Thank you for being the best part of XYZ thing!

My boss insisted I take today off, and I listened to him, and did so. 

Like Monday, when I said "sometimes you take a day off," sometimes your boss insists you take the day off. I am all for it. Thank you to my boss for extending the grace to me to do this and have a day. 

I'm still seeing Slack messages, and chatted with my work son for a bit. He's off to NY on a weekend Broadway Show trip. We usually have a check-in on Fridays, so we still had our check-in, but didn't talk work stuff. Just about the hospital thing and how much damn fun he's going to have. And how jelly I am

I slept until 10:50, woke up in time to do that hour's steps and went straight into 11am's steps. Seeing as I missed 9am. Gotta make up for lost steps. Especially since I got 300 steps on Wednesday while in the hospital. This week will not be a winner.  

Chores and tasks. Those needed done. I got the laundry ready to roll. I scheduled payment on our October mortgage (I manage things manually instead of auto pay, and pick the Friday before the first of the month's payment due date and check our bank balances and stuff). I made a capital one payment. I smiled seeing that Geoff also made a payment for stuff he's bought. He's an authorized user on our account now and every single time he uses the card, he pays exactly that amount. It is darling. Build that credit history for your bad self, son. 

He got an offer from Capital One to open his own account, so ... he applied, was approved, and he'll start using his own account once the card comes. 

Fly baby, fly. Build your little credit rating. Finally.

I had been getting emails for weeks now from our mortgage company saying we needed to update our address, which seemed peculiar to me. Because, um. We bought this house? And we live here? When I log in to make payments, I see that our address is correct. We... have been here almost a year? (really? REALLY???) So? Whut? 

I went to our personal account details page and saw my address was correct, but Doug's address was listed at the old house. Peculiar! okay. I'll fix that. But no.

Stupidly, the stupid thing was I can't edit the stupid address. Whut?

Hilarious that yinz send me emails saying the address is wrong but your bitch website won't let me change it.  

I called their customer service, I hate calling anywhere. because you end up in a disgusting maze of auto attendant hell. And you never get things done that you need done. But they had a human come on rather quickly, much to my surprise and relief. The guy at the other end took care of it. Did not say "I need to talk to Mr. Your Husband," the way things sometimes are when you call a place and it isn't your personal information you're calling in reference to. He just did it. Boom. Thank you.

He asked "May I assist you with anything else today?" I told him that was quite alright, perfect, you did what I needed done. Thank you.

Then he said "Thank you for being the best part of [Mortgage Company]!" before we hung up. Putting emphasis on best like that. I'm the best part of this business transaction thingie.

How ... adorable. 

I'm always peculiarly tickled with things like that. I've never had customer service thanking me for being the best part of XYZ thing. I thought about how I could use that in closing salutations on helpdesk tickets going forward. 

People would probably think I lost my damn mind? 

I renewed our AAA membership and I updated our address. I'd been getting emails on that for about a month. 

Many things done and dusted. Using our time for getting shit accomplished, one might say. Eventually I did hit the treadmill, had a run for 30 min (last 5 were walking) and got a shower. I realized I had not showered since Tuesday and I felt super icky. Then, I felt super awesome.

Geoff went to Aldi for groceries and everything he wasn't able to get, I added to a list for Target. I've been meaning to go to Target for a while, I had some bathroom things to get, new bathmat and slippy thing for the tub, we needed bleach and tide pods, TP/PT, all that jazz. Stuff you don't get at the Aldi. 

No one was at Target. I kind of love when stuff like that happens, I had the place to myself, and was able to fart around up and down the aisles. I danced to Peter Gabriel and Squeeze in the aisle. Don't take me out in public, sometimes.

I've been meaning for quite some time to get a 360 degree mattress enclosure to put our split king together. Trust me friends, don't get a split king mattress, even if you think it sounds like a good idea to have separate sides to go up/go down/whatever. It's not good. Nope. 

We've had this bed for quite some time now, and we've just dragged our feet on solutionizing this.  

Now that I have the mattress enclosure, and a nice new set of king sized bed sheets, we'll be good to go to fix this up when we get back from Pennsylvania. Wish us luck. 

