I didn't feel like doing an entry yesterday.
I was incredibly tired, with a banging headache. So much so I was worried I had covid. I had a call with a client at 2pm that absolutely drained my energy. There's a long, bad history with this guy going back to our Boston office that I won't write in detail about here. But suffice to say when my Work Bestie told me he wanted a call, and a demo of our content management system, we both inserted many "why" and "sobbing" emojis into our discussion.
I did the call.
I was gracious and friendly, even though it took him less than 5 minutes to bring up my former boss and how they 'didn't see eye to eye,' and all the troubles the team, "MY" wonderful team gave him. I thought for sure there's no way this guy does not remember me. But after a while I thought yeah, he does not.
Continuing to be gracious and friendly, I set expectations about what our product does and let him talk and talk and show me the things their website does. "We need to set ourselves apart from our geographical neighbors, and all their websites look the same, and our brand has to look completely different and unique."
Fair. But there are ways to do this, and why do you feel this way when 5 other geographical neighbors are also geographical neighbors to the other sites, and they seem to be working just fine with websites that "look" similar. They all have a very unique flavor. There are ways to make you stand out.
I didn't get to demo the back-end of the product at all because he just would not let me get a word in edgewise. His content manager was on the call, and very interested not so much in the "what are we going to lose" if we move onto your content management system but "what are we going to gain."
I wanted to talk to that guy so much. Because honestly, the couple things you'll lose do not outweigh the many things you'll gain.
After the call, I took an almost 2 hour nap. I didn't intend to - I just wanted to lay down for a bit, close my eyes, but. The windows were open, it was cool and comfortable in the guest room, and Toffee was a little baked potato of comfort next to me.
Part of me really hopes this client does not come into our fold. Please do not. Since you left our services, I've not thought of you, have not been stressed out by you. I've enjoyed working with not you.
But another part of me recognizes that we can give him more than what he's currently getting, even if he has to give up a cool widget that makes an ocean wave motion (even if they're not on the coast, i don't know why he thinks this is so important....)
I get to schedule a follow up call next week to actually do the demo of the product and test drive them around.
The nap was good for my brain, the company was very nice. Golden Hour Toffee.
Jess came up last night to grab their car, go back to DC, load up their things they brought with them (laptop, monitor, duffel bag, many things for three weeks of a stay) and then bring the car back to our house. There was no parking available for their car where they house-sat so I'm glad we're close enough that they could keep the Subi here, and not worry about it. We're in a rather safe neighborhood, with tons of parking, so I was comfortable and confident having it here with us.
Because none of us had gone to the market for anything, and we ordered Chinese food on Halloween, we didn't have dinner stuff handy. Initially we'd thought about going to the Brewery and eat at the food truck, but I had no energy to do so. I hadn't even showered. I sent Geoff to the market to get stuff for dinner and Jess arrived.
Jess pointed out that this timing was actually good, they could take their car back to the city, temporarily park in the neighbors' spot, load up the car and bring it back, and then eat.
Perfect.
We ate a late dinner and watched a bunch of Bob's Burgers Halloween episodes. All super quality. The absolute best. Here's a list from Vulture, and I have to agree with the top 3. Perfection. I was really super tired by 10 and decided to turn in so Doug took Jess to the train and I was out cold before they texted me that they were "home at Coco's house."
I was already sad and missing them, and maybe that's why I'm so tired. I deal with sad in weird ways.
I woke up before 1am, shockingly (not) and went to the guest room. Windows open, soft breeze, actually required the big purple blanket. Toffee eventually joined me. I started several podcasts and fell asleep before the ends of them. Repeatedly.
Because Jess mentioned the goal was to "depart in a single digit number hour," I thought (ha) they'd be here by 9. I set an alarm clock for 9:30. They texted me to say they were getting on the metro - it took a little while to get tidied up and prepare the house for the folks coming home today. Plenty of time to wake up.
I took a shower (note: when you feel shitty sometimes just take a shower, the hot water and heat can just make you feel more human). Jess got here at about 10:30.
What was so great about the past couple weeks is that it would take literally an hour or 90 minutes for them to get here. And we weren't up each other's asses with "come for dinner, let's do this, let's go here, do you wanna..." The first full week and weekend Jess had all the autonomy they wanted. They love getting away from the roommates, and staying with someone's animal/s and this was precious time for them.
But as mom, precious time for me, too. I'm glad we had the one brewery trip, and Halloweening, and dinners, and just basic hanging out. I'm glad they got to meet our neighbors and their insane pittie pupper. I'm glad there was ample cuddle time with Miss Toffee.
And I'm sad to see them go. They left a little before noon, and I hope they make it by 9pm to the next destination. They're house sitting some more, for a colleague of a colleague (they've house sat for this lady for well over a year now) on Cape Cod. Jess will take Grandma out to lunch on Saturday next week, and I think they'll be there for Thanksgiving too.
We talked about when the next time is I'll see them. Probably Christmas if I go up to be with Shirley. Most likely Christmas and I will go up and see Shirley.
After Jess left, Doug and I went for a ride up north of us to a farm stand. He had read about how they have some of the best apples in the area. It's a very low-key not fancy place, and we got some cider, two big bags of apples, gawked at the dutch apple pie and some of the baked goods.
It was a nice trip, and I thought we'd go do more things after the farm stand but Doug wanted to come home and have some cider and take a nap. Oh, okay. I showered for this. Anticipated a little more, but.
Pictures of farm stand junk. Everything was so colorful, and I had to grab snaps.
We killed the half gallon of cider (with Geoff's help) in a matter of minutes. Doug went to nap, and I messed with Pictures and Pokemon, and took Toffee for a very brisk and energetic walk.
Digits below the last farm stand photo. Digits below.
Friday digits
exercise: 8/12 hours. Missed a couple, 2pm because of a meeting 5 and 6 because of a nap, 7 because i didn't feel like it. 3600+ steps by bedtime
blood glucose:
9am: 154
5pm: 130
11pm: 183
food:
coffee/water
10am: english muffin w/pb
12:45pm: metformin
5pm: pb sandwich on oat nut bread
8pm: bowl of baked ziti, heavy on the meat sauce, 2 pieces of garlic bread
8:30pm: Metformin+Jardiance
Saturday digits
exercise: 12/12 hours. 17 min/ 0.7mile walk with toffee. 7k by bedtime.
blood glucose:
10am: 184
5pm: 183
10pm: 145
food:
coffee/water
11:30am: BLT Salad
12:30pm: metformin
2pm: a whole bunch of Apple cider (label said it is very high in sugar. oops) w/a little white rum
5:30pm: left over Cod and shrimp w/broccoli
5:45pm: metformin+jardiance
6:15pm: pb sandwich on oat nut bread
8pm: one giant chocolate chip cookie