Tl;dr: pretty happy
Three weeks and more since I last posted! But I have been reading LJ (and Tumblr), so I don't feel quite so disconnected as in my last post, which is good. I was ill with some horrible bronchial something back then, and ended up having to see a doctor, who gave me a course of antibiotics and then steroids. I'm much better, though not completely well yet. Today, for the first time since I got sick, I swam, so that's a good sign.
And I saw Captain America: Civil War! Really enjoyed it and am happy I finally made it. I loved so many parts of it, and of course I cried at you-know-what. Actually, I had tears in my eyes at least twice, and maybe three times. My first movie in my new place.
That isn't strictly true because I've been watching lots of movies, either through Netflix, Amazon Prime, or HBONOW.com. Television shows, too, or whatever you call series produced by non-networks: I saw all of the new Grace and Frankie, Anthony Bourdain's Parts Unknown, and Transparent, and got my husband into Bosch. I started Mozart in the Jungle and will get back to it after I finish -- and now I'm embarrassed -- Angels and Demons, the follow-up to The DaVinci Code, which I also watched. It's not my fault! Jason Kottke posted that Tom Hanks and Ron Howard will be making the third movie and I had to see the first two.
I also finally got the most recent Bryant and May, Strange Tide, and am deep into it. I always buy the audiobook version because Tim Goodman, who reads them, is amazing, just brilliant with the voices. And I love those old geezers and worry about them, Arthur Bryant and John May, and the whole Peculiar Crimes Unit. Highly recommended.
But mostly I've been listening to podcasts. My old favorites, of course, such as Welcome to Night Vale, which now has a sister show, Alice Isn't Dead, starring Jasika Nicole! Who is THE BEST.
Also loving The Black Tapes and its sister show Tanis. I even joined Reddit so I could read the Pacific Northwest Stories subreddit (I think that's what it's called). From that I discovered three other terrific podcasts that I'm obsessively catching up with:
> The Magnus Archives, a series of really creepy stories supposedly taken from a poorly organized archive which the new archivist is trying to get into order -- and finding links no one knew about. Maybe.
> The Bright Sessions, recordings of sessions between a therapist and her clients, who have special powers -- but then we learn there's a lot more going on than that.
> Ars Paradoxica, and an inadvertently time-traveling physicist who gets stuck in the past with some unpleasant people.
Creeepy stuff in there, but I'm enjoying it enormously.
Let me end by saying that so far retirement in Arizona is awesome. I honestly didn't expect to be happy here. I mean, I miss the beauty of Sonoma County and all my friends there, but in the month we've been here, despite being sick almost the entire time, I have found genuine happiness. I love the retirement community we're in, I love seeing so much of my sister and mother and husband, I love having time to cook and walk (and swim again!) and watch movies and write email.
For example, I've made bread twice, cookies twice, two different cakes; in addition to me seeing Mother three times a week, my sister and I took her to a Mother's Day brunch, and last Saturday out to buy new clothes and have lunch at a favorite place of hers. Webster and I are slowly exploring the area and recently spent a very happy hour at the Eddie Basha Collection of American Western and American Indian Art, which is 1) an amazing place and 2) just up the road from us. Very cool.
Webster has been worrying for some time that, after so many years of working and in a fairly responsible position, I would be bored or feel demoted or something. And maybe I will eventually, but so far, this is wonderful. Of course, I'm still worried about what my net income will be (apparently it'll be several months before that will become clear), and super worried about health care (no Kaiser Permanente in Arizona, goddammit), but I'm trying hard not to obsess over those issues. In fact, today I started talking to my new insurance customer service, learning how it works, and discovered that Mayo Clinic has a place only eight miles away, so tomorrow I'm going to find out if my new insurance will cover the primary care physicians there.
Um, little divagation there. Tl;dr: to my surprise, I'm pretty dang happy. I hope you are, too!
And I saw Captain America: Civil War! Really enjoyed it and am happy I finally made it. I loved so many parts of it, and of course I cried at you-know-what. Actually, I had tears in my eyes at least twice, and maybe three times. My first movie in my new place.
That isn't strictly true because I've been watching lots of movies, either through Netflix, Amazon Prime, or HBONOW.com. Television shows, too, or whatever you call series produced by non-networks: I saw all of the new Grace and Frankie, Anthony Bourdain's Parts Unknown, and Transparent, and got my husband into Bosch. I started Mozart in the Jungle and will get back to it after I finish -- and now I'm embarrassed -- Angels and Demons, the follow-up to The DaVinci Code, which I also watched. It's not my fault! Jason Kottke posted that Tom Hanks and Ron Howard will be making the third movie and I had to see the first two.
I also finally got the most recent Bryant and May, Strange Tide, and am deep into it. I always buy the audiobook version because Tim Goodman, who reads them, is amazing, just brilliant with the voices. And I love those old geezers and worry about them, Arthur Bryant and John May, and the whole Peculiar Crimes Unit. Highly recommended.
But mostly I've been listening to podcasts. My old favorites, of course, such as Welcome to Night Vale, which now has a sister show, Alice Isn't Dead, starring Jasika Nicole! Who is THE BEST.
Also loving The Black Tapes and its sister show Tanis. I even joined Reddit so I could read the Pacific Northwest Stories subreddit (I think that's what it's called). From that I discovered three other terrific podcasts that I'm obsessively catching up with:
> The Magnus Archives, a series of really creepy stories supposedly taken from a poorly organized archive which the new archivist is trying to get into order -- and finding links no one knew about. Maybe.
> The Bright Sessions, recordings of sessions between a therapist and her clients, who have special powers -- but then we learn there's a lot more going on than that.
> Ars Paradoxica, and an inadvertently time-traveling physicist who gets stuck in the past with some unpleasant people.
Creeepy stuff in there, but I'm enjoying it enormously.
Let me end by saying that so far retirement in Arizona is awesome. I honestly didn't expect to be happy here. I mean, I miss the beauty of Sonoma County and all my friends there, but in the month we've been here, despite being sick almost the entire time, I have found genuine happiness. I love the retirement community we're in, I love seeing so much of my sister and mother and husband, I love having time to cook and walk (and swim again!) and watch movies and write email.
For example, I've made bread twice, cookies twice, two different cakes; in addition to me seeing Mother three times a week, my sister and I took her to a Mother's Day brunch, and last Saturday out to buy new clothes and have lunch at a favorite place of hers. Webster and I are slowly exploring the area and recently spent a very happy hour at the Eddie Basha Collection of American Western and American Indian Art, which is 1) an amazing place and 2) just up the road from us. Very cool.
Webster has been worrying for some time that, after so many years of working and in a fairly responsible position, I would be bored or feel demoted or something. And maybe I will eventually, but so far, this is wonderful. Of course, I'm still worried about what my net income will be (apparently it'll be several months before that will become clear), and super worried about health care (no Kaiser Permanente in Arizona, goddammit), but I'm trying hard not to obsess over those issues. In fact, today I started talking to my new insurance customer service, learning how it works, and discovered that Mayo Clinic has a place only eight miles away, so tomorrow I'm going to find out if my new insurance will cover the primary care physicians there.
Um, little divagation there. Tl;dr: to my surprise, I'm pretty dang happy. I hope you are, too!