Wednesday 31 May 2017

Oh Dear

So at some unknown point a while ago a ladybug blessed my car.

As in... it got stuck in a spot where I can't get to it but can see it (window) so it just... is there.  I call it a good luck kind of charm thing.

The other day, another ladybug got into my car.  Cute little things that they are (good P.R.) I parked and tried to escort it outside.  But.... instead, I somehow got it trapped in a spot that I had no way of getting it out and I'm not sure it had the ability to get itself out of either.

So now I feel badly that I accidentally killed a ladybug.  Maybe.

I don't want to check to see if it's still there so perhaps he/she wiggled its way out and flew away.

Could be true.  Right?

Monday 29 May 2017

Oh Hai

Did a course this weekend, and for whatever reason sleep also eluded me (the heat? being overly exhausted?  nerves?  the info?  all of the above?) and I'm absolutely done in.

Which means, I'm here on a Sunday night trying to put out a post for tomorrow morning but I just have no brain power left!

To be honest, I had no brain power left this (Sunday) morning.... I know this because I was so tired that I was going to drive there with my glasses on (I only generally wear my glasses at night/evening, or if I want to see a move screen or something at a distance, but my vision gets "blurrier" when I'm tired or run down) just to be a little more alert.  (I was tired, it didn't make sense but I wanted to wear my glasses.)  But then I got to the car and wanted to put on Off (we were in an area with a LOT of GIANT mosquitoes) and so I took my glasses off and sprayed myself down, got in the car and took off.

A few minutes later I found myself wondering if I'd somehow left my glasses on the kitchen counter or something?  I remembered putting them on in the house but now I wasn't wearing them (yes, I touched my face to double check, that's how tired I was!)

I figured I'd be ok without them and would find them somewhere I was just too tired to remember. 

I arrived at the place and found my glasses case and?  No glasses inside.  Hmmm... must have left them in the house.  Oh well.

I got out of the car and went around to start unloading and that's when I saw my glasses.... on my seat... that I had sat on for the entire twenty or so minute drive.

Sigh.

Yeah... tired brains are tricky!

Friday 26 May 2017

Shhhhh

Please don't tell anyone I said this but...

I was looking at the weather forecast (it's been warm and sunny lately) and was amazed that it's just going to get hotter and hotter all this week and wow... it's actually going to be Summer hot in a few days...

when I realized I was looking at the date *above* the forecast.  Ahem.

So... it's not going to be 31 degrees next Wednesday... just so you know.

Tuesday 23 May 2017

Oh Man

That was quite a weekend.

After quite a week.

As in... I went to bed at 9 on Friday.  Yep.  Nine pm.  When it was still light out.  I was just that done.

Didn't want to even stay up and watch a show or a movie, I just wanted to be in my bed.  Read for a while and then turned the lights out and slept.  Not perfectly, but I just needed to be in bed.  Exhausted and drained from everything.

Saturday I took it easy and then Saturday night I heard an ominous gurgle, gurgle, belch from the bathroom.

Ugh.

Bathroom sink was vomiting up.... stuff.  Let's just call it dirt. 

I cleaned it and it did it again. 

I ran some baking soda and vinegar and hot water and it barfed again.

Once I was in bed mind you... so I just closed my eyes and pretended I hadn't heard it.

Messaged the manager Sunday morning "sorry, I know it's a long weekend and all but...."  She told me to try dealing with it but it was backing itself up (not just slow draining!) so she called the plumber.

My ministrations the night before allowed me to pull out a chunk of... uh... dirt.  So that was lovely before breakfast!  NOT!

Plumber arrived around noon and spent an hour doing... things.  Snaking, making a mess (his words, not mine!) and other... things.  Hair was the culprit... along with the oldness of the pipes and just general... ick.

Oh and did I mention I was dealing with lady things and stuff while all this was going on?  Nothing like wondering if your bathroom sink is going to overflow and cover your bathroom with... ick, while you're already not feeling great.  FUN TIMES! (nuh uh!)

So, yeah, that was my Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  And next weekend I'm on a course so I need a weekend to make up for my weekends!!!

Monday 22 May 2017

Happy Extra Day!

Long weekend here... hopefully wherever you are maybe too?

