enough room once I cleaned my stuff off of the microSD card.  There's not much on it, now, just some basic applications and one from Adobe for reading PDFs and one for reading Word files.  That should suffice for him.  I haven't used my old tablet for some time.  I'm not sure it'll have the processing speed he'll need, but it's worth a try since neither of us can afford a newer tablet or laptop right now.

Today I'm looking forward to the game.  I'm kind of grungy and should go ahead and take a shower, but I'm just not up to it.  I'd like to lie down for awhile, but the bed hasn't been made yet.   I just feel a mess today. 

My strawberry plant that Brenda gave me is back outside after being brought in for a frost advisory last night, and it has two ripe strawberries and one that is turning on it.  I have lost three smallish African violets recently, including the two pink ones in the bathroom and a purple one in the bedroom.  I'm not sure what happened; they got puny and I tried to save them, but it was a no go.  On the other hand, one of the orchids has grown a new leaf and I have two that are getting ready to re-bloom.  Maybe orchids are more my thing, although I've had no problem with violets before.  The window seat in YKWIA's room is lush with shamrocks, an umbrella tree I just repotted, dumb cane, and philodendrons.  They love that window:

So overall, the plants are doing well.  Also, the orchid at work is putting out new shoots and buds.  I separated the stems out to give them more room:

It's the same colour as part of my mousepad, my pen holder, and my water cup, so it's coordinated to the checkout bay. :)  What can I say, I like it when things match.

Okay, I'm going to go check on the last of the laundry.  I realised I started the bread while still running the dryer (the bread machine is on the washer, as that's a good place for it usually when I'm not washing, as it has a tendency to 'walk' as it mixes, which is apparently supposed to happen, according to the manual.  But the vibration isn't good for rising bread.  I don't want to mess up this loaf.  I'm experimenting with all-purpose rather than bread flour, as I'm low on the other.  But the other day I forgot to put the yeast in until 30 minutes into the cycle.  While it was edible and looked fine, it was chewier than usual.  I can't believe I did that.  I was washing dishes and remembered suddenly, doing what I could to fix things.  It wasn't bad, but not ideal.  Hopefully, this one will come out fine; I definitely put all the ingredients in. :)

Today's tasks

• Take YKWIA shirt shopping.
• Pay a bill.
• Take out the trash from all the receptacles throughout the house (that's five).
• Take out the recyclables.
• Do the cat litter.
• Clean the bathroom.
• Clean out the car.
• Collect bottle caps from various jugs and bottles for a co-worker who collects them for her kids' school.
• Do laundry.
• Load and run the dishwasher.
• Water the plants.
• Sew a button back onto one of my shirts.  It came off at work one day, one from my belly (it was loose, the shirt's actually too big now), and the only thing that saved me was the safety pin I was wearing on my hooded sweatshirt that day (rather than wearing my jacket), the pin that was there because I'm a bleeding-heart liberal who wanted to send the message that I don't mind who you are or where you're from, you have worth as a person and shouldn't be demonised by racist twats.  On the other hand, it also meant I had a safety pin handy for button-popping incidents, and since I didn't have my sewing kit handy (I am going to move it to my backpack for future incidents), it was a good back up.
• Take some materials back to the library.

Now I'm pretty tired.  I still need to go out to the library, as one of the books is one from YKWIA which hid in his backpack and is overdue, but I want to wait until the laundry is finished in the washer as it sometimes overloads during the spin cycle.  I've put the things to go back to the library in a plastic Kroger bag that has some air in it to cushion it; one is a CD and I don't want the case to break.  I tried to return it the other day and realised that the CD itself was at home in my player, and I'm glad I looked.  The other book I have out is an heirloom gardening book whose spine has broken and the pages, as I turned them, began to come apart.  So I put them all in a bag together with a note about the gardening book needing repair.

