A Gold Medal Sunday

Sunday morning, I was awake at 5:30 but never fell back asleep. So I got up at 6. I got myself dressed and ready, went down to the hotel coffee bar for 2 cups (thank you Holiday Inn Express for providing DECENT sized coffee cups!) Organized my shit. Woke up Doug. 

We had to go get John for the 8am Gold Medal Hockey game. 

John was very excited for it. He played hockey, he loves hockey, and he was going to watch it anyway, but probably in the big common room or on his iPad so as not to bother his roommate (He got moved into a new room, and the gentleman is very old and sleeps a lot but tells John it is okay if he lives his life). 

I suggested when we were out at dinner on Saturday night that we could watch it together. I immediately regretted it. Why do I open my mouth. But. 

I thought a lot about him wanting to go to a museum and me being all "fuck that shit" about it. Some of his friends took him to a Monet exhibit, and they got a nice picture after and printed it for him on a Monet print. He texted me pictures of it, and you could tell. 

That meant the world to him. You could see it in the picture.

I'm happy he got that. Happy he got that with his friends. Happy they were there for him and gave him this print so he could look at it. Then, I realized I wasn't thinking about this part of his reality really, that he isn't going to get many opportunities to do and see things so. Do and see things. And my fuck that shit attitude is natural based on regular life but this is different. 

We had told him we'd pick him up at 7. I had made reservations at a sports bar that does brunch, because Reddit suggested we try there for the Olympic Gold Medal Hockey Game. 

Now. 

I normally would never ever do this. Go to a bar first thing in the morning with a bunch of strangers to watch a sportsball game. Putting on Hard Pants, going out where it is full noise and people. I could watch from home. 

But there we were. Picking him up, getting there, waiting on line in the rain. He wore one of his hockey jerseys from when he played in Japan. 

He realized he probably should not wear his Montreal Canadiens Jersey, so he settled for this. I told him that no one would probably care and I think I was right but he's very opinionated about things like this and was sure someone would kick his ass or give him shit.

Dude, you're in a wheelchair. If anyone gave you shit I'd have to beat them to a pulp, on principal.

He was very talkative and excited on line and this was kind of sweet, to see him so enthusiastic. It is weird because it made me think of mom and what she's like in public. She'll totally talk to strangers, talk about herself. Here he is doing his auntie proud. So much like her sometimes it boggles my mind. Hopefully when Linda is reading this she's laughing. 

Since I made reservations for us (thank you Reddit for suggesting the spot, and thank you to the girl I talked to the night before when I called to ask about wheelchair accommodations) I knew we had a guaranteed spot once inside. 

The manager saw us on line and said "hey Christine! Glad you made it." I wondered how he knew me and then I was like ohhhh yeah. I mentioned the wheelchair access. 

He treated us like gold. 

The restaurant has this cute little alcove for kind of bigger parties, so a table for 12 was set up with one guy sitting at it, a 2 seater, and our table. The manager went to move one of the chairs out of the way and stopped.  "Oh! Would you prefer to sit in the chair instead of stay in your wheelchair?" John said no - he wanted to sit in the window seat, so we parked the wheelchair on that side of the table, moved the chair away, and settled in. 

Quick attention from the waitress, mimosa for me, and brunchie foods ordered, beer for John, and Doug stuck with coffee for quite a while. We watched people flowing in, and the game was underway. 

And as mentioned, I normally would never do this 8am for any sport viewing thing but I have to admit, this was fun. Everyone was fun. There were Canada fans, and plenty of USA Fans (I would say an 80/20 split USA to Canada ratio). Lots of team jerseys and that made me sad I wasn't sporting a Bruins shirt. John said that people would give me shit, but I told him the vibe was not like that. No one is giving anyone shit for their fandoms. 

No one was a dick. There was no fighting. It was fun. Very lighthearted. Very good time. He said disparaging things like "This is Richmond Virginia, no one knows anything about any hockey teams." Okay yeah sure. I'm sure no one in Richmond likes the Nationals or the Carolina Hurricanes. Sure. Whatever. 

A USA! USA! USA! Chant started and when it died down a guy yelled CA-NA-DA! CA-NA-DA! and a few others joined in. Lots of laughter. 

The table for 12 next to us was a bunch of grownups, friends/relatives, and their little kids. 

I mean, little. 

I don't think any of them were over 6.

 There were three siblings, a boy and two girls. The boy was the oldest, and had long curly hair. John, of course, made a comment about his hair. All three of them were super curly whirleys and very cute. The middle girl had a Toronto Maple Leafs Auston Matthews Jersey on, her Dad had a Canada jersey. 

The littlest one wore a Frozen Elsa dress and she was a hot ticket. The parents had their hands full, juggling all three of them.  You could tell that number 3 was a little feral, and you know me. I love feral children. 

Partway through the first period, the boy threw up. I thought he was looking kind of droopy. He had his head down on the table, and he'd brought a ton of hockey player cards which were in a box and stacked up on the table. But he faded fast. I thought to myself with my mom intuition kicking in, yeah. That isn't a good look for a kid who came in really excited about the game. 

So when he stood up and barfed, thankfully it went STRAIGHT down between his feet. Mom jumped into action, dad swung the little one off her lap, and I went to get the manager guy to ask for towels and a mop.