Weather's been gorgeous, I've made the leap and put in the extra bug screens so I have a bit more air flow..... which is funny considering I had the hot water bottle out a few nights ago.  Spring is being Spring-like!

Thursday 18 May 2017

Well, That Was Kind Of Weird

I dreamt last night that I didn't sleep all night.

Like.... the dream was me not sleeping and then getting up and getting through the day knowing I hadn't slept.  I've probably done something like that before but this wasn't "bad sleep" or "little sleep" this was me not actually sleeping at all.  And then being ok enough to still function.

But now I'm awake and I slept.... so I'm kind of... confused.


Wednesday 17 May 2017

Brrrr!

Man, Spring's got some bite to it!

I pulled out the hot water bottle last night.  Seriously!

Monday 15 May 2017

Adorable

I might be one of the few people in town here wishing for rain.

See, there are these two adorable little girls who have moved into my building and at some point last week I got to hear (and see) them running out of the building into a puddle in the back area and JUMP JUMP JUMP with glee in the puddle.  It's.  Frikken.  Adorable!

So when it started to dry out last week, they were still trying to jump in the puddle spot even though there was no puddle.  So I secretly hoped for rain so they could puddle jump more!

It makes them so happy and their parents seem to be ok with it (and they have the right boots and everything) so bring on the puddle making rain.  Just for a bit longer, ok?

Thursday 11 May 2017

Nada

Brain has nothing interesting to say.  Sorry. 

Here's some random stuff for you.

Full moon last night.  I like those.

I snuck some gluten.... I feel guilty and fairly icky.  Sorry body.  (But damn if I don't love gluten and so many things made with it!  I WANT MY GLUTEN BACK!)

Still go back and forth on not wanting to go to Burning Man but wanting to go to Burning Man.  If I could teletransport and just arrive, I'd totally go.  Don't know if I want to go enough this year to do it alone again.  Not wanting to go with a stranger either and don't know anyone around here who wants to go.  Will see. 

Spring is totally here.  Leaves and flowers and pollen and birds and sunshine and longer days and it's just very Spring-like.

I like that.


Wednesday 10 May 2017

So?

Writing this before election results have been announced.  Thankfully not terribly emotionally invested, although I do still like seeing people taking pride in voting.

Anything new for you this Wednesday? 

(Funny, I initially typed this out BEFORE the polls closed... now I'm editing it to say that while I'm "not terribly emotionally invested"  I do kind of want things to go a certain way... as one usually does when one votes... and I'm getting all anxious watching the updates and argh!)

Tuesday 9 May 2017

Damn

I know I've talked about it before (not all that long ago, actually) but I've got another example (or two... I'm hoping the second one will come back to me before I finish this post) of realizing (with some financial frustration) that cheap products are not worth the savings.  Sigh.

So shampoo.

I have always just bought the store brand stuff... found a scent or type I like and stuck with it.  At a certain point, I bought professional stuff and I did that for a while but never really felt all that much difference and so went back to regular stuff.

A while ago I bought some of the stuff my hairdresser uses but I used it sparingly... after all, it was expensive and I couldn't justify the expense when regular, cheaper stuff seemed just fine.

Except for whatever reason, this last time I bought new bottles from my hairdresser I used them a couple of washes in a row.  And I thought that maybe... just maybe my hair could last a little longer between washes and seemed... "better" somehow.

Nah.... couldn't be. 

But.... I'm pretty damn sure that my hair does better with this more expensive "real" shampoo than the whatever scented stuff I pick up at the drug store.  As in, it looks and feels better and I can absolutely go longer between "oh lord I have to wash it" stretches.  Which... probably means I'm saving more or something, I don't even know.

But yeah, I think I've converted to not-cheap shampoo.

Sigh.

(And yeah, there was something else I was going to include in this post but I have OH NO WAIT I REMEMBERED!)

And dollar store canvases and acrylics?  I can't go back to using them.  Which also sucks, financially speaking.

Last month (or was it two months ago?) when the art store had its annual sale I bought real stretched canvases and acrylics.  They're awesome to work with but not cheap.

