9th of Av

 It’s been a while. I had hoped to blog more often. Maybe I can now. I guess I’ll go over my most recent things.

I started going back to my ‘diet’. It’s where I try to have a certain range of calories for each meal. That being 240-320 calories. It was a bit hard at first, but I’ve been getting the hang of it. For the whole day, the range is 1200 calories to 1600 calories. I have 5 ‘meals’. 5 small meals, I was told when I was diagnosed with IBD, is better on my gut than having 3 big meals a day. Plus, most of the time you don’t feel as hungry in between meals. I have already noticed small changes. I think it’ll work to help me feel healthier and lose weight. Last time I did it for a while, it really helped. I’ve also noticed how big things are again. I’ve noticed how little I can have for a meal. Having a full serving of my cereal and a little milk ends up being like 230 calories. I can’t really have a banana anymore with breakfast. (If I have the cereal. Might have it as part of a snack instead.) Can’t have the sausage patties or turkey bacon with it either. Having plain frozen pancakes and a little syrup is about in the middle of my range. It’s interesting. I also thought of it as like a game. Like you can only ‘pay’ with 1200-1600 calories. However, the weekend is usually my ‘splurge’ days. Especially for dinners. For those days, I might try to have 1800 calories or just a little more. I’m trying to look at other things like protein, carbs, sugar, and fat. I’m usually low on protein, sodium, fiber, and fat. Occasionally sugar, too. I use My Fitness Pal for it. It’s interesting that they now have a separate thing for water. I drink quite a lot according to that.

I’m still walking on top of the diet thing. I try to walk 3 times a day inside. Right now, each one is 10 minutes. I plan to increase each one. Last time I didn’t do it evenly, and my last walk was longer. That being 40 minutes. I’m thinking it might be better to add more to each one. I’ll have the last walk for 15 minutes. Then, eventually have the second walk as 15 minutes as well. Just keep going with each one like that. I might try doing outdoor ones when the weather gets better. Maybe once I get even healthier, I can try to do sit-ups again. They (my health team) were worried that I might break a bone again.

I splurged a bit and went out for dinner on Wednesday. I feel like I kind of broke it that way. We went to Burrata Bistro/Paella Bar. It’s like 2 restaurants in one. We shared some of their focaccia. It’s always so much. The rest are good for snacks. Had a little of the Marcona almonds. I got their penne alla puttanesca. It was much spicier than I expected. There wasn’t any spicy ingredient listed on the menu. The olives were weird. They had like little pieces of hard things inside. I mostly just had the pasta. I got their key lime tart. It was decent. I liked the crust. I wished they had their nutrition info somewhere, or even just the calories next to things, like some other restaurants do. I tried to add similar things to My Fitness Pal. Turns out, if it’s like what I found on there, that I actually ended up under the 1600 calories all together. I didn’t have my 5th meal. Well other than just having pills and water.

Getting my meds through CVS has been a headache. They say they sent things to my doctors, and yet they don’t get them. (I think they have the wrong address, at least for my primary care doctor.) My primary care doctor had to have one of her nurses call Molina about the ‘prior authorization’. They faxed the forms to them, my primary doctor filled them out and sent it. I had to call Molina in order for them to approve it. Might have to do that every time. I have a lot of meds. I tried to get something from my palliative care doctor as well. I called him about the whole thing. I’m still waiting on it to be approved. Hopefully all of them will go through with the way my primary care doctor had to do it.

I recently figured out a schedule for myself. This way I can try to get done what I want to do. Most days except the weekend, I figured out how to add playing my clarinet into it. I’ve been playing it for the first time in years. I think the last time I played was either in 2021 or 2020. It was close to when I was diagnosed with cancer. I also figured out when to blog, like what I’m now doing. Added my bed bath, and what I can do around it. Also, a little bit of doing my coloring books. It’s fun. Added Shabbat services to it, as well. I’ve figured out a pretty easy and accurate schedule with it all.

We (parent and I) recently went on vacation to Bellingham, Washington. I think it was the first time I was there. I haven’t traveled much since the cancer diagnosis. I got to a lot of things that were on my list. Some of those were restaurants. Those were some fun and good tasting food. We saw deer near one of the restaurants. That was cool.

We went to a 3-level bookstore. That was apparently famous. They had 2 cafes. One that was like a restaurant, and the other had a limited amount of things. It was a nice place. Wished there was more than one bathroom. We couldn’t stay very long, either.

The Marine Life Center was really small and cramped. Not much there. There were a lot of people, mainly kids.

We went to a Serbian/Russian market. We got hazelnut caramels, plum jam, cherry jam, pretzels, kvass, and cherry filled chocolate. I’ve had a caramel and some of the plum jam. They were very good. I was surprised there wasn’t much sugar in the plum jam.

We went to the Spark Museum. It started with electricity info, then things like telegrams or morse code or other earlier ways of communicating, telephones, TVs, radio, and more. It was quite packed with stuff.

One of the nights, there were police vehicles circling the hotel. We had to park near the hotel, because they were blocking the way to it. I’m almost afraid to find out what happened. We just hunkered down in the room once they cleared the way.

I’ve also gotten into reading. I made a top 100 list of classic books. I’m going through it. I got a Kindle that I’m reading books on. That’s been interesting. The first one was Pride and Prejudice. It was kind of boring except for the last 30 pages. It got intense. My 2nd book was going to be 1984. I didn’t want to read it, so I changed it. I tried to get into Crime and Punishment. It's a long book, too. I decided to drop that one. I started reading Hamlet, which was next. It's surprisingly short. It probably won't take me very long. 

