I will hold your drink a thousand times over - Sara and Chris go see Josh Ritter

It's too late at night to do a full write up of anything but tonight we went to see Amythyst Kiah open for Josh Ritter and his band. 

It was an amazing night. 

First we had dinner at the same restaurant we went to a while back when we saw the Punch Brothers, and it was nowhere near as good as it was when we were there last. Meh. But. We got a meal, and a drink, and were all set to get in line early for GA admission to the seated show. 

Then, while waiting in line, Amythyst Kiah was walking down the alley near the venue. Sara was shy but I am not. We got a selfie with her and were total derps about it.

We got great seats, total score. 

Amythyst performed solo and shook the place to the core. So much truth and passion from her. A new song called Empire Love (I think) was just stunning. 

Josh and his band were freakishly good. I mean. The man is such a performer, a good and lovely soul, and funny as hell. And I was kind of disappointed in how dead the crowd was, but, he got everyone up and rocking towards the end. It took a long time. But he succeeded. 

Sara and I had to keep asking each other to "hold my drink" while we fished around in bags, or moved merch around or did whatever. She asked me if I was annoying her by asking so many times to hold her drink. 

I told her that "I will hold your drink a thousand times over." 

Josh has a song where the lyrics talk about how it feels like we've known each other forever. Pleaase watch this song. Indulge me.

"I know there was a time before but I cannot bring it to mind  
And I can't believe that we were ever strangers"

I feel this way with a lot of friends, but Sara said that this song really spoke of both of us tonight. We've only known each other since 2019, but it feels like we've known each other for quite some time. 

So I'll hold her drink a thousand times. I'll hold your drink a thousand times. 

Here's our selfie with a super duper awesome rock star. At least she looks amazing. I look like a total dork. 

Digits below.

digits:

exercise: 12/12 hours of 250 steps. And a lot of dancing!

blood glucose:

8am: 143
4:30pm: 140
11:45pm: 163

food:

coffee, water 
11am: small bowl of mac & cheese with hamburger
12:15: Protein shake + metformin
1pm: left over chinese boneless pork strips
2:30pm: some ritz crackers and peanut butter
4:45pm: 4 slices of turkey, 2 baby bell cheeses, berry 2 good yogurt
6pm: small plates, egg roll, pickles, a little bit of sausage rice, and a half-smoke sausage with no bun. 1 beer. 
6:30pm: metformin+jardiance
through the evening - a couple diet cokes w/vodka
popcorn

First Generation but not really

Linda just left and I already miss her. We had a lot of fun this visit. 

I took today off because I thought she was leaving tomorrow. She has a work thing that cropped up late last week that she needs to be in early for. I was trying to convince her to just stay here one more night, play phone games, eat take out food, and day drink. But that didn't work. 

"You can stay here, and get up at 6am and drive straight to the office! C'mon."

She wasn't buying it. Sadly.

I'm looking forward to seeing her in August. 

I'm trying to figure out what to do with myself today because I am not giving back my day off. I thought about it, but no. I did read my email, and answered a couple of quick questions. But didn't spend a lot of time letting work take up space in my brain. I just know what I'm being prepared for. 

Maybe I can take my own advice, just sit here, play phone games, eat take out food, and day drink. 

I kind of want to go to the store and get more plants for this long rectangle planter I have. Pansies or impatiens maybe. 

The plants in the little pots on the table are not doing well, I think they are designed for ground cover, not pots. I may find a new happy place to replant them. I also want to get a big ass watering can because our hose is just monstrously powerful, and keeps clobbering the fragile herbs. 

There is also the pile of awesome crafty things I have for bracelets and I can get started with that. Hmmmm! 

I had ordered red mardi gras beads from some outfit on Amazon and the order was "returned" due to "inability to deliver," which is crap because I ordered 100 other things in the past week and nothing was unable to be delivered. Whatever. 

