serene: mailbox (Default)
serene ([personal profile] serene) wrote2016-05-29 06:29 am

6am Sunday update with (many) parentheses

Up since 4 for no good reason. Enjoying the quiet of a solitary Sunday. These are the times when I want to catch up with my peeps, so I've read your posts (haven't commented much, but I'm listening. Lisa, I love how you notice things about all your kids).

I've been spending a lot of time on SparkPeople lately, working on my food/exercise program (a.k.a. diet, but not for weight-loss, because ew). It's working (i.e., my blood is no longer testing as prediabetic, and I'm reducing my heart meds a little at a time with doctor supervision), so it benefits me to make it as fun as possible, which means a fair bit of online socializing, which is the bulk of my social life and has been for, wow, almost 18 years now (I got online in mid-1998).

Wiscon folks are being chatty on Twitter and it sounds really great, but considering who my friends are, it makes me wonder how things are in the background and how my friends who aren't going any more are feeling today. I want to hug you all.

Work is decent. Without the old boss, things are much calmer in my area, except when I stick my foot in my mouth and cause myself anxiety, but usually, things are good. I'm really good at working. That's something I don't always give myself credit for. I kind of suck at the social end of it, but the customer service part, I rock at, and the paperwork part is my STAR THING.

Mom is still dealing with major major pain issues and there's not much that can be done for a variety of reasons, so we (meaning she, I, James) try to keep her distracted and happy as much as possible. I foresee a time not too long from now when she'll decide it's not worth it any more. I will cope with that as best I can if/when it comes. This paragraph doesn't lend itself to language. There is much unsaid.

I haven't been writing. I'm not sure why. When there's time, I play my game or hang out online, and I just have no desire to write. I don't even really feel bad about it, though I do seem to be happier when I'm producing at least poems. But lately, just can't be arsed.

Enjoying (if that is the right word) Top of the Lake, but I love Elizabeth Moss and the kind of gritty police drama it's shaping up to be (I'm on the second episode), so it is a natural for me.

James is still obsessed with home shows, and that led to his new obsession, our house. It was apparently built by an artist/architect who turns out to be kind of interesting, and the house itself was a marvel when he built it in 1948/9, so James has become Mr. Research Man, constantly finding new bits of information about the guy. If you're awesome at finding out stuff about dead people and want to join the puzzle, let me know and I'll shoot you the guy's name. Since he got a lot of press that included our address, I don't want to just say it here.

The kid finished her first semester of college!! She thinks she got mostly As and a B. Either way, she finished!! It's not something she loves, but she chose to do it, and she finished. Super proud!

Dad and I are still working on teachelectronics.com, and he retired yesterday from his in-person teaching job (he still teaches a bunch of online classes), so he'll have more time for it soon. And I'll have Fridays off starting next week, so we're going to work on it together. If you want to learn college-level electronics online for cheap, let me know and I'll hook you up with some free coupons for his courses.

Hm, what else. Sister is still in jail. Nephew is still lackadaisically looking for work and living off his dad and my mom. I still miss the Bay Area and my peeps there (especially Guy, of course). I'm reading a little, cooking a little, staring into space a lot. My pain and dizziness are bad enough to make me tired and sad, but not any worse than that. I get a lot of joy out of little things, and my entire life feels like it's in a holding pattern while we live this stage of our life as well and as usefully as we know how.

Oh, and Black Twitter is still one of my most favorite things in all the world. And Captain Awkward. And YoIsThisRacist. And my game (Two Dots).

Much love, my lovelies.
redbird: closeup of me drinking tea, in a friend's kitchen (Default)

[personal profile] redbird 2016-05-29 04:11 pm (UTC)(link)
Yay for your kid!
stonebender: (Default)

[personal profile] stonebender 2016-05-29 06:08 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, I am so very proud of the kid. Such a great accomplishment! I feel terrible about Mom, but I know she will work through it on her terms.

Just to reinforce things, you are very good at work and very good at taking care of yourself. In my life you have always been one of the the folks who brings meaningful positiveness (okay maybe not a word but you know what I mean). You rock!

I'm still adjusting to the new meds. One of them is bringing "interesting" changes to my gastrointestinal system. Oh joy! However, they also seem to be making me feel much more like my "strong like bull self".

I have been feeling good. Struggling with not writing myself. In other health news. I went to the dermatologist to have him look at a couple of freckle-like marks that appeared on my forehead and right cheek. Turns out the one on my right cheek was benign and I got it frozen off. The one on my forehead is probably a little cancer. One of the skin cancers that's very easy to treat. The dermatologist keeps telling me 98% cure rate. He biopsied it and I go back to the doctor in a month to follow up.

I love you so very much!
firecat: damiel from wings of desire tasting blood on his fingers. text "i has a flavor!" (Default)

[personal profile] firecat 2016-05-29 09:54 pm (UTC)(link)
Glad to hear from you. Congrats to the kid! Joyce and I are challenging ourselves to write one poem a day for 2 weeks, starting 6/9.
snippy: Lego me holding book (Default)

[personal profile] snippy 2016-05-30 02:13 am (UTC)(link)
I like our rather-third-person interactions in other online places but it's also good to read about your life as directly as this. Thanks for sharing it.
ljgeoff: (Default)

[personal profile] ljgeoff 2016-05-31 01:37 am (UTC)(link)
I love to get updates from you. If she remembers us, please give your mom our love. I can close my eyes and see her watching us all wolf down her wonderful spaghetti. :)

I think that you would fall in love with Luke. He is so understatedly brilliant. He is 15 now, and taller than me!

When you commented on my story, it made me think about our Fogcon. I don't have specific expectations on when this will occur, but it makes me absurdly happy to know that it will.

Love to you!
hobbitbabe: (Default)

[personal profile] hobbitbabe 2016-05-31 05:16 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh hello you! I miss lots of things about my previous lives these days, and interactions with you are among them.

Yay your kid. And your house sounds cool. You comfortable sharing pictures at all?
hitchhiker: image of "don't panic" towel with a rocketship and a 42 (Default)

[personal profile] hitchhiker 2016-06-02 05:50 am (UTC)(link)
ooh, congrats to the kid!