It is Wednesday my Meta...... November 14, 2018 9:55 AM Subscribe
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
**Share your Wednesday feels here.**
Wednesday is the correct day for a paradox, I think. My life is simultaneously the best and the most difficult it has ever been. Take that, hump day.
Melismata <3
posted by wellred at 10:12 AM on November 14, 2018 [5 favorites]
Melismata <3
posted by wellred at 10:12 AM on November 14, 2018 [5 favorites]
I've had TOO much family stuff the last few weekends. Sisters and cousins and families from out of town visiting and I just want a day where I'm not having to give my time to a family member. Ugh. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!
posted by Fizz at 10:19 AM on November 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by Fizz at 10:19 AM on November 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
It is supposed to be payday. But I got Phoenixed.
Add to that bitter cold and my incredible lateness to the job I am not even being paid for because of a bus diversion and my feelings today are mostly four-lettered. Or 40 lettered, like this:
FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCCCCCKKK.
posted by jacquilynne at 10:20 AM on November 14, 2018 [3 favorites]
Add to that bitter cold and my incredible lateness to the job I am not even being paid for because of a bus diversion and my feelings today are mostly four-lettered. Or 40 lettered, like this:
FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCCCCCKKK.
posted by jacquilynne at 10:20 AM on November 14, 2018 [3 favorites]
Yesterday, I cracked. A random young child pointed at me in the street and said "SANTA!". A few minutes later, a little old lady tried to give me the money to get myself a "cup of tea or a hot meal".
At which point I went to the hairdressers and told them to cut off most of my hair and shave off all of the beard. This felt good, until I went back outside and was suddenly reminded that it was winter. So I bought a scarf.
Finally, in a moment of madness and deep ego and even deeper middle age crisis, with now exposed skin I attempted to pose as a male fashion catalogue model while in a downmarket pub. Cover your eyes...
Today, this wednesday, I have now had a full day of cold wintry weather, with no beard. How long is it till summer?
posted by Wordshore at 10:22 AM on November 14, 2018 [64 favorites]
At which point I went to the hairdressers and told them to cut off most of my hair and shave off all of the beard. This felt good, until I went back outside and was suddenly reminded that it was winter. So I bought a scarf.
Finally, in a moment of madness and deep ego and even deeper middle age crisis, with now exposed skin I attempted to pose as a male fashion catalogue model while in a downmarket pub. Cover your eyes...
Today, this wednesday, I have now had a full day of cold wintry weather, with no beard. How long is it till summer?
posted by Wordshore at 10:22 AM on November 14, 2018 [64 favorites]
I swear it's not actually Wednesday, but the third Monday of the week. I know I should be happy that my office is the type of place that wants to plan a holiday party and buy us food and booze, but really, December is stressful and busy enough, and you already get 45-50 hours of my week, please don't take an evening as well. Or if you're going to, could you do it between March-May, when things are slower? Instead, I feel guilty because I actually have plans on a Friday and Thursday night outside of work!
On the plus side, I theoretically have next week off, and will be unpacking and setting up my craft room, and we are in the middle of planning a road trip for next summer where we visit Yellowstone, which I am excited about.
And, of course, the card swap is coming up, and I am just so excited at the possibility of MeFi mail (and my husband is already trying to cope by looking at holiday card display options).
posted by needlegrrl at 10:46 AM on November 14, 2018 [6 favorites]
On the plus side, I theoretically have next week off, and will be unpacking and setting up my craft room, and we are in the middle of planning a road trip for next summer where we visit Yellowstone, which I am excited about.
And, of course, the card swap is coming up, and I am just so excited at the possibility of MeFi mail (and my husband is already trying to cope by looking at holiday card display options).
posted by needlegrrl at 10:46 AM on November 14, 2018 [6 favorites]
I said earlier this year that I could make it through 2018 as long as I didn't miss Thanksgiving.
It's looking more and more likely that i will miss Thanksgiving.
Just working and crying over here, same as the rest of the year.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 10:55 AM on November 14, 2018 [5 favorites]
It's looking more and more likely that i will miss Thanksgiving.
Just working and crying over here, same as the rest of the year.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 10:55 AM on November 14, 2018 [5 favorites]
I am bracing and gritting hard for the onslaught that is the holidays, a season that exists to create memories for children.
Look, I don't know if this will help you at all. But the part of the holidays that has fuck-all to do with kids? Seasonal cocktails. Make yourself one of these, and rejoice at the lack of ankle-biters ruining your painstakingly-made, yet utterly worth it adult beverage. Hell, even a G&T with a sprig of rosemary thrown in it can be a holiday cocktail. Needs must.
(Sorry if you don't or can't drink and I just made things worse. This is what works for me. YMMV.)
posted by greermahoney at 11:00 AM on November 14, 2018 [11 favorites]
Look, I don't know if this will help you at all. But the part of the holidays that has fuck-all to do with kids? Seasonal cocktails. Make yourself one of these, and rejoice at the lack of ankle-biters ruining your painstakingly-made, yet utterly worth it adult beverage. Hell, even a G&T with a sprig of rosemary thrown in it can be a holiday cocktail. Needs must.
(Sorry if you don't or can't drink and I just made things worse. This is what works for me. YMMV.)
posted by greermahoney at 11:00 AM on November 14, 2018 [11 favorites]
We are expecting my wife to lose her job any day now, as the program she manages for a church has been canceled. So it'll be a very merry Christmas for us. Sigh. And churches don't pay into the unemployment system, so no unemployment checks for her.
Just one year, one fucking year without something bad happening to us is all I ask.
(We'll be fine - we can scrape by on my income until she finds new employment. I thought we'd finally get through a calendar year without something bad happening. In a lot of ways, this had been one of the best years of our lives and I'm not going to let this ruin it.)
posted by COD at 11:08 AM on November 14, 2018 [14 favorites]
Just one year, one fucking year without something bad happening to us is all I ask.
(We'll be fine - we can scrape by on my income until she finds new employment. I thought we'd finally get through a calendar year without something bad happening. In a lot of ways, this had been one of the best years of our lives and I'm not going to let this ruin it.)
posted by COD at 11:08 AM on November 14, 2018 [14 favorites]
I've taken on a freelance project that's somewhat more than I can comfortably chew, but the paycheck is reasonably good and will likely lead to more jobs down the line, and I am freaking right the hell out at being able to deliver this on time while I also work a day job and parent a preschooler and and have to deliver a Thanksgiving and Christmas and a trip to Disney World that I've been planning for the better part of the year. I'm trying to cram a few weeks' worth of work into the space between kid-bedtime and eyes-too-bloodshot-to-see-time every night and it's working so far, but can I keep it up until the end of the year?
If my comments start getting more gibberish-y than usual, send help.
posted by uncleozzy at 11:27 AM on November 14, 2018 [3 favorites]
If my comments start getting more gibberish-y than usual, send help.
posted by uncleozzy at 11:27 AM on November 14, 2018 [3 favorites]
I attempted to pose as a male fashion catalogue model while in a downmarket pub. Cover your eyes...
How handsome!
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 11:27 AM on November 14, 2018 [14 favorites]
How handsome!
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 11:27 AM on November 14, 2018 [14 favorites]
Well, the constant near-panic-attack anxiety and suicidal ideation went away after I insisted we go back to the other blood pressure med, so I consider that a big win.
posted by briank at 11:28 AM on November 14, 2018 [37 favorites]
posted by briank at 11:28 AM on November 14, 2018 [37 favorites]
I'm managing, at best. Have made it to work every day this week, so that's a good thing! Output is also really not too affected. And I've only cried in front of other people twice (not counting driving in my car by myself, although that's technically public). On the flip side, I have gotten so many extremely kind memails from you all offering to help, and it is so helpful and caring and loving, that that's also made me cry a few times.
This is the first time ever that I've lost my sense of taste due to emotional upset/grief. It is the weirdest thing. It's like I have a cold, and my taste buds have just turned themselves off. I can get slight hints of whatever, even though I know it's powerfully seasoned. Like, straight-up miso paste tastes mildly salty. SO bizarre. I've also completely lost my appetite. Between those two things, I'm not eating enough. I'm sure both will come back, but I really love food and I'm impatient.
posted by Fig at 11:50 AM on November 14, 2018 [14 favorites]
This is the first time ever that I've lost my sense of taste due to emotional upset/grief. It is the weirdest thing. It's like I have a cold, and my taste buds have just turned themselves off. I can get slight hints of whatever, even though I know it's powerfully seasoned. Like, straight-up miso paste tastes mildly salty. SO bizarre. I've also completely lost my appetite. Between those two things, I'm not eating enough. I'm sure both will come back, but I really love food and I'm impatient.
posted by Fig at 11:50 AM on November 14, 2018 [14 favorites]
oh and F the holidays. I am taking a year off of celebrating.
(at least, I want to. I'm not sure my family will acquiesce)
posted by Fig at 11:52 AM on November 14, 2018 [4 favorites]
(at least, I want to. I'm not sure my family will acquiesce)
posted by Fig at 11:52 AM on November 14, 2018 [4 favorites]
Look, I don't know if this will help you at all. But the part of the holidays that has fuck-all to do with kids? Seasonal cocktails.
Word.
For what it's worth, my family (nuclear and extended) hasn't had any kids in it for probably 15 years now, since the last of the cousins turned 18. And if you asked any of us what the holidays exist for, I'm pretty sure we'd all say "sweaters, bourbon, company, and food."
But of course we all find them impossibly difficult for any number of other reasons, mostly involving money and travel, so another hug to Melismata if you want it, and a hope that you find an easier way through it this year. That we all do.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 11:53 AM on November 14, 2018 [3 favorites]
Word.
For what it's worth, my family (nuclear and extended) hasn't had any kids in it for probably 15 years now, since the last of the cousins turned 18. And if you asked any of us what the holidays exist for, I'm pretty sure we'd all say "sweaters, bourbon, company, and food."
But of course we all find them impossibly difficult for any number of other reasons, mostly involving money and travel, so another hug to Melismata if you want it, and a hope that you find an easier way through it this year. That we all do.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 11:53 AM on November 14, 2018 [3 favorites]
My aunt passed away a few hours ago after a long battle with cancer so for the second time in 4 months I have a half-packed bag waiting for a funeral date. Fuck this year, how many bad things can keep happening. At least it’s bed time on this continent.
posted by ellieBOA at 12:00 PM on November 14, 2018 [13 favorites]
posted by ellieBOA at 12:00 PM on November 14, 2018 [13 favorites]
There are...things going on...that will make my Thanksgiving trip next week less than fun. Except that there is a serious whiskey collection where I will be, so.