I ended up going onto Oriental Trading (every Sunday school and elementary school teacher's go-to for fun inexpensive supplies) and ordered red metallic beads from there instead. They should arrive this weekend. I can get started on my lobster hole-punching, see how that goes. If it is a no-go, well, plan b is to tie little strings to the bottom of the lobsters and then attach the hoops to the strings. I'm hoping the hole punching is a success.

Of course, I'll keep you updated.

I have a funny addendum to yesterday's post. 

When Geoff picked up his graduation regalia, they asked him "Are you a first generation graduate?" And he said yes. 

So they handed him a First Generation white stole. 

He thought they meant "from this institution," not, "from college in general." 

To the school's credit, not assuming a white male would of course be part of an academic lineage that included multiple graduates is a credit to them. But also, phrasing is sometimes confusing for the boy. 

I'm first generation, neither of my parents went to college, neither of their parents... etc. On Doug's side, his grandfather went to college on the GI bill after WWII, Doug's mom and dad both went to college, and Doug went to college (that's where we met!). So Geoff is fourth generation, not first.  

I think he realized during the ceremony that this was a bit of a misunderstanding and he took the stole off. He explained this to us when I asked him where the stole went. 

A lovely, misunderstanding and one we can giggle about. 

I also sat here last night thinking about this victory. I took his photo and emailed it to his academic counselor, the one person at the last school who I felt had a good head AND a good heart and was very understanding with Geoff. Like, a real guidance counselor. I wanted him to see how far Geoff had come since October 2021, when the school broke his heart. Look. 

This smile could have been yours. And you can tell his academic program head that. If you want. I don't want to stir the pot, basically, but I do want someone at your institution to know this. 

My friend Sara works with a lot of the colleges in the system, and she was so incredibly upset by how all this went down, and she wasn't in a position to intervene, but, wanted to. To say how thrilled and overjoyed she was to see Geoff's pictures, well. 

Digits below. 

digits:

exercise: 11/12 hours of 250 steps. I have no idea how i missed 2pm?

blood glucose:

9am: 198
4:30pm: 166
10:15pm: 160

food:

coffee, water, iced coffee
11:45: mixed chinese food plate; shrimp curry; chicken fingers, garlic pork;
12:30: metformin
4:30: tex mex trail mix
6:30pm: metformin+jardiance
7pm: 2 chicken cutlet "cluck pucks" topped with american cheese, on top of a scoop of potato salad and tomato cubes
wine

Certified

In October 2021, Geoff lost out on his dream academic program after some unfortunate twists and turns. (click the link if you want to read about it). 

He recovered from that disappointment and enrolled in another program at a different school. He could have enrolled in the same program at this different school, but he'd have to start over, start from scratch. And he didn't want to do two solid years and possibly have the wheels fall off the cart again 3 months before completion of the program. So he picked something different, on purpose. 

Doug helped him navigate the options and he entered into a Medical Lab Technology program in April 2022. He had to take phlebotomy first, and pass it, and then moved ahead with the medical lab tech stuff. 

Today, he graduated with the certificate. 

After what he went through with the last community college, I feel like sending his picture to the program director and letting her know how thankful we are that she felt he was unworthy. He wasn't unworthy. He needed some extra help and guidance, and this program didn't provide it to him, so we found one that did. 

He loved his instructors and his program head. I really hope he doesn't stop here and he enrolls in the continuing academic program and gets his associates. After he gets his associates, he can go on to any Virginia state college/university (George Mason, UVA, VCU, etc...) without going through application processes - you just continue the journey. 

Right now, he's happy to be done with this and have certification in something, it will make him valuable to an employer to have this in line. 

The only thing he has left to do is to complete his phlebotomy license exam. That's it. Technically, every job out there requires it. So he would not get hired, or, would get hired and told he had X amount of time to get the certification. 

