the_rck

Cordelia and her best friend went to a thrift shop yesterday. Scott drove. Cordelia got some clothes, and Scott found a pair of trousers he can wear to work. The other girl didn't buy anything as far as I could tell.

Cordelia's friend stayed all afternoon and well into the evening. Scott took her home around 9:30. I was in the living room with them while they watched The Last Jedi which the other girl hadn't seen. I was in our bedroom while they watched Thor: Ragnarok which the other girl also hadn't seen.

We spent a little time trying to explain the story behind Easter to the other girl who is Muslim. That led to talking about the idea of the Trinity and the theological arguments about the human and/or divine nature of Jesus. She pretty obviously thought the whole thing was ludicrous which... isn't absolutely incorrect.

My official word count for March is 50538 words. About 37K of those are the one Sky High thing. I'm a little afraid that that one may keep growing.

I need to figure out something I can do for Easter dinner. Scott bought a turkey breast, but I ended up cooking it last night because we had company. Scott didn't get the chicken I asked for yesterday because the chicken all, in his words, 'looked nasty.'

I did no beta reading yesterday, so that's my first priority today after I deal with the regular chores. I was hoping for a few hours on my own this afternoon when I could watch library DVDs and beta read with that as my background noise. I think a DVD will work better than an audiobook.

I still have a headache. It's not as bad as yesterday's, but I've also only been up about four hours. Scott thought that maybe the sinus problem was from changing weather. I hope not because that's not a thing I can prevent/avoid.

I managed to find enough brain to watch a movie with Scott and Cordelia last night. It was from the library. Scott and Cordelia made a special trip downtown last night to get it (and left all of my other holds there) because it was something that we all wanted to see. Cordelia thought that last night would be better for watching a movie than tonight will be.

I must write today. I really must. I still haven't found the right was into my Worldbuilding Exchange story. My word count for February was just a little over 19K, only about 500 of them for WBEx. None of those are keepers, either.

I'm moving slowly today. I've got laundry in and food in the pressure cooker. I ought to change our sheets, but I don't know that I'll manage it today.

Scott and Cordelia have been out with some of Cordelia's friends to see Black Panther. I'm not sure how long the movie is, but I expect them home soon. At that point, we'll probably go to the library, and then Scott will do the grocery shopping.

The local schools were closed Friday and will be closed tomorrow as a short break for the kids. They used to have a week long break in February, but the state is trying to standardize the school year, so we get a long weekend in February and a week in late March/early April. At any rate, Cordelia volunteered at the science center on Friday. So far as I know, she'll be home tomorrow.

Scott bought what was meant to be a replacement phone for me. He got it on Ebay. Then we discovered that it wasn't Verizon compatible. The posting said it was, so Scott's started the process to return it for refund. He's now thinking that he'll get a new phone and pass on his old one to me because he realized that what he paid for the used one is very close to how much he still owes on his current phone.

I just want something that will work, but Scott thinks that me having a iPhone is important. As far as I can tell, an iPhone isn't better at any of the things I want to do.

I didn't end up writing much yesterday at all. I'm not sure I will today, either. I'm trying to dredge up more than vague details toward my Worldbuilding Ex fic.

For some reason, in spite of the lack of sleep, I felt really good all day yesterday. I was awake, nothing unexpected hurt, and I wasn't particularly cranky/anxious. I would love to know why because I want to repeat it. The unusual bits-- I spent a couple of hours FTF with a friend the day before. I didn't use my c-PAP the night before. I ate an unpleasantly salty breakfast.

There were unusual bits that would normally have made me feel terrible, too. Having only slept about 5.5 hours is huge. Cordelia had friends over for most of the day so that I felt kind of trapped in my room and was on edge a few times about whether or not I should go out right that moment to remind the girls that there actually was an adult listening.

I suppose it's also possible that I just felt really good in comparison to the prior two days which had been miserable. So hard to tell.

I feel less great today in spite of having gotten more sleep and used my c-PAP.

