It's almost the weekend!! Let's do this.
However, my cynical take on the election did not stop me from crying when I woke up last Wednesday to hear that so many people voted - the second-highest turnout rate in a midterm year since 1914, exceeded only by the 2018 midterms AND that the polls finally, finally showed that people are unhappy with the fascistic trends in this country.
Let's hope this is just the beginning of turning this ship around. I know you have no reason to trust us, rest of the world, but I hope you will stick with us.
2) NaBloPoMo - Who here is LOVING NaBloPoMo? I mean, yes, my posts for this project are absolute nonsense, but who doesn't want to hear about how tired I am or how often we drive to Iowa? If you have feedback about these posts, feel free to put it in the comments on this post, but I have to admit there are more than twenty left to go, so if you feel negatively about them (I GET IT), feel free to just ignore my blog until 2027.
But beyond that! There are so many cool things happening and cool bloggers participating. Go see the list over at San's place.
3) Zelda and her ears - In recent months, Zelda's appetite had whittled down to very little. Her weight started going down - not a crazy amount, but a quarter of a pound over a month here and a quarter of a pound over a month there. I started getting worried, but she's a senior cat and blah blah blah. I purchased her a cat advent calendar at Costco because - this is a direct quote from the middle of an aisle - "I don't know how many more Christmases we're going to get with her."
She was cuddling with me a couple of weeks ago and went I went to put my knuckle in her ear and give her a good ear scratch, which is something she has historically liked. She DID NOT LIKE IT. She wouldn't even let me touch her ear and may have taken a swipe at me. MY PRECIOUS KITTEH. When I tried to look in her ear, all I saw was black gunk. Uh oh.
I took her to the vet and she has an ear infection. We have been treating that infection for just over a week and, friends, her appetite is back and I am no longer worried that this will be our last Christmas with her. (How long has she had this ear infection? I don't know and honestly, I feel like a bad kitty friend for not realizing it.)
4) Fun plans - November is amazing. I have so many plans over the weekends. This weekend I'm going to a sewing class and then going to a popcorn crawl downtown. A POPCORN CRAWL. Next weekend I'm going to visit my friends in Michigan. Woot woot! The next weekend is Thanksgiving. I can hardly stand the excitement. I sort of feel like I'm coming out of my skin a little bit.
5) Bathroom sink - Our upstairs bathroom sink had been draining slowly, then sloowly, then slooowly, and then I suggested to my husband that he call the plumber. The plumber came, complained about the plumbing upstairs (as if we haven't known it was a problem since the day we moved in), and eventually the drain ran clear. We celebrated and I immediately brushed my teeth and washed my face in the sink. But, uh oh? Is that water on my foot? IS THE NEWLY UNBLOCKED SINK NOW LEAKING ALL OVER THE FLOOR?
We called the plumber back. Something, something, something wasn't tightened, blah, blah, blah.
I think the sink is fixed now. And isn't that truly delightful?
6) Outlook down - The email at work went down yesterday at noon and still wasn't fixed when I left work. I GOT SO MUCH WORK DONE WITHOUT HAVING TO DEAL WITH IT. I sort of hope it's down all weekend. Oh, it also means that the email connected to this blog isn't working, so if you want to contact me, um...you can email my gmail account?
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What are you weekend plans? Anyone else doing a popcorn crawl? Do you have a NaBloPoMo post you want to shout out?
What are you weekend plans? Anyone else doing a popcorn crawl? Do you have a NaBloPoMo post you want to shout out?
LOL re: Outlook. I am actually going to have to got ot he office to talk to someone because I have issues with letting students into my class from the waitlist and need HALP. We need PHONES again, I guess.
ReplyDeleteWait...you don't have phones? I use my phone SO MUCH in my job. They can take my phone from my cold, dead hands.
DeleteWe don’t have phones either at work. When we had to rebuild our company this past year, not everyone got a phone number. You had to special request.
DeleteI had a Teams call this morning I was dreading and now it's been changed to a different format and I'm relieved!
ReplyDeleteEar infections with a cat sound the same as ear infections with a toddler that can't talk yet. Their behaviour goes all funny but it could be a dozen things and finally you figure out it's an ear infection and then you treat it and life gets SO MUCH BETTER!
I hate plumbing and water. Something is always either not draining well enough or draining too much (leaking). Plus, they always seem to be expensive fixes!!
YES! Toddlers and pets have a lot of commonalities. The communication, the erratic behavior swings. Toddlers do eventually grow up, though, so I guess that's their big advantage.
DeleteI like your alphabet covid diary project! I read that book too (the alphabet diary one) and it's such an interesting idea. It must have taken forever for you to put it together!
ReplyDeleteYay for fun plans! I'm very happy for you. I would love a popcorn crawl!
Nicole, it has taken SO LONG to enter the data and I thought the editing would be fast, but IT HAS TAKEN FOREVER. I'm never going to do anything like this again.
DeleteEngie! Isn’t that what you said about Moby Dick? Maybe your tagline should be “doing time-consuming things so you don’t have to”
DeleteI AM LOVING YOUR NABLOPOMO PROJECT!!! I seriously love it so much, Engie. It is so moving and interesting and cool. My favorites are the repetitions of words or phrases, especially when there are punctuation variations. What a commentary on the ebbs and flows of day to day life. It's beautiful and I am rapt.
ReplyDeleteSewing class and a popcorn crawl?! Both of those sound delightful in different ways. Please take extensive notes!