There was some drama on the way here. Last night he asked who all was coming to the graduation. I said "us. We're your squad," gesturing to Linda, Doug and myself. I think he was mad. He knew Jess couldn't make it, but I think he thought Doug's mom and sister were still coming. And we invited Sara (she works in an academic success program through University of Maryland for first generation college students), or M&M. But it was a Monday. A graduation on a Monday. And asking people to take time off to come to this is a touch unrealistic. Linda at least is working right now to get some things done before she leaves tomorrow. 

But I could see he was actually disappointed. And that made me sad. He went up the deck stairs, and went to bed.

This morning, I got up before 6 when the dog came to the living room to ask me for breakfast. I made coffee and got in the shower. Geoff came upstairs, got coffee, and we didn't see each other. But once I came out into the kitchen and we crossed paths, I noted he had on cargo shorts and white socks and sneakers with kind of a golf shirt. 

"What are you doing?" I asked him, "we just went and bought you all new shirts and pants and dress socks and stuff. The whole thing. What are you thinking. No. You are not wearing cargo shorts."

He pushed back saying everyone said it is hot under the robe, and I said "yes it is. Of course it is. But you'll survive. You'll get through it, butter cup. You can keep that shirt on, but go get your dress pants." 

He also didn't shave and didn't think it was a big deal. So we argued about that (I won the pants argument, not the shaving one). Doug came out and started on him and he yelled that mom already got "up in my face about this shit and can we please stop!" 

I went and got dressed, Doug and Linda were dressed, and we said "we're dressed better than you are for your graduation." He went and put on dress pants. At least. And he was surly as fuck. 

I thought the arena was by Tysons Corner but it was at George Mason University, twice as far away. So Doug was annoyed with me for getting it wrong. I was just rolling my eyes at this point at everyone. We got there at 8:40, 10 minutes "late" but based on the amount of graduates who came in long after the ceremony began well, we were just fine. Geoff was able to pick up his cap and gown, and we were good to go. 

It was a good ceremony, but I have notes. 

I was kind of surprised they do the certificate and associates together at the same time. I was disappointed because they split the students up, A-M at 10am, N-Z at 3pm. Geoff didn't actually graduate with anyone in his program. There were a couple of people who were getting their Associates in his program but no one getting their certification, and he didn't know any of the people getting their MLT Associates. No one. Everyone from his program was going to be in the 3pm session. Weird, huh? But that's the way the alphabet works. 

I really think they should have kept the programs together, and done certificates in the morning, associates in the afternoon? Or, all the criminal justice and IT programs, and all the Allied health programs, and Liberal Arts/General studies in the afternoon. I don't know. Just ... It could have been better managed. 

And their parking/traffic management was an absolute shit show.

I will say it was a great scene, so much diversity, so many families. A dad sat behind us with his 3 little ones, three under 5, I'd say. They were noisy, raucous, and there he is, trying to take pictures but also include them and let them know how important it is.

It is important. 

Their mommy probably started on this journey right after the little boy was born, and here she is, graduating. There was a young woman behind us sitting near them who kind of stepped in to keep them entertained, so he could set up the camera, and get pictures and take 1/3 of them to the bathroom, over and over, in rotation. He really could have used an auntie, or a grandma, or something. 

Luckily this young woman was just good. She was lovely. And the kids ended up being very good through the whole ceremony. When it came time for mommy to go up on the stage, he had them come to the rail. When they cheered for her, we cheered for her.

After it was all over, we decided to put distance between us and the arena. We figured the one or two restaurants near the venue were going to be mobbed. So we drove to Bethesda, ate at a little place that we didn't intend to eat at, but it worked out fantastically. 

We all took big naps. 