Fig, sinus infection maybe? Also, F the holidays, you have seriously earned a bye.
posted by wellred at 12:00 PM on November 14, 2018 [1 favorite]
Fig, sinus infection maybe? Also, F the holidays, you have seriously earned a bye.
posted by wellred at 12:00 PM on November 14, 2018 [1 favorite]
naw, my sinuses are completely clear. I even took a Claritin to see if that would help, and nada.
ellieBOA, I'm so sorry. Hugs to everyone else struggling as well.
posted by Fig at 12:13 PM on November 14, 2018 [1 favorite]
ellieBOA, I'm so sorry. Hugs to everyone else struggling as well.
posted by Fig at 12:13 PM on November 14, 2018 [1 favorite]
Ghastly Things are occurring within my entrails and i am outraged and disgusted by the apparently neverending failures of my revolting flesh prison from which i will never be freed and i would like to speak to the manager
posted by poffin boffin at 12:46 PM on November 14, 2018 [23 favorites]
posted by poffin boffin at 12:46 PM on November 14, 2018 [23 favorites]
I am visiting my little brother this week and man, I love my little brother so much. It's been fun driving around with him in his little sporty car and singing along to the Aquabats very loudly and eating truly absurd quantities of tacos. I don't want him to get deployed.
posted by ChuraChura at 12:52 PM on November 14, 2018 [14 favorites]
posted by ChuraChura at 12:52 PM on November 14, 2018 [14 favorites]
I attempted to pose as a male fashion catalogue model while in a downmarket pub. Cover your eyes...
You clean up nice, sirrah.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 12:56 PM on November 14, 2018 [5 favorites]
You clean up nice, sirrah.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 12:56 PM on November 14, 2018 [5 favorites]
Hugs, ellieBOA (I have extras if anyone else needs one).
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 12:58 PM on November 14, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 12:58 PM on November 14, 2018 [1 favorite]
Um, poffin boffin, about never being freed from your revolting flesh prison: I have good news and bad news. Sending lots of hugs to all who are suffering.
I am lucky because Sweden does not celebrate Thanksgiving. I am unlucky because Sweden does not celebrate Thanksgiving. Before I moved away last year I realized I was not going to get to see one of my sisters before the move unless I invited her to my house for Thanksgiving. I used to make holiday dinners a big deal but I didn’t have that luxury. And it turned out that ordering Thanksgiving dinner to go from a supermarket was the best possible decision I could ever have made. There were some homemade sides but nobody was sweating over them or stressing out and we could just enjoy each other’s company.
I am lucky to that I can do anything I want this Christmas. In some ways that makes me sad, because I no longer have a Christmas tradition now that my kid is grown. But mostly it feels liberating.
As for Wordshore’s makeover: You look great. Super handsome and suspiciously young. Did you go to a spa as well? Hang in there, everyone.
posted by Bella Donna at 1:34 PM on November 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
I am lucky because Sweden does not celebrate Thanksgiving. I am unlucky because Sweden does not celebrate Thanksgiving. Before I moved away last year I realized I was not going to get to see one of my sisters before the move unless I invited her to my house for Thanksgiving. I used to make holiday dinners a big deal but I didn’t have that luxury. And it turned out that ordering Thanksgiving dinner to go from a supermarket was the best possible decision I could ever have made. There were some homemade sides but nobody was sweating over them or stressing out and we could just enjoy each other’s company.
I am lucky to that I can do anything I want this Christmas. In some ways that makes me sad, because I no longer have a Christmas tradition now that my kid is grown. But mostly it feels liberating.
As for Wordshore’s makeover: You look great. Super handsome and suspiciously young. Did you go to a spa as well? Hang in there, everyone.
posted by Bella Donna at 1:34 PM on November 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
Tremendously minor, but I go to sleep at midnight, exhausted, every night, and then wake up at 4.30 in the morning, like bloody clockwork. Captains of industry might do alright on this regime but I Do Not.
posted by threetwentytwo at 1:42 PM on November 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by threetwentytwo at 1:42 PM on November 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
We're doing an easy Turkey day this year. Vegan sides from whole foods and turkey drumsticks for those who want them. There are just 3 of us, all adults. Right now I'm conflicted. I have a Jekyll/Hyde husband due to illness and I want a divorce. But he's been very Dr. Jekyll lately. Sigh...
posted by KleenexMakesaVeryGoodHat at 1:46 PM on November 14, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by KleenexMakesaVeryGoodHat at 1:46 PM on November 14, 2018 [3 favorites]
So I’m in civic center today, got to knock out some doctors appts before I play fallout. As I’m traveling up the escalator to civic center plaza from civic center BART a rough looking man traveling down the stairs loudly declares:
“Its my birthday- time to celebrate with some Xanax!” As he pops a pill in his mouth. He then winks at me and says “I look good for 50 don’t I?”.
🎶oh the magical places you’ll go on BART🎶
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 1:58 PM on November 14, 2018 [12 favorites]
“Its my birthday- time to celebrate with some Xanax!” As he pops a pill in his mouth. He then winks at me and says “I look good for 50 don’t I?”.
🎶oh the magical places you’ll go on BART🎶
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 1:58 PM on November 14, 2018 [12 favorites]
oh and F the holidays. I am taking a year off of celebrating.
(at least, I want to. I'm not sure my family will acquiesce)
posted by Fig at 2:52 PM on November 14
DON'T power through. If you can't take the year off, pull out whatever chips you have to scale back as much as you can. I had to fake it last year after my mom died and it sucked Equus africanus asinus AND was horror show to boot. So much so that spouse acquiesced to dropping out of Thanksgiving AND Christmas this year and admits that he should not have asked me to power through.
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 2:04 PM on November 14, 2018 [3 favorites]
(at least, I want to. I'm not sure my family will acquiesce)
posted by Fig at 2:52 PM on November 14
DON'T power through. If you can't take the year off, pull out whatever chips you have to scale back as much as you can. I had to fake it last year after my mom died and it sucked Equus africanus asinus AND was horror show to boot. So much so that spouse acquiesced to dropping out of Thanksgiving AND Christmas this year and admits that he should not have asked me to power through.
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 2:04 PM on November 14, 2018 [3 favorites]
I’m on my way to my first therapy appointment!
(I’m considering the last time I went 4 years ago to be null and void cuz it was crap and she didn’t help me and then basically kicked me out and said I didn’t need her. So JOKES ON HER! I’m a fucking mess!!)
Whew. So yeah. Gonna try to gain some coping skills, other than the drinking, to deal with my family so I don’t break down and “ruin everything.” Even though it was apparently all ruined 40 years ago and we’ve all just been pretending to be ok!
posted by greermahoney at 2:14 PM on November 14, 2018 [15 favorites]
(I’m considering the last time I went 4 years ago to be null and void cuz it was crap and she didn’t help me and then basically kicked me out and said I didn’t need her. So JOKES ON HER! I’m a fucking mess!!)
Whew. So yeah. Gonna try to gain some coping skills, other than the drinking, to deal with my family so I don’t break down and “ruin everything.” Even though it was apparently all ruined 40 years ago and we’ve all just been pretending to be ok!
posted by greermahoney at 2:14 PM on November 14, 2018 [15 favorites]
God that video from the original post is just a perfect encapsulation of today.
posted by JDHarper at 2:17 PM on November 14, 2018
posted by JDHarper at 2:17 PM on November 14, 2018
greermahoney today is the first anniversary of a similar first therapy session for me. it's been so good i consider that totally fortuitous. hope it goes as well as it possibly can.
posted by wellred at 2:19 PM on November 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by wellred at 2:19 PM on November 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
Day off and I clean
And luxuriate in the DVD rental late fee I shall incur for disc two of 'The Americans'. Last season. Never trust anyone watching 'Rififi' in public. (Training manual: 'The Hotel in Operations', Studies in intelligence: Central Intelligence Agency.)
Framing up this.
posted by clavdivs at 2:20 PM on November 14, 2018 [1 favorite]
And luxuriate in the DVD rental late fee I shall incur for disc two of 'The Americans'. Last season. Never trust anyone watching 'Rififi' in public. (Training manual: 'The Hotel in Operations', Studies in intelligence: Central Intelligence Agency.)
Framing up this.
posted by clavdivs at 2:20 PM on November 14, 2018 [1 favorite]
Other thoughts:
It does feel like the third Monday in a row. Development close is Friday, my team's senior developer is beyond stressed, another developer is on vacation until after Thanksgiving, a third developer applied the incorrect code line for a hot fix (but agreed he deserved to be hit with anything I wanted to launch at his head - and I really, really wanted to throw things at him), the bugs I reported will not be fixed until AFTER dev close, and both the product owner (who is a gem and I want to keep him forever) and I are losing our damn minds as we try to heard/coax/threaten/beg various teams into fixing shit that affects our product but is not in our realm of responsibility.
The only win right now is that we dropped out of any and all BIG FAMILY Thanksgivings. We will be smoking a chicken (although I am trying to upgrade it to a duck), making Stovetop stuffing, rice pilaf (a specific request from boy theBRKP) and cranberry sauce and going NOWHERE and hosting NO ONE.
Except my dad. Because I'm not a total asshole.
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 2:20 PM on November 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
It does feel like the third Monday in a row. Development close is Friday, my team's senior developer is beyond stressed, another developer is on vacation until after Thanksgiving, a third developer applied the incorrect code line for a hot fix (but agreed he deserved to be hit with anything I wanted to launch at his head - and I really, really wanted to throw things at him), the bugs I reported will not be fixed until AFTER dev close, and both the product owner (who is a gem and I want to keep him forever) and I are losing our damn minds as we try to heard/coax/threaten/beg various teams into fixing shit that affects our product but is not in our realm of responsibility.
The only win right now is that we dropped out of any and all BIG FAMILY Thanksgivings. We will be smoking a chicken (although I am trying to upgrade it to a duck), making Stovetop stuffing, rice pilaf (a specific request from boy theBRKP) and cranberry sauce and going NOWHERE and hosting NO ONE.
Except my dad. Because I'm not a total asshole.
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 2:20 PM on November 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
Decided that for the first time ever this year we will be ordering our Thanksgiving meal instead of cooking. My mom’s memory issues now prevent her from cooking even the most familiar of recipes. The last two years of foodie holidays have been so incredibly stressful as she and my dad were both pretending that it wasn’t happening. So I’m simultaneously relieved and a bit sad. Mostly relieved.
posted by bookmammal at 2:32 PM on November 14, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by bookmammal at 2:32 PM on November 14, 2018 [4 favorites]
I'm scheduled for divorce mediation three days before Christmas! HO HO HO. I am in the process of converting my stbx's clothes closet into a lovely linen closet. I have never had a linen closet ever! It involves lots of spackle and paint, very satisfyingly symbolic and cathartic.