The other bit of news is Doug was fixing the taillight on our car tonight, and there was a puppy running around the neighborhood. Doug scooped him up, and he's seen him in a yard a street over, so he went to the house. The guy said "oh, I gave him to the girls in the house over there," so Doug went and knocked on the door. No answer. 

He knocked on the neighbors' door in the duplex and the guy said "oh, yeah. he usually stays in the yard..." 

Thing is, there is no fence? So Doug was a little stunned. The guy took the puppy back, and Doug was a little pissed. 

Dimes to donuts we see this puppy again soon. No puppy is going to "stay in the yard" with no fence.

People suck, and you know what, that guy is not the best part of XYZ thing. Fuck him. 

Okay. off to bed. In the morning, Doug and I are aiming for a hopefully early departure to get to his mom's. Wish us luck. 

No picture, but digits below! 

digits

exercise: 11/12 hours. Slept through 9am. Treadmill, 30 min/1.75 mi; 11k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose: 

11am: 172
5pm: 130
10pm: 190 (* see dinner time vs. when I took meds vs. this result) 

food & meds:

11am:  Jardiance (skipping new meds for now)
11am: blueberry muffin
2pm: english muffin w/sausage & american cheese (too lazy to do an egg) 
3pm: met+glip
6:30pm: small bag of peanut m&ms (i was feeling gross at the store and needed something) 
7:30pm: bowl of geoff's chicken pasta alfredo
8:30pm: met+glip
white wine

The Strait of Hormuz Only... in My Bowels

I was released from the hospital this afternoon, and everything shows that no one knows why this happened, what happened, and heck, they don't know if it will happen again. 

Suffice to say, I'm going to be paying incredibly close attention to my belly. This was weird, unexpected, and fucking annoying. I hated it, and do not recomend.

Thank God no surgery was needed, and whatever it was indeed was taken care of by the barium contrast they had me drink. May I never have to do this again. May none of you ever have to do this, ever.

The surgeon and his residents came to see me yesterday, before the contrast X-ray tests. He described what he saw on the CT scan as a "kink" in a hose, and that there could be "just a blockage" or an actual adhesion. We'd know more after the X-rays. 

I made a joke about my bowel being the Strait of Hormuz, and there's a blockage there, as we all know the history of right now, and we need to deal with and resolve with diplomacy. 

He caught right on, and said "yes. A diplomatic solution! We don't want boots on the ground in this situation so let's see how the X-ray negotiations work." 

A couple of his residents thought this was hilarious. He had a very wry smile, and I could tell that he was okay to make dark jokes with him in this situation. 

Dark humor is how I deal with all of this kind of shit. No pun intended. And he picked up the vibe.

At about 7:30am, they brought me more clear liquids, after the surgical resident put in that I could go on regular food. So I drank the chicken broth, ate the jello. Passed on the other things. 

Then, at about 10:30am a regular breakfast came, late, but it came. I've never been so happy to eat cold pancakes, cold scrambled eggs, and cold bacon. It was utter joy. And to be honest, it tasted fine. I'm sure if it was served warm at the 8am service time it would have been amazing. 

Still. Damn, good to eat this. 

The X-rays came back clear. When the surgeon and all the residents came back to see me he said a "celebratory lunch" needed to be consumed in order for us to be sure that all negotiations over the Strait of Hormuz were in place and regular shipping business can resume. I thanked him for using such great diplomacy. I pointed out that I literally just ate breakfast. He said that was fine unless I really didn't want it. 

No, I want it. Your girl is hunnnnnnngry after all the diplomacy we just did to open up the Strait of Hormuz. 

Lunch came at 12:30, open face roast beef with some mashed potatoes and broccoli. It was very tasty but I could have skipped the bread in the open faced sandwich part. It wasn't toasted so it was mushy. I ate around it. I enjoyed the mashed potatoes. 

The surgical team came back to check on me to make sure I pooped, I did. I let the world know it. 

