Happy Bealtaine, by the way!

Had a bit of a Monday on a Friday today

Where things were annoying that were really trivial, and I kept feeling like I was outside myself listening to what I was saying and wondered why the hell I was saying anything I did, but without actually shutting up. All became clear after I'd finished work, taken a friend to an appointment, got gas (I was on my gas light), and then when he bought me dinner at Captain D's and I went to take my afternoon meds, I realised that while I'd taken my Byetta and insulin this morning at breakfast, I somehow overlooked my oral meds (which explains how I worked from 8:45 am to 2 pm without taking one pee break, as I'm usually on a diuretic and a diabetic medicine that conspire against my bladder. Anyway, I took the meds this afternoon, and I feel much better, both physically and mentally. YKWIA and I spent some time visiting, and then I came on home just before dark. I've got Loreena McKennitt playing on Pandora and I think I'll do some reading, most likely from the self-help books on hoarding I have on my Kindle and out from the library, but I'm tempted to go straight to the books I found by Randall Garrett that YKWIA had been talking about earlier. They are the Lord Darcy series, an alternative-history fantasy series. Turns out I have the first three (I think he gave them to me, actually, but I've never read them). Tomorrow is a very busy day, but I may read some from the first book, taking it with me--it's very small, actually, and will fit nicely in my bag.

For tomorrow (not necessarily in order):

• Go to a friend's house at 9 am.
• Take the friend to the vet for a special type of cat food.
• Take said friend to the pharmacy to correct a mistake.
• Take friend to an appointment.
• Go to Eastside branch of the public library for an interlibrary loan for a friend.
• Go to the Central library for two holds for a friend.
• Come home and work on the house.
• Go pick up friends.
• Take them to their respective homes.
• Give friend books from the library.
• Return home.
• Read.
• Work on the house.
• Work on the notes (we're not playing on Sunday due to Brenda being at a Society for Creative Anachronism event, but hey, it would be good to have them done for next week.

Okay, time to listen to relaxing Celtic music and do some enjoyable reading. Good night.

I'm awake and having trouble sleeping

I've spent the last four hours tossing, turning, dreaming right at the edge of sleep, that sort of thing. I finally got up, took my medicine (I'd fallen asleep without it), and ate a little something, since I had tomatoes for dinner. I increased a medication today, and that can have insomnia and odd dreams as a side-effect. Maybe I need to dial it down a bit--I increased only 15 mg today, over three doses, but it may have been enough to disturb my sleep. I'm also hurting, so I took some arthritis acetaminophen to help with that. I have some Loreena McKennitt playing on Pandora through the TV. I'm going to try to go back to bed in a few minutes. I want to get up early and do some things, but at the rate I'm going, I'm not sure that's going to work.

I went by the library today and checked out some books on a subject that could help me in my struggle with a particularly difficult aspect of my life. I also found a couple of Kindle books at Amazon that looked useful, one of which was recommended on a website. I may read a little before going back to bed.

Okay, we're going to try this again. Good night.

This time last year

I was finishing up an excellent evidence-based course for the family members and loved ones of those with mental illness (called Family-to-Family) presented by our local chapter of NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness). I subsequently underwent training to teach it, and spent most of the summer doing that.

Yesterday brought all that learning to the test, and not in a theoretical, academic way, but rather through real-world crisis. As I suspected, our lesson on communication was absolutely the most important one for dealing with someone endangered by their illness. The knowledge I had learned about illness, medication, and the mental health system also helped a great deal. In the aftermath, self-care became important as well, as yesterday was all about the other person’s needs, and I didn’t take any medicine, get much rest, barely ate, and only managed to get a shower late in the day. Today was about trying to get back on track and rest.

In retrospect, the main things I might have done differently was 1) contact the specific healthcare provider in this situation and alerted them to the episode. Instead I tried to handle it on my own, which, while making sure things didn’t escalate, perhaps the person would have been safer, and 2) stayed with the person for the duration of the episode. I did actually leave the person sleeping for a couple of hours to facilitate an agreed-upon option we had discussed. The person was asleep, and was the entire time I was gone, but in hindsight, I shouldn’t have left anyone in that situation alone, even for a bit.

But hindsight is 20/20, of course. I’ll learn from this. Crises of this type are thankfully, few and far between, and I think I have a better sense of the triggers and situations that contributed to it and can therefore be on the lookout for future problems.