"Sir," I said, "We have a small boy barf situation in the alcove." 

He rushed over with a bunch of bar towels and said he'd be right back with a mop. The boy threw up again but mom was brilliant and stuck a plastic drinking cup (all the kids' drinks came in these fun cups) right in front of his face, and the kid horked into it. Second cup. Same thing. The poor little guy. 

Manager was back with a mop in no time as dad and I are wiping the floor with paper towels, since the bar towels were completely used. 

Of course I'm that person. 

The manager said "okay parents, I got this," and he started mopping. One of the kitchen staff came out with a bag and got the bar towels and handed a bag to the mom and she was putting some soiled toys and the boy's sweatshirt into the bag. And both the employees were gloved up and that was a good sign for me. Not cleaning up barehanded. Well done, gents. 

The little boy was sad and stunned. Mom was getting him organized to take him home. Dad said he'd keep the other two. His priorities satisfied, she's got the sickie and he's got the hockey game and his buddies, and well, everyone had all the kids.

He turned to me and said "thank you so much." 

"I actually saw it coming. He didn't look too lively, rather wilted, to be honest."

"Yeah, he was so fired up for this game and when I looked over at him resting his head I figured something was up but ... didn't see this coming."

"Been there," I said. "My son once threw up all over the aisle at a Texas Roadhouse in Plaistow, NH after eating a giant meal so, it happens. I get it." 

May I have another Mimosa, please. 

Also, serving a mimosa in a pint glass, this is my kind of place. I could have done with a little less ice, but. I wasn't complaining.

The game was great. I was initially heartbroken that Jeremy Swayman of the Bruins was not going to be the goalie but hell yes Connor Hellebuyck totally kicked ass out there. I felt like it was an absolute defensive battle at times where the goalies for both teams were saving the day. But then, Canada tied it up. Oh no.

Overtime. Alright. 

Part of me wanted to be on the road by 11am but. Overtime. Here we go. John was full of opinions on how we were absolutely going to lose because 3 on 3, Canada is better than us, faster than us, gonna lose gonna lose, gonna lose. 

I wanted to just put him in the car and go because okay champ, we gonna lose why stay here, let's go. Why stay. 

Ordered another mimosa. 

Doug got a beer. 

Less than two minutes into overtime, the USA Won. Hallelujah. So glad they did it. What a joy. 

The bar exploded. It was absolutely joyous. I loved every second of it. 

As the bar was clearing out, Canada Dad leaned over and said "seriously, thank you so much for your help today." We shook hands, and I said "I'm very sorry for your loss, but wow, what a game. Privilege to be here with you for it." This made him smile as he hoisted Elsa up on his hip and left. 

We took Miss Daisy back to his gulag and he fell into bed exhausted. "I didn't do much, but wow is that tiring being up and active for so long." 

Tell me about it, bro. 

We headed north. The goal was to get home before the snow kicked in. The forecast was for it to get serious around 4pm at our house, and Geoff said it was already snowing, but nothing was sticking. 

We decided to not take the interstate beyond Fredricksburg, because it is more fun to drive up Rte 17 even if it ends up taking us out of our way over to Winchester and Rte 81. 

But Doug told me that he was interested in making a side quest to Charles Town, West Virginia and that would bring us up into Maryland just south of where we live. About a 50 minute ride on two lane roads for most of it. 

And the snow wasn't bad. 

Abolitionist Ale Works was the destination he had in mind, and we pulled up as the snow was coming on hard. A bunch of people were inside, and the beertender welcomed us warmly. We watched the closing ceremony for the Olympics, and everyone was very entertained by what we were seeing.

Two beers and some take-aways later and we were on the way home. 

There are only a couple ways over the Potomac, two of them are right in this stretch. One is through Harper's Ferry to the East, and the other is the one Doug picked through Shepherdstown and into Sharpsburg. Both towns we are very interested in seeing more of. 

In fact, we jokingly thought of going to look at a Church that was for sale in Sharpsburg when we were starting out looking. I thought it would be fun to live downstairs, have a nice music hall in the sanctuary and the organ loft could be the guest area for musicians coming through. The place was mostly finished down the basement for an actual 2 bed 2 bath home, but yeah. I really would love to do that if I had the money.

If I had a million dollars, I'd buy your church...

Geoff had no dinner planned, which is weird for him. We were home by 4:30pm and Doug wanted a nap. I offered to go to the market because there was no milk for coffee for the morning. 

And. I finally got a haircut. There is a market that we'd never been to (which is associated with Stop & Shop and Giant) and a Hair Cuttery next door. I called to make sure they were open, and they gladly had me come in. I'd been putting this off since my birthday. Finally. 

The market was fun, hardly anyone there. I helped a guy find canned tuna fish (seriously, the young man kept seeing "Chicken of the Sea" on the label, and I said "oh honey, no. That's the name brand like Starkist." And I handed him a can to show him. I told him he should always buy tuna in water, not in vegetable oil because that's greasy and nasty and no - don't do that to yourself. He was on the phone with someone and he said "Oh this nice lady just helped me find the tuna. I'm so stupid..." and he told them about how he thought Chicken of the Sea was ... chicken. And he was laughing, so cute. 

