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!

Sadly

Incredipet on Richmond Road no longer sells fish, leaving the Southland location the only one that (presumably, or at least that was indicated) does. So no feeder goldfish yet. I did get the water test kit, though. Even their aquarium supply selection was slim. I am sad.

Ohhhh

As I think I mentioned, for months I've dealt with a bed that has been sagging because the side rail and cross rail on one side, which should be joined, have sheared apart. It's a 30-year-old bed from Sears. I don't think I can replace just the bedrails, and I'm not in a position to buy a new bed.

I solved the bedrail problem temporarily by putting a cinder block under the joint between the side rail and the cross rail. For the first time in awhile my bed is level and supported from underneath. I was going to put a second under there, but lifting and shoving by myself was almost too much. At one point I took the mattress off and had the rail and box spring perched on my knee. But I got it done. But I hurt and am tired. If I want that second block under there, I'll need to get A to help. He's a lot stronger, and in reality, this was a two-person job. Whew!

Someone needs more caffeine

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

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

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

:(

Well, after nearly 4 1/2 years, I finally did something to the car. I was trying to get into the local government parking structure and got too near a bollard. :( But it's not too bad, I guess. And the parking spaces were so close that I couldn't get out my door and had to literally climb out of the passenger door, wrenching my knee. So renewing my registration was, shall we say, an adventure. On the other hand, there wasn't a penalty, so my total bill was something like $46.13. Not bad. There are advantages to having an old (16 years old) car. :)

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.

Relief

If I have seemed particularly stressed of late, it might have something to do with the fact that I spent the last nineteen days without any money coming in, save a $41 Kentucky tax refund that credited yesterday. I set in motion everything to have income, including unemployment benefits, coming to me a month ago, but things came in much later than expected. I have been bugging the mailman, who comes about 1:30 pm for parcels and 3:30 pm for regular mail, to look at what might be there for me, as I was expecting two cheques, since the unemployment office voice response system said one had been mailed Friday. The other was my final cheque from work, which I expected about mid-month, but in retrospect that was entirely too optimistic. Unfortunately, because of everything, I am now late on several bills, had one credit card actually suspend, and was seriously worried about paying my rent. I had almost no food in the house, was subsisting mainly on rice, premade Indian dinners, and homemade bread with honey, and was running low on gas. In fact, today, my gas light went on almost the moment that I checked my mail and discovered one of the cheques. Then, when some friends and I went to the credit union (they needed to do some things there, too, and we're all members), I discovered that the unemployment had actually been put into my account electronically, like it was supposed to, today. So I guess when it rains, it pours, and all I can say is, thank goodness. I was really getting stressed.

The first thing I did was get some gas. After helping a friend apply at the VA (my, they have a confusing site; the link to the job was a closed position from a year ago--I had to go find the correct one via a search, and I'm still not sure we did everything right), I took him home and then went to the grocery, where I proceeded to fill up an entire cart, something I have not done in years. The bill came to $225, but I should be good for quite some time. The fridge is completely full, save the crisper, since that doesn't really keep things crisp long enough for me. Instead of fresh vegetables I got canned, but otherwise things were pretty healthy. I also got a small desk fan that is helping in the living room.

I started the morning with a trip to the library with some books and CDs that were due yesterday that I was returning before they got in this morning so they wouldn't be overdue. Then I got a phone call asking for a ride when a friend got called into work on his day off because the other person in his position came to work sick and had to be sent home. After that I laid down for about an hour, as I didn't sleep well at all last night. Then it was time for pulmonary rehab, and I had a good session, starting with the breathing exercises and then working on the treadmill and weights. I have become puny. I have never had much upper body strength, but lifting ten pounds in several types of repetitions is challenging. When I was in high school, I could do the press with my feet to the tune of about 190 lbs--more than I weighed, and better than any of the football team that were in our class. Now I'm at twenty, and that's enough. I could probably go up a little bit on the normal press. They've got another though that has you press up on the balls of your feet like your on tip toes and lifting that way. Between breaking my ankle and general deconditioning, that's harder. I remember when I was in physical therapy for my ankle, doing that from a standing position was the very last thing I could do of all the exercises, which surprised them.

