One more down, and still more to go

I managed to knock off another of my EXPECTATIONS today. Not a whole one, but a portion of one. I cleaned out Sydney's bathroom cabinet under her sink. It really didn't take as long as I had feared, as most of the stuff just needed to be tossed out, and only some stuff was worth keeping. I feel good though. That cabinet was one of those sore spots in the house that I knew needed to be addressed, but I dreaded getting near it. And now it's done, and that's pretty awesome.

    All that's left of that particular EXPECTATION as a whole is my bathroom closet, my shoes, the rolling cart in the office, and the file cabinet in the office. Coincidentally, most of those things will be easily finished with a bag and a trip to the trash or the donation bin. So much random stuff in this house. Also I'm growing a significant pile of electronics for recycling. The loft/office is my next task. ... for July.

I am/my hand is feeling better today

Okay I was super hesitant to go to work today, but I did, and I spent the day with my new keyboard. Notably, I was able to move around on the keyboard easier, and my hand and arm did not ache. My fingers still did not cooperate and work properly, but at least they didn't ache. And that, for me, was a huge win for the day.

    We left the car at the shop tonight, as tomorrow is its day to get a new turbo booster charger thing. Once that is fixed, the awesome check engine light will be gone, and hopefully nothing will go wrong for a while. And I can't believe I actually said that out loud. Damn it.

    Brian and I also just watched a special documentary-type show on the making of "Inside the NBA," and we giggled and laughed throughout it, and it's really amazing how fun and funny that show is.

    Also, I am happy to say that I got my hair colored this afternoon, and my head is much better without the "sparkles" of gray in it.

When setbacks happen and tools don't help

It was a long and frustrating day for me today. I took the ergonomic keyboard to work, and it was a struggle to get through my day. Honestly, not only was the keyboard a new experience to work with, but my hand was achy and malfunctioning the whole time, too. I was slow to get stuff done, and had to be deliberate and make sure every key stroke was the correct one, and I had to delete and retype more times than I like. My head is pounding, and my hand is achy and uncooperative right now as I type this, which makes me even more frustrated going into bedtime. As Andrea said, "two steps forward, one back, three forward, two back." Just keep plugging along, and eventually, the relief will come. My next acupuncture is Thursday, so we'll see how it goes after that.

Never too many Tupperware measuring cups

Some stuff happened this weekend. First and foremost, I left Sydney with Mom for the week, and we'll all go out to California next weekend to spend a couple days out there and then bring her home. It's a weird experience to not have her here, but it's really not an entirely uncomfortable experience. She and her immediate circumstance is almost constantly on my mind, so to have her in the next state over is a relaxing and hands-off feeling that I'm not hating. And knowing that my mom is in charge is even better. Like, I know she'll eat and sleep and take her vitamins and have stuff to do during the day. Like me, but a grandma who is not her mom.

    What else? I am now a collector of vintage Tupperware measuring cups. Backstory is that I've always loved my Tupperware measuring cups, and when given the opportunity to grab some vintage cups from vintage kitchens, I take them. I have a set from my grandmother's kitchen and one from my mother in-law's kitchen. The cup pictured here is from one of those vintage sets, and this is the one-cup cup that has cracked in the dishwasher. So sadly, it's gone the way of the trash can. In response, I checked out vintage Tupperware measuring cups on eBa, and to my delight, there were many there searching for new homes! A lot of colors, and not a lot of money for me to acquire them. Seeing that they were not terribly expensive made me think that I really needed more than just the one new set, since I couldn't decide what color I wanted. I have since ordered a set in yellow, burnt orange, and avocado green. And I may keep collecting them. I will become that woman.

Yay team! Go basketball!

Alright, so sometimes I'm maybe not the smartest or most aware of everything going on. So I definitely did my search for Mac-appropriate ergonomic keyboards. But I guess my clicking through things didn't stick to my initial requirements, because when the keyboard arrived today, it is totally a PC keyboard. So I need to return it, and I have already ordered the specifically Mac ergonomic keyboard for delivery on Sunday. I wish it would come sooner...