It’s been hot lately. It’s affected my health, too. I seem to always be sweating. We don’t have ac, and the house stays warm for a while even when it’s cool outside. It’s been interesting watching the temperature in my room. My parent gave me a thing that shows the temperature and humidity. It’s humid in my room apparently. It also shows the lowest temperature and highest temperature in the last 24 hours, along with the humidity.

I was wearing one of my Jewish Pride shirts on yesterday. It has a big star of David in rainbow colors. It says B’tzelem Elohim. Meaning in the image of G-d. It also lists the congregation that was selling them at one of the local Prides. I went to Central, and someone saw it. They quickly said shalom. It was kind of cool. I don’t get a reaction to it very often.

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4th of Nisan

Passover or Pesach, this year, starts on the night of April 12th to the 20th. I’m going to do it this year. The seder and ‘diet’ during the holiday. Ashkenazi Jews have a more restrictive diet than Sephardi Jews during the holiday. In addition to no leavening (from 5 types of grains: wheat, barley, oats, rye, and spelt), which is chametz, we don’t eat kitniyot. Kitniyot (lit. ‘small things’) are legumes, rice, corn, and other foods considered similar to grains. Even mustard is on the list. I try to keep it as close as I can. There’s a surprising amount of corn products in things.

Seder lit. means ‘order’, it’s a ritual dinner that goes in a certain order. I didn’t do a seder for a couple of years after my fall and cancer diagnosis. I think this is my 3rd year getting back into it. I’ll be the leader at our family one. It’ll just be my parent and I. It’s a bit sadder when it’s just me. (Had that for a couple of years.) We used to go to a friends’ place for the 2nd night. Most people do (or go to) seders on the 1st 2 nights. The hostess had an accident (I don’t remember exactly what happened) and got brain damage from it. So, they haven’t hosted one since. They might have stopped it when Covid came around, too. I kind of miss their seders. There were a lot of people. I got to see their dogs. There was interesting food. I usually was the youngest one, so I had to ‘search’ for the afikoman. Afikoman is a piece of matzo (cracker like unleavened bread) that’s been hidden. The kids have to find it. They usually get a prize of some sort. The best present I got, I think, was an illustrated Hebrew dictionary. (Most of the time it’s like $1 or something small.) The seder can’t end unless everyone eats a piece of the afikoman. It’s also the last thing that’s eaten. I think some strict families don’t sing or listen to music after.

I decided on the actual dinner things for ours. We’ll have the usual hard-boiled eggs and gefilte fish first. I got 2 jars of the fish, which will be nice to have during the week. Then, matzo ball soup. I got 2 jars of this. We’ll probably use all of the 1st jar that night. My parent wanted to make the roasted chicken. The last couple of years we’ve gotten it from one of the markets. It might be even better made at home. I thought having a salad would be a good side. Probably get a spring mix. I can put a few leaves from it on the seder plate. I was hoping to mix in shredded carrots and shredded cabbage. I think Safeway used to have those already prepared. I’m hoping they’ll still have that. Craisins or dried cranberries would be great in the salad, too. I already found a good looking dressing and got it. It’s a garlic vinaigrette. I got quite a collection of desserts. Double dipped chocolate macaroons, almond macaroons, fruit slices (candy), chocolate seder plate (it looks impressive to me. Hopefully it’s in one piece), and Osem's chocolate chip Pesach cake (they make amazing Pesach cakes. I think they crushed this one, sadly). I bought 2 boxes of matzo. Even though I’m the only one that will eat it after the seder, I’m going to use it a lot. Matzo pizzas, matzo with charoset (fruit, nut, and wine mix, which the one I bought is like a jam) on it for a snack, matzo sandwiches (almond butter and charoset, egg salad, and tuna salad), and more. I decided not to try to roast an egg this year for the seder plate. I’ll just put a hard-boiled egg on it. I’m not sure how many hard-boiled eggs I’ll need for sandwiches for the week. Safeway has a couple of brands, and they all have 6 to a bag. Maybe if I want more I can just go back to get more then. We’ll put an orange on the seder plate again. It represents marginalized Jews. Like LGBTQ+ Jews, Jews of color, etc. We’ll have to get parsley for the plate, too. I noticed we have ‘extra hot’ horseradish. We could use that for the plate and the little matzo sandwich we have during the seder part just before dinner. I hope I can handle a tiny piece of it. I’ll get sparkling grape juice for my 4 cups. I don’t drink alcohol. I think I’ll get 2 bottles. I can have the rest during the holiday.

I got 3 bags of Pesach noodles. They didn’t have any at the markets, and they only came in 3s on Amazon. (I got most of the Pesach stuff from there.) I love those noodles. It’ll definitely last longer than the holiday. I’m going to try and find a good pasta sauce to have with it. Kind of hard to find without soy or corn products. I’ll have some cheese with it as well. I’ll use both the sauce and cheese with the matzo pizzas and noodles. I also found a premade roast chicken, potatoes, and carrots boxed meal. They say it can be used for camping. They say they’re kosher for Pesach. I might try more of them in the future, if I like it. I got bbq potato chips. That would be a nice snack. I got an herbal tea sampler. Most teas are kosher year round, but it was on sale in Amazon’s Pesach section. Hopefully it’ll be good. I thought a sampler would be nice. I can try a variety of them. This holiday is one of my faves, but it takes quite a bit of planning.

The main picture on the Jewish calendar is of an old French seder plate. It has the spots for each thing, each one is also in Hebrew and French. The outer part of the plate has all the sections of the seder in both Hebrew and French. That’s kind of cool to see. Most seder plates don’t do that. The other (secular) calendar has someplace in Scotland, I think. It has the Scottish flag. It’s of a sunset around some ruins.