I headed out to the parking lot and there was a person trying to clean their car off but they had no scraper or snow brush, they were using the sleeve of their sweatshirt. They got into the car and started it, and I was afraid they were just going to hit the windshield wiper and start driving off. 

There was a snow brush in my hatchback, so I pulled it out and trotted over and started brushing. 

They rolled down the window and said profusely thanked me. "I didn't think it was going to start snowing until later, and I've been at work at CVS all day! I had nothing to wipe this off with!" So I told her no sweat, no worries, I got you. Put your defroster on the front and the back, and I'll have you cleaned off in no time. They offered to put my groceries in the trunk but I said to not worry about it. It's not a problem. 

And I finished brushing the car off and they were so happy. 

Driving home, I realized I was goofing off so much at the market just looking at stuff that I forgot ... milk. 

I also forgot ground beef, and I got shake & bake for pork chops but ... no pork chops. Okay. 

I drove over to our regular market and got the things I had forgotten. And they also didn't have cole slaw mix at the first market, and I wanted that so I got some (and dressing). 

For dinner last night, I got grocery store fried chicken, fresh out of the fryer and it smelled so good. I over bought, we could have eaten one box but I got two because I should not be allowed to go to the grocery store when I'm hungry. 

And as of this writing on Monday, it was another good busy working day. My northern co-workers clocked in with 18 to 20 inches of snow so we spent a good deal of time in our team meeting talking about the weather. 

Digits below, here's a picture of John and Doug at the bar for the hockey game. I see so much of his mom in his face, and his dad. It is a very interesting picture to me. He said he thought he was smiling. I promised next visit, we'll bet smiley pictures if he is up to to smiling. That made him smile.

Monday digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Treadmill between meetings (call it lunch time!) 16 min/1.07 miles. 2nd/extra treadmill time since I was short on steps for the day (and I tested the Run setting on my fitbit with the GPS turned off and it worked!) 15 min/1.05 mi. 11k+ steps by bedtime.

blood glucose:

8:45am: 140
4:45pm: 89
10pm: 160

food & meds:
8:45am: jardiance (waiting on phentermine)
8:45am: atkins protein shake
11am: Entenmann's donut
12:30pm: english muffin w/pb & low sugar blueberry j
12:45pm: met+glip
6:30pm: bowl of pasta shells w/meat sauce, 2 small pieces of garlic bread
8:15pm: met+glip

Sunday digits

exercise: 10/12 hours. Missed 2 hours from being in the car. Treadmill after dinner, 20 min/1.27 mi. No energy to run just had to get the mile done. 10k+ steps by bedtime. 

blood glucose:

6am: 150
xpm: x
10:30pm: 188

food & meds:
6am: jardiance (waiting on phentermine)
exact times, not accounted for.
3 mimosas, really good breakfast quesadilla
11:45am: met+glip
on the highway (maybe 1pm?) 2 dunkin donuts
4pm: 2 beers at Abolition Ale Works
7pm: grocery store fried chicken, home made coleslaw, scoop of mac & cheese
7:45pm: met+glip

USA! USA! USA!

 Okay. I'm so tired, and I'm not going to write a full Sunday Update entry until tomorrow but hello. We survived. We are home. Relieved.

I am sorry for everyone on the East Coast getting feet of snow. We got an inch. Initially they said 5 to 8 but. I think we've gotten what we're getting. 

Thinking of you all. 

All 2 of you who actually read this blog. 

More tomorrow. BE CAREFUL everyone.

Cousin Update

Oh hotel beers. I love you. 

It was a stressful day. We had a GREAT travel time coming down here. I don't have the energy to blow by blow talk about the overall stress that we experienced coming down here but as of writing at 9:30pm I'm not stressed and life is fine. 

We're fine.

Things are fine. 

We had dinner with John and his friend Keith, who is interesting. 

I also had a 90 minute call with Jess that brought me laughter and joy. God how I love them. 

So tomorrow morning, we are picking my cousin up at 7am 

yes

7am. 

To go to a bar in Richmond to watch the USA vs. Canada hockey game. I made a reservation at a bar in town for this. 

I have deep thoughts. but for right now. There's this. Digits below.

digits

exercise: 11/12 hours. Missed 1pm by being in the car. Did treadmill in the AM before we left, 15 min/1.04 mi. End of day treadmill, 5 min/.4 mi. 11k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8am: 121
4pm: 115
10:15pm: 192

food & meds:
8am: jardiance (waiting on phentermine)
10:30am: english muffin w/pb and regular j
1pm: met+glip
4:30pm: peel and eat shrimp; pad thai; beers; Tom kha soup w/shrimp; pad thai w/peanut sauce and shrimp
More beers at hotel, trail mix, and smart food
8:45pm: met+glip

Fractured Cancer Hip is the name of my nu metal emo band

Come see us on tour. 

My sister and I were having a moment and she made the above remark about our cousin's hip, and I added the part about it being the name of my band and we're probably going to hell. 

Anyway. 