    New Topic: I have a complicated relationship with the NBA. I'm not a huge fan of regular-season basketball at all, but will take the time to watch playoff and Finals basketball. And because of that ambivalence, I don't really have a team I cheer for. I do have players I like though, such as LeBron James, Charles Barkley (old school), and most recently, Kevin Durant. I also have players I don't really like, for various reasons I won't go into here because I have some *very* unpopular opinions about some players, so there are some teams I cheer against, as well.

    Also, I don't usually fall for proximity bias. I really enjoyed it when the Lakers won last year, but that was because of LeBron and Anthony Davis. Yes, I was disappointed they lost this year. But also, I'm not really cheering for the Phoenix Suns, as there's not really anyone on the team that I have an affinity for, so I don't care about that. I do care about knowing what everyone in my proximity sphere is excited/bummed about, so for that, I have been paying particular attention to the Suns. But also, it's playoff basketball, so I'm watching it in earnest. Anyway, I don't care either way at this point. Go basketball!

It's a wavy keyboard ... it's wavy

So the acupuncturist tells me that I need an ergonomic keyboard for work. And yeah, that sounds great. However, I do not type properly. Like, however we were taught to type in the correct way, that's not how I do it. My fingers go all over the keyboard, and I use like only a couple fingers on each hand, and it's not normal, but it's how I'm fastest and most efficient on the keyboard. So will the ergonomic keyboard work? Excellent question. I guess we'll find out, since I went ahead and ordered the keyboard. It'll arrive on Friday, and we'll start this weird experiment.

    In other acupuncture news, my experience was better and more relaxing today because I knew what was going to happen and how to handle it. I lasted better in the quiet, stabbed time, and the needles themselves weren't as funky and weird to feel. Still I had one in that place where my neck and shoulder meet, and that was new this time, and it made me cringe in a Stabbed In The Neck kind of way. The acupuncturist is pretty convinced that my issues are neck related, so that's what we'll be working on. Having said that, I have a weird headache originating from my neck area to behind my left eye, and I can't wait to take my Advil PM for bedtime.

Sit down and watch "Luca" right now

We watched the movie "Luca" this afternoon, and it is totally adorable and I encourage everyone in the world to watch it. It is precious! And that's all I have for you tonight!

Too tired to be tired; all the tireds

I actually brought my laptop down to Sierra Vista with me so I could be sure to blog from there, so as to maybe get my perfect month of blogging done in June. Quite obviously, that did not happen. So the laptop went for a drive, and that's about it. And I have every confidence that I won't be able to do July as the perfect month, so maybe August will be the winner.

    Again this week, I have a pretty busy schedule. We've got appointments every day except Wednesday, and I think I'm going to get my car serviced that day. So, a busy week begins. And I'm still super, super exhausted from my weekend. I'm going to shoot for an early bedtime every day this week, and hope I can catch up in a couple days, and then get over-rested the rest of the week. I have plans to sleep this week, and I mean to follow through on those plans.

    Usually, when you finish your work for the week, you get to go home and have a relaxing or normal weekend. I did not get that kind of payoff this weekend, as I'm more exhausted today than I was on Friday. So heading in to the office tomorrow is not going to be something that I feel at all refreshed to do. I am drained.

The God of Mischief and Latin

We love Loki in this house, and we are very much enjoying the new show, "Loki," on Disney+. We watched the second episode tonight, and I'm excited to see what happens next. Current Hot Take: This Loki the Variant is going to make his way out of the Time Variant Authority and join Thor in "Thor: Love and Thunder." And that would make me happy because Thor and Loki deserve nice things.

    I read an article tonight about Tom Hiddleston and how he studied Classics in university, and how he can speak Latin in real life and how that speech was actually him actually speaking Latin. And suddenly, I have fallen more in love with Tom Hiddleston and Loki, as well. They both are awesome. Loki speaks Latin, and Tom Hiddleston can speak Latin. There's nothing but good there.

    I read somewhere that the "Loki" show is only six episodes, and not to sound ungrateful, but I'd like to have more of them, please.

