Hi Everyone!

Welcome back, or welcome to the new comers.

I gave up early last year, but it was a rough year last year and I just couldn’t keep up with everything, so I had to let some things go, and sadly this was one of them. But, I made it through. And so (thankfully) did my family. I had my ups and downs. I got my veterinary assistant certificate. I started going back to school in person (