There was a moment at work today where we discovered some deep dark magicks written before the modren-era memories and from before I worked for my company because there were all these references in the database to things none of us ever heard of. And my boss remembered because he used to work for one of our clients, and recalled a thing. A suite of things. And they all had names. And one rang a bell for him and he went to the Way Back Machine and found it on his super old version of his website. 

We were all in awe. 

Sometimes there is a wizard, and we suddenly have the knowledge and power we need. 

It was a shining moment. A real breakthrough. And we can safely delete all the shit this thing references and never speak of it again. 

Done, and dusted. 

Part of the joy of my job, you can say. I often want to delete or flush or get rid of things that I feel are remnants of the Olden Works and others say "no no no we should just migrate it over." 

But the database is 50million lines long. no. Flush some shit. 

My experience with the hoarding aunt and my own recent move point to a Marie Kondo this database philosophy. Do not bring it if it does not spark joy, my friends. 

The entire afternoon was wide open for me so I hit the treadmill at 12:15, grabbed a shower. My standing 1pm meeting... sigh. We keep canceling it. My colleague forgets or their mom calls, or they are working on a slide deck, or. Or. Or. 

So with that canceled I reached out to my 2pm to see if she wanted to move up and I'm glad we did. There was a lot to cover, and we found some things I have to bring to the product team. I was incredibly thankful for her eyes and her "yeah, no. You are not losing your mind. That's messed up." 

My 3pm was with a client, who was having a hard time with the Google suite of things. One product is used pretty much exclusively by all of our clients and it is a beast. It is hard to manage, and we technically don't support it because we didn't build it. But that leaves folks frustrated and sad. So I try hard to step in where I think I can fix a thing. 

We got close. We had a good laugh. And on Monday there is more to refine with it. But we did get close. 

Doug and I took Toffee to the dog park, I didn't feel well, was hot and sweaty, and it was weird. Low blood sugar? maybe. But before we left I had a snack and by the time we got back I felt much better. We met a black lab mix and her name is Magic. She reminded me a lot of Dahlia, and the two dogs played together so nicely. It was wonderful. Magic was very good at prancing. Another dog came, her name is Luna and she is an 11 year old German Shepherd. She didn't play much but did engage in some running. And barked at Toffee and Magic when they were wrasslin. 

I wanted so desperately to get a haircut but after dinner, it was dark, and I do not like driving around in the dark. Maybe I'll get up early? Maybe? Who knows. 

Off to Richmond tomorrow. Geoff is on Toffee Duty. Thankful that he is here to mind her. Thankful for my housemates! ha. 

Digits below. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Two walks. Treadmill for 17 min/1.09 mi. Toffee walk, round trip to dog park; .52 mile in, and the long way home of .78. 11k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

7am: 93
4:30pm: 101
10:30pm: 163 

food & meds:
7am: jardiance (waiting on phentermine)
10:30am: breakfast burrito: One regular carb fajita wrap w/ 2 eggs scrambled, 4 slices of crumbled bacon, some goat cheese, sauteed onions & wilted greens, and a bit of shredded cheddar
1pm: met+glip
5pm: hummus + crackers snack
6:30pm: cheese tortellini w/hot italian sausages, and red sauce
vodka+diet tonic

Housemates

One of the things I truly dislike, and I did it to myself last night, is waking up to dishes in the sink. I'm the default dishwasher loader of the family, and last night I just did not want to deal with it. Just... meh. No. So I set some things up to soak after dinner and said fuckkity bye to it all. "I'll deal with it in the morning." 

And then. There I was. 8:30am, sucking it up and doing the dishes. Before coffee. Be proud of me. And of course, in less than 90 minutes of everything being clean The Boy comes up and makes food. More dishes. More mess. While I'm sighing heavily and trying not to scream at him to not make a mess.

I've gotten after him so much in the last couple weeks about fucking cleaning up after himself. Thing is, he always thinks he did clean up after himself! But then I stand there and point to this thing, and ask why there are onion skins on the counter, and why didn't you wipe this. That. The other thing. 

"But why is there tomato sauce on the counter? Why is there an empty bag of shredded cheese on the counter? Why is there coffee spilled on the counter? And yes, now there are 90 dishes in the sink again. Thanks. Thanks so much." 

There are days, dear hearts, and I don't say this lightly. Days when I wish I lived alone. And yes! Yes I know. I have friends who live alone. They are single (not partnered), divorced, separated, widowed.

They hate it, they pine for companionship. I have one friend that if any of her friends say something negative about their partner situation you get AT LEAST YOU'VE GOT SOMEONE! as a reply. 

Honey, I know. I know. 

We gripe about our "housemates" when others do not have such "housemates." It is only natural. 

Doug and I went to the doctors for some blood work today, 40 minute ride each way. I've cut it close by leaving here at 4pm previously, so today we left at 12:30 and were back by 2pm. 

While we were gone, Geoff brought a whole bunch of books upstairs that he must have know I wanted brought upstairs. He didn't put them in exactly the right spot, but, I don't have to bring these upstairs now. 

So there's that. 

Some days, I'd like to be alone and the only one responsible for cleaning up the kitchen when I am the one who made the mess. And then other days I'm very happy Doug changes the wiper blades on the car, and cleans up the dog shit in the yard that 2 feet of snow left behind for us. And Geoff makes dinner most nights. I don't have to even think about it. 