The regular floor doctor came to see me too and we had a discussion about what happened. I asked him, "So please tell me, what the hell happened? What on earth was this? Is it going to happen again?" He said he has no idea why it happened, how it happened, and if it would happen again but we know some warning signs. Like I didn't feel good on Monday? Yeah.

They signed off on releasing me, Doug came and got me. I am so happy to be home. Toffee was so happy for me to be home. 

Home. 

I was a little more than disappointed that no one loaded the dishwasher or did anything since Tuesday night when I ... loaded the dishwasher and whatnot. Disgruntled, I did that and Doug went out and mowed the lawn in the 90+ degree heat. 

Okay. I wouldn't trade that. Glad he did that. 

I also made dinner, and whined that we didn't have wine, so he went out and got me some. 

Not mad. Not mad at all. Happy he knos how to read a room.

Linz and I talked for a couple hours, and I did steps around the house but didn't hit the treadmill. Just internal steps. I'll get back on my bullshit tomorrow.

My boss basically ordered me to take tomorrow off, and I already have Tuesday off. We thought about canceling our trip to see Doug's mom, but we are going to go after all. 

Weird to have such a long bit of time off, and for ... weird reasons. But I'm not complaining. I'll take it. 

Digits below.

digits

exercise: 7/12 hours (fitbit battery was dead, charged up and got it going once home). Walking in the house, 30min/1.24 mi.  7k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose: 

6am: 138
4:45pm: 153
11pm: 100 

food & meds:

food is a blur, I had liquid diet (chicken stock) then pancakes/eggs/bacon
12:30pm: open face meatloaf sandwich, mashed potatoes, broccoli, grapes
7:30pm: 2 bowls of tuna casserole
8:45pm: met+glip
white wine
9:30pm: 2 blueberry muffins, homemade with love

just a note

Alrighty then. 

Last night, around 10:30pm, I had an acute sudden onset of pain in my upper abdomen. It would not stop. So Doug suggested we go to the hospital. 

I was very reluctant to go to the emergency room. I knew we'd be there for so many hours. I thought for sure, this is nothing and this too shall pass. But my husband is a medical professional, and I listened to him. And I'm glad I did.

After a CT scan, they said I may have a bowel adhesion, or, some sort of blockage. 

So what you're saying is that if it is not adhesion, I'm full of shit. Alright. 

I had a surgical consult, I was admitted at 4:30am. 

I was in some of the worst pain in my life. Everyone was super sweet, except one nurse who kept saying "you're going to have to calm down and understand..." 

Oh ma'am, no. Fuck you I'm in pain. Please go away. I do not like you. 

Some Dilaudid  later and things were a lot better. I relaxed. 

The day consisted of an X-ray followed by "contrast" and then another X-ray 6 hours later and things worked out. I think everything is 100% better. Including the fact that I did poop my brains out for 10 minutes and all the pain went away. 

So yeah? I was just full of shit?

I'm spending the night here in the hospital, not absolutely sure why but, I guess the discharge orders couldn't be set up in time for the cut off time for that to happen. 

No biggie. Doug and Geoff came to visit, brought me some things, and I'll go home in the morning. 

Hopefully a little lighter? lol. 

Anyway. That's the update for right now. More after I get back to the house. I think our planned trip to Doug's mom is off. Probably. We'll see. 

Reservations

Since Linz and I are going to 2 shows back to back in a couple weeks, I got us a hotel room for the Fri/Sat night. I also learned a lot about the venue, that you can bring coolers and drinks and stuff in. It sounds a little like Tanglewood up in Massachusetts, and it is our first time here. Probably not our last. 

It is actually a state park, I think. And because I can't see to drive at night too well, especially in new/dark places, I'm happy to find they run a shuttle from a metro station not too too far away. 

I bought these tickets in the forever ago times. It hardly seems real that the time is coming, now, here we go. 

Geoff made his hotel reservation for Thursday night and then found out campus is closing at noon for the holiday weekend. 

In theory, he can cancel. But he is opting to stay, and attend the lecture on Zoom (his teacher sent a note to the students that there will be no in person meeting). He doesn't have to check out of the hotel until noon, so he'll hopefully be on the road at a decent time and not suffer in traffic. 

