* On day two of a low-level tension headache (lower level after I forced myself through a workout, so that's what makes me suspect it's tension and not migraine - not bad enough for that - and not hypertension. My blood pressure has been up a little relative to where it was, but it's still in the "just barely hypertensive" zone, not the ZOMG GET TO THE ER zone, which is the zone that would trigger a hypertension headache).
I think it's likely stress. Because stress, I has it.
I graded an exam yesterday where I THOUGHT I made it easy and people just blew a lot of the questions. (Though now I'm wondering, could there have been an old exam for that class floating around because some of the wrong answers were suspiciously like the RIGHT answers to the previous year's exam, which was different. Either way I'm not happy)
I caught a THIRD mouse overnight. I need to invest in more snap traps because I don't bother to pry the trap open, get the mouse out, and reset it. It seems a cheap enough solution. But I hope the Mouse Faucet that apparently is emptying into my house turns off soon. (Sadly, though: mice are very prolific, and so this may be my life now, unless I hire an exterminator to use poison, which I definitely do not want to do, given that there are neighborhood cats and things)
* Came home from bell choir to a message from my mom: "I guess you're out. I'll call you later."
And of COURSE, my stomach fell into my shoes, because the last time I got an unexpected call from her my dad was in the hospital.
And my mom is sometimes the Queen of Burying the Lede. I called her back, shaking a little.
Turns out she wanted to talk about scheduling times for her cataract removal. (facepalm)
The bad news: the only open day for it at the good eye surgeon is the 19th of this month. AKA Monday before Thanksgiving. I will be up there, yes, and possibly my brother and his family will be there, but....I was like "But then you won't be able to lift or move things with Thanksgiving and you won't be able to help cook" and she said the doctor claimed the way they do it now, there are minimal restrictions (driving is one, I guess).
I usually do SOME of the cooking (lots of the sous-chef type stuff like peeling vegetables) but the thought of making an entire dinner for six people is daunting. So I was immediately in "Danger, Will Robinson!" territory.
She thinks the biggest thing she will need is someone to drive her there and home, and she said, "If you don't want to stay for the couple hours it might take, you don't have to, I can just call when I'm done" and I was like, "No, I'll bring knitting." (Because honestly, that two hours might be the only real quiet I get during break)
But. Because I have trust issues, and because I've had far too many bad surprises in the past three years, I'm expecting that the doctor was over-enthusiastic or there will be some issue and she won't be able to lift or move around all that much, so much of the cooking of the big dinner will fall on me. (My brother and his family have to go to his wife's family, usually the day before, and also, if the choice is "cook or babysit your niece," I'mma choose "cook." Even if I supposedly "speak kid.")
But yeah. Am bracing to be Chore Donkey this break and I am not all that happy about it. I made my Christmas travel plans with the thought that she'd get an appointment the week before Christmas....my brother and his family do Christmas at their home so it's lower-key at my parents'. (The house tends to be...a bit of a madhouse with so many people in it).
If worst comes to absolute worst, I will run out to the Hy-Vee on Wednesday and buy as many pre-prepared sides and things that I can find that are low enough in sodium and are absent peanuts, carrots, or celery. (Or, heck, just buy something with peanuts if I have to and then I don't eat it).
And if we don't have pie because I'm doing all the things and I don't have time to make one, we don't have pie. Big whoop. I'll make sure there's ice cream in the freezer or something.
Even if she's OK, I think I'm still just going to insist on doing all the lifting and moving of the turkey into and out of the oven, just to be safe.
Though a big part of this is "my stuff" - I make plans, and I don't like having to alter those plans. (And also, I could have stayed down here a few more days after graduation if I had known I didn't have to race up there for her surgery, but whatever. Am not changing my Christmas travel plans now; maybe I get to go out to Micheal's or something in that week before for supplies to make stuff over break.)
* Also apparently someone at church got huffy over the whole funeral lunch thing and....I don't know. I couldn't quite figure out what it was based on what the secretary was telling us and I don't really want to know. I mean, yeah, I'm not happy I have to bake a cake and serve, but it's an important thing and I'm going to do it even though I'm busy but I could really, really do without other people getting upset about things and then refusing to help.
People are eternally frustrating. I tend to be the "sigh, maybe privately complain a little, but pick up the bit in my teeth and keep pulling" type.
I wonder if the reason sometimes I feel very taken for granted is that I don't periodically sit down and have a little tantrum over things, and people just ignore me. It's like how the well-behaved and reasonably-well-achieving kids in a class often wind up ignored by the teacher.
That is sad and annoying and in a more just world the people who just shut up and did the work would get some positive attention, but this is not a just world.
* If reincarnation turns out to be a thing, I want to be a rich,
well-connected white man who has people to serve him in my next life.
* I'm still dissatisfied with how the little blue cat turned out; it is not as I expected. It's more wonky than I wanted (I should have waited until I was less-tired and didn't have a headache to attach the feet). I hope my niece likes it okay. This is always an issue for me with making stuff for someone else. I am okay with it (mostly) if something I make for myself is slightly wonky, but if I'm making something for someone else, I want it to be as close to perfect as possible.
Next up is the fingerless mitts for AAUW. I don't know whether to do as planned and make my own pair off the pattern first (to be sure the pattern - a new one to me - works) or if I just embark on the mitts for the gift (given that time is getting short) and trust that the pattern works.
* I've decided that today and tomorrow and Thursday I will work on finalizing cleaning/picking-up, and Friday afternoon - I have nothing I will have to grade - I can come home and bake the cake and also will put up my tree, and do more decorating in between serving at the funeral lunch, seeing as Saturday will be largely a lost day (I will be busy from before 11 am until probably after 1:30, which means the best part of the day for me is eaten up).
* There's no NCIS tonight because it's election returns and that tells me that I do one of a couple different things:
a. Watch something on Amazon Prime or the dvds of Season 2 of The Good Place and knit
b. Wash my hair early and just go to bed as soon as it's dry. I'm tired enough.
c. Maybe get into bed early, but with knitting, and watch something on my laptop until the battery runs out. Or go to bed and read; I'm getting pretty involved in "The Eagle of the Ninth" and it would be nice to have a big block of time to read on it.
d. Practice more piano. I haven't been so great at this without the goad of lessons; some days I'm only getting in 20 minutes first thing in the morning.
I admit, I've kind of hit the "Que sera, sera" point with this. I don't want to watch the returns, I don't want to hear the Monday-morning quarterbacking, the spiking of the football by the "winners" or the agonized worries of the "losers." (Really, in some ways we are all winners and we are all losers after every election).
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