It's almost time to feed the animals, too.  The cat is acting out, trying to claw things and harassing the dog.  YKWIA is sacked out (I think our foray out tired him; he doesn't care for shopping, and we went to both Meijer and Target).  Also, I was really frustrated earlier with the trash, as one of the bins is broken and you can't get the liner of the can out, you have to pull everything out by hand (it's mostly paper, but still, it's frustrating), and the bathroom trash bin is intact, but the handle always gets in the way when I empty it despite my best attempts, and the stuff goes everywhere.)  Anyway, my frustration levels were up and I was growling, practically, and he may have decided to get away and have some quiet time for a while.

So now I'm online and trying to chill a little, let all the tension drain away.  I think I'll listen to some music.  That'll help.  Then I'll feed the animals, deal with the laundry, water the plants (some of which are in his room, and it's dark, so I'll wait till he's awake again), sew on the button, and take the stuff to the library and put it in the book drop.  We found the book just as the library closed, but if I can get it in before tomorrow morning when they open, that's one less day of fines.

Speaking of libraries, there is a job opening I'm considering applying for.  It's at the university, is technically a technician job, so I don't know if they'd consider me, as I am over-qualified, but it pays more than I'm currently making and more than I can in the public library field in the surrounding area, as a full librarian.  It can't hurt to apply, anyway, right?

Okay, must go deal with laundry--both of the buzzers have gone off.  I'll write later, hopefully.

Chanukah has been rather nice so far...

On the first night of Chanukah, my friend lit the candles and I made three types of latkes. It took me an hour and a half from start to finish, long after the last candle burnt out. :)

In process

The final result: cheese, zucchini, and potato latkes with sour cream, applesauce, and homemade tzatziki as condiments.

Now we're on night six. He gave me a nice periwinkle fleece hooded scarf; I gave him a nice set of 100% linen napkins.  It was a small celebration, but it was nice.  My holiday is the 21st, Yule.  It's on a Thursday.  I'm not sure if I'll do anything for it.  My one thing I did was buy a live rosemary bush in the shape of a fir tree, but it's not going to make it, I  don't think.  I'd taken it to work, as there's more light there, but alas, it's drying up despite a not-too-much amount of water and as much light as I could give it.  I've only ever been able to keep them alive outside.  I'm a little sad about it.  I cut back some of the dead growth and watered it before I left for the weekend.  We'll see if it's alive come Monday.

Today we played the game.  Our characters are in Norman England, and not only do we need to prevent the King in Yellow's coming, but there are two ancestors of the non-player character who brought us here to keep alive, and oh, by the way, that means they're ancestors to several other characters, including player ones.  So we have incentives to both save the world, the future, and the lineage. Ah, fun.  We won't be playing the next two weeks due to Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve (YKWIA and I aren't Christian,  but Brenda is and no doubt wants to be with her family for Christmas, and we certainly don't want her out on New Year's Eve with the drunks).

My only New Year's resolution this year is to try to write more regularly.  It amazes me how my blogging has fallen off. It's not from disinterest.  It's just sometimes I'm so tired.  On latke night, for example, we'd had a busy day, I'd worked all day, and after preparing and cooking the latkes, I was so tired I almost didn't have the strength to eat them.  On Wednesday, we had 200 people on the schedule.  Thankfully there are two of us at checkout now, and that's helping me immensely, and allowing us to do better at answering the live calls and voicemails. I left Friday having actually caught up with my e-mails with care managers and having scheduled everything I should have.  It felt good to finally get those things done that needed to be.

The Sunday before last I applied for a job, and I was called on Tuesday. I'd mentioned that I couldn't have my phone with me during work when I'd sent the application.  It was for an outreach position in a neighbouring county, delivering media and services to seniors and other homebound patrons.  I e-mailed her that afternoon, trying to set up a time for the interview.  I never heard back.  Thursday I sent an enquiry asking for feedback, again, by e-mail.  Nothing on that one, either.  I had gotten back in a timely manner, albeit not by phone.  All the application had been through e-mail, with  'no phone calls please'.   I know I probably should have called, but I only get a short lunch break that basically allows me to eat and not much else, am lucky to get a pee break twice a day, and I didn't want to speak to a prospective employer while in our break room, so I'd e-mailed back instead, but the lady never replied.

