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this sure is a weird month
April 18, 2011
This post covers the last 9 days or so, but let's get this out of the way first. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you "April in Wisconsin":
April 10th: 82 degrees and sunny.
April 18th: 32 degrees and snowing its ass off.
Okay. I may not be able to pull this off, since last week was a nightmare. As evidenced by my last entry. But here goes.
Sunday, the 10th. Last-minute invite to spur-of-the-moment birthday cookout for Nephew's 20th--Niece's 18th. Wodges of cash fly out of wallet and into birthday cards, but what the heck. Glad to go. It was kind of fun, but not smoking was hard, and I did end up getting sunburned (see weather above).
Monday, the 11th. Get a bomb dropped at work that our out-of-state-based team member and a vendor rep will both be in the office Tuesday through Friday, and I am expected to come up with a list of stuff to go over with them for the project by the end of the day. We will be in all-day meetings, knocking everything else off my calendar. We will be grabbing cafeteria lunch and eating in the conference room, while we work. (But oh, yay! the Company's buying, so that makes it all better!) I will also be expected to have dinner with them at least once. Oh, and despite the fact that the vendor rep and three out of four team members prefer an early start--we will be following the 8 to 5 schedule.
I use up every ounce of leeway I have, by stating that I will be unable to stay late or go to dinner on Tuesday or Wednesday, due to previously scheduled obligations.
Tuesday, the 12th and Wednesday, the 13th: every bit the hell you would expect them to be. But at least I was off work at my usual time. Also--My mom called me on Wednesday to let me know that my Aunt Juanita died suddenly. Just another nugget of goodness, right? I feel really sorry for my cousins, though.
Thursday, the 14th: From 4:30 in the morning (when I got up) until 7:30 in the evening (when I pulled back into my driveway), I was in service to my job. Getting ready for work, driving to work, a 10.5 hour workday, fighting the traffic to the Italian mid-scale chain restaurant, enduring what was, for me, another two hours of work, and then fighting my way back to the highway and driving home. A FIFTEEN HOUR DAY.
The stress was coming off of me in waves. My eczema was so inflamed that it looked like a flashing red light. My twitchy eye was going like the shutter on a movie camera. My head was throbbing. My face was gray. My breathing was ragged. My body was completely contorted from the effect of sitting for ours in horrible chairs--my muscles and joints were completely gnarled up and shrieking with pain.
I just cannot do this stuff anymore--the Hashimoto's just won't let me. I can look and feel pretty normal, as long as I keep below a certain threshhold of stress and activity.
The problem with that, though, is that when the disease is invisible, you get no consideration for it. So people will pile stuff on you, thinking you can handle it, because it is only a little more than normal.
But you're NOT normal. And you buckle.
Friday, the 15th. Still atypical at work, but it was wrapping up, and I got out on time. Went home, went out to lunch with Spouse, did some errands and shopping, and came home to chill quietly on a rainy afternoon. Ordered a pizza delivered from Luigi's, watched the latest episode of Outsourced, and crashed.
Saturday, the 16th. Woke up after 10 hours of sleep, made coffee, and played FV. Did some power puttering, made a test batch of Ginger Snaps from a recipe I found online. Auntie wants ginger cookies, and the only recipe I had makes about 40 million cookies, since if was my great-grandma's "feed the threshers" recipe. I leafed though a lot of deal-killers before I found one that read like my kind of recipe (butter, not shortening--no pan greasing--doesn't make 40 million cookies), and the one at at joyofbaking.com sounded promising, so I gave it a try. Home run, first time at bat. These came out faboo, and gave me something to take to work for a birthday potluck this morning.
Sunday, the 17th. Coffee & internet, followed by pancakes, sausage, and fresh-squeezed orange juice. Baked another batch of cookies--chocolate chip this time, since Spouse doesn't like ginger snaps. Ran out for a few minutes in the early afternoon, to mail stuff and to check out the brand new CVS up on the north side, accross from the Wal-Mart. Nice store. More compact and less crap than our location on 80th--just as expensive, though. I did snag a BOGO on their store brand of adult multivitamin--in a chewable, yet! I'm packing them in my lunch, so I remember to take them with a meal.
Monday, the 18th. Got up and dressed this morning before I opened the door and realized we were having a raging snowstorm, so I ended up going back and changing from a shirt to a sweater. Was nearly late for work due to changing, clearing off car, stopping for gas, and fighting snowy roads. Yep, NEARLY late. All that going on and I still can't manage to be late for work. Work was reasonable for a Monday. Stopped on the way home to pick up my levothyroxine refill and get a tube of eczema cream, then came home and chilled for a while with "Now, Voyager on the DVR before Spouse came home and assumed control of the TV. Moved to the PC long enough to play my daily FB games, then did my pre-bed chores. I'm ready to hit the sack. I may try to read, but I'm betting I won't be able to keep my eyes open.
Smoking cessation stuff: Considering the week I had> The fact that I didn't revert to my old ways of coping with stress and start puffing away like a Dickensian chimney is a bloomin' miracle. Of course, I am having a heck of a time getting off the nicotine gum, and I am getting mouth sores from it. But I guess you can't have everything.
There. Caught up, mostly.
Reading:Hobby--The Island Mystery (1918), by George A. Birmingham. After a week of impossible awfulness, in which I probably got a cumulative total of 15 minutes in which to read, I am getting back to this. I used the 15 minutes to finish "The Diamond Pin", and to start and quickly abandon "Nancy of Paradise Cottage" and "The Bluebirds' Winter Nest". Nancy just annoyed me, and I thought the Bluebirds were part of a different series.
Also reading: "Pieces of Hate and Other Enthusiasms" (1922), by Heywood Broun. Collected short pieces of fiction, criticism and journalism.
Listening: Haven't had time for that, either. News and my hypnosis recording are about it in the listening department.
Surfing: .
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