(no subject)
Saw the ophthalmologist. The "secondary cataract" (PCO) has the vision in my left eye down to 20/40: not terrible, but certainly not the 20/20 it was in June. It's enough to impact my ability to read subtitles on tv, for example. The doc is going to perform a YAG laser procedure on Wednesday that should clear my vision up again.
By a complete and wonderful coincidence, I ran into my friends Laura and Daniel at CWC today. They were on their way out the door just as I came out of Support Group-a minute later & I would have missed them without even knowing they'd been there. I haven't seen either of them for months, so it made me very happy to get to reconnect. We caught up on each other's health situations (as we all have difficulties in that regard), but spent most of the time talking pens and pencils and coloring techniques, as they both enjoy coloring books as much as I do. Daniel showed me his latest, which is, funnily enough, at the top of my Amazon wishlist, while he admired my latest, which he currently has on order.
I really missed Laura and Daniel, as they are both very smart and articulate and interesting ... and nice. They're both just really nice people. I think I have a bit of a "friend crush" on both of them. I don't know if other people get these sorts of "crushes," where you meet someone & just think that they are incredibly cool & you want to talk to them more & know them better & have them in your life. It isn't romantic or sexual, but it's still a sort of attraction, in that way that we are all attracted by some things and repelled by others.
For example, I'm repelled by people who think, in the wake of the Ferguson events, that "All lives matter" is the same thing as "Black lives matter." But I won't go into that right now. (Shannon and I had an interesting conversation about this on our date tonight, but I don't have the energy to formulate my thoughts clearly enough for public consumption.)
We've been watching "The Good Wife" on DVD from Netflix, and I've been surprised how much I'm enjoying it, due to the interesting long-term arcs. Many of the characters are complex and compelling, though the main character is rather too much of a Mary Sue for my taste.
We're also re-reading Robin Hobb's Farseer books, and have been enjoying those tremendously, as well. I've read them twice before *and* listened to at least one of them as an audiobook, but reading them with Shannon is a lot more fun.
I've been going to the gym with Julia-or, at least, I've gone twice thus far & we're going again tomorrow. We both belong to 24-Hour Fitness in downtown Berkeley because it comes free with our health insurance programs, but I don't like it much there, especially after most of my gym experience being at the Y. 24-Hour Fitness doesn't even supply towels, which seems incredibly chintzy to me.
The last time we were there, I was happy to see that the cardio room was populated with a fairly equal number of men and women, but when I went to do my PT exercises in the weight room, I found it full of men, with no women at all. Also, the room felt very "close," with no windows and only one entrance/exit. I did 5 or 6 reps of my first PT exercise and then fled in irrational fear. I doubt I'll be going into that room again. It made me finally understand why some women at the Y preferred to use the "Women's Fitness Center," where you could do cardio and weights without any men around. I never really understood the need, but that protected environment would be awfully useful to me right now.
Julia offered to accompany me down to the weight room, but I told her I just don't want to go back. I'll just do my PT exercises with my resistance bands instead of the weight machines. There is absolutely no reason for me to force myself to go down there.
We have a painter working on our house for the next few days, painting the trim around the new windows. We're also looking into doing a bit more work to deal with a situation that may be allowing moisture/mildew/mold into one of our walls, but that expenditure would mean holding off on doing any more work on the house for a couple of years. We're considering it, though, since preventing damage to the walls is pretty important & a year or two could make a difference.
And I'm going to acupuncture tomorrow, because my headaches have been making a reappearance, though not as severe as before. I haven't gone to acupuncture in weeks and weeks, so I'm not surprised that I'm seeing a reemergence of symptoms. I hope my return will help, though in the past it seemed that it was only after a few sessions that I saw relief.
Edited to Add: I shouldn't have written what I did about being repelled by people who think "All lives matter" is the same as "Black lives matter" without explaining, because *I* hadn't really thought about the difference until Shannon & I talked about it last night. As I understand it, the point of "Black lives matter" is to get in your face about the fact that some people act as if it isn't true. Those same people might blithely agree that "All lives matter," without really thinking about the fact that they don't act as if it's equally true for people of all races. Even though both statements are true, "Black lives matter," as I understand it, is addressing a specific inequality, which "All lives matter" neuters into a truism.
