These Days

These days of summer, the month of June, has been spectacularly obnoxious for me. Here's why:

Near the beginning of the month, my debit card was stolen, and a number of charges were made online. The charges themselves were not very big, but my bank has added HUGE overdraft fees, leaving me nearly $900 overdrawn at the end of the month. I don't even get nine hundred dollars in SSI/SSD each month!! We are working to fix this, but it seems as if the bank just doesn't care. I hate it, and am not happy. And I'm broke, probably forever, now.

Add to the money problems the health stuff. The last year has been bad, seizure-wise, and we cannot seem to figure out why. OHSU, where I am a patient at the Epilepsy clinic, assigned me to a new doctor last Autumn, and I've seen her once. She keeps rescheduling my appointments. So I'm asking my GP, Dr Jeff, for a referral to the Providence Neurology & Epilepsy Clinic. I am done being shuttled around. That appointment, with Dr Jeff, is tomorrow. I get my thyroid level checked, too, after being on the med for over a year. Let's hope things are looking up!

Some things are looking up, I can admit that. I've lost some weight in the last year, but not nearly what I need to lose. I am a short woman, with small bones, and weighing this much can't be good for me. Now, I watched a TED Talk this week, and based on their info, even at this weight, I'm in the healthier group. See, I do 3 of the 4 things it takes to make you the healthy person: I eat plenty of fruits & veggies, I don't smoke, and drink moderately. I don't get enough exercise, but I'm working on it. Makes me feel better about myself, even if my clothes are a bigger size!

Seriously, 75% of what I eat these days is some sort of green smoothie. My NutriBullet gets more use than any other appliance I own, except my laptop! I am feeling better, and I know I am healthier. There are days when something happens to change that; last week I had a fairly bad seizure, and managed to injure myself in some strange places. How I got what looks like a rug burn/bruise underneath my boob, I have no idea, but it hurts like a bitch! Wearing a bra has been out of the question for the last week. (Oh, and the heat here, that's only made things worse. I miss winter.) I'm finally not sore everywhere else, and feeling like a human being again. It's amazing. Somedays I think my body hates me. Somedays I hate it.

These days, I only want to stop feeling as if I crawled out from under a rock. I looked like I should live under one for a while, but now I'm looking better, thank Merlin. I swear, I looked in the mirror last Saturday, and thought I'd been dead for a couple of days! Ick. Only my hair looked decent; I colored it the week before, and it's very nifty. I'll post some pics in the next couple of days--check Instagram!

These days, I am also having some interesting things going on; I'm back on the online dating scene, because I am apparently crazy (I will write about this later), and have no idea what I'm doing. I am trying to grow my nails out again, and not biting them is torture! Trying to answer Oprah's "20 Questions Every Woman Should Answer." I have no good answers. I never do.

 

Seven Lists For the Seventh

Today is the 7th of June. Not that this date has any big significance for me, at least none that I remember right now--if I'm forgetting something important, let me know, and forgive me, because if you are my friend, you know how badly my brain holds information. And that brain drain is getting worse, since my seizures aren't as well controlled as they should be lately. Not making my life a lot of fun, ya know? Anyway, that was totally not my point.  My point has to do with a thing someone sent me on Twitter, and asked me to write a blog post about. Now, I don't remember who sent it, because I've had this image saved on my tablet for almost a year! (Bad Jonna!) Today I stumbled across it, and decided since it asks for 7 of each thing, and it's the 7th, I'd do it. So here I go, trying to answer these questions, and make as much sense as possible!