I am very thankful for my boss, who came and asked me about how I was doing today. I’d e-mailed both bosses that I was having a family crisis and would most likely be back today. I explained what had happened. She was very supportive and reiterated the need to take care of myself.

Today has been a bit of a blur. I went into work early. My blood sugar was high from not taking my insulin yesterday (and I’ve been trying to stabilise it over the last few days anyway, as I’ve had some issues). I went out of the house today without the long-acting insulin, so that didn’t help. I’m not used to it being so high, and felt very torpid and had trouble feeling awake and alert most of the day. I did manage to do the most pressing things at work, but barely. I will have to play catch-up on my data entry tomorrow. When I got off work, I had a little trouble driving home—my blood sugar was a little high, but mainly, I was just that tired. I felt utterly drained. I came home, took my insulin, ate something, and then took time to get some rest, sleeping from about 6 pm to 8 pm. I feel marginally better.

So now I’m charging my phone, and I’m considering tackling the kitchen dishes and straightening up there a bit, because while the house is in better shape than it has been, it still needs some work. I arose from my nap feeling pretty decent; in the hour I’ve been up, I’ve gone back to feeling tired and spacey. I think I’ll go check my blood sugar and see if it’s okay, and then go from there. Maybe I should just put on some soothing music and relax. Emotions ran high yesterday, and while I was able to put them aside to some degree and function, I think there’s a rebound where what could have been sinks in and all the fears become absolutely real. My mind keeps going to the ‘what ifs’. Funny, in the game, in a difficult situation, I often freeze, afraid to make the wrong decision. In real life, I often go ahead and deal with the situation at the time, making decisions that may or may not be best, but which are utterly necessary at the time, and then I fall apart later. So today has been a sort of frenzied panic now that the situation is improved. Even last night, I was ready to run out of the door in shorts on a cold night due to a dropped call, where I thought the situation had escalated again. The only thing that allowed me to sleep was plenty of Loreena McKennitt music. So I think I’ll go try to relax, listen to the rain, and some music, and be glad that things stabilised, rather than playing the ‘what if’ game in my mind.

Good night.

I wish I could figure out

why my laptop can do a Google search, but refuses to connect to any actual websites? My firewall just got updated; maybe that's it. But it's damn annoying.

I'm still hurting, but taking ibuprofen and sitting rather than walking have kept it bearable--I actually got a lot done today, and I made headway on the referrals. I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow morning at 11 am; it was the quickest they could work me in. I hope I just strained something and it'll work itself out soon.

I've been listening to the Linkin Park station on Pandora. There's nothing like alternative metal/nu metal to totally stoke the fire when you're annoyed already. I think I need to switch the station over to Loreena McKennitt or Ella Fitzgerald.

I wish I could stay up some more, but I am hurting, and I took some medicine for it, and while it hasn't kicked in yet in terms of the pain, I'm feeling sleepy. I have to get up early tomorrow, so I think I'll go take my contacts out and go to bed. At least I did get to see 'Heroes Reborn' tonight. They've done an excellent job with it. Tomorrow, as Scarlett said, is another day.

And now to set the mood...

Well, I did one thing on my list

I didn't get home till about 9:30 tonight, and my neck and back are still hurting, so I decided not to do any lifting, which means not putting stuff in the closet, not filling up the fish tanks, and not taking stuff out to the Dumpster. But I did sit down and pay several bills to the best of my ability. I also relaxed for just a little while playing Gauntlet, both the original and Gauntlet II. :) Now I'm listening to a Loreena McKennitt channel on Pandora. I'll probably head on to bed soon--tomorrow is one of my 'early' days, meaning I get up at 6 am.

I managed to get some gas today and filled up the tank (which was good, as I was on my gas light) because using my friends' Kroger card (they have no car, so otherwise the fuel points would go to waste, and I take them around a lot) I had 50 cents off a gallon, so I got it for $1.99 a gallon. Yay! That was kind of the highlight of my day. I generally didn't feel well, due to the neck/back pain, a headache, and some wonky blood sugar. I did manage to help YKWIA with something, and A as well, and watched a great episode pair of 'Wizards vs. Aliens' with YKWIA. But I'm glad to be home now and am thinking of taking a muscle relaxer and just crawling into bed. I wish this pain would go away. I haven't taken anything stronger than ibuprofen, but I've been trying to avoid taking even that if I can help it.