I asked him if he didn't just want to cancel and come home Thursday and he said no, he really wanted to go. I'm not gonna argue with him. He can make decisions for hisself. He is grown. 

Jess and their good friend Cat are going to a funeral in NJ this weekend. It occurs to me that they may be having fucking shit horrible traffic so I hope they are able to get on the road super duper early Saturday morning. I got them a hotel, Jess thinks I used points but. I used not points. 

Jess is going as a comfort animal, they didn't know Cat's friend but they love and care for Cat. This person was in Cat's nursing school graduation class, and this is heartbreaking. She had cancer that metastasized to her brain, and at the end, Cat was lucky to have some time on her last lucid day. 

I did the treadmill for a mere 15 minutes today, in between some meetings. I did extra steps the other hours, trying to hit 350 instead of 250. Pays off, the shorter run didn't leave me lacking. After dinner I felt super sick. My belly is killing me. I felt fine until pie. I should not have had pie. But, oh pie, you are so lovely. 

Hoping this pain goes away and I don't wake up in agony at some horrible wee hour. Cross your fingers. Here's miss Toffee, begging for some mixed nuts during my 5pm meeting. Cute as can be. Digits below. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Treadmill, 15 min/1.12 mi. 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose: 

8:45am: 118
4:30pm: 110
10pm: 163 

food & meds:

8:45am: jardiance, new meds
9:15am: heel of the multigrain bread, toasted w/butter
2:45pm: bowl of berry yogurt w/homemade granola, met+glip
3:45pm: new meds
4:45pm: ramekin of mixed nuts
6:30pm: small bowl of pasta w/meat sauce
8pm: slice of apple pie, met+glip
no wine/alcohol

Sometimes you take a day off

I didn't sleep at all well last night. I went to bed at 9pm, and woke up at 3. Take it from me, kids. Do not go to bed at 9pm. You wake up at 3. 

Downstairs to the guest room, podcasts on. Lore, Crimes of the Centuries, and Strange and Unexplained. Slept off and on through each one until we got to S&U and it was about porn star John Holmes and the Wonderland Murders. Lots of stuff I never had heard about, and Daisy is interesting (and funny as hell) so I did not fall back asleep for a while. Geoff left for work around 4:30. I think I opted to turn the podcast off so I could maybe fall asleep. It worked.

I felt incredibly thirsty when I woke up, so I drank a lot of water. And didn't get up to pee too much so, I must have needed it. 

Around 8, after hitting snooze several times, I finally got up and decided to just call out. Absolutely not in the mood to work, not in the mood to do, not in the mood to participate. I sat on the couch with Toffee, I know I should be proofreading a book for a friend. But ugh. I just didn't want to do anything. 

At 4, I started making chili for dinner so it could simmer and spend a couple hours getting flavory. 

I took a small nap. Because of course. 

We discovered that somehow, our EZpass account was overdrawn, and the auto-replenishment was turned off. Damn. We got a toll letter from Pennsylvania from Doug's trip in June, so I figured out our login, paid everything overdrawn and set up the auto-dealie again. 

Doug is going to contest the over 70.00 in tolls and fines seeing as they debited the account 20 bucks each way on the turnpike when he took it. 

Fuck the turnpike. Jeeeeeeezuz. 

I did the treadmill. Listened to more Daisy and the Strange and Unexplained show. Quickly becoming my new favorite. 

Dinner was good, We had a giant thunderstorm and a double rainbow. Very lovely.

That's about it. Before the big storm, I was poking around the yard and enjoyed some flowers. Like this one.

And. I did head to bed at 9. It is pouring out, otherwise I would have taken miss Toffee for a stroll. I still have to proofread the book, but oh ... so tired. 

 Digits below.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours Treadmill run, 30 min/2.15 mi; 11k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose: 

8:45am: 123
4:30pm: 159
9pm: 170 

food & meds:

8:45am: jardiance, new meds
11:30am: pb&j on multigrain bread
1pm: met+glip
3pm: new meds
6:30pm: bowl of chili w/fritos & shredded cheese
7pm: met+glip
no wine/alcohol

Not Even 9pm

I am ready for bed. I feel like it is midnight, it isn't even 9pm. Why is it not 9pm yet and I'm crashing!!!! Bah!