Also one of my best friends told me she sent me a package but not to open until December 1, so I guessed that it was an Advent calendar. That is until the ginormous cardboard box landed on my doorstep. Thatsa big Advent calendar if so. Fun to have something to look forward to.
Wordshore, you look very handsome! Melismata, hugs.
posted by johannsebastianbachpuppet at 2:34 PM on November 14, 2018 [6 favorites]
Also one of my best friends told me she sent me a package but not to open until December 1, so I guessed that it was an Advent calendar. That is until the ginormous cardboard box landed on my doorstep. Thatsa big Advent calendar if so. Fun to have something to look forward to.
Wordshore, you look very handsome! Melismata, hugs.
posted by johannsebastianbachpuppet at 2:34 PM on November 14, 2018 [6 favorites]
...aaaaand on the other hand, I just saw two high-school students briefly kissing through my window at work. The girl happened to catch my eye as she looked in my direction and pushed the boy away and ran off smiling. The boy looked over at me and I smiled and waved. He waved back and grinned.
Very sweet. Something something bloom of something youth.
posted by KleenexMakesaVeryGoodHat at 2:48 PM on November 14, 2018 [14 favorites]
Very sweet. Something something bloom of something youth.
posted by KleenexMakesaVeryGoodHat at 2:48 PM on November 14, 2018 [14 favorites]
Spent the day working from home, which is usually a mistake for me. WEEEEEELL, the next-door neighbors (we're in attached rowhomes, so we share a remarkably thin wall) are doing a ton of renovation right now and they were jackhammering ALL DAY and I found myself wondering why I felt like crap in the afternoon and I realized I hadn't had any coffee all day, so yeah, I'm not at my best.
But I did get to cuddle our sweet kitty today.
posted by duffell at 3:07 PM on November 14, 2018 [1 favorite]
But I did get to cuddle our sweet kitty today.
posted by duffell at 3:07 PM on November 14, 2018 [1 favorite]
More weird symptoms from my reliably weird body; neck x-ray shows arthritis. Referred to neurology, with the first available appointment in April. On the cancellation list, though that hasn't panned out w/ any department in the decade+ with this health care system. Cranky, tired, and tiresome is a lousy combo plate.
posted by Iris Gambol at 3:35 PM on November 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by Iris Gambol at 3:35 PM on November 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
Thanks to this FPP I've started pondering the holidays. I'm sending out my usual offer to host quiet low-key Thanksgiving and/or Christmas and/or New Year's Eve get togethers for a small number* of my fellow PDX-located orphans. Some good homemade food, convivial beverages, listening to a little music or watching movies**, avoid talking politics, that sort of thing. Feel free to MeMail me.
* Due to a modest-sized apartment and a paucity of public parking (though a recent street upgrade has helped that a little), the logistics of a large dinner party or meetup are beyond my capacity.
** And of course at Christmas there will probably be the JHarris-led MST3K streaming marathon!
posted by Greg_Ace at 4:07 PM on November 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
* Due to a modest-sized apartment and a paucity of public parking (though a recent street upgrade has helped that a little), the logistics of a large dinner party or meetup are beyond my capacity.
** And of course at Christmas there will probably be the JHarris-led MST3K streaming marathon!
posted by Greg_Ace at 4:07 PM on November 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
I finally got around to seeing First Man at the second-run place down the street today. I was reading up on IMDb afterward and discovered that Lucy Stafford, the actress who plays the Armstrongs' doomed daughter Karen, is still a few weeks shy of her fourth birthday.
The front page capsule bio (as usual) lists date and place of birth and what movies/TV shows the performer is best known for. Usually the remaining line or two in these capsule bios is clearly written by a publicist and often talks about so-and-so being one of the most sought-after and versatile performers working today or whatever. Lucy's charmingly reads, "Lucy enjoys wearing pink, making music, drawing, and playing with her three brothers." I enjoyed that.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 5:29 PM on November 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
The front page capsule bio (as usual) lists date and place of birth and what movies/TV shows the performer is best known for. Usually the remaining line or two in these capsule bios is clearly written by a publicist and often talks about so-and-so being one of the most sought-after and versatile performers working today or whatever. Lucy's charmingly reads, "Lucy enjoys wearing pink, making music, drawing, and playing with her three brothers." I enjoyed that.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 5:29 PM on November 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
It's more of an annoyance than anything, but I went from "dry air congestion" in the morning to "nope definitely a cold" by the evening and this is the third time in two months that I've been some sort of sick and I'm just... tired of it. I'm tired of it. The first instance gave me a fever and a cough that lasted nearly a month and now I can hardly brush my teeth and breathe at the same time. I hardly got sick last year so law of averages caught up, I guess! /s
Anyway. I'm in the midst of my trial month for YNAB after seeing it recommended so often on the green and I'm really enjoying it so far (is that weird?). I get paid once a month which has made it really difficult this past year (since moving) to save anything at the end of the month. I have savings still, but they're not growing, and it's frustrating to be paycheck-to-paycheck when it's literally my fault for buying too many Wants without really realizing the amount of money I actually have. The current app I'm using to track finances isn't helping with this, apparently, but I'm hoping YNAB will instead.
In best news, brand new mattress is like a fluffy cloud and well worth the adult $$ I threw at it.
posted by lesser weasel at 5:29 PM on November 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
Anyway. I'm in the midst of my trial month for YNAB after seeing it recommended so often on the green and I'm really enjoying it so far (is that weird?). I get paid once a month which has made it really difficult this past year (since moving) to save anything at the end of the month. I have savings still, but they're not growing, and it's frustrating to be paycheck-to-paycheck when it's literally my fault for buying too many Wants without really realizing the amount of money I actually have. The current app I'm using to track finances isn't helping with this, apparently, but I'm hoping YNAB will instead.
In best news, brand new mattress is like a fluffy cloud and well worth the adult $$ I threw at it.
posted by lesser weasel at 5:29 PM on November 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
We will be smoking a chicken
How do you keep it lit?
I'll show myself out
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 5:32 PM on November 14, 2018 [9 favorites]
How do you keep it lit?
I'll show myself out
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 5:32 PM on November 14, 2018 [9 favorites]
I’m parked out in the ER because my wife is having the gut wrenching pain she has occasionally. They’re going to rule out appendicitis through a CT scan after we’ve sat here for
hours, pump her full of pain meds, and tell us to follow up with her GI doc. He’s going to scratch his ass, up her bile salts stoppers, and then they’re going to have to up her psych meds in compensation. This is BS.
I am full on in denial about the holidays because I’m too busy freaking out about my field’s regional conference, which is always the weekend before thanksgiving. But if I can get to Saturday I get to spend a couple days in the mountains with my friends in return for not falling on my face during a 20 minute presentation. Good deal.
posted by joycehealy at 5:38 PM on November 14, 2018 [1 favorite]
hours, pump her full of pain meds, and tell us to follow up with her GI doc. He’s going to scratch his ass, up her bile salts stoppers, and then they’re going to have to up her psych meds in compensation. This is BS.
I am full on in denial about the holidays because I’m too busy freaking out about my field’s regional conference, which is always the weekend before thanksgiving. But if I can get to Saturday I get to spend a couple days in the mountains with my friends in return for not falling on my face during a 20 minute presentation. Good deal.
posted by joycehealy at 5:38 PM on November 14, 2018 [1 favorite]
Also...I half fell on Monday (stepped off a couch onto the boot I had removed in order to stand on said couch, caught myself after some furniture based tumbling) and then in a super brilliant move, got my flu shot yesterday. Today I realize I Am Bruised, if grateful to have not hit the floor and broken my arm upon which I would have absolutely landed.
posted by wellred at 5:40 PM on November 14, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by wellred at 5:40 PM on November 14, 2018 [3 favorites]
I learned today fresh cranberries are an excellent addition to meat stews. They add a subtle tartness that gets lost in there and maybe a little warm color. I made a light pork chili Colorado, with garlic, onion, organic celery, red cabbage, fresh basil, organic marinara, chardonnay, seasoning salt, tabasco, California chili powder, lemon, lean pork stew meat from the Vallarta Market. I also made organic long grain brown rice to go under this ragu. It was so good! I resisted making rice pudding, no, none 'o that. Fall makes me hungry, no, actually my brain does this in collusion with billions of gut bacteria, who play me like a soap opera that centers on mealtimes. Anyway, it is nice to have muscles and feel them, walk and have no animosity toward it, only joy, and no shortness of breath, or tiredness. I walk on dirt whenever I can to remember my desert hikes, and to honor those who walk the deserts to find refuge here. Wednesday, a day by any other name would smell as sweet, depending on where you are.
posted by Oyéah at 6:30 PM on November 14, 2018 [5 favorites]
posted by Oyéah at 6:30 PM on November 14, 2018 [5 favorites]
Thank you, wellred. It seemed to go well, and she made a snarky observation about my family that made me laugh, so +1 for therapy.
posted by greermahoney at 6:45 PM on November 14, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by greermahoney at 6:45 PM on November 14, 2018 [4 favorites]
I am going down to the 'burbs to have Thanksgiving with a friend, and when I told the PITA daughter that she was invited too, she said "YAY" and I'm not sure I recognize her anymore but I like the alien who has occupied her shell.
posted by drlith at 6:48 PM on November 14, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by drlith at 6:48 PM on November 14, 2018 [4 favorites]
I needed this thread today, thanks, everyone, and many hugs (or preferred expressions of support) for everyone who's struggling.
Day job and freelance are both dumping piles of work on me (although at least, unlike uncleozzy, I don't have a toddler into the bargain), and it all has to be done by next Tuesday when I'm going to Germany for a week with my mom. Knock wood.
As I got geared up for quitting my job in the spring, a close colleague up and said she's quitting at the end of January, good grief. Now I feel doubly guilty, but... .
My husband has managed to have a sore eye, a pain in the neck (literally, that is), and a wrenched knee all in the space of three days or so, sequentially, so yesterday we said the hell with it and ordered large quantities of Indian takeout and did samosa therapy.
No Thanksgiving here, but boy am I looking forward to the New Year's break and not doing anything for a couple of days....
posted by huimangm at 7:19 PM on November 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
Day job and freelance are both dumping piles of work on me (although at least, unlike uncleozzy, I don't have a toddler into the bargain), and it all has to be done by next Tuesday when I'm going to Germany for a week with my mom. Knock wood.
As I got geared up for quitting my job in the spring, a close colleague up and said she's quitting at the end of January, good grief. Now I feel doubly guilty, but... .
