days_unfolding

I'm looking into joining the YMCA when I come back here. They have Yoga and Pilates classes and a pool. I hope that they would let me join month-to-month.

Went and had my COVID test. They were thorough and tested me for the flu and strep throat too. All negative. The doctor thinks that I picked up some sort of virus at the hospital. I'm definitely feeling exhausted. They're doing a PCR test just to make sure.

Napped for a while. Got the garbage and recycling out. Tried to call Mom, but she isn't answering. By the way, I asked for a nurse to call me back today but she didn't.

Mom's doctor and I finally connected. She said that Mom was very sick, but they have specialists working on her. She's too sick to be transferred to a nursing home any time soon.

I tried to take another nap, but couldn't sleep. Good. I went through Mom's mail and pulled out the bills. I tried to pay them online, but need Mom's social security number. I have it in Illinois, but that doesn't help me here. I need to check if I put her as a beneficiary on my retirement accounts and get the number that way. I'll ask her tomorrow, but I don't know if she'll be "with it" enough to give it to me. I can go over to her financial planner and get it that way.

I'm going to go to bed early and get some stuff done in the morning. I also want to start work early to get out early to see Mom.

I have a sore throat. Uh oh. I need to schedule a COVID test tomorrow (done). My throat really hurts. No cough though.

Went to call the vet to cancel Zara's dental appointment, but they're closed on the weekend. I guess that I'll call on Monday.

Cleaned out my wallet and transferred stuff to my new wallet.

My pet sitter arranged for someone else to take over after Monday. Bless her. So I'm staying, but I'll need to go back by the end of the week. I also called Mom and left a message saying that I didn't think that I should go out today. The problem is that she doesn't listen to her messages.

Mom called while I was in the bathroom. I called her back, but she isn't answering her phone. Sigh.

Cleaned out my purse and transferred stuff to the new purse. Discovered that what I thought was a black purse is really dark green. Oh well.

Paid some bills. Now I don't know what to do. I'd like to lie down again for a while but don't want to miss Mom's call if she calls. I wish that she'd answer her phone. Maybe I'll read a little.

I talked to Mom and she was really upset that I'm not coming there. She told me to hang up. Sigh. But now I can nap.

I decided that I wanted some tea to soothe my throat, so I added some almond milk to my Meijer order.

I've been reading most of the evening. I'm going to go to bed and get some good sleep. I need to study for a test on Tuesday but I'll do that tomorrow. I have my COVID test tomorrow at noon.

I had been listening to REM's CD Monster while I drove back from Michigan, and "My Crush with Eyeliner" is playing in my head. I need to dig out more REM CDs for my next Chicago trip.

I made an appointment for a COVID booster and flu shot tomorrow. I can pick my meds up then too.

I forgot to mention that Mom's friend was joking about Mom needing a quart (of blood), and I said that it was too bad that she didn't have a dip stick to see when she needed more blood. (She gets regular transfusions because of low hemoglobin.)

I dumped the garbage bags full of my aunt's clothes in my closet for fear that my pet sitter might think that they're garbage and dump them, but now I can't get into the closet. I need to deal with them sooner rather than later. I want to put the sweaters in my wicker chest, though, and Mimi has decided that's her spot.

I looked up when to book a trip for Spring Break, and Google says in January. I might book in December to be sure.

Started laundry. Looked for my spare partial, but I haven't found it so far. What did I do with it? Started reading the Unfuck Your Boundaries book. Discovered that there is also a workbook, so I ordered it. I love workbooks. I'm pondering what my boundaries are.

Ordered my mom's Uber for the trip back. It's a hassle involving many phone calls back and forth. I hope that she gets a smartphone soon. (I told her that she can book an Uber from the Web, but she thinks that's too confusing.)

I messaged an OKCupid person. We'll see how this goes. (One of my therapist's roles seems to be plunging me into things. I tend to suffer from analysis paralysis.)

Tried to order more bamboo toilet paper, but couldn't log in. Noticed that I had a Lahaina t-shirt saved to Google Keep, which started me wondering about more pairs of jeans. I went to Mercari for more used jeans, and found as many pairs of shorts as jeans. I guess that I'll be ready for Miami. I did get the Lahaina shirt. The money goes to someone in Hawaii who is LGBT+ friendly, so it's a good cause. Okay, I got the toilet paper straightened out and it ships on Monday.

