This happened.

So this happened.

It’s 3am and I’m wide awake. I’ve learned laying in bed tossing and turning only wakes the dogs and disturbs the husband, so I move to the living room. Some times just the relocation helps me drift back to sleep (but not usually.)

I feel good. Better than I’ve felt for awhile. I upped my food intake to a small piece of fish last night with soup like mashed potatoes (mashed potatoes with bouillon added to make it soupy.) The trick is to balance hunger with caution: eat enough to energize but not enough to stress the system.

It snowed here the last two days and it’s been very cold for awhile. Jeffrey has kept us all toasty by building nightly fires. He is master of the hearth, for sure.

It appears likely our isolation will not end this year, so no trips or visits or out of the house celebrations for another 12 months. I feel like this should bother me more than it does.

I patiently await my chance for a Vaccine. Jeffrey is scheduled for his first in March. His employment qualifies him. I have to wait until compromised immune systems are added to the eligibility list. Given the shortage of vaccines and the complications of delivery we’re seeing, I imagine it’ll be late 2021 to early 2022 before we are both fully vaccinated. That’s ok. Other people more at risk than I am need it more. I hate the cause for the isolation, but not do much the isolation itself. I hope I can continue to work from home until I am fully vaccinated.

I had a run-in with a subordinate today, who refused any responsibility for her inappropriate actions and fought with me for addressing it, accusing me of worsening her health for trying to supervise her (oh, the irony!) I work with bad people, folks. They do not believe in an honest days work, and abuse the system horribly, taking full advantage of working from home full time by only working part-time and rarely, if ever, doing much work. They are rude and unprofessional, and I look forward to the day I am no longer forced to work with people like this to make a living. It is very much like working with poorly behaved, spoiled children.

Today is my last work day of the week. Despite my poor health, I’ve been putting in extra time every day to try to get ahead of the endlessly mounting work. I look forward to the three day weekend ahead. If my health stays improved, it should be a peaceful relaxing weekend. There are comics to read, movies to watch, puzzles to assemble, yarn to crochet, and, if I’m lucky – small meals of solid food to prepare and consume. In other words, it’s going to be a party hardy weekend at the Sassypad, folks!

Stay safe, stay healthy, stay sane!

Despite it being a rough week, I’ve continued to improve, sloooowly but surely, so I’m quite grateful for that.

But I’d still prefer to goat.

The last two days were rough. Sunday through to 430am Monday morning was spent in pain, but then there were signs of recovery and I was able to get a couple hours of sleep before putting in a full day and then some at work yesterday. (Typical state worker, going to work after a sleepless night of pain and then working an extra long work day at a job he hates because of his stupid work ethic…oh, wait…that’s not what you’ve heard about state workers?)

Although yesterday I was slowly returning to normal, I was hesitant to announce I was safe and through the current attack until I had a few days of normalcy under my belt (literally…well, if I was wearing a belt.) As of this morning (after a much needed good night’s sleep) I appear to be on the mend. I’m sticking to mostly liquids for the week, but allowed myself an egg for dinner last night and an egg for breakfast this morning and that sat well, so I will have an egg a day supplemented with ensure and bouillon until I feel secure enough to add in some light meals consisting of a small portion of one “safe” food item (fish, mashed potatoes, green beans, soup, etc.) When I’m eating so little, I abandon low-carb goals and focus on soft, easily digestible, low-residue foods that go easy on my system. The focus has to be getting daily nutrients and vitamins and regaining my energy and strength, even if it means ingesting small amounts of awful-yet-delicious carb loaded food. So if I must eat mashed potatoes for awhile, I will endure *smirk* I will gradually add in lean chicken to up my protein and cooked vegetables for vitamins. While it’s always great to be past the pain, it’s a slow careful process to add solid foods back into my diet, and I always take a “better safe than sorry” stance so I will be on an extremely cautious and careful eating plan for the next 2 weeks. (And hey, if I shed a few more pounds because of it, so be it!)

Sadly, these episodes are not uncommon for me, although they’ve been recurring more frequently of late. (I’m sure the stress from my job has a major impact on my health, as stress is a factor in Gastroparesis and IBD flare ups.) I’m used to having them once every few months, but definitely not twice in a couple weeks. It may be time to bite the bullet and request an appointment with my GI to discuss what’s going on. I’ve been trying to avoid all non-essential appointments while the pandemic rages, sticking solely to my required Remicade infusions every 8 weeks thus far, but I might just have to take the added risk and get checked out.

I look forward to being among the land of the living and being able to do basic every day tasks again – cooking, cleaning, laundry, showering – all things that are hard to do when you can’t stand up for any length of time, let alone move about comfortably. Poor Jeffrey launches right into full-time care and housekeeping mode during these bouts, so I try to return to helping out around the house as soon as possible.

So that’s where things stand. My pass day is Friday making it a 3-day weekend, so I just need to make it through the next 3 workdays as stress free as possible, then I can relax for the long weekend.

If anyone has good recipes for the following 3 ingredients – Bouillon, Ensure, Tea – please feel free to send them my way.

Stay safe, all!