More tomorrow, but, just a quick update: Since C asked. 

Geoff did great with his baby's first hotel adventure and first couple days of school. His classes went great, and on Friday he was home before 5pm. I hope the rest of the semester goes this well. I had more energy, oh how I would provide. Reminded him tonight to make his hotel reservation for Thursday. Had to help him print a mess of things, not sure why his computer doesn't work from the basement but that's what mom is for, right?

Dudes, I'm getting in bed. Oh my gosh am I tired. Sorry for the blah post but. zzzzzzz

Digits are .... there.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours Treadmill run, 30 min/2.18mi. 12k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose: 

8:15am: 112
4pm: 71
8:45pm: 161 

food & meds:

8:15am: jardiance, new meds
10am: piece of cheese danish
12noon: everything bagel w/chive & onion cream cheese and roast beef; met+glip
4pm: some ritz crackers
white wine
6:15pm: chicken satay w/peanut sauce on fajita wraps (my own concoction!) 
7:30pm: met+glip

High as an elephant's eye

Last night I told Doug I wanted to do something fun today. It is supposed to rain tomorrow, so do let's. Oh, do let's. 

We were doing the morning coffee/phone games thing and he said he wanted to head to the farm stand for apples and whatever else they had going on. So we were out the door by 12:30 (good for us!) and out and about. 

The farm stand was hopping, and we had fun looking around. Prices seem to be very high, but that didn't stop us from making a hefty selection. Everything was colorful and fragrant. I wish we planted these kinds of peppers, and that our yellow tomatoes did better. Oh well. 

Apples, nectarines, and corn procured, we went on a scenic drive. We went through areas we haven't been through yet, and found ourselves in Frederick County. Road after road lined with corn. Corn was everywhere. Some of the fields were harvested and cut down, we saw deer out in the middle of the day behind some church, and they just gawked at us. 

Seriously, I think they were surprised to see us like we were surprised to see them.  

It was time to decide what to do, head home, take naps? or drive a little further south yet. We weren't too far from the South Mountain Creamery, but we opted to head down to Brunswick to the Smoketown Brewing Station. 

We haven't been there for quite a while, I think about this time last year we were looking at a house not too far away and thought of stopping in but the place was packed. There was a line out the door - some sort of special event... so we continued moving on. 

Today, not as big a crowd. It looks like there was some sort of bike race or something, lots of people with biking clothes on, and even a guy riding a penny-farthing toodled by and everyone had a big smile checking him out. 

I texted a friend of mine who lives in town, we used to work together, she got a new job and left, and got married, and now she's running for a county office. Super proud of her. She's so delightful. I didn't hear back from her, not surprising because she's usually out campaigning on weekends. But she showed up, and it was nice, and we had a good yap. 

We headed home and Doug was super keen on getting the corn going, and I grilled the hotdogs (two nights in a row is two days more than I've had hotdogs in the longest freaking time. The corn was amazing, I was only going to have one ear but that second was there waiting for me. Had to do it. 

Doug has been watching the TV Series for Brideshead Revisited, and I just am not interested (although, very young Jeremy Irons is pretty cute). I took Toffee for a walk and spent time outside with her. Then I ended up taking a rather big nap. 

All told, we set out for fun, we did "do let's" and it was great. Here's me and my friend. Digits below!

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours Toffee Walk 20min/.95 mi, Treadmill walk 10 min/.64 mi. 11k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose: 

8:45am: 124
5pm: 181
10:30pm: 164 

food & meds:

8:45am: jardiance, new meds
9am: last 2 chocolate chip cookies w/coffee
10:45am: small bowl of mac&cheese w/bacon
beers at the brewery (approx 3pm?)
5pm: new meds
5:30pm: 2 hotdogs w/full carb rolls, 2 ears of corn, some watermelon, another beer
8pm: met+glip

Fridge Clean Out

It has to happen once in a while, right? 

