I started back at the gym Sunday and went again yesterday (Tuesday). Guess what? I still hate the gym! I figure I’ll try to go 3 days a week and use my home equipment the other days, if it’s not too hot.

Sunday was “leg day”, so I can barely walk, even now three days later. Yesterday was “ab and arm day”, so now I can barely move anything else.

Hopefully, if I can keep at it, this dumb steroid weight will come off and I’ll be back to normal. I can’t believe that having those injections into my spine and shoulder would have such a reaction! Doctor said it could take a year for my body to let go of the weight, so I’m just gonna try to help it along a little bit.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not the size of a house, but I’m heavier and not comfortable like this. At. All.  

Working out still sucks though.

I decided to take Friday off work. I think I’ve only taken one day off so far this year, so I capped out and stopped accruing vacation hours months ago and need to free up some time. I’m going to do glamorous things like get my oil changed and get my roots done. I’ll probably still work a little from home though. Jealous? 😂

It’s Wednesday People!!! The weekend is coming-up fast!! I hope.

 This post will probably be a potpourri of topics!

What’s gone on since my last post? I had another birthday, I’m not too pleased with that, lol! Getting older has it’s positives, but it’s still a bit unnerving at times when I think about the actual number of years I’ve lived.

I flew to Oakland in early June for the Midnight Oil show at the Fox. It’s their last-ever tour (so at least we’re all getting old and it’s not just me!), so I wanted to go to at least one show. I had a ticket for the local show a few days later, but I was still isolating and trying to make sure I didn’t get Covid from the Oakland show (I was in the minority wearing my mask at both the airports and the general admission show with an audience traveling from all over the world) and wasn’t sure I should go. Plus, it was really hot and I didn’t feel like waiting in line on Hollywood Blvd. under direct sunlight all day to get a good spot.

Oakland was fun! Great show. Interesting hotel, The Moxie. Nice, cool weather. Got to see a friend I hadn’t seen since before Covid, which was pretty awesome! PLUS, there was a Shake Shack near the theater, so we had kick-ass burgers while waiting in line for hours!

Work has been crazy hectic and busy the last few months. I’ve been exhausted every day when I get home, but only managing about 5 hours sleep a night if I’m lucky.  This heat hasn’t helped at all. I’m glad it’s supposed to cool down a little over this long weekend. Perhaps I will finally take these loads of charitable donations over! Bags and boxes blocking the hallway!

Frustratingly, I haven't shed the steroid weight yet. I was hoping to by my birthday, but it’s just not going anywhere! I’ve dropped a tiny bit, but nothing I can tell. I think I mentioned getting a Total Gym on sale (basic model for less than $300!). I assembled it and had it in the bedroom, but it’s way bigger than it looked on tv and while I had room for it, it looked weird and I was afraid I’d knock into it in the middle of the night. I ended up moving it to the sun room (i.e. the tiny extra room addition that gets hot as fuck because it faces south and west with windows taking up all the walls). It’s okay in there, but it really does get hot. It’s fun using it, if I do it really early in the morning or in the middle of the night.  Only got my hair caught in the pulleys once! HAHA!

A friend at work gave me a fancy silk pillowcase set for my birthday and oh my gosh, it’s amazing! How did I not know about these things??? She also brought back Polish dark chocolates with booze in them for the office. How did I not know about Polish booze chocolates??? Everyone knows about the amazing vodka, but the chocolate is fantastic too!

It’s 4th of July weekend, so I need to get Jaws out for my annual viewing. I think this is year 30, with maybe one or two times where I wasn’t able to pop it in either the vcr or dvd player.  I love that movie. Robert Shaw is legendary.

I have to admit, I don’t feel particularly patriotic, not that I ever do in general, but this year is an all time low. You know, I watch a lot of tv shows from the 1970’s and watching them I think to myself “how fucked up is it that women and people of color have more rights in 1974 than they do today?”. I’m so angry and so, so sad. Why is it conservatives only take things away from people? Things that have nothing to do with them. You never see proposals from the right that actually go towards helping people, especially not on a basic needs level. What are they so afraid of? Why do they hate everyone that’s not like them? 

Gotham is doing about the same. Not eating much, etc. he’s acting fine. Being an asshole if I’m honest. 😂 I’m clinging to the fact that if he can run around, jump, climb and play, I’m not going to take him to the vet for a bunch of appointments just to be told I need to get him to eat, when he won’t. It just stresses him out too much. With the hypertension, I think it will do more harm than good at this point. If I see a change, he’ll be there like lightening! I love my little old man so much!

Not much else is going on. I’ve got tickets for Thor on 7/15 (my friend is in Europe when it opens, so that’s the first day we could go). We’re going to the same fancy theater we saw Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Btw- I enjoyed it in the theater and have since watched it on Disney+ and am amazed at all the stuff I missed in the theater. Captain Carter is such a badass!

Speaking of Disney+, how do people find the time to watch all the shows on there???

Ah well, maybe I’ll add more later, I think I’ll make dinner. Something that won’t heat up the house!

Okay, being woken up with my cat biting my ear, licking my face then settling in next to me stretching his paw out across me while purring is a pretty great way to start the day….if it wasn’t at 1:52am. 😂

I love the adorable old guy.

