Yay, for music!
This was on Saturday. We should celebrate listening and/or making music every day, though. But, some people might need a reminder every so often. The organization that started it, says it's a day to encourage people from around the world to make some sort of music. If they can't, at the very least listen to something that's inspiring or that really resonates with them. Kind of a cool idea.
The weather was crazy on Saturday. It was very rainy and windy. In fact, it apparently had gotten so bad that downtown (along the waterfront) was flooded. The videos I've seen of it are amazing to watch. (One person calls it a 'hurricane' in their vid.) It's like a river opened up over the main road.
The lights flickered occasionally during the day here, but there wasn't any real flooding around us, and the power didn't go out. Just looked really messy outside. Sunday was a bit chilly, but sunny at times. Quite different than the day before. I still feel like I'm slowly coming out of my cold or whatever it was.
I'm a lot better than I was, though. Hoping to start up my sit-ups again on a regular basis. I did them last night and this morning. So, it's a start. Doing 10 sit-ups 2 times a day this week. Somewhere simple to start with. It'd be great if I can get back to my 2-mile walks again, too. Something has been weighing heavily on my mind since Wednesday.
(Although, I feel a lot better today about it.) I was told that I'm off of my health insurance, after I tried to order more of the azathioprine. Funny thing is, I ordered another med on the 2nd, and didn't have any problems with it. In fact, it was cheaper than usual. Which had me really puzzled.
Dad had switched jobs to a local school district recently (she works at the high school that's about a 5 minute walk from home now), and I think the insurance changes over in October. (I'm a dependent on it.) It's supposed to be the same sort of plan, because it's the one offered to all 'educators' in the state. (I think.) Anyways, I decided to put the azathioprine on hold for a few days to see if it was a glitch. It was still the same yesterday. I had to order it, considering I'll run out on the 19th. They still haven't updated the dosage, so I get 20 days of it instead of 30.
They told me I should tell my doctor about it when I got my meds right away, so it's changed for next time. Thank goodness it didn't cost as much as the med I got on the 2nd, if I wasn't covered. Normally, for that one while I'm covered, it's $6. When I ordered it on the 2nd, it was $3. If I wasn't covered, it would have been about $140. Crazy!
That's a huge difference. I read that there might be a waiting period between the switch to the 'new plan'. Some say it might be until the 15th. I'm a little angry about it (ok, maybe more than just a little angry...
), but I'd be so relieved if it did kick in then. Some say it might be as long as 90 days. I can't wait that long...Found out last night that Dad's off of it now for the time being, as well. (She really needs it, too.) So, it kind of feels like I'm falling without a safety net at the moment.
Luckily, I'm pretty stable right now with my IBD. Although, this has caused a bit of stress on it. I was supposed to get a blood draw at the beginning of this month, but knowing that I'm not covered yet, I'm putting it off. It's free while I'm covered, but without it, it can be pretty expensive to have lab work done. They show how much the insurance pays for that and other things on a chart online so you can see how much things would cost. It's interesting to look at if you're covered. If not, it can be scary.
If I do get back on the plan on the 15th, I'll get the blood draw done as soon as I can after that. I'm going to email my gastro about some of this stuff soon.It feels scary also because I still feel new to IBD stuff. I feel I still don't know much about it, even though I'm learning a lot. I read a lot of it also has to do with how each individual's body reacts to it. It's different for everyone. That's also another scary part, since I was very recently diagnosed. Not enough time to really know what it's doing, or what the meds are doing to me. So not being covered feels like throwing me to the wolves this way.
Since I started azathioprine (especially with the most recent dose), I've noticed that my nails have thinned, become soft, and are somewhat rubbery. It's a weird feeling. I noticed it a bit before I upped the dose when I took off a Jamberry nail thing. (They're kind of like really strong stickers or decals for your nails. They have some interesting styles.) It left marks, and part of the inner nail area flaked off. I did it exactly as they told me to. Now my nails easily bend, get little nicks in them, have weird ripples/indents, and can be hard to clip. The hard to clip part is mainly because of that rubbery thing. (I only used the Jamberry samples on my index fingers, so it definitely didn't cause this. So, I'm not downing them.) It's kind of sad.
I'm staying far away from Jamberry now. I only tried it once, but it doesn't sound smart for me right now. I'm even a bit weary of nail polish, but think it might be better for me. I might also be losing muscle mass or 'wasting' slowly. Wasting's such a weird term for it, but that's what people call it. I normally am extremely muscular in my legs. I know, because not only did I do marching band from the beginning of junior high until a few years into college; I took 2 weight training classes. One in high school, and the other in college. Weight training's also a gauge since I could see how much weight certain muscles could stand in my body. I remember the first time I was on the 'sled' in the high school class, I started with the wrong amount of weight. 200 pounds.
It's a machine where you lie back and push up a platform that holds weights with your legs. Normally, people start with maybe 20 pounds at most. The 200 pounds felt like nothing, which impressed the teacher. I was allowed to slowly continue adding weights to it as long as I had a spotter. (He lectured me first about safety with the weights.
) I think I made it close to 400 without much of a problem. I beat a football player who challenged me on it.