There are pros and cons to this life. 

In other news, my cousin's birthday is tomorrow. Will make a point to be up early and text. We're driving down on Saturday to visit. And he has some huge agenda of stuff we're going to do for his Big Day Out when all Doug and I thought was we're taking him out to dinner. 

He started blowing up my phone with calls and texts at 10am when I was in scrum. So once his texts revealed this was not an emergency I just let it slide until we left to go to the doctor. 

"What's up?" I texted him. 

He wanted to get a haircut Saturday and DESPERATELY needed me to tell him what time we'd get there. 

"Dude." I replied. "It depends on how fucked up Virginia is between my house and you. 2 hour trip took almost 5 hours last time. We're planning to leave before noon. Don't make a 9am appointment. Aim for 3 or 4. We'll try to leave earlier than 11. That should math." 

Then he texts 900 times about how he really needs us to be there in time to take him and is 3pm okay? Can I make an appointment for 3? (I let him stew there for 15 minutes before writing back). I told him yeah sure go, 3pm make the appointment. 

He made that appointment and then another appointment for 3:45 just in case. 

Doug said to me, "The facility he is in has people who come in and cut hair. I know they do. I worked at nursing homes. Why does he want a haircut out in the world. The facility provides." 

So I asked him that and of course got:

1. It is expensive
2. They only come once a month
3. They do a shitty job
4. I don't want to use any of the services at this "facility" 

Okay. As I predicted when I told Doug that he was going to come back with reasons why not, he sure did. 

THEN he says "I thought we could go to the museum when you get here, if it is before 11 (not happening dude) and then get the haircut."

"??????" says I. "What museum? I didn't have a museum visit on my dance card." 

He assumed we'd come down Friday night and stay at a hotel (no. 95 on a Friday. No fuck right off no fucking way) and then we'd be available Saturday morning to go to a museum. 

"The museum is free," he says. 

That's nice. So nice that the museum is free. Not going to a museum. We will be there to take you for your haircut but no promises we'll be there earlier.

I got the impression he thinks this is Ferris Buehler's Day Off with a full day of us motoring him all over Richmond to do fun stuff. 

Bro. For real, Bro, this is taking the piss out of me just to get in the car and drive down to take you to dinner. I'm exhausted already. I've been crazy busy with work. Please do not expect us to take you all over hell and half of Virginia to do things. 

I know he is cooped up, he's bored. And its his birthday. Which we didn't think he'd make it to. And he most likely won't make it to next February 20th.

But please, just ... the haircut and the dinner. That's our joy and celebration with you. It's what I can muster. And then we are northbound and down on Sunday morning. 

He probably wants us to take him to brunch Sunday. To be honest, I'd do brekkie with him. But I want to be clear from Richmond by 2pm at the absolute latest. 

After work today, I hit the treadmill. Then, I did more unpacking of stuff. Organized the books that Geoff so lovingly brought upstairs. I went into the basement into the area I want to make my office and I moved around boxes, and I honestly can't believe there is still more stuff to go through. Why, Lord? Why do I have such stuffs?

I unpacked two other boxes of books and put things on the Gary bookshelf that Geoff stole to the basement. I moved all the pieces of his drum set into the water cooler room and I'm thinking of reaching out to the local FB page to see if there is someone who wants to come help him set the drum set back up. Where our furnace is, there is TONS of storage, so I moved a shit ton of boxes in there. 

I swept the staircase that goes to the basement because I noticed how messy it had gotten. And I also noticed the staircase going up to our room is also kind of in need of a swiffer or wiping. Tomorrow. Not tonight.

For some reason I felt incredibly restless this evening so it is good to feel that way and channel that shit into action. Usually it is baking, but I'm trying not to bake lest I eat all the cookies.

And happily, the dishwasher is loaded and running before bed. Nice clean kitchen to welcome us in the morning. 

Digits below this snugglebeast who insisted on wrapping up into fleecies and usurping my sweatshirt. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Treadmill, 20 min/1.3 mi; raining so no walk for the dog. 11k+ steps by bedtime (thanks to all my futzing).

blood glucose:

8:30am: 137
5pm: 145
10:45pm: 112  

food & meds:
8:30am: jardiance (waiting on phentermine)
9:30am: apple w/pb; some mixed nuts
12:15pm: met+glip (on my way to the doctors for blood work, took earlier than usual) 
2pm: turkey and muenster on 647 white w/lite mayo
6pm: pierogis, mixed veggies, kielbasa. White wine.
8:45pm: met+glip

Not much to report

Yinz, i'm wiped out today. Just basically wanted to record the digits. I did two walks, so yay me. It was colder out today than yesterday and I underprepared for it, so Toffee and I cut it short and did a little more than a half mile 3 block loop. 

Tomorrow I am supposed to get blood work done, and so I may leave in the middle of the day - no meetings scheduled, so I blocked off the me time. Doug is overdue for some lab work so I'll see if he wants to come. 

My big big project for the day was getting the recycling boxes out to the curb and I did about 80% of what I wanted. Big fat difference down there. Still, more boxes to come...

Toffee is fast asleep and I am right behind her. 

