Week in Review: Week 271

Please week, treat me well. Treat us all well.

MONDAY

It was almost nice to go to work today as it was more peaceful and less strenuous than the weekend was. Ha. We asked for a peaceful day and we got it. Thanks, Universe.

TUESDAY

I don’t think I have updated you on my mystery pain – that pain I get in my right side when I’m on my feet too long. After 2 years of asking the dr about it, and the chiropractor asking for an MRI so he can see what the issue is and try and help me, I continue to be denied authorization. Finally the insurance company said they want to see proof that I’ve tried to treat it, unsuccessfully, before they’ll give MRI authorization. So I have to pay co-pays to the dr for 10 laser treatments and THEN they will reconsider. Which is stupid. Lasering is not going to fix an out-of-whack disc. But I have to do it otherwise they’re like NOPE.

So last week was my first lasering. It DID relieve some OTHER back soreness I have all the time (which is unpleasant but not bad enough to do anything about) for about 24 hours. So that was kinda nice. But the only way to know if it’s helping the ACTUAL issue (it’s not) is to stay on my feet for like 2+ hours. And that’s not happening anytime soon.

I go back this afternoon for Session 2. The good news is it’s across the street from KFC so I’ll get a bucket of fried chicken and not have to think about what to have for dinner the rest of the week. What a relief!

Major Accomplishment of the Day: eating melty McDonalds chocolate chip cookies without getting ANY MELTY CHOCOLATE on my white shirt. Score.

I wanted to pay for the guy behind me in line – it’s one of those drive-thrus that has two ordering lanes that merge into one after ordering. The guy in the OTHER lane was slightly ahead of me and by rights should have gone first, but he waved me on ahead of him and waved and smiled. I waved and smiled and pulled into the lane ahead of him. So when I got to the window I told the cashier I wanted to pay for the order of the car (well, landscaping truck) behind me. WaeWaeWae??? He just couldn’t fathom such a thing. Why? What? Are you sure? Do you know him?? What do you want me to tell him?

I feel like people DO this. It’s a THING. I didn’t just make this UP. Someone paid for my Starbucks at a drive-thru last year and it was lovely cuz I’d just had some disturbing news and was actually crying in my car – not like SOBBING – I don’t think she could have known that from being in her car in front of me, but…it was still very appreciated in the moment.

Anyway. Quite an eventful day. Lasering, chocolate-free cookie-eating, paying-it-forward-ing.

WEDNESDAY

Okay, you’ll never believe what I am doing right now…I am writing. Longhand. I’m at the Verizon store because my phone’s internal organs are starting to shut down. It wouldn’t hold a charge, etc., and what time is it when an elephant sits on your fence? Time to get a new fence!

So I’m waiting out in the car for the 10-15 minutes it will take all my stuff to transfer from old phone to new phone. What a cruel shock when I got in the car and realized I have no phone to pass the time with! Fortunately, a pad and pen are allowing me to jot down some notes but…I keep saying things out loud for talk to text and guess what? Nope. Then I start laughing out loud alone here in my car.

Nothing new there.

Anyway, writing is killing my pinky of all things! The finger that seems the least involved with holding a pen and writing, but…

For lunch I had Taco Bell (eating habits have gone downhill since returning to in-person work five weeks ago, more on that later). Anyway, I got a delightful-sounding thing: Colada-Freeze. I thought it would be pineapply or coconutty or tropicalesque. It was more like toothpaste-esque. There will be no do-overs on that item. 

Oh, so, since I went back to in-person work 5 days/a week, my eating habits have been slipping…I stop on my way into work a couple days a week for a bagel and sugary coffee, I grab takeout for dinner on my way home, I have a bag of something saltycrunchy several times a week…and I feel it in my stomach, and in the tightness of my pants and shoes and shirts. Boo. So I think it’s time for another 2-week sugar detox to jump-start me back on the better side of the fence. But that’s MONDAY, ha ha.

I will say, the new phone SO TALENTED in the talk-to-text department! I read my notes into an email and sent them to myself, then copy-pasted into here. And like NO mistakes or weird auto-correct issues. It was a thing of beauty.

THURSDAY

Holding my breath…one more day…can we make it an entire peaceful week??

FRIDAY

WE MADE IT! We asked for an entire peaceful week…and we got it!!! Thank you, Universe!

And THEN, cuz I was feeling so victorious and a little spring-fevery, I asked SWSRN to join me for Cocktails on the Beach! It was nice being outside in the evening; there were people, live music, etc. But a shock when, after having lived in my own private music bubble for so long, I realized All That Other Music Was Still Out There. Isn’t there a way to filter our audio inputs so I no longer have to hear covers of Kokomo??

