90% moved

We don't have internet at the new house yet. I'm at the old house, where we still have internet (Today is a holiday so Verrrreyezin had to put us off until tomorrow for the switch-over). 

Geoff has a test tomorrow morning, Doug has to work. Internet is here. So they'll be here in the morning. 

Coffee will be here, too, so the boys will get themselves set up for their things in the morning, and I'll figure myself out. 

I think I'll be mostly down the other house, unpacking and organizing. I still have to do more packing/cleaning here, but for right now, I'll stay out of Doug and Geoff's way while they're here for the most part. 

I took tomorrow off, wishing I took the whole week off. Oh there is so very much to do. So much. Ohhh, so much.

On Saturday, we had a crazy ice storm which set us back a full day for moving stuff on our own. It did give us more time to pack though, and get organized. The best we could.

Sunday, I got up at 6am, went to the market for some milk for my coffee, and thankfully they had a ton of ice melt there. What a relief. Happy Valentine's day. Here's some ice melt! I love you! 

I got danishes and we had a leisurely morning. Got the ice melted, and the boys got to work.

They schlepped, I packed. They schlepped, I packed. Oy. We got a lot done, but I felt it was not at all enough.

For today, we hired a moving company. They were great. Sent over 5 guys to bust their asses, it cost us 1300 bucks, lunch, 50 bucks each for a tip, and some beer at the end of everything with some good laughs and great success had. I got up at 6 to continue packing, and to also get things off of the tops of other things, like the dining table, my bureau, so that everything could be moved. 

Right now, here at the old house, we have some piles of things that need brought down. Doug will be focused on his work project, big huge presentation one week from today. I'll do all I can and hopefully he won't be too wiped out to help me with more stuff. And around 3pm, hopefully we'll have internet down at the new place. 

But ugh.... the whole no internet at the new place is is so annoying. I wish it had worked out to have them at the house this morning but alas. No. I'd love to be just crashed out on my own couch typing this right now instead of sitting in a folding chair in the living room, the big empty living room, but it is what it is. 

After the moving crew left, Doug and Geoff came up to get more things. I made the beds, and put things in the linen closet. I then allowed myself some quiet time without the boys and chatted with my mom.

I noticed our new bedroom is much bigger than our old bedroom, which is kind of great.

There are things I love about the new place, like a lot more closet space, tons more living space finished in the basement, and so many outlets. We can put an over the toilet cabinet in the bathroom, which we could not here, so in-bathroom storage was a challenge. Geoff's bathroom downstairs has room for shelves so he can have his own towels and storage. In the old house, his bathroom was a tiny closet and I don't even know how he fit into the shower stall. Both bathrooms have exhaust fans, which is great. That was lacking here.

Things I do not like are no overhead lighting in the bedrooms so we need bedside tables I guess. The bathroom has a weird step-up and I keep stubbing my toes. The kitchen is so small. Not a lot of cabinet space, and two of the cabinets under sink will disappear when they put in the dishwasher next week. There is no exhaust hood over the stove, which sucks. The fridge and the stove are right next to each other, which I do not like. I'm worried about them being too close together. But a lot of rentals around here are like that, which just confuses me. I'm going to have to figure out how to protect the fridge from my cooking. 

Or my son's cooking. 

There is no countertop next to the stove, which sucks super bad for people who cook every day. All food prep has to be done behind the chef, or, we get a small rolling kitchen island to roll over to the stove and then push back. I'll have to research that. 

We have the rent paid at old place until the end of the month so I'm not in a giant hurry to get us moved tomorrow 100%. We have a lot of stuff in the kitchen still, and the pantry. Our property owner here came to the house with a realtor as the homeowner is getting ready to sell, and they toured the house while we were in the midst of packing. 

I'm very tired, Doug is watching "Outlander," and I think I'm done for the night. I'm going to walk the three doors down the street and get ready for bed.

Here we go for our next two years, and who knows how long beyond that. 

Hello, little house.

A frustrating day

 I slept pretty alright last night, three sets of crazy dreams I shared with C but won't go into full detail here. Lots of 

a) me and doug in vehicles/traveling

b) other people moving, and me helping them move (I think this betrays the fact I feel a kind of way about when I help other people move and no one is helping me)

c) I abandoned 2 babies in a yard and 2 guinea pigs in a cage, and was devastated that I did this, but they seemed okay in the end?

d) I think Doug is cheap. For sure in my dreams I do, but in real life yes, he does not like to spend money. 

this morning I slept in until 9:30. I had arranged a series of errands, from going to the bank to deposit all of our Christmas Checks (I can't get the depositty app thing to work on my phone), to returning an oxygen tank that I was told to bring back to the hospital, to picking up boxes and packing paper. 

I didn't want to leave the house. 

I felt like Cameron in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" sitting in the car in the garage pounding on the car seat next to me saying "no. no. no." or in bed singing "Let my Cameron go..." 

Eventually I got out the door. I went to the hospital first. It is close. The up-front valet guy yelled at me when he noticed me bringing the tank to the door. "you can't drop that off here, where do you think you're going?" I told him I was told to do this and just drop it at the front desk. "No, you can't do that. They don't accept equipment at the front desk." The line to get in was socially distanced, 6 ft apart, 10 people in line. He told me to go park, and call up the hospital main line and find out what to do. 

