1) This was my first full week in the office since December 16-20. It's exhausting to have to work all day! But it's also been rewarding and full of interesting tasks. There have been a number of people inquiring about coming back after having been gone for more than a decade. Those are always fun cases to work on. I'm also working with returning students who have done prior learning and want to get credit for classes they already know the material in and that requires me to do a lot of coordination with lots of different people across campus, so that's been an experience since most faculty are not really checking their email regularly. BUT! I am going to make it through this week somehow.
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| Wednesday's work clothes. Wait! Are those your new shoes, you ask? YES, THEY ARE. |
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| If you want a pair of your very own, here they are. |
2) Last week I had a trip to Michigan. I spent a day with my mom, I spent a fun afternoon with Maya, and then I went to a funeral. Womp womp. I mean, it was fine. One of my high school friend's father died. I went to the visitation on Thursday night and the funeral on Friday. On Thursday night, I went with three of my other friends out to dinner and then we played board games. On Friday night, I went to one of my friend's cottage on the lake, and then I drove back on Saturday. It was a whirlwind and the snow seemed to follow me at every step. Back here in Wisco, there's no snow.
Maya is such a good host and if you ever invite yourself over to her house (like I have done TWICE now), she's sure to come up with a delightful agenda to entertain you. We went for a walk (the snow was SO PRETTY), we did some yoga together, and she fed me delicious food. I highly recommend her place. 5/5 stars
I also highly recommend hanging out with my high school friends, but maybe that's just the joy of knowing people for decades. We took a hilarious photo with one of my friends getting hugged on all sides from us, but the look on her face made it seem like we were assaulting her and we kept sending it to everyone we know and posting it on social media like we were sixteen and thirsting for attention. Anyway. That *gesticulates wildly* entire week happened somehow.
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| Maya took this photo of me on the MSU campus. In case you can't tell what I'm doing, I'm holding up my hand in the shape of a mitten and pointing to it with the other hand to indicate where we were in the mitten while standing on a map of the Michigan counties. This is a Cool Michigander Thing. |
3) So, the good news is that Zelda's treatment for hyperthyroidism did work. But now we're dealing with something else. She is in pretty bad GI distress. For about a week, she literally threw up everything she ate. Then she got diarrhea AND threw up everything she ate. Now she can hold food down, but her litterbox is revolting. She's on her second course of antibiotics (have you ever had to hold down your eight pound cat and squeeze her skull to get her to take medication?) and her box is not showing any signs of improvement. Meanwhile, the vet is discussing what happens to "older cats" and how she's "losing weight and muscle tone" and how "you'll know when it's time." This last one possibly caused me to cry hysterically. She's thirteen and a half years old, which isn't a young cat, but it's not elderly or anything. OKAY, FINE, it looks like at fourteen, she goes from a senior cat to a geriatric cat, but age is just a number, right? RIGHT?
I know Hannah gets a lot of words on this blog, but Zelda is truly my soulmate. I know that at some point we will have to make decisions about Zelda and those decisions will be hard. But I was not planning on making those decisions for several more years. Let's all hope that Zelda bounces back from this GI thing, her weight stabilizes, and we go back to talking about how it's just me and Zelda on the couch.
4) I published my 2025 goals earlier this week and I want you to know that I'm already failing my 30-day goal and have eaten something sweet every damn day of this month so far. On the bright side, I have had water every day and my exercise goals are going well. Ugh. Let's see how this shakes out.
5) There are so many things I'm looking forward to in January. Tomorrow I'm meeting up with some local bloggers, next week I'm taking off an entire day, and the following Monday is a holiday off work. I'm going to get to a museum on one of those days, right?!
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What shoes are you wearing right now?
Aww. Zelda and Lacey are of a similar age. Lacey is arthritic but seems well otherwise, knock on wood.
ReplyDeleteI heartily approve of your shoes, btw.
You are already killing it, goals wise! Day off! Blog friends! Keeping museums top of mind! I am ignoring the sweets thing entirely because sometimes you just need sweets. I am allowing my child to eat cheesecake for breakfast as I type, for instance.
ReplyDeleteLOVE your shoes and the whole outfit.
And I am sending all the good, healing thoughts toward Zelda. <3 <3 <3
I approve of all of this except of course the funeral and Zelda being sick. I'm very jealous of your blogger meetup - I have plans to go the "don't get mad get even" route but it's not tomorrow so you win.
ReplyDeleteHaving been through it, I agree with your vet's assessment that "you'll know when it's time". The point is that today is not "time", and that is the only thing that matters. In the meantime, you've got couch snuggles to get to <3
Oh no, I am so sorry about Zelda. I know how hard it is to watch a pet in decline. It's just the saddest thing. I'm so sorry.
ReplyDeleteI was telling Maya how jealous I was and she's trying to convince me to book a flight to Detroit to visit some Motown/ Aretha things, and then arrange a blogger meetup for all you Midwesterners! I'm not saying this will definitely happen. But maybe it will happen? I have to look at a damn map and figure out where everyone is in relation to everyone else. I just have a swath of "Midwest" in my mind without any details.
Your outfit is perfect and I love it! But your question - what shoes am I wearing? Engie! I'm in the house, no shoes. This Canadian girl does not wear shoes in the house. Also it's like 5 in the morning, and I'm getting prepared for yoga.
No, no, no- I refuse to hear the phrase "you'll know when it's time." I want to cry hysterically at that, and she's not even my cat! I'm sending all the positive vibes her way so she can bounce back from this.
ReplyDeleteI want to invite myself to Maya's house! Except I don't want to go to Michigan in the winter, so... it sounds like you guys had fun. And it sounds like the whole trip was overall positive, in spite of the sad reason for it.
i like your shoes! I'm wearing a pair of old running shoes right now, and they're black. Not quite as much fun as yours.
I'm wearing my house 'flip flops', which looks weird with my PJ's.
ReplyDeletePoor Zelda. Poor YOU. I'm so sorry this is happening; it's not fair and for me, fourteen seems youngish for a kitty. Sending big hugs.
Your new kicks are very cute and hip!
I'm wearing my soft slippers. Earlier, I stuffed my slippers into my Outdoor Slippers to go out on the front porch to feed my blue jays. Even after I get Dressed For The Day, I'll still be wearing my slippers. It's too damn cold and snowy to go outside. HOW DOES WISCONSIN HAVE NO SNOW?!
ReplyDeleteI am so, so sorry about Zelda. I remember when our senior EmilyCat was having trouble with food. We had to give her baby food strained chicken mixed with broth so that it was pretty much like thick soup. I do understand, Engie; I really do.
In spite of it all, you're hanging in there and looking great. I'm glad you had some fun stuff as part of your trip since the reason for it was a somber one. You have a remarkable way of finding that balance in your life. It's inspiring.