back to life

Did I show you the woodpecker that was outside my office window? Maybe, maybe not.

NOW I WILL!




It was a huge thrill for me to see a woodpecker for some reason. I kept waiting for the Woody Woodpecker song. :D

This afternoon I left the house for a birthday party!!! I went to my BFF's house to celebrate the birthdays of two almost-nephews.

I felt like it was an acceptable risk because everyone attending was a member of the same bubble (except for me) and has been working from home/schooling from home/getting tested on a regular basis, and most of them have been in quarantine for the last month after one of the kids tested positive. Of course I am now having remorse about going, because WHO KNOWS, and I will have to get tested tomorrow.

ANYWAY, it was nice to see everyone and my godson just turned 16 and he got his learning permit, and I gave him a gift card to Home Depot, because doesn't every 16 year old want a gift card to Home Depot? This one does! He's very handy and has started his own car detailing business. His cousin who is a year older was like, "Auntie, he makes me drive him to Home Depot ALL THE TIME so that is the best present!" (I got the cousin $25 in cash and he was just as happy.)

We had cake from Wegman's (cannoli cream omg) and I got to play with dogs (my cats are very suspicious of me now), and get caught up on all the gossip. It was a nice outing, and I'm not sure I'll get to see everyone on Christmas (once again, fraught decisions).

I saw Josh Groban at Tanglewood last night. He was, as expected, delightful. Everything I wanted and MORE.

(Did I ever mention Josh Groban is my fancast for Fingon from Tolkien's Silmarillion? Random Snacky fact.)

Tanglewood is a wonderful place to see a concert. Out in the middle of nowhere, very low key, surrounded by nature -- a perfect place to take a nice long walk, have a drink on the lawn, and hear some great music. If you're ever out in the Berkshires, I highly recommend it!

My mother treated me to the concert, and we stayed overnight rather than drive home last night. Unfortunately we stayed in kind of a terrible dump? My mother was like, "okay, but I got a GREAT deal online" which was good, except we were right on the highway, and I'm pretty sure there was some crack dealing going on. I didn't see any mice or roaches, which was a positive.

Anyway, we were up and out early, to breakfast. My mother claims she has learned a lesson: "nothing cheap online is ever very good" which I don't think is entirely true, but maybe just look at Yelp or something before booking a dump?

After breakfast, we went to the Norman Rockwell Museum, which is also out in the middle of nowhere. It was great driving to all these places, seriously, so beautiful, surrounded by mountains. The NRM is also a great place to walk around and bring a picnic, but if you like Norman Rockwell (I do) and are interested in Americana (I am) and also have a bit of nostalgia for a perfect small town life that you never experienced (I... not really, but it's fun to imagine), this is the place for you! There's an entire gallery just devoted to his Saturday Evening Post covers, and I could study them all day long. The thing I love the most about Rockwell is how every single one of his pictures could tell a detailed story, and there's a lot about that and how he did it in the museum.

From the museum, we treated ourselves to a wonderful lunch at The Red Lion Inn. This place has been around in some form or another since colonial times, and it's a lot of fun to walk through and get the antique vibe. Lunch was great, and if you go, save room for the warm brown sugar cake for dessert. OH MY GOD, SOOOOO GOOD.

I need to find a recipe now.

Hello! It’s minus 8 degrees (F) here and luckily I had the day off for MLK Jr Day, because the roads are RIDICULOUSLY bad after all the snow and ice yesterday. Hopefully they’ll be better tomorrow, because my commute will be awful.

And I only live a 10 minute drive from work, so people who have a REAL commute will have it much worse.

Also I got a cortisone shot in my left knee today! Wheeeeeeee! I know how to have fun on my day off, don’t I? I’m currently icing and elevating it, and hopefully all will be better soon.

I did a lot of reading over the long weekend — I’m currently in the middle of GRRM’s Fire and Blood, or as I like to call it, “Ugh, Targs.” It’s a bit of a slog. For every Targaryen woman I’m enjoying learning about, at least ten die in childbirth, or are married off at age 11, or are sexually abused/raped/imperiled in one way or another. And FYI, fuck Jaehaerys, “greatest Targaryen king ever” my fat ass. All the male Targs should have been set on fire (happily, many of them were!). I think I might have to put the book on hold for a while.