The automation system had me on hold for 10 minutes and I got pissed. I went to pick up boxes at one house, success. Second house, success. Then to the bank. Doug told me to go to Bethesda, it was closer than the other branch. Got there and they didn't have a drive-through teller, and the ATM was outside, with 4 people waiting. In the freezing cold and snizzle. Fun. 

Finally got all the things done there, decided to take back roads to the next stop. I needed more paper for wrapping plates and shit. Went to the first place, no one was at the front desk. Went to another, the dude there was very helpful and I brought everything to the car. Decided to call the hospital and start over with that. The operator had no idea what to do with me. Spoke with someone else who said I had to call the 'third party provider' who 'gave me the tank,' and I said no third party provider gave this to me, the hospital did, and the nurse told me to return it there. 

No one was helping, and no one wanted to take responsibility for taking this tank back. Doug was all "I guess you own an oxygen tank now," and I was like "NO I DO NOT." I was going to get this tank back to the fucking right party if it fucking killed me. 

I went through all of my documentation from the hospital stay (had to find it and unpack it) and there was no mention of this being a thing. 

Finally I looked at the tank, and saw the name "provided by XXXXXXX" so I figured I'd call them directly, it was their product, maybe they'd know what to do. Hopefully. 

Alicia answered the phone. I was fuming but I always start off customer service discussions with kindness and said "Hey Alicia, how are you doing today?" 

There was a long pause, which made me a little worried. Eventually she said "Well, I can't complain, I'm alive? And I'm here?" I said "Wow, that's what I needed to hear, I will not complain, even though I had a rough day, I'm happy to be here, and happy you're here too." 

She asked what she could do for me, and I told her my saga of Nurse tells me bring to hospital, Valet says no you can't bring to front desk, Switchboard has Zero idea what I'm even talking about, no one wants to take the tank and if I could jettison it to the sun at this point I would. And she said "oh man, that's a hassle. I can arrange pickup." 

Finally. 

That's all I needed to hear. We talked about what day to have someone come, and how I'm moving. Should they pick up here or there.  I decided to just bring the tank with, and have them come to the new house, they could pick it up there . She confirmed my home address now, and the new address. She laughed when I told her the number, it being 3 doors down. 

"Easy move, right?" 

"Not really, I still gotta put all the things into boxes and shit. And move them. But at least it isn't like the last move." 

I said "I am so thankful for you, because no one was helpful all day and you're the best. Thank you." 

"I have to say, I'm so glad you called and I got your call," she said. "Right before you called, I had a really hard and challenging experience. I felt like a deer in the headlights, I didn't know what to do about this call and situation, and I was sitting here .... evaluating what I could have done better. What can I learn from what just happened."

Could I ever relate. I told her a little about my job and how things sometimes go, and trying to learn from the last bad experience is very valuable. A very good philosophy. And to always have empathy, always remember the other person is human. 

She apologized for the hesitancy in how she answered "how are you today" because it was something she did not expect to hear, and it took her breath away.  I told her she should have been honest and said "oh girl let me tell you about the crap day I'm having, Lord." 

"Keep my phone number, Alicia, call me if you ever need to have a conversation like this again. I'm here for you,"

Oxygen will be picked up on Monday. 

Usually I want to get off the phone as fast as possible with these things lately because I know other people are on hold. This time? I was like, let's just talk all day. 

We shared our mutual admiration for "saving the day" for each other. 

I then got to packing. More packing. Even more packing. 

We start moving tomorrow, continue Sunday, and I'm hoping we get a bunch of things unpacked so we can recycle some of the boxes to pack even more. 

Off to bed.  So much more adventure to come. 

Boxing Day, of sorts

I have been slowly packing for weeks. I took today and tomorrow off to really knuckle down on the fragile items and the things Doug and Geoff (hopefully Doug, as he's injured his shoulder) will carry. Geoff just started packing. I can hear him bumping all around down there. Doug has a big thing at work going on, so I'm leaving him off the hook for any packing right now. 

The fine glasses, Fostoria and some claret glasses or something which I can't remember the name of, are all getting a loving wash before getting packed. In the next house we don't have a hutch or storage unit. All of the houses we've lived since the brown house have had wonderful display cabinets built in, so the Noritake china, the frou frou drinky things, all could be on display like "we fancy, look at this martini glass with a monkey etched in it."

Everything glass and china related is getting labeled "Extremely Fragile" to remind D&G to not just chuck things into the jeep like you would a 90 pound box of books. Exercise extreme care. It's also going to the basement because we have to find (and agree upon) a hutch. It is also being labeled "Basement Storage" where it will be kept until we figure out what to do, what to do.

At least Doug is amenable to this. One of the things we are at odds on is the double-entry to the kitchen. One door from the living room and another from the dining room. One of those openings would be a really fantastic floor to ceiling blocked pantry cabinet on the kitchen, and then on the other side (I'm thinking the living room door is best for this, a bookcase of the same dimensions. There's not a lot of storage in this kitchen, and I just feel like I would like to block the entry to the kitchen from the living room up with a piece of furniture. 

Doug is all "pah, no." 

But I think we'll get in there and he will see the truth of my thoughts and feelings when he can't find a stock pot, because I've put it in the basement. 