Interestingly, I think there were only one or two other girls in that class. It was similar in college. That shows you how strong my legs can naturally be. I also had to walk uphill to a lot of my classes in college, getting my 'cougar' calves. (The cougar is their mascot.) I also had to walk to school and back in junior high and high school. Sometimes I had to walk to and from several times, because of band stuff or clubs. Anyways, I'm noticing that those muscles seem to be shrinking. I'm getting bonier in those areas. I don't want to lose them. I'm losing fat in those areas too, but I feel the muscles themselves are going as well. I don't feel as strong there. My upper arms feel weaker, too. It's a weird feeling.
I'm getting close to finishing Rurouni Kenshin. I don't really want it to end. The art just kept getting better and better. Seems pretty high quality for the time, too. The current arc is a bit weird. It's on feng shui, and how people are exploiting others through it. I wonder how the series will end? There are still movies, OVAs (Original Video Animation- usually either like a special or an original story based on the series. They can be a few episodes long), and 3 live-action movies. The live-action ones are rather new, and would also be very interesting. There are parts of the show that seem kind of 'magical', but are usually explained in a real life sort of way. So, I totally think it can be pulled off in live-action. I think I've watched one of the OVAs a long time ago. It was before I watched an episode of the actual series. I think it was called Rurouni Kenshin: Trust and Betrayal, and it was a lot more tragic and sad. I might watch it again, along with the other stuff I haven't seen, after I'm through with the series. I think I'll go in chronological order. The first thing is a movie from 1997.
The finale of Kekkai Sensen or Bloodline Battlefront was finally put out last week.
They postponed it for close to 3 months. It was roughly twice as long as a normal episode. I really love this series, so it was nice that they made it longer. I don't like that they made the fans wait for so long.
I get maybe having a couple weeks for a break, but 3 months? I read that one of the issues was that there were scheduling problems. Many people had complained in the comments section even after the finale that things seemed too random, it was too fast, and they didn't know what was happening. It sure didn't seem random to me, and even though it was pretty complex and quick, I understood most of it.
But, I like those ones that make you think. They still didn't answer a lot of things, but I think part of what made it good was the many little mysteries scattered throughout. (Of course, the humor was a huge plus.) It had a very bittersweet ending. Ghost or White disappeared. (She called herself Ghost at first to Leo.) I think she passed away, but gave Black (her brother) the power of the barrier. I think they got rid of the 'King of Despair', who was like the king of the vampires that hid in Black. He would take him over repeatedly, and had the opposite personality. (His eyes would go from blue to red, and he styled his hair differently.) I say he might have disappeared, because at the very end we heard the tune that the 'King' is always whistling coming from someone else. We don't see their face, but their back. There were hints of a possible 2nd season. Libra welcomed someone new at the very end. Again, they didn't really show this person. Leo's sister was shown at the end reading his letters while in her wheelchair at a park. Someone is behind her. She opens her eyes, and it seems like something happened with hers as well. I was thinking halfway through the series that maybe she's blind, but her eyes looked 'special'. Not like Leo's, but like they didn't have pupils, grey, and almost like she had galaxies in them. I'm wondering if the person behind her really read the letters out loud to her while she held them...(All we hear is Leo's voice reading it out.) We don't really know. Someone said White wasn't in the manga. She's pretty central to this season of the anime, but maybe that means there's even more of a possibility for it coming back. There are plenty of 'bad' guys left, too. I'd love a 2nd season, but hopefully they'd plan it better if it happens.
I don't know if I mentioned it, but I started watching the 2nd season of Kuroko no Basket or Kuroko's Basketball. It seems even more interesting this season. I think there's one more season to the series so far. I'm thinking of watching the 2nd season of Haikyuu that's currently airing, soon. Another sports themed one. Haikyuu revolves around volleyball.
He's pretty powerful, but never became one of the great sages like Shion. He's resentful towards him, and considers Shion a failure of a human being. He apparently has the power to use the dead to fight, can kill and bring back people alive instantly, can pop in and out of people's mouths, and has some sort of black fire. Interesting. After the tournament, Shion promised a couple, their kid, and their cat that they'd be able to be neighbors in his dragon, Sieg. His dragon is like his son. He found his egg buried somewhere, and took care of it. His home is inside the dragon. It looks like there's a whole village inside, though. But, he along with Emma, Luu, and their cat are the only ones that live there. Shion was really lonely with just his cat there for a while, and thought it'd be great to have neighbors someday. The family also couldn't go back to where they came from, so it would be perfect. Interesting to see how it unfolds. And, after this part of the greater Magico ritual, what's next?Yesterday, I drew a skull with a candle coming out of it, that'll be used in the cover art for my nightmare anthology. I finished it remarkably quickly. At least, for me it was quick. Turned out much better than I expected, too.
Didn't have to edit much in Photoshop. I'll color it in Photoshop and on my drawing pad to see which is better. (Color the candle, and maybe darken parts of the skull.) I'll use the best one. Then, I have to decide on a background color, any effects I want, and the title stuff. It's progressing much faster than I expected. Getting kind of exciting.
After I finish the cover art, I might do one more read through, and then I'll submit it to Smashwords. Then, it's a waiting game. The first approval will put it in their normal catalog. Then, after the 2nd approval, it's put into their 'premium' catalog and distributed to various online retailers. I think it took about 2 weeks for my first novel to go through the whole process. I've decided to call it: Sweet Endless Terror: An Anthology of Nightmares.
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