days_unfolding

Went to bed, only to find Zara curled up on my blankets. I guess they're nice and soft, but she didn't leave me much room.

I forgot to mention that I took a mental health screening. It said that I had moderate anxiety and stress, and mild depression, but high social anxiety. So I'm taking their social anxiety course. (It's free.)

Feeding Zara a bunch of smaller meals is working well. She's eating more of her food. Good thing that I work from home, although I'll be going to Champaign next Friday.

I read that clay cat litter is bad for the environment, so I'm going to try ÖKOCAT Super Soft Natural Wood Clumping Cat Litter with Odor Control. (It's from sustainably managed forests.) I'll mix it with the clay litter to get them used to it.

I'm having a tough time deciding on what to make for dinner after the ravioli is gone. It's either Spinach Mushroom Lasagna or Tomato Basil Quiche. The lasagna would keep the place cooler because it's made in the slow cooker. No, I'm going to make Creamy Zucchini Fettuccine.

Ran errands. Got a few things at Dollar Tree, but they were out of soda. Got ingredients for the fettuccine at Walmart, plus some other odds and ends. I had almost exactly the right number of reusable bags; I had one left over. Dropped off library books in the book drop.

Went to pay my Comcast bill online to find that they said that I didn't owe a payment. Hmm. Maybe they reset my account when I changed plans. Added another page to my travel printable.

I didn't have any of the Mega Millions numbers. Oh well.

Read the intro to my anxiety workbook. Printed off some worksheets.

I plan to go to bed soon.

I got an Italian idiom book on Kindle Unlimited, and I'm working on it. I learned one useful phrase, "Come, scusa?" Like "Sorry?" in English when you're not sure what someone said.

Woke up at 9 AM. Decided that it was too early to get up on a holiday. Woke up at noon.

There was a shooting in Highland Park? That's just a few towns north of where I grew up, and in fact, my home town (Evanston) canceled their fireworks show after the shooting. I hope that my friend who lives there is okay. Apparently, she moved to another city and is fine. One of my college roommates was from there, but apparently she moved elsewhere. Mom called to let me know about Highland Park. She said that it was a little close to home. She thinks that a higher power should start over with dolphins instead of humans.

I went to go watch CNN, only to find that the reduction of channels that I did online went through. So I signed up for Sling, and also got Italian and French TV.

I watched CNN until it became clear that they won't know more until they find the shooter, so I went to nap with Zara. Had a nice nap.

I'm trying to decide whether to clean out the refrigerator or not. It needs it, but it's gotten kind of late. Maybe not because I need to make Basil Veggie Bake tonight. Got laundry going. Put a litter box on to soak. Got the garbage out. Picked some fresh basil for the Veggie Bake. Watered the garden, and was bitten by a mosquito. Ugh. Am sitting for a moment before I cook. I chopped everything up for the veggie bake and am sitting a minute before I put it together. The Veggie Bake is in the oven. I walked on the treadmill. Mimi was staring at the treadmill like, "What the heck is it doing?" The Veggie Bake was good.

Oh. Walmart canceled my shipment of reusable bags. But! I was able to get a pickup order of bags. I'll go pick them up tomorrow after piano class. And they were cheaper because of no shipping!

Got the kitchen cleaned up. I was going to study Italian, but it got late.

The news is saying that Risky Business was filmed in Highland Park. I thought that it was filmed in Glencoe, which is even more affluent than Highland Park. And Ferris Bueller's Day Off was filmed there. I'm probably the only person from the Chicago area who hasn't seen Ferris Bueller, so I guess that I should see it.

Another heat index warning for Tuesday. 98F!

I bought 101 Ways to Go Zero Waste and Living Without Plastic for the Kindle. And I wishlisted bamboo toothbrushes and toothpaste tablets on Amazon. And I bought cloth napkins and reusable produce bags.

Italian went well. We wound up talking about the Roe vs. Wade ruling. (I thought that we might, so I prepared.) My teacher is fascinated by American politics. I'm mulling over taking an Italian course when I go to Florence. I found a school that I like.

I looked into buying reusable shopping bags at Walmart (I like their bags better than Aldi's, of which I have a bunch), but it would cost me double to have them shipped to me (plus shipping them kind of defeats the purpose?) So once I get my glasses, I'll need to run over there and get some.