Give me back my Insta, damn it!

So as much as people tend to forget about my dystonia because I don't talk about it a lot, I feel like I also should tell you that I still don't have access to my Instagram account. I emailed them the proof of life photo that they wanted 12 days ago, and still I wait.

    I'm getting very frustrated with missing the things I'm missing. There are a bunch of accounts I follow on Insta that I don't on Facebook, and I can't remember hardly any of them. So I'm missing some grade-A content, and that's bugging me a whole lot.

    Instagram needs to straighten up and fly right or I'm going to get more annoyed and still wait and still try to log in every other day to see if maybe they've given it back to me but haven't told me yet.

It's all about the pins and needles

So I had my first acupuncture today! It was very weird to be laying there, knowing that all these pins and needles were sticking out of me. I have to say that the needles that freaked me out the most were in my neck. They must have been effective, because my neck is still achy where they were. I do have some homework before my next appointment: try to cut some gluten, dairy and something else I can't remember from my diet. Also, be aware of how my body is feeling and spend some time considering a more holistic approach.

    Also I have shopping list for Amazon: muscle stimulator, neck extension collar, neck stretching pillow, and a topical ointment for my arm. Those I can definitely do. I'm not sure I can live a more holistic lifestyle diet-wise, but I can do my best, which is, ultimately, what he asked of me. He and I will talk tomorrow about how I'm feeling, and from there, we'll figure out when I should go back.

    The entire experience was an interesting and eye-opening one, and I'm eager to see how I respond to it with a full session under my belt and the experience in knowing what will happen. I expect I'll have a better reaction next time.

A case of the Mondays

And then it was a Monday. Brian's car repair did not go as planned and the car is back at the shop tonight for repair tomorrow. I hate that feeling of waiting for a tow truck. It's extremely stressful, even when waiting at home. But anyway, the car is at the shop. I get to drive Brian back to work again tomorrow.

    Also at this moment, we are about an hour and a half into "Army of the Dead" on Netflix, and I was tired and ready for bed so I turned off the movie, which is something I never, ever do. But I'm tired and that takes precedence, especially with a 6 a.m. wakeup call in the morning.

    Also, tomorrow is my first acupuncture appointment, and it's like I told my mom, I think I'm more nervous about it NOT working, and me having exhausted all my options for making my hand feel better. I honestly don't know what my next suggestion or idea would be. I guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Saddle up, tomorrow is Monday again

I don't think it's possible to come across the last 30 minutes of "Pitch Perfect" and not stop and watch the rest uninterrupted. And here I am. I've seen this movie so many times, and I can not NOT watch the ending whenever I come across it. Lucky for me, the movie has been on rotation on my movie channels lately, so I've gotten my fill. And yet, I still stop and watch the end every single time.

* 30 minutes later *

I have finished "Pitch Perfect" and will now move on to the season finale of "Hacks." ... Brian, Sydney and I had a very large seafood lunch today, and because of that, I had only a protein shake for dinner tonight. I'm not sure of what anyone else ate for dinner either, because I think we're all so full that it seems silly and unhealthy to eat anything for dinner, even if we are the littlest bit hungry. Hence, my shake. ...  Brian's car is in the shop tomorrow, so I get to take him to work and then pick him up when he's done. I'm trying to figure out our timing and as far as I can tell, if we leave at 7, I can get my tea, take him to work, and then be back to my job on time at 8. He has agreed to this timeline, so that's the plan. I get up at 6 tomorrow, and that's a drag. ... And a new week begins.

It's a movie musical world, and I'm happy

ITEM!: We tried the Blueberry Bliss bundt cake, and it was good enough, but not amazing, so that's about all I have to say about that. Sydney insisted on a red velvet cake too, and I think I may get some bundtlets to take down to Sierra Vista next weekend. I'm thinking lemon, chocolate chocolate chip, the blueberry, and something else ... or maybe a pie from AJs. We'll have to wait and see.

