On the upswing
I'm doing much better than two weeks ago and better than last week too. I am more able to cope with having a lot to do (like making two soups in one day, which is a huge amount for me) and feel more inspired to work on brain-intensive projects like sewing or writing. (<- This is me being more clear about what "better" means. I should also work on "worse" too. For me, being able to feed myself and leave the house is recovery. There is no indication that I will ever go back to what I was like before my brain injury, so I'm moving forward without that.)
I'm also working hard on preparing for the trip in ways that will help me avoid getting sick by doing too much. I have packed all my luggage, since the vast majority of what I am taking will be left there in storage (unless we hate it there). Now that I have a recipe for lentil falafel that works, I can make some of those for the trip there, the day after (I am usually pretty unable to function the day after we arrive), and the trip back. I'll just pop two frozen patties into my luggage and then throw them in the freezer when we arrive.
At the moment, I'm working on where in the Lisbon region we will want to live. As with New York, there are suburbs/cities that make up the Lisbon region (like the boroughs of New York), and then there are neighborhoods within those "boroughs". There are _a lot_, so I'm working on writing them all down and determining how far they are from the city center by public transit (Joel has a jam session he wants to go to weekly, so that is as good a point of reference as any). Once I have that done, I'll look for crime statistics, elevation (since I don't want to climb a mountain to get back from the metro every time I go out), average apartment cost per square meter, and if there are good food markets nearby. It is probably obvious to anyone who knows me that I don't care about how posh the neighborhood is, if there are amazing cafes or boutiques, or if all the expats think that it is just _the_ place to be.
That's about it for now. Take care, everyone!
I'm also working hard on preparing for the trip in ways that will help me avoid getting sick by doing too much. I have packed all my luggage, since the vast majority of what I am taking will be left there in storage (unless we hate it there). Now that I have a recipe for lentil falafel that works, I can make some of those for the trip there, the day after (I am usually pretty unable to function the day after we arrive), and the trip back. I'll just pop two frozen patties into my luggage and then throw them in the freezer when we arrive.
At the moment, I'm working on where in the Lisbon region we will want to live. As with New York, there are suburbs/cities that make up the Lisbon region (like the boroughs of New York), and then there are neighborhoods within those "boroughs". There are _a lot_, so I'm working on writing them all down and determining how far they are from the city center by public transit (Joel has a jam session he wants to go to weekly, so that is as good a point of reference as any). Once I have that done, I'll look for crime statistics, elevation (since I don't want to climb a mountain to get back from the metro every time I go out), average apartment cost per square meter, and if there are good food markets nearby. It is probably obvious to anyone who knows me that I don't care about how posh the neighborhood is, if there are amazing cafes or boutiques, or if all the expats think that it is just _the_ place to be.
That's about it for now. Take care, everyone!