Category: Health

Various pieces of news

I have received a piece of very important mail – I am now a card carrying member of the Skinnydippers Club.  Rawr.

And I’m likely going to Wreck Beach today with Mike. Aren’t you all glad, with the great gladness of those who will NOT be required to use eyebleach, that I don’t post pics.

L.E. and Doug made Jeff welcome with yummy food, music and conversation, as is pret’ near always the case (food was nachos and ceviche, using basa, and OMG it was aMAZing), and while we were there, we heard good news.  L.E. has a show and workshop in Ontario in June.  AND her son Corey (whose blog Jew on Jus is blogrolled here) has been made FOOD CRITIC OF THE TORONTO STAR.  That, folks, is the big time, and a BIG encouragement to do what you love.  We didn’t take the car and cabbed home.

A friend of mine has learned that her biopsy revealed “the weirdest looking scar tissue we’ve ever seen, but it isn’t cancer”.

The weather here has gone from rudely damp and cold and windy to airless, brilliant, hot and humid, overnight.  This being the ‘May 2-4″ weekend most west coast Canadians are lining up in front of the liquor stores with only one thing on their minds.

I had a four hour migraine yesterday, during which my poor boss had to clean up some of my messes.  Ow.  And I got COVERED in lint from the blankies in the first aid room.  I am reminded that it is good to have a team, and so I am in a grateful frame of mind.  The migraine is hormones, plus Vietnamese pork stew at lunch at work, plus that chocolate on Thursday. I really overdid it, I could have just had a taste and been okay, but no.  Now I am in the post migraine mood of being sort of bleak and washed out.  I know from experience that sitting in the sun doesn’t actually make my migraines worse, provided I lie reasonably still.  I had better find that 45 sunblock.

It was heavenly to sleep with the window open last night.  Very quiet, believe it or not.

Eddie was sniffing the air from my bedroom window just now.  Mostly I keep the cats out of my room.

I forgot to mention that on Thursday the Luddite brought over (on his bike!) a two foot tall strawberry planter and then he tied my bike seat to my frame with a locking cable, as he said that my bike was now quite secure except the seat.  Watching him putter put me in good heart.

So far most of the people meeting Jeff for the first time (and it’s kinda odd that he never met L.E.) pronounce him very nice.  That’s good, because it’s true.

Healthy day

I cycled from here to Vancouver General and ALMOST all the way back – I was only about ten blocks from home and realized I just didn’t have it, so I also learned (thanks to a really snarly driver) how to get the bike on and off the rack at the front of the bus.  Such a lecture your poor correspondent received!

Now I am about to jump on the bus again to go to RCH for my other appointment, and then home.  Where I hope to just collapse.

While I was waiting at the clinic, the Luddite called with the best route home. He had guessed when I’d be sitting waiting and planned how to get home with the minimum of hills.  I didn’t do it of course, being contrary, but it was ever so sweet of him.

Barbecue & sundry

The new barbecue got baptized in animal fat last night; Jeff seared three very creditable porkchops and I hacked away at the rest of dinner.  I received a phone call which got me thinking further along the lines of spring, and included an adjuration for me to be ‘more fun’; I have prepared a response for that but unleashing it would involve buying mental bleach for everyone who ever reads this blog.  Jeff and I finished Deadwood season 2.  That’s the one where Al is actually smiling a genuine smile for the last frame.

I hope everybody is thinking about having a great day.   I know I am.  I am not thinking about my taxes; I have filed that under U for Unpleasant, at least for the time being.  It’s not as if the feds aren’t pulling money out of my pocket with every fracking breath I take.

I lost my bank card – again.  Good thing I have another bank account at another bank.

I walked to and from the bus loop at work with ScaryClown yesterday.  Virtually every conversation of his starts with the expression “I was watching a documentary yesterday” and yesterday was no exception.  He had his umbrella with him, so he demonstrated how the little pink cheeked, pigtailed girls of the Cultural Revolution in China were trained to yell “Shia!” and mime disembowelling roundeyes.  All the way down from the bus loop.  I love him dearly, but sometimes…..

I should plan the next falldown.  I need to get everything breakable up off the floor.  I need to unpack, and a hundred thousand other things.  But right now, I need another cup of coffee, and I’m going to go to work.  The 27 bus is working properly again; the stop at Rupert and 22nd is functioning, which makes transiting easier in the morning.  My clothes are all clean and put away; my bed is made.  Perhaps I’m running a temperature.

Migraine aura yesterday.  I have learned that when they come in midday, if I sit tight and don’t look at a computer screen for about half an hour, or go outside and get a breath of air, I don’t get a full bore headache.  Thinking happy thoughts assists.

Happy

Despite everything I’m happy.  Things are clicking along very well in my personal life.  It’s Facebook style complicated but loads of fun.  The Luddite has sent me a number of Muppet Show links, including Shirley Bassey singing Goldfinger.  With Turkish subtitles.  All Hail the Inertnests!

Also the last line of his last email he made me laugh so hard I had a five minute coughing spasm afterwards. I am however getting better and I figured out which cough medicine to buy so I’m getting less coughing and fewer side effects from the cough medicine, all a good thing.  Also in the email was a querulous “Why would your daughter want to meet me? If she wants to inspect me she can come on down to the shop and I won’t even know who she is.”  Men, o my god.  The answer to that question is “Because I never shut up about you, how’s that?”
My apartment is somewhat cleaner, but with all the boxes, quite cluttered.  I am trying, in the midst of the chaos, to keep all my tax receipts in one place…..