Okay, that's all for me tonight. Have a very good night. I'll try to write something more substantial next time.

Happy Beltane!

I had a really good time with my friends tonight

So YKWIA and I cooked onion soup with toast and Gruyère cheese,  pan-fried breaded asparagus,  hard-boiled eggs with artichoke hearts,  and we made a salad as well.  It was very nice,  but both of us were very tired after dinner,  and I helped put things in the dishwasher and clean up,  and then did a few more things for him (A had already gone back to bed.) Now I'm home,  have Loreena McKennitt on,  and have my feet propped up in bed,  ready to sleep.

Wednesday was a really great class on self-care and support for caregivers, but I got in pretty late and didn't blog. Thursday was over at my friends' house till about 8 pm. I called A to make sure he was awake for the UK-West Virginia game (it was at 9:45) and then promptly went to sleep myself. So I missed two nights' worth of blogging.  Sorry.

We recorded 'Grimm'  tonight, and we'll watch it later this weekend,  most likely.  Tomorrow I need to stop by the vet's,  take A to the grocery,  and help two dear friends celebrate their anniversary--seventeen years together. Oh,  and clean my house and do game notes. :)

But for now,  I'll just lie back and listen to Loreena,  and go on to bed.  Good night!

Celebrating having electricity

By putting on some Loreena McKennitt music, turning on my fan, filling up my CPAP, and charging my phone. Yay! I managed to get through the entire day despite my lack of sleep. YKWIA and I visited for awhile, and then he napped and I rested nearby, and while I didn't actually sleep, I might have dozed for awhile, when you're halfway in and out of sleep and kind of have dreams but are still conscious. Later we watched an episode of 'Star Trek: the Next Generation' that had the guy from 'Max Headroom' on it, and then the new episode of 'Grimm' that he'd recorded Friday night. We were going to watch the recording of 'iZombie', but I was getting tired and A, home from his game, and I still needed to go to the store. YKWIA prepared a special list of things for tomorrow, so I took that list and A took the other, and we stopped by Good Foods Co-op for a couple of things, and then we did the big run at Kroger. We got back about 10 pm (we'd left at 8:30). I helped put things away, and then pretty much gathered my stuff up and said goodbye, as I was tired, my contacts were foggy from my allergies, and I thought they might want some couple time. I've eaten some string cheese I got from the store, and I'm pretty much ready for bed. Good night. :)

A day of serpent mages and magic carpet rides

Okay, for anyone who has never played Call of Cthulhu or other tabletop roleplaying games, that probably sounds weird. But the game today involved trying to get innocents away from a serpent mage, who bugged out of there with them when he found we were dispatching his Children of Yig (giant snakes) fairly quickly. So we didn't manage to free the innocents yet, but we did escape a crowd of almost two hundred degenerate snake-human hybrid people who were out for our blood by using magic to turn ourselves invisible and then rode the air back to the plane crash site we'd started from. So it was an exciting game, and no one died. Since one of my characters is currently magically bonded to another, I have to be very careful or if one is injured or dies, so it goes with the other. Brenda has three characters on this adventure, so the stakes are high for her as well. But we're trying to save a 6 year old girl, an airline stewardess, and a German guy from having their genetic material used to try to elevate his serpent hybrids to a more civilised form. Yeah, you guessed right on what that means. It's an interesting adventure. It's called 'Final Flight'. The book is very small. I'm not sure who publishes it; I don't think this one is a Chaosium one. One of Brenda's characters owns and airline and so it was a natural fit with a plane crash in the Amazon and all. Of course, it's kind of funny that I'm playing in this adventure right before taking a plane ride myself. But at least we'll be nowhere near the jungle. :) Here's hoping for an uneventful couple of flights this week.

The weather has improved for the trip in terms of temperatures, being in the 50s and 60s here and the 40s and 50s in Chicago. It may be raining here on the day I come back, but that should be okay. I have a lot to do before I leave. Tomorrow I'm going to pay some bills and start getting everything together I need to, as well as working on the house. I hate to leave on vacation with the house a mess, and it definitely is, although I did do four loads of laundry at my friends' house today while I helped them get their house ready for the game, so at least that's taken care of, and I'm doing a load of dishes in the dishwasher right now.