I downloaded my ancestry . com data, and uploaded it to MyTrueAncestry. They supposedly do a deeper dive into how far back they go. My parent did it before me, and it looked interesting. It only took less than 10 minutes. It was free, although they show more if you pay for it. Not sure how accurate it is. A big percentage were Illyrians. I still don’t know much about them after looking them up. I’ll look at the other groups at some point. (A lot of them I don’t know much about.) Another big percentage were the Romans. I’m surprised by this one, but they got around, like the Vikings. I didn’t see any Viking in there, oddly. It had an era circle of what percentage of people were for each era. They also have a map, so you can see where they travelled around in certain eras. My parent also recently tried another DNA thing. Something that sequences your whole genome. I might be able to do that when they have a sale. It takes a while.

Went to Kettlefish for the first time on Saturday. There’s only 3 entrees I can have there: fish and chips, cod tacos, or Caesar salad with cod pieces. I got their cod tacos with coleslaw. The fish was really good. There were way too many things in the tacos, so most of it fell out. Even with eating the fish first, it was still too much. The pico de gallo tasted like it had curry spices. Interesting. The tacos also had too much lettuce. The coleslaw was interesting and good. They also had ice cream. I got a chocolate eclair bar. Reminded me of the strawberry shortcake bars. Just with chocolate. I might try their fish and chips next time.

I ordered quite a bit of meds lately. My primary doc’s ‘team’ also ordered 400 mg gabapentin. They want me to take it once 3 times a day. They think it might help me more than the 300 mg once 3 times a day dose. I had been waiting for my morphine 60 mg pills. I’d run out by Friday morning. (I take it 3 times a day.) I was so happy to get it today. It really cut it close. I also got the gabapentin. It was 90 days worth. I wanted it to be a 30 day one. I ended up with 4 huge full bottles of it. Too much. I barely had space for it and the other meds I got. (There were a few more.) I think the gabapentin was $16, but I wasn’t charged for the others. I thought it’d all be a lot more expensive. Maybe I’ve already hit the deductible or whatever it is.

Today I didn’t miss any of the Spanish sentences on Duolingo. Did 3 lessons. Finished a unit and my Spanish number went up to 62. Hit a milestone for my daily streak, which was 1,250 days. Finished all the quests for today. I’m 5th in the league. 

Someone tried to basically harass me on Shabbat . com. He sent weird messages and tried friending me twice. He seemed to only be there to look for a wife. He made quite a few false assumptions about me. I eventually just blocked him. Oddly, I noticed I haven't used that app for 3 years. I might get back to it. It's kind of like a Facebook for Jews. Including part of it where you can find places to stay and host Shabbat dinners. They got a dating part of it, which I never really used. Most people on there have been nice.

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10th of Adar

Rosie, my cat, passed away the week before yesterday during the night. My parent thinks it wasn’t long after we went to bed. She might have had a stroke that morning, and she had at least 2 seizures during the day. I think she had more than just a stroke. The last couple of weeks she seemed to be declining and almost like she tried to prepare for it. I thought she was sleeping in the morning when I had breakfast. (She wasn’t facing me.) She was in the living room. She probably was having a seizure then. She seemed confused/frustrated that she couldn’t get up and move around. She moved a little bit. She kept reaching out to us. We assured her we were there. That night we had her favorite music playing, a light on, and a towel over her since she seemed cold. Tried to have her as comfortable as possible. I stroked her forehead before saying good night. I thought she’d still be with us in the morning. I wasn’t really ready for her to leave us.

We got her close to my birthday (it’s on November 7th), like a day later, in 2010 from the shelter. We were told she was around 3 years old. She had a good long life. She was my baby. I already miss her a lot. At least she’s not suffering.

I posted on most of my socials about it. Most of them seemed to have the reaction I expected. Which was great to see. It was comforting a bit. However, it seemed to explode on Threads. Last time I looked, it had 740 likes, 21 comments, 1 repost, and 2.5K views. I’ve never had such a reaction to a post.

She still had food in her bowl, and suddenly it was gone. Supposedly neither of us threw it out. It just was gone. A little creepy. Maybe she was hungry… A couple of days before that Sunday, she had moved a pillow from the sectional in the living room to near her carrier, on top of her peacock feather. (It might have fallen off, and she could have pushed it to that spot.) It was weird, and I’m not sure why she did it. We left it there for a while. It spooked me occasionally, because it looked like her from the corner of my eye. Sometimes it looked like she was staring at me in her carrier. A little later my parent threw her towel over the carrier and put the pillow away. That helped. Also, it feels like another mourning ritual. Every time I walk in the living room for my indoor walks, it reminds me of it. I feel weird stepping on/near the spot she passed away on.

We lit a yahrzeit candle for her and recited the mourner’s kaddish. She wasn’t human, but felt like we should do something. They have souls, too. She was very loved. I think we did that for most of our pets. I don’t remember doing it for Tasha, but maybe we did.

We got her ashes today. They had her paw print along with it. They didn’t do that for our other pets. I’m not sure how I feel about it. The ashes are in a bigger ‘casket’ looking box. The name plate was separate. It only has her name. They didn’t ask what we wanted on it this time, either. Maybe we could put stuff on it ourselves. We were thinking of ‘The Most Interesting Cat in the World’. Probably have the dates, too. Might be too long, I don’t know. They also have a brochure on grief, and mention a special phone number to talk about the grief of losing a pet specifically. That would be interesting.