Well, heck. The room rates in Miami go up in March. They would be much cheaper in November. The best that I could do in March is $224 a night. That's for a nice place with a pool, kitchenettes in the rooms including a refrigerator, and a balcony. With taxes and fees, it's $2000. Ack. Seattle is cheaper, so maybe I should go to Seattle in March. (Miami and Seattle are on top of my US bucket list.) Alaska Airlines is the cheapest, but I'd have to take a flight at 8 AM. I found a hotel in Seattle that sounds perfect.

I'm working on cleaning the stove where I had the banana bread disaster. Right now, it's soaking. Done. It's now looking good.

Talked to Mom. She was trying to guilt me into going to Chicago earlier and picking her up at the airport, but I stuck to my plan of coming up on the Friday of the week that she's going. My therapist would be proud of me. Mom is mad at me. Sigh. I pointed out that I was driving her to Michigan and promptly coming back, so I am helping her. She also said that one of my aunt's friends can't pick her up "because he works". Well, I work, damn it.

Actually, I'm wondering if Mom needs to go to Chicago at all. I'm going to rent the van, load the van, and drive, so why does she need to be there? I know where the stuff that she wants is.

I'm trying to decide what to do now. I need to make up a half-hour from work, so I'll do that first. I need to clean counters in the kitchen, but I might leave that until tomorrow.

I texted my aunt's nephew. He said that he told my mom that there wasn't a rush to get her stuff out of my aunt's house, but he would like stuff out by mid-October. I'm going to stick to my plan of going to pick up my stuff next weekend. Though wait a minute, If I'm going to drive the van back to Chicago, I can pick up my stuff when I pick up my car. The question is what I'm going to do about the entertainment center. I probably won't have the old one out by mid-October, so I'll need to put it in storage (with a blanket on it to keep it clean). Maybe I could get someone to take stuff out of here during the week. Either way, I have my work cut out for me.

Woke up at 10 AM, rolled over and went back to sleep, and got up at noon. The girls were restless, but now I've fed them.

Got my COVID booster shot at Walgreens. I thought that it would be quiet there and it was. Now my arm hurts a little, so I'm going to feed the girls and lie down for a little while.

I was unable to sleep. I feel okay except for my arm hurting a little.

Got the garbage out (in the rain). I'm feeling tired and have a headache though, so I'm thinking of going to bed early and sleep off the effects of the shot. Well, no, I watched a Harry Potter movie. It was nice to laze around.

I need to get the large basket out of storage in which to store my yoga stuff.

Mimi and Zara have been playing in a cat-sized box.

It's raining cold rain. Brr. I hope it stops when I need to go out to get the headlight fixed.

I'm waiting impatiently for the Omicron surge to be over so that I can get my hair cut and my passport renewed. Patience, Adrienne.

Learning German is really calling me. I don't know why. Maybe there's something that I need to learn in Germany? But I want to study Italian consistently every day before signing on for something else. I found some free German lessons online. lenine2, what German instructor did you have? Were they good?

I installed some apps for train tickets in Europe.

I got on the list for snow removal after the big storm. Yay. By the way, the forecasters have said up to 12 inches of snow. Yikes.

On CNN: "More than a dozen HBCUs get bomb threats on the first day of Black History Month". Yikes. There are so many creeps in this country! Sometimes I wonder if it's hopeless. And: "2 Chicago synagogues were vandalized over the weekend as anti-Semitic incidents have US Jewish communities on edge". Oh crap.

You never know about people. The car repair place was full of people without masks and was playing NASCAR on TV. Well, it turned out that the woman at the counter loves reading and likes librarians, and we had a discussion about books. I have to admit that I was surprised.

My headlight is now fixed. I picked up more library books. And I have money to pay the mower guy to remove my snow-to-be.

The earlier discussion on dadi's journal about how well she speaks English made me think of reading LJs that are written in Italian. I found a couple that post fairly often (after having to figure out how to do a Directory Search!)

Piano class went okay. My teacher suggested that I work on not hesitating between measures or phrases, so I have a quest! Something to work on!

I published my new Medium article, a day late because I didn't get up from my nap last night. But I'm back in the groove.

I spent about an hour with News in Slow Italian, listening, reading, and making flashcards, so I get a green star on my calendar. I also did some German on Duolingo.

Now I'm trying to figure out what to clean or organize to get a gold star :) Maybe I'll clean out the office.

It's going to be weird to wake up to snow.

Woke up at 7:30 AM. Decided to get up and have a leisurely breakfast before work.

Mimi is not happy that Zara is sharing my desk chair. She's asking me to go lie down with her, but I'm explaining to her I need to work. She doesn't think that's a good reason.

When I went to take my COVID test, there was a sign saying that the pharmacy was closed because of staffing issues. And Walmart is reducing their hours, presumably because of staffing issues. Eeek! It looks like the Omicron peak is here.

