Wednesday, February 12, 2025

14th of Shevat

It’s been a while. This whole past week was weird. I was supposed to get my hospital bed last Monday (on 2/3), and they were also supposed to ‘pick up’ my old hospital bed that day. The weather was really awful. We had gotten some snow and ice. It was so bad, my parent said the schools she works for were closed. The Apria driver did call me about postponing it, considering it was so bad out. He said he’d call me on Tuesday at around 9am or 9:30am. I never heard from him after that. The weather was bad for most of the week. Schools were closed most of week, except for Friday. That was a 2 hour delay. I have a feeling they didn’t call because of the weather. It was forecast to be really cold out this week. Not much snow in the forecast. It was ridiculous to be waiting so long. Especially with no word from them.


On Monday, they called me at around 12:30pm. I was going to call them after I had lunch. So, perfect timing. They had apparently called my parent just before me. I have her as my emergency contact. They have my info, but for some reason they’ve contacted my parent instead. It’s weird. It was like that with the previous bed. Anyways, they finally did it. They attached some of the old bed parts to the new one, which was interesting. The new one’s fully electric. Different than last time. Just a press of a button to have the whole thing go up and down. There was a crank with the old one. The family room looks really empty downstairs now. My bedroom looks more ‘busy’. I managed to get the hospital table where I wanted it. Parent helped a lot with bringing it upstairs. I almost had to throw it in my room. I can still get to the closet with it. Should be interesting to see what it’s like for bed baths. The bed itself is pretty comfy. 


I still need to dust more in my room. I wasn’t really using it as my room for close to 5 years. A little weird to get back to. I’ll vacuum it more and go through my clothes and other things. Hopefully I'll have the energy to do stuff like that. 


I ordered calendars last night. The previous calendars were stuck on December 2020. I got the Jewish calendar this afternoon. That’s pretty fast. It’s from the same museum that did my previous Jewish calendars. They showcase a different artifact (sometimes 2) a month. I don’t like the new packaging. They went without plastic with a slight overhang. I had to cut that off. They still have the Torah portions or parsha, phases of the moon, Shabbos lighting times, National and Jewish holidays (I think they even have things like Ramadan as well), and more. It’s usually a nice calendar. Last night, I also searched for a secular calendar. I was planning to get a chemical element one, like I had last time. That was a really cool one. Apparently they stopped making them in 2023. I looked for an herbs/spices one, which I had before. Nothing. Then I did a generalized search. They had a Pusheen calendar. I had one in the past and liked it. The problem was it wouldn’t get here until March, and I want it sooner. I was surprised with the sample that they even had Shavuot on there. That’s kind of rare for secular calendars. I found one that was called Passport to the World. It has pics of places from around the world. I think I had a calendar in the past with the same company. They’re French. They have French, Spanish, and English for everything. It might have pretty pics. I think that’s supposed to be delivered on Friday.


I also might look into getting a clock for my room. I already have an idea of where I’ll put it. I’d like it to not tick. I’m a little nervous about how to put it up on the wall. Maybe my parent can help me. I just want a simple one. I’m going to have to get rid of my stereo at some point. It doesn’t really work anymore.


My little TV is old (I think I got it just before I went to college in 2003), and it only plays my old Sega Genesis games. All the other channels don’t work. I want a new nice and small TV. I’ll take down my ace flag, and put it up there. Maybe have a sound bar underneath it. Maybe eventually get a game console with games. I think my parent got a Playstation for us, but it would be interesting to have something like that in my room as well. She can play with me, too. I have some ideas for the future in my room. It seems fun that way.


The Saturday before that Monday (the day I was supposed to get the bed) the Got Junk people came by. They were supposed to be here at 11am, but they came at like 10:30am. They took my bed, the headboard, and the stuff that was under the bed. I was nervous to know what was under there. I thought there would be like a ton of spiders, mice, or Rosie’s poop. None of that craziness. I found my certificate from when I ‘graduated’ from swimming lessons as a kid. Found a few of Rosie’s toys. She must have brought them there. I saved her fave big yellow ball and ladybug plush toy. It’s kind of an angry looking ladybug. I saw my old posters. There was a wooden slab. My desk used to be made of 2 short blue bookcases and a wooden slab/plank over it. I have a real one now. I think what I have now was my mom’s. I certainly didn’t need that huge piece of wood anymore. I’m glad they took most of it away. My parent, on Friday (I think), vacuumed the area that was underneath. There were a lot of dust bunnies and small pieces of debris. Now it’s even better. I didn’t have the energy by then to vacuum it myself. We had it ready for a while this way.