We also have like 2 of everything. We have about 6 sheet pans for baking. I like baking. If we had one sheet pan out, I bet I'd find myself frustrated when Geoff makes pizza rolls and then I go to bake something and the sheet pan is in the damn sink covered with bits of baked on Totino's Combination Supreme goo. 

So 6 of them is great! 

Looking at the photo above, we (I, tbh) also have a lot of tchotchkes and sentimental things that we (again, I) just love. Do we need them? They do spark joy, so chucking them is not really an option in my mind. But do they need to be on display? Then if you think about it, if they're not out on shelves where you can see them, then what is the point of keeping them really? Why? It's a pickle, friends. Possibly next move I'll get rid of some things, but the Nobska lighthouse from my mom, and the Keytar Bear beer cans, well. 

Hmmm. Not yet. 

Right then. Back to it. In the meantime, the Kids are ready to go. 

Movers, Packing, Snow, Twitter, Jeep, Booze!

I got up early this morning  (early for me is 9am on a Saturday) after not being able to fall asleep last night thinking about all the things. 

I had a super busy week, not enough time to really think about the move. Until I went to bed, tried to sleep, and failed miserably. 

Doug wants us to move fully on the 15th, I kind of want to wait until the 19th when Geoff doesn't have class so we can make sure we have the internet situation all set. 

One moving company can't move us until the 19th, which would play into my plan but I think the packing and moving would be 900 dollars more with them than it would for the other company that can come the 15th. 

The company that can move us on the 15th said to pack up as much as we want and that will lessen the costs. 

No one comes out to do an estimate for you - it's all online. I hate this part. I really have a hard time estimating things like X amount of boxes we'll need. So my brain hurts. I probably over-estimated boxes and am under-estimating everything else. 

 Doug has an online conference to attend Thurs/Fri and a bunch of serious heavy duty project meetings starting on the 23rd so he is amped to get moved, get settled. Nothing disrupts my life schedule so I have to just look at the two of them and try to figure out what works the best for both of them. Geoff is going to find out if he can use the college internet and go down in person for when he has class, just in case the internet situation is not stable between the two houses.

I'm just a bit overwhelmed. 

I took the Thurs/Fri off before we get the keys and the Mon/Tues off after. I can adjust anything, but I think that I'm going to end up doing a lot here. A Lot. 

Anyway, we're supposed to get a "Major Snowstorm!" here starting late tonight. They are calling for 4-8 inches of snow, which is the fucking snowpocalypse by the way everyone is acting on Twitter. 

I'm kind of like, that's any given Tuesday north of Boston but okay DC, you do you. 

I posted something on twitter about the approaching storm, and some rando came at me. First time in almost 10 years of using that platform... I think I said something like "major snowstorm coming, DC panics over possibility of 4 inches while Bostonians drink iced Dunks in their cargo shorts with 36 inches coming." 

The person (dude?) went off about how there are NO INDICATIONS of 36 inches coming to Boston and basically that I should shut up. 

"I'm being hyperbolic. Thanks for your feedback!" was my response. Like. Read the tweet dude. The only thing you got caught up on was the 36 inches? Not all the Bostonians wearing cargo shorts? Did you fail reading comprehension in 4th grade, friend? 

Jesus.

I've had it with the internet overall but stuff like that just cracks me up. 

Our Jeep is in the shop. So we don't even have a vehicle right now (2nd car has been off the road for months due to the power steering dying). 

Geoff went to the store on Thursday to get a couple things after his class was over. He tried to start the Jeep in the parking lot to come home, and the battery clicked in but the jeep wouldn't start. We just had the starter replaced, so I was stymied, told him to call AAA and take it to our mechanic. 

Mechanic reports that the battery is great, the starter is great, but that a piece of the steering column had fallen off, and gotten lodged in the starter. He said he never would have found this in a short time if it had not been for one of his employees who had the exact same problem with his Jeep. Diagnosed in 5 minutes. Part ordered. 

But the part got delayed, and now isn't supposed to arrive until Monday. If we survive the snowpocalypse of 4 inches, maybe the car will be ready Monday. 

So we have no food. We have cheese and bread so we an have tuna melts. That's good. 

We have 2 chicken breasts, I can do something with those. We have some leftover fajita meat that someone can eat but not enough for all three of us. We have eggs.  We have a bag of onions so I can make french onion soup (miraculously, we have a brick of gruyere cheese in the fridge so it will be good - just no french loaf for the fancy crouton. Can't be fancy, I guess). 

We have a little pinot grigio, some vodka. Geoff's got a liquor cabinet down in his closet (not kidding) so if anyone needs rum or bourbon... he's been buying kind of high-end things and becoming a connoisseur of the spirits. 

Me: [Surprised to discover the collection when I went to his room one day to find the breaker panel for the electricity] Dude, why do you have all this booze here? What are you doing?
Geoff: Let's just say I think it's ... neat.

Oh awesome, a booze joke.  

Doug thinks we're fine, the Jeep will be ready Monday. But if we get snowpocalypse maybe never. 

God, I love DC.

Anyway, stuff to do. Things to pack. Freaking out to be had. yay.

Covid Brain

 "Why is there a bowl in the trash?" Geoff asked me.

