days_unfolding

I was kind of wishing that I had my original Italian teacher because we talked politics a lot. He was fascinated by US politics and knew a lot about it. I was pleased with myself when he talked about the far right taking control in Italy, and I knew about it. Hey, I read the BBC and the Guardian, both of which cover European politics well. Our conversations got so intense that we’d start out in Italian and sometimes wound up lapsing into English :)

Hmm. I wonder what my mom’s Canadian friend Kate heard about and thought about the debate. She kept on calling my mom about how the US elected a fascist (Trump). I just pinged Kate on Facebook. Kate said that the Canadian press was also saying that the debate was a disaster, and "it is unnerving to think about the next four years". Yep. I told her that I'm sorry that she has to live next to us.

Jon Stewart's recap of the debate was the best thing about it. In it, he said that he was calling a real estate agent in New Zealand. Right behind you, Jon.

Oh crud, it’s predicted to rain on Saturday. I was going to mow. The rain is early in the morning though.

Crap. I overslept. I really need to take a shower at lunch (done).

I love the Italian word for "pain reliever": "Antidolorifico". It sounds like it would get rid of sadness as well as pain.

I checked that the balance on my Flexible Spending Account was low enough to roll over on July 1st, and yes.

Work is quiet today. A lot of libraries have Fridays off during the summer.

I really want to take a nap.

I've got the personal air conditioner. I need to get it set up. And the new trash can. The a/c is charging. It recommends putting ice in it, so I’m looking at ice trays.

Hmm. I found a handyman on Thumbtack, but they have a two-hour minimum. Maybe they could look at the outside water faucet as well as the doors? The doors don't have screws either. I can take out one of the screws holding the hinge on to match it. Hmm, maybe I could put the doors on myself. One of the things that I need to do this weekend is tidy up the upstairs.

Emailed the Italian teacher that Mimmo found.

Napped. I need to eat dinner, but I’m feeling too sleepy to be hungry.

I need to see if I have a Phillips screwdriver. Couldn't find one, so I ordered a set from Walmart along with drill bits to attach the outdoor weather sensor to my porch.

Studied Italian. I'm trying out reading the verb tenses to myself.

I did fall asleep and woke up with my alarm at 7 AM.

Mom's priest friend emailed me back. He's in Europe until the end of the month. He said that he's willing to do the funeral service, although he'll need to send a letter to the Archdiocese of Detroit introducing himself. He's retired, but his last parish was in the Chicago area. So I need to think about what to do. Mom would really like him to do the service. I texted Mom's friend Kate in Vancouver to see what would be better for her. Kate said that May was okay, but earlier May is better.

It's a gray and gloomy day, but it's keeping the house cool. Took a nap. Now the sun has come out. Saturday looks good for a drive. Sunday it's going to rain.

Swept the dining room. How does cat litter get tracked all over the place? Packed the bills that I need to do something on (including my tax forms, which I need to do on Sunday).

Ugh. I have an upset stomach. I will lie down for a half hour only and then get in the shower!

In Lincoln now. I'm taking a break while the refrigerator shelves soak. I'm going over them with cleanser, but want to wipe down the glass shelves with glass cleaner to make them shine after they dry.

I don't think that I'm going to finish tonight. I'd like to have only the kitchen floor and bathroom left when I leave. The down side of driving on Sunday is that it might rain, but it also is supposed to get a lot cooler, which would be good for the cats. I worry about leaving them in a hot car when I stop at a rest stop.

Okay, the refrigerator is clean and the oven is clean. The oven didn't require any elbow grease--let's hear it for oven cleaner. I'm calling it a night.

Mimi was surprisingly subdued when I got home. I expected her to chew me out for being out late. Maybe she was asleep.

Oh! It looks the rain on Sunday will end by the time that I leave! Awesome!

My Italian teacher had to cancel. Oh well. So I went to see Mom. She slept most of the afternoon, which is good because she didn't sleep well last night. Some nurse was having her save her poop though, and the room reeked. I finally got someone to get a nurse to deal with it.

Then I had dinner with Mom's "friends" Ken and Deanna. They said that they didn't want to be the primary point of contact when Mom comes home. I was surprised that Ken was the most vocal about that. They also think that medical people will see the house and whisk Mom off to a nursing home because she can't take care of herself. I talked to Mom's friend Kate, and she suggested putting stuff in bins.

I'm tired. I put in an order for cleaning supplies from Meijer, but forgot to finalize it, so now it's coming tomorrow. At least then I can put my clothes in the dryer and go to sleep and get up early to study.

Snow flurries this morning. I want to go back to sleep, but I can't. Also, I have no clean clothes, so I'm doing emergency laundry.

I got a lot of questions answered about the independent study that we're doing in the summer. I also now have an appointment with my advisor.

Mom is being transferred to rehab tomorrow. I exchanged texts with my mom's friend Kate, who thought that I was going over there now, so I called Mom back and said that Mom told me not to come next week. She said that it still didn't make sense for me to come there while she's at the rehab place.

Met with the pet sitter for my trip to California. She was disappointed that the girls hid, although she saw Mimi's ears.

I'm not feeling great; I feel like someone is blowing up a balloon inside my head. I decided to go to bed early and get up at the crack of dawn to go to the old place. First, I took a nap and overslept.

Then Mom called again. She was confused as to when I was taking my trip. I said that I had been planning to go to her house next week, and she said not to come. She did say. "Love to you and the girls," which was nice. And I got an email about how to deal with "caregiver stress," which had nothing new in it and annoyed me greatly.

Now I'm planning to go back to sleep and get up at 4 AM to be on the road at 6. Oh crap, I forgot to put laundry in the dryer.