How’s everyone else doing, DW?

Hi DW! I hear this is the place to be! Gotta clean the joint up!

So, how about that Avengers trailer? I maybe teared up at work. I am lucky I have the kind of job where I can a) watch trailers during the day, and b) cry about them. My coworkers felt bad for me, so they bought me sushi for lunch.

But I am ready for the movie RIGHT NOW.

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State of the Snack:

1) Work: going well, see above. Crazy time of year though, and I’m looking forward to the semester break. Looks like a promotion in my future, so that’s something to look forward to.
2) Health: eh. Cancer recurrence, seeing the doctor in January, probably going to have surgery in February. I feel... okay? I’m constantly tired, often weirdly hungry, I am having some side effects from swallowing radiation (salivary gland infections, dental issues) and I no longer sleep well. It could be much worse, I know! But honestly, thyroid cancer is kind of a pain in the ass.
3) Fandom: fun but omg the drama in my corner of the ASOIAF/GoT fandom is just Too Much for a Fandom Old.

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Now remind me to post something every day, and then I can officially call DW home again.

Guys. Guys. So many things I haven't told you. I got a delightful new job, started going to boot camp, AND last night I joined a gym (separate from the boot camp).

( Beneath, find the State of the Snack! )

1) I have no idea what's going on with Livejournal, but it's become next to impossible for me to use at work. Strangely, this is not any of work's doing. There seems to be some problem with Firefox and LJ not playing nice with each other. I can't comment on entries, nor can I read long comment threads (can't expand). I've followed LJ's suggestions, but none of them work. Basically, I'll have to use another browser just to read LJ. SIGH. LJ, I want to keep using you, but you make it so hard. ETA: If you comment on this entry on LJ, I can't reply, it won't let me. :(

2) If you follow me on the Facebook, you will have seen this already, but if not, here's Snacky health news: I am having an MRI today to determine a diagnosis for my back and leg pain. The x-rays already showed arthritis (severe facet arthopathy was the term used), so the MRI is to figure out why I have terrible nerve pain and numbness in my legs (spinal stenosis is a suspect).

So I have to lie flat and unmoving on my back for 35 minutes for the MRI. Aaaaaand due to the pain, that's one thing I have a lot of trouble doing. I've been practicing for a week, can only make it to 12 minutes without moving. So my wonderful doctor has given my a combo of sedatives and pain pills to take, in the hope that I will be able to make it the entire 30 minutes.

Basically I will be doped out of my mind. :D Which is probably good, since I've been having massive anxiety about this whole thing.

3) So I think my new boss is a bit of a flake. First there was the whole review thing where she tried to give me a review for a year when she only supervised me for 6 weeks. Yesterday, she sent out the new edition of our email newsletter, and asked me to link to it on the website, FB, and Twitter. She asked me the same thing last month, and I said I couldn't link to an email, unless she had a link to give me, since I can't just link to inboxes. But she didn't have a link, since she builds it as an email in Constant Contact. So I suggested that I would make a news post on our website and FB and Twitter about it, and link to our sign-up form, so people could sign up to receive the email. And she said, "Oh, that's a great idea!" So that was what we did last month.

I reminded her we had this conversation last month, and she was like, "Oooooh. Right. Well, can you recreate it on the website?" I told her I could, but it wouldn't look exactly like the email, since she's using Constant Contact's templates, but I could recreate it the best I could. "Won't that be too much work?" she asked, and I said, not really, if that's what she wanted me to do. But then I reminded her that the reason she wanted an email newsletter was so that people would sign up and give us their contact info, which she wants for funding/donor campaigns, and if we put the newsletter on the website, aren't we defeating that purpose? "Good point!" said she. "Keep doing what you're doing!"

I'm wondering if we'll have this conversation again next month.