Your appreciation of this project is noted, Suzanne. I actually think of the repetition as sort of a sad commentary on how boring my day-to-day life. Since I started this project, I've been super conscious of what I write in my line a day now and try not to talk about things like going to the grocery store unless something unusual happened there!
DeleteOooohhhhh Engie, no. The repetition is beautiful. Our days don't need to be completely unique from one another to have meaning. In fact, I would argue that the routine is soothing and allows for the deviations to be more meaningful in themselves!
DeleteI guess, Suzanne, but I also think if you can't think of something unique about the day you've had/something you've learned/something fun, then that day is sort of wasted. So I'm focusing more on what makes that day stand out. Outlook went down! The plumbers came and said they fixed the sink, but now it's leaking! Hannah made friends with the Doberman across the street! Hopefully that will jar ACTUAL memories and not just repeats of how we drove to Iowa YET AGAIN.
DeleteYes, I'm also liking your project! And I love the photographs that go with every post. You went above and beyond this year.
ReplyDeleteSO glad to hear that Zelda's issues were from an ear infection. And I'm also glad you got her an advent calendar! I have the one from Trader Joe's that has treats in it. Yours is cuter though.
I mean- election results. What a relief. I was starting to seriously think that something very strange was going on, that people were so brainwashed that Trump could literally do anything and get away with it. But no- people are just regular people once again, and Trump is just another washed-up lame duck. Now the democrats have to NOT SCREW THIS UP so we don't have another set of horrors in 2028.
A POPCORN CRAWL. I want to hear all about this and see photos!!!!
Zelda doesn't actually play with very many toys, so I'll be interested if this advent calendar is a waste of money. We'll find out soon enough!!
DeleteThe popcorn crawl is amusing me so much. I've never even heard of such a thing! I'll take notes and as many photos as seems reasonable.
I think your alphabet project is so unique and interesting - must have been a lot of prep work for you. I love how creative you've been finding the letters and look forward to the rest of the alphabet!
ReplyDeleteFinding the letters has been a lot of fun. It's made my walks with the dog a lot more interesting.
DeleteI'm glad you found and attended to Zelda's problem.
ReplyDeleteIt's good be be active in November as the darkness and bleakness descends.
Right? I like all these plans in November as an attempt to forget how terrible the weather is.
Deletemy question for your alphabet post is how do you decide where the paragraph breaks are?
ReplyDeleteI haven’t read every word, but I find it fascinating and the pictures are so fun.
No one should read every word!! LOL.
DeleteI decided where the breaks should be by vibe, mostly. Sometimes it's by the first two letters. All the sentences that start with ab are in the same paragraph, for example. Sometimes it's all the sentences that start with the same word. Sometimes I just cut the paragraph because it was getting to be Melvillian in its length. But mostly vibe.
I get a lot of book recommendations from your blog, but when you reviewed the "Alphabetical Diaries" I thought, "meh, that sounds weird, not for me". However, I have loved your blog series so much that I have requested the original through ILL. I find the patterns of repeated phrases fascinating and it is such an interesting window. I would love to hear more about whether there are any repetitions that have surprised you? Disappointed you? That you find satisfying? Your comments on how long it has taken have stopped me from trying this on my own journal but I'm very very tempted.
ReplyDeleteI was so disappointed in myself for how often I talked about how tired I was and how I went to the grocery store. WHY AM I SO BORING? I'll do a post at the end in which I talk about lessons learned (#1: don't do this), but I actually feel like it's a pretty good representation of my day-to-day during those days of COVID. I'll write more about it when I'm done posting all of them, so hopefully I'll get to all your questions.
DeleteI hope you find Heti's book as inspiring as I did. Her journals were MUCH more fascinating than mine.
Glad you're doing the Popcorn Crawl, but the real question is, are you wearing Pajamas?! (I was trying to explain it to Tara. I don't think we're participating—we have a lot else going on this weekend—but you never know. It does sound like fun! We'll be at the Big Reveal Sunday evening.
ReplyDeleteHa. I'm going to be coming from an event in Madison, so I doubt I'll be in pajamas. We live in such different circles of our town because I had to look up what the Big Reveal even was. I think we can safely skip that.
DeleteA popcorn crawl! How delightful, and I expect a full accounting here at some point. I am extremely partial to the Chicago Mix (cheddar and caramel), but I have to be careful and not overindulge. For some reason, popcorn is mean to me.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you found out what Zelda's problem was. It's like getting an early Christmas gift!
Oh, and you forgot to mention OHIO's new Democratic governor: the first female governor in the state, and the first Dem since 2007!
I took Mulder for his annual exam once and the doctor said, ‘you know he has a raging ear infection, right?’ No, I DID NOT. He had zero symptoms. I’ve never heard of loss of appetite as a symptom for ear infection, so I would not have put 2 + 2 together. I think if Zelda were not such a fluffy beauty, you might have noticed the black crud, but it’s hard to see when they’re so fluffy.
ReplyDeleteI also am loving your alphabet project! It’s so fun. I know you want to write more interesting things, but I find a lot of beauty in the day to day details of our lives.
POPCORN CRAWL. That is so tempting, I would love that. You do live in Stars Hollow. My weekend is going to consist of sitting around the house I think, trying to recover from my stupid head cold.
We are on outlook with work and most of my work comes in via email so I didn't do anything yesterday. G arrived home from China and it was down so he didn't do anything either.
ReplyDeleteDon't feel bad about the ear infection, it can be hard to tell. Riley is prone to them so we have a bottle of anitbiotics at home.