"What are you talking about?" I stepped on the flipper to open the trash barrel. And there was one of my better, nice metal bowls sitting in the garbage. 

"Huh." I said, and took the bowl out of the trash and put it in the dishwasher. 

Then another day, here's me taking taking the milk to the bathroom. 

Why did I just put that thing in the fridge that does not belong in the fridge? What am I doing? 

Do I have dementia? Geoff asked me if I should see the doctor and get an MRI and figure out if I'm quickly moving into the big forgetfulness. 

No honey. I do not think I have dementia. Maybe crazy but .... not at dementia yet. 

I asked my doctor in our Telehealth appointment on Wednesday if this should be a concern. She asked if I'm just feeling spaced out, like, forgetful, sort of foggy and floaty, in addition to the random acts of weirdness. I told her for sure, absolutely.  

"You have Covid Brain," she said. "This will pass, but keep me updated if you feel it is getting worse or you are not managing." 

My friend Scott had a 20 year old cat. Her name was Daisy. In 1991, we spent Thanksgiving with him and his family in Atlanta. Daisy would walk into the room, and stop mid-step. She'd look around and still have that one foot up in the air. You could tell she was thinking "what the hell did I come in here for?" And then she'd turn around.  

Scott referred to it as a Daisy Moment. And his mom would say "oh! I'm having a Daisy Moment! Where is the potato peeler?" 

So I feel like I am in perpetual Daisy Moment. I'm staying on top of things at work, in fact I am doing quite well I think. Meetings, not falling asleep during the day, able to really stay on task. I'm getting things done for the house move. Got 3 movers to call, we did our application and our lease, and it's all accepted and ready to go. We get the keys on February 13th. I'm looking around rooms and saying alright - here we go. This is gonna get packed up this weekend yeah. 

But I feel weird. I feel very balloon-like. I'm daydreamy. I feel like when I'm driving I may go the wrong way down a one-way street or run a stop sign. So I get kind of paranoid and feel my heart race. It isn't a comfortable feeling obviously. Doug does most of the driving when we go out, but I want to ask him if he is experiencing these sensations as well. 

Like the sense of smell and taste returning, I'm hoping my sharper mind comes back and replaces the cotton candy that is between my ears right now. 

Found it!

 

Last weekend was the go find a new place to live weekend. 

We had lined up two places to see, and a bunch of places to drive by. 

One place was literally sold the morning we were supposed to see it, someone made a purchase offer, and the lister said "cool." 

It would have been perfect. Geoff would have had mostly a full apartment to himself in the basement. Even with a kitchenette. Full stove would have to be had upstairs with us, but, for him to live more on his own-ish, that would have been a good step towards probably this time next year or 18 months from now. 

Next place was listed for 2 days, got rented.

Driving by a few more places, at the next place, the kitchen was smaller than the galley on Aaron's boat. It was vacant, and we could not believe it when we went to peer through the windows. Honestly no. How. How does anyone prepare a meal, where does the trash go? And for this price? This close to the Metro tracks and the construction of the Purple Line??

 If they knocked out this wall, and brought the kitchen to this window, and put in a half wall with a breakfast bar here, and the cabinetry, and the ..... Doug and I had our visions rolling, and knew this place was not for us. Especially for the cost, even though it would be kind of super cool to live there. 

The next place looked like a shotgun shack from the outside but as we poked around, it was great size wise. Full finished basement, huge backyard. The only thing missing was a shed and we'd ask for one, for sure. You want us to mow the lawn so ... gimme a shed please and thank you. 

Doug double checked the listing and it said absolutely no pets. So even though we don't have a dog, our hearts yearn for one. And we can't go two years without some form of buddy. We want a dog.

A few more drive-by visits, and we were not impressed with anything.

When we got home, Doug and Geoff went to put air in the tire in the Jeep while I got his birthday dinner started. When they drove down the street, they saw a house 4 doors down from us on the opposite side of the road literally just had a "for rent" sign put out. Geoff took a picture and texted it to me. I emailed the listing agent. 

She got right back to me - she also was the agent on the house with the galley kitchen so we talked about that for a while. She said for the price, this one was so much better. The tenants would be fully out on Sunday morning, she was on her way to get the keys and would we like a tour at 1pm. 

Yes please. 

 It was listed as a 2 bed/2 bath house, so it never would have shown up in my searches. 

Floor plan-wise, it is similar to our house. There are some differences. The way to the 2 bedrooms and bath on the main floor is the same, but the kitchen has 2 ways in, the fireplace is kind of where my kitchen entry is now - and where my fireplace is, there's a wall with a window. 

The kitchen feels smaller but is about the same size, and I think because it has 2 entries it feels smaller so there is some adjusting for counter space that is missing. 

Doug described the kitchen as "vintage." I described it as my childhood. Straight out of the 70s. 

Down to the basement, there is a whole living room/den/chill space where we'll probably set up our office. Geoff is already claiming it for his space and wants exercise equipment and his drum set all arranged down there. He's fired up. 

There is a bathroom with a 3/4 shower - bigger than the one we have now. Two rooms that could be offices or bedrooms sans closet. One will be Geoff, one will be storage. I want to get some proper floor to ceiling shelving so everything isn't sitting in a pile on the floor. 

I don't mind sharing the chill space with Geoff and his drums. Just don't play drums while I'm working. Or. If he's in classes, I'll go work upstairs. 