My husband has managed to have a sore eye, a pain in the neck (literally, that is), and a wrenched knee all in the space of three days or so, sequentially, so yesterday we said the hell with it and ordered large quantities of Indian takeout and did samosa therapy.
No Thanksgiving here, but boy am I looking forward to the New Year's break and not doing anything for a couple of days....
posted by huimangm at 7:19 PM on November 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
Oh, and Wordshore, I thought you meant "catalogue male model" ironically, but no. You look dazzling!
posted by huimangm at 7:20 PM on November 14, 2018
posted by huimangm at 7:20 PM on November 14, 2018
So the good news is that at the moment I'm getting an A in my computer science class, and it's interesting and reasonably fun. The bad news is that this is really the last computer science class that it makes sense for me to take. And that's making me reflect on the fact that I'm bored to tears at my job, and I'm pretty bummed that next semester I'm not going to have something interesting and challenging to distract me from my mind-numbing job. I'm not sure what to do with my newfound knowledge that I kind of hate my job. I don't think there's an obvious career transition for me to make, and I don't think there's any chance that my job is going to get less boring. So that sucks. Current plan is to try to come up with some work-related project I can do next semester that will use some of the skills that I learned in my CS classes. We'll see.
I have also been having entrail-related difficulties, but they seem to be a bit better today, knock wood.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 7:45 PM on November 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
I have also been having entrail-related difficulties, but they seem to be a bit better today, knock wood.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 7:45 PM on November 14, 2018 [2 favorites]
I don't think I've shared this, here; I'm losing my left big toenail. A heavy wooden door that was propped somewhere dumb (by yours truly) fell on it (knocked over by yours truly). It's been very uncomfortable and I'm too dumb to figure out how to work in time to dress the bandage before I go to work.
I'm lucky the toe's all the door fell on, or I'd be laid up with a broken leg or something. Though I feel like a broken leg might have finally broken whatever curse has befallen my wife and me since we moved into this stupid condo. As it is...
Just one year, one fucking year without something bad happening to us is all I ask.
I'm right in the same boat as COD. We've had things go right, too, my wife just got hired on somewhere pretty nice, but she was unemployed for five months at the beginning of the year and has been contracting for a while and we've had constant insurance troubles because of it and unrelated car problems constantly, like the new car has just had its tire pressure sensor come on for no reason? The tire pressure all seemed fine? So I have to deal with that now. Just one quiet, uncomplicated year. Please. All I want.
posted by Caduceus at 7:47 PM on November 14, 2018 [1 favorite]
I'm lucky the toe's all the door fell on, or I'd be laid up with a broken leg or something. Though I feel like a broken leg might have finally broken whatever curse has befallen my wife and me since we moved into this stupid condo. As it is...
Just one year, one fucking year without something bad happening to us is all I ask.
I'm right in the same boat as COD. We've had things go right, too, my wife just got hired on somewhere pretty nice, but she was unemployed for five months at the beginning of the year and has been contracting for a while and we've had constant insurance troubles because of it and unrelated car problems constantly, like the new car has just had its tire pressure sensor come on for no reason? The tire pressure all seemed fine? So I have to deal with that now. Just one quiet, uncomplicated year. Please. All I want.
posted by Caduceus at 7:47 PM on November 14, 2018 [1 favorite]
Been working too hard for too long and I'm... Just. So. Fucking. Tired. A lot of people depend on me, but I don't know how much more I have in the tank. I like the holidays in theory, but they're a lot of extra work, and inconvenient, too. Meanwhile, I'm the person everyone else looks to for emotional support. Emotional support isn't what I'm looking for from others - that's not where my personal needs aren't being met. But I just don't know that I can be everything for everyone when it's all I can do to fucking get myself through the day. Fuck the holidays.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 7:47 PM on November 14, 2018 [5 favorites]
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 7:47 PM on November 14, 2018 [5 favorites]
I just had something kind of cool happen. I got an email from somebody experiencing the exact same problem with a Dodge Durango that I asked about in Ask Mefi back in 2009. I eventually solved the problem so I was able to email back and help him out.
posted by COD at 7:58 PM on November 14, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by COD at 7:58 PM on November 14, 2018 [4 favorites]
this imgur post sums up this week for a lot of us I think.
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 8:17 PM on November 14, 2018 [12 favorites]
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 8:17 PM on November 14, 2018 [12 favorites]
I keep having hot flushes and I don't like it. I was joking about them just a year ago. This is NOT FUNNY.
Also, I haven't had a stupid fucking inhaley thing since Friday. As soon as I speak its name or even think of it I long for one and as I'm never having one again it makes me sad and then I feel angry because I'm sad about a stupid thing. Fucking Wednesdays.
posted by h00py at 8:19 PM on November 14, 2018 [5 favorites]
Also, I haven't had a stupid fucking inhaley thing since Friday. As soon as I speak its name or even think of it I long for one and as I'm never having one again it makes me sad and then I feel angry because I'm sad about a stupid thing. Fucking Wednesdays.
posted by h00py at 8:19 PM on November 14, 2018 [5 favorites]
(I mean, it's Thursday now, but I felt exactly the same way yesterday).
posted by h00py at 8:24 PM on November 14, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by h00py at 8:24 PM on November 14, 2018 [4 favorites]
I have a terrifying and horrible pile of essays to mark but I keep finding plagiarism and it is sapping my will to live. So instead I'm stress eating and reading Metafilter. Oh God.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 9:26 PM on November 14, 2018 [7 favorites]
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 9:26 PM on November 14, 2018 [7 favorites]
🎵 Hang on, h00py, h00py hang on! 🎶
The first two weeks are the worst because everyone around you becomes an incredibly annoying asshole who won't stop being annoying. For some reason, everyone settles down after that and becomes tolerable. The longer you go, the less irritating they are.
Seriously, that's awesome. Sending good vibes to the antipodes.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 9:26 PM on November 14, 2018 [4 favorites]
The first two weeks are the worst because everyone around you becomes an incredibly annoying asshole who won't stop being annoying. For some reason, everyone settles down after that and becomes tolerable. The longer you go, the less irritating they are.
Seriously, that's awesome. Sending good vibes to the antipodes.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 9:26 PM on November 14, 2018 [4 favorites]
Perhaps this is more the realm of the fucking fuck thread than this Wednesday thread but my Wednesday was seriously unusually crappy (it's now early hours Thursday am here).
I slept badly on Tuesday night and managed to twist the knee that's been troubling me while I was tossing, which got things off to a bad start. Work has been busy and stressful lately and yesterday was no exception, plus someone in another division decided to be very personally and specifically rude and hostile to me about a policy decision a team I'm on has had to make for legal compliance reasons, which did not help at all with my crappy day.
And then my grandma died last night. This was expected, and a relief for everyone given how terrible her quality of life has been for the last few years, but she was also the adult who came closest to showing me unconditional love as a child and I'm very sad that she's gone and that she had to suffer so much and lose so much of herself in the course of going.
Some small redemption in this tragic arc: today I get to meet my sister's new puppy (puppy tax to follow when I'm not on mobile; spoilers: he looks like a velvety house elf). Also when the crappy thing happened in work yesterday I was really surprised and touched by how many people came over to check if I was okay and commiserate about the guy who chewed me out being unreasonable. There was a time a few years ago when I didn't feel like I had that strong a Team Me at work and it was a nice reminder of how much more connected I've been to other people and teams this year.
And my bad knee is feeling a lot better than it did last night, which is reassuring given that I need to drive 300 miles on it in a few hours (hello cruise control my old friend...).
posted by terretu at 9:35 PM on November 14, 2018 [9 favorites]
I slept badly on Tuesday night and managed to twist the knee that's been troubling me while I was tossing, which got things off to a bad start. Work has been busy and stressful lately and yesterday was no exception, plus someone in another division decided to be very personally and specifically rude and hostile to me about a policy decision a team I'm on has had to make for legal compliance reasons, which did not help at all with my crappy day.
And then my grandma died last night. This was expected, and a relief for everyone given how terrible her quality of life has been for the last few years, but she was also the adult who came closest to showing me unconditional love as a child and I'm very sad that she's gone and that she had to suffer so much and lose so much of herself in the course of going.
Some small redemption in this tragic arc: today I get to meet my sister's new puppy (puppy tax to follow when I'm not on mobile; spoilers: he looks like a velvety house elf). Also when the crappy thing happened in work yesterday I was really surprised and touched by how many people came over to check if I was okay and commiserate about the guy who chewed me out being unreasonable. There was a time a few years ago when I didn't feel like I had that strong a Team Me at work and it was a nice reminder of how much more connected I've been to other people and teams this year.
And my bad knee is feeling a lot better than it did last night, which is reassuring given that I need to drive 300 miles on it in a few hours (hello cruise control my old friend...).
posted by terretu at 9:35 PM on November 14, 2018 [9 favorites]
(ok I caught up with the rest of the Wednesday thread after posting and actually I'm bang on theme)
posted by terretu at 9:45 PM on November 14, 2018 [5 favorites]
posted by terretu at 9:45 PM on November 14, 2018 [5 favorites]
Going back to school has been a godsend for me. It’s a socially acceptable form of withdrawal from all family, work, and societal obligations. All of the following are literally happening to me right now:
Your brother and sister in law who are going through a divorce want to *both* come here for Thanksgiving with their three kids? “Sure, honey, but I have to study, so I’ll just go to the library. Sorry I can’t hang out and help you guys cook.”
That house we’ve been dreaming of moving into down the street went on the market? “Honey, I can’t devote any time to a home purchase because I have to study. I think this is just a bad time for something like this. But if your heart’s set on it and you want to do all the work to make it happen, then go for it. I’ll be upstairs studying.”
I need to be here to let the movers in? “Sorry honey, big paper to write, I’ll just go to the cafe and you can give them the key.”
The yard needs mowing/house needs painting/wiring fixed before putting the house on the market? “Sorry honey, gotta do this oral presentation. You might need to hire someone. You know, if this is getting too complicated for you, you can always back out.”
Your parents want to come for Christmas on the same day we move in to the new house? “Shoot, I’m going to be studying hard for finals. I hope it doesn’t seem like I’m ignoring them. You remember I won’t be able to help with the move or Christmas shopping or anything, right?”
You want me to take on this crazy project at work that makes no sense without paying me for it? “Your idea makes no coherent sense and besides I’m not in a position to work for free. Gotta go, late for class...”
You kids won’t eat the perfectly healthy meal I made? “Well, this is what there is. When you’re done, clear your plates, I’ll be upstairs studying.”