More tomorrow! Digits below. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.  Two walks, one on the treadmill 24 min/1.5 mi. and one with miss Toffee because she needed it, 15 min/.62 mi. 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8am: 127
4:30pm: 126
9:30pm: 123  

food & meds:
8am: jardiance (waiting on phentermine)
1pm: 2 porkchops left over in sauce, topped with more sauce from a pot roast, and the veggies from that 
1:30pm: met+glip
3:30pm: some pita chips and pub cheese 
6pm: some sort of "chicken paprika" that Geoff got a recipe for. Not the best meal. But I didn't have to cook. 2 chicken thighs, some tomato based sauce, onions, garlic; scoop of white rice 
7:30pm: ramekin of mixed nuts
8:30pm: met+glip

Fog Pivot Kismet

Today, I got up super early. I got out the door before 7am. I thought hey. The fog they forecasted isn't so bad. Well. It was. In my neighborhood it seemed okay but the main drag through town to get to the highway, it was a challenge. If you could see the tail lights in front of you, you were lucky.

Once I got near the highway, Waze redirected and told me to go straight, don't get on the highway, take the side road. But with as bad as the fog was, I didn't want to risk it and drive on roads that I'm not 100% familiar with. 

The side road winds up through the mountains, and people drive like crazy. Two exits from where I live, and it said I'd save 5 minutes over all? Sure, but I could risk my whole ass life. 

No. I'll go sit in traffic. Thank you very much.

Thing is. Waze didn't tell me this. I was between my exit and the next one, when we ground to a total halt. It is a 3 mile stretch between exits. Traffic was 100% stopped. 

Just sitting. Sitting. We are all just sitting.

I decided after two hours of this sitting, I would give up and go home once, I got to the exit. 

Truly disappointing - my buddy Jeff was meeting me for the Tiny Desk,  so I messaged him. The GPS said I was not going to get to the metro until close to 10 am, then it is another hour thereabouts to my office once I got on t he train. I asked him if he minded bailing and he was cool with it. 

Once I got near the exit, I was surprised to see emergency vehicles blocking the entire highway, and a fireman directing traffic down to the ramp. 

I sat on the ramp for another 20 minutes because everyone ahead of me was trying to cross the state road and go back up onto the highway. But the traffic over there to get back on the highway was still not moving. Someone should have been directing folks to not try to get back on the highway.

I had to pee. Desperately. 

I thought about driving south down this road to the Sheetz, just to pee, maybe get a brekkie sandwich. Maybe sit and work for the day or at least until all this nonsense cleared up. 

I managed to get to the end of the ramp and turned north to get back on the highway going west, praying that it would stay clear for me. And it was. I got home at 9 something. Messaged my boss who just happened to be at the office to surprise me because he was very excited to go to the Tiny Desk too, and we booed very hard. 

Sometimes shit happens for a good reason though. 

My cousin posted to Facebook that she and her husband were at a hotel, socked in with the fog and waiting for it to clear, about 2 hours down the highway from me over by the Shenandoah Mountains. They basically would be driving right by our house by about 4 miles. 

I suggested they drive-by hug. 

She said she wasn't sure because they had to make tracks (I expected that response) but in the end, they decided to come on by. 

Overall, I think they were here about 20 minutes, and we had a super sweet little visit. 

And if I'd been at the office, this would not have happened. Kismet, right? 

Digits below.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.  Took Toffee for a walk. 20 min/1.13 miles. 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

6:45am: 132
4pm: 147
10pm: 107  

food & meds:
6:45am: jardiance (waiting on phentermine)
7:30am: protein shake
10am: several homemade popovers w/goat cheese and raspberry jam
1:30pm: met+glip; can of tuna mixed with field greens, bacon, a little mayo
4pm: mixed nuts
6pm: bowl of meatballs & sauce (no roll)
some white wine
8:30pm: met+glip

Still in my unboxing era

Yesterday I did a lot, today I did some more but not as much. I'm trying desperately to get the random stuff that is everywhere consolidated, repacked (if necessary) and stowed away. Part of me says that in theory, I could Marie Kondo some of this, because none of it brings me joy. It's just disorganization that drives me bananas. 

Doug had brought back a blue bookcase from his mom's and I noticed it was not in the mud room. So yesterday I asked Geoff if he'd taken it to his room and he said yes. 

I sighed. 

Did you think to ASK if you could have it because honestly, I could have used that somewhere else. And it belongs to your dad so you overstepped. 

Doug said 'meh, it's okay.' and it is, because I'm not going to make him unshelf whatever he shelved. 

I made a big dent in the mudroom, and I think once we get the recycling out of the house, it'll feel more free. Doug also brought home his bureau from his old bedroom, which we are giving to Geoff, but I'm going to suggest we keep it up in the mudroom, which is right by the laundry room, and he fold his stuff and keep t-shirts/underpants/socks in there. 

I can't see us schlepping this thing downstairs. 

Today I did a ton of user testing on our product, and I have problems and questions. I have notes. I wanted to say "perfect, no notes!" like one would do in theater. But I have notes. 

We have a standing meeting at 10am daily, and lately it has been going a whole hour instead of the 15 minutes we budget for it. 

I am sore today. Not sure why. And my stomach hurts. Jeeeze I hope I'm not coming down with something. 