Last Saturday I also had a haircut appointment. I was worried the Got Junk people would take so long that I’d have to cancel it. Luckily, they were quick. They were done before around 11am. I got another buzzcut. A little cold for right now, but it’s so easy to take care of. I had a lot of grey or white hairs. Kind of surprised me. Yet again, she didn’t charge me. She does it because she feels that’s what she can do to help me. When she found out I had cancer, that’s how she felt about it. I feel guilty about it sometimes.


Afterwards, we went to Isla Bonita for lunch. I got their burrito blanco. One of my faves at other Mexican places, so I wanted to see what theirs was like. It was very good. Leftovers made for another great lunch.


After that we went to Starbucks. (I think we went home in between.) Apparently my parent had lost her wallet. The Apple Pay wasn’t working, so I paid for everything. A little difficult for me, considering I don’t get much through ssi.


After that we went to Walmart. I needed a surge protector and my parent needed Tums. I bought both of them, since Apple Pay didn’t work there. I needed the surge protector for my new all electric hospital bed, iPhone charger, and watch charger. The other outlet is for my lamp on my nightstand. So, it was another thing to prepare for the new bed. I’m surprised the iPhone charger works as well. It’s pretty old, but I haven’t used it in a long time. Hopefully it’ll work for a while. I think we might have gone to Petco, too. Rosie needed more cat litter. Apple Pay did eventually work there.


I tried to take a cramp med that my parent gave me during the week. Did it for 3 nights, and didn’t have any cramps those nights. It might interact with my other meds, so I decided to have it when I have cramps at night. That hasn’t happened yet. I’m unsure if it’s safe for me to take on a regular basis.


We decided to go out on Thursday. Kind of felt stir crazy. We went to Starbucks again, which I think I paid for it again. (We tried the Apple Pay again, and it didn’t work.) I tried one of their new sandwiches: pesto egg and mozzarella. It was really hot at first. It was good. The gingerbread latte wasn’t as great as I expected.


We went to Safeway for dinner stuff, and Central Market that night for dessert stuff. I think I got broccoli chicken Alfredo. I got a fruit tart for dessert from their new bakery area. My parent was able to use Apple Pay at both places. Thank goodness. I went through the self checkout and I had to tilt the fruit tart at a weird angle. It made some of the fruit pieces slide off.


We went to the Olive Garden for dinner Friday night. They actually had Apple Pay, and my parent had no problems with it. I got chicken and gnocchi soup, fettuccine Alfredo with broccoli, and tiramisu for dessert. There wasn’t enough gnocchi in the soup. I think I had like 3 in the whole thing. There was way too much broccoli in the fettuccine Alfredo. Like more than a head’s worth. The tiramisu was frozen in parts. Once I thought the cream/custard was like ice cream, it was better. Had half of the fettuccine Alfredo with broccoli and had the leftovers for lunch on Saturday. It seemed like quite a lot still.


Did weekly grocery shopping at Central Market on Saturday. Parent found some decent bananas. I got 2 dinners and 2 desserts. One being a broccoli and cheddar quiche, and the other dinner their mac and cheese. I had half of the mac and cheese Saturday night. Got a hazelnut chocolate cupcake from their new bakery area, and a cherry pie slice. The cupcake that night was a bit weird. The frosting/nuts/chocolate syrup was good, but the cake part had like an herb. I couldn’t place it. I got tired of having the oatmeal cookies, and got snickerdoodles this time. We also got hot dark chocolate. We still have small marshmallows, so why not?