The carpeting is kind of beat and could use replacement but I don't care. 

There is an unfinished section with a washer/dryer, and furnace/AC set up. I asked for a furnace checkup seeing as we had a furnace adventure here this past week and got a brand new one installed. That was fun. 

The yard is a great size. About exactly what we have now, only it is fully fenced, which is wonderful. Three planting beds and an area where we can do Doug's wildflower garden and have it be lovely. Lots of nice bushes, and I didn't check to see if there was outdoor plugs, but I can see decorating at Christmas where we didn't get to here because of the no outlet thing. 

Did I mention the homeowner is okay with dogs? Any size? Yes. So when we are ready to bring a new friend (or 2?) into our lives... they are welcome here. 

All told, it's not perfect but there is a lot to like. And it will be good for the next two years. 

We'll get Geoff through school (walking distance to the Metro, still) and we will see where he gets placed for his practicum and everything. It will work out great for all of us. 

I'm super thankful for this blog because I use it a lot for referencing when I moved or where I lived or adventures about xyz or what have you. I had to fill out an application online for this place, and they asked where we lived for the last x amount of years. I was able to fill that all out, thank you blog. 

So that number is our new house number effective Feb 15th. We are going to move some stuff on our own. But by February 28th we'll be moved into the new space. So if you know our street, city, zip, you'll know where to find us. 

Now the finding the moving company and the utilities work happens. Oh so much fun. 

Here we go!

Christine and Big Friend can have a glass of wine as a treat

 

I hadn't had any alcohol since 12/22 when I had a vodka tonic while watching a movie with Doug. It was right before I started to feel really sick from the Coronavirus, and I was anxious and nervous. I got my test results the next day and then it was all move towards hospitalization with low blood oxygen, incredibly high pulse, and the whole no smell no taste thing. 

Remarkably, I did not long for a glass of wine or a cocktail this entire time. After coming home from the hospital, I had very little appetite at all and was happy with just Saltines and Peanut Butter. 

And for sure, I was not interested in drinking.

Doug made dinner the other night and asked me if I was going to eat it "since you don't eat much anymore." Well, I'm feeling sick as fuck and food makes me nauseous, and everything tastes weird and wrong, so maybe I will, maybe I won't" was my reply (I did eat, and it was very good). 

My drinking lately has been ice water, hot tea, or diet 7-up. Last night we began the sacred season of the NFL Playoffs, so I felt that the three boxes of wine on the floor in the kitchen needed some attention. Geoff had cracked them open so it wasn't much effort. 

I like ice in wine, I'm a weirdo, and most of the time I'll mix it with diet 7-up so I don't drink as much. It's like a spritzer that way. Fancy like that. 

Tonight I talked to my sister and missed the entire TB/NO game (spoiler alert, Tom Brady wins again!) I just went into the kitchen, everyone is in bed, and the box of wine was emptied of its plastic bag, the last glass was all that remained of the contents. No one put dinner away while I was talking to Linda, so poured the wine, got some ice, I cleaned up, loaded the dishwasher, got everything buttoned up and cared for. Brought the wine in here to the guest room to hang out with me and Big Friend. 

Cheers loves. Seeing as I lost 20 pounds, some of that is from not drinking any alcohol. I'm going to try to limit my intake to minimal. Weekends mostly, or something to do while watching our Federal Government get stormed by insurrectionists. 

We went and looked at rental houses today, just drive-by visits of places I've been eyeballing on the map. A couple of my favorite ones I've been watching have just been rented out. Places come and go quickly. I figure we have to know what we are doing one month from right now so we need to get serious about finding a place. Doug has been very aloof and detached, and kind of weird. So I was happy that he wanted to go out and drive around and look at places. 

One place is a split level, looks huge from the outside. No shed to keep the lawn stuff, and it is at the very top of our price range (my very top is 200 bucks a month more than his very top). 

Another place abutted the interstate, so we parked in the cul-de-sac it sits on and listened to the highway. Not too bad but I can imagine engine brakes, car crashes, and horns. Price was very high, not quite as much as the split level but if I'm going to pay that kind of money, the neighborhood the split level is in is so much quieter! 

Third place was adorable and delightful. It has a shed, and a 30 ft tall bamboo wall lining the back of the yard which is nice for privacy. Very small yard, nice patio but it is uncovered - no screened in porch like here (boy would that be sweet!) But the backyard is on the east side of the house so the afternoons may not be brutal out there? Price is nice. I'd like an interior tour.

Final place was kind of a hot mess. Great location with easy access to the creek and the walking trails. Fully fenced yard, with a gate in the back that gets you out to said walking trails. Very convenient. 

I emailed the guy listing the rental a couple questions the other day. He told me to go by and visit before asking for a tour inside, because a lot of people were complaining it is too far away from the store or the metro. They were telling him it was "isolated" and "remote." 

It's perfect, location wise. It is exactly the kind of spot I'd love to be in. So I wasn't buying the "this spot is too remote" thing that people may have been telling him. 

Truth is - the place looked a mess. 