I'm learning a lot from my zero waste book. I clean with microfiber cloths, but apparently they emit plastic particles into the waterways. The book recommended washing them in a bag called a Guppyfriend bag, which traps synthetic particles. They also recommend going to Farmers' Markets instead of stores, but that would mean that I'd have to get going early on Saturdays. Also, organic waste that isn't aerated produces methane, and I throw cat waste out with the trash. Hmm.

My Zenni glasses have shipped already. That was fast! The estimated delivery date is Wednesday.

Tried to take a nap, but my brain was buzzing. Zara snuggled up to me for a while and fell asleep, which was really cute.

I had a zero waste triumph. A container of sauce fell out of my fridge and splashed my jeans. I used a dishcloth to clean up my jeans and a microfiber cloth to clean the floor and tossed the cloths into the washer awaiting my next load. No paper towels used. (I don't use them much anyway.)

But then I made a frozen pizza, which has plastic wrap on it, and ate a Snickers ice cream bar, which also had plastic wrap on it. This is not going to be easy to figure out. The salmon fillets were wrapped in plastic too.

Got the garbage out. I'm going to save cat food cans to bring to a local junkyard. You can have the price for them go to the Humane Society, so win-win. I'm feeling kind of lethargic, so I'm cleaning the counters with some "Oxygen Orange" stuff that cleans quite well. It's in a plastic bottle, of course.

I'm going to sleep and, I hope, not dream of plastic.

Even though we knew it was coming, I'm shocked about the overturn of Roe vs. Wade. I'm too old for it to apply to me directly (plus I'm in a blue state), but I feel for the young people. And who knows where all this will end. Let's hope that it gets out the vote for the midterms.

I had a hell of the time getting my contact lenses in, but finally got them in. And I need to wear reading glasses in order to work with them in. Contact lenses are a pain :)

I went to the optician. The person with whom I needed to discuss glasses won't be in until next Thursday. I told them that I was desperate for glasses, and asked if I could get my prescription so that I could order them online. At first, the person with whom I was talking couldn't print it out, but the other person was able to print it. So that worked out well for me. I can order from Zenni or another online place! I might get two, given my track record in losing glasses.

I stopped at the library as long as I was downtown. I ran into a former colleague who is now the head of the public library. We had a discussion about the closing of the college at which we both used to work.

I received my Cloud Paper (bamboo toilet paper) order, but haven't tried it out yet.

Ran errands. Picked up my prescriptions. Got tons of soda. Bought a few things that I didn't include in my grocery pickup, and also noted that Walmart was out of the salmon fillets that I ordered, so I got some with skin on. Picked up my grocery order. Got cash for mowing. Came home and ripped the contacts out of my aching eyes. Now I'm sitting for a few minutes. Got the groceries put away.

I looked at Zenni and Warby Parker glasses. I found some Zenni glasses that I like in their Fast Frame collection. I like that Warby Parker allows you to try on different frames. Because I want to get two sets of glasses, I'll get the one that comes fast from Zenni and a set of them to try on from Warby Parker. But I think that I'm too tired to make any decisions tonight.

I've been reading the commentary on the Supreme Court decision, but I should go to sleep. The mess will still unfortunately be here tomorrow.

I looked for a place to hang out in Reno when I take my California Zephyr trip because the train gets in at 8:30 AM, and my dad won't be able to get there that early. I found a restaurant with great breakfasts that's an Uber drive away. It sounds like a plan. And someone online said that the best time to take the Zephyr is in mid to late September. I'd need to make a decision to take the trip early because the Zephyr fills up (although kids will be in school then, which helps). Huh. It just occurred to me that I could rent a car and drive to Gardnerville. But I still want that breakfast.

I have a ratty old cat tree that Harlee loved, but Harlee has been gone for a few years now. It's on my list of things to get rid of. Now Mimi has decided that she likes it after ignoring it for years. Cats!

I stayed up late. Ridiculously late. And now I have dark circles under my eyes.

I ordered body wash in a reusable bottle, and shampoo and conditioner bars. We'll see how I like them.

Napped for 4.5 hours. I must have needed it. Cats: "Good Mommy, you got up on time to feed us!" Mimi was telling me a tale of woe about how she's starving to death :)

I've started the Butter Chicken in the slow cooker. Set up the Blueland hand soap; you put hot water into the glass bottle and drop in a tablet.

Mom is still not doing well. She's dizzy and barely walking. She thinks that it's a side effect of the meds that she's on but her doctor blew it off. Her platelets are also low. It's kind of a bummer to talk to her but I don't want to feel that way. She wants me to order an Uber for her on Monday because her car is being fixed. No, she won't get a smart phone.