I finally called Apria last Wednesday. I kept putting it off because I was nervous. I had to pay for the first month of having the new bed, though. It’s a month today. I wanted to use the benefits card, but they wouldn’t let me. It would have been better if that had worked. At least I was able to pay it. It was only $20.69. I’m also nervous about when I switch to being fully on Medicaid. I don’t know what they’ll do. Maybe Medicaid will pay for the rest of it.

I’m taking gabapentin twice a day right now. One of the things I’ve noticed is I feel happier and like I don’t care/worry about things. I feel a little guilty for feeling happy right now. I’m not noticing much of a change with the pain. I have a hard time going to sleep, but once I am, I’m out cold. (Most of the time.) I don’t wake up like I did before during the night. I think it’s related. I’ll start taking 3 pills this next Friday.

I saw that I got a message from Social Security recently. I was too nervous to read it online. Apparently, the letter from them came in the next day’s mail. It’s about them taking around $96 from what they pay me each month through ssi. They said they’ll start that in April’s paycheck. It’s been a while, and for the last few months it’s been the normal amount. I don’t know why they waited so long to do it. They said I could appeal it. It’s too much for me to deal with. That’s probably what they’d expect from me. They base it on if it’s unfair to you and if it’s a hardship. It is unfair, but not a hardship.

Started a ‘project’ with Spotify. I got the app in order to listen to the Universal Yums playlist for the month. They have a ton of songs with their Turkey or Türkiye playlist. Songs that are traditional and some new stuff, too. Very interesting. Anyways, they post all their playlists on there. After exploring Spotify for a while, I decided to go through music from each decade. I started with what they suggested, which wasn’t very good. I looked more into it, and found All Out decade playlists. They’re much better, accurate, and much longer. I started over with them. They only go back to the 50s on Spotify. I would have started it with earlier decades. Would have been even more interesting. I’ve gotten to the 90s so far. I’m getting a lot for my faves playlist. Should be interesting to see what it’s like when I finish it. Oh, and I got their individual premium. It's not bad. There are no ads this way, and I can listen to how I want to. Like, it doesn't have to be on shuffle. It'll be free for a month.  

I decided to stop going to see a podiatrist just to get my toenails clipped. I decided to try to get pedicures without the nail polish instead. I think my big toenails might be a little difficult, but they’re getting close to looking normal. I can see if they could do them along with the other toenails. Those I think would be easy for them. I’ll go with my parent to one soon. I think it’ll be a lot better for me to get it done there. It was more of a hassle with the podiatrist. They also don’t take Molina or any Medicaid. I’d have to use that since it’s out-of-network. At least when I completely switch over to Medicaid. I think Kaiser Permanente does have someone that does it for you, but it’s very expensive. (From what I’ve heard.) They supposedly do it at your home. I want to see what the people at the nail place will do. It might feel even better. I’ll email my primary care doctor about it. I’ll see what she has to say.

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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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15 of Tevet

It’s been so long since I’ve actually cooked something. I think the cancer has made it hard to motivate myself to do it. Before my fall back in March 2020 (a month before I was diagnosed with cancer), I was getting back into it. It was fun. I thought I’d try to cook again this year. I might cook on Saturdays. I made Enchilada Pasta from a pin I found on Pinterest this last Saturday. I bought pre-diced white onions, so I didn’t have to do it myself. It really helped. I hate onions, but will eat them if cooked a certain way. The recipe called for yellow onion, but it probably doesn’t matter much. The onions basically disappeared, which was a plus. Good to just have the taste. It has ground beef. It really reminds me of Hamburger Helper that way. I’m not used to using taco seasoning and enchilada sauce. Both were interesting. There’s also low sodium beef broth, pasta, and cheese. The cheese is a blend of monterey jack and cheddar. The cheese was like magic. It thickened up a lot when I added it. The pasta was perfectly cooked. I thought it would be too long. You cook it in the enchilada sauce and beef broth (and the rest of the stuff except cheese) for 15-20 minutes. No extra pot that way. It was really good. Very zesty. It’s made quite a few more dinners during the week. They say it’s 6 servings, but I don’t measure them out. I just go by what I want. I gave myself a little too much Monday night. Felt really full, but I still have a lot left.

Didn’t go to the markets on Sunday, but went to Central on Monday. I’m running really low on what SSI was paying me, so my parent was nice enough to help me with it. I still haven’t heard from Social Security. Anyways, I got a smoked turkey and dill havarti sandwich for dinner. To have a little break from the pasta thing. I also got a slice of cherry pie. I had that as my last snack. I got more instant beef pho. Used one of the instant pho’s on Monday, so I replaced it with this. The bananas looked horrible. It must be bad weather or something, since they’ve looked bad the last few times. I forgot to get milk, so I’ve had cereal without it again. Got one of my fave Amy’s frozen meals: broccoli cheddar bake. Also, got their Country Cheddar one. It’s been a while since I’ve had it, but it sounds good.