Anyway, Geoff actually smiled a bunch, there's video evidence of it on Instagram (let me know if you want to see it. But we got some good pictures, and here they are. 

digits:

exercise: 5 hours of 250 steps. lots of stadium sitting, a big nap that covered 2 hours and a bit of a lazy non-effort for the evening

blood glucose:

6am: 178
6:30pm: 177
10:15pm: 202

food:

coffee, water
8am: protein shake
3pm: buffalo wings, salad w/ goat cheese, mixed greens, sliced red apple and walnuts; 1/2 my turkey, brie, avocado sandwich (the salad was much bigger than anticipated), 2 small beers
4:30pm: lunchtime metformin (should have taken it with me to the graduation but forgot)
6:45pm: Chinese food: red curry shrimp, general gao's chicken, garlic pork, egg roll, 3 peking ravioli. No rice. 

My happy place

This morning we brunch skunked ourselves and also watched the Bob's Burgers episode of Brunch Skunks. Hilarious. I love how Linda Belcher calls them Momosas. Perfect for Mother's Day. 

I made egg mcmuffins for everyone and had mine without the mcmuffin even though I desperately wanted one. I didn't need people making ME breakfast, I'm a little picky about all the process so I wanted to be the one to do it. 

Over the course of the morning, we drank 3 bottles of champagne/mimosas, or, Momosas. We would have moved on to four, but, Linda and I had planned on errands today. I was rather sober, she was not really safe for driving. That's quite alright, I'll drive Miss Daisy to the mall. 

First we went to the the salon to get her haircut at the place I get my hair cut at, but the two girls who are good with "white girl hair" were not in. I thought that may be the case on a Sunday. We went to the salon I go to for pedicures, I'd been calling for an appointment for two days and there was never an answer, so we figured maybe they were closed? No. They were open, they were booked for the day though. 

I knew we'd want more champagne, so we drove over to the county store, and right next door there was a haircutting joint. They weren't super busy so we got her right in. Boom. Haircut. She hasn't had a for real haircut since the pandemic started. She has had her husband cut some hair, and her friend Lisa cut some hair, but ... she needed a full do. Bout time. Success.

I googled nail salons near us, and there was a place open not too far away who could take us. We went to the county store and got what we needed and headed over to the salon. Got the pedicures, boom. Done. Awesome. 

Oh and look, there's a craft store and I have no idea what I need for bracelets but I know I probably need tools and shit, so, we bought tools and shit. 

We came home and Geoff was waiting for us so we could make dinner. He and I cheffed up Beef Stroganoff, I always get to make the sauce part, and he watches each time the way I do it. We opened champagne, and Doug went out to start the camp fire. 

I think Doug went in to bed around 10:30. Linda and I sat outside singing to Simon & Garfunkel, and then listened to Peter Gabriel, and talked about how in 1983 she would wait for me to leave the house once I got some friends, and she'd listen to my albums. 

We saw some wild and crazy streak of light go across the sky to the north of us - it was solid and then broke up into gaps, and finally disappeared. I have no idea what we saw. The internet and the Twitters have no details. Hmm. So we went back to singing.

It was an absolute shame to put the fire out, the coals were perfect, glowing, wonderful. If we didn't have to get up at 6am to get ready for Geoff's graduation, well. I'd say we'd keep going! 

At one point while we were singing, Linda said to me "I'm in my happy place." 11:30pm, singing and talking about music, gorgeous fire, and my neighbors not coming out to yell at us for being loud or stupid. I decided we had to pack it up at midnight.

I'm absolutely wide awake, the dog is hogging up my entire side of the bed so I came out to sleep in the living room. Linda told me I should sleep with her but to be honest, I know for a fact if I go in there, we'll end up talking more and maybe laughing/giggling/acting stupid until all hours. It's already almost 1am and we have to be up at 6, as mentioned. Good gravy.

That's what happens when you're in your happy place.

Here's a before and after picture of Cousin It, I mean, Linda.

digits:

exercise: 11 hours of 250 steps. Missed 7pm by a hair, sitting at the camp fire and yakking. Dedicated 10? lots of store walking

blood glucose:

9am: 174
5pm: 163
11pm: 183

food:

coffee, water 
11:45am: egg on top of bacon with shredded cheddar (egg mcmuffin without the muffin)
12:30: metformin
6pm: beef stroganoff on top of some egg noodles (not a lot!) Metformin+jardiance 

A lot of mimosas. A. Lot. 