Bonus is that I really like the subject matter and am enjoying being in a intellectually stimulating environment. But after years of not taking care of myself in order to cater to everyone else’s need to create irrational and immediate complications in my life, I’m enjoying the hell out of having an excuse to opt out. I have no more fucks left and it is perfectly acceptable to me if what I have in 2 years is a divorce, no job, and a master’s degree.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 10:47 PM on November 14, 2018 [11 favorites]
Your brother and sister in law who are going through a divorce want to *both* come here for Thanksgiving with their three kids? “Sure, honey, but I have to study, so I’ll just go to the library. Sorry I can’t hang out and help you guys cook.”
That house we’ve been dreaming of moving into down the street went on the market? “Honey, I can’t devote any time to a home purchase because I have to study. I think this is just a bad time for something like this. But if your heart’s set on it and you want to do all the work to make it happen, then go for it. I’ll be upstairs studying.”
I need to be here to let the movers in? “Sorry honey, big paper to write, I’ll just go to the cafe and you can give them the key.”
The yard needs mowing/house needs painting/wiring fixed before putting the house on the market? “Sorry honey, gotta do this oral presentation. You might need to hire someone. You know, if this is getting too complicated for you, you can always back out.”
Your parents want to come for Christmas on the same day we move in to the new house? “Shoot, I’m going to be studying hard for finals. I hope it doesn’t seem like I’m ignoring them. You remember I won’t be able to help with the move or Christmas shopping or anything, right?”
You want me to take on this crazy project at work that makes no sense without paying me for it? “Your idea makes no coherent sense and besides I’m not in a position to work for free. Gotta go, late for class...”
You kids won’t eat the perfectly healthy meal I made? “Well, this is what there is. When you’re done, clear your plates, I’ll be upstairs studying.”
Bonus is that I really like the subject matter and am enjoying being in a intellectually stimulating environment. But after years of not taking care of myself in order to cater to everyone else’s need to create irrational and immediate complications in my life, I’m enjoying the hell out of having an excuse to opt out. I have no more fucks left and it is perfectly acceptable to me if what I have in 2 years is a divorce, no job, and a master’s degree.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 10:47 PM on November 14, 2018 [11 favorites]
Lest the puppy tax collectors come after me: heeeeere's Sully (seen here in house elf mode, plus an action shot with his current favourite toy, a string of plastic weenies).
He went to the vet for the first time yesterday and received an official diagnosis of Good Boy. I am already calling him my nephew, and if he continues to be a good boy I will consider elevating him to the rank of cardinal-nephew.
I'm also compiling a list of songs to sing to him that feature the word "baby" where you can also replace some of the other lyrics with "dog", e.g. "dog baby, dog baby, give me your hand", "baby dog, my baby dog", etc.
posted by terretu at 11:38 PM on November 14, 2018 [12 favorites]
He went to the vet for the first time yesterday and received an official diagnosis of Good Boy. I am already calling him my nephew, and if he continues to be a good boy I will consider elevating him to the rank of cardinal-nephew.
I'm also compiling a list of songs to sing to him that feature the word "baby" where you can also replace some of the other lyrics with "dog", e.g. "dog baby, dog baby, give me your hand", "baby dog, my baby dog", etc.
posted by terretu at 11:38 PM on November 14, 2018 [12 favorites]
It is now undeniably the Christmas Season here in Ye Olde Englande ... as the John Lewis Christmas Ad has just dropped. If you like Elton John, or piano playing, it could very well appeal.
posted by Wordshore at 12:20 AM on November 15, 2018 [5 favorites]
posted by Wordshore at 12:20 AM on November 15, 2018 [5 favorites]
I'm finished my marking! I found four cases of plagiarism (out of 25). Saints preserve us. I'm elated to be done. For now *weeps softly as she eyes her other teetering piles of essays*
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 1:23 AM on November 15, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 1:23 AM on November 15, 2018 [3 favorites]
I did have one alarming paper where the student had three excellent, scholarly academic sources and then one by a complete and total wingnut conspiracy theorist. I looked up the website she had gotten the "report" from and it looks like it was put together on GeoCities in 1995, so I REALLY have no idea at all why she thought, "Gee, this website looks like it would be a great place to find peer reviewed information!"
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 1:25 AM on November 15, 2018 [4 favorites]
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 1:25 AM on November 15, 2018 [4 favorites]
My Wednesday feel is a vague annoyance that I spent the bulk of my Tuesday morning at the hospital. I had a regular doctor appointment that day to get a referral to an allergy specialist (that's another story), then mentioned I'd had some odd pain and weakness in my right leg since the day before.
The doctor poked and prodded me for a while, got a bit of history, then said "Well, I can't rule out a blood clot, so just to be safe I'm sending you over to the DVT clinic at [the main hospital here]."
So I took two buses and forty minutes and a half-mile walk uphill seriously why are there no bus stops on the actual hospital campus to the A&E department housing the clinic, where I spent four-plus hours being poked and prodded all over again, getting blood drawn for tests, and waiting for results.
The final verdict: all my blood levels were completely normal, there was absolutely no sign of clotting, and I was probably just dehydrated. I went home and downed a liter and a half of water, some electrolytes, and a little ibuprofen, and lo and behold, I was fine by the next morning.
Ugh. There has to be a word for "the weird mix of annoyance and relief upon finding out that you were worried and got tested for basically nothing". Still, better to be safe and get checked out, my boss was remarkably chill about my not coming in until two PM, and it didn't cost me anything. (I am so grateful for the NHS I can't tell you.)
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 1:45 AM on November 15, 2018 [4 favorites]
The doctor poked and prodded me for a while, got a bit of history, then said "Well, I can't rule out a blood clot, so just to be safe I'm sending you over to the DVT clinic at [the main hospital here]."
So I took two buses and forty minutes and a half-mile walk uphill seriously why are there no bus stops on the actual hospital campus to the A&E department housing the clinic, where I spent four-plus hours being poked and prodded all over again, getting blood drawn for tests, and waiting for results.
The final verdict: all my blood levels were completely normal, there was absolutely no sign of clotting, and I was probably just dehydrated. I went home and downed a liter and a half of water, some electrolytes, and a little ibuprofen, and lo and behold, I was fine by the next morning.
Ugh. There has to be a word for "the weird mix of annoyance and relief upon finding out that you were worried and got tested for basically nothing". Still, better to be safe and get checked out, my boss was remarkably chill about my not coming in until two PM, and it didn't cost me anything. (I am so grateful for the NHS I can't tell you.)
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 1:45 AM on November 15, 2018 [4 favorites]
Hang in there folks and hugs to ellieBOA and anyone else who wants 'em.
I am having an ok week. I did have a bit of a crying jab/mad Kermit arms in the bathroom moment earlier this week but I needed to get it out of my system and felt better afterwards.
I learned an important thing about myself this week which is that really prioritising rest and sleep helps calibrate my emotional response to bad things immensely! The emotions have been all over the shop the last few weeks and just taking the time to rest up at home and sleep has really helped me feel more grounded.
posted by Ziggy500 at 3:34 AM on November 15, 2018 [3 favorites]
I am having an ok week. I did have a bit of a crying jab/mad Kermit arms in the bathroom moment earlier this week but I needed to get it out of my system and felt better afterwards.
I learned an important thing about myself this week which is that really prioritising rest and sleep helps calibrate my emotional response to bad things immensely! The emotions have been all over the shop the last few weeks and just taking the time to rest up at home and sleep has really helped me feel more grounded.
posted by Ziggy500 at 3:34 AM on November 15, 2018 [3 favorites]
I picture Wordshore waking up today and POOF, the hair and beard have all come back overnight.
posted by JanetLand at 6:14 AM on November 15, 2018 [9 favorites]
posted by JanetLand at 6:14 AM on November 15, 2018 [9 favorites]
OMG SULLY IS THE CUTEST PUPPY
what a good dog nephew!
posted by Fig at 6:42 AM on November 15, 2018 [2 favorites]
what a good dog nephew!
posted by Fig at 6:42 AM on November 15, 2018 [2 favorites]
My husband finally came to the conclusion I've had for years: that our mutual friend group does not act like they care about us as human beings. We don't get to have feelings about this, though, because we are pressured into the role of the Chill Easy Friends Who Never Ask for Anything, Are Always Cool to Cancel On, and Who Make Space for Other People's Feelings While Asking Nothing for Themselves.
I am so sad and angry for my loyal, sweet partner. He defended them against my discontent for years. Then he realized, in the middle of spending months making a handmade gift for each of them, that none of them had bothered to have a one on one conversation with him in... months? years?
Nobody has done anything objectively wrong; they have much bigger issues (kids, drama, partners, family, more drama), and they get to run their lives however they want. But it isn't working for us.
Time to polish the old friend resume and get out there, I guess. Yay, come hang out with me and dump a fresh load of your very important drama on my head. I am fluent in all the appropriate sounds.
posted by cage and aquarium at 7:18 AM on November 15, 2018 [13 favorites]
I am so sad and angry for my loyal, sweet partner. He defended them against my discontent for years. Then he realized, in the middle of spending months making a handmade gift for each of them, that none of them had bothered to have a one on one conversation with him in... months? years?
Nobody has done anything objectively wrong; they have much bigger issues (kids, drama, partners, family, more drama), and they get to run their lives however they want. But it isn't working for us.
Time to polish the old friend resume and get out there, I guess. Yay, come hang out with me and dump a fresh load of your very important drama on my head. I am fluent in all the appropriate sounds.
posted by cage and aquarium at 7:18 AM on November 15, 2018 [13 favorites]
I made spaghetti Bolognese out of elk last night. It was delicious.
Oh and also I have a blueberry fritter right now.
posted by elsietheeel at 7:34 AM on November 15, 2018 [4 favorites]
Oh and also I have a blueberry fritter right now.
posted by elsietheeel at 7:34 AM on November 15, 2018 [4 favorites]
Blueberry Fritter....that is downright mean. I wouldn't kill for one of those but, I would maim.
posted by Oyéah at 8:25 AM on November 15, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by Oyéah at 8:25 AM on November 15, 2018 [3 favorites]
I laughed at this.
(It was tweeted by @bananafitz. It was apparently produced by instagram user @renaissance__man.)
posted by octobersurprise at 9:13 AM on November 15, 2018 [5 favorites]
(It was tweeted by @bananafitz. It was apparently produced by instagram user @renaissance__man.)
posted by octobersurprise at 9:13 AM on November 15, 2018 [5 favorites]
Hang on h00py!
I'm also having med/prescription related BS but getting a handle on it.