Last night, I got a strong reminder about why I have to remember to mix in the salt and baking soda when I prepare a sinus wash. I put the packet into the distilled water before heating, and enough mixed that way that I was fine for the first two thirds of things. Then I got a sudden spike of salt. That burned and kept hurting and hurting for almost an hour after. My teeth ached on that side. I rinsed a bit more with plain (and room temperature) distilled water, and that helped a tiny bit. Usually plain water and/or room temperature water hurt, so I take it as a sign that there was a ton of salt left in there.

Cordelia's watching a movie adaptation of War and Peace (the one with Audrey Hepburn as Natasha). I keep catching bits in passing and feeling very unimpressed. The accents are... kind of random. But there's a taking risks while drinking scene that explained to me why that one Russophile guy in the dorm in college (who adored Tolstoy) did the stupid standing on a windowsill on the 4th floor of the dorm then leaning backward and chugging liquor thing repeatedly.

I tried reading the book once and stopped because I realized that all I actually wanted, twenty or so pages in, was for everyone in it to die as fast as possible so that I wouldn't have to spend more time with them. I took that as a huge sign of book/reader mismatch and returned it to the library. The Russophile guy I mentioned above was completely boggled that someone might dislike Pierre, but he and I seldom agreed on what made an enjoyable read, so... ::shrugs::

But watching a three hour movie seems like an alternative to reading the whole book if Cordelia wants more of the story. Maybe Russia in the Napoleonic period feels a lot like some of the YA dystopias she reads?

Scott and Cordelia saw The Last Jedi this afternoon while I stayed home and got a few chores done. They both liked the movie. I can't see it until it's on DVD because of big screen things being a migraine trigger. There is no movie I can conceive of that would be worth a three day migraine in order not to wait a few months or even a couple of years for the DVD.

Cordelia made chocolate chip cookies last night. They look fine, but they don't taste right. The Nestle Tollhouse recipe is pretty solid in terms of tasting consistent if the ingredients stay consistent, so something either didn't go in or went in wrong. The cookies don't taste actively bad, just very disappointing, so I don't think it was something gone rancid. We asked about vanilla and salt, and she was quite certain she added both. Scott bought new all-purpose flour around the 2nd, and I don't think it would have gone off. We checked to be sure that the bin at the front of the cupboard was the all-purpose flour because the containers of bread flour and whole wheat flour actually are old (I'm going to write myself a note to check them on Tuesday, the day the trash goes out).

She did use margarine instead of the butter I had had Scott buy specifically so that she could use it in baking, but we've baked with margarine before without such results. I'm not sure how old the stick margarine was, but I'd have expected actively bad flavor if the stuff had gone off.

My suspicion is that she actually did forget either the salt or the vanilla.

Cordelia's current intention is to take these cookies in for the bake sale on Thursday during the choir concert. She says that terrible tasting cookies are just one of those things that happen at bake sales and that this is kind of pay back for all the times she got the bad stuff that looked fine. I understand the sentiment, but I think we'll find something else to send in. The email said that store bought was fine.

I spent a chunk of last night and this afternoon working on a beta read. It took me longer than I expected because I apparently can't stop talking in that context, either.

I only managed about four and a half hours with the c-PAP last night. At that point, I started sneezing and just couldn't keep the nasal pillows in place.

Yesterday, Cordelia and I got our hair trimmed. I had to shower after because they sprayed my hair with something scented to get it wet, and that stuff dried sticky and made my nose itch. The hair place is a couple of doors down from a Starbucks, so we all got something there. Then we went to Target to get a couple of things Cordelia needs for camp. We ended up buying a bunch of DVDs, too. Some things Cordelia wanted desperately, a copy of Moana for me, and several things that were about $5 each and seemed worth that much.

I'm kind of puzzled as to why I can watch and enjoy Moana when most things involving sea/ocean travel set off my anxiety incredibly strongly due to my phobia of deep water. Maybe it's because the ocean seems self aware and more or less friendly?

We picked up food at Zoup on the way home. I like their food, but there's a problem in that I probably ought to switch to a different soup than my fallback but can't find any other options that I can eat safely. Avoiding tomatoes and peppers and anything heavily creamy makes that really hard. I got a side soup and a half sized salad. Scott got a side soup and a half sandwich. Cordelia got a sandwich.