I got my first box of Universal Yums. It’s on the UK. I think they do a lot more interactive things than Treats did. One of their emails beforehand had a list of British comedy shows. Each one has a youtube link (I think to playlists), so you can watch some of it. Another email had recipes. It comes with a map of the country with some highlights. On the back you can write how you felt about each snack. There’s a booklet. Much more in depth than Treats on this. They have more recipes, sayings, a music playlist, descriptions of each snack, tips on what to do and not do at a tea party or afternoon tea, and even nutrition info on each snack. There are also stickers. The snacks have been interesting, and I don’t think Treats had any of them before. There’s also a little Yum Bag, which is apparently full of 2 types of little things they found. They’re fudge and a caramel filled with liquid chocolate. (They actually highlight them in the booklet as well.) This one seems more interesting to me. I've tried everything except the rhubarb candy and toffee. The pickled onion potato chips (or crisps) were better than the cheddar potato chips. The candies were softer than I expected. The Millions Iron Brew flavor were awful. Worst thing so far. Reminded me of Nerds, but stickier. Not really chewy. Stuck to my teeth too much and I only had a few pieces. (Gave it 1 or 0 hearts, if I could.) Tried it today, and had the chocolate chip and coconut soft cookies instead. They were good, but had just a little too much coconut. I also got an email from them a couple of nights ago. They featured books from or about the UK. A couple of them sounded interesting and I might add them to my wishlist on Amazon (if they’re on there). They really seem to get into it. Oh, and they asked if I wanted to opt out of Valentine’s Day related stuff next month. I happily did that. I don’t really like the holiday. They said I’ll still get the country related emails.

Monday I did 5 or 6 lessons in Duolingo’s Spanish course. I wanted to finish all the quests and use the xp multipliers I got from finishing them. I did 3 lessons each yesterday and today. Finished 2 quests pretty quickly. Only had 1 mistake today. I’m 4th in the league. That’s pretty good considering how competitive they are in this one.

Watched Flow and finished Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. Flow was really trippy. They got the cat movement/mannerisms correct. It seems like it was a metaphor for death. It was a world where humans had certainly been there, but they disappeared. Interesting how the animals interacted with each other. At times they almost seemed human.

The New Empire was kind of cool. Lots of big ‘monsters’. I like how Kong knows the humans are trying to help him. They fixed his tooth for one thing. (There was another thing the humans gave him, but that might be giving too much away.) Godzilla just seemed angry with everyone but Mothra. I like where he decided to sleep a couple of times. I think he didn’t even know why he was trying to supercharge himself with radiation until Mothra came out.

Went to Silver City last night for dinner. We (my parent and I) shared their pretzel appetizer. It comes with 2 pretzels, so we could each have 1. I ate half of mine. I got their Top Notch burger with coleslaw. It was pretty good. Had half of both of them. Those and the pretzel made a nice lunch today. I had their brownie for dessert. It had ice cream on top, hot fudge, caramel sauce, and a ton of whipped cream. Some chocolate puffs/chunks were on top of the whipped cream. It looked like a huge ice cream sundae. I didn’t have the whole thing.

Had a horrible leg cramp early yesterday morning. I was still in bed. It was so bad that it was spasming for a long time afterwards. I’ve been getting little ones lately, but this was the biggest one in a long time. Maybe I need my cyclobenzaprine dose increased. It’s a muscle relaxer, which has helped a lot. I’ll bring it up with my primary care doctor. Another thing is I’ve been occasionally bleeding from my nose. I don’t know if it’s just dryness or something more.

Figured out another way to organize my pills. It might make it easier. After each day, organize yesterday’s pills. So, I end up refilling it over time. Sunday I’ll end up doing 2 days worth. Once during the day, and once after I have my last batch of pills that day. That’s better than doing all of them at once. It takes time with each one. It won’t take nearly as long. (It also means I won’t need to refill one on Mondays.) I’ll just still go over my pills on Sunday to see what I need to order or get at CVS/Safeway. That doesn’t take much time. 

I got a billing statement today online from Kaiser Permanente. It was more than I expected. They're still using the insurance I get as a dependent, not the Medicaid version. If it were the Medicaid version, I don't think it would even cost me anything. The biggest thing was the CT scan. I kind of think they used my Medicaid for the meds I got earlier this month. They were still at no cost. Normally, if I haven't met the deductible yet, most are $10. Except for Ibrance and Symproic, being $50 each a month. I'd be happy if they are using it for my meds. Wish it was for the rest of it, though. I'm a little nervous about my Xgeva again. I don't know if it'll be covered by Medicaid, or they'll charge me. It's not a cheap med, even when covered normally. If I don't get it, I can easily break more bones. I don't know if I can put a pause on it anyways. I might just go through with it, see how much it is and use their monthly bill pay thing for it and the CT scan stuff. The benefits card will help for now. Hopefully they can switch me to the Medicaid one soon.

Pinterest (I did not make these. Just sharing.):

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11th of Cheshvan

Tapered hydrocortisone to 5 mg in the morning and 2.5 mg in the afternoon on Saturday. My legs cramped up twice by the next morning. I think it was related to it. Plus, I’ve felt really stiff. If it continues this way, I’ll go back to what it was before. (7.5 mg in the morning, 2.5 mg in the afternoon.) I’m really hoping I won’t have to do that. I need to get off of it.

My birthday was nice. (It was on the 7th.) We went to Silver City for dinner. We shared the soft pretzels (there were 2, so we each got 1), I got a small Caesar salad, French onion pizza, and pumpkin spice bread pudding. The cheese sauce for the pretzel was weird, but the mustard was good. The salad was very cheesy, but the dressing lacked flavor. The pizza wasn’t as great as last year, but with a little added parmesan it was better. I told them that it was my birthday, and they lit a candle on the bread pudding. Underneath the whipped cream, there was like a salty walnut crust. It was surprisingly good. I was going to go to a trans meeting afterwards, but I felt like it was too late. It’s nice to be with other trans people now, so it was kind of disappointing.

We went to the Oak Table for brunch on Saturday. I got my fave: smoked salmon eggs Benedict with potato pancakes and some applesauce. It was good. I didn’t tell them it was my birthday this time. I did last year, and they came out singing Happy Birthday and giving me an ice cream crepe. I didn’t really need that.