Okay, I'm going to put in a grocery delivery order at Aldi tonight (though there's an ethics issue with sending someone out for me). And then I will put in a pickup order for Saturday at Walmart, which is the earliest time that they have open. I'm going to hold off on the haircut for now.

I have a new COVID test scheduled for Sunday.

The grocery order went well, except she was waiting for a response from me, and Instacart didn't pop up the message. Now I know to refresh if nothing seems to happen for a while. I could get hooked on this, but it costs more money. But perhaps spending my time decluttering rather than shopping would give me more bang for my buck. I've submitted my pickup order at Walmart for Saturday. The cat litter and soda need to be shipped, but that's even better. I just got enough for free shipping. I added more diet cola to the order so that I don't have to go to Dollar Tree.

Got the groceries put away. The only downside is that I have even more reusable Aldi bags. Next time, I'll ask for paper bags.

Maybe I'll get some stir-fry veggies in my next Aldi order. I want to eat more veggies. Also, I should put sweet potato-black bean burritos on my list sometime.

I'm wondering if I should hire a cleaner to come every other week, but I want to get more organized first.

I have a good edited draft of my essay. I posted it to Dreamwidth/LJ and to my Facebook beta reading group. We'll see what comments I get.

Time to go clean. I think I'll post this though because I'm at my computer. And then turn my desk chair over to Zara, who will appreciate it.

I don't really like the sound of Portuguese as much as I like Italian and French (the two languages that I've studied at length). People say that Italians sing the language rather than speak it. But the idea is to wander around Portugal and see if I might want to live there. I might take a tour to begin with. Go Ahead Tours has a tour for solo travelers. Hmm, I'm looking at a tour of Italy as well. Though actually I found a tour with a different company that I like better. Hmm, I found a tour with Rome, Pompeii, Capri, and Positano, but now I can't find it. I found one that was similar. Hmm, I'd probably save money booking that trip myself. I'll do some research.

I found more books on Portuguese at Powell's, but I'm going to wait to get them.

The uni has announced that we will work remotely until January 18th, and they will tell us more then. Holy cow. The first week of classes will be remote so that students have time to get COVID-tested.

I didn't actually get up early, but I got a good night's rest. I was sitting here lingering after breakfast, when I remembered I need to do laundry before I go out. I guess that I'll sit here longer while the clothes are in the washer. Fed the girls, and if you've seen lions pace back and forth when they're about to be fed, that's exactly what Zara does. She gets too excited to stand still.

I'm thinking that I'll do the Coursera Android App Development certificate this Spring.

Started watering the rosemary and thyme. Mimi jumped up and started harassing the thyme. I told her to cut it out. Scrubbed a litter box. Took clothes out of the dryer and started making a pile of stuff to pack. Mimi was lying in my suitcase, so I want to wipe it off. Put another load of clothes in the dryer.

Started making a packing list, and this time I remembered to put the charger for my Fitbit on the list. (I forgot it last time.)

Ran out and dropped some stuff at storage and grabbed my snow shovel. The laundromat's change machine wasn't working, but it occurred to me I could go to the credit union. Got my COVID test done. Ran to the credit union and got quarters. Washed my car and vacuumed it. As it turns out, I didn't need the extra quarters because the vacuums were only 50 cents for 4 minutes. Got soda and munchies for the trip. Picked up Zara's prescription. I tried turning Sirius on again but still no.

Talked to Mom. She bought the girls a flopping fish for Christmas, and she wanted to know how they liked it. Both of them checked it out, but it scared Mimi when the fish would move. I'm going to bring the fish so Mom can see it flop.

The weather is looking good for my trip. And I have a negative COVID test, good.

Printed off some Web pages about Italian future tense and direct objects to peruse at my mom's house. My teacher still hasn't sent the handouts. He's busy because of Christmas—the nerve :)

Got my box of books and Mom's basket out in the car. I need to wash what I have on, so I think that I'll get in pajamas (done) and putter around. I think that I'll go to sleep early as soon as the wash is in the dryer and get up early to pack my suitcase. One problem with living in a mobile home is that the entire place shakes when the washer spins, and I'm thinking EARTHQUAKE!

The girls are good and don't bother me while I'm asleep. After I sit up, Mimi will climb all over me, meowing. Sometimes she will jump on me when I go to sleep, and we have to work it out.

Oops. Apparently I scheduled my COVID test for today, not Saturday. I'm glad that they sent me a reminder.

Fed us all. When I went in the bedroom for a nap, Mimi started meowing. I told her I needed to use the washroom. She followed me in there because clearly I need a supervisor :) Napped.