Broken screen door, no central air (a show stopper for Doug and to be honest, me. It gets hot here in Maryland!) Windows all look like they need to be replaced. It was just shabby and beat up, didn't look at all like the pictures in the online listing. When I'd asked about the AC, the guy said he was "thinking about" installing central air this spring. I'd like to give him a full list of all the things he should do to make it a more appealing rental. I truly think people weren't done in by the "remote" or "isolated" location. They were done in by the place being a dump.

Our property manager right now is just stellar. We have a question, she's on it. We need something fixed, done. I adore her. I kind of feel like the guy would be a slumlord. A shitty landlord. Kind of like the guy we had for the house in Massachusetts we rented. 

Us: "Gene, this is broken"
Gene: "Put duct tape on it, it'll hold."

Us: "Gene, an entire step cracked in half and split, and broke, and we can't walk up the stairs without stepping over it. Can you get someone to come over and fix it?"
Gene: "Well, you can pull the step out and bond it with wood glue, and put it back in."
Us: "Well, someone did that in the past, we can tell because of the glue that oozed out all over the place and sucked at holding the step together, this really should be replaced." 
Gene: "If you didn't stomp up the stairs so hard..."

Us: "Gene, One of the windows in Jess' room just literally fell out of the window frame. She was putting the window up, and it fell out of the entire frame. Very happy she caught it and the glass didn't break and she didn't get hurt. Can someone come fix this?"
Gene: "Just stick the window back in there and cover it up with that plastic sheeting that you get to cover windows in the winter."

Us: "Hey Gene, we have a yellow jacket problem? Jess moved out, and the bedroom up front is full of yellow jackets. She told me that she used to kill them with a slipper, about 20 a week or so. We need an exterminator."
Gene: "Jess isn't living there any more right? So maybe just close the door?"

I've lived that life. I don't want to go back. No fun. 

We will keep looking at houses. Find a place to live, and drink more wine.

Hair and Weight

 

Yesterday morning I went in to take a shower, I pulled the scrunchie out of my hair from the overnight sleepies. I brushed my hair and just looked at the split ends and rattiness of it all. I was furious at it. What a mess.

I parted my hair in the back like I was making pony tails, held my hair on the left side of my head down around my collarbone, and I cut about 4 inches of hair away. Did the same on the right side. 

Brushed it to make sure I didn't cut 4 inches on one side, 5 on the other. 

Took the shower, washed the hair. Waited until it dried and then asked Doug if it was even. He said I pretty much nailed it, trimmed one or two spots up that were long that I missed. 

This will do until I can go get a haircut at a salon. I've cut my bangs 3 times since the pandemic started. Someone shared a good website on how-to in a slack group at work. It works out pretty well, very nicely. So now, I've got shoulder length hair. It looks like the Dutch Boy Paint Can haircut. But I am not complaining. It's better. 

Another thing I can see when I look at this is that I have fewer chins. 

Since we moved here, I went from about 240lbs down to 218. I got stuck at 218, right at the beginning of the pandemic. I had started to walk to the train again, and walking from the metro to my job was good. My fitbit was always happy. I was getting close to 8000-10,000 steps daily, depending on whether or not my coworker and I took a building walk or a block walk. In February, I told myself "you know, you could really break 200 if you keep this up... why don't you keep this up?" 

Things were looking good and the pandemic came to town. 

Unlike my husband who took 4-5 mile walks every day this spring/summer/fall, I sat on my ass and worked. Work. Plus, it was too damn hot outside. 

For me work from home wasn't work from home, it has been living at work. For instance, today I had an early meeting (9) and planned on knocking off at 4 after about 6 hours of meetings during the day. Tired, loopy, luckily with no fever, at 4 I told my team I was going to dip but someone had a problem, and registered their displeasure through a call to our team. 

I had been helping him, I just hadn't gotten back to him yet, so he was being impatient. I couldn't fix his problem, so at 5pm, my manager (who knows more about what this guy's problem was) helped me iron it out. The guy then asked us to train him, to whit I told him no. I have no fucking time to train you on a third-party product. Go to their help center, get some training there. As your peers. I cannot help you. 

I then did other tickets until 9pm. And this is why I feel like work from home for sure is living at work. 

Doug ordered pizza because no one went to the market. Geoff offered to and then "forgot." Doug had a 5pm meeting.  I was face deep in tickets. Still have not done that goals and objectives thing. 

When I came down with the covid, my weight dropped down to about 197. We're back to about 205. I don't want to regain and get up to 218 again - I'd like to maintain this 205 for a while... I can feel where I've lost weight. My hips and pelvis... my underpants are like tents on my butt and the small underpants that I used as backup are now the comfy undies. And I can see it in my face and neck. If nothing else, losing some of that nonsense is the best thing ever. 

So cross your fingers. We need to get ourselves together so we can responsibly shop (I'm not ready for outside, to be honest) and we need to be eating better on the whole. Not pizza. I probably just gained 5 pounds off of that. 

I have a telehealth appointment at 9am so, off to bed. Will see if my tomorrow is wacky, like today. And the day before. 

More Smell Stories

 I can smell some things. 

My armpits smelled today, even though I showered, so I used deodorant. Doug was impressed I could smell them. Note - He could smell me, only he didn't complain. He's kind like that. 