Tried the Korean BBQ yakisoba instant noodle bowl for lunch yesterday. It wasn’t as good as I expected. I didn’t use all of the seasoning, since it looked like I had plenty of it. It still didn’t taste like much. The ‘garnish’ were pieces of beef, garlic, and onions. It smelled good as it cooked in the microwave. I’m glad I at least tried it.

Today, I didn’t miss anything on Duolingo. I did 3 lessons. This past week I started unit 37, and I finished it and started unit 38 today. My Spanish score is 52. I don’t know how high it goes. It’s based on progress, not on how well you’re doing. I think I’m pretty high. I hope I get to the end soon. I guess we’ll see. I’m 10th in the league. Not in the promotion zone. (I think the top 6 go on to the next league.) Oh, I also didn’t like the glitch where I suddenly lost all my streak freezes yesterday. It warned me and that I should pay gems for more. Luckily, that went back to normal when I closed and opened the app again. Usually when it glitches, it doesn’t let you continue to the next lesson. You can do the lesson as many times as you want, but it won’t let you through. That’s annoying.

Went to one of the markets yesterday. Something shot at me while I was going to the cashier. It was hard and square and hit the side of my head. I looked around. Nobody was around me. I looked down, but didn’t see anything. I did hear a faint bang on the floor. My parent suggested that something might have fallen from the ceiling. If it was from the ceiling, something’s not right. They’ve done a lot of renovating. It wouldn’t surprise me if something from that stuff hit me. I got a slight headache in the area. No bleeding, thank goodness.

Found an interesting instant noodle bowl. It’s chicken pho. The sodium looks pretty good. I also got Amazing Maple Mustard. It sounded good, and might be better for sandwiches. (Had some today, and it was great!) Got pumpkin and walnut cookies. They’re pretty good usually. Found the Chomps pack this time. Often they just had the singles. Got birthday cake chocolate. Perfect for this month. I got a smoked turkey and dill havarti sandwich for dinner from there. It was good. 

We went to Safeway today. I got their beef brisket and mac and cheese dinner for tonight. Not very healthy, but pretty good. I'll have a chocolate truffle cake for my last snack. I've been having desserts for my last snacks sometimes. It might be healthier that way depending on what I have, and how big the dinner might have been. 

I also got some meds. They were kind of expensive. I was going to try and skimp on it, but then I'd just need them sooner, and it'll end up costing more. It was just for Dulcolax and Tylenol, both being the store brand since it was cheaper. I take 6 pills of Tylenol a day, and 2 pills of Dulcolax. That's a lot. 

Organized my pills for the week yesterday. It always takes a while. After I organize them, I look to see how much I have left of each one. This time there are 3 things I needed from the local markets. I got 2 of them from Safeway today, like I mentioned. The other one might have to wait until next week. I have enough of that, at least, for this week. So, I should be ok.

Rosie keeps playing with her water. My parent bought a pet water fountain for her. Hopefully that will help.

Found something on my banana this morning. Looked like an egg sac. I looked online, and it apparently has to have silk around it to be a spider egg sac. This didn’t. I took it off the banana with my spoon, put it in my leftover milk, and crushed it with the spoon. Nothing came out. A little scary.

Went to Starbucks for a snack. Got their new dark toffee bundt cake and iced sugar cookie almond milk latte. Both were good.

Pinterest (I use my Fashion Fun board on there to help me find my style. I think I have many styles. It went back to suggesting a lot of outfits. I liked some of the vests, and it gave me men wearing them, too. Interesting. I do think I might like some things that might be considered for men. Again, I did not make these, or the videos after this. Just sharing): 

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2nd of Cheshvan

It’s been an even longer time than last time. I want to get back into it though. A lot of things have happened. I’ll try to keep it shorter than last time.

Over the summer, I was approved for ssi. I get a very small income through it now. They also are going to discharge all my student loans. Meaning all of them will be forgiven or gone. I think this will happen in December. 

Being approved for ssi also got me approved for Medicaid. I chose Molina, since I was told that they worked with Kaiser Permanente (KP), my current insurance. The Molina insurance started on the 1st. Apparently they’re not letting new members use KP. There are exemptions, however. Like, if they have been with KP for more than a year. I’ve been with it for many years. I plan to call on Monday about it. Hopefully I can use KP through them this way.

I’m losing weight again. This time through more exercise, eating a bit better, and tapering hydrocortisone. I’m down to 7.5 mg of the hydrocortisone in the morning and 2.5 mg in the afternoon. So far no crazy symptoms of withdrawal yet. Hopefully I can get off of it soon. I’ll switch to 5 mg and 2.5 mg of it soon. Also, just got a letter saying my endocrinologist will be going out of network. So, I'll probably have to find a new one and tell that one about my progress. Hopefully before I get to the point of getting off of it. I don't know what will happen if I don't have it anymore, and I'll get an attack of some sort. They say if I get an attack right now, I need to take something like double what I take now. It's weird. I'm not even sure what an 'attack' would be like with this. 

I’ve gotten back into walking. I made a ‘plan’ to ease into it. I hope to get back up to my 2-mile walks 3 times a day again. Right now I’m doing 2 indoor walks and an outdoor 1 twice around, in a loop where the mailboxes are and a street in between where the tennis courts are and the house. The next outdoor one will be one loop around where the tennis courts are and the house. A bit longer of one. I’m not sure if it’ll just end up being the same distance as my current one. I think it’ll be a little longer. On weekly grocery days, it’s different. I turn the indoor workout on my watch, and pause it when I stop. It ends up being more. If I go out and don’t come home until it’s dark out, I walk inside for 10 minutes. It works out similar. Might have to increase it when I get to walking longer.