I'm disappointed, of course.  They were so quick to ask me for an interview, and then just nothing.  But it didn't require a master's degree, so I'm not sure it would have paid enough to be worth the drive, and I'm going to go with this just wasn't the one for me.  But yes, I'm still disappointed.

It's been a relaxing weekend so far

Yesterday YKWIA and I did our own things, for the most part. He watched 'The Flash' and 'Arrow' on Netflix, and then listened to BBC radio plays with Peter Cushing and Vincent Price. He also took care of the empty boxed we'd saved from the move he needed for something and did some other things about the house. I got some medicine at the pharmacy, did a grocery run, did most of the laundry and some dishes, re-potted two African violets, gardened some outside, and then relaxed, listened to music, and did some reading. I am re-reading Lord Foul's Bane by Stephen R. Donaldson on the Kindle. I haven't read the third (and last) trilogy, so I thought I'd re-read the first two trilogies and then go forward with those. I'd already finished the game notes Friday night, so I had plenty of time on Saturday to do whatever I liked.

Today I got up early, took a shower (something I never got around to yesterday, which is rare), washed my bedding and then made the bed. I also took my medicine, ate, etc. I was cleaning the cat box when YKWIA got up (he'd gone to bed later than I did). He fed the animals and let the dogs out (we agreed that if I do it in the morning, it'll set a precedent where they'll bark, etc., and since I get up around 5:30 or 6 am on weekdays, that's too early for that. So far it's worked well. I find they'll come out, hopeful, but if I just ignore or maybe just pet them, they'll go back to bed. Well, the cat will stay and get loved on and follow me about, but he's mostly quieter and doesn't keep begging for food much.

We did get some very bad news last night. An acquaintance I hadn't seen in about 20 years tracked me down via Messenger and let me know that a mutual friend (the owner of the comic shop I'd worked for) now has stage IV colon and liver cancer. We'd fallen out of touch over the years. I told YKWIA (he'd known him better and for far longer) and got the address of someone who can let me know if we can help him in any way or see him, as this person is not on Facebook.

Brenda called today to cancel the game due to either a stomach bug or bad barbeque from yesterday. So we're not playing, and I have pretty much the rest of my day to do anything I want. She knows the person with cancer as well, so YKWIA told her what was going on and she was going to tell her husband, who also knows him. A little later, YKWIA called me into the other room. His Internet and phone were both out. I put the modem through a cycle, and it worked for a moment, then lost the connexion again. I called Spectrum and apparently, there is an outage in our area. Fortunately I can get on through the hotspot on my phone, but it's not good for videos, etc., due to a monthly cap of 5 GB.

There are only a couple of things I have to do today. One is to go get pen needles from the Kroger pharmacy, as I forgot to ask at mine yesterday, where I have the prescription. I also told YKWIA I would wash his popcorn bowl (and by that, I mean the top of a plastic cake safe, so it's pretty big). I'll do the few dishes that are left after I put away the ones I did yesterday.

I have to admit, I feel more relaxed here. I always used to feel rushed on the weekends, and when I was home, with all the stuff I hoarded, my apartment seemed oppressive. My room is cosy. My friend and I are getting along well, giving each other space, and have had no major problems as of yet. It's actually been pretty companionable. I really do feel like I'm home now.

Okay, I should go and do something. I think I'll do a little reading. I'm going to go to Kroger after the church rush. Hope you are having a pleasant weekend.

Okay

Sixteen boxes packed and one peace lily that constantly needs water replanted in the lavender pot (it had died, and the pot is a nice cobalt blue and larger than what the peace lily was in, plus it has an attached saucer built in. The peace lily is going on the floor in the room I'm going to be sleeping in--which is technically in the living room, not a bedroom--in front of a shady window.)