I discovered, after we got home, that our current loaf of bread had started to grow mold, so Scott will have to go out and get a replacement today. He wants to go to the Games Library Day which starts soon, but there are several things I need him to do first. We have to go to the library. I need him to bring up a box or three from the basement for me to sort. He has to put up a cloths line outside so that we can put anti-tick spray on Cordelia's camp clothing. That goes on wet and is supposed to air dry outside. I really want to get as much sprayed today as we can.

I can’t seem to get myself to focus. Spring break combined with the Monday night sleep disorders clinic thing has just smacked me. I’ve been doing a lot of utterly trivial cat waxing and can’t seem to stop. This is the sort of thing where I browse our local library’s online catalog and look at, say, every single graphic novel in the collection, all 9800 of them in screens of twenty at a time. I used to play solitaire on my laptop to fill that sort of space, but my hands can’t do it now.

I can’t focus to read or to watch anything, either. I mean, I watched Rogue One with Scott yesterday afternoon, but… I didn’t really watch it. It was overall more violent than I’m comfortable with, so had I been on my own, I’d probably have stopped early on. I’m feeling the same way about Magical Beasts and Where to Find Them which I’ve got from the library and have been watching with Scott and Cordelia.

This is a problem I’m having a lot lately. I just don’t care about most of what I start, be it a TV show or a movie or a book. The best I get is tepid. This is not so great when I’ve got about twenty library books checked out and a heck of a lot of books I own and haven’t yet read. I’ve only seen the first three or four episodes of the most recent season of The Librarians. I’ve seen scattered episodes of the various shows Scott and Cordelia are enthusiastic about, but I’d mostly rather lie in bed and write than try to deal with the stress of watching.

And watching and reading actually are stressful. Watching moreso than reading because, when I read, I can at least open the book to different places if I feel trapped. This is why I haven’t been reading much fic, either. Skipping around in that is hard and kind of counterproductive. I’ve never been great at reading short stories. Those actually take a harder push for me than something over 10000 words. I have no idea why that is.

The more stressed I am, the harder it is to read or to watch anything.

I have managed, though, to fill out and mail the Aetna reimbursement claim forms. Hopefully, we’ll get something back there. A substantial something would be really nice. Scott’s been working on the taxes. We ran into some hitches with getting all the documentation we needed for medical expenses and with access to the tax preparation software Scott uses (he forgot to change his email address with them before we ditched Earthlink) that required him sending them a scan of his driver’s license.

Cordelia is spending the night with a friend tonight, but they’ll be over here bright and early and expecting Scott to take them shopping. I can probably stay in bed because I can’t drive the car and because they only need one adult with credit cards/cash. I think they want to go to thrift stores, but I’m not certain.

We had friends over to play games last night. We played and lost a six player game of Flashpoint. Then Scott and some of the others tried a Kickstarter game based on The Dresden Files (while I went and lay down in an effort to stop my back hurting). Scott was unimpressed by the game. It’s very pretty, but play isn’t flexible or balanced. If anyone’s interested, I can ask him to expand on that, but I don’t remember most of what he told me last night.

I have twenty three days to write, edit, and post my Fandom5K story.

Scott and I went out to the bank around 11:00 yesterday morning to transfer some money from Cordelia’s account to ours. After that, we picked up food at Plum Market, pizza for him and a spinach pie for me. The weather was really nice, so we stopped by the science and nature center to recapture all of the portals there.

The walking wasn’t particularly good for my Achille’s tendon, but it was so very nice to be out in warm weather. I can tell that I’ve lost a lot of ground in terms of my ability to walk.

During the afternoon, we watched Arrival which I’d gotten from the library and finished a Netflix DVD that had been sitting with about fifteen minutes left on it for a week. Cordelia was annoyed that we watched Arrival without her. It hadn’t occurred to me that she might want to see it.

Cordelia went out to spend time with her friends in the evening, so Scott and I got carry out dinner from Palm Palace which is a place she doesn’t enjoy. I got lentil soup and the lamb saute which turned out not to be the dish I thought it was. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t what I had wanted. Scott got a chicken schwarma plate and hummus.

We listened to an audiobook until Cordelia was ready to come home.

My cold is much worse than it was. I’m not at all happy about that. I can still sleep lying down (as long as I take Sudafed), but even when I’m upright things feel not right in my throat and chest.