I’ve lost enough weight to go down (smaller) another jean size. I’m now 3 jean sizes smaller than at my heaviest. I got new jeans, since the old ones were really falling off me. I’ll get another pair soon, since it fits me like a glove. I got 3 more shirts (like lightweight sweaters) recently. I lost 3 inches from my waist, so that opened up more options with clothes. They seem a bit big on me. Although, it looks like they’re supposed to be. I bought another shirt recently. I should get it today.

I got a haircut today. They’ve been ‘free’ ever since my stylist has known about my cancer. I’m getting more bald spots/lines. It’s a little disturbing to me. I haven’t gone back to the hats yet, but I might.

It’s been pretty cold out lately. When it gets even cooler, it’ll be perfect for my ‘new’ shirts I got last year. They’re more like heavy sweaters. It actually looks like fall now. The trees have turned beautiful colors. 

15th of Tevet

It's been a long time since my last post. Probably the longest gap in posts. I hope to get back into it. Although, it won't be the same. Interesting using this computer again. 

My last scans were in October. Everything came back fine. No progression, and if I remember correctly, they didn't even see the lung nodule from before. My next ones (CT and full bone) will be next month. I had to call and make an appointment with the infusion center there in order to get the IV in through ultrasound. It seems to be the only way to get it in. They always have a hard time even with that. I'm nervous that they'll find something this time on my CT scan. Had a nightmare where they said the cancer had spread to my liver and lungs. Also, with the full bone scan, that it had progressed. It hasn't progressed in a while. In the dream I had to switch to a chemo that was through an IV. I had to sit there for about 6 hours until it was done. I had weird side effects, too. 

Had an appointment with my primary care doctor in October. Hadn't seen her in-person in about 2 years. The main focus was on recertifying me for insurances through my parent. I'm on her plan as a dependent. They have paperwork for a doctor to fill out. I was nervous, but around the end of December, I got a letter saying I was approved. So, I still get health, dental, and vision through it. The new plan for coverage started this month. The only downside is now there's a copay for all my meds and things. We had met the deductible or something, so we didn't have a copay for a while. I'll probably meet it up again quickly. It's nice they have a special card that covers medical expenses. Although, it's sometimes weird what it considers as medical. It's handy. 

We also talked about my urine incontinence. I know, gross, but it's something I have to live with at the moment. I'll get the urge, and then not have much time to get to a bathroom. It's embarrassing. She suggested that I get pads. I'm still trying them out. Not sure which absorbency is best. I think it feels more 'normal' to try the pads rather than the underwear. Those would feel more like diapers. Not good. She also said I should try going to the bathroom on a schedule. So, I've been trying to do it either before or after meals. It's a little better that way, but I have to remember. 

I also brought up my painful toes/feet. She said I had toenail fungus on every toe except one. It's bad in both my big toes. She tried to clip my toenails for me. She didn't even want to touch my big toes. The toenails are looking pretty gnarly now. My toes hurt a lot as well as the middle of my feet. So much so, it hurts to walk. Feels like I'm walking on hard pointy rocks. I'm walking even less now because of it. My primary sent a referral to see a podiatrist, and I've already made an appointment. That will be the end of this month. Hopefully, they can help me. 

I've been having issues with recurring uti's. The last one was just a couple of weeks ago. I also had one that was in between that and my primary appointment in October. They seem to be happening more often. I went to Urgent Care, like usual, for it. This time they were a lot more thorough. They were surprised about how dehydrated I was. They put an IV in me, after a few tries, and ran fluids and antibiotics through it. They did a lot of blood tests. One of them being for lactate. They had to get it without a tourniquet. It can indicate sepsis. I was high the first time, so they had to do it again. The second time they had to do it on my chest near my left shoulder. That was weird. No other spot was working, though. That ended up even higher. They wanted to do it again because of that. It was just too much, and it was starting to snow a lot. We had to leave. They let me go with a pill-form of antibiotics, and a promise that I'll talk to my primary about it. I don't think I actually had sepsis. I didn't have a fever for one thing.

I had a phone appointment with my primary after that. She suggested some things to help. I thought there were 2 things that I could easily do. That being cranberry and d-mannose supplements. One is supposed to make it harder for bacteria to stick, and one makes it more acidic. Both said helps with cleaning the area. So I got them both. They're huge pills. I had to split the doses up. They wanted me to take 2 capsules of the cranberry and 4 capsules of the d-mannose. I'm doing 1 cranberry and 2 d-mannose twice a day. The d-mannose pills smell really bad. I didn't know they'd also have calories. It's also interesting that they're both put out by Azo. I didn't know they did other meds. So far so good. I don't think I've had another uti. Maybe this is all I need. Although, I have a lot of pills now. I could make meals out of them.

My meds and pain of walking have made me gain quite a bit of weight. It's frustrating. Recently, I decided to go back to the way I used to eat, and doing sit-ups at least. I think I've lost a little bit in the last couple of weeks because of that. The way I used to eat meaning only having 1200-1600 calories during the week, and pretty much whatever I want during the weekend (and holidays). I try to eat 5 meals a day, and want them roughly even. So, 240-320 calories each. I tend to eat less with snacks, and more with meals like dinner. It's a little difficult. It was a bit eye-opening with some things. Plus, I have to be careful with things like bananas that tend to be calorie-packed. I'm up to 10 sit-ups twice a day. Might keep that up for a while, and then do 15 twice a day. I do them a little after I wake up (after going to the bathroom and having breakfast), and when I get into bed just before trying to sleep. I did around similar times the last time I was into it. It's been a while. I also want to get back into walking, but it hurts so much. Maybe with the podiatrist's help I can do it. I want to start off with small walks, and then work my way up to the 2-mile ones I was doing before. At least 2 of those a day would be great. I might get an Apple Watch soon, and that can help a lot with this health stuff. I want to feel better and healthier. 