I did spill some soil on the carpet, and my vacuum is over at YKWIA's, so I will need to retrieve it tomorrow. Anyway, I think it's time to work on notes, now. Time to turn off Pandora and listen to the game instead. I also need to water the other houseplants. Two orchids are still blooming (in fact, the yellow one sent another shoot off of last year's stem and has five blooms and a bud on it, and the pink one that started blooming in March is still going strong). I've been going through things and rearranging them so I can get around things. I've also been throwing or recycling things as I go. There are two-and-a-half big bags of recyclables, one and a half of trash, almost two, and a small grocery bag full of drink lids, which one of my co-workers collect for some form of charity purposes. I'll take the bags out later--that's not got a time limit for today, whereas the notes do. So it's next on the list. I also have a (small) collection of books to take (remember, it's a book case bed), a few I want to read, a few to study (mainly Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, all of which I'm getting rusty with), and then there are a couple I just need to take--my workbooks on hoarding and anxiety/phobia disorders. I've also gotten my important papers and identification papers together, like my birth certificate, passport and passport card, business licence, and librarian certification, that sort of thing. They're definitely going with me, and not into storage.

Okay, on to notes!

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've already been pretty productive this morning

I:

1. Woke up easily and rested.
2. Took all my medicine, including my injectables, and not only checked my blood sugar, but transferred the readings over to my phone. I haven't been doing so well with this between the different schedule and being sick, so I'm starting anew and really trying to get a handle on my glucose readings.
3. Got a shower and got dressed.
4. Sent the computer package back to the technology company.
5. Enquired about getting a mailbox at the UPS store so that I can get packages, since it never seems to work out if I'm not home and it comes to the apartment, which is why I always had them delivered to work. It's $20 a month, $240 a year, but if you pay for a year right now, through a promotion he's running through June, you get three months' free, so it's cheaper. I'll think about it. I may be able to get things delivered to YKWIA's without the hassle I have at my home, because they leave things there for him. It may be my settings--I do have things tracked--or it might just be because I live in an apartment building. But I can receive things at UPS from any shipper, so that's good. Still, that's awfully expensive, and I doubt I'd have enough shipped to really warrant the expense. I may have a couple of small things sent to YKWIA's to see if it'll work before the special ends, and go from there.
6. Got some quarters from Kroger.
7. Picked up some caffeinated orange soda, which isn't the best for me, I know, but at least it doesn't have the dark colas' phosphoric acid in it.
8. While there, I found a couple of orchids, still blooming, in colours I like, that were 75% off each. I am beginning to thing this orchid bug is an illness. I now have six orchids--two I re-bloomed, two I just re-potted, and the two I just got. All are different colours, and all all phalaenopsis, except possibly the smallest one. If I can get that one to re-bloom, and ever get to the orchid society, I'll ask them. Here's a picture of the two new ones:
   
   
   
   
9. After I got home and opened the windows (it's quite pleasant with a breeze, although it's supposed to be in the 80s today), I noticed the peace lily, which the hospital I worked at sent me when my mother died, is finally about to bloom. It's a huge plant, and fortunately doesn't require a huge amount of light, so it's away from the window. I was afraid it wouldn't bloom for that reason, but it's about to, just in time for mother's day. :) I'll take it as a good omen:
   
   
   
   
   
   

Okay, it's not quite time for lunch yet, and my cherry chocolate Greek yoghurt is still keeping hunger at bay from this morning, so I think I'll start working on the house. I need to check and see just how much stuff needs to come out of that walk-in closet, as they need to fix the air conditioning, and then there's the rest of the apartment to straighten up before tomorrow's walk-through. And I really need to do something about the plants, as they are in the way of the windows pretty badly. I mean, if there was a fire, I'd be able to get out, because I wouldn't worry about injuring the leaves or flowers then, but they'll need to open them tomorrow. I wish I had a couple of hanging basket holders, and I could suspend a couple of them from the ceiling. Maybe I'll do that. The larger shamrock would work, as would the older Christmas cactus, and they wouldn't actually block the windows that way, like a shelf would. They're just a bit too crowded right now. I mean, I have 25 plants between the two rooms. I think I'm at my limit.

