The Insanity Continues

When I got up this morning, I did not want to walk but told myself that means that I really should. But for some reason I just didn't. But it's a good thing that I didn't because my left ankle has been bothering me all morning. When I go to take a step, it twinges and I'm afraid it won't hold my weight.

I put fresh batteries in my scale last night and I weighed myself last night and again this morning. I lost three pounds over night? How is that possible?

I only sat for ten minutes before taking my blood pressure this morning.

For some reason, the email with the pictures of my blood pressure (121/54), glucose (136), and the screen shot of what I weigh (344) is not sending. I've sent it to my two personal emails and my work email and it still has not arrived. I even tried a third personal email but nothing. Is anyone else having this issue with gmail? Normal emails will come in like normal but not emails with pictures.

They finally arrived.

I'm a bit worried. My electric bill hasn't arrived yet (I'm paperless so I usually have an email with my bill by this point in the month). When I looked at my account, it shows the project total is around $50. I hope the bill arrives soon and that it is less than $100.

I should really stop eating after I get off. I need to get my glucose back under 100.

A week or so ago, I noticed that it was darker than I like in my bedroom despite having the ceiling fan light and the lamp on. Thursday or Friday of last week I noticed that one of the bulbs in the ceiling fan light was out. This one bulb has been replaced once already since I moved in. Maintenance fixed it for me, they were in for something else and I asked about it because the bulb was not fully connected to the part that screws into the socket. The fact that it has gone out again tells me they did not sue a new bulb. I forgot to take it to the store with me over the weekend but I now have it with my purse to take it this weekend.

On 4/3, my boss sent me an email about my rate increase. I'm getting a 3% increase. I think she's only allowed to give us between 1% and 5%. I don't think I've ever gotten more than 3%. While I love getting a raise, I really wish it was more like several dollars instead of less than a dollar. My increase is only $.60 more an hour. I'm still making about $10 less than I should be considering I have over twenty years experience in data entry.

For some reason the pictures of my blood pressure (119/63) and glucose (134, I had some buttered bread around 6 last night) have not showed up in my inbox. I also emailed myself some videos from TikTok and they haven't showed up either.

I am tired of some things in my life so I decided enough was enough and I'm going to get into the habit of doing them.

Friday, I took the trash out as has become my habit. Then at 9pm I turned the air down (I have free electricity from 9pm until 6am) and went to start cleaning the bathroom (I have some things that need worked on and I don't like having maintenance in when my bathroom is gross).

When I first started, my stomach was a bit dicey but not too bad, so I decided to push through. But I also debated about not cleaning due to the massive heat rash I had from my huge apron belly. But I told myself those were just excuses and I could do this. So, I slapped some Gold Bond on the heat rash and got to work.

Normally, when I clean, I'll do an area of whatever room I'm cleaning (like the cabinet), then take a break. I repeat this until I either finish or fall asleep. This time, I decided I didn't want to risk falling asleep before I was done, so I pulled out an old method.

Back when I was on Tumblr, I found a blog called UnFuck Your Habitat that was all about helping people learn how to clean.

The person who runs(ran) it strongly discouraged marathon cleaning. Marathon cleaning has a different meaning for just about everyone but they defined it as cleaning a whole area without taking a break. That is the fastest way to burn yourself out and then nothing gets done.

They strongly encourage the use of what they call 20/10's or 45/15's. What this is, is cleaning for 20 or 45 minutes then taking a 10 or 15 minute break. I have used this method with varying degrees of success over the years.

I had to download the app again. You can find it in Apple's App Store and should be able to find it in the Google Play Store. Just search UFYH. It's called UnFilth Your Habitat. When I first got it, it was $.99, not sure if it still is.

I turned on some music and hit the timer for my first 20/10. I barely made it 10 minutes before I had to take a break. Cleaning for 20 minutes was causing my body to shut down and I just could not do that. Hopefully, once I get used to cleaning regularly again, I can use this method. But for now, I have to do it the only way I can.

