CWs: food, alcohol, work, death

I was thinking lately about how my time is structured and how I tend to move through the world. Patterns and such. What I do now is very different than earlier in life, say 10 or so years ago. 10 years ago, I had just finished my PhD (well, 11 years ago), and was trying to find a tenure-track job. Tail end of grad school, tying up loose ends. Now I have a career and a life with my spouse and the kitties and our town and it’s just all way different. I’ve been reading Tricia Hersey’s fabulous book Rest is Resistance: A Manifesto and it’s so good. Rest is extremely important. Avoid burnout. Take enough time for yourself to recharge. It’s not always easy and not always possible, but a good balance can be found.

CWs: physical & dental health, alcohol, food

Earlier today I was looking at my work and personal calendars, which are oddly full of doctor’s appointments. I had my annual physical a couple of weeks ago. Mostly fine, although my doctor said I had randomyl elevated level of liver enzymes, which was unusual. So she wants me to come back for blood work a few weeks after that. The earliest I could make work was 01 Dec, so there we go. Hoping it was just a fluke; otherwise more tests will be needed. She said that if I’m having more alcohol, or acetaminophen, than usual, to cut back or eliminate it. Neither are an issue; I rarely use acetaminophen, and I have maybe 1-2 drinks on the weekend, if that, most weeks. So that’s odd. She also said my calcium was low, which is also weird, since I drink a lot of milk and eat cheese &c. I’m wondering if I try to take my multivitamin and D3 supplement more regularly, that will sort itself out.

We had a fierce windstorm a couple of weeks ago (I think?), and it blew the leaves all around the front- and backyard. I think it stripped the ash tree in our backyard of the rest of its leaves, too, and of course we got some from the surrounding trees. I had hoped to be able to put away the lawnmower for the season, but alas! We did a bunch of errands Saturday but usually try to mix that with fun stuff. I did the yardwork Sunday. After our grocery run, I got the lawnmower out, fired it up, and set to work on crunching up the rest of the leaves. The mower has a “mulch plug” which you can install so the catcher bag isn’t needed; all I wanted to do was mulch up the leaves and cut the grass.

CWs: physical health, food, alcohol

I have been remiss in writing on here. Most of that is due to being obsessed with Silksong for the last nearly 2 months. I finally beat the game. 96% completion, just shy of 90hrs put in (Steam says 10hrs more, so the timer is strange). It was so incredibly good. I don’t know how to describe how much I loved it. I was all-in and I’m sure, if Team Cherry ever releases another sequel (one was teased, in a special ending), you know I’ll be there to get obsessed all over again. I pretty much spent most of my free time playing that, almost since it came out at the start of September. I loved my time with it, but in a way I’m glad it’s done, since I am moving on to other stuff.

CWs: nonzero Silksong spoilers, caveat legens

Well, if you’re a gamer, you’ve likely heard about Hollow Knight: Silksong being released on 04 September, after a wait of 5-6 years. I didn’t think it would ever come out; it seemed like vaporware for so long. But it finally came out, and wow, was it worth the wait. I was immediately enthralled and obsessed. I loved Hollow Knight; by the time I finally got around to playing it, everyone else had been recommending it for years. I explored everything very thoroughly, and completed basically everything, but couldn’t figure out Godhome and its ridiculous boss rushes, though I am in awe of anyone who can get through all of that. But I beat The Radiance and got a pretty decent ending, so I was happy with it. Now my gamepad won’t really behave with the game, so I haven’t played it since then, but I’d already beaten the game, so it’s cool. I moved on to other games after that, but Hollow Knight has stayed with me for years now; at very least I listen to the soundtrack pretty regularly. It’s funny, I kept confusing Shovel Knight and Hollow Knight for years, and I finally played the latter and ended up absolutely loving it.

CWs: food, drink, alcohol, errands, finances, ponderings

These days I feel like I mostly know what I’m doing in life. It’s not perfect by any means, but things are mostly OK, at least on a personal level. I’m in my 40s now and things are finally starting to mostly make sense. I feel like I know what’s important and what to shrug off. I wish it didn’t take this long to figure it out, because if I am lucky, I’m about halfway through the trip. Oh well. I am hoping the second half is an improvement, and just trying to enjoy every moment, howsoever I can.

CWs: physical health, food, alcohol

I came down with a cold Monday night. Started with a sore throat, then I was very stuffy (well, stuffier than usual), and when I woke up Tuesday morning, I knew I wasn’t going to be working. So I called out. Rested up throughout the day, played a lot of videogames, drank water. Still not feeling great. Slept, fitfully, still a sore throat and stuffy. Woke up this morning (Wednesday) and well, I didn’t feel well enough to work again. I feel bad calling out, but I keep telling myself, this is what sick leave is for, and I am grateful to have it.

CWs: finances, mental health, horror movies, EV rambling

Life has been a little weird lately. Uncertainty with jobs (my spouse’s, seemingly moreso than mine, but mine has been a little iffy lately). Applied for student loan repayment to start again. Haven’t heard anything. We’ll see how that goes, dies docebit. It’s been a hot, dry summer, although we’ve gotten more rain lately. Way too many wildfires in the state, but thankfully none near us at this time. I feel like we need a day off soon, but we have Labor Day off, and then next Friday off for a little getaway.

CWs: work, finances, mental health

I’m sorry I haven’t written in a little while. Work has kept me busy, mostly in a good way, but it’s always busy, just to varying degrees. We have had to deal with some house stuff too which is also (mentally/emotionally/financially) stressful, but we got some good news about one of the concerns which is good. Switched insurance around, which was nerve-wracking, but had to be done. I’m going to likely have to start paying student loans again, which is its own can of worms and will involve some radical changes to the oikos. But it’ll get sorted.

CWs: alcohol, food, physical health

We had a busy weekend and an eventful week. We went to the Rockies “Star Wars Night” game on Saturday, which is pretty much a tradition for us at this point. We try to go most years; I think the first year we went was 2018. Had a great time, got drinks and apps afterwards at Yard House, then stayed the night at a hotel in Denver. Got up the next day and went to the History Colorado museum where they had a cool ’90s exhibit. I got very nostalgic, especially for the tech stuff.