If you get the chance, try the new BBC comedy, The Cleaner, which is written by and starring Greg Davies. It’s not laugh-out-loud funny, but it’s amusing and quirky and warm. Each ep is like a two-character play. Superbly written and acted.
I’ve also been watching The North Water, which is unspeakably grim and hard to watch in every possible way, but beautifully created, great cast, compelling story. Not a jolly show, but a memorable one.
Tired again today. Did nothing. Sigh.
Oh! Today is our three-month anniversary. I love you, Dave *heart eyes*
I tried something else at our Indian restaurant today: mattar paneer, which is peas in spicy tomato sauce with chunks of paneer (a cheese with the general look and texture of tofu). SO GOOD.
Slept late, went to Farmers’ Market for tomatoes, discovered they have a system whereby I can use my EBT card (food stamps) to buy fruits and veggies! Nice man in a booth swipes my card for however much I might spend, and gives me fake money to give to the farmers! And they even DOUBLE it (up to $15) so I had him swipe $15 and got $30 farmer bucks! And they don’t expire, and the farmers get the full value. So wonderful!
It rained a tiny bit overnight! When I left the house to run to the store this morning I was shocked to see a blue sky and smell the clean air. It has been so bad for so long.
Went to Sprouts, got green apples, goat cheese, my favorite bread (Dave’s 21 grain), mayo, and Cheddar Bunnies for Em. Got a box for myself, too.
And then I was rather tired so didn’t do much the rest of the day.
My birthday present from Dave arrived today: a beautiful botanical print duvet cover from Pottery Barn for my heavy blanket. With my botanical sheets from LL Bean and my Kara-made flower quilt, my bed is a flower garden. <3
(I forgot, when ordering, that although my bed is full-size, my heavy blanket is considerably smaller than a full-size duvet; however, three quick seams made everything fit just right. Thank goodness for being crafty)
I sewed up that new pair of comfy shorts for Dave all in one sitting! Just a couple months ago it would have taken at least three days because sitting upright was so tiring. Yay for drugs, yay for science!
Quick trip to the lab for blood draw this morning, and then I cut out another pair of shorts for Dave. Hope to sew them up tomorrow.
I think my new higher dose of Remodulin (actually the generic treprostinil) is helping me to have a bit more energy! It’s exciting to wake up and feel creative and able to do a few things other than lie in bed and play video games.
I have an unfinished quilt that has been languishing under my bed, unbound and partly quilted. I want a big project to take to Dave’s new place so today I dug it out in order to make and attach the binding. Now all that’s left to do is to finish the binding by hand and get all the big-stitch quilting done. I packed a tiny kit of thread to match the binding, beeswax, needles, thimble, binding clips, thread snips, and perle cotton for quilting. So now I’m set with a nice time-consuming creative project.
I had a good appetite today so I finished my leftover veggie biryani and also made a super-thick tomato sandwich. Kirsten picked up a few Farmers’ Market tomatoes for me, drool.
We went out for Indian food tonight, at a sweet little restaurant very near my house, Blue Ginger in Hayward CA. I’d never had Indian food before and it did not disappoint! I had veggie biryani and we shared a butter naan. Both were remarkably delicious! The naan had obviously been freshly-baked and it was hot, crisp on the edges, soft but not doughy in the middle. Just insanely good! We’ll be eating there again for sure.
Got nausea? I sure do. Medication side-effect. When Jayla had bad nausea during pregnancy I went looking for something to help her and found tummydrops.com. I bought some for each of us and WOW they really work! I just got a re-order of three tins of the double-ginger/peach flavor, which is what made me think of blogging them. This flavor is quite intense and gingery, but they have many milder flavors too.
As always, I recommend buying direct from their website rather than supporting the evil amazon empire.
Eye exam with kindly Dr Siu this morning. No problems, prescription changed a little bit so I ordered new glasses from zennioptical.com! I almost chose my same old rhinestone-encrusted cat-eye frames, but then I noticed they had some cat-eyes without the rhinestones so I got those instead. A red pair of progressive bifocals, near distance, for at home:
And a tortoiseshell pair of progressive bifocals, standard distance with those lenses that darken automagically in the sunshine, for driving and out-and-about:
The Zenni factory is quite close to my house, so they’ll probably arrive in about a week. My total for BOTH pairs was $190. You can’t beat that with a stick.