I'd been gone most of the month of August, pretty much, and the guys made a lot of food. Without me here to eat my fair share, there were leftovers. 

Heck, there were leftovers from before I left. 

And I was looking for something when I saw that there was a bag of cherries way, way in the back that had gone straight to oblivion. 

It was time to clean out the fridge. 

Big open time in the middle of the day today, so I went in and cleaned things out. I'm not sure why we have 5 different containers of stock (2 beef, 2 chicken, one vegetable) but okay. Use-by date stamps on all of them are in the future so I combined the doubles, and made for some good space. 2 containers of heavy whipping cream, one was way past its use-by date, so that got pitched and it made me sad. The other one is still super good and I like making homemade whipped cream so heck yeah, I'll do that tomorrow. 

Several almost empty jars of jelly, preserves, jams etc. No duplicates but I've put them into the front so people see them and use them. Two pieces of toast or one pb&j sammitch will take care of things. 

Five, count'em, 5 Hamburger Dill Pickle jars, all open, all somewhat used, now combined into 1 and a half. 

Beer that was pushed to the way back of the fridge which now has been brought to the door. Some of it I won't drink, like I don't like thes Kona Fruity Hawaiian beers, there are a couple Shandy beers that I'm just not into. But oh heck yeah, here's a Cushwa. 

We'll drink them and make room for others. 

And the aforementioned leftovers. All but one container of things was pitched. Doug had made some sort of stew while I was away, and it is still very good. Not to be pitched, and had I known about it that's what I would have had for lunch yesterday. 

The next step would be taking out all the shelves and cleaning them all, but I'm not mentally there. I should get mentally there. Things should always be cleaned. But I'm not sure how these shelves come out, unlike my last refrigerator where I knew and could easily do that. These look complicated. And I don't enjoy complicated. 

Now we can go buy more food and have places to put it. And seeing as Doug wasn't "thinking that far ahead" to dinner for tonight, I went to the market. I'm always uninspired so I asked him what he wanted. He said hot dogs. Okay. Hot dogs it is. Classy. I sat out until I got too many bug bites. It was a gorgeous night out.

Digits below! 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours Treadmill run, 20 min/1.36 mi. 11k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose: 

8:45am: 115
4:15pm: 178
11pm: 137 

food & meds:

8:45am: jardiance, new meds
8:45am: slab of raspberry danish
1:30pm: tuna salad on multigrain toast; met+glip
4:15pm: new meds
7:30pm: 2 hotdogs, full carb buns, some potato salad, white wine
8:30pm: met+glip

The Corner Pub

I set an alarm for 6am today because I knew Geoff was leaving around 6:30. I was on my way down the stairs and I could hear him talking out loud to himself, "He wants me to take the volvo but where the fuck are the keys?" 

At least he wasn't screaming. I might have been screaming. 

It was my fault he couldn't find the keys - they were in my purse. I committed the massive sin of not putting them into the bowl by the front door. It is my rule, and I'm super hung up on it, so the fact that I didn't follow my own thing is kind of ... ironic. 

I found the keys for him, gave him a bag with cookies, encouraged him to take a water bottle (stay hydrated, don't pay for water!) 

I know he is anxious about all this. I think he feels like Doug is pushing him out of the house but he's not - one night a week is not the end of the world, or the end of you living here, but get a taste of not living here. Even if it is a hotel. 

As he was packing his bag and all, he said "The next 15 weeks of my life will either be really great or hell." 

"It's going to be what you make it, pal. So make it the best and go for it." 

He didn't say anything back, so I asked him to let me know he was off before he left. I was going to lie down on the guest bed with the dog. 

Don't leave without saying goodbye. 

He left without saying goodbye. 

This made me a little sad. But. I'm hoping when he arrives home tomorrow in the evening, he'll have a good feeling about everything, and be more confident and calm. I kind of feel like maybe he should have done a hotel test run, solo, but Doug said that's a stupid waste of money. 

True, but. Still. 

Anyway. 