So now I'm listening to some Loreena McKennitt and considering that while I shouldn't be all that sleepy, as we're an hour ahead with Daylight Savings Time now, so even though it's after 10 pm my body should think it's nine, I am, indeed, sleepy. So I may turn in soon, and then start anew tomorrow, going to work and getting things ready for my absence, and then going to the library to turn in a book and renew some. Then I need to straighten up around here.

Okay, I think I'll check the news before I go to bed. If I don't write anymore tonight, have a wonderful evening.

Listening to Loreena McKennitt

which is appropriate for this time of year, as the album has both 'The Lady of Shalott', which I am dressing up as tomorrow for our trick-or-treat at work, and 'All Soul's Night', which is almost upon us. Right now, I'm listening to 'The Stolen Child', which I find to be quite haunting. I have my skirt and blouse all ready for tomorrow, and a wig that is a bit darker than Loreena McKennitt's but in the same style, with bangs and long waves, so in a way I'll be dressing up as both her and the doomed Fae.

Tonight I took a friend to an appointment and helped him with something. Tomorrow there's the dress-up and trick-or-treat, and I need to wish another friend a happy birthday, as he catches up with me in age. Tomorrow night I will be carving or decorating a pumpkin for a contest on Friday, fixing some cut fruit for a breakfast baby shower in my new department, and baking a gingersnap pecan caramel pumpkin cheesecake for another contest at work. Then Friday night is not just Halloween, but Samhain, a religious holiday for me. I never seem to get kids coming for candy to the door--I live in an apartment, and I guess people just aren't comfortable with that. But I'll get a little candy just in case. But I will also put together a libation and spend some time remembering the dead.

Okay, time to add a couple of touches to the costume--I'm going to print out the Tennyson poem for my cubicle and take a magnifier that doubles as an ornate necklace and copy some knights out of one of my books on the Middle Ages and use that as my 'mirror' tomorrow, hopefully without cracking it from side to side. :) [Image: John William Waterhouse]

I'm tired and my feet hurt

especially after spending an hour-and-a-half at the grocery with A and putting away groceries, but it was good to get it out of the way before the weekend, and I got some things, too. It's the longest I've worn my new shoes in one wearing, and I found that the soles of my feet aren't quite used to the insoles of the shoes, which are from Sure-Fit. Maybe I should put my custom diabetic orthotics in them instead. But I am well relaxed at this point and the pain is easing, as I've spent another hour-and-a-half streaming Pandora through my bedroom TV, with a channel built around Loreena McKennitt, so it's been Celtic and New Age music.

Today was about playing catch-up at work, since I didn't have to train in scheduling today, so there was time for the library and data entry stuff I needed to do, or at least most of it. I'll have to finish up some tomorrow. But I got a lot done anyway. Today was also our benefits fair, so I came home with lots of information and some fun swag. There was also a kickoff luncheon downtown (I didn't attend) for the campaign for the new hospital, with the mayor, our Congressman, and various other candidates in attendance. By all accounts, it went really well.

I've been updating my tablet and Kindle and charging my phone, in which for the first time I let the battery completely die. But it's charging quickly, almost to full and that's in less than two hours.

I think my betta may not be much longer for this world. I came home and he was on the floor of the aquarium and has scarcely moved at all, and he's usually very active. He's lying in front of the bubble stone. In fact, it could be that the bubbles are moving his fins, rather than him, and he's actually dead. It's hard to tell. I've had him for at least a year-and-a-half. Brenda was just saying the other day that they don't live much more than a couple of years. So I guess it's about time. But I've really enjoyed having him, and I'm sad at the thought of losing him.

Okay, it's after eleven and I'm really struggling to stay awake, much like this critter. I love when the meerkat falls over and then pops up, looking all around it, like, hey, did anyone notice? :)

Still feeling a bit blah

So maybe it is my hormones. But I did enjoy watching 'The Awesomes' and 'Haven' with YKWIA tonight, and I fixed a summer squash and couscous dish that was pretty decent (I think that's the first time I've really cooked in their kitchen without supervision, beyond tuna gruel or rice with microwaved fish. YKWIA and I are already working on ways to improve the recipe.) I enjoyed doing that. It just seems a little muted compared to normal, though, so maybe I'm just a little depressed. I get that way sometimes, although normally not for protracted periods, thankfully, or at least anymore. I'm not having mood swings or anything like that. I just feel a bit like I'm going through the motions or I'm on autopilot, that's all. So now I am home, and oddly tired, and I think I'm going to listen to some Loreena McKennitt and head on to bed, even though it's just about 10:30 pm. I have a fairly busy week ahead of me. Good night.