It’s a new week! Work is still really busy and it seems like I’m playing catch-up all day. Even when I’m not!

One change- My dumb nosebleeds have decided to happen in the afternoon now. Two days in a row! I thought for a day I was actually getting a break! My nose laughed at that and said “not a chance, sucker!” lol! Thing is, throughout Covid I had this fear I would get one while wearing my mask when I wasn’t in a position to get Kleenex. I made it all the way through without it happening…until yesterday. Bah!  So, as my boss and I were leaving for the day, I had my mask on, my bag, my bosses bag (I carry it to his car since he still walks with a cane) and my travel cup in my free hand. All of a sudden, when we’re almost out the door, that familiar warm rushing feeling happened. I stopped short, tilted my head back, tore off my mask and scrounged quickly through my left pocket for a Kleenex. My boss was like “what the fuck is wrong with you?”, then he saw and started laughing. I could only find an old balled up tissue in my pocket. Dumb thing is, had I looked in the other one, there were plenty of fresh tissues, because OF COURSE THERE WERE!

Then today I was telling a co-worker about it and how stupid it was and it started bleeding AGAIN. About the same time too, give or take 30 mins. I usually have them before 7am, so it’s weird. 

Not much has happened since my last post. Saw my uncle for the first time since 2019, which was nice. I was able to watch the new Marilyn Monroe and the new John Wayne Gacy documentaries on Netflix. Meh, they were okay. They both have audio tapes that are more creepy than anything. Some new footage/photos, but not much. Probably won’t re-watch either of them.

Not much else to report, then again, it’s only Tuesday.

Ah well, I’m gonna hope tomorrow is a good day. No, it’s gonna be a GREAT day!!

So, yesterday (Friday) sucked as well, lol! I didn’t even get to leave very early. It’s pretty common for us to go home around 1-1:30pm on Fridays, but I was there until my usual time. Now, before you say “Stop complaining, most people work until 5pm, you have it easy!”, working as though I live in another time zone means I get to work at 4:40am every day, so by the time 1-1:30pm rolls around I’ve been at the office almost 9 hours. Those 9 hours are usually pretty non-stop too.

I finally got home around 2:45pm, threw all my stuff on the floor, changed, fed my starter, began another loaf of bread to give to my uncle, ordered tacos for delivery and settled in to watch The Winter Soldier and tried to unwind a little. 

My handsome cat woke me up at 3:30am and I couldn’t get back to sleep, so I think today I’m just going to putter around the house and try to clean. Cozi has a pretty good line-up on Saturdays so I’ll have that on. Sure, I have all of Columbo and Quincy on dvd, but there’s nothing quite like watching them on tv, ha! Plus, MacMillan & Wife, Banacek, Emergency and The Six Million Dollar Man are on as well. It’s my growing-up years in a TV channel!!

Although…for some reason Murder She Wrote is on again for the 2nd hour. Weird. McCloud was supposed to be on at 6am, but it’s been MSW instead. Thank goodness Pluto is 24 hours a day, so I’ve had Cold Case Files to distract me until the sun comes up.

Probably will add more later. I’m bored! I think I’ll troll Ebay for a while to find stuff I don’t need.

Have you ever had a day so challenging, you didn’t know what to do with yourself? That was my day today. Stuff at work is supposed to ease off after tax day, but boy this year is different. It’s not just my workload either, talking to a friend on another team, they’ve been inundated as well…and everyone seems to be in a crabby mood.

Yesterday afternoon, I had the idea to pack up the sourdough starter I’ve been working on, along with the other ingredients for bread and my little bread maker and take it to the office this morning. I’d put the machine in an empty office near me (some co-workers are still remote) so I could keep an eye on it. So while things pretty much sucked, at least we got to smell baking bread most of the morning. I get in so early it was done by about 9:30am. A co-worker brought butter and jam and folks seemed to enjoy it. I had no appetite because of the type of day/week it’s been, so I didn’t have any. Smelled good though!

I love feeding the people I care about and I work with some pretty great ones.

By the way, maybe it’s the sourdough starter recipe I’ve been following, but jeez, I’m not sure it’s worth all this work/waste of flour. 2 feedings a day, every 12 hours, discarding all but 113 grams (1/2 cup) each time??!!?? And the bread recipe I have asks for A LOT of starter so I have to have 2 batches going at a time.  I think I’ll use up what I have going and freeze the loaf or something.  Now that I know what I’m doing, I can always start again.

Tomorrow is Friday and the office should be pretty empty. Hopefully, we can close out the week better than how we started.

I’ve been trying to put my finger on what the state of the world since Trump came on the political scene and I think I’ve figured out what it’s been reminding me of for the past few years…

Is it just me or does it seem like a Wonder Woman comic plot where Ares is somewhere pulling strings and feeding off and getting stronger from all the hatred, violence and war?

Maybe I’ve read too many comics in my long, long life. George Perez did a great job with him, if you want to check it out.

Too bad we don’t have a Wonder Woman, or Superman for that matter, to fight the bad guy so we can all wake up from this nightmare.

Tough day at work, feeling a bit worn out and tired. I guess it shows, lol!