Work was pretty good, no meetings except an office hours for the team and clients. I love when we have office hours. My favorite meeting on the calendar. 

I hit the treadmill immediately after and thought about going for 30 min but stopped. I had to do something, get a shower, get back to business. 

We didn't get to the grocery store and without Geoff at home, neither of us is very motivated to do so. I was about to do that and was waiting for a giant thunder and lightning storm to wrap up. Linda wanted to chat, so we got on a video call. Then Doug came downstairs and suggested we go to this little mexican restaurant around the corner for dinner. 

Driving over, she was closed. I don't know if she is permanently closed or if they are on vacation but. Oh well. 

There's a corner pub nearby, walking/stumbling distance from our house. We pulled into their parking lot. There were a ton of "regulars" there, and they all know each other. Some dudes were ragging on someone having a "skinny short dick" and "that's why you didn't go for him," which had everyone in stitches. 

One lady realized we were "new" people and asked them to tone it down, tone it down... and one guy said "yeah that's okay that's okay, I like eatin' pussy anyway so I don't go for them little skinny dicks anyhow." 

Alrighty then. 

We had beers, and they had a simple menu, so Doug got a fish sandwich and I got a burger. The lady next to me, I'll call her Suzi-Q, she was sweet and she lives in Pennsylvania but comes down here to hang out. Her brother lives nearby so they get together a lot. 

There was an internet jukebox. Plenty of classic rock and classic country. 

I'm glad we stopped in. Not sure I'd be a "regular," but it has a certain old bar kind of vibe. Lots of exposed wood, neon, some big TVs and on one they were showing the Jennifer Aniston/Cameron Diaz "classic" She's the One. Kind of not an appropriate movie, but, it did lead to some conversations at the bar.

The kitchen was very clean, and open for everyone to see. They have a shuffleboard league on Tuesday nights! The lady working was doing all the things, bar tending, cooking, serving, cleaning up. She said on league nights, there's two of them working. But most of the time just one person pulling all the duties. It's a family business. 

Doug dropped me off at home and headed over to the market to get a loaf of bread so we at least have something for lunch tomorrow. I asked him to also get something for dinner and he said "I'm not thinking that far into the future. While he was at the market, I did extra treadmill steps because I knew I was going to fall short if I didn't. 

Took one picture of the bar. Interesting night, I'll say. 

Digits below!

digits

exercise: 11/12 hours; missed 9am, slept through it. made up for it during 10am. Treadmill trot, 25 min/1.8 mi. 15 min treadmill walk to make up for steps, .8 miles; 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose: 

10am: 150
5pm: 80
10:15pm: 163 

food & meds:

10am: jardiance, new meds
11am: a bunch of broken last night's cookies
3pm: new meds (a little earlier than usual but I was upstairs and grabbed them so I would not forget)... 
5pm: ritz crackers & pb
6:30pm: 3 beers, cheeseburger & fries
7:30pm: met+glip

Keep the Queers in Your Life

Because I let myself do a big Do Nothing day on Sunday I need to up my steps this week to get up above an 11k average. I have hit 10k+ every day this week but I'm under a 10k average for the week so far. 

Maybe I'll.... do more before the end of Saturday. 

Today I woke up in this Dolly Parton Void World, thinking of childhood literacy and being a rhinestone instead of a diamond. Work was going well until I heard of the death of Tim Curry. 

Now. 

C'mon. 

Honestly. What? 

First of all, everyone reading this go check on your gays! GO NOW AND CHECK ON THEM BECAUSE THIS IS ARMAGEDDON TO THEM!

At the core of my Christian cishet privileged white woman existence, your girl is shook. 

I'm thinking about how both Dolly and Tim Curry ushered in a period of time culturally where people were encouraged to be themselves, embrace who they are, "don't dream it, be it!" Where her songs were all about accepting your roots and rising up to being amazing, and Tim was just the sweet transvestite from transexual Transylvania, and everyone should be all of these things. 

It is OK. 

I remember going to see Rocky Horror so many times in theaters in my hometown, where many of my friends were all closeted, afraid. Afraid of their families and society. 