ITEM!: Brian and I watched "In the Heights" tonight, and it was a delightful movie! There simply are not enough movie musicals out there anymore, which is a travesty. Having said that, I'm not sure I'm 100 percent in on the new "West Side Story," and I think new ideas are a better bet. Of course, Lin-Manuel Miranda is a genius, and the movie was a colorful and energetic treat, and I'm so glad we took the time to watch it.

ITEM!: I also watched "Bo Burnham Inside" with Sydney this afternoon, and while portions of it were incredibly clever, other bits seemed insanely self-indulgent, and even kinda boring? I don't think I'll need to invest anymore of my time watching his specials, but this one was entertaining enough.

ITEM!: Also I did other random futzing around my house and got a couple things done.

It's called "Blueberry Bliss," actually

Usually, when it comes to Nothing Bundt Cakes, I have a couple favorites, and Sydney has a couple favorites, and we rarely buy them. The place just isn't on our usual agenda or path. I follow the company on Facebook though, and I'm always intrigued by their monthly flavors. But typically, I just ask Mom if the flavor is good, and that's about as close as I get.

    But this month, the flavor is a blueberry of some kind. Blueberries and cream? Blueberry and white chocolate? I don't remember specifically, but it's something to do with the little berry. Anyway, a blueberry adjacent flavor is enough to intrigue Sydney and I into putting the cake place on our list for tomorrow's activities. I expect I'll have to buy a bag of the popcorn for my girl, but the little blueberry cake is atop the priority list. I will report back on it later.

Raya is my new best friend

I guess my main update for today would be that I still do not have access to my Instagram. Granted, it's been less than a week -- five days, in fact, but I feel like my situation is a quick one to fix. Also, I'm sure they've got a whole bunch of these to take care of, but I really, really want mine fixed like right now. I'm all ready to set up my two-factor authorization, and to be a better custodian of my Instagram account, they just need to give it back to me. I'll be a better mother to it, I swear.

    I was telling Ashley this afternoon that it's pretty amazing how much and often I had been checking my Insta. As they say, you never know how much you need/use something until it's gone. I'm lacking my window into a lot of people, companies and zoos without it, and I'm getting quite frustrated.

    Our Movie Night feature this evening was "Raya and the Last Dragon;" it was adorable! I'm not used to a Disney movie with no singing or dancing, so that was weird, but I am totally here for a female hero who has a story with no men in it at all. Not a single man in her life but her dad. And she had to be the hero to save him. And she was awesome. I'm sure I said this after "Moana," but again, I am here for a girl having her own story that doesn't depend on some love interest/prince making an appearance. Also, the main antagonist was a woman. And the dragon was female, you guys, and that's cause for celebration. So much awesome estrogen.

A breath of fresh restfulness and ease

It's a special feeling of relief when the last person in your immediate bubble gets their second vaccination shot. Honestly, I feel bad for the people who don't get to breathe this special sigh of comfort when it happens. So obviously, Sydney got her second COVID-19 vaccination shot this afternoon. I don't know how she'll get through it, but I think that Brian and I not having any reaction, and both sets of her grandparents not having any reaction, bodes well for her. I made her drink a whole bunch of water all day today, and I'll have her do the same tomorrow. I hope it's an easy time for her, but everyone is so different, no one ever knows what's going to happen.

    What's crazy is the wave of relief and release of tension I felt as we sat in the site waiting our 15 minutes. I wanted to cry, as I realized that my immediate family and I managed to get through this whole thing without getting sick, and now weren't in any danger of getting terribly ill or dying.

    How are people refusing this feeling for themselves and their family? How are they willfully walking this earth not doing their part to save anyone and everyone they come into contact with: family, friend or stranger? So many people who have refused the validity of this illness are still catching it and transmitting it to people they love, and they continue to refuse vaccination because why? It's insane to me that they're continuing to refuse this treatment. All these people, who are already vaccinated from so many other illnesses and diseases, are being willfully ignorant and stubborn. I wish they'd come over to this side of the fence; it's relaxing and comfortable.