Tomorrow I'm going to the office so there will be no unboxing from me. I have a 6am alarm set, shower and go. The bag is packed, the ID is stowed, the only thing I have to do is pack this laptop and the power cord. 

I'm off to bed. A little earlier than usual, but I truly am feeling kind of assy from the something. Not sure what. Hoping to sleep it off. Whatever it is. 

Digits, below!

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Treadmill 20 min, 1.27 mi. no attention span for this today but ... did the mile. 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:15am: 132
4:15pm: 91
9:30pm: 202 (*very close to when I took my meds, I usually test closer to 10:30. we'll see how the morning goes)

food & meds:
8:15am: jardiance (waiting on phentermine)
9:15am: last of the pan banging chocolate chip cookies (no guilt! lol) 
noon: bowl of blt salad w/goat cheese & pepitas
1pm: met+glip
4:45pm: bowl of spicy cajun trail mix & mixed nuts)
5:30pm: creamy broccoli and cheese soup (w/bacon!) a la Geoff
8pm: met+glip
no alcohol

Galentines and Get Stuff Done Days

I was so tired last night so apologies to C for not posting an entry. I know she looks for things to have something to read. But you get a double post today. 

Our girlies weekend kicked off with just a day visit yesterday. I left the house at 9am, stopped at our bank to deposit some checks and traffic made it that I didn't get to S's house until 10:30 when I'd promised to be there by 10. It was funny because I completely forgot there was a branch of our bank right by S's house and I could have gotten her and then stopped. Moving away, you forget things. 

I was very sad to drive past a favorite restaurant and see it closed. Doug said we moved out of town and they went out of business! 

Traffic was merciful to us on the way to H's north of Baltimore. If you know where I live, you know how far I drove from here, to Silver Spring, to north of Baltimore... 

But it is worth it for the girlies! 

My task was to stop and get champagne for the mimosas, so S & I stopped in at a little place near H's house (since the restaurant I mentioned was closed down, so was the beer and wine store that was attached. Such a loss... so sad!) 

We picked up a couple bottles and saw they had these super cute boozy presents, with Cutwater cocktails, candy, little stuffed animals. What a smart thing to have for sale on Valentine's Day at a liquor store as we're on our way to brunch. We grabbed H and R each a bag, and I put the cookies I'd made into each bag. 

It looked very much like we planned it ahead even though we bought them 5 minutes before arriving. 

I am not good at planning ahead for gifts sometimes, so I am your retail point of sale target for cute shit. Keep that in mind, retailers! R had little stuffed animals and candies for me and S. So gifts all around for the girlies!

We played with H's cats, chatted, caught up, and ate. H made a lovely spread for us. Because I was driving, I didn't have a lot of mimosa action, but what I had made me happy. 

You can see H's cat David Wallace up in the window there. Her cats are so sweet. It was nice to get some kitty love. 

After we ate we played Cards Against Humanity. I've never played it so they gave me the run down on the rules. It is kind of like Apples to Apples, which we played a lot with the kids when they were little. But grosser. S said they have "clean" family friendly versions, but they're actually quite boring. A lot of the answer cards in the family version mention pooping or farting, which some families STILL find disgusting and not appropriate. 

I remembered one of my college professors telling a class that he and his wife were at dinner with their three daughters and some of their daughters' friends, and somehow they started joking around about farts. And the girls were screaming laughing. 

Even evangelicals can find fart jokes funny, y'all. Farts are funny. Don't you ever forget that. So I smiled thinking about that memory and played a card where the answer was Donald J. Trump and it was disgusting and I won.

Have to say I did very well, didn't win (R did) but when the goal is to be gross and ridiculous, not just funny, and you make your friends scream because they literally didn't expect you to put down certain cards, I call that victory.

S had made plans for us to do an escape room. Escape rooms are her thing, kind of not mine. But her husband and son were coming up to meet us, and R's husband was coming from their place nearby, and seven of us took it on and beat it with 10 minutes to spare. 

I would kind of enjoyed just playing more Cards Against Humanity, but this was fun too. S and her family are very very very into the escape rooms and solving puzzles. It can be intimidating for me. I'm easily confused and I fail if the challenge is too hard. 

But winning with a team is always fun. We each had bits that we solved. Hen and I found the UV light money, and figured out the password to the computer. 

After the escape room, R and her husband were headed home to get ready to go to the Baltimore Symphony for a date. H, SS&H went to dinner, and I headed home. I got home before dark, which is lovely. It's still light at about 6pm so that worked out perfectly. 

S is planning to host our next shenanigans, whenever that will be, and I'm already looking forward to it. 

When I got home, Geoff had made dinner. Doug did a few things around the house and yard. He replaced our windshield wipers on the mini, cleared more snow out of our driveway so now it is 100% accessible. It was over 50 degrees yesterday so a lot of the snow and snowcrete on the ground is gone. Ready for this all to be finished at this rate. 

I needed to get my mile in for the town challenge so I hit the treadmill after dinner. Kind of a mistake because my belly was full of food and blah. No running, just walking, and getting it done. I crawled to bed at 10 and passed out. 

On Sunday we somehow woke up very early. It was raining, and Doug had a case of the Olympics, and then he went and took a nap at noon. 