On the way home I stopped at 7/11 for a coffee  (ps, I was too lazy to walk up to the concession for a cocktail at the beach so I was feeling a little wanty) and was the Only One in a Mask. Was weird. A sign on the door read, “Anyone not double vaccinated required to wear a mask.” I AM double vaccinated, so I was not REQUIRED to mask, but…in that close a space…with the usual 7/11 suspects inside…I was not convinced that everyone not wearing a mask was double vaccinated, so…in a non-me move, I masked. OUTDOORS, I’m over it. 7/11 on a Friday night? I’m erring on the sode of caution.

SATURDAY

An early morning victory: In a bold move, I did NOT change into my Egg Sandwich Eating Shirt to eat an egg sandwich…and yet by some miracle, I managed to NOT Dribble Egg Yolk Down My Front.

The Universe Likes Me! It Really, Really Likes me!!!

Question: I like freshly vacuumed floors. I own a vacuum. I have functioning limbs. WHY do I wait til the floors are at DISGUSTING LEVEL before I vacuum?? The apartment is not that big. Only two rooms are even carpetted. But I will look at the floor in DISGUSTED HORROR for like a MONTH before spending the TEN MINUTES to make it nice again. What is WRONG with me??

PS: I just vacuumed. I’ve been photoshopping a clump of hair and a cheez doodle on the floor out of OOTD pics for weeks. It was time.

SUNDAY

Jumping rope has taken a nosedive. When I was working from home I was jumping 2-3 times a day. It was easy cuz it only takes a minute, the jump rope is right over there (points to living room), no biggie. Now I just barely manage it ONCE a day…a couple times a week…and it’s showing. I’m too stiff and body-tired to do it in the morning before work…and when I get home I’m already tired. There’s no ideal time on workdays.

So I’m trying to think of a supplemental activity that’s as convenient as jumping rope but that will still build leg and heart strength. There’s two teeny tiny steps up from the living room to the rest of the living room. I thought, I’ll jump up onto the bottom step like 20 times a day. Up down up down you get the picture. I saw this last night in a kdrama (so educational, those), as punishment, the swim team guy had to go up a giant steep set of high concrete steps by jumping (both feet together) from one step to another. He had to do this 100 times. That seemed torturous and you could see it was like killing him. But one step? One little step? Come on. How hard could that be? Like skipping, I could like FEEL myself doing it in my mind. This’ll be perfect, I thought.

I walked up to the step. The tiny carpeted step. It’s maybe 3.5″ high. I stood there. And looked at it. And looked at it. And looked at it. And knew. There was NO WAY I could hop up onto that step, not even once.

I laughed. Alone. As I usually do.

Then I “stepped” onto the step 50 times, 25 with left leg leading, 25 with right. Up down up down. It was not fun. But it only took a minute (I do appreciate the minute-long exercises), it really worked my quads and calves and it got my heart working (not as much as rope jumping but). So I think I’ve found my new supplemental exercise. We’ll see if it helps with the rope jumping. But even if not, it’s still something in its own right.

PS, last night I happened upon this…

Ha ha ha ha ha. Go, Betty.

WHAT I’M READING

I READ A BOOK, GUYS! I DID IT! I ACTUALLY READ A BOOK!

Gosh, remember when I used to read like 60 books a year? HA HA HA HA HA.

Anyway. I finally read a book. I’ve been reading it for months. Well, I haven’t been reading it for months. I started it months ago and I pick it up only occasionally. And I finally gave myself some reading time this weekend and finished it. I liked it.

Strange Weather in Tokyo by Hiromi Kawakami. The first 2/3 of the book is very quiet, like you’re thinking nothing is happening…is anything ever going to happen…nothing is happening. But in a good way. Like the way life is. You do a day, you do another day, then another day after that, and then a year has gone by and it was fine, nothing exceptional or significant happened it was just quiet and fine. But now things are different and you didn’t even notice that happening.

But something HAS been happening during all this quiet passing of days. And THAT was the story.

It felt very real. The way things happened. And I like that. It was not particularly “Japanesey,” it just was written by a Japanese writer and translated into English.

4.25/5

(Spoiler Alert: BTS talk below)

WHAT I’M WATCHING. IN HORROR.

WHO DID THIS TO MY LOVELY KIM TAEHYUNG???

I’m sorry, but NO. There’s a stylist out there who should be fired. And shot. Not to be overly dramatic or anything, but…SHOT.

This is like The Perm Mistake we all made in 8th grade.

BTS stylists should know better.

Then this happened…

Please make it stop.

Please.

Please.

ALSO, almost equally cringe-worthy, all the American interviews with BTS going on with the release of their new single, Butter.

They’re just awkward. All of it. The interviewers’ questions are trivial and repetitive; and while BTS members have come a long way with their English, it is still their second language so answers are often awkward. It’s just painful to watch. But the song is getting SO much promotion I can barely turn on social without seeing SOMETHING. Of course, I want them to do well and I hope for more people to know and appreciate them, but…I hope this promotion stage passes quickly. And they give Taehying his hair back.

THE END