Today is potting/re-potting day!

First time re-potting orchids. The tiny cup was what the smaller one was in. Hopefully they'll like it. I hope they do okay--the orchid medium I got was good for several different orchids, including phalaenopsis, but not specific to that type, because the smaller one looks different when blooming and I think it's a different type. Both were in peat moss, whereas this is soaked bark, activated charcoal, and pellets for drainage. So I'm hoping they'll do okay, but they should get more air to the roots, which is good. In fact, the larger pot has holes on the sides for that purpose, and the smaller orchid went into the former pot of the larger one, and there's a shorter cup inside that lifts the roots from the bottom of the actual pot. I obviously didn't re-pot the other two because they are actually blooming. I have more medium for that when it happens.

The lavender was sagging every other day from being potbound. The Christmas cactus had very dense dirt. It had been in a bigger pot that was 40 years old and split at work, so I had to put it in an emergency pot from Recreation Therapy that was smaller. Both should do better now. Thanks to Brenda for the advice on the lavender.

Three of the African violets got re-potted [the one on the upper right, and the ones on the lower left and the center left.]

The window boxes are back! This time there are sweet potato plants, light purple petunias, and dark purple calibrachoas.

Same thing at the bedroom window.

So now everything is cleaned up, and I gave all the plants, not just the ones I potted, a good drink with the aquarium water I'd saved, so there's some fertilizer courtesy of my goldfish. I am so sore, though, even though I did it all sitting on a metal chair while potting on another. Plants are back. I've called pulmonary rehab to let them know I'm not coming today. I have another appointment at 4 pm, so I have awhile to do dishes and pull out a few light things from the hall closet. And of course I need to shower and get ready. Brenda suggested going to Petsmart for fish. I must confess, I totally forgot about them. I usually avoid them because they have cats and dogs up for adoption and I'm afraid I'll see one and try to get it (I do not need to do that right now), but the fish are on the opposite side of the store. :) There's a Petsmart in Hamburg that is closer to me than going all the way over to Southland. There's also Animal House nearby, an independent pet shop, and they're excellent and knowledgeable, but I'm not sure they sell feeder goldfish, and I tested the tank and while the nitrates are down, I'm not sure I want to put anything else in there right now.

Okay, time to check my list and see what else to do right now. I may stretch out for just a bit, listen to some music, and then work on the dishes, closet, and do the job application and do some job board searching. going to PetsMart after my appointment with my counselor. I'm really aching.

Owww

So yesterday in my various activities I wrenched my right knee (climbing out of the car) and left shoulder (lifting the bed and placing the cinder block underneath). My back isn't happy with me, either. I am quite sore this morning. While some of that will work out, I don't think it will be prudent to exercise on the majority of the machines at pulmonary rehab, which, with the exception of the treadmill and leg press, all involve arm work, and with my knee, even the treadmill and leg press don't seem a good idea. So I'm going to call and cancel for the day, my first after eight sessions. Still, I'm pretty darn consistent, as the other attendees have had illnesses or home emergencies that have kept them away. And I'll go ahead and do my breathing exercises today, anyway.

It's cool and cloudy, and it's been raining. I am eating some cheese and a banana, and I've opened the windows. My main endeavour for this morning, since I'm moving so slow, is to get the potting done. I have to:

1. Empty out two window boxes of spent geraniums and dirt (they lasted three years, though!) and wash them out.
2. Fish the other one out of the walk-in closet and its tray from under the African violets.
3. Prepare the orchid medium (it has to be soaked in hot water and cooled).
4. Take out a folding metal chair.
5. Take out the dirt, tools, gloves, and plants to be potted.
6. Take out the plants to be repotted: the lavender, a Christmas cactus, two orchids, and two African violets.
7. Take out the pots and window boxes.
8. Pot up the window boxes.
9. Repot the lavender, Christmas cactus, and African violets with potting soil.
10. Repot the orchids with orchid medium that has cooled.
11. Place the window boxes on their sills. I do wish that I had a way to restrain or attach them some way so that high winds wouldn't blow them down, but I live in an apartment and rent, so I don't know any tricks for that. I did consider twine going around the lip on the front and being placed in the screens. I'm not sure about that. I don't actually have any twine, but I may get some and try it and see.