So, in June, my old laptop died. It was a five year old Macbook. I replaced it with a new Macbook Pro, which is running the latest version of OS X - Mountain Lion.

In July, my old desktop died. It was a seven year old iMac. I was mainly using it as a backup to the laptop, and I stored all my music on it, because it was so old and ran so slow and basically had no more upgrades left in it. It didn't even have enough memory to upgrade the OS, so it was still running Snow Leopard.

I did not replace it, because I had just bought a new computer. I pulled all the music and files I needed off the backup drive, and said goodbye.

Last week, my modem died. I had kind of forgotten how old it was - eleven years old. So, not a surprise it died, I guess. Anyway, Verizon sent me a new one, free of charge. And I set up the new network, everything worked, super easy, la la la.

Except for the wireless printer. Which can see the new network, but can't log into it. You have to set up the login with the wireless printer connected via USB to the computer.

But the computer is too new, and the printer is too old (four years old) to do this. HP doesn't update the drivers to work with Mountain Lion. It took three phone calls to HP to determine this.

Now, if the old iMac hadn't died first, it would have been easy to set it up using that, with the old OS. But no, everything fell apart in the wrong order.

So now I have a wireless printer that still prints, but not wirelessly, and my mother can't print at all, since she's got a Chromebook and can ONLY print wirelessly.

Obviously my house is under a technology curse (downstairs neighbor had to get a new modem last week too).

It's tax-free weekend in MA. I am buying a new printer, and giving the old one to my brother.

Nothing else better die.

Thank you to everyone who called and texted and tweeted to check in with me yesterday. I wasn't in Boston. My nephew was down by the finish line, but he's fine. Understandably upset, but fine. He smartly called his parents immediately after it happened, before cell phone service was shut down, and they called the rest of the family, and we knew he was okay, but oh, it was still such a relief when he called me and I heard his voice.

I am just so relieved and thankful that everyone I know and love is okay, and so heartsick and grieving for those who weren't as lucky.

I used to live in Boston, and worked in Kenmore Square, ages ago. My company was always closed on Patriot's Day, as the Marathon route went right by our front door. But my coworkers and I used to go in and watch from the roof, and cheer the runners on. I've also waited at the finish line for friends, cheering on everyone who crossed.

And what keeps going through my mind is "Why? How could they do that? There are families there, there are kids there, don't they know that? Don't they understand? It's the Marathon!"

And of course they understood. Of course they knew that. They packed the explosives with projectiles, to do the most harm possible. They wanted to cause that kind of destruction, grief, and terror.

I don't think the answer to "why?" which I suppose will come when they catch the person responsible for this, will ever make any kind of sense to me.

My friend told me on Easter that she thinks she's developed an allergy to peanut butter.

Friend: I've eaten a lot of peanut butter eggs this year. A lot. *shifty eyes* I had to buy the kid's Easter candy twice. And I started getting a rash on my chest. So I think I might be allergic to peanut butter now. My father developed a peanut allergy when he was 60, and I'm afraid I might be developing it now.
Me: That sounds like you are! *explains how my allergy (not to peanut butter) started with a rash*
Friend: But I love peanut butter! How will I live without peanut butter?!
Me: I don't know but you'll --
Friend: -- maybe it's the chocolate! Maybe it's not the peanut butter?
Me: I suppose you could try them separately?
Friend: I had peanut butter crackers the other day, and I got the rash.
Me: ...so not the chocolate then.
Friend: Well, everything else is fine! I mean, my tongue doesn't swell up, and my throat doesn't close, and my lips don't feel fuzzy, so...
Me: ...so the plan is keep eating peanut butter until full-blown anaphylaxis sets in?
Friend's Sister: THANK YOU!

I'll keep you updated, if she goes into a Reese's peanut butter cup related coma.

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I went to the dentist again yesterday. Words you never want to hear from a dental professional: "Wow, your gums look like hamburger."

:(

We are trying something with the crown, to hopefully heal my gums and my irritated tooth. My dentist is a loon, but he's a good guy.