I'm feeling tired again, but I need to wait for the Butter Chicken. I printed off Italian to study. I want to get away from the computer radiating heat.

It was 52F last night, so it's not quite summer yet. I didn't turn the heat on though.

It amuses me that the cats are all over me when they're hungry, and then they leave me alone once I've fed them. That puts me in my place!

Hey, it's a holiday weekend!

I'm looking into Cloud Paper, which is toilet paper made from bamboo, which is sustainable. I looked into another company that makes toilet paper from recycled paper, but it was really expensive.

Zara was standing on her feeding spot. Then she came over, jumped on my lap, and promptly jumped off, and went back in her feeding spot. I think that the feeding proceedings aren't happening fast enough for her liking (done, finally!)

Ran to Walmart to get Zara's meds and some food. Had an impulse to get a burger, but I went to Aldi and got some French bread pizza instead. I need to go get my grill and make turkey burgers. I want to find out what's on a Frisco melt and make that.

Mom is not doing well. She's not sure what meds she should be taking and people say that they'll do jobs for her but don't show up, and she kept on saying, "I don't know". I asked if I should come out, but she said that would be something else that she'd have to deal with. She did say that talking to me helped though.

I'm chucking out tons of papers, but now I'm yawning. Maybe I should just get to bed early.

I ordered a book on Bora Bora (to be delivered Saturday) and a book on self-esteem (will take a while). I also want to get a book on Tahiti, but I'll wait on that. Hmm. I love planning trips, so maybe I should become a part-time travel agent when I retire. I'd market myself to retirees. Or be a travel agent that is open during the evenings or weekends. I think that I'd get a discount on travel! Or if I live in Europe for a while, be a consultant on relocating to Europe.

I couldn't sleep last night. My brain was churning about the Texas shooting and some other stuff. I finally fell asleep at 7 and got up at 9. Ugh.

I was trying to figure out what to make for dinner tonight because I didn't want to chop vegetables on no sleep. (I don't think blood would add to the burritos.) I decided to make (frozen) veggie stir-fry. It's chopped up, so I just needed to do the stir-frying. I didn't think that I'd mess that up :) I have a real taste for the burritos though.

Hmm. I plan to put my grill on the balcony of my apartment-to-be, and I wondered if Amazon sold grill covers. Of course they do.

Crud. I just remembered that I have books to pick up at the library, and I didn't want to drive today. They'll keep them through part of next week, so I'm okay. Maybe I'll pick them up during lunch tomorrow.

There is a NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) group in Champaign. They have on-site meetings for family members, but only online groups in Illinois for people with mental illness. (Figures.) I might try a meeting and see how it goes. Hey, Made of Millions is a global mental health organization, and it has more interesting resources than NAMI. I want to dig into it. Also, The Faculty/Staff Assistance Services Newsletter at work had a link to an article about What to Do If You Are Struggling with Mental Health at Work. The vacation time that I took off earlier was mental health time. I'll try not to get into a state where I need to take a leave of absence.

Here comes a storm. Mimi was on my lap, and she took off when she heard the thunder. Ugh, more rain tomorrow too.

I already ordered laundry detergent sheets to cut down on plastic waste. Now I'm looking at home cleaning solutions in reusable bottles. JAWS (Just Add Water System) has some that I'd like to try, but I have some cleaning stuff that I want to use up first. Don't know what to do about my soda bottles though. Sodastream doesn't cut it. I saw Cirkul water flavoring systems that include iced tea with caffeine. Maybe I'll try it. Though I'm going to throw a lot of stuff out in this move, and my complex doesn't have recycling.

I just thought of a graphic for Facebook: "The library provides eco-friendly reading!"

I attended another money webinar about paying off debt. They showed a kind of nifty tool that allows you to run different scenarios if you have multiple forms of debt and pay extra on one of them.

Got my laundry in the dryer. I need to stay up until it finishes so that I can hang some stuff up. But I'm a little more perky because it's the evening, and I'm a night owl.

I made the stir-fried veggies (and sauce), and I'm shocked by how good it was and so easy to make. I got it at Aldi, so I need to get more to stash in the freezer. And I need more brown minute rice. I decreased the healthiness of it by eating ice cream for dessert though. Everything in moderation, including moderation.

I got my nighttime tasks done except for my shower. I think that it's time to crash.