We've also been into eating out at restaurants lately. I can still do that with the way I want to eat, and probably would be best to do it during the weekends. I'll most likely have more leftovers, but that's ok. We've tried a lot of new ones. Some have been great, others just ok. It's another thing for me to look forward to. (We've also been going to restaurants we haven't been to in a long time.) Oh, Elmer's isn't around anymore. A Denny's moved in. I'm still not used to it. I miss Elmer's. One of the server's from Elmer's is now with Maynard's, a restaurant we tried not too long ago. It was interesting catching up with him. I was surprised he was there. It was ok there. The last 'new' restaurant, or at least new to us, we went to was a Mongolian BBQ place. It wasn't outstanding or anything. I thought it was good. I had the chicken dumplings, which were apparently pot stickers. I got their honey walnut chicken. That was sweet, savory, and smooth. Had little candied walnuts. 

I'm still using Duolingo. I'm studying Spanish through it. It seems so much easier than I expected when I started. I don't particularly like Duolingo's new layout. I don't even think they're sure of it yet. Things keep changing. I liked the way it was before. I've been keeping up with my streak since I did Yiddish. It's like 640 days now. I only forgot about it on New Year's Eve, and they used one of my freeze streaks to keep it going. First time really using that. I think I have like 3 of them. I think that's the max number you can have at once. I try to do 4 lessons, and usually get 100% on it. It's only when it's questionable or unclear when I get them wrong. I've flagged quite a few sentences during this course, because of that. 

I've gotten back into reading as well. You can see how many I finished recently on the side of the blog. Everything from Shadow of the Lions by Christopher Swann up is what I've read since December of 2021. Close to a year ago. That's 16 books. I thought that was pretty good for someone who hasn't been into reading in a long time. 

I'm trying to get back into anime. I started that back up again only a couple of days ago. Before that, it's been since November 2021. Roughly the same time as my last post on here. I'm so far behind. There are so many interesting looking shows that came out in the meantime. I'm not sure how long I can keep up getting back into watching anime now. As it is I might not watch it today. I managed to watch the 1000th episode of One Piece yesterday, I think. I can't believe it's over 1000 episodes now. It'll probably go on forever. 

I've been a lot more into Netflix shows. I've watched a lot, and it's another thing for me to look forward to. I finished 1899 recently. That was interesting. It felt like they were trying to do more with it than they had. Some of it was predictable, but there were a lot of twists. I'm not sure what they'll do with it if there's a 2nd season. I'm currently watching Devil in Ohio. It's just been ok. It has an actress that I like, and am glad she's in something different. I don't remember her first name, but she played the main actress in Bones. She seems more flexible and 'normal' in this. I don't exactly know where this show is going, but it's interesting at least. I'm looking more forward to Wednesday. I liked the Addams Family. Wednesday, Morticia, and Gomez were my fave characters. One on Wednesday seems right up my alley, then.

We've recently been into getting lottery tickets. We've been getting them usually once a week. It's now up to $1.1 billion. I can't imagine even having half of that amount. I've worked out the annuity for some of them, just for fun. (First year would be just over $8 million.) I think if we did win, I'd get half and go for the annuity option. I'll probably not live very long, but I'd still get a huge chunk of money every year. I could pass it on to someone after I die. I don't know who that would be. There's a lot of things I'd be able to do with that amount of money. I could donate a lot, get rid of my student loan debt, get my own nice and cozy house in Seattle, have even better health insurance, and more. 

I wanted to go to a Hanukkah party this year. They were going to have public lighting at a local mall, and then have a party at their synagogue. I hadn't seen people from that congregation in a long time. Plus, their spiritual leader (not quite a rabbi yet) got in touch with me, and wanted me to meet another ace Jew. He was new to their congregation and was feeling really isolated. The 'rabbi' started an email with both of us and introduced us to each other. I responded, but he never did. Anyways, I had another reason to go. The weather was crazy that week. The day they were supposed to have it, there was a lot of snow and ice on top of the snow. Thick ice. Not something we see in this region often. So dangerous, they were telling people not to go outside on the roads unless it was an emergency. They cancelled the party at the synagogue, and thought the roads would still be ok enough for the public lighting. I don't how the lighting was. I wished they just pushed the party to like the last day of Hanukkah. The snow and ice were practically gone by then. They were going to have latkes, donuts, singing, and bags of goodies. I don't know what the bags of goodies would have had, but I'm sure it would have been fun. We didn't have latkes this year. Didn't even have donuts for that matter. I didn't feel very well, and only lit the candles for a few nights off and on. I know it's not a big holiday, but it didn't feel like the usual year for it. I did have some fried things at least. 

It was just my parent and I for our New Year Eve celebration. We used to go to a couple's (friends of the family) place for it. Along with other holiday dinners throughout the year. Ever since Covid hit, they stopped having those dinners. It's felt weird with just us. At least with NYE, we can have whatever snacks we want for it. I got Ruffles chips with French onion dip, pickled herring with Breton crackers, and chocolate covered cherries. I think those are pretty good for NYE. Oh, and of course we got sparkling apple cider. That's like my champagne. I can't have alcohol. At least it's something bubbly. We watched the fireworks at the Space Needle on TV. Before that, it was NYE shows from around the world/country. The fireworks didn't seem that impressive this time. The drones were interesting, but also distracting.