I got my Hong Kong books and are flipping through them. There's a lot of cool sights in Hong Kong! I hope that I can take the trip sometime!

I made an appointment to board the cats at the vet. I want to try Soft Claws on Zara to see if she will tolerate them, and they said that they'd put them on if I buy them. So I will.

I also made an appointment at the dentist, but the only time that they had available was at 2 on the day that I'm leaving for Mom's house. I'll still go that day, but I probably will have to stop for the night in Ohio en route.

I have a boatload of stuff to get done tonight (make up time for work, clean litter boxes, homework, tidying, and clear the mudroom). And I'm wondering when I'll be able to do my taxes. It's all online, so maybe I can do it from Mom's house.

I did Plan B--took a nap and slept for four hours. Got up and cleaned a litter box and texted my mom's friend Kate with a question. Had dinner. I'm feeling tired, so I looked at my homework assignment to let it percolate. Made a note on my calendar to check about the free Hong Kong fare in May. Bought Soft Claws and cat food. Contacted an insurance company to talk about long-term care insurance for me because it's on my mind. Now I'm going back to bed to get up early.

Bingo. I found a yoga studio in my mom's area that takes drop-ins. Most of the classes are on Zoom, which I might not be able to do because there's no room in my mom's house, but there's an onsite candlelight yoga on Sundays which sounds restorative.

I found a house cleaner. She'll do every two weeks on Wednesdays. She's kind of pricey, but gets great reviews. We'll see how this works. And I found a cleaner to help me clean the old place. Facebook to the rescue.

I've decided that I'll get a chair that converts to a bed for Mom to sleep on when she's here. It might be easier for her than a couch.

Today was the fun task of taking the cats to the new vet in Urbana. Zara noticed that I was hanging around when I fed her, and went "uh no" and ran. I had to chase her a little and drop a towel over her to get her in the carrier. Mimi hid in the bedroom, which was one of the better rooms for her to be in, and I got her. The new vets were fabulous in handling Zara (handling both of them, but Zara is the problem child). They clearly like cats and were very patient. Zara was the calmest that I've seen her at the vet, which isn't very calm, but she wasn't lashing out. I got senior blood tests on the both of them, so the bill was high, but it's worth it if they can handle Zara. I have a dental appointment for Zara after I get back from Michigan and California.

Cool. The Urbana post office is near Walmart. I hope that they have the postage machines that you can use after hours so that I can mail the passport renewal form tomorrow. Now I'm thinking if I don't pull off Hong Kong, I might take my London trip to see the museums in the fall.

Oh bloody hell. Mom called, and she apparently fell the other day and was on the floor for seven hours while her friend Kate was doing some work elsewhere. Kate convinced her to order one of those emergency buttons, which is good. But Mom wants me to figure out how she will get care all the time, and isn't happy that I'm going to California. She finally said that she would see what she could do for respite care, but she wants me to make all the arrangements for her, and I can't. She asked me what I thought that I would do when things got to this point, and I said that I figured that I would move out there and bring the cats. We went back and forth on the cats a little bit. She doesn't like the fact that I'd have to work from there, and I told her that I couldn't afford to take family leave, which is unpaid. She hopes that she'll die soon "and that will solve everyone's problems". Sigh.

I'm wondering when my next therapy appointment is. Next week, I think.

I need to do some homework and get the recycling out, but then I think that I'll nap for a while. Okay, I contacted the pet sitter. Got the recycling out. Did my homework. I need to eat something and then nap time. Exchanged text messages with Mom's friend Kate. She's going to try to get someone to look in on Mom after she leaves.

It's gotten late, so instead of napping, I'm just going to go to bed and get up early. I gave the girls their nighttime treat, which is similar to the treat that I gave them before I took them to the vet, and they both vanished :)

Mom's friend Kate called last night, and I missed the call. I need to squeeze in time to call her. I can't call now because it's 5:30 AM Pacific Time.

It snowed a little, but not enough to worry about.

My plan of record is to take a nap, throw myself together, call Kate, and then head out because I need to finish cleaning out the storage unit. I'll be damned if I'll spend another month's rent on an empty space. Then I'll go back to the old place and clean, but I'll need to leave early because of my homework. I've resigned myself to the fact that I'll probably need another week to finish cleaning out the old place. I'll contact the management tomorrow.

I was right about it being cold. 17F. And I need to sweep out the storage space. Sigh. I pulled out some leather gloves.

I delayed as much as I could and then called Kate. She wasn't answering. I told her that I'd try again in the late afternoon.

Mimi's rolling around on the carpet. Silly girl :)

Got to Lincoln, cleaned out the storage space, and called them to tell them that I was out. Dropped my over-the-toilet storage unit at the thrift store.

My phone hasn't been ringing and I don't know why. Someone called from the hospital and I missed the call even though the phone was in my hand. I called Kate, and she seems to have things straightened out with the psychiatrist that my mom talked to. I talked to Mom, and they're going to release her tomorrow. She's still upset though, and she thinks that her life as she knows it is over.

I can't cope. I think that I'll eat dinner and drop my second item at the thrift store. Then I'll load up the car and go back home and at least get my homework done. I'm feeling dizzy, which is probably psychosomatic, so maybe I'll lie down for a little while first. Couldn't sleep. But wow, the room is spinning. Okay, it's a little better.

Now I got my phone to ring. Bluetooth was on, I don't know why.

I've got the shakes, so I'm ordering McDonald's from DoorDash. I hope that it helps. I'm feeling a little better now that I've eaten. The food did help a lot. Loaded the car. Made it back in one piece.

Oh. I'm still not feeling great. I think that I need to go to bed and get up EARLY and do homework. I don't know what's wrong with me.