catch-up
March 27, 2006, 6:07 P.M.

Friday:
Snow showers and sleet on and off all day, intermixed with periods of sun. Typical March weather, very schizo.
Since I had the day off, I went down to Schaumburg with Spouse--he had to fill out some paperwork at the placement agency, so I tagged along. It wasn't what I'd planned on doing, but he wanted the company, so I said to heck with it, and went with. I'd already gotten a good start on the laundry Thursday night, so I didn't feel too guilty.

After he did his thing, we cruised over to see JR, who is back at the Caddy dealer again, due to personel shifts at the dealer group. I took advantage of the sumptuous, marble-lined facilities, we visited a minute, and then Spouse and I headed over to Northbrook and stopped at Trader Joe's. His mom wanted some more of the Island Blend coffee and TJ's strawberry preserves, plus I wanted to restock the frozen veggies and my own coffee supply. On the way home, we swung by his mom to drop the stuff off, and then Spouse took me to look at his new employment, which is only a mile away from where his mom lives. Looks like a nice plant--from the outside, anyway.

We got home about noon, and I put away the shopping and read for a bit before having to leave for my Dr. appointment. I was very upfront with the doc, and let him know that I thought there was more going on than a simple depression. He agreed, and changed my diagnosis to Depression/Anxiety. He also thought I was maybe taking too much Wellbutrin. He changed my meds to one Wellbutrin SR a day, taken in the morning, and also put me on one Lexapro, to be taken in the evening.

Spouse and I ran over to Aldi's to get one last batch of stuff for the Boy Scouts food drive, and then to the local seafood joint to pick up a bucket of fish & chips for dinner. I hadn't had that in ages, so I really enjoyed it. I took my first Lexapro with dinner, and I have a feeling that may be why I have no memory of what I did after dinner.

Apparently, I went into my room, got into bed fully clothed, and passed out cold. Very weird. And damned annoying, because I woke up at midnight and couldn't get back to friggin' sleep! I read an entire book (Coupland's "Eleanor Rigby") in the effort to get back to sleep, but it took till four a.m. to do it.

Then, of course, I slept late and felt groggy all Saturday.

We headed to the Penney's outlet in Gurnee after that, to get Spouse's new shirts for work. And since Spouse lost his toolbox key, and had to perform a little B&E the lock--we had to hit the Sears as well. He was pretty lucky--he got long-sleeved tee shirts for $2.99, baseball tee-shirts for $3.99, and the exact replacement lock & key for his toolbox.

And I stopped into the Corning/Revere store, to find a little luck of my own. Baker's Secret was BOGO on open stock, so I got two of the medium baking sheets (largest my tiny oven holds), and two double-sized, criss-cross style, non-stick coated cooling racks. All for just $9.61!

I told Spouse at Christmas that he'd be far more likely to get homemade cookies if I had some new equipment. When I was looking at this same stuff over the holidays, it was around forty dollars for all that. So he got off pretty easy at under ten bucks.

Since the cooling racks are HUGE, I'm only gonna need one. I mean--my two old ones can only hold around eighteen cookies between them, and one new one holds twenty-four.
And I'll be keeping the old ones, anyway.

So I gave the other to my favorite chef, P, when we saw each other at lunch yesterday. He was stoked as only a kitchen geek can be.

We had lunch at the mall--Al's Italian Beef, which was absolutely the best food I've ever had in a food court. Their fresh-cut fries were as good as the State Fair. The Chicago Dog was done properly, and Spouse said the Beef rocked. I think we'll probably eat there again.

After a trip to the Jewel to get some groceries, we came home to hang out and putter. Spouse finished cleaning his tools and fixing the toolbox, and I read and fiddled around with some laundry for the rest of the afternoon.

Spouse made his Hawaiian Barbecue Pork on the grill, and I steamed some rice and some green beans for dinner. I did dishes, but the previous night's insomnia was catching up, so I went to bed before ten.

Which long, drawn out ordeal for me. I found it very taxing, and I hate loud public places like sports bars. Especially since I can't/don't drink. It took a lot out of me--I required long nap after we got home.

The food was okay, but VERY salty (bar, after all!) And JR and I played trivia with one of those Buzztime Trivia games--we beat the whole bar, and only lost the lead once in three rounds, and then only for one question. That was kind of fun, but JR made me do all the answering--he just ran the remote control thingie. So--tiring.

Anyway, I had to crash when we got home. I woke up at six-thirty and ate the left-over half of my Chicken Caesar Wrap from lunch, so I could take my pill. Then I just puttered around cleaning up kitchen, prepping chicken for the crockpot on Monday, and getting my self and my stuff ready for morning.

Then I sat down and beaded for a while, but my mind wasn't focusing on it very well. So I walked the dog and went to bed.

I've noticed I've felt slightly nauseous for last few days--probably the new medicine. I did some online reading and dicovered that there may be some interaction between Prilosec and Lexapro, but I can't find out specifics. I'll mention it to the doc, I guess.
Other possible side effects I've noticed are a very welcome loss of appetite (nausea will do that), and the weird feeling of a flushed face but a freezing body. Nothing so far that I can't live with.

Work is getting suckier by the day, but I really don't want to spend my time thinking about it if I'm not getting paid.

Today was Spouse's first day at his new job--The only advice I gave him was "Try to be happy there!".

What else can I say? I will never be able to get him to admit that after this many jobs that ended badly, some of it has to be him.

And considering he showed up for the wrong shift today, I really don't have the highest of hopes here. I'm sure that it was a missed communication, but he was supposed to start on first shift this week--which he apparently didn't know. So when he came in this afternoon, they had no one to train him, and sent him home for the night. He'll start fresh in the morning.

Well, since I'm stuck anyway, I took it into my own hands and made the reservation. Much like the taxes, if I left it to my little procrastator, we'd end up at McDonalds on the 16th because he never reserved a table.