So, I cleaned the counter, the mirror, the toilet, and the little cabinet I have next to the toilet (with breaks in between as needed). I started on the shower next. In hindsight, I should have left the shower for last. The glass has so much soap scum that it is going to take several cleanings for it to get fully clean. I had just started cleaning the floor of the shower when my power scrubber died.

But that was okay because I was done for the night. I rinsed the floor, took a break to give the floor time to become less slippery, then took a shower.

I realized sometime yesterday that I could have cleaned the tub because I don't use it so all I had to do was dust the edges and pour some water on the inside to get it clean. *face palm*

Saturday, I went to the store and then at 9pm, turned the air down and went to start cleaning. But I got dizzy on my way from the living room to the bathroom. I tried to work through it but just couldn't. I did wash the bath mats and sweep the floor. Next weekend I will finish the bathroom and get started on the living room and kitchen.

I was going to walk this morning but I'm still a bit dizzy. I'm thinking it's because I've started taking the diuretic again. Maybe I'll be okay to walk tomorrow.

When at the store this weekend, I bought some candy (I really like the Cadbury Mini Eggs) and had been having a craving for chips and salsa, so got some of that too. And that is why my glucose is so high, I think.

I hate to admit this, but I used to not always wash my hands after using the bathroom while at home. In public and after pooping, always, but when I peed? Not always.

Until Covid, that is. Once we started working from home, I would scratch my nose and notice that my finger stunk, so I started washing my hands EVERY time I used the bathroom, except when I get up during the night.

I don't wash my hands during the night because I refuse to risk waking myself up so much that I can't fall back asleep by turning on the light (learned this trick while pregnant) and I have this thing about mirrors in dark rooms (thanks to the Doctor Who episode 'The Family of Blood').

A couple of months ago I had to stop using name brand soap because I couldn't afford it on that trip to the store. But a couple of weeks ago, I could and bought name brand again. I'm thinking they changed the formula for the type I use because my hands STINK even after washing them. I bought two big refill bottles so I'm not sure what I'm going to do (I really cannot afford to just throw out these two bottles).

Hopefully, I'll get used to the scent?

It's Rex Manning Day!

If you know, you know. ;-P

It's been a rough morning. I went to bed feeling good, I was prepared to get up and walk and take an everything shower and get dressed and make my bed. But then I got up feeling like crap. This crazy weather has given me a cold. My throat hurts, my head is stuffy, and I'm coughing and sneezing.

I had ordered some meringue cookies off TikTok shop and they arrived yesterday. And of course, the delivery guy couldn't find my apartment. I got the notice they had been delivered but they weren't on my doorstep so I went looking for them. I ran into the guy in the parking lot behind my building so it's all good. But I was prepared to walk around all three buildings until I found them.

The flavors I got are vanilla (don't really taste like much), cookies & cream (there's a hint of chocolate sandwich cookie), key lime pie (very strong lime flavor), and caramel (my favorite of the four).

I had some of the cookies as late as 7 last night and that's what I blame for my glucose being over 100. As for my blood pressure, I didn't sit entirely still for several minutes before taking it and I'm currently not taking the diuretic or the one blood pressure med my doctor took me off of. Just a few more days I'll be taking the diuretic again.

I saw a TikTok recently that talked about the struggle of fantasy writers to come up with names of their characters. She said that she takes names of towns and rivers and streams and uses those.

I've always wondered why fantasy writers don't just use a baby name site and look for unique names. That's what I do, not that I write fantasy. When I need a name for a new character, I go to a baby name site and look for names that mean a specific thing, but only if a name doesn't come to me while I'm plotting the story.

How do you come up with names for your characters?

I forgot to mention something that happened last week.

Back in 2023, I had to move out of my old apartment quickly. The old apartment wanted to raise my rent ~$300. I felt this wasn't right since I had lived there since 2015 and my unit was not updated and roach invested.

Because I refused to pay for even one more month there, I had to move on 2/25. I work in accounting so we are not allowed to take off the first ten days and the last day of each month. I have lived in a total of three apartments since I left my ex and this is the first one that doesn't take section 8.