JOTR Too!!!

I've procrastinated cleaning up the guest room so today's the day. 

Doug found an awesome overstuffed wood and leather chair on the side of the road a week or so ago, we thought it'd fit well in there. 

There was already a beat up chair from an old living room set in there, I decided, today was the day. Clean and rearrange instead of just make the bed up. Get that old beat up chair out, and put it in our bedroom where he can drape his pants/shirts on, instead of the pile on the floor. Slightly classier, ya know?

Doug left for his aunt at about 11:45. I baked banana bread. I continued cleaning the living room. And then the bathroom. And loading the dishwasher. And then back to the guest room. 

Not sure if other people are this way but when I have to do a thing, it is usually on a list of multiple things, and I sometimes do not get everything 100% done. Happy to report the living room is clean, dog beds are washed, guest room just needs sheets, bathroom is clean, and three loads of dishes are done.

In the middle of everything I was doing, boxes arrived for me, and I had forgotten what I bought on Amazon this week. 

Ah yes. The assorted surprise pack of candle votives, Mrs. Meyers Hand Soap in the radish scent, since they never have it at the store and I found some online, oh... Yes. 

.... beads and lobsters.

Yes. You read that right.Beads and lobsters. 

I was shopping for beads to make friendship bracelets with, while drinking wine. They landed in my cart. Boom. Then saw some mardi gras style necklaces with crawdads on them that look enough like lobsters. They were bad ass! Shit yeah. Well. A dozen of them is like 30 bucks, so I thought better of it. Maybe for the "inner circle" I'd treat my friends but. Not 100 of them for the rando friends I've made here and there that I'd love to bestow a souvenir upon.

Then I saw these wee, cute rubber lobsters, 100 in a pack, 10 bucks. Hell yes! I'll figure out some action on that. Oh and then 100 red beaded mardi gras necklaces without any lobsters or crawdads on them ... I put those in my cart. 100 for like 10 bucks. 

Now I just have to figure out how to pierce the lobsters, put a wee hoop in there, and affix them to the mardi gras necklaces. 

Christine, crafting party of one! I can see me at the dining table, futzing with these until they're all set. But wish me luck. 

I was telling Doug about the bead bracelets, and showed him the ones my Taylor Swift friend gave me. When I told him my plan to make these for the Guster fans, I said "I can make LAGF for lost and gone forever, Big Friend for ... Big Friend (the bear in the picture above), CDASH for Come Downstairs and say Hello." 

He yelled out "JOTR!" for Jesus on the Radio. 

Yes, Doug. Yes. You betcha. 

I am very glad my kits did not come with little claspy dealies I would have become distracted and played with the bead set. 

On the list of things to do tomorrow, Linz wants a pedicure, and so do I and we are going to see if my hair salon is open. 

More later. Bed time!

Pictures, beads, lobsters. Oh Yes. then digits.

digits:

exercise: 12 hours of 250 steps. no "dedicated 10" but non-stop work today!

blood glucose:

10am: 200
5pm: 200
9:45pm: 178

food:

coffee, water 
12pm: 2 slices of homemade banana bread; metformin
3:30pm: realized I had skipped lunch. Protein shake, baby bell cheese, ramekin mixed nuts
6:45pm: metformin+jardiance
7:30pm: marinaded top round steak by Geoff, peas, gravy
10pm: the last of the banana bread

Aloe Aloe Aloe!

Doug had a doctor's appointment today, and my only task personally has been to vacuum before Linda gets here tomorrow. I have a lot to do tomorrow, but it is supposed to rain so I figure the morning will be awesome, filled with tasks like washing bed sheets and cleaning the bathroom. 

