So, This Happened…
We got our Christmas tree! We were having a family meeting about our change of schedule this year. We won’t be able to decorate the tree on Black Friday because there’s a high school football game. Would everyone be okay if we decorated on Thanksgiving? Yes, my son said- OR we could just go out and get the tree today! Yes! Yes! Once he suggested it, I couldn’t wait to do it. Since everyone seemed amenable to changes, I tried something else. Would anyone object to changing from colored lights to white? Unfortunately, that was a bridge too far. One person almost had a meltdown over that idea, so we’ll continue with colored lights. I don’t want to ruin anyone’s Christmas! We’ll let the branches open up for a day, and then I’ll get the (colored) lights on it tomorrow. It smells sooooo good. I’m excited! If you celebrate Christmas, is your tree up? Or is it too early? Colored lights, or white?
Weekly Rundown- Not Like Other Weeks
Well, it was an interesting week! As a reminder, last week I talked about an extremely painful rib injury. Lots of people shared stories of similar injuries (btw, ribs are apparently very fragile!) and here’s what Debbie said: “Once when I had pneumonia, I coughed so much that I irritated the connective tissue where my ribs attach to my sternum. It felt like a broken rib, but wasn’t.” As soon as I read that, I had a strong feeling that’s what I had. Thank you, Dr. Debbie! Not that it was instantaneously cured, but I had a better idea how to cope with it. The universe also decided to throw a couple other curveballs my way. Thanks, universe! And, thanks to Kim and Deborah for hosting the Weekly Rundown. Let’s get into it. Monday Rib area is still extremely sore. I got out for a 3 mile run. Running doesn’t make it worse, but breathing hurts. Not a super fun run, but I got it done. My new plan was to avoid stretching the connective tissue between my ribs and sternum, so before I went to work I wrapped an ace bandage around the area to keep everything compressed toward the midline. I definitely think it helped! Tuesday Okay, I’m not quite ready for the gym but I have to do SOME strength. I did a lower body strength workout using dumbbells at home. Good workout- but I’m kind of bummed that I can’t find any type of core work that I can do. Sigh. I wrapped up my rib again for work. It was definitely feeling better! As a matter of fact, later in the day I felt a sneeze coming on and I thought “This is so much better, I think I’m ready to sneeze again.” You’ve probably never analyzed your sneezing mechanism, but prior to the actual sneeze, your body takes a sharp inhalation, which caused a searing pain in my side. NO! NOT READY! NOT READY!!! I frantically smashed my hand into my nose and stifled the sneeze just in time. Not quite there yet. This, by the way, all happened in the grocery store. If anyone was watching me, I’m sure I looked like a lunatic. Wednesday My daughter didn’t go to school, so I was able to sleep later. That was nice- but then I went out for what turned out to be one of the worst runs of my life. It was warm and muggy; my legs were sore from my strength work yesterday; and my side ached. 3 extremely hard miles. When I finished, I felt like I had just raced a 5k as hard as I could. What the…? Oh well. It feels like a long time since I’ve actually had a good run. Thursday I tried some upper body strength today. There’s a lot I can’t do, but there were things I could. Like, I could do bicep curls, and I did those standing on one leg, which was good for my core. My CORE, which is turning to mush, thanks a lot rib injury! Sheesh. At night, I suddenly got oddly chilled. Yes, we had a “cold” front come though. I usually love that, but this time I couldn’t seem to warm up. And oh yes… I noticed that my eyeballs hurt. Like, it hurt to look side to side or up and down. And I felt all the energy drain out of my body. This seems… like a bad thing. I got in bed, piled blankets on top of me and slept with warm socks on. Sometime in the middle of the night I woke up drenched in sweat, but then went back to sleep. Ugh. Friday I woke up… not sick! But also not completely well. I felt a little fragile, and opted to postpone my run. It was the day I wait for all summer, our first morning down to 50 degrees- and I couldn’t even appreciate it because I was too cold. It was a cruel irony! This might be the perfect time to mention that in addition to everything else, our wifi was out FOR THREE DAYS. It was out for our entire neighborhood. This would be an inconvenience at any time, but remember I’m joining San for NaBloPoMo this month! I tried using my phone as a hotspot, but ended up spending lots of time at Starbucks. After work I decided I felt well enough to try a run. And it actually felt pretty good! I missed our low of 50, but still got to appreciate a beautiful Florida day. It was upper 60s, sunny, and lovely. I actually felt better after this run than I did before. Sometimes, you just have to go for it and see what happens. I was VERY glad I felt well enough to go to the high school football game at night! It was our regional semi-final game, and we beat the other team so badly that I truly felt sorry for them. But, I didn’t feel so bad that I couldn’t celebrate our victory!!! Next up- regional finals next Friday. Saturday Once again I opted to sleep in and postpone my run till later. The day got so busy that I ended up running in the dark. That’s okay- I’m used to that from all my early morning runs.. This run felt absolutely exhilarating! It was cool outside, and I loved it. I finally felt like I was over my “not well-ness.” And… I can finally say that, while I still feel the rib pain, it’s more of a nuisance than a major problem. At night I watched Baylor win their fifth game in a row. Apparently we’re still in contention for the Big 12 Championship- how did that happen??? It’s an amazing comeback. And THEN- my son came home!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was a perfect night. Sunday Ah. Sleeping in. Making my son’s favorite breakfast. Happiness! Honestly, I ended the week feeling turned around by all that happened. We had a cold front;
General Life Updates
So, it does work to use your phone as a hotspot- it just doesn’t work well. Not having reliable wifi is really screwing everything up! I’ve been spending way more time than I would like at Starbucks. But Starbucks has delicious tea and holiday cups, so I guess things could be worse. It turns out the wifi outage is for our an entire neighborhood, which is a good thing. AT&T trucks are on our street, and I’m confident it will get fixed without us committing to a four-hour window to be home. Anyway, what else is going on? MY SON IS COMING HOME! He’ll be home for the entire week of Thanksgiving. August- Thanksgiving is the longest stretch we have without seeing him, and it’s been hard. This past week was very busy for him, with several performances and some recordings to make. And he got sick! He told me he just had to take Advil and power through. I wanted him home so badly. I pictured him here, lying comfortably on the couch while I plied him with tea and orange juice. I also got this text from him: He still needs me! I’ll take any mother-son bonding time I can get. Even if it involves writing essays. Meanwhile, we’re having our first big cool down of the year!!!!! Remember my post from a couple days ago, where I said I want to live in a biodome where the temperature always stays between 50-70 degrees? In case you’re worried about my poor cats being advent-calendar deprived this December- I stopped at Target and got this one. We might even like it better, because it looks like it has a variety of treats. So there, Trader Joe’s! Last but not least… I was the lucky recipient of one of Engie’s amazing postcards! Thank you Engie. We’ll get through this if we stick together. And now, I’m off to our high school football game- it’s the Regional Semi-finals! Go Bulls! Are you excited about Thanksgiving? – I’m excited to have the entire family home. Not as excited about cooking- but the family will help me.