So I came home tonight to discover

the police here, blocking part of our drive up to my apartment with a car, although only one car/officer seems to be here. The police officer seemed to be filling out a report. So I parked a few buildings over and rolled my laundry cart over to my apartment (there wasn't anything indicating danger), and there was a young girl sniffling on the steps to my building with a phone in her hand. I asked her if she knew why the police were here, and she said, 'I think they're here for me,' which was wonderfully vague, so I don't know if she's the victim or the criminal, but she was obviously upset, so I said, 'I hope it's nothing very serious' in a comforting tone and continued on into my apartment, figuring she probably didn't feel like answering a lot of questions. Now a young man who looks somewhat like her (maybe her brother?) is out there with her on the steps. I don't know if maybe there was a domestic situation and he's come to comfort her, or if there was a break-in, or what. So I'm pretty much staying out of it. I'm in the house, have put my food away, including some lovely asparagus deviled eggs (I went ahead and had a couple, and if I remember, I'll take the others to work tomorrow if I can. Actually, I keep forgetting, I have an appointment early in the morning with my endocrinologist, so maybe keeping them in the car, even that early, may not be such a good thing. Now I'm in the bedroom listening to some Loreena McKennitt music and trying to decide if I want to turn in early or stay up a bit longer. I have to get up by about 6:30, so I think I'll head on too bed. I've done housework, watched some more of 'The Black Adder' and an episode of 'World's Strictest Parents', and it's been a good day all around. I noticed that Jim Parsons has certain similarities to Rowan Atkinson. I don't know if he was influenced by him or not, but some of the mannerisms were similar between Sheldon and Edmund. Also, the king on 'The Black Adder', played by Brian Blessed, is barking mad, bonkers, delightfully insane. We did try to watch a movie from Netflix, but it had an irregularity in the disc and wouldn't play correctly, so we've reported it and I'll send it back tomorrow and they'll send another copy. I left and A was watching The Maltese Falcon and YKWIA was having a bit of supper that I'd fixed him. I'd done a couple of loads of laundry over there, too. A carried my cart out for me and put it in the trunk of the car. Fortunately it was fairly light, since I'm parked further away than normal.

Hope you had a good weekend. I think I'll turn in. Good night.

YKWIA and I discovered

that Strictly Ballroom was actually available on the streaming side of Netflix, so we cancelled that DVD and tomorrow we should be getting the 1970s series that terrified a generation of British children, 'Children of the Stones'. Strictly Ballroom was quite enjoyable and distracted me from a somewhat frustrating afternoon where little things were not going my way. I forgot that it was Thursday and the lobby of the bank closes at 5 pm, so I was too late to get a cashier's cheque for my rent today. I'll have to get it tomorrow, meaning it will cost an extra $5 for my rent. Then I went to see if I could find some de-icer at the auto parts store, because a neighbour gave me hers and I wanted to repay her, but they were out. The gas station next to it said that it had unleaded gas at $3.19, which was the cheapest sign nearby and some stations had gone up to $3.55, but the station only had some pumps working when it came to that price, and were people were lined up like crazy. I went over to the Kroger gas station instead, and it was $3.24, but with my Kroger card I saved 20 cents off, so it was only $3.04. So that went a little better. The day had started out not particularly promising--I couldn't get the upper partials in without gagging, so I just went to work with both out. But there were good things about the day, like getting my raise. I went to YKWIA's and spent some time with him, not only watching the movie, but several videos, looking at some stuff on the Internet, and listening to the Soweto Gospel Choir, which is excellent. I had a good time, but now I'm pretty tired, as it's after midnight and I think I'm going to turn into the proverbial pumpkin.

Tomorrow I'm going to try to move some boxes upstairs at work. I have to get my rent and then there's 'Grimm' at 9. I'm expecting those books tomorrow. Today I'd gotten Loreena McKennitt's new greatest hits album, The Journey So Far, which I've been listening to in the car. I think I'll go put that on in the bedroom and relax, and stretch out. I keep having small cramps in my calves that are making my legs uncomfortable--maybe stretching will help. Good night.

I wish I'd recorded 'The Big Bang Theory' tonight

Not only did it have Bob Newhart and Bill Nye the Science Guy, it had some utterly great lines that I'd like to hear again. Here's hoping they get posted to YouTube on the show's channel.