By a complete and wonderful coincidence, I ran into my friends Laura and Daniel at CWC today. They were on their way out the door just as I came out of Support Group-a minute later & I would have missed them without even knowing they'd been there. I haven't seen either of them for months, so it made me very happy to get to reconnect. We caught up on each other's health situations (as we all have difficulties in that regard), but spent most of the time talking pens and pencils and coloring techniques, as they both enjoy coloring books as much as I do. Daniel showed me his latest, which is, funnily enough, at the top of my Amazon wishlist, while he admired my latest, which he currently has on order.
I really missed Laura and Daniel, as they are both very smart and articulate and interesting ... and nice. They're both just really nice people. I think I have a bit of a "friend crush" on both of them. I don't know if other people get these sorts of "crushes," where you meet someone & just think that they are incredibly cool & you want to talk to them more & know them better & have them in your life. It isn't romantic or sexual, but it's still a sort of attraction, in that way that we are all attracted by some things and repelled by others.
For example, I'm repelled by people who think, in the wake of the Ferguson events, that "All lives matter" is the same thing as "Black lives matter." But I won't go into that right now. (Shannon and I had an interesting conversation about this on our date tonight, but I don't have the energy to formulate my thoughts clearly enough for public consumption.)
We've been watching "The Good Wife" on DVD from Netflix, and I've been surprised how much I'm enjoying it, due to the interesting long-term arcs. Many of the characters are complex and compelling, though the main character is rather too much of a Mary Sue for my taste.
We're also re-reading Robin Hobb's Farseer books, and have been enjoying those tremendously, as well. I've read them twice before *and* listened to at least one of them as an audiobook, but reading them with Shannon is a lot more fun.
I've been going to the gym with Julia-or, at least, I've gone twice thus far & we're going again tomorrow. We both belong to 24-Hour Fitness in downtown Berkeley because it comes free with our health insurance programs, but I don't like it much there, especially after most of my gym experience being at the Y. 24-Hour Fitness doesn't even supply towels, which seems incredibly chintzy to me.
The last time we were there, I was happy to see that the cardio room was populated with a fairly equal number of men and women, but when I went to do my PT exercises in the weight room, I found it full of men, with no women at all. Also, the room felt very "close," with no windows and only one entrance/exit. I did 5 or 6 reps of my first PT exercise and then fled in irrational fear. I doubt I'll be going into that room again. It made me finally understand why some women at the Y preferred to use the "Women's Fitness Center," where you could do cardio and weights without any men around. I never really understood the need, but that protected environment would be awfully useful to me right now.
Julia offered to accompany me down to the weight room, but I told her I just don't want to go back. I'll just do my PT exercises with my resistance bands instead of the weight machines. There is absolutely no reason for me to force myself to go down there.
We have a painter working on our house for the next few days, painting the trim around the new windows. We're also looking into doing a bit more work to deal with a situation that may be allowing moisture/mildew/mold into one of our walls, but that expenditure would mean holding off on doing any more work on the house for a couple of years. We're considering it, though, since preventing damage to the walls is pretty important & a year or two could make a difference.
And I'm going to acupuncture tomorrow, because my headaches have been making a reappearance, though not as severe as before. I haven't gone to acupuncture in weeks and weeks, so I'm not surprised that I'm seeing a reemergence of symptoms. I hope my return will help, though in the past it seemed that it was only after a few sessions that I saw relief.
Edited to Add: I shouldn't have written what I did about being repelled by people who think "All lives matter" is the same as "Black lives matter" without explaining, because *I* hadn't really thought about the difference until Shannon & I talked about it last night. As I understand it, the point of "Black lives matter" is to get in your face about the fact that some people act as if it isn't true. Those same people might blithely agree that "All lives matter," without really thinking about the fact that they don't act as if it's equally true for people of all races. Even though both statements are true, "Black lives matter," as I understand it, is addressing a specific inequality, which "All lives matter" neuters into a truism.