Oh crud. Mom called as I was waking up, and they're predicting snow in Michigan on Monday. Not sure what to do. I need to think about this. I checked the weather en route, and the snow is only by her, so I'm going to leave on Monday as planned.

Printed off the email about the COVID test. Zara did something with my stapler, and I can't find it. My pen cup is missing too. Sigh.

Had lunch. Now I'm relaxing a little and uncrossing my eyes. Threw myself together. Zara came running out because of course I was going to feed them. Why else would I go into the kitchen? NOT. I told her I'd feed them when I got back.

Had my COVID test done. It wasn't too awful, and it was quick. Put air in my tires except for one tire that I couldn't get open. Got a few things at Walmart, which was packed and someone cut in front of me and walked very slowly. Patience. I got everything that I needed, including "de-icer" windshield wiper fluid. Got cash for the pet sitter and cash for my trip. I realized on the way home that I forgot to stop the mail, so I need to do that (done).

Stephen Sondheim died. Bummer.

Fed the girls and ate dinner. I think that I'm going to take a brief nap. Started to take a nap and the pet sitter stopped by for the money and woke me up. Trying again....Bah. Can't fall asleep. Oh well.

TravelZoo has a great deal on a trip to China. I can't afford it right now, but I have to remember to check TravelZoo on Black Friday in the future.

Zara has discovered that I'm lying in bed and is lying on me.

Walgreens said that I had a negative COVID test. About what I figured, but good to know for sure.

And now I'm yawning. I'm thinking of going to bed early and get up early.

Bah. Zara knocked over the desktop computer and moved the monitor.

I tried to sign up for Sirius XM again, and it still isn't working. I'll have to call them tomorrow. No, I can only text them tomorrow. I'll do that.

Well, I kept on setting my alarm forward until I got up at the usual time. The water was still on, so I took a risk and had a quick shower.

The water is on today. I wonder if they rescheduled?

Zara has decided that she likes the guitar box that I was saving to sell the extra guitar. I still haven't gotten that done yet. She came running when she heard me eating my lunch. Goof:) And she's back in the box. All I can see are two glowing eyes. I told her that she'd make a good Halloween decoration.

I decided that I'll get a COVID test at the university before I go and see Mom in November, just to be sure.

I ran out and returned some library books and checked one out. Just got back in time for piano class. I was kind of resenting the time for the class because I have a lot to do, but the class was fun. I dropped my phone behind the electric piano though, and knocked a bunch of music down pushing the piano back. So my mess is even messier.

I have an unsolved mystery. I swear that my program was working correctly last night, but my instructor found errors in it that I can now see. So what was with me last night? This class is not going well. I need to spend more time on it. Luckily, I have just some labs to work on this week. I'll print them out and work on them on the trip back on the train. (I'm sure that I'll be asleep on the trip up Friday morning!)

Anyway, I need to go clean up the mess in the kitchen. And I have to get up early to do into the office tomorrow. This is a crazy week.

I ordered an "I got the shot" button from Etsy because why not. Maybe it'll inspire someone else to get vaccinated. Or not.

It always amazes me how much more perky I am in the afternoon than in the morning. I suppose that it's not surprising given that I'm a night person. And I'm even more perky during the evening. Good for me getting things done during the evening and bad for getting to sleep on time.

I've been feeling a little dizzy so I'm drinking water in case I'm dehydrated. It would be good if I could go to the public library to pick up books and the grocery store for roast beef. No, I'm feeling like I might have a slight fever? I'm staying home. Plus it's raining, and there is a wind advisory.

Zara just had a major case of the zoomies. I have some packing material that I need to throw out, and she pounded through it, onto me, onto the counter, and did the loop a few times. She's the only cat whom I've known who gets manic when she eats. She's finally settled down. She's not happy that I corralled the packing material into a garbage bag.

The Great Courses had a music theory class on sale, so I got it. Like I have lots of time for it, but I will this summer. Just need to get through the first half of May. They also have "How to Listen to and Understand Great Music" on sale, but I can't afford it right now. Presumably it'll be on sale sometime again.

My voice teacher wanted me to learn the tune of the Italian song without the words. I'm finding it very difficult. I can even pick the melody out on the piano but am having a hard time memorizing it. I've also listened to a recording of the song, and I wound up memorizing the few words that are in English. We'll see what she says tomorrow.

I actually remembered to put clothes in the dryer (which is good because I had no clean clothes). And I practiced voice, guitar, and piano. After some struggles and looking up how to read tablature, I managed to learn a G major scale on the guitar. Go me.