What did the handyman look at? Oh, the handle on the back sliding door that has broken off. Broken. Off. Apparently it wasn’t up to the normal wear and tear that comes from short people using it to open and close a sliding glass door. Hopefully the new handle should be here soon.

I didn’t even bother to tell the front office about the Fridge yet. I have a frost-free freezer. The Fridge? Not so much. There is a sheet of ice covering the back half of the bottom shelf. And anything that gets too close to the back on any shelf freezes solid. Frozen lemon juice tastes terrible, for the record. Bleh. I think I’ll live with this problem until the beginning of the year. It’s been this way for a while.

And today? Today the house phone started acting up. One of the handsets had already freaked out, and the second one is following suit.

Hey! Apartment! I have space heaters, cell phones, an old non-digital phone, and a small college fridge. Oh! And a front door. So…cut it out.

Tuesday, I took the day off. I got an IUI and discovered that I can nap in my car quite effectively. Except for the whole “dreaming that you’re driving” problem. (I dreamed that I was trying to get a stray dog to get into my car. The street was a busy one,m but he just wanted to frisk about. Weird.) It turned out to be very good that I took Tuesday off. Let’s just say that I was in a certain amount of pain and leave it at that.

Wednesday found me wondering what might possibly be giving me hives.

Thursday found me wondering why my rash was hurting and calling the advice nursed.

And today (Friday) I find that I do not have hives…

I have Shingles.

Shingles, for Heaven’s sake. When I can’t take much in the way of painkiller. (Though the Doc I saw tried to offer me some Vicodin. Ew. Can’t take that for two reasons…)

And my vacation starts on Wednesday.

Grumble.

I’m going to give up and go to sleep now. Night all.

Perhaps the fuzzy PJs and a purring cat will help.

But my car is not.

So there we were, minding our own business, driving straight and at a slow pace headed for the freeway on-ramp, when this white Corvette exits the freeway too fast and loses control. We didn’t see that at first. What we saw was the car in front of us do this funny little swerve that we couldn’t figure out. Then there was the one second of “Oh No!” And then…Bam! We managed to get to the side of the road, but now my poor baby car won’t start. (I dunno how fast the guy was going, but he hit us quite hard.)

We’re okay (mostly), just banged up a bit from the seat belts and what not. I can tell, however, that tomorrow will be distinctly un-fun already. Sigh.

sniffle

However…
Wonkiness with pay periods, etc. means that we are actually missing one whole paycheck this month. …and I just figured this out today when he didn’t get paid. *Argh!*
I’ve managed to rework the budget so that we are only $48 short of paying all of our bills (and that was stressful, let me tell you.) and we conveniently have $50 Canadian lying around the house. According to the exchange rates I looked at, it’s pretty close to the right amount. *whew*

Thank heavens for my blogging job. It really made a difference this month.

Yeah. I’m not doing anything or going anywhere this month. Which, of course, means that I’m going to have a bit more time to blog here. Hello silver lining!

My favorite photographic subject seems to be Koshvader’s back.

I’ve been experiencing a great deal of stress and anxiety lately. It’s the usual cocktail of money/job/relationship stuff with a heaping side of can’t-seem-to-get-pregnant. Meh.

All of that is really annoying and makes it difficult to sleep/concentrate/wake up, you know? Plus, with my nervous system, it also means that any tiny little thing makes my cry. For like…two hours if I’m not careful. Things like a balloon popping (which makes me cry all of the time anyway. What is it with me and popping balloons? For some reason the noise just goes right through me. All sorts of fun in social situations, let me tell you.), missing a phone call, or making a mistake. This, in and of itself, is really annoying and stressful.

So, what I want to know is, what do you do to [tag]relieve stress[/tag]? I mean, obviously there’s “have lots of sex” (fun, but hard to work into one’s schedule on a daily basis) and “have a nice cup of tea” (the pause that refreshes, but one must stick to decaf or herbal is one wishes to sleep at night. Have I mentioned that I drink a lot of tea?) What has been working best for me lately is photography. It forces me to try and think creatively. It also forces me to get out of the house, which is not my preference when I’m feeling like this. I’m a hermit at the best of times. An interesting side effect of all of this photography-based travel has been my gut opinion of places. (Sometimes being an HSP can be a bit entertaining. Who knew?) For example, I love this one beach in Pacifica. There’s just something about it that I connect with. But I went to Stinson Beach the other day, and I found it to be not soothing. Easy to walk on, yes. Soothing, no. The parking lot for said beach in the evening? That was soothing. No idea why. *shrug*

Oh. And petting cats is nice too.

What do you lot do to [tag]relax[/tag]?

Nerves. I has them. …And boy howdy.

And then I happened to read the ingredients. I’m not sure why I didn’t do this before, but I never thought that pain-killer would try to poison me.

Right there before “talc” was “[tag]sucralose[/tag].” And Sucralose, boys and girls, is another word for [tag]Splenda[/tag]. Yes, one of the [tag]artificial sweeteners[/tag] that makes me ill. This would explain some of the problems I’ve had when taking [tag]Tylenol 8-hour[/tag] in the past.

This just reinforces my need to read the ingredients in everything I might ingest. Did you know that they put [tag]High Fructose Corn Syrup[/tag] in BREAD? Or [tag]Lactose[/tag] as a filler in vitamins? They’ll even change ingredients without notice. So look out.

Stop trying to poison me, people!

“Andy Fickman is on board to direct what is described as an action thriller, starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and AnnaSophia Robb. The adaptation, written by Matt Lopez, revolves around a pair of paranormal-powered siblings (Ludwig and Robb) who, with the help of a Las Vegas cab driver (Johnson), go on the run from a diabolical group of men who wish to exploit their abilities. Hinds will play the nefarious leader of the pack.”

Argh! Did they even read the book or are they working from the film again? …And “The Rock” is playing the Mr. O’Day character? Who’s playing Uncle Benet? Vin Diesel?

*grumble*