fizzawrites

Blergh, the weather is taking me out right now. Turns out, when you manifest asthma, breathing is harder? Especially when it's wet air? -5k/10, do not recommend.

I'm also majorly grumpy that I have to be an adult this weekend and can't just HIDE in my apartment with my AC. Doing CHORES and picking up cat supplies and reading the book club book. *grumpy stomps* Maybe I'll give myself a treat and wake up stupid early on Saturday to go swimming at the lake. If I go early enough, I can hit up the Trader Joe's/Pet Supplies plus on Lincoln that's always a bad idea after 9am. It's always weird to be woken at 5am with the sun. That's going to be going away for a while now, but still!

In other news, I should probably go visit my mom. It's been ~a month and I really should got utilize her free laundry. At least for the rugs the cats repeatedly puke on. Maybe I'll go next Sunday so we can hang out and go swimming. *shrug*

UPDATE: She scheduled an appointment in the medical district (near my job) tomorrow, so we're getting dinner. LOL. She legit called me ~20 minutes after I hit 'post'.

I'm also impatiently waiting for my new insurance card. I had to switch plans at work and July 1 is the switchover. I STILL don't have a new card to bring to my medical practice. Mind, this is the first time I've switched plans in, like, 20 years (legit), so this is a new experience for me. Luckily, I got my benefits statement showing that I'd switched to the correct plan (whoo!) but am grumpily waiting for the damn card. Mind, they didn't send me one last time they upped the copays, so that was a whole kettle of fish.

HOWEVER. I did make some acupuncture appointments and plotted out my massage therapy appointments for the next six months, so huzzah there. I find it deeply entertaining that I've been going to both of these providers for over a decade at this point. I'm also glad that I've been a good patient for both of them to the point that they're always excited to see me. The positives of being pathologically terrified of inconveniencing the people around me by canceling an appointment are unmatched.

On an unrelated note, I've managed to damage myself with doors twice in the last week by not paying attention to what my limbs are doing. I accidentally punched a door frame on my way home from work on Monday, and then yesterday, managed to bash my shin against the train door hard enough that I skinned it on my jeans. 1.) OUCH. 2.) WTF? Both incidents hurt really bad. No bruises though. I remain stumped how I can be so goddamn white and yet don't bruise? You can legitimately see capillaries in my arms I'm so fucking transparently white, but I only regularly bruise when getting blood draws where the phlebotomist blows a vein. *shrug*

I know this is a small thing (and weirdly tied into a bunch of other shit politically), but it sucks that even though something on me hurts A LOT (for real, my shin is really hurting) and there's no outward proof. IDK. It probably says something that even my body won't always let me show the effects of damage I take. Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee, mental health!

Blergh, I hate when it's August in June. Especially when it's MUGGY August in June. I'm just giddy we finally have something approaching a working HVAC system at work now. Otherwise I'd take unpaid leave. ISTG.

In other news, Wink went to the vet this weekend and got some so-so news. (She remains a Delight as a patient.) I mean, the main issue is that she is 15, almost 16. She's in great shape for a cat that age, but the consistent puking and the fact she's gone down another 1/2 pound since she went in back in April are concerning. The vet suspects kitty-ibs or cancer. Unfortunately, both present in an incredibly similar way (thickening of the stomach lining), and have the same treatment plan (oral steroids), so unless I want to do the stupid-expensive imaging to tease out the nuance... bleh.

So! She's started on oral steroids for the foreseeable future. The vet is also interested in transitioning her to prescription food. Which. Look. I'm already chunking out $4/can for what she's on now. If it's reasonably priced, I'll jump on that, but I also need to see if she's ok with the meds + current food first. She's actually perked up quite a bit since starting the oral steroids (no shock there) and has only puked twice! And that was closer to when she started the steroids. Nothing (knock wood) in the last day. I still have to wash the rugs I washed on Saturday AGAIN because of said puking, but. I'm just glad she's feeling better.

Mind, Tea is getting her ass kicked more consistently. Before it was mostly just warning yelling. Now Wink thwaps her repeatedly before running off. Mind, it's her own fault because Tea's dim little lightbulb has interpreted bodily thwapping as affection. Now Tea does it to Wink. (They're fine. Just grumpy.)

Right, so I picked up a fiction book this last week! AND I started reading it!

This is mildly exciting because I've read nothing but 9-1-1 gay fanfic for the last six months. Legitimately. I think I've read something like 70 novel-length stories in that time period; some of them twice.

ANYWAY, I borrowed The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong. It's (so far) a cozy little fantasy road trip book, and I'm having an ok time.

I've also got two non-fiction books in audio and text format (a book on the craft beer industry and a book on the West's perception of food scarcity, specifically with the Banda people in West-Central Ghana), both of which have entertaining-to-me Chicago-connections. The first centers around the creation of Goose Island brewing - HILARIOUSLY started by someone from my mom's home town in Iowa - which is a Chicago brand. The second was written by someone who went through Northwestern's doctoral program and did a good chunk of writing/research for the book while with that institution.

Quick moment to stump for University of California Press' Open Access arena for books. I keep finding cool shit to read here! For FREE! Legally! (And here's the University of Michigan.)

Also, I kind of really appreciate my graduate level work now. I got a lot of practice reading a whole bunch of higher level academic stuff, so now I can just read it for fun.

Right, so I finished Invitation to a Banquet by Fuschia Dunlop and one of the things it's kind of reminded me is how honestly limited our fruit/veggie selection is in the US. Coupled with reading Frostbite by Nicola Twilley at the same time, it's got me thinking about the diversity of food I had available to me as a poor child in rural Iowa in the early 1980's versus what I currently eat.

And, like? I remember when we didn't have access to oranges - or if we did it was kinda sad and not all that cool - in the winter months? Because, again, tiny rural area in northeastern Iowa. That made sense? Canning and food preservation was a more common thing (my grandma was aces at freezing veggies) and that area still has a robust meat locker culture.

I don't know that I have any specific thoughts coming out of reading those two books (still not done w/FB, but it's really good!), but I do have more motivation to read the book on the Pawpaw fruit I bought a few years ago. I don't think I've ever even tried Pawpaw? Which is a shame as it's apparently NA's largest native fruit? TBF, I've also never eaten a persimmon, so 0/2 on realizing there were native fruit trees and eating anything from them? Because apparently there is a persimmon variety native to NA? NOTE: Apparently one of the indigenous names for a pawpaw is assemina. Which is prettier?

IDK, food diversity is cool and while I know I suck as a gardener (and someone who is a DELICATE FLOWER in outdoor arts), I am grumpily starting to realize I might be moving in that direction as I get older. BOO!

Note: Also, ground cherries are great, I love them.