Over Xmas, I was going to make cauliflower pizza cups, but I had packed away all of our muffin pans and couldn’t find them in the bins in the basement. I found them when de-decorating, but decided to toss out all the old, icky muffin pans that we had “inherited,” and buy 2 new ones: a mini muffin pan and a regular size one. (For us much as we make muffins, these were plenty.) Then, two weeks ago, I planned to make gluten free popovers and could only find the mini-muffin pan. Had we somehow not ordered a regular size one or, worse yet, ordered it and discarded it? I lost it a bit (I’ve been a wee bit on edge lately – poor Jeffrey. I’m sure it’s no fun having a spouse who has a meltdown over a muffin pan.) After gathering myself, I ordered (another?) regular sized pan, that came in the middle of my recent gut issues, so did not feel up to making them before this morning. Waking up this morning feeling a wee bit better than I have been lately, I put a batch in the oven while Jeffrey and I started the arduous task of assembling my mother’s microwave cabinet we had (belatedly) purchased her for an xmas gift. It had also arrived during armagutton, so I did not feel up to attempting it until today.

Midway through assembly, the popovers were done so we stopped for breakfast. They came out ok – very light and airy, but were smaller and less puffy than I was hoping for. Oh well.

After breakfast, we finished assembly and delivered the cabinet to Mom’s. As I’ve stated, Mom isn’t really isolating any more. She thinks wearing a mask means she can see any one and go anywhere whenever she wants. So I called ahead and required her to go upstairs before we arrived at her house, where she had to stay until we left. We also double masked for extra precaution. The cabinet looks great in her kitchen and gives her more storage space. She confirmed, after we had left and she came downstairs to see it, that she loves it.

After that, we ran to the Alterations shop at which Jeffrey had dropped my Marvel Superhero duffle bag off last week to have the zipper repaired. It broke after my first use 2 years ago and I haven’t been able to use it since; but, I LOVE that bag, so I finally found a local shop that would repair it and – VOILA – I finally have my bag back in working order again! Yay!

Unfortunately, on the way back from picking up the bag, I started having another round of cramps and by time I was home, I was in a lot of discomfort and had to lay down. (Maybe I overdid it?) While I was waiting for the cramps to subside, Jeffrey tackled the third and final project of the day: our spice shelf (a drawer that pulls out from our cabinet) has been crooked and partially off track since they completed our kitchen renovation a couple years ago. We’ve always wanted to fix it, but were afraid what seemed like a simple task would turn into a nightmare. We worried for nothing. In 20 minutes, Jeffrey had removed the screws of one track, adjusted and marked it, and reattached it. No more wobbly off track spice drawer. It’s crazy we put up with that for 2 years for such a simple fix. We need to start listening to and trusting our inner lesbians.Not all repairs are beyond us. (No pics, so you’ll have to take my word for it – it’s fixed!)

I’m sure there’s a lesson about not waiting so long to make simple repairs, but I just can’t seem to figure it out.

So, it wound up being very productive day after all and, aside from the killer cramps (which have subsided, thankfully), it was a good day overall.

Tonight, we enjoyed a live streaming piano concert by our friend from Provincetown, Gerald Goode.

Finally, it just wouldn’t me my blog if I didn’t include pics of my Pride and Joy (why didn’t I just name them that?)

Tomorrow, it’s a lazy day of reclining and relaxing (we hope.)

Stay safe, all!

They look how I feel…utterly pooped.

It was another rough week at work. But in a desperate act of hope, I applied for a position in another department today. Hey, you never know.

Health is sloooowly improving but I’m still restricting food and my energy levels are hovering just above empty. It doesn’t help that I haven’t slept well all week. But I’m still feeling better than I did a week ago, so I’m not going to complain.

This weekend we have a few projects we’d like to complete (gluten free popovers anyone?) but nothing that can’t wait if I’m not feeling up to it. There’s always plenty to read and watch, and I’m sure my pups won’t feel too put upon if they have to lap-trap me all weekend.

Stay safe, all!

Jeffrey and I took the day off yesterday, unsure if it would be a day of celebration or a day of shock and horror. We are relieved it was the latter. We did not watch any coverage of the blot on humanity’s departure; instead we watched only coverage of inauguration prep and arrivals. Here are my favorite moments of the day:

A reporter announcing the arrival of “Michelle Obama and her husband, the former President.” Awesome!

Getting goosebumps when Lady Gaga passionately sang the National Anthem.

Feeling an overwhelming sense of joy when Kamala Harris smiled at the end of her Oath.

Watching Amanda Gorman, the first National Youth Poet Laureate, touch a nation with her words.

Hearing “President Joseph Biden” for the first time.

Seeing all the masks and watching everyone fist bump.

Watching the new first family walk to the White House.

President Biden (I’ll never tire of saying that) has hit the ground running, repealing discriminatory executive orders, rejoining WHO and the Paris Climate Accords. Stopping the wall and the pipeline. Creating a fair path for citizenship. But my favorite part thing so far – Biden addressed his new staff and his expectation of behavior:

“I’m not joking when I say this: If you’re ever working with me and I hear you treat another colleague with disrespect or talk down to someone, I promise you, I will fire you on the spot — on the spot. No ifs ands or buts. Everybody is entitled to be treated with decency and dignity. That’s been missing in a big way the last four years. We’re going to be judged whether or not we restored the integrity and competency in this government. I need your help badly.

You’re engaged in and you’re working with the most decent government in the world. And we have to restore the soul of this country. And I’m counting on all of you to be a part of that – it’s not hyperbole. You work for the people.

The only thing I expect with absolute certainty is honesty and decency, the way you treat one another, the way you treat the people you deal with.“

That, my friends, is a President. Bravo, Mr. President. Bravo!