After Doug got back from his appointment, I took 2 potted aloe plants outside, to repot them. One was way too big for the pot it was in, and was falling out and over. It was so heavy/big that the entire thing fell off the window sill a couple weeks ago, so I figured today would be good to sit out, and do plant care. It was hot out but not brutal, so it was a perfect day to go out and do this task! 

I noticed the too big for its pot aloe was having a baby, so I put that in its own pot and now I have three aloe plants. I also noticed the garden needs to be watered, but I refrained because on the overnight it's supposed to start happening, so, I didn't want to overwater the things. 

Tomorrow Doug's going to his aunt's. She called tonight to say that she needs help with a bunch of things, so he is reluctantly going since we're expecting company and he had plans to do some things here. But the next time he'll be able to go over to help her would maybe possibly be next weekend and she sounded like she really needed a lot of help with a couple things. So. Off he goes in the morning. I can get done the things I want to get done before Linz comes, the things I needed him to do have to do with his clothes in the bedroom and getting organized. It can wait, honestly.

Pictures of the aloe action below. On the left, the two plants before I did the work, on the right, the new family of 3. Didn't realize I'd semi-cropped out the middle sized plant on accident, trying to get that big one in frame and looking good. And feature the babyeeee.

digits:

exercise: 11 hours of 250 steps. Missed 1pm because I was playing a game on my phone and lost track of time at the end of the hour... tried to make it but fell just short. No dedicated 10 but I did vacuum, moved furniture around. Kind of a workout!

blood glucose:

9am: 165
4:30pm: 160
10pm: 133

food:

coffee, water 
11:30: turkey & swiss on 647 wheat w/mayo. Metformin
6:30pm: grilled chicken thighs in 2 low-carb wheat wraps w/ shredded cheddar, avocado spread, sour cream; metformin+jardiance
8pm: last 1/2 chicken thigh
9pm: bowl of tex mex trail mix
gin & tonics

The New Car

Doug and Geoff were talking this morning about their plans for the day. My plan was to stay here and house clean, they're off to shop for a car. 

Doug said that before they left he needed to go to the lab for some blood work, and drop off his colon cancer poop sample dealie. 

I called out from the bedroom "you can't go to Kensington, you know. You have to go to Gaithersburg." Doug asked why was that? 

"Kensington is closed on weekends," I told him.

"Chris, it's Thursday."

"Oh yeah. It is, isn't it?" 

Taking time off from work does a little something to my brain, I guess. Totally feels like a Saturday up in here. 

I got out of bed so we could talk money. He refuses to buy anything that needs to be financed but thank God we've got money in the bank to buy something decent and he's stopped buying thousand dollar cars. 

We checked our bank accounts, our available credit, he has had a specific car in mind, and if he can pay cash for it, boom. He'll pay cash for it. 

Thing is, if they'll let him use his debit or credit card without some horrible 10% fee for it he'll pay cash for it. Otherwise, he has to come home, go to the bank in person and pay a 20 dollar fee for a bank check and go back to the dealership. This is what we went through when he bought the Dodge. 

(By the way, if he puts something this big on a credit card, I pay the balance off immediately. That's the way I roll. No leisurely slow payment plan over a year. Payment, done. Boom). 

Doug is notoriously cheap when it comes to banking. Fees? Surcharges? What kind of banking is this! Fuck your bank! He got ripping angry at our bank three years ago when he had to pay a $20 fee for the bank check, but it was less than the charge to pay for the car on our debit card at the dealership (that would have been 500 bucks). 

I told him it is the "cost of doing business," and that if he didn't like it, he could take cash out of the bank without a fee and hand it to the dealer. But the dealer doesn't take CASH of course, because of safety. 

So the customer is left getting fucked on fees. It's how banks make money, yo. Sad but true. Go buy a car already. 

And he did. Meet his new Mini Cooper S Countryman named Domino. He had a personal check in his wallet, and the guy accepted it. No fees.