Yesterday, I could not believe it was Thursday already. I put in a full 8-hour day but 4 of those hours were like 9pm-1am, like an idiot. I confessed to my team that when I have NO distractions, no slack messages, no one asking me questions or whatever, I can face-first into tickets. So I got 15 handled. And stopped myself from doing one that if I did wrong could have had negative repercussions. I did that one this morning.

I have like 70 new tickets. People are starting to get mad. I'm sorry but I'm not sorry, because I'm not the only person who answers tickets and someone could have taken care of these. I'll get to them but dang People Need To Chill.

My fever spiked last night to about 99.8 (my normal is 97.7 ish) and today it fluctuated from 100.3 to 101.7. I just took it and it is 99.9. Great Suzanne Vega song.

I had a telehealth appointment with my doctor so we went over my temp. She's an adorable Indian woman, and she stated that she was displeased with the direction things were going. Same, lady. 

My Oxygen was 98, so that made her happy, but my resting pulse was 115. She asked what I had been doing before the call. 

Sleeping. I was sleeping. Was I nervous? Anxious? Well, she's not sure so she wants me to monitor and track hourly. If I knew where my Pulse Oximeter was I'd check right now but it is somewhere in this bed. 

I've developed a little cough, as of Wednesday which she didn't like. She wants to put me on a new Antibiotic to see if we can clear it up. It is dry and raspy. One or two coughs, not like a fit. She nodded her head and knew of this cough. So the new antibiotic should help. 

I then took another nap. 

I've been holed up here in the guest room struggling. Tonight, things were smelly. 

At about 2pm I made myself some toast and used mayo and turkey to complete a lovely sandwich. Or so I thought. Gave myself horrible heartburn and .... weirdly, bread and mayo burps. Not fun. So I was all curled up in here just trying to ride out the dumb while the Zantac got to work.

Geoff made toast. And you know from previous posts that toast makes me happy. But oh no. Not.... this toast! I'm not sure what happened. He didn't burn it. It just was not a good smell. I texted him and asked him to open the kitchen window because it smelled bad. He ignored or did not receive my text. Oh man I was suffering! 

Here is photographic Evidence of me liking toast. I actually look kinda cute, and not as fat as I usually do (more on that later. 

Toast is life. 

Doug then made himself... Popcorn. 

I love microwave popcorn. I've eaten a lot of it this week. Hits the spot. But holy moly this just stank. So smelly. So bad. I texted him and asked him to open the front door. He came in and looked at me in disbelief and I begged. Oh please please, open the front door. 

He did, and made a second bag. I cried. 

I have not eaten dinner. I do not plan to. I'm just kind of like please Lord in Heaven get me through tonight. Get me through, Lord Have Mercy, oh please.

Just found the Pulse Oximeter, Oxygen still good, pulse stupid at 115. I don't want her to send me to urgent care or anything. I do not want to go there. Cross your fingers I can figure out how to lower this?

We have to do our Goals and Objectives at work, and they were due today. I plan on using some awake time this weekend to try and do that but not in the actual tool - just in a word doc - and send to my boss for his review. Maybe he can put them in for me? Hopefully. But I thought maybe he coulda done some tickets too, ya know what I mean!?

Today was a 4 hour day, but I plan on making up time to fill in lost gaps so I don't use all my sick time. It's kind of funny, I wanted to donate like 150 hours of sick time this year because I have so much, but our office only takes Vacation time as donation, which is dumb. I was about to make feature/program suggestions and find a way to flap my gums about this so we can donate sick time to sick people. Not about to give up that! 

It is probably good I didn't get to donate, eh? Knocked that down 30 hours before the end of the year and now I think I'm in the 180 hours range. It is kind of nice - I can use one hour or 8. I just have to do the math in the time card. Works out well. 

I know everyone (all 3 of you) reading this know about what happened in Washington DC over the past couple of days. I don't have much to say about it. I'm just completely stunned but not surprised AT ALL about what happened. If that had been a group of black protesters, they'd all be dead. And we know it. The coverage was horrifying. And the lies coming from these people after the fact, like, dude you are ON VIDEO doing the thing, makes me shake my head. Fuckers.

It is weird to live here. Aaron called me when it all started to unfold to ask if we were in a safe place. As the crow flies, we are about 10 miles north. Nowhere near the nonsense. But just knowing .... it was right there. Right the fuck there. I could get on the metro like I used to in order to go take a walk around the mall and look at this shit. Not that I would. I wouldn't want to be near them. I'm just stunned.

And all the Civil War history I've learned, the Confederate Battle Flag never breached the threshold of the Capitol. The closest it made it to DC was to Fort Stevens. 

But here we have a dude. Just taking the symbol of another country for a walk through the Capitol. Claiming he's a patriot I am sure. I don't think he knows what that means. 

Read this very good article from The Atlantic.

I'm pretty wiped, so more ice water, take my meds, and off to bed. Hope y'all are having a fine night.  Oh - and one more picture of toast. 

New Year, updates, and how smelly are you?

Wow. 2021. I've been keeping this blog, as of this summer, for 20 years. Part of me wants to go through and edit/fix/massage content. Other parts of me are like...... why.  We'll see if I get to that. 

Today being January 5th, I'm happily home, on the couch, did 4 hours worth of actual work today, have a lot of meetings scheduled tomorrow and am honestly evaluating what to skip/dodge. I feel like I have about a 2 hour threshold before I get very tired and want to go lie down. 