I really, really miss those glasses

So I'm feeling kind of bad about the frosting right now because Sydney wants to make brownies and she's looking forward to putting her chocolate frosting on them, she said. Half the thing should be fine, but now I feel like what I did is just mean. Oh well, it is what it is. She was mean first.

    I'm finding that my penchant for donating things that I don't think I want anymore has become very annoying to me later in life. I have two perfect examples. This image to the left, I used to have in a small poster in a very nice frame. I got it at an art museum of repute, I assume, and I remember I had it hanging in my bedroom for many years. Right now? I have no idea where it is or what I did with it. I can't imagine that I donated it, but who can say. I go through these weird moments sometimes.

    Second example: Goldfish drinking glasses. I bought them at Crate & Barrel about a hundred years ago, I think at the outlet that was in Cabazon for a while. Clear glass with orange goldfish etched/melted into the glass sides. I had four. They were awesome. I have no idea where they are. Again, I can't imagine why I would donate them. I doubt they got lost in a move, so I never consider such a thing, so I'm sure I did something with them intentionally. And now I'm kicking myself regularly for them not being here with me anymore.

    I hate the thought of never donating anything again, and I won't stop donating extra stuff, but I feel like for some things, I'll need to institute some kind of five-year cooling period before getting rid of them. Just put those things to the side and if I find myself at any point within those five years wondering where that one thing is, I'll know I need to hold on to it.

It's all fun and games, until frosting gets tossed

I have, in my life as a mother, been known to throw away a house's full supply of candy, a pan of brownies, and many and several sweet treats, to make a point. My child, in her life as a baby, has learned just a little bit from that. I can be super petty sometimes, but it's all in an effort to teach her the consequences of her actions.

    Tonight, the arena for our battle was a water bottle. Every morning, as I get ready to leave for work, I refill my water bottle so it's full when I get home with my lunch. Today, when I got home, my water bottle was empty on the coffee table. The water thief refilled it for me, which was nice. Tonight though, when she went to take a drink, I told her not to drink it all. Her response? "You know I have to drink it all out of spite now, right?" And then she did. I told her if she finished it, she'd have to refill it. I said, "Or I toss out your frosting."

    She took the bottle into the kitchen, put one ice cube in the bottle, and filled it up to the exact halfway mark. She brought it to me and said, "There. You didn't say it had to be filled to the top." I nodded along. All the while, I had already figured out my plan.

    I threatened the frosting. She filled up half the bottle. I would toss out exactly half the frosting. So the fresh, brand-new chocolate frosting tub that she'd gotten for snacking (don't judge me as a mother), was sliced and diced in exactly half, and that half was tossed out. I split it like this specifically so that when she picks up the tub, she will feel the weight difference, and she will wonder. And she will KNOW that Mom is not to be fucked with. Be a rude and greedy jerk, and get half your yummy stuff put in the trash.

Just the cutest little robot ever

Happy Sunday, dear friends, and I hope you had a good weekend. Mine was good, productive of a sort, and also today was a drag because we didn't really do anything, but I did a lot of laundry and some random futzing around my house. We really spent most of the day watching "Lovecraft Country," which I had already watched in its entirety, but Brian stopped watching at like the fourth episode. He enjoyed it, but also especially enjoyed being able to ask me questions about the whole thing. It's a good show, if completely crazy in places, so I didn't mind watching it again.

    I saved this pic of Wall-E from somewhere online and I decided to have it as my wallpaper for right now and I love it. Look how cute he is! He's so happy!

    I signed up for Roberta's 7-Day Peacefull Journey, and I'm eager to see how it goes. I'm not terribly peaceful, and I won't be able to participate in the yoga classes live because of work, but I'll try to fit the peaceful stuff into my afternoon. Which really shouldn't be a problem, but that is my eternal optimism. I always feel like I'll have the time for it all. One bit of peacefulness for tomorrow is that I have a package arriving, which is always good. Sydney has a package arriving tomorrow too, though she will be far less impressed with hers than I am with mine.