7 everyday things I couldn't live without:  

1-lip balm of some sort   2-something to write with and in  3-a comfy armchair  4--reading material

5 -caffeine  6-I'd be very unhappy without the internet (but could likely live without it as long as I had #'s 2 & 4)   7-sleep

7 of my favorite songs:

(in no particular order, just a few I've been listening to a lot lately)

1-'Ca Plane Pour Moi' by Plastic Bertrand (a song I picked up from Craig Ferguson!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v98HEQvtpgo

2-'Come Together' as recorded by Robin Williams & Bobby McFerrin

this just makes me feel totally free....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9_4itRSEvI

3-'How's the World Treating You' by Alison Kraus & James Taylor (two of my favorite artists, singing a country classic--their voices together are just too beautiful!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoxhT8mKCx0

4-'Sacred Emotion' by Donny Osmond (I don't care what you say, the man can sing, and I LOVE this song.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLKzwb2JvLo

5-'Travelin' Soldier' by The Dixie Chicks (breaks my heart every time...and this fan made video is awesome.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXw3XhlmTcs

6-'I'm Beautiful' by Bette Midler (because I'm Beautiful, dammit!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWsc2nuUg-s

7-'Beautiful World' by Colin Hay

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xe3RqgnXaT4

 

7 pastimes I never tire of doing:

1. Reading


2. Looking at stupid things on Pinterest, Tumblr & YouTube


3. Learning


4. Laughing


5. Talking to friends & family


6. wandering around stores


7. This.

7 treats I could eat every day:

1. Popcorn


2. smoothies


3. fruit of almost any kind


4. sweet potato fries


5. chai tea latte (iced)


6. snickerdoodles


7. beef fajitas

 

7 places I want to visit:

1. New York City


2. London


3. Paris


4. Mexico


5. Japan


6. Hawaii


7. The Smithsonian Museum & Library of Congress in Washington DC (my big dream vacay!)

 

Planet of the Ants

I hate having bugs in my house. Except spiders. Spiders, I don't mind. Without spiders, we'd be over-run by other creepy crawly things, and I cannot have that. Back in Colorado, my bedroom was in the basement, and every spring & summer, I'd get crickets in my room. I'd spend hours trying to track them down with my spray can of Raid, until I'd finally have silence, and could sleep. I'm sure I ingested enough bug killer between the ages of 11 and 17 to explain nearly all of my health problems these days! If those dumb crickets had stayed quiet, they'd have been safe; I don't go after bugs I can't see or hear! After all those years of Raid, I started trying to use greener methods of insect control, and some of them even worked! The vinegar trap for fruit flies was a great success-- an inch or two of apple cider vinegar in the bottom of a jar, then cover the top with plastic wrap and poke a few holes, They are attracted to the sweet smell, but drown in the vinegar! And the beer trap worked great for catching slugs. The problem has been ants.

We had ants in our old house, and could never get rid of them, and we have them here. Just little black sugar ants, nothing dangerous, but highly annoying, and fucking EVERYWHERE! Not just the kitchen, and dining areas. I found them in my bathroom, and they've been swarming in my bedroom this week. The first time they showed up, I tried a few green solutions I found online. I sprayed a solution of white vinegar around. Didn't do anything but make my room smell like a pickle. I sprinkled coffee grounds around where they come in ( apparently ants don't like coffee?); not a thing happened, but at least that smelled better. The coffee grounds did keep the ants and other bugs off the plants in the garden when we tried it there, it just didn't work in the house. In one area I lay down a line of black and red pepper, because it was supposed to stop those ants in their tracks! Nope. I just ended up with a dusty floor. The only thing I haven't tried that all the green sites recommend is borax, and peppermint. I didn't have either of those on hand. Today I swept and cleaned, dusted and then sprayed all the nooks and crannies of my room with good old Raid Ant Spray. For a couple of hours, my room smelled like a chemical bomb, and my head hurt like a bitch. But for now anyway, all the ants are gone. I plan on buying some peppermint essential oil and using it -or maybe the peppermint castile soap--maybe both--to spray around the room and bathroom. I don't want to use borax, because we do have pets, and that stuff will get on their feet and hurt them! One site I saw said that windex is a great ant killer, so maybe I'll try that. I can clean my windows at the same time!