Day in the Life- Wednesday
Wednesdays are my day off from work, and this one was extra-easy for my because my daughter did not go to school! She had a rehearsal all day for the all-county jazz band, which didn’t start until 9 am. The best part was, SOMEONE ELSE DROVE HER. One of the other girls in the band picked her up and brought her home. I’m loving this new phase where my daughter has friends who drive! We were able to sleep in until 6:30, which felt luxurious (I usually get up at 5 or 5:30.) I made my daughter’s breakfast and puttered around the house until she left at 7:45. Then I went for a run! It was late for me to be out running, and I felt the heat and humidity. Oh well- it was worth it to sleep in. After I showered, I had breakfast of oatmeal with a scoop of protein powder. I ate and then lingered for a long time over my tea while I read blogs. At 11:00 I got myself out the door. I had a bunch of errands, but they were mostly fun. First up, the mall! I had to return something for my daughter, and also purchase a birthday present for one of her friends (body lotion from Bath and Body Works.) Then it was on to Barnes and Noble! I’m working on my “Christmas Book Flood” list. I think these two will be on it: And, I worked on the little project for yesterday’s blog post (random lists of likes and dislikes.) At 1:00 I headed to Trader Joe’s, where I encountered a great tragedy: THEY WERE OUT OF CAT ADVENT CALENDARS! I asked, and they said they won’t be getting any more. Boohoo! After Trader Joe’s, I stopped at TJ Maxx for a gift card to round out the birthday gift for my daughter’s friend; I stopped at the library to return a book; and I stopped at Sprouts to get my daughter some sushi for dinner (Wednesday is $5 sushi at Sprouts.) Finally- home! I had a bowl of cereal for lunch… And then took a lovely nap on the couch. At 4:15 I woke up. What a lovely day so far! I had about an hour until my daughter was due to return, so I decided to watch an episode of a holiday baking show. Hmm, that’s funny. Why isn’t the TV working? I guess I’ll read some blog posts instead. WAIT A MINUTE. That doesn’t work either. That’s how I discovered the wifi was out. Goshdarnit!!! (Ha… if you read my recent post on how I’ve decided to start swearing more, you’ll know that wasn’t the actual word I used.) I tried all the usual things- unplugging, resetting, and finally called AT&T. That was fun! The account is linked to my husband’s phone number, and apparently he set a four digit passcode, which they needed to access the account. After several unsuccessful guesses, the woman said “Do you want to try the security question?” Er… sure. The question was, Who’s your favorite singer? Um… I DON’T KNOW HOW MY HUSBAND ANSWERED THAT. “Barbra Streisand?” No, that’s not it. OH FOR CRYING OUT LOUD. The woman said “Can you contact your husband?” My husband was in a meeting. I imagined sending him a text “Hey, who’s your favorite singer? It’s an emergency, I need to know right now!” Finally they sent him a verification code, which he sent to me. But it was all in vain. They couldn’t figure out what the problem is, so they have to send out a technician. After a day where I literally had nothing important to do, now we have two days where no one will be home, for the entire day and evening. Technician appointment for Saturday morning. Fudge. By then my daughter was home- I expected histrionics when she discovered there was no wifi, but she was cool. She said she had to spend the evening reading Lord of the Flies anyway (if she’s spending the evening reading, it means she got WAY behind on that class and now has to dig herself out of a hole.). Perfect! I made my dinner and sat down with my book as well. Dinner was a roasted “honey nut squash” which I got at Trader Joe’s- it was so cute! It looked like a mini butternut squash- with cauliflower, tempeh, and a tahini sauce. The rest of the evening was spent cleaning the kitchen and doing a load of laundry. I got in bed around 9:45, read for a while, and turned out the light just after 10:30. Would you know how to answer the question- who is your significant other’s favorite singer? – Turns out the correct answer was Ella Fitzgerald. Darn! I should have guessed that.