The mini has 129k miles on it, the price was right, the dealership in Maryland is responsible for making sure it passes inspection and it did (he almost bought one in Virginia but I reminded him it needed to pass inspection in MD and VA has much much lower standards!) 

For some reason the satellite radio is on and working. It has an AUX and USB cord and it plays CDs. It doesn't exactly know what technology year it is supposed to be in, to be honest. 

Welcome to the garage, little zippy car.

An Interstitial Plant Post

After I got back from the dentist yesterday, Doug called at about 6 to say he was stuck in traffic and wouldn't be home until about 7. I asked him to swing by the market to get buns for bratwurst, maybe some potato salad or something. I'd grill if he shopped.

I decided to use the waiting time to doctor up some snake plants.

A year ago I split up a snake plant into two pots. This year, I've been struggling with gnats on all of the plants, and I think the culprit was the soil and the snakes. I bought little bug traps to stick in each of the plants and to be honest, the snakes were always full of bugs! 

I took the two pots outside to fully clear out all the potted soil, rinse the plants fully, put new soil in the pots after washing them down with soapy spray, and hoping for the best. 

Enjoy some photos of my process. Two became Three!

Here they are before I started the process.
I should have taken a picture of the bug catchers from these plants. They were impressive!

After taking the snake plant out of the pot, I washed it thoroughly in a bucket, cleaned the pot, and got the plant sprayed down. 

The second pot was amazing. Look at the ROOTS on this guy! 
I've never seen such bright roots all wrapped around the inside of the pot.
I ended up splitting some of this one off for a new pot!

And I am not sure if I need deeper pots for how tall some of these are, but, now I have three wonderful pots for the snake plants. I also have another pot inside the house of some that broke off a year ago, and one leaf/snake that I planted that I'm waiting to see if it "pups." 

I am going to end up with five snake plant containers!

Alarm Clock and Meds Mess Up

On Tuesdays and Wednesdays, I set an alarm for 7am to make sure Doug gets up. 

He sets one for himself but sometimes cancels on accident, instead of snoozing. Most of the time he's up. I I know he's up if the dog isn't in the bed with me, he'll be in the living room with Doug. 90% of the time. 

This morning, my alarm went off and I could hear the shower, so I knew he was all set and getting ready. The dog was in the bed with me. So we were super deep cozy. Great. I went to reset the alarm for myself for 8:15 and. Somehow. Didn't. I woke up at 8:45, after Doug was gone, Geoff had not come upstairs yet. And this time is usually when I'm already up and at least drinking coffee if not already working. 

Thankfully, things are a little slow today. Several meetings have been reworked this week, and folks know I was going to leave for a dentist appointment at 4, so it wasn't chaos. I managed to get to work before 9, and took my shower at lunchtime since I didn't have any morning meetings. 

Speaking of the dentist, I like my dentist, I like going to the dentist. I love having my teeth cleaned. This dentist does a good job and doesn't make me feel like I'm failing or I suck. He wants to redo two of my very old fillings, next visit. 

We said that last visit. 

So I'm going to schedule that appointment for August, probably the week after I get back from Maine.

Geoff doesn't have dental insurance right now, so he wanted to go in for a cleaning but thought it would be thousands of dollars. Dr. Dentist said he'll give him a discount rate, and it'll be about $150, possibly less. No X-rays for that visit. So that was nice of him. I feel like he's good with people who are living without insurance and still want to do maintenance level care. 

I walked there and back, we picked him because of his location, so it is about 12 minutes each way. The weather today was perfect, so I actually left early and took a longer route there, just to do some steps and some pokemon catching. 

When I got home, I was really looking forward to taking my blood sugar. I mean, I did so good with carbs today and getting such a good walk, burning sugars! I was sure the high reading of this morning would be 100 points lower. 

Nope. It was higher. The hell? 