The world's going mad all around me and starting to burn but I'm doing pretty ok. I definitely have been trying to share that "pretty ok" with the people in my life and be encouraging.
Trigger/cw warning: I've learned that two local friends have survived serious self harming attempts recently and I'm so, so glad they're still here. They're both doing better and moving forward and striving.
One of these friends saw me entering my friend's bookstore/cafe just as she was driving by, and she actually stopped and came in to see me specifically, commenting later after we caught up and she was very open with me "I saw you going in there and I knew it had to be a safe space and had to come say hello."
It was her first time there and just minutes before there I was just commending my friends, the owner-operators, at how calming and soothing I found it to be there and how it's been so nice to have a clean, quiet space to socialize in this town that isn't a bar and isn't full of chaos and drama, one that's still very art positive and intentionally holding space for strangeness and weirdos at the same time.
Right now I'm REALLY EXCITED to go camping and hiking with my friend for my b-day in some old growth rain forests for a couple of days. To recap, this is the friend that keeps replying to me saying "I can bring X" and she says "I already have that." and I'm finding it highly amusing on different levels.
Most recent example: Yesterday I was at my other friend's new bookstore and just talking about this negotiation to not bring too much damn camping gear and I'm texting her about fire/stove plans and I say "Well, I also have an isobutane burner and some fuel." and she's just like "Yeah, I'll have three gas stoves because there's one in my emergency bag I need to test." and I just kind of lost it laughing and still have a hard time explaining why this is cracking me up on different levels.
On one level I'm just feeling really honored because no one has ever just taken me camping like this before and specifically told me to stand the fuck down and stop worrying, and that I actually felt like I could stop worrying because we have so much identical camping tech and skills and aesthetics.
However, I was requested and allowed to make some kindling and provide kitchen shelter tarp stuff, which I was already going to do anyway. So I got to put my newly restored hatchet to work and split up some very nice cedar.
I'm also REALLY CHUFFED about the hatchet restoration. This thing was so dull and chewed up it looked like an old rusty rock. And the first three times I tried sharpening it I didn't get it right and kept trying to put a knife edge on it, which doesn't work for axes and hatches. Then I tried again and sat down with a little oil and the same file on my Leatherman and even some steel wool to polish off the faces more... and something clicked and it now has a nearly flawless 35-40 degree ish bevel on it and it can split rounds and splits with a solid whack, and the kindling I made is just beautiful square sticks of remarkably uniform size.
This is all valuable to me and not a humblebrag because I've been generally horrible at chopping wood or kindling. Like, bad enough that when people who know how to do it well see me futzing around they'll be like "Give me that thing before you hurt yourself." and we're not just talking about random man-splaining dude bros, like the last three times it has happened it was bad ass forest punk women giving me well deserved shit about my axe skills and showing me how it's done. Like the last time it happened it was a badass ex coworker and she didn't even put her beer down and was splitting logs one handed with a full sized Fiskar fire axe. (I wasn't even mad, because daaamn.)
I'm starting to suspect it's because I've never had a good axe or hatchet, nor figured out how to properly sharpen one. Because this restored hatchet is splitting smaller knotty Madrona rounds and sticks real easy.
I'm also REALLY looking forward to my now traditional thanksgiving pilgrimage to Seattle this year. This is like the 8th year we've done an open table for our weirdo friends and it's been glorious and home to me every time.
This year, though, we're doing something new and special and instead of me being the only person who stays over in the basement rumpus room. It sounds like it may be at least two if not three of best lady friends and we're just going to mob the house for multiple days, as much as 4-5 days counting myself and one of my really good artist friends, and at least a day with the friend I'm going camping with. This is in addition to my best guy friend and his partner and their kidlet, also all really good friends. Also, said camping friend and neighbor is also a mutual good friend of theirs going back to like 2001 and was there when partnered friends met, was at their eventual wedding 10 years later, and someone I kind of knew back then, too.
There may be actual blanket forts and a movie night, and we sure do have a lot to bitch about and catch up on this year. This is all super validating life goals material for me.
Also, the guy friend is my friend I've known since I was 10, and reading between the lines the progression dialog about our weirdo thanksgiving has been him starting with "I don't know what we're doing this year." followed by his partner following with "No, we're doing the heck out of this year, and everyone can crash here for the whole weekend!" and him going "Oh, errr.. Duh. Of course I'm really excited to see you and I'll try not to be a grumpy old man!" and our reply is just "Duh. Shh, we'll hug you to pieces and you'll love it."
It's just a really big tangled ball of good friends with a lot of shared history and common ground, and it's stuff like this that makes me feel rich when I'm poor.
Hugs to any that want them. I make 'em myself, so there's plenty. ;)
posted by loquacious at 11:52 AM on November 15, 2018 [7 favorites]
I'm also having med/prescription related BS but getting a handle on it.
The world's going mad all around me and starting to burn but I'm doing pretty ok. I definitely have been trying to share that "pretty ok" with the people in my life and be encouraging.
Trigger/cw warning: I've learned that two local friends have survived serious self harming attempts recently and I'm so, so glad they're still here. They're both doing better and moving forward and striving.
One of these friends saw me entering my friend's bookstore/cafe just as she was driving by, and she actually stopped and came in to see me specifically, commenting later after we caught up and she was very open with me "I saw you going in there and I knew it had to be a safe space and had to come say hello."
It was her first time there and just minutes before there I was just commending my friends, the owner-operators, at how calming and soothing I found it to be there and how it's been so nice to have a clean, quiet space to socialize in this town that isn't a bar and isn't full of chaos and drama, one that's still very art positive and intentionally holding space for strangeness and weirdos at the same time.
Right now I'm REALLY EXCITED to go camping and hiking with my friend for my b-day in some old growth rain forests for a couple of days. To recap, this is the friend that keeps replying to me saying "I can bring X" and she says "I already have that." and I'm finding it highly amusing on different levels.
Most recent example: Yesterday I was at my other friend's new bookstore and just talking about this negotiation to not bring too much damn camping gear and I'm texting her about fire/stove plans and I say "Well, I also have an isobutane burner and some fuel." and she's just like "Yeah, I'll have three gas stoves because there's one in my emergency bag I need to test." and I just kind of lost it laughing and still have a hard time explaining why this is cracking me up on different levels.
On one level I'm just feeling really honored because no one has ever just taken me camping like this before and specifically told me to stand the fuck down and stop worrying, and that I actually felt like I could stop worrying because we have so much identical camping tech and skills and aesthetics.
However, I was requested and allowed to make some kindling and provide kitchen shelter tarp stuff, which I was already going to do anyway. So I got to put my newly restored hatchet to work and split up some very nice cedar.
I'm also REALLY CHUFFED about the hatchet restoration. This thing was so dull and chewed up it looked like an old rusty rock. And the first three times I tried sharpening it I didn't get it right and kept trying to put a knife edge on it, which doesn't work for axes and hatches. Then I tried again and sat down with a little oil and the same file on my Leatherman and even some steel wool to polish off the faces more... and something clicked and it now has a nearly flawless 35-40 degree ish bevel on it and it can split rounds and splits with a solid whack, and the kindling I made is just beautiful square sticks of remarkably uniform size.
This is all valuable to me and not a humblebrag because I've been generally horrible at chopping wood or kindling. Like, bad enough that when people who know how to do it well see me futzing around they'll be like "Give me that thing before you hurt yourself." and we're not just talking about random man-splaining dude bros, like the last three times it has happened it was bad ass forest punk women giving me well deserved shit about my axe skills and showing me how it's done. Like the last time it happened it was a badass ex coworker and she didn't even put her beer down and was splitting logs one handed with a full sized Fiskar fire axe. (I wasn't even mad, because daaamn.)
I'm starting to suspect it's because I've never had a good axe or hatchet, nor figured out how to properly sharpen one. Because this restored hatchet is splitting smaller knotty Madrona rounds and sticks real easy.
I'm also REALLY looking forward to my now traditional thanksgiving pilgrimage to Seattle this year. This is like the 8th year we've done an open table for our weirdo friends and it's been glorious and home to me every time.
This year, though, we're doing something new and special and instead of me being the only person who stays over in the basement rumpus room. It sounds like it may be at least two if not three of best lady friends and we're just going to mob the house for multiple days, as much as 4-5 days counting myself and one of my really good artist friends, and at least a day with the friend I'm going camping with. This is in addition to my best guy friend and his partner and their kidlet, also all really good friends. Also, said camping friend and neighbor is also a mutual good friend of theirs going back to like 2001 and was there when partnered friends met, was at their eventual wedding 10 years later, and someone I kind of knew back then, too.
There may be actual blanket forts and a movie night, and we sure do have a lot to bitch about and catch up on this year. This is all super validating life goals material for me.
Also, the guy friend is my friend I've known since I was 10, and reading between the lines the progression dialog about our weirdo thanksgiving has been him starting with "I don't know what we're doing this year." followed by his partner following with "No, we're doing the heck out of this year, and everyone can crash here for the whole weekend!" and him going "Oh, errr.. Duh. Of course I'm really excited to see you and I'll try not to be a grumpy old man!" and our reply is just "Duh. Shh, we'll hug you to pieces and you'll love it."
It's just a really big tangled ball of good friends with a lot of shared history and common ground, and it's stuff like this that makes me feel rich when I'm poor.
Hugs to any that want them. I make 'em myself, so there's plenty. ;)
posted by loquacious at 11:52 AM on November 15, 2018 [7 favorites]
It is Thursday, but yesterday I did spend a lot of time ugly-crying in my office because my parents' dog, Charlie, is being put to sleep on Friday. He is the bestest boy and I can't.
In better times.
posted by chainsofreedom at 12:23 PM on November 15, 2018 [8 favorites]
In better times.
posted by chainsofreedom at 12:23 PM on November 15, 2018 [8 favorites]
It's Thursday now, or, as I like to call it, "Fourth Monday".
Tonight I will attend my 68th 12-step meeting in 11 months. I will have to share with my "family" there that I had something very like a slip[1] the other night, and I'm questioning my current hold on my sobriety.
I have a lot of anxiety building around planned holiday travel. I am hoping to be able to have some open and frank conversations next week, but I'm also absolutely terrified, for unexplainable reasons, that those talks will Not Go Well and I won't really have a place to go to decompress (or, more likely, decompensate).
And, as usual, I'm overspent, financially, emotionally, physically, and intellectually. Just. Done. With no real recovery in sight any time soon.
[1] I didn't engage in bottom line behaviors, and I didn't actually cross any of my hard-set boundaries, but JFC those boundary lines are so thin and so much fun to dance on and the adrenaline is so powerful.
posted by hanov3r at 2:02 PM on November 15, 2018 [4 favorites]
Tonight I will attend my 68th 12-step meeting in 11 months. I will have to share with my "family" there that I had something very like a slip[1] the other night, and I'm questioning my current hold on my sobriety.