That should take awhile, I think.

I spent the evening with a friend

Looking at things on the computer and eating a lovely fennel casserole with zucchini, yellow squash, onions, tomatoes, basil, and (of course) fennel, with cheese over top. It was so good we both had seconds.

As a result, I didn't quite get everything on my list finished, although I did go to Lowe's and got everything I wanted. I'm going to repot several houseplants, and fix the window boxes up with sweet potato vine, light purple petunias, and dark purple calibrachoa. I think that'll look nice.

So the plan is to get up early tomorrow and:

1. Re-pot and pot the plants.
2. Set the window boxes out on their ledges.
3. Pull out the things from the walk-in closet.
4. Call in the air conditioning and toilet issues.
5. Go to pulmonary rehabilitation. [Cancelled due to soreness/pain]
6. Go to counseling.
7. Unload the dishwasher.
8. Load the dishwasher and run it.
9. Do the mountain of non-dishwasher-safe dishes.
10. Apply for a job.
11. Get the goldfish.
12. Take a friend to and from a meeting.

In addition to everything else I said I'd do today, I went to the library, paid my fines, and picked up a couple of interlibrary loans for a friend. Now I'm tired and I think I'll head on to bed. Good night!

Despite a two-and-a-half-hour phone call last night

and a bedtime of around 2:30 am, I'm awake.

1. Woken up on my own before 7:30 am--check.
2. Injected my insulins and Byetta--check.
3. Waiting 15 minutes to eat--check.
4. Gotten something to drink--check.
5. Taken my oral meds--check.
6. Turned on Pandora, the Bastille station--check.
7. Gotten a banana and cheese from the kitchen--check. [I tend to eat less when I'm secure in having food. I know, makes no sense.]

I wrote about what I wanted to do today last night. I definitely want to start with the car tags and allergy shots, then make my way back here, open the windows, and start everything else.

Things I want to get today as well:

1. A wrist rest for the keyboard (I can't find my old one, and it wasn't in the best of shape, anyway).
2. Two concrete blocks. These are for going under the bed. My crossrail on my 30-year-old bed has sheared away from the side rail. Short of welding it, and at nearly 300 lbs, I'm not sure a weld would hold my weight for long, I can't think of any way to fix it, and apparently they're not standard--you can't just go out and get new bedrails, as far as I know. I don't want to buy a whole new bed and frankly can't afford it, so right now it's got one of those underbed plastic containers supporting it, which is weak, and it's sagging quite a bit, and of course, that's the side I sleep on. The concrete would do better--one for the middle of the bed, one for the side I'm on. Make jokes if you want about my weight, but really it's a bed from Sears I got in 1987, and it's made of wood and pressboard, so really, it's sort of the Sauder of bedroom furniture, not hardwood and high quality. But it generally works.
3. Pots and potting soil and orchid medium. Virtually all the plants need to be repotted, although I'll wait on the blooming orchids until after they're finished. Brenda, who is a master gardener, told me the reason my lavender has to be watered every other day is that it needs repotting, too.

So I guess that means a trip to Staples and Lowe's, too. I also want to do my pulmonary exercises today (I haven't been the best about doing that every day at home) and work out at the complex fitness room, since I feel more confident of working out without supervision, including the weights. I think our machine is virtually identical to theirs. I wish we had a Nu-Step, which is basically a reclining elliptical, as I can't do the standing ones--they're too hard on my knees. But we've got treadmills, a reclining bike, and the weights. And then this evening I might take a walk around the neighbourhood. My phone has been nagging me because since I haven't felt the best lately, I haven't gotten nearly the activity amount or steps in that I normally do. I usually get at least 45 minutes of activity a day five days a week and get over 5,000 steps. Not so, lately. It was nice to be working out on the treadmill yesterday and my phone detected a workout and gave me credit for it. I had 68 minutes of activity thanks to the workout and the grocery, and my steps were over 6,000 and came out to be walking about 3 miles. It's a start.