As a result, I am used to my lease running through the end of the month regardless of when I actually moved in. For example, I moved into my old apartment in the middle of March 2015 but my lease ended on the last day of February.

I expected that here but I guess it doesn't? I honestly don't remember what the dates of my lease were when I signed it last year. I did notice it this year, that's why I'm mentioning it.

Anyway, Thursday, I received a note on my door. I always get nervous when the office leaves a note on my door. This time it wasn't anything bad; it was the notice about my lease renewal. It said that my lease ends on 5/24. I fully expected it to end on 5/31.

I cannot remember when I received it last year, I'm guessing in late December because when I moved in I signed a twelve month lease. And they require a 60 day notice to vacate.

The lease options are for one month up to fifteen months. I will never understand why someone would rent an apartment for less than six months. I get that some people do it while they're having their house renovated but I would rent a furnished apartment for that so I don't have to unpack and then pack again so soon. But that's just me.

Anyway, I chose the fifteen month option because it only increased my rent $6. The new option list shows the same amount for the fifteen month lease. So naturally I chose that one. I'm just waiting for the office to approve it.

I forgot to mention this in my post this morning.

The company I work for has two suites because pre-pandemic there were too many employees for just one. The higher ups decided that we would stay remote (with the exception of those who need to go into the office) after lock down was lifted because so many people already were remote.

Because of this, we do not need both suites.

And as I write that, I realize that they are getting rid of both suites and moving to a smaller location instead of just closing one of them.

What I mean by that is, we received an email the week before my vacation saying they were closing the office and we needed to go clear out our desks. I took that to mean they were just closing the suite that my team used. But today we were told that we need to leave our badges. So, I'm guessing that they are closing both suites.

I went to clear out my desk last week, not that there was much left.

In 2023, I had to go to the office one day over the summer because my apartment lost internet access. When I got there, I found my keyboard (I have two, one that stays(ed) at my house and one for the office from when we went into the office one day a week) on a different desk. I thought they had just moved the keyboards for some reason, but they had moved the mouse and the USB thing (they're wireless). It took me about ten minutes to figure all that out. I'm still confused as to why they didn't just sit at my desk or my coworkers if they wanted to use her keyboard (she has one of those that's ergonomic).

And the shelf over my desk looked like someone had messed with my nick-knacks. So, I took everything I didn't need in order to do my job home.

I only had two things left. A desk blotter and a phone charger. I went through the little file cabinet attached to my desk and doubled checked the shelf. There is nothing left.

We have to have everything out by Friday but I know I can't get back over there until Saturday and another coworker lives a couple of hours away now. Hopefully we can leave our badges Saturday.

I got this from pattrose

1.Do you like your birth-name? Why?
I do now. Growing up I went to school with three other girls named Melissa. Then I moved and became friends with another Melissa. I have even worked with a Melissa twice. My family used to call me Missy (my SIL still does). I can't explain why I like it now other than I've had it for over 50 years and it's mine.

2. If you could change your name to anything else, what would it be?
Growing up I wanted to be called Tracy. Not sure why but I really liked it.

3) What names would you consider giving your children?
I have one child that I named Victoria Rose. When I found out I was pregnant my ex said if it was a boy he wanted to name it Johnathan Harley (call him Harley because he is obsessed with Harley Davidson). I originally wanted to call my daughter Randi Jo but when combined with my ex's last name it was an immediate no-go. Then I thought Alexis Lynn but again when combined with the last name it was difficult to pronounce even if she was called Alex (plus my mother said she refused to call her Alex).

4) If you had a band, what would you name it, and why?
My Favorite Band. Because it's funny. Imagine telling someone you're going to a concert. When they ask which band you reply, 'My Favorite Band' and they say, 'Sure, but what's the name of this band?' Cue a 'Who's on First' type of conversation.

I got this idea by the band in The Fosters, 'Someone's Little Sister'.

5) Is there a name that you completely hate? Why?
I don't think I have ever come across a name I dislike. My SIL hates the name Charles (her father and the father of her oldest have that name (my brother also has that name but we call him Chuck)).