I also picked up some dollar store (cheap) canvases and when I was working on a real canvas, I put some of the extra (expensive) acrylics on the cheap canvas so I wasn't wasting it.  But I can't make it work... it all reacts so differently and doesn't do what I'd like it to do and so now I have a bunch of ugly to use cheap canvases I have to do something with and then never buy again.

Ugh.  I wish things were less expensive but good quality. 

*dramatic sigh*

Monday 8 May 2017

NO!

ANOTHER CAR SPIDER!!!!

Looked almost exactly like the other one but there is no way, NO WAY!!!! that there was a hatching or anything.  Nope.  No more.

Even though this one showed up in the same spot as the other one.  Nope.  Just the two.

Nope.  Not willing to consider anything else and would rather not firebomb my car.

GAH!




Edit:  I wrote this post last week and since then, I'm sorry to report there has been another spider.  THAT MAKES THREE OMG MAKE IT STOP!!!!!

Saturday 6 May 2017

YOU GUYS, YOU GUYS, YOU GUYS!!!

I MAY HAVE FOUND THE BANANA PEEL PERSON!!!!

Ok, well, what I really mean is that I was walking home the other day and saw a (handsome, not that it matters) fellow walking towards me... EATING A BANANA!

And I started giggling.  And I'd be lying if I didn't say I was tempted to either... take a photo, follow him to see what he did with his peel, or flat out ask him if he dumps his banana peels!

But yeah, I saw someone innocently eating a banana, immediately thought of you (especially Jason L as he seems as interested in banana peel mysteries as I am!) and giggled.

Banana peel thrower may have been found.  The media may need to be alerted.

Unless, of course, I count as media in which case... TA DA!  Investigative journalism at its (not at all) finest!

Friday 5 May 2017

Adventure Pillow

When it's sunny outside, and I'm doing my laundry,  I stick my pillows in the open windows of my bedroom to get them some fresh air and sunshine.  (They smell lovely and it may even be killing germs!)

My windows are the old-fashioned "push up and down" ones and I have bug screens on the lower halves.  What I do is open the window, put the pillow so it leans against the screen and tug the window down so it locks it in place.

Occasionally a big gust of wind will blow and knock the fluffier (one of my pillows is a memory foam, the other isn't) pillow back onto my bedroom floor so I try to be aware of that on the windier days.

So I was doing laundry this weekend and plopped my pillows up in their spots.  I heard a big gust of wind and saw the light change (the pillows block some light so when they fall down it gets brighter) and made a mental note to go put my pillow back once I'd flipped the laundry into the dryer (downstairs... no in suite laundry, sigh.)

I got back to my place, and went into my bedroom and... no pillow in the window.  I already knew this, it would be right there on the floor. 

But it wasn't!

I was confused.

I looked out the window.  Nope.  Pillow hadn't fallen down (it never has but I thought I'd check.)  I looked at the floor... nope.  No pillow.

Had I taken it to the laundry room?  Nope.  Pretty sure I'd have noticed that.

I looked at the floor again... all of the floor.  No pillow.

Where on earth was it?  I looked out the window again, nope.

What was happening?????

I looked in the hallway (maybe there'd been a big gust of wind and it had been blown out of my bedroom into the hall and I just hadn't noticed?)  Nope.

I looked back outside one more time.  Poked my head out extra far and looked allll the way to the left and all the way to the OH MY GOODNESS THERE'S MY PILLOW!!!!

My pillow was nearly all the way to the street!!!

It had somehow been blown outside and then down the back parking area and I gleefully grabbed my keys and ran and got my pillow before it could escape further!

So... either my pillow wanted to go on an adventure (and in which case I feel badly that I denied it further travel) or it was terrified and was so thrilled to see me and be taken back inside!

But yeah, my pillow went on an accidental adventure on a very windy day this weekend.

Go figure, eh?

Thursday 4 May 2017

Wow. And Wow.

One one of the gorgeous days last weekend, Jason and I managed to coordinate to get away for the day.

It's something we both would like to do more often, but schedules don't always allow it.

The place we went to was stunningly beautiful and I'm glad we went.  I feel so lucky to live here and be hours away from this amazing beauty.

But...

The drive, for me, was awful.  Really awful.