Okay, I feel vaguely more awake, ate my banana and cheese, had a little caffeine in the form of a soda (although I got some non-caffeinated stevia soda at the store and some coffee and half and half, with the idea of trying to learn to like coffee, since it's better for you). Time for a shower and then getting going on all this. Have a great day!

PS To reward myself for a day of accomplishments last night, I actually sat down and watched something on Netflix--the first episode of 'A Series of Unfortunate Events', which was delightful, and much better than that terrible movie with Jim Carrey. It's produced and stars Neil Patrick Harris as Count Olaf, the antagonist, and the guy who does the voice of Brock Samson from 'The Venture Brothers' and the lead character in 'The Tick' is the narrator. The books were great, but I only got through about three of the thirteen or so. The teleplay is by Daniel Handler, which is the real name of the author, Lemony Snicket, and he's also an executive producer. It really was excellent. There are eight episodes, so I have seven more to go. The other thing I'd really like to see, because I love the book and it looks very well done, is 'The Handmaid's Tale'. Of course, that's on Hulu, which I don't have. YKWIA has Hulu, and he did say I could watch it over at his house, but he has no desire to watch it, and he spends a lot of time on the computer, so it might be difficult to schedule. Maybe I'll try a free trial, and then just cancel when it's finished. I don't know. I have to watch my spending. And maybe eventually it will be on DVD. The thing about Hulu is that things expire much more quickly than Netflix. I don't watch a lot, even on Netflix, but I hope to use it more.

I didn't go to bed last night, really, or at least didn't sleep

It wasn't from lack of trying. I guess I'd had too much caffeine after not having any for awhile. I went to sleep about 8:30 this morning after taking A to work at his new job (he's working three over the next week, as they overlap). I got up a little before noon. But my night was not absolutely wasted. I got up about 3:30 am and finished and submitted a job application for a Digital Humanities Librarian at the University of Kentucky. I also did a cover letter for a job that closes April 25th, also at the University, and a medical library faculty position, but decided to wait to submit until I could absolutely proofread it while truly awake, as it fits my qualifications perfectly, and oddly enough, when I was looking to see to whom to address the cover letter, it was the only librarian at that part of the system I had not met. I'll go ahead and apply Sunday or Monday, when I've gotten some more rest. But it looked fine last night. Here's hoping that remains the same.

I'm connecting on Facebook with several former coworkers, both those still at the facility and those laid off. At least two of those laid off have new jobs, which is incredibly good, and I'm happy for them. I think it's going to take a lot of effort to get the type of job I want. My priority, of course, is to find a full-time medical librarian position. Barring that, I'd like to find a full-time librarian job. If those dry up, I'll expand my to things like retail and medical billing or scheduling, things I have experience in but I do not enjoy quite as much. But we're only two weeks in, entering the third, and so hopefully I'll find a library gig, as it is my first love, I care about patrons, and well, I'm pretty darn good at it.

It's a beautiful day, a little more windy than yesterday, and I have the windows open and Ed Sheeran's 'I See Fire' playing on the speaker in the living room. I am consuming more caffeine, which I suppose means I may make the sleeping thing worse, but I can't afford to spend an entire day, a lovely one at that, doing nothing but sleeping.

I am thankful that the orchids are actually pretty darn resilient, as I knocked over two (one was blooming, and fell right on the blooms, but they were okay) when I opened the windows. I guess I have too many plants, and they're pretty tall, most of them. Plus, I got a new one yesterday. I really had no business getting it, but I love lavender and it has certain spiritual connexions for me. And not only does it look beautiful, it smells divine, even when the breeze comes from the open window. Now to see if I can grow it okay indoors as a houseplant.