Even though I don't officially have anything scheduled tomorrow, I think I'm going to busy. I have to:

1. Pay my car registration, which is past due (it was due by April 30th, and so I'll have to pay 3% more. Fortunately mine is under $50 even with a special library association plate, so that's not too bad. It's actually still under $50. But I had a couple of police cars behind me today and was just a bit nervous. I know a citation would probably be dismissed if I brought in proof of an updated registration, but still....)
2. Balance my cheque book. I'm no longer destitute, but I can't go willy nilly. This has to last awhile, as the unemployment is not enough to cover my bills alone.
3. Pay my rent.
4. Pay my electric bill.
5. Pay my credit card bills.
6. Pay for my Internet connexion [I don't have cable TV, but I have an Internet connexion with Wi-Fi through the cable company].
7. Pay my cell phone bill.
8. Let my student loan servicer know that I am unemployed. Since I'll be paying a lot for health and dental insurance, I think I should try to see if I can get a deferment or reduced payment.
9. Check to make sure my COBRA enrollment went through--the pharmacy ran my meds and it was saying I was uninsured. I think the website said to wait five days to get it through, and it's just now that. I didn't get my first paper work so they sent me it again (I got it yesterday) but also e-mailed it, so I enrolled online. I also need to pay my bill with them.
10. Get my allergy shots.
11. Apply for a job.
12. Pull things out of the walk-in closet.
13. Call in my air conditioning issue and the fact I have to jiggle the toilet handle to keep it from running. [The walk-in closet is where the pan for the air conditioning is, and most likely it needs to be emptied, hence the need to get the mass of stuff out of it. There aren't many things, really--they're big, like a bedside commode or shower chair, that sort of thing. I don't need to take everything out, just enough so they can get in. I did put a new light bulb in the other day that I had, though.]

I'd say that's pretty busy.

I did find out I didn't get the one children's librarian position at the Lexington Public Library that I'd applied for in March. There's still one other position that I haven't heard about from them, three from UK, and I'm about to apply with the state. I've applied for the last before, with no luck, but 1) I have to apply actively on unemployment, and 2) maybe persistence will actually pay off. I also need to mail a form and cheque that have been sitting above my computer for two weeks waiting for money in the account to get my certification from the state of Kentucky, which is required to work in public library settings.

Okay, I think I'm going to get something to drink, maybe a snack, and sit down and enjoy something, like watch a DVD or listen to some music or read. I dropped my friend off about 7 pm, went to the store, got out after 8 sometime, and probably got everything put away by sometime after 9. It took four trips back and forth from the car just to get everything in. :) I don't think I could get anything else into my cabinets or fridge if I tried, and that's great. Not having food may be helping my weight (I'm 8 lbs less than when I was working), but it doesn't help diabetes, that's for sure. There's some days my meal consisted of glucose tablets, just to keep my blood sugar up, and that's not really what they're designed for--they're more rescue to be followed by real food. Like I said, it's been a hard two to three weeks.

Today I received an offer for a temporary, part-time position

At my old employer, covering for someone on maternity leave. It was a decent offer--contracted employment, decent amount per hour [more than the one job I'd had there, but quite a bit less than I had been making when my two jobs there were averaged], only eleven hours a week, and an alternative of using a short-term parking pass since it would just be for twelve weeks. It was understood that I would leave if I found a full-time job at any time. It would work with my schedule and appointments. But we weren't sure how it would affect my unemployment, so I told the person offering it that I would research it and get back with her tomorrow.

While I do really want to help them out, and it would be great to see my old co-workers again, I hesitated to immediately say yes. So I did my research and then sat down and drew out a table in a Word document with the Pros (of which there were four) and Cons (of which there were 12). The greatest Con is that 80% of your gross part-time wages are deducted from your unemployment benefits, plus there'd be about $35/month for the parking, so when I did the numbers, over the course of a month, I would come out ahead by only $42, but would be giving up 11 hours a week that could be put into job searching/interviewing. So really, it would be a matter of virtually volunteering the hours. If it were going to lead to full-time employment, or give me valuable training in an area that I would rather leave librarianship for, then I would have that as a bonus, and I would consider it. But this was in no way going to work to my benefit.

I called her this afternoon and let her know what the numbers were and that I couldn't really devote that time without some return on investment, and she, of course, understood. I wanted to let her know as soon as possible so she could look for an alternative.

Sometimes (and in my case, often) we make decisions purely with the heart, based on emotion. This time I really sat down and thought out the consequences. One of the Cons, for example, though minor for some, perhaps, was that I would delay and restart the 'grieving' process of leaving the employer and its culture and people. In essence, this was a Band-Aid that would put me temporarily back into there and then, when it was finished, would be ripped off again and have to heal. It's also a stressful job, and there'd be the hassle of parking on UK's campus. There were other Cons, but those were important ones for me.

Of course, I'm available for full-time work with a future. I didn't 'refuse work' or anything, as it was temporary and part-time, at about 78% of my previous pay. It wasn't a bad offer, it just wasn't right for me. I know they would have liked to have me there because I've covered there before and wouldn't require as much training. But hopefully they'll find someone who can do a good job who will benefit more than I would have.

One of my biggest weaknesses is that I am a 'people-pleaser' who has great difficulty saying 'no'. It was hard to do in this case, but I think it was the best decision.