I have a lot of anxiety building around planned holiday travel. I am hoping to be able to have some open and frank conversations next week, but I'm also absolutely terrified, for unexplainable reasons, that those talks will Not Go Well and I won't really have a place to go to decompress (or, more likely, decompensate).
And, as usual, I'm overspent, financially, emotionally, physically, and intellectually. Just. Done. With no real recovery in sight any time soon.
[1] I didn't engage in bottom line behaviors, and I didn't actually cross any of my hard-set boundaries, but JFC those boundary lines are so thin and so much fun to dance on and the adrenaline is so powerful.
posted by hanov3r at 2:02 PM on November 15, 2018 [4 favorites]
MetaFilter: a place to go to decompress (or, more likely, decompensate)
We got you, fam
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 2:35 PM on November 15, 2018 [4 favorites]
We got you, fam
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 2:35 PM on November 15, 2018 [4 favorites]
My boss is out of town for the week and so I am the department until then. No pressure!
(Narrator: she was feeling a lot of pressure. Some of it even related to work.)
posted by koucha at 2:49 PM on November 15, 2018 [5 favorites]
(Narrator: she was feeling a lot of pressure. Some of it even related to work.)
posted by koucha at 2:49 PM on November 15, 2018 [5 favorites]
Yesterday at work, I had an intense craving for cake. I was in desperate need of a chocolate truffle bomb. I spent all afternoon thinking about it. Cake was acquired and I ate a big slice.
The cake gave me magic powers, y'all. I come from stoic stock. I'm not good at identifying feelings, much less talking about them. But I ate the cake and then I sat down with the mister and told him that I am sad, and here's why I am sad, and I am going to let myself be sad for a bit, because feeling sad is a very valid reaction to everything that's going on with me right now and I need to sit with that for a bit. And then I ate some more cake.
I am sad because I had surgery in July and I've been unwell ever since. Aside from various post-surgical complications, I experienced a dramatic decline in cognitive functions a couple of months ago. I tried to hide it for the longest time, because stoic, and also because I really didn't want to admit that there were times that I wasn't able to read. I had tests upon tests done, and last month, I started to come to terms with the fact that I have limitations now, that I tire so damn easily, and my brain doesn't work quite as well as it used to, and I was figuring things out. But then no one could figure out what was wrong with me, and my short term disability ran out, so I had to go back to work. My work that involves words and metrics and micromanaged productivity. So now I struggle through my workday and that's all I have energy for (and I've already missed four days for migraines so not even really that). I work, come home and nap, wake up for dinner, go back to bed. I don't energy for my hobbies, my friends, any of the things that make me happy. None of personal identity is tied to my job, so this life of only work is depressing as fuck.
To add injury to insult, I have an appointment with a colorectal surgeon tomorrow because I need some hemorrhoids dealt with because why not add excruciating ass pain to all this? And thanks to a scheduling mixup, I have an appointment with a colorectal surgeon tomorrow and then I have to go back to work for the rest of the day.
So I'm sad. And I'll let myself be sad until I finish the cake and then I'll keep pushing forward, even if my efforts are weak and my progress is slow. There's this profound sense of difference about my life now that I think I need more cake to fully understand. Maybe it's because the mister and I talked seriously for the first time about how maybe I'm too ill to work anymore. I have the most seniority on my team, but very few people actually know me because over the past three years I've been on so many leaves. But, it's like, it gets kind of hard to cope when your doctor is like "yeah, there's something not right, but I'm at a loss, all your tests are normal" and you're thinking that randomly forgetting how to fucking read is not fucking normal.
Definitely time for more cake.
posted by Ruki at 4:45 PM on November 15, 2018 [17 favorites]
The cake gave me magic powers, y'all. I come from stoic stock. I'm not good at identifying feelings, much less talking about them. But I ate the cake and then I sat down with the mister and told him that I am sad, and here's why I am sad, and I am going to let myself be sad for a bit, because feeling sad is a very valid reaction to everything that's going on with me right now and I need to sit with that for a bit. And then I ate some more cake.
I am sad because I had surgery in July and I've been unwell ever since. Aside from various post-surgical complications, I experienced a dramatic decline in cognitive functions a couple of months ago. I tried to hide it for the longest time, because stoic, and also because I really didn't want to admit that there were times that I wasn't able to read. I had tests upon tests done, and last month, I started to come to terms with the fact that I have limitations now, that I tire so damn easily, and my brain doesn't work quite as well as it used to, and I was figuring things out. But then no one could figure out what was wrong with me, and my short term disability ran out, so I had to go back to work. My work that involves words and metrics and micromanaged productivity. So now I struggle through my workday and that's all I have energy for (and I've already missed four days for migraines so not even really that). I work, come home and nap, wake up for dinner, go back to bed. I don't energy for my hobbies, my friends, any of the things that make me happy. None of personal identity is tied to my job, so this life of only work is depressing as fuck.
To add injury to insult, I have an appointment with a colorectal surgeon tomorrow because I need some hemorrhoids dealt with because why not add excruciating ass pain to all this? And thanks to a scheduling mixup, I have an appointment with a colorectal surgeon tomorrow and then I have to go back to work for the rest of the day.
So I'm sad. And I'll let myself be sad until I finish the cake and then I'll keep pushing forward, even if my efforts are weak and my progress is slow. There's this profound sense of difference about my life now that I think I need more cake to fully understand. Maybe it's because the mister and I talked seriously for the first time about how maybe I'm too ill to work anymore. I have the most seniority on my team, but very few people actually know me because over the past three years I've been on so many leaves. But, it's like, it gets kind of hard to cope when your doctor is like "yeah, there's something not right, but I'm at a loss, all your tests are normal" and you're thinking that randomly forgetting how to fucking read is not fucking normal.
Definitely time for more cake.
posted by Ruki at 4:45 PM on November 15, 2018 [17 favorites]
Ruki, I hear you. It’s scary and infuriating. Sending you very gentle good thoughts.
posted by Nancy_LockIsLit_Palmer at 5:56 PM on November 15, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Nancy_LockIsLit_Palmer at 5:56 PM on November 15, 2018 [1 favorite]
I'm in the throes of moving, surrounded by boxes, and for the foreseeable future will be unpacking and doing all the purging and culling I didn't get to do beforehand. I'm going to Oakland. Off High St a few blocks below 580, to be precise. I wonder if any of my new neighbors will be Mefites.
posted by tangerine at 11:29 PM on November 15, 2018 [3 favorites]
posted by tangerine at 11:29 PM on November 15, 2018 [3 favorites]
Caaaaamping!!
I could barely sleep and now I'm bouncing around like it's Christmas and everyone's still asleep. I'm barely mature enough to not text my friend at 6 am with "Are you awake yet!?"
See ya!
posted by loquacious at 7:52 AM on November 16, 2018 [4 favorites]
I could barely sleep and now I'm bouncing around like it's Christmas and everyone's still asleep. I'm barely mature enough to not text my friend at 6 am with "Are you awake yet!?"
See ya!
posted by loquacious at 7:52 AM on November 16, 2018 [4 favorites]
I am paddling my head back up to the surface, I hope. It's been a Fucking Week. I came into the weekend already tired and looking forward to a Saturday of nothing, which did not materialize because, bless them, my spouse dreamed that I had changed my mind on turning down an invitation to an adopted-family extended-family birthday party and told everyone I would be there. Then I helped a friend move out of a shitty fucking situation and into a hopeful one for all of Sunday, which left me aching for the rest of the week from doing a lot of good heavy physical and emotional lifting.
On Monday I publicly told my workplace that it did not deserve to have a diversity puff piece published on it and then did a lot more emotional heavy lifting, including possibly maybe helping a friend publicize the way a university protected a harasser at the expense of her career and others' for nearly a decade. That’s ongoing. Then the heater broke in the middle of a Texas cold snap. Spent Tuesday trying to catch up on my actual paid work—not entirely successfully, but I tried very hard—and then hit my usual on-campus-from-7:45a-to-9p-hell-day, Wednesday, in which I wrangled meetings and a cognitively demanding eight-hour teaching load in between checking my email to find a scary request to chat from a university VP and also a scary request to check in from a grad student who was involved in the diversity puff piece.
Thursday morning, my food-obsessed kitten decided he didn’t care about breakfast for the second day in a row and had to go to the vet, adding an hour and a half of traffic to the day. When I did get into work, the rest of my morning went to meeting with that student and checking in with her, which went more or less well but was also emotionally draining. Then I got to check in with a local MeFite—hi! Probably the best bit of my day—in and out of following up with my idiot kitten, who had eaten a wide variety of non-food objects which were eventually extracted from his stomach, and preparing for a surprise kitten-recovering-from-emergency-bowel-surgery weekend at home. The last time I brought my kitten Janet in for a gut issue, she unexpectedly required being put to sleep for FIP the same day, also after an exploratory surgery, so I can’t get my hindbrain to shut the fuck up about what if he never comes home even though my vets have called and checked in and told me he’s waking up and doing fine like three times since yesterday.
I want to lie with my face on the floor and not move, but I feel like I am letting everyone around me down over and over and over again and I still haven’t done my actual revisions and I’m not doing enough of the work I am theoretically paid to get done and I just want to not do anything ever again. Maybe just sit and cry.
posted by sciatrix at 9:09 AM on November 16, 2018 [7 favorites]
On Monday I publicly told my workplace that it did not deserve to have a diversity puff piece published on it and then did a lot more emotional heavy lifting, including possibly maybe helping a friend publicize the way a university protected a harasser at the expense of her career and others' for nearly a decade. That’s ongoing. Then the heater broke in the middle of a Texas cold snap. Spent Tuesday trying to catch up on my actual paid work—not entirely successfully, but I tried very hard—and then hit my usual on-campus-from-7:45a-to-9p-hell-day, Wednesday, in which I wrangled meetings and a cognitively demanding eight-hour teaching load in between checking my email to find a scary request to chat from a university VP and also a scary request to check in from a grad student who was involved in the diversity puff piece.
Thursday morning, my food-obsessed kitten decided he didn’t care about breakfast for the second day in a row and had to go to the vet, adding an hour and a half of traffic to the day. When I did get into work, the rest of my morning went to meeting with that student and checking in with her, which went more or less well but was also emotionally draining. Then I got to check in with a local MeFite—hi! Probably the best bit of my day—in and out of following up with my idiot kitten, who had eaten a wide variety of non-food objects which were eventually extracted from his stomach, and preparing for a surprise kitten-recovering-from-emergency-bowel-surgery weekend at home. The last time I brought my kitten Janet in for a gut issue, she unexpectedly required being put to sleep for FIP the same day, also after an exploratory surgery, so I can’t get my hindbrain to shut the fuck up about what if he never comes home even though my vets have called and checked in and told me he’s waking up and doing fine like three times since yesterday.
