It seems like it was a busy weekend, but I can’t say we did all that much. Hmmm. Maybe we did. Maurice and I have gotten into the bad habit of staying up way too late which means we’ve been sleeping in on the weekends. I don’t recall what we did Saturday, but we did go to Costco. Since I had my gastric bypass surgery we don’t go there as often. No reason to buy a keg of baked beans. But, we did need a few bulk items so we braved the typical craziness there, got what we needed quickly and got out of there.

Even though we enjoy each other’s company on the weekend, we don’t necessarily spend every moment together. For awhile, he was in the living room watching something on TV, while I stayed in the bedroom and watched The Walking Dead. I got caught up on quite a few episodes. We used to like watching it together, but Maurice no longer enjoys it. If I’m watching on the TV, he goes into the bedroom and finds something else to do. He says he doesn’t find the show relaxing. For some very strange reason, I do.

We Voted

Our plan was to drop of our ballots this weekend, but we got a late start with them Saturday night. Some of the votes were easy, such as President, Congressperson, our state senator. We even knew for sure who we wanted as the head of our public schools. Many of the others we weren’t sure about, such as weird candidates like District 3 water resource person. I don’t even know what that person does. (I doubt I got the title right, but it was something like that) There were also a lot of state and county measures on the ballot.

We researched every single position, who supports them and why. Our city council was a difficult one. We live in Los Angeles County, but not actually in the city. We are in a tiny suburb or about 18,000 people. We had no damn clue who was on the city council or who the people were that were running. There was nothing in the papers and we couldn’t find anything else online. There was a 90 minute video on YouTube of the candidates forum, but we really didn’t want to have to watch that riveting video. I don’t remember where, but we did finally find a couple of websites that had information on them. They were the last thing on the ballot we had to worry about. We completed our ballots after 3am Saturday night/Sunday morning. It was much later that we unwound and went to bed. I got about two hours of sleep.

Church Sermon

Our minister at church is putting together two services related to mental illness. He asked several of us that he knows that live with some type if we would participate. I believe most of us had bipolar. Somehow I wound up scheduled to speak at both services. That’s fine because I know exactly what I am going to say at one of them. I’m going to have to give thought at the second one. Part of it is how we overcame and learned to deal with being mentally ill. That’s a tough one for me because I had incredible support from Maurice, friends, and our church congregation. I know too many people that don’t have that kind of support so it makes it difficult to try and let them know that’s what will make it okay…because there’s no guarantee of that.

It’d be so much easier if we belonged to a Christian church. I could say that I survived by trusting in God, or Jesus, or something spiritual like that. Being an atheist, I can’t go that route. I have practiced a lot of Buddhist techniques which certainly helped to pull me through at times, but I can’t say with confidence that it’s what made me more stable and wanting a desire to live. I’ll come up with something.

Podcast

I had scheduled to interview someone on Sunday afternoon. Fortunately, my computer was acting funky so I had to postpone until later this morning. I say it was fortunate because I was only running on two hours of sleep. I had enough bullet points to ask questions, but it would have been a Q&A show rather than conversational. He’s an interesting fellow so I’m looking forward to having a conversation with him rather than an interrogation of questions. I didn’t want him to feel like he was filling out an online dating profile.

Today

I have my interview all set up to go in a couple of hours. Tonight I have to quickly edit and make show notes for last weeks interview which goes out tomorrow. I really hate it when I put these things off.

The good news is the interview, which normally lasts about an hour, is all I have scheduled for the daytime. I can finish up tomorrow’s episode early in the evening. That will give me the entire afternoon to focus on typing some words. As long as I am able to keep my shit together, I’ll be very satisfied with my day.

This Week

The rest of this week looks even better. I have absolutely nothing on my schedule Tuesday through Friday. Know what that means? My focus will be on writing each and every day. I’ll fight being on social media, I’ll fight watching The Walking Dead, I’ll fight researching more about Uruguay. Right now I feel leveled enough to overcome all of that and get some writing done. I’m really looking forward to having some success this week.

The Doctor

I don’t know if I shared that on my right hand my pinky and my ring fever are difficult to work with. The are always numb. It’s been a pain in the ass to do many things, including typing, but. I’ve adapted.

I saw my doctor late last week and told her it’s started in my left hand. The exact same feelings except with the added sharp pain in my palm. That’s normally a pretty solid sign of carpel tunnel, but it concerned her. Because of the problems with my right hand, she has scheduled me for some CAT scans and says she’ll likely send me back to the neurologist. This feels like deja vu. No, that’s not true. This is exactly what I went through before. The neurologist, physical therapy, the neurosurgeon, etc.. They never found the cause with the problem with my right hand. I sure as hell hope they find something with the left hand. When I tried to leave church this morning, I couldn’t crank on the car because of my hands. I had to find our minister and have him turn the key for me. This has been getting worse and has force me to struggle to turn the key while in parking lots. Now I’m afraid to drive somewhere on my own and end up stranded in a place where I can’t get help.

I did tell my doctor about my wacky psychiatrist and she agreed to take over my meds once I drop my pdoc. She talked about sending me to a neuropsychiatrist, rather than a regular psychiatrist. I’ve seen neuropsychologists listed in my insurance directory, but I have no clue what the difference will be. Looks like I may soon find out. If any of you know the difference, let me know in the comments below.

Reading

Next to a writer who’s unable to write, there’s nothing more frustrating than a writer who can’t read. I started Simple Justice last week and the book is outstanding so far. I was eating up every page like a junkie…and then it stopped. I’ve been unable to pick it back up. I’m dying to read more and to see how it ends, but my scattered brain isn’t allowing that to happen. Even in the quietest of places, I read the same page over and over again. Hopefully, since I’ve sworn to give up some of my other vices this week, it will settle me down in the evenings to relax with a good book again.

There are so many classic LGBTQ mystery authors I’m trying to read. At this rate it’s going to take me a decade to catch up.

Time to prepare for my interview that’s coming up shortly and then get down and get some words out. I hope you have a great day! I’m planning on it.