Went to Safeway on Sunday. There’s a new flavor of the cereal I get. I normally get the maple pecan Honey Bunches of Oats. It’s one of the few cereals that doesn’t turn into tasting like sand. The new flavor is chocolate Honey Bunches of Oats. I thought about it. It would only be 3 more grams of sugar. I decided to get my usual, but I might try the new one soon. For a dinner, I got grilled chicken with green beans and mashed potatoes. It also has some garlic and herb butter. I added BBQ sauce to the chicken and the butter mostly on the green beans. I got tiramisu cake for dessert. There was a big one that was like 500 calories, and the one I got was 210 calories. I don’t need a lot. The chicken with BBQ sauce (it was one I haven’t had before) was really good, same with the rest of it. The cake is probably tasty, too.


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Tuesday, January 28, 2025

28th of Tevet

I managed to cook again on January 18th! (I do want to try to cook every Saturday.) Yay! I wanted something with sausage that time. The recipe was also from a pin on Pinterest called Cheesy Kielbasa Pasta. I had to tweak it quite a bit. They were out of beef kielbasa, so I used beef smoked sausage. It was 12 oz instead of a pound, too. I think it was plenty. I used more of the prepared diced onion from the week before. That cooked to basically nothing just like the dinner the week before. I added a lot more garlic. Added twice the amount of Italian seasoning, because I used regular canned diced tomatoes instead of Italian style diced tomatoes. I think it just needed more seasonings and garlic to match it. I used regular chicken broth instead of reduced-sodium. There was also milk, penne pasta, a little black pepper, and shredded cheese. They had the exact combo mentioned for the cheese, and it was also exactly 2 cups which was what it called for. At the end, they have you add salt and more pepper to taste. I didn’t need more salt because of the regular chicken broth. Added just a little more pepper, though. It ended up really good. Nice and flavorful. According to the recipe it made 6 servings. Like the last thing I made, I did my own 6 servings. I just was giving myself whatever amount I wanted. The last serving was just a little less than the rest, but that’s ok. I like that I was close with it. It was pretty much the same that week.


I was sick starting on last week’s Monday and Sunday night. I couldn’t sleep very well the night before Monday. Just before I went to bed, Sunday night, I checked my temperature. It was at 100.3°F. I had a sore throat, too. I checked my temperature in the morning the next day and it was 100.9°F. So, it was still going up. At some point, I was really sweating and couldn’t get comfortable. I checked it again just before lunch, and it was down to 98.8°F. My norm is around 96.6°F. I was getting there. I don’t know how I got sick. I try to be aware of when I go out somewhere. It’s kind of rare for me to get sick like this. I still feel a little sick. My throat still gets sore occasionally. Cough drops kind of helped. I’ve stopped having them on a regular basis. Got more just in case. Managed to feel good enough to really get to my bed bath today. I also didn’t do my walks most of the time I was really sick. Didn’t make anything on Saturday night. Still felt sick enough I couldn’t do it. I looked at and decided on 3 more interesting possible recipes for the next few Saturdays. So, I did something about it.


I finally got something from Social Security. I think they approved me to continue with it. However, they’ll take about $98 from what they pay me, because they say they overpaid me. It was every month’s amount they were giving me. I think they did it because I didn’t know something was a ‘resource’. I was never asked about it either, until they saw it. They said I can try to get a waiver. If I do, there are 2 things to it: it has to feel unfair, and a hardship. It does feel unfair, but it’s not really a hardship. I got ssi in order to get healthcare. (I can appeal it, but it’s kind of a long process.) It’s weird that they’ll also be increasing the pay most people get this year. I think they’ll pay me next at the end of the month. At least I still have it.


Today, I did 4 or 5 lessons on Duolingo’s Spanish course. Finished all 3 quests for the day. Finished this month’s challenge/quest a while ago. I’m in the Diamond League now. It’s like their highest league. I was in it last week as well. I wasn’t able to be promoted. I was 13th in it at the end. (If you’re promoted you go into a Diamond League tournament.)  I ended up at 1st place today. Maybe I’ll be promoted this time? I’m impressed, because it’s such a competitive league. 