I want to lie with my face on the floor and not move, but I feel like I am letting everyone around me down over and over and over again and I still haven’t done my actual revisions and I’m not doing enough of the work I am theoretically paid to get done and I just want to not do anything ever again. Maybe just sit and cry.
posted by sciatrix at 9:09 AM on November 16, 2018 [7 favorites]
Blueberry Fritter....that is downright mean. I wouldn't kill for one of those but, I would maim.
Not only was it shockingly delicious, but it was also huge. Seriously like the size of my head. I measured it and it was 10 inches across. And 3 inches thick.
So I was a dummy and 1. forgot that I left a hose connected to the faucet on the back of my house and 2. didn't realize how cold it had been AND how that affects living, so now I have a leaking faucet at the back of my house. And until I can get someone to crawl through the access port in my spare room and get under my house to fix the pipe, the water is off at my house.
Luckily I filled both bathtubs with water before we turned the water off, so at least I can flush the toilet. And my parents live around the corner, so I can go take a shower and maybe do laundry if necessary.
Still though. Very annoying. And it was my own fault, so I am trying to get it fixed cheaply and quietly, without involving or informing my landlord. Heh.
Fingers crossed!
posted by elsietheeel at 9:59 AM on November 16, 2018 [4 favorites]
Not only was it shockingly delicious, but it was also huge. Seriously like the size of my head. I measured it and it was 10 inches across. And 3 inches thick.
So I was a dummy and 1. forgot that I left a hose connected to the faucet on the back of my house and 2. didn't realize how cold it had been AND how that affects living, so now I have a leaking faucet at the back of my house. And until I can get someone to crawl through the access port in my spare room and get under my house to fix the pipe, the water is off at my house.
Luckily I filled both bathtubs with water before we turned the water off, so at least I can flush the toilet. And my parents live around the corner, so I can go take a shower and maybe do laundry if necessary.
Still though. Very annoying. And it was my own fault, so I am trying to get it fixed cheaply and quietly, without involving or informing my landlord. Heh.
Fingers crossed!
posted by elsietheeel at 9:59 AM on November 16, 2018 [4 favorites]
A song for your water..."I'll have a blue berry fritter, Christmas, without you..."
posted by Oyéah at 2:11 PM on November 16, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by Oyéah at 2:11 PM on November 16, 2018 [2 favorites]
I'm going to Oakland. Off High St a few blocks below 580, to be precise. I wonder if any of my new neighbors will be Mefites.
Oh! Me, me me! ::waves like Kermit:: We will be near-neighbors.
I can recommend the beer-and-Mexican place right at High St. & MacArthur, and Farmer Joe's grocery at 35th and MacArthur. And the little coffee place right across from the Planet Fitness.
Oh, and I hear that Pyramids on High Street does a good breakfast, although I haven't been yet.
posted by suelac at 2:31 PM on November 16, 2018 [1 favorite]
Oh! Me, me me! ::waves like Kermit:: We will be near-neighbors.
I can recommend the beer-and-Mexican place right at High St. & MacArthur, and Farmer Joe's grocery at 35th and MacArthur. And the little coffee place right across from the Planet Fitness.
Oh, and I hear that Pyramids on High Street does a good breakfast, although I haven't been yet.
posted by suelac at 2:31 PM on November 16, 2018 [1 favorite]
Gosh; it's Friday late evening here already. My week has been unusual to an extreme degree, topped by my solicitor unexpectedly contacting me with (mostly) good news, causing me to rip up long-term plans for next year (which were provisional, anyway). The politics playing on the TV 24 hour news in the background added a surreal edge to the last few days. Anyway, have wound down after my regular Friday 9pm European gritty crime drama, and tomorrow is another day, and the start of another week. And with it, as I've missed a few this week, the first proper Christmas fayre of the year. I'm cautiously optimistic there will be cake, as there has been in significant quantity in the same village hall whenever I've been in before.
Tomorrow will be the start of a run of such rural Christmas events - the calendar adjusts daily as I monitor 18 websites/Facebook pages and pick and choose which are best to attend. The criteria being how easy are they to get to, what's the chances of good cake, do they offer mince pies in the manner I prefer, are there things to do that are not the tombola, who do I know who is going, and what are the locals like (some villages are quite different to others, especially in attitude when you win the main prize in a raffle; there's one I've completely dropped from my calendar now).
So, I'm looking forward to those events, and also looking forward to St Brigid's Day (1st February) as that's always a good day to take stock of things and situations (partially as the days start to get noticeably longer day-on-day then and, sometimes, the temperatures creep up and early flowers break through). That's eleven weeks away though, and a lot can happen in eleven weeks, and it probably will. As I have a hidden and booby-trapped stash of {counts} oh over 40 Christmas puddings now, with eat-by dates of many months away, I'll be okay in even the worst case scenarios.
Hoping MeFites enjoy the run-up to this Christmas in the way that they enjoy best, get out to a few events of their choosing, and take the delights in the foods of the season.
posted by Wordshore at 3:36 PM on November 16, 2018 [4 favorites]
Tomorrow will be the start of a run of such rural Christmas events - the calendar adjusts daily as I monitor 18 websites/Facebook pages and pick and choose which are best to attend. The criteria being how easy are they to get to, what's the chances of good cake, do they offer mince pies in the manner I prefer, are there things to do that are not the tombola, who do I know who is going, and what are the locals like (some villages are quite different to others, especially in attitude when you win the main prize in a raffle; there's one I've completely dropped from my calendar now).
So, I'm looking forward to those events, and also looking forward to St Brigid's Day (1st February) as that's always a good day to take stock of things and situations (partially as the days start to get noticeably longer day-on-day then and, sometimes, the temperatures creep up and early flowers break through). That's eleven weeks away though, and a lot can happen in eleven weeks, and it probably will. As I have a hidden and booby-trapped stash of {counts} oh over 40 Christmas puddings now, with eat-by dates of many months away, I'll be okay in even the worst case scenarios.
Hoping MeFites enjoy the run-up to this Christmas in the way that they enjoy best, get out to a few events of their choosing, and take the delights in the foods of the season.
posted by Wordshore at 3:36 PM on November 16, 2018 [4 favorites]
Oh, y'all. Hugs to all of us.
It was, in fact, not appendicitis, not an obstruction, not twisted guts. I am glad for all of those things, and yet, if it were any of those things, it would be something emergent that could be fixed. She's got painkillers, a referral back to her GI doc, and Prilosec because current best guess is an ulcer. Which would make sense, so we'll see.
A dear friend is fighting off diverticulitis (and she already has kidney failure, she's on the transplant list, this isn't good) so I'm just muttering at the universe and asking it to keep her out of the hospital. She was like "so, we're not making Thanksgiving" and I'm like, DUCK Thanksgiving, how do we help you?
I leave for my conference in 13 hours (wife is practically shooing me out the door, saying she's just going to sleep all weekend anyhow and I need the break, which is true, but...) I'm more or less caught up on grading (angels wept), my chair is temporarily fended off, I'm 3/4 packed, my presentation is decent though one set of maps suck because I didn't have time to reproject them.
This is fine.
posted by joycehealy at 8:12 PM on November 16, 2018 [2 favorites]
It was, in fact, not appendicitis, not an obstruction, not twisted guts. I am glad for all of those things, and yet, if it were any of those things, it would be something emergent that could be fixed. She's got painkillers, a referral back to her GI doc, and Prilosec because current best guess is an ulcer. Which would make sense, so we'll see.
A dear friend is fighting off diverticulitis (and she already has kidney failure, she's on the transplant list, this isn't good) so I'm just muttering at the universe and asking it to keep her out of the hospital. She was like "so, we're not making Thanksgiving" and I'm like, DUCK Thanksgiving, how do we help you?
I leave for my conference in 13 hours (wife is practically shooing me out the door, saying she's just going to sleep all weekend anyhow and I need the break, which is true, but...) I'm more or less caught up on grading (angels wept), my chair is temporarily fended off, I'm 3/4 packed, my presentation is decent though one set of maps suck because I didn't have time to reproject them.
This is fine.
posted by joycehealy at 8:12 PM on November 16, 2018 [2 favorites]
Hugs sciatrix, that ‘stop the world, I want to get off’ feeling is exhausting.
posted by ellieBOA at 10:34 PM on November 16, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by ellieBOA at 10:34 PM on November 16, 2018 [1 favorite]
My kitten is home, wearing an e collar and a modified onesie and stoned out of his little kitten mind on opiates as he burbles enthusiastically around the house. I feel way better, even though all the other stuff is ongoing and even though he has decided that the only comfortable way to sleep is by banging against my face with the e collar until he finds the optimal place to rest it. Worth it.
He ate almost a dozen hair ties and swallowed at least five of them whole, as well as a number of other unfortunate things. The vet techs, bless them, gave us his stomach contents to look at and marvel over--we are impressed he fit any actual food in there along with all of his treasures.
posted by sciatrix at 8:16 AM on November 17, 2018 [9 favorites]
He ate almost a dozen hair ties and swallowed at least five of them whole, as well as a number of other unfortunate things. The vet techs, bless them, gave us his stomach contents to look at and marvel over--we are impressed he fit any actual food in there along with all of his treasures.
posted by sciatrix at 8:16 AM on November 17, 2018 [9 favorites]
Hey now! Maybe my little floor furnace will work right, since I went outside to see if the flue was warm and it wasn't; even where it exits the crawl space. So I gave it a push with my Keene sandal toe and it went in about 4 inches and might have hooked back up like it should, after the roofers took it off this summer. So now the furnace turns on again to keep up with the thermostat's request! I do have a CO monitor which hasn't made a peep, and it is on. Maybe my "so cal winter" will be more automatic. I went out to check the flue, thinking it might be full of leaves or nest, and that open gap was what was screwing up the thermostat sensor.
posted by Oyéah at 8:47 AM on November 17, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by Oyéah at 8:47 AM on November 17, 2018 [2 favorites]
Oh yay sciatrix, Im so glad to hear happy kitten news!
posted by Fig at 3:05 PM on November 17, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by Fig at 3:05 PM on November 17, 2018 [1 favorite]
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I love you, Metafilter.
posted by Melismata at 10:08 AM on November 14, 2018 [25 favorites]