Be very quiet, or the bad guys kill you

I made some progress in getting my Instagram account back today. I got an email from Insta where I had to send them a pic of myself with a handwritten code on a piece of paper, and once they have that and confirm the information to the account, they'll let me have it back. Again, no idea how long that will take, but it's some movement, so that's positive.

    Brian and I had a date night tonight, and we went to the movies ... at night! We never go to the movies at night, and this was a special treat. We saw "A Quiet Place Part II," and I will tell you that it was an excellent movie. It was very stressful, if not terribly scary. Of course, there still were plenty of jump scares, as to be expected, but the tenseness of the situation those people are in was ridiculous. I spent most of the movie in a state of alert that is not normal. Also holding Brian's hand. It was a very good movie. I highly recommend it.

They think perhaps I'm an influencer?

I never realized how often I check my Instagram until this morning, when my account was disabled because I got hacked by a couple Russian dudes. STORY: I'd been getting those "attempted log-in" alerts for the last couple weeks, and also had be studiously ignoring them as a threat. Well yesterday I went to scroll through my feed and everything that I was seeing was in Russian. I immediately checked my log-in activity and while I had my own log-in where I was, there also were two more log-ins, one in Russia and one in Ukraine. I logged both those places out, and directly changed my password. I unfollowed all the accounts they had me following, about 75 other accounts, and thought that my problems were over.

    Until this morning, when I tapped to check out what was happening on my feed, and the app told me that my account was disabled. It had me follow a couple prompts with a security check and a code sent to me to input, and then they said that as soon as they verified that I was me, they'd give me my account back.

    I am not eager to wait very long. One place online said that these waits can be days, weeks or months. I did send an email to Support today, too, clarifying that I hadn't broken any rules, but was hacked, and would like my account back, please. Who knows how many of those emails they get, but I'm hoping I'll be back in business in another day or two. So here's the lesson, kiddos: Don't Ignore the Attempted Log-in Warnings. These f*ckin guys mean business, and it's very annoying when they are successful.

Bring on the pins and needles

I finally did it, you guys. I've got an appointment with an acupuncturist in a few days, and I'm getting my hopes up. Of course the practitioner told me that the session would not be a one-and-done to cure the dystonia, which I figured, but as I told him, any incremental relief I received from any appointments and follow-ups would be welcome. I think I've been dealing with this for about three years, and I continue to be super over it.

    The deep-muscle massager hasn't worked well; the muscle injections from the neurologist was a terrible, terrible disaster; and it is definitely not carpal tunnel that can be fixed with surgery. I've had several possible fixes, but nothing that's worked. I don't want to get pessimistic, but I have to wonder, if this doesn't work either, what's my next option?

    Still, I'm excited about the possibilities. The guy said he'd treated dystonia before, so there's some optimism. Several days from now can't get here soon enough.

Clean living requires a reusable cup, evidently

JJ has said that June will be a month, 30 days, of clean living. She's exercising, and eating well for the entire month, and because of her influence, I have pledged to do much of the same. I won't be exercising, of course, but I will stick to my Weight Watchers firmly for the month, as I've been playing kind of fast and loose with my points for a bit. If I'm disciplined, I should be down some pounds by the end of it. I didn't do too well yesterday, but I was a good girl today, and I will endeavor to do well for the next 28 days.

    I bought an AJs reusable cup the other day for better reusable iced tea refills every morning. I had thought it would be about $20, but turns out that the cup is a Yeti cup, so it actually cost me $35. My refills though will only be a dollar every day, so the cup will pay for itself in 35 days, so that's positive. But the lid to the cup is a sippable one. I prefer life with a straw when it comes to my tea. So I did some Amazon research and discovered that Yeti does have a straw lid, and I have ordered it. Add another 18 days onto the "Cup Will Pay for Itself" calendar, because my preference has a cost. Why do my preferences always have a cost, and why are the never less than $18?

I am watching "Hacks," and it's good

I am watching the show "Hacks" right now, and Jean Smart is a national treasure. I'm on the sixth episode, which is the last one available at this moment, and I'm all in. But now it's late, and now I'm super tired, so I'm just going to go ahead and stop here.