Two more days and Jeff is here!!!! For good.  Katie says, “It’ll be weird having him here,” and I said, “Like you swapped uncles.”  For Dr. Filk is in Victoria, and Jeff is here.  “I’m used to him being far away.”  For me it will be weird getting through the “Meet my crazy friends stage.”  I know he’ll like Kung Fu Mike and vice versa – the rest of them who the hell knows.  It’s not like ALL of my friends are crazy (I can HARDLY WAIT until he meets ScaryClown, he’ll either like him or loathe him, and versy vice) but they are certainly pegged out against the smarter end of the spectrum and they have that delightful Fun Loving, Common Decency, Brutally Practical combination that makes me melt. Melt Melt Melt.  I heart my friends.

My Buffy Valentines are all over the office.  Te hee.

I’m thinking of giving cooking lessons once I’m in the new place.  Everybody tells me I can cook.  Then they wish they could do it.  Oh, I guess this is not the time to start fantasizing about lesson plans. I learned how to cook an omelette in the nuker from Keith the other day…. he fed me last weekend, I guess I forgot to mention it.  Did I mention that I was happy?  Stressed, but happy.

I light a candle for my grannie.  Without going into details, she was in and out of hospital on a pre-existing condition and everything is managed and she slept in her own bed last night.  I am very grateful that she’s living in the same town as relatives who adore her and help her every chance they get. I light a candle for all the grannies who face old age without much help or sympathy.

The week in prospect

Tammy is coming to visit this weekend and my brother is moving to Vancouver this weekend.  I am hopping from one foot to the other excited.

A lot of people think I am quite odd for wanting to live with my brother (many comments about how “I could never live with MY brother in a million years”) but I think this is the wave of the future for a lot of baby boomers.  Tammy being here means I can’t help with the move proper but after I drop her off at the airport I’ll be over to the new place helping kick stuff into corners.  As Jeff has more stuff it’s good I’ll be moving in second as it will be a serious inducement to get rid of stuff.  I’ve already gotten rid of one box of boox and more to come (I joined bookcrossing.com).  It’s a wrench giving away books.  In fact, it’s virtually impossible, but I will have little room in the new place – essentially about one third of the floor space I have now – so goodbye sofa of Morpheus (does anybody want a REALLY AMAZING SOFA?) and the ditzy Ikea furniture I bought when I moved in.  Goodbye stupid desk.  Some of the good furniture is going into storage, but most of it, I freely admit, is trash, including all the bookshelves.
The cold continues apace.   I got more cough syrup last night but was able to sleep without it. A detailed enumeration of my symptoms can be collapsed down to the heartfelt, “Eew, gross,” so we’ll just leave it at that.

I have one last family bit of news.  As far as I can determine, Katie has actually quit smoking.  I’ve been coming and going on it myself but I haven’t had a cigarette in about two weeks, and Katie’s been off for a week.  Given the temptation – she’s currently living with smokers – I’m sure it’s a hard thing, but she’s also broke, and that helps.

Coughiness.

I mailed my “I am so annoyed with you, you great Canadian” letter to Mr. Peter Gordon MacKay and cc’d Bill Siksay, who’s only going to be my MP for another 4 weeks. I don’t think that Canadian troops belong on American soil either, by the way, not that there’s a snowball’s chance in hell the US will ask for them.  See previous post about sending off a letter.

It was lovely havng both the kids here.

I lost my bloodwork requisition.  I’ve now looked everyplace logical and I think – I mean it’s possible – that I threw the damned thing out while cleaning my apartment.  Annoyance and irritation.

and it’s 3:01 in the morning and I can’t sleep for coughing and I am officially out of cough syrup and won’t have any until after singing class tonight, the earliest I can get some.

Nine hours sleep AGAIN

Either I’m clinically depressed or I’m actually getting enough sleep.  Since I wake up in the morning feeling calm, relaxed and rested, which is usually the opposite of either depressed or sickening sleep (you know, the sleep you get when you’re trying to fend off the latest round of germs) I think it’s the latter, and that’s just fine by me.

On the list today:

Get my thank you letter off to my Granny; put all my laundry away, which laundry has transmogrified from Dirty Pile to Clean Pile without significantly reducing the wreckage that is my apartment; Cook Things (I have chicken and beef to cook up for premade meals); send out invites for the Friday night beeriness (which will also encourage me to tidy in the public areas at least although the bathroom’s already clean); assemble my outfit for contradancing on Friday (it’s literally one short bus ride from here); get into work early because me covering for somebody’s lawful absence for the last week and a half has put a cinder in the eye of all of my other customers, who are sending baleful emails.  I should also get stuff ready for Conflikt but I imagine I’ll get into a frenzy of printing stuff out later.. it was odd having somebody who knows me IRL emailing me and asking if she could print out the Tapioca Song for the song book – it’s on this site and under a Creative Commons license.  Unless you are planning on turning it into an international hit children’s song (as…bloody…if…) anybody can do what they want with it, and it’s already been parodied, so nu?  Oh, and I should cancel & rebook next Friday evening’s medical appointment downtown because I’m going to be in Seattle….

Before I die I want ONE of my songs to have a goofy flash animation.  I may have to go back to school to learn how.  I’m thinking “Catnip on my Shoes” because it’s only a minute long, and cats are definitely popular with geeks.  Why?  because they are Just Barely Social Enough.  Dog owners can be easily as crazy as cat owners, but at least they have to leave the house.