And I will tell you what. 

I was there for it. Let your freak flag fly, and I'mma prop you up and defend you against all the shitheels who come at us from all sides. I saw you in the 80s, I see you today, and I love you.

I told someone on Bluesky that my religious observances are based on the teaching of Dolly Parton and Mr. Rogers and I mean that to my soul. And I recognize that yes, she was beloved by "both sides" of the political spectrum, but only one side defunded her charity bringing books to children from birth. Yeah, they loved some of her songs like Islands in the Stream, or Here you come Again, but had no desire to support her "controversial" side where she stood up for the marginalized and impoverished and she stood up for literacy no matter what. 

Part of me so very much hates the universe right now. 

Anyway. 

It's been a rough couple days and I'm sad. I'm also irritated. 

Work was hard, but good. I had a great meeting with my boss. My work son is super bummed about the universe, just like me so we had a big commiseration moment. I love him. I love having moments where we can just scream together. 

Speaking of screaming. 

Tomorrow morning, Geoff leaves for his first 2 day run at college. 

He has a hotel reservation for Thursday night. He understands how to work this all. He made the reservation himself. He'll check in and check out. He will partake in the hotel hot breakfast. They have a pool. I've encouraged him to embrace this all. 

He'll decide if the hotel is decent enough to return next week or, to or "hell fucking no" it all and we'll help him pick something better.

He will leave tomorrow at around 6am to drive down and go straight to the college. He has to register his car for a parking pass. He has a giant break between the morning class and the afternoon lab, so I encouraged him to just chill, go to the mall, see if the hotel can do early check-in but not be disappointed if they cannot. 

We put the Mini in the shop earlier this week for an oil change and tune-up and it turns out, she's not healthy. She needs a new Turbo Dealie (technical term) which will cost about 5k to repair. 

D'oh. 

So he'll take the Volvo on his trip this week, which is good, The mini is "good for non-highway" trips. Around town stuff. We can deal with that. Plus, the Aux adapter in the mini is broken, so that makes for travel being no fun when you need your GPS and your heavy black metal stuff at 6am. 

Doug is looking for a new car, but, we can technically just drive the mini for local stuff forever at this point. I'd rather we do that and like, do other things like work around the house.

I decided to bake cookies tonight. I was feeling big anxiety, so. Baking. Baking is the thing to do when the world feels awful and when you're just frazzled. 

I took a recipe off the Ghirardelli chocolate chips bag, and added an extra stick of butter the way I usually do with the regular Nestle chips. I thought it sounded like the recipe didn't call for enough flour overall, and I was right. Should have trusted my instincts.

The cookies spread out all over the pan, and it was messy. Soooooooo messy. But also, not complaining, it was also so delicious.  I added a little bit extra butter for the last 8 cookies and those are much better.

I'll send those with Geoff tomorrow. So he has a bit of home with him.

Tonight, he was making dinner after work, and Doug and I went to pick up the car. He said "I'm gonna miss this," which struck me as funny. 

"Oh honey. You'll be home Friday afternoon, and you can cook dinner every night between then and Thursday morning when you leave again. You're not moving out, you're coming back. I'll just need to know what you want to make, so that we have groceries in the house for you." 

I love this guy. And I love that he loves to cook, for us and for himself. Someday he'll have his own place and be cooking all the time. 

And I'll be eating PB&J sammitches every night because I can't be bothered to cook!

This morning I was up early, and Toffee and I enjoyed the porch. Late August is delightful. I like it here. 

Digits, below. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours; treadmill run, 25 min/1.85 mi 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose: 

7:45am: 107
4pm: 200 (see apple pie below)
10pm: 102 

food & meds:

7:45am: jardiance, new meds
8:45: a couple oreo cookies w/coffee
1pm: homemade granola, Oikos OOO yogurt mixed; met+glip
3pm: slab of apple pie w/whipped cream (I really just wanted the whipped cream but needed an excuse)
6pm: chicken & rice a la Geoff; wine
7:30pm: more wine; met+glip
8pm: chocolate chip cookie mess spectacular; more wine