My beautiful new LL Bean sheet set came with one fitted, one flat, and two pillowcases. I never use a flat sheet, so I converted the flat to a second fitted like this:
I laid the flat sheet on my bed and measured how much extra fabric I’d need to add in order for it to have a good, deep, elasticized tuck-in edge: Six inches, plus a half-inch for seams. I took my old Target fitted sheet (which constantly pops off the corners of my adjustable mattress because the pockets aren’t deep enough) and cut the entire elasticized edge off at 6.5″ from the elastic. This gave me a giant fabric loop with one raw edge and one elasticized edge.
I placed the loop right-sides together with my flat sheet, matching the exact centers of the edges and making sure long sides and short sides were appropriately matched. I pinned everything together well and basted. There is of course a bunch of extra sheet fabric at the corners because a fitted sheet isn’t flat (duh) but that’s fine — just tuck them under when you make your bed. If they bother you, try the sheet on your bed, wrong side up, and pin, seam, and trim away that extra corner fabric. I haven’t bothered yet but I probably will when I take the sheet off to wash it.
A big thank-you to all of my therapists over the past ten years, but especially Jeff and Suzanne, for helping me heal enough to become attractive to (and attracted by) a wonderfully sane and emotionally intelligent man!
Not only is he sane, he’s kind and generous and playful and wise and thoughtful and intelligent and clever and creative and loving and so much more. I love you, Dave <3<3<3
Good whole wheat bread with lots of seeds and grains
Salt and pepper
Slice that tomato into very thick slices. Put as much mayo as you like on two slices of bread. Put those tomato slices on one and season generously with salt and pepper. Clap the other slice of bread on top and devour.
Juicy and tangy and delicious! I ate two for lunch today. High-quality bread and a good ripe tomato is such a perfect combination.
It’s Dave’s birthday! Happy birthday sweetheart, if you read this <3
After lunch (at a different falafel place because ours is closed on Mondays) we went shopping for furniture for his new apartment! Sofa, chairs, kitchen table, dressers, etc. I’ve never done that before and it was tremendous fun but exhausting so I am wiped out. After that he showed me his new place. It’s really nice, and well-planned. Big balcony, nice little kitchen, laundry in unit! And there’s a leafy tree outside the bedroom window which filters the light and is so pleasant.
Hot. Tired. Air quality is very bad outside so I had to close my window and run my air purifier, but then my co2 level rose so I had to open my bedroom door. I hope the rest of the house stays at a safe co2 level with everyone home and the windows all closed…
Played a little WoW, got a pair of comfy shorts for Dave finished but for hems and a final elastic try-on, embroidered flowers on some slippers that I made for Lulu. Pics tomorrow maybe, too tired now.
Today is my 52nd birthday! Unbelievable. I wasn’t expected to make it to 50, even, but here I am still alive and kicking and doing exactly as I darn well please :D
Spent the day with Wonderful English Dave. He had a lot of meetings while I played on my iPad (why is Merge Dragons so addictive?). Our usual lunch at Falafel Corner, and then Kirsten and Marcos treated us all to Thai food and gelato for dinner.
Dave gave me six packets of Rowntree’s Fruit Gums and two bars of genuine English Cadbury’s Dairy Milk chocolate, and a birthday card that was so loving, heartfelt, and meaningful that it brought tears to my eyes.
And best of all he found an apartment to rent and can soon move out of his current awkward roommate situation so we can finally spend entire days and nights together at his place <3
Everyone in my family texted birthday wishes and NO ONE called, which is how I like it.
My former pulmonologist at UCSF, Dr. Kennedy, moved away, darn it, I liked her. Today I had my first online appointment with my new guy, Dr. Simon. Seems like a pleasant, knowledgeable, caring fellow. I asked if I might be able to switch from my old-school anticoagulant (warfarin) to one of the modern ones (Eliquis), and he said yes! Now comes the fun game waiting to see if my insurance will cover it. I think there’s only a 10% chance they will, because there’s no generic yet so it will cost them much more than what I’m currently using. We shall see.
I’ve had “Your Girlfriend Does” in my head all day and I’m not even mad. Great lyrics. I love an anti-hater song :D
“I get it, you don’t dig it, ain’t no big deal bro, but for real though — your girlfriend does…”
The weather changed! All of a sudden the air smells slightly different and it’s crisp and cool in the shade. We haven’t had a hideous heatwave yet this summer, but there’s still time. Sometimes the Santa Ana winds come in September or even October…