Started watching (a week from last Sunday) Connected. The 1st episode was on surveillance. How we watch everything, and what it teaches us. It wasn’t a bad thing. Very interesting. I started watching the new season of The UnXplained with William Shatner this Sunday. When I’m done with that, I’ll go back to Connected. I decided a while back that Sundays I’ll watch documentary/non-fiction/other shows. That’s been interesting.


We went to Central on Sunday. Yesterday we went to Petco and Safeway. Bananas have looked really awful the last few weeks we’ve looked. Found some ok looking ones on Saturday at Central. I got Colby Jack cheese from the deli a week ago. I’m tired of their meats, so I'm making more cheese sandwiches. Apparently, people had won both Powerball and Mega Millions, so both were pretty low. I still got tickets anyways. Even though they’re really low, I’ll still get more than enough to live off of it if I won. Sunday night I tried Central’s broccoli cheddar quiche for dinner. It seemed to be the right size for one person. It was saltier than I expected. Other than that, it was pretty good. I also found a very small red velvet cupcake. Usually I see such big ones, it was almost refreshing to see such a small one. It was very rich and decadent tasting. I was running really low on cereal (had like an 1/8 of a serving left), so I’m glad we went to Safeway to get more yesterday. I was also out of my turkey bacon. Had my last fruit cup yesterday. Got more of the mixed fruit in black cherry gel and mandarin oranges in orange gel. Those are good. Not sure why the mixed fruit one seems soupier. We ran out of big black bags. We especially need them for the puppy pads and trash each week. I also wanted them to start going through the stuff on my old bed. I’m going to throw most of it away. Except for the sherpa blanket. I haven’t really needed it yet this year, but it’s nice to have and soft. Since I was going through cough drops really quickly, I decided to get more. Last time I had the cherry store brand version. This time I got Halls’ black cherry. Hopefully they’re good. They have the same amount of menthol. We got more puppy pads. She really goes through them. We went to Petco this time. Got a toothbrush. It’s been longer than it should be with one brush, so it was time. I never know what to get so I got a medium. It apparently helps whiten teeth. My old one said it flosses as well. I doubt that. I had Safeway’s broccoli and chicken penne Alfredo for dinner yesterday. I think it’s better than Central’s chicken fettuccine Alfredo. The sauce is better and there’s no green onions. It also has broccoli. Good to have a vegetable. I also got their tiramisu cake for dessert, which I had half of as my last snack yesterday. It’s one of their best cakes. Although, I really love their Biscoff cookie butter cake. That’s amazing!


I got weird letters in the mail on Friday. They made me worry that I was kicked off of Medicaid or Apple Health. Most of the letters were from Washington Health Plan Finder. So, I called them today. They said I probably have it through Washington’s Healthcare Authority instead. Since I already was on it, they declined me getting on it through them. They said, to be sure, call Healthcare Authority and gave me the number. It was to their customer service. They had an automated thing that checked my status. (It was a little hard to hear.) It said I’m still on it. Thank goodness! I was really worried.


Last Thursday I had an xgeva and doctor’s appointment. I took the Access bus to and from it. Apparently, when my parent came home earlier than me, she said Rosie was crying for me. That was nice. I didn’t think she’d do that. I know she’s close to me, but she had my parent there. Anyways, the xgeva injection was slow and painful. Everyone was running late at the clinic.


I managed to get my primary care doctor to make a referral to get a new hospital bed. I got a call the next day saying they can deliver one that day. Super fast! I wasn’t ready. I moved it to February 3rd. I also made another appointment to take my old hospital bed the same day. I have to find a way to get rid of my old regular bed first. (They don’t move other beds.) That bed is also not good. My parent suggested the Got Junk people. That might be good and easy. I’m a little nervous I might not have a bed if the new one doesn’t work out somehow. It’ll probably be fine. If I don’t have a way to get rid of my old bed by Friday, I’ll call them and reschedule. It’ll be nice to sleep and be in my room again. I need to get a surge protector/power strip for the outlet near my bed. I’ll need it for the bed, iPhone charger, watch charger, and lamp on the nightstand. I need to dust at least near my bed, too. At some point, I might take down my ace flag and get a small TV mounted in that area. That might be nice. 


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