I slept until 11:00 today, flopped around sweating in bed because Doug had put the heat up. He was cold, I was roasting. It was very unpleasant. I got up, picked up the laptop, checked the email. Noticed some back and forth between colleagues and I had some helpful old school info to assist them in troubleshooting. I wrote a note to my teams to let them know that I was going to do my best to do things, mostly answer easy tickets, not get too embroiled in problems. I got a direct message on slack from a station person who I have a love/hate relationship with asking for some direct help. Healthy me would have just answered him directly and guided him. Sick me pointed to my slack status as "on medical leave..." and asked him to reach out to my team. Even the love/hate people that I work with are amazing in most situations and he was super apologetic. He asked me why I replied, and I said "you sent a direct message, so no matter what it alerts me even if my alerts are off... I'm glad you did. This way you can get the help you need. 

Today I did about 4 hours of work. Tomorrow morning I have a telehealth meeting with my PCP, I like her a lot, she'll request some bloodwork, I'm sure, so I'll have to figure out time/place to get over to the lab. Someone through our insurance also told me that they have Drive-Thru Phlebotomy units, which cracked me up. Maybe I'll go to one of those. 

My company keeps everyone's sickness/health very private, so people knew I was out but didn't know why. But to be honest, anyone who couldn't guess why someone would somehow suddenly disappear and be out on medical leave is not a smart person working at a news organization. 

I actually posted about my being out sick in our Pokemon slack channel. While I was in the hospital, there was a pokestop just out of reach of my room, at the east end of the building near the Emergency Room entrance. So I told people knowing they'd tell people. 

Once people saw me back on Slack as active the reach outs began. Several people told me they had Covid as well. One of them I knew of, her daughter's daycare had an outbreak and the daycare director, the "Abuletta" passed away as a result. So I knew MS was sick with it in September. She told me that she pushed herself to get back fast and ended up taking another 2 weeks off. Another colleague got it through her kids at that same daycare. She and her husband were a wreck, and the kids were so fine. A toddler and a pre-schooler. And mom wiped out on the kitchen floor just laying there talking one of the kids through how to make toast and to not use too much peanut butter. 

We had a good talk about stupid healthy kids. She's just now feeling better - same sick time, September. 

Food is still weird. One of the big symptoms of this, and it is buck wild, is loss of taste/smell. Thing is, it isn't actually loss of taste. Loss of smell, yes. Doug woke up one night and got out of bed and went through our bathroom closet to find all the smelly things, the soaps, the shampoos, the essential oils that he hates, the toilet bowl cleaner. He went to the kitchen and opened the spicy mustard, the horseradish, opened the trash which was pretty full and probably stank - nothing. 

In the morning he told me about his experiments. I asked him to smell my armpit, because I had not showered in like 4 days, and he told me it didn't stink. I couldn't smell anything either.

We had Chinese food and Pizza, both of which tasted like absolute shit and made me sad. I so desperately want fried rice, and Doug is against ordering anything because it is a waste of money since I can't taste it. 

He's right, but I still would like to be disappointed. And make the decision for myself as I smile through how much it sucks. 

Last night I wanted mac and cheese so bad. It is bad for you. I know, it is nasty. But my dumb body and brain thought it sounded pretty great. Doug went to the market, first mistake was going to Aldi and buying their brand, not going to like the REAL market and getting Kraft Deluxe or something. I thanked him. So much. Thank you for going out and buying my garbage brain some garbage food. 

I made it. I made ground beef to go in it. I had just enough salsa to give the Aldi Lame Brand some flavor. It was horrible. I grimaced through the waxy flavorless mess and ate two giant bowls. Doug and Geoff ate it too and they were very happy. But I was disappointed, though no longer hungry. 

I have found incredible joy though. 

Aldi makes a wonderful Sourdough. Slices are too big for the toaster so you have to flip the slice halfway through. Taking the bread out, slathering it with pre-melted butter and topping it with sour cherry preserves, I found the one thing that I can taste that tastes, smells, and is amazing. I hadn't eaten preserves like this in forever, I'd bought them for filo dough cups and goat cheese appetizers for work, this was amazing. Finding this in the fridge, untouched and ignored for like three years, oh my joy. Oh my heart. It made me so happy. So very happy.

So there are smells. There are tastes. It just isn't everything, and it is not the things that I want it to be.

Oh and on another note, I realized today I have not had any alcohol since December 16th. I had a glass of wine with dinner, and then kind of got sick. That was the night Geoff got sent home from work sick... and the rest is history, as they say. 

I'm thinking maybe I'll have a glass of wine tonight but I'm worried about it tasting like ass and disappointing me. Doug is making sausages with sauce and cheese, and it is honestly nothing I feel like eating right now, so I may just have saltines. 

Saltines do not let me down. 

I regret that Doug did not bring home apples, because I'd happily eat apples and peanut butter tonight.

Geoff's birthday is on Thursday and I feel super bad. We always go to whatever restaurant he picks, he gets to enjoy whatever he wants. He loves Indian food, which is what we had for my birthday and I have a 10% off coupon for them so I may suggest we get from there. 

I seriously can't believe he is going to be 24. I've got a lot of feels and thoughts about this milestone. I love him even though I think he brought Covid home to me. heh.