I had hoped we'd do something fun, but that didn't happen. So I hit the treadmill, and started futz about with putting some things away. I cleaned up some boxes for recycling, took all of our luggage and duffel bags down to the basement and put them away. Doug had suggested we put all our shoes into this little cubby closet in the bedroom so I put all mine in there (I do not own a lot of shoes) and located all of his from the mud room, and put them in a laundry basket for him to sort through. Some are keepers and some are maybe just lawn mowing shoes at this point. 

Then, I looked at some of the basement situation and emptied out a couple book boxes. I stacked up some plastic boxes that were just hither and dither all over the place to compact things. Geoff has several half emptied boxes that are mostly trash now (in my opinion) and I want him to sort those so tomorrow I'll see if he wants to have at it and get some of the empty boxes up out of the basement. 

Once I have the lingering boxes put away I think I actually have no further excuses, I should set my office up downstairs. A project for another day! All told, a decent weekend.

Digits below the pic of us girlies. 

Saturday digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Treadmill, 30 min/1.63; 10k+ steps by bedtime (almost 11k, but I just could not. lol)

blood glucose:

8am: 83
xpm: n/a
10pm: 143

food & meds:
8am: jardiance+phentermine
8am: large pan bang chocolate chip cookie
noon: scrambled eggs w/cheddar cheese, 3 pieces of turkey bacon, some fruit salad, 1 piece of toast; 1 mimosa
1pm: met+glip
6pm: piece of chicken parm
8:45pm: met+glip

Sunday digits

exercise: x/12 hours. Treadmill, 31 min/2.01 miles; 11k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

7am: 103
xpm: n/a (forgot to test)
10:30pm: 142

food & meds:
7am: jardiance+phentermine; small piece of pb pan bang cookie
11:30am: bowl of mac & cheese w/hamburger
12pm: met+glip
6pm: 3 slices of buffalo chicken pizza
8:45pm: met+glip
white wine (3 glasses)

Project Managing

In the midst of this big project we're doing, I'm not the project manager but a person on the team. A few people, my boss and another director on the team, are doing an exceptional job herding the cats. 

It is kind of funny, not my boss but the other co-worker J is very good at sending (somewhat constant) reminders of where I am on certain spreadsheets. Today was "Good news, there are only 40 of these things that still need verified!" 

Considering I was supposed to be done with this earlier in the week, I feel that is an exceptionally kind way of telling me "hey. Finish this, dummy!" 

I'm thankful for his gentle coaxing.

He's also VERY good at filtering the google sheets so what I need to see at the top of the sheet is those 40 rows (hey....!!! Four of them have been accounted for! I rule!) The data are a freaking mess, so a sheet with 2000 rows so many of them "TBD" and that's what I'm supposed to be doing, he has filtered out the "cancel" and "archive" and "active" statuses for me. 

My brain cannot sift through and find the TBDs with all the other things. And several of us are in this sheet, so if I sort things so TBD is at the top, basically, someone comes in and unfilters my filter while I am looking at it. Which sends me spiraling, and usually to the kitchen for a snack, or I pick up my phone and doom scroll. 

I'm not a good project manager, except for the checking in, looking at things, and reminding colleagues "hey. Finish this, dummy!" 

Today was supposed to be a revisit of our fun girlie's day in November, this time with a sleepover and an escape room. Then one thing happened, another thing happened, some bad medical news for one girlie, and we cut out the sleepover. We're still doing the escape room tomorrow, since one of our girlies prepaid it. I'm going to pick S up at 10am tomorrow, we'll go to H's house, R is meeting us there, and we'll do brunchies (H is insisting on cooking for us, even though I offered to chef some shit up) and I'm going to allow it. And I should be home before dark. 

They all know I have a difficult time seeing to drive at night, but I did say this won't be a problem if I'm on the road before 5 because of the snow, it helps define where road is. Instead of everything being grey and dark brown and there not being any street lights and no paint on the road, I feel relatively safe.

I had planned this afternoon off since I thought I was going to get S today. Then I thought, I'll take my time off request back. Then I thought screw that, take the damn time off!... and finally I had enough to do today to keep me crazy and busy, so I worked. In the end, the time off request was taken back. 

That helped me to actually focus on the spreadsheets and the work. The QA user testing, the note taking. It wasn't wasted time. I worked until 4, and then started with some wine.

Geoff made a nice dinner, and I ended up baking more of the pan banging cookies. Chocolate chip and then Peanut Butter. Both are outstanding. I used our potato masher to make patterns on the peanut butter cookies because that's mandatory! 

Alright. Bed. So tired. Up early tomorrow for shenanigans. Digits below this cute picture from A's school of rock show.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Treadmill, 32 min/2 miles. 11k+ steps by bedtime.

blood glucose:

8am: 113
5pm: 145
10:30pm: 91

food & meds:
8am: jardiance+phentermine
noon: a bunch of the buffalo chicken dip left over w/pita crackers (a lot of pita crackers)
1:45pm: met+glip
6pm: 2 italian sausages w/onion and pepper, red sauce and mozz. cheese. I skipped the roll. 
9pm: met+glip
red wine+diet ginger ale