So, that's over now. I need to decide what to do now. It's only 9 pm. Here are my options:

• Watch the DVD of Coraline, which I received from Netflix today
• Listen to Pandora, specifically some Loreena McKennitt, which I'm doing now
• Listen to the radio or some CDs
• Watch an episode of 'Downton Abbey'--I'm on the second season, and the fourth is starting in a couple of months
• Watch some 'Grimm' off the DVR--I have all but the pilot on there, and I should catch up
• Work on the game notes in anticipation of playing Sunday
• Read (I'm currently working on Confessions of a Prairie Bitch: How I Survived Nellie Oleson and Learned to Love Being Hated by Alison Argrim, which has been quite good)
• Go to bed (but it's only 9 pm, although I'm a bit tired--I haven't been getting the normal amount of sleep of late (although it's been very good sleep with the new CPAP), and I didn't have enough insulin with me today so my blood sugar went up, which always makes me tired)

Which would you do, out of curiosity?

One of the reasons I didn't get enough sleep last night was because of watching 'American Horror Story: Coven'. I didn't get home till midnight, and it usually takes awhile to wind down after that show, which is both disturbing and excellent storytelling. Jessica Lange and Kathy Bates are particularly great. I've gone from watching the occasional run of 'Doctor Who' to several shows, mostly with YKWIA. There's:

1. Sunday: 'Witches of East End' [I have really bonded with the character of Ingrid Beauchamp, who is a librarian, among other things]
2. Tuesday: 'The Originals' and 'Supernatural' [of the latter, the Dog Dean Afternoon this week was much better than I thought it would be, I must admit]
3. Wednesday: 'The Tomorrow People' and 'American Horror Story: Coven' [the first I'm trying to give a chance, having loved the British series of that name as a child; the second is hand's down the best drama I'm watching at the moment]
4. Thursday: 'The Big Bang Theory' {I'm really not much into sitcoms, but this makes me laugh so much I'm surprised I don't pee myself] (that I usually watch on my own; I think YKWIA records 'The Vampire Diaries', which I've seen some of, but not a lot]
5. Friday: 'Grimm' [which I like, but haven't seen many of, yet]

It is so blustery out there

that a tiny amount of wind is getting through my normally decently sealed windows and making the wind chimes in the window chime just a bit with the huge gusts every now and then. The wind is positively howling, perfect for Halloween, I suppose. What have I actually been doing for the last two hours this Samhain eve? Listening to the Pandora 'Loreena McKinnitt' channel I have set up; in other words, enjoying some lovely Celtic music and relaxing. That was in the bedroom. Now that I'm in the living room, and there's no music, the wind is really loud. We're supposed to see gusts over 40 mph, and I think that's definitely happening.

Here's a little appropriate music from Loreena McKinnitt to chase the wind away:

I've had a quiet night enjoying being alone and having some 'me' time

relaxing to a Pandora channel for Loreena McKennitt and then watching the last two episodes of series one of 'Downton Abbey'. I really must watch the other two before I encounter many more spoilers--there was a trailer for series four on Facebook this morning that managed to give away something major and I'm going 'lalalalalalala' to make sure it doesn't really sink into my brain.

I must get up very early in the morning and take a friend to an appointment before work, so I'm going to keep this brief. Just wanted to check in. Turns out last night I got home and just didn't feel like going onto the computer. I'd had a nice meal of Chinese food from Jin Jin and a couple of episodes of 'Alphas', so it was a nice night, I was just tired. Oh, speaking of Chinese food, I saw two things on Facebook today that were hilarious. The first relates to Chinese food (can't vouch for the numbers):

Then there was this. Even our local YMCA shared this one (although like the other, I first saw it from George Takei):

Today I got a book on fitness for all everyone by the Mayo Clinic. It's full of useful info like how to start a cycling or walking programme, how to exercise for different conditions, etc. Now the trick is going to the Y and putting some of that into practice. I'm going to try to go after my gynaecology appointment tomorrow if I can.

Okay, that's enough for one night. Hope your week is going well. I'll try to write tomorrow. Good night.

Relaxing to Loreena McKennitt

Some of her songs that are less Celtic-y or traditional and more Eastern sounding:







(This last has various religious dances and ecstasy interspersed with the auroras, and is quite well matched with the music.)