Then I looked at the spot where I keep my pills. Every morning I set up the pills for the day. And there was the pill that usually gets taken at lunchtime. 

How'd I miss that? Gah. I quickly took it at 5pm, and thought about getting some protein in my system (can of tuna, protein shake, nuts, cheese) but I had let the dentist put a fluoride treatment on my teeth today. Stupidly. I was not allowed to eat or drink until 7pm as a result. Doh. I should have said "hey, when I come in for the next cleaning in November, let's do that!" but I wasn't really paying attention. 

So when people are not treating their diabetes, and they actually just try and eat okay, and have numbers in the mid to upper 200s just from sitting around. Well then, now you see why taking meds is important.

Don't forget yer meds, kids! For any of your ailments! 

After I got home, I did some plant care (I will post that all tomorrow because it is super fascinating!) 

Oh! Here's a fun picture. A while back, I somehow found a person on Twitter who is a Taylor Swift Super Fan. Not sure how I connected to her but it had something to do with Dogs. Anyway, she's a TS super duper Swiftie, and I'm not. But I like her. So I started to follow her. She was making bracelets for Swiftie concert attendees for where she lives and said something like "Does anyone want something specific?" so your wiseass friend messages her "I'm not a Swiftie, won't be at the show, but I'd love a bracelet! Can you make me one that says "ONWARD" from a guster song? 

"It's simple, so says the captain,
Face forward, move slow, forge ahead...
Onward." 

She said she would. 

Today, I got a package in the mail with the ONWARD bracelet, and 2 extra little bonus bracelets. I'm over the moon with this. So beautiful. The best colors. Perfect for the upcoming On The Ocean shows. I am in love. I need to figure out a return of the perfection to do something for her!  

digits:

exercise: 12 hours of 250 steps, 2 dedicated 10s plus some (to and from the dentist!) so yay!

blood glucose:

8:45am: 208
5:15pm: 249 (whaaat?!)
10:30pm: 155

food:

coffee, water 
9:30am: Protein Shake
12 noon: large bowl of chicken salad
12:30: metformin Ooooooops,
12:45: another large bowl of chicken salad (could not resist!) 
5:15: Metformin (the lunch dose!)
7:30pm: 4 grilled bratwurst, small scoop of potato salad
10pm: ramekin of mixed nuts; metformin+jardiance (that I usually take at dinner)
10:45pm: chocolate chip cookie a la geoff

wine.

Though she be but little

I had a whole other entry written but today I'll post this picture instead. My niece graduated from college on Sunday. And she posted this photo on FB. 

Top is obviously her mortarboard is a quote from Midsummer Night's Dream. She's not a tall human, she's about 5' maybe 5' 2" tall. So I've always liked this quote for her, and years ago I sent her a custom made plaque with the quote and the picture of a lion on it. The bottom photo is one I took of her watching Jess in Midsummer with Rebel all those years ago (12? 13? I can't remember, I'd have to go look it up). I can't remember who gave her the fairy wings, if she came with them to the show, if my father and mother in law bought them, if I got them, I can't recall. 

But. There ya go. I stole this from her FB saying I'd send it to Jess. This hit me hard today. So sweet. So lovely. 

Congratulations, Little 'n Fierce.

digits:

exercise: 12 hours of 250 steps, no official walk today

blood glucose:

7:45am: 171
4:45pm: 172
10pm: 212

food:

coffee, water 
9am: 2 eggs, sautéed peppers, bean salsa, shredded mexican cheddar cheese
11:30am: 2 good yogurt (cherry); melted pizza cheese (Geoff made pizza bagels and always over-cheeses them, and leaves the "burned" cheese on the tray just for me).
12:30: Metformin
1:45: 1/2 chicken breast of chicken parm left over from the other night
5pm: trail mix assortment (tex mex/asian spicy/monster all thrown together in a bowl)
6:30pm: large bowl of mac & cheese w/hamburger
9pm: protein shake