I thought it might be a bit tense, Jason can get grumpy at people when he drives and that makes me uncomfortable so I warned him and asked that he try not to yell at people.

But, I didn't take into account that this was the first time I'd gone for a long drive since the van had its issues and all that.

I was terrified.

The whole three and a half hours there and back.  Terrified.

I did what I could to breathe and work through it but damn... my brain just kept seeing vehicles spinning towards us and me screaming at the top of my lungs.  Hi PTSD, how are you?

I struggled a lot with being ok driving post the car accident C-Dawg and I were in and that was when I was diagnosed with PTSD from that accident.  I'm generally ok... had some tough times again when I was driving my Dad post his heart surgery, and I know that the drive last summer was awful, but I'm not sure I'd realized it would re-trigger my driving "stuff."

I talked with Jason about it the next day and said that it had been really frightening for me and I'm not sure it would have been much better if I'd been driving but maybe it might have?  And that I was feeling like this meant I wasn't going to be able to go to Burning Man this year because I don't want to do the drive and six hours with someone else driving (and he's a good, if assertive, driver) wasn't ok either...

We talked about maybe getting me some driving lessons (I've been thinking about that since my accident, to be honest) and maybe even some beginner mechanics courses so that I can feel more in control of situations.

He said it's helpful to remember the safety features my car has (not the van though but that's a whole other story) and that if I had some defensive driving lessons (it has been a number of years after all...) I might also feel more confident and comfortable with being on the road.  (Most of my anxiety is that I don't know what the other drivers are going to do or if their vehicle might fall apart or they might ... well, slam into me just like the accident...)  So he thinks that maybe if I learn and/or re-learn what to do and how to deal with my vehicle I may have less anxiety.

I think this is a good plan and am hoping to make it happen soon, but wow.  That was a rough day.  Intense and overwhelming and kind of like immersion therapy really.  

Wednesday 3 May 2017

Huh?

I finally finished the book I wasn't enjoying (FINALLY!) all that much and have started a new one.

But I'm also taking some stuff to help me sleep which can make me a bit "out of it" if I let it kick in too soon before falling asleep.

I mention this because I'm finding this new book kind of difficult to follow and I genuinely can't tell if it's because I'm dopey at night or if the book's a bit... all over the place or what?

So... anyone read any of the Discworld series?  Am I lost for a reason or is it mushy brain?

Tuesday 2 May 2017

Picking And Choosing

There's an election around these here parts next week.  And while I rarely enjoy the lead up to an election, I'm at least glad that they limit the length of campaigning (and signage!)

I went to early vote this weekend and then didn't have the patience to stand in line.  Long line last time I early voted too, so maybe this time I'll just wait until the actual election day... they have more booths so in theory it may actually be faster than the smaller-sized advance voting setup.

I rarely talk politics with anyone... for a lot of reasons, but I've tentatively asked a few friends which way they were leaning and we all sort of agree it's the best of the worst sort of thing...

Like, none of the options are all that great so which kind of not so awful one are you going to go with...

Voting is a weird thing sometimes because it really doesn't feel like your one vote will change anything at all, but... that's exactly how it works.  A whole bunch of one votes....

One of the main parties completely change the colours of their signage this year, which I found interesting for a number of reasons.

I would also like to see some research on how effective those signs that people stick around all over the place actually are.

Like, I imagine it's meant to help me remember a name?  But when I get there to vote the names are there with the parties anyway.... and I'm not going to be influenced by seeing a sign.

Maybe the theory is that if you see a whole lot of signs of one person in your riding you decide not to split your vote?  I don't know.

So yeah, election this month (next week) and then the signs will all just go back away for a while. 

Monday 1 May 2017

May Day!

No, not "help me" mayday, just May... Day!  May first.

I think I'm meant to get up and taste the dew or dream of my one true love or something?  I forget. 

So, it's suddenly May.  Or maybe not suddenly but it is May... apparently.

Happy Spring!  I mean, a few days this weekend really really finally felt like it.  (When it wasn't being rainy) and I think I can turn off the radiator again (although I've already done that a few times and turned it back on a few times as well.)

The long days right now are gorgeous.  I am fully enjoying them and want them to stay for ever and ever and ever ok?