Still a bit congested but recovering quickly. Started knitting hats for the little girls but had a few false starts with patterns I didn’t care for. I figured out that I can shrink the October Hat by 1/3 (80 st instead of 120) and it should fit someone!
Man last Sunday’s ep of Succession was so damn good (Too Much Birthday). Like, insanely good, incomparably good. Watched again today.
Also watched the first ep of The Beatles: Get Back and it also was insanely, incomparably good! My god, it’s like being there. Would have Blown My Mind as a teenager. Also wtf do people blame Yoko? She didn’t say one single word.
This morning I straightened out another pharmacy problem and then I finished knitting Henry’s hat — so that makes two finished Christmas presents and it’s not even December yet!
In the afternoon I drove to a rather far-away Rite Aid for my covid test. It was quick and easy. You pull up to the drive-through pharmacy window, the guy checks your name and birthdate, and sends you the kit through the drawer. Then you stick the swab in your nostrils and swizzle it about, drop the swab in a test-tube, clean the tube with an alcohol wipe, and send it back through the drawer.
I feel a lot better today (a one-day mild sore throat is such a luxury) and I doubt if it was Covid but it’s free and easy to check so why not?
Woke up with tiny sore throat. Dave says I coughed in the night. Yesterday I had some nausea and a slight headache. Arghhhh.
So, Second Thanksgiving is canceled (but Dave is roasting the turkey and potatoes anyway because I WANT THEM.)
Probably it’s just a cold… but Covid test booked for tomorrow afternoon just to be sure.
I’m obsessive about masking in public and I’m triple-vaxxed, so I doubt if it’s Covid, but it’s something. How did I pick up a bug? Probably because I’ve gotten lazy about scrubbing my hands after every outing and there are a lot of public doors and elevator buttons I need to touch in order to get to and from my car, so… keep scrubbing your hands!
This morning I made banana-oat bread (to use up three antique bananas) and then, since we’re having Second Thanksgiving tomorrow with Dave’s sons, I made stuffing and cranberries. Couldn’t help eating some — I’ve been craving Thanksgiving food but we left all the leftovers at Kirsten and Marcos‘s house. YUM. Dave will make roast potatoes, gravy, sausage stuffing (mine is bread/celery/onion) and he’ll roast our little turkey. Can’t wait!
Nearly done knitting Henry’s Christmas hat. Already finished one for Jayla!
We’ll be going up to Union City for Thanksgiving (tomorrow) so today I cooked food to take along — stuffing, cranberry sauce, rolls, and gravy. Kirsten, Marcos, and Em aren’t crazy about turkey so they’re planning roast chicken, beef, green beans, and mashed potatoes. Yummmm!
I, however, LOVE turkey (and Thanksgiving food, in general) so Dave bought a small turkey for us, and we’ll have Second Thanksgiving on Sunday here with his son :D
After all that cooking this morning I’m absolutely beat, so now I’m going to chill-n-knit. Finished Jayla’s tam already so next I think I’ll knit a hat for Henry.
Went up to visit Em today. Lovely Em. Such an amazing kid! She has a new boardgame called Ultimate Werewolf that’s super fun! We played when Kirsten got off work (needs at least 3 players) and I hope we can play again on Thanksgiving.
Nice day. In the morning I took a shower, did laundry and dishes, re-dyed my hair (teal), and cleaned the toilet. In the afternoon, as usual, I hung out in our bright and sunny bedroom while Dave hung out in the gloomy living room. That way, we each get enough alone time in conditions that suit us, and then in the evening we eat dinner together and cuddle up on the couch and talk or watch tv. Idyllic *heart eyes*
Started a tam for Jayla, to replace the one I knitted for her last year which shrank in the wash. Using superwash wool this time. :D
While I was knitting I mostly listened to ancient episodes of Loveline (from 1998) and laughed and laughed. I always think of Chloe when I hear Loveline.
Oops missed a day. Yesterday I recovered from my busy Tuesday by listening to podcasts, knitting, and playing Animal Crossing :D
Today I knitted a lot, too. I’m making a new winter hat for myself since I’ll be moving north in less than two months and all but one of my many hats have disappeared. I also have hats planned as Christmas presents for several loved ones. Yarn for those just arrived today!
Dr Nguyen called to discuss my blood work. Kidneys don’t look so great so he said to stay hydrated and re-test next month. Vitamin D is low, so I’m to take 4000 units daily (up from my current 1000). Thyroid levels are a little low but not enough to tinker with. Everything else is pretty ok.
Had 2:45 lab appointment, to which I was 15 minutes late because of traffic, which means they didn’t take me till 3:20, then 3:45 doc appointment, to which I was also late but only a few minutes so my doc saw me anyway thank goodness. Nothing major, just a check-in. I asked about my night sweats, which he thinks are just a peri-menopause symptom but I thought I was done with that. All my symptoms went away for months! (Except loss of libido. Still waiting for that to come back but I figured it was my antidepressants’ fault. Maybe not?) He is checking my thyroid levels to be sure I don’t need to tweak my dose.
He told me I’ll be able to get great healthcare at OHSU in Portland and seemed genuinely sorry to see me go. Wonderful Dr. Nguyen. He also expressed his joy that I’m still alive despite all the predictions that I’d be dead by now!
Then I went to hang out with Em even though I wasn’t needed for childcare tonight as Kirsten’s orchestra rehearsal was canceled. I want to be sure Em knows how important she is to me even though I’ll be moving away.
I plan to write her a real paper letter every week (already sent one, which made her very happy), and I hope we can set up a regularly-scheduled FaceTime session so she can always count on some Kara-time. Eventually she’ll be old enough to come visit, the way Chloe used to visit every me summer when she was a tween and teen!
Dave made one of his favorite dishes tonight and it was yum! Ground beef, tomato paste, tomatoes, zucchini, yellow squash, jalapeños, red bell pepper, onions, garlic, mushrooms, and gravy powder, all cooked up into a delicious spicy tangy slop and served over lightly steamed cabbage. Really really tasty!
Dave has… a lot of stuff. A lot. We need to sort through it before we move so we made a start today. Went to his industrial unit to pick up the guitars that he’s repairing for Marco, so he can repair them in comfort at our flat. Then we went to his storage locker — first time I’d seen it. Oh my. Lol. He dug out three huge boxes of clothing and went through them when we got home. He kept about four garments and the rest will go to the men’s shelter, yay!
We finished Britain’s Best Home Cook (excellent) last night so tonight we started Curb Your Enthusiasm over from the beginning. “The Pants Tent”. Larry apologizing to everyone and lying to everyone . Such a hilariously uncomfortable show!
I told Suzanne about this wonderful new feeling I’ve been experiencing. It’s an overwhelmingly positive feeling that I experience when I’m with Dave (which is basically all the time) but it’s very hard to describe. It’s a feeling of floatiness, airiness, freedom, almost a feeling of disappearing and being unaware of my “self”.
When I told her about it, she got this look of incredible happiness and even tears in her eyes, and she told me I’m experiencing the feeling of being PRESENT in a relationship. She says the part that has disappeared is the “avatar Kara”, that I set up to protect myself in all other past relationships, the persona I’ve used as a filter to make sure I don’t say or do anything that will upset my partner. I don’t need an avatar anymore! For one thing, Dave is so easy-going and loving and dependable that I feel completely safe. Also my mental health is so much better now that I know it would be ok even if he DID get upset with me! It wouldn’t make me panic. We would work it out. There’s no way I could say “the wrong thing” and lose him.
I don’t need to monitor my every move anymore! It’s remarkable. Absolutely remarkable. I’m so proud of myself! Ten years of fairly intense therapy work has paid off more than I could ever have imagined.
Dan has very generously had me on his cell phone plan ever since we split up in 2013, but today I moved to Dave’s plan, YAY!
House plans are moving along. No hitches. It will be ours in early December, knock on wood. I was feeling rather anxious about the logistics of moving Dave’s flat and his industrial unit full of woodworking equipment and ham radio gear and the contents of my room in Union City and our cars, but he explained his very logical plan and the sequence of events and now I don’t feel stressed at all.
I needed an echocardiogram now that I have titrated up my Remodulin and am at my target dose. UCSF is such a long drive that I asked them to send orders to my local cardiologist, and my appointment was today. Still a long drive because Dave’s place is a half-hour south and my appointment was just around rush hour, but I got there in time. An echo is an easy test (you just lie there and move when the tech tells you to) but it was still tiring. And of course being at the doc and hearing “your heart is very unusual” and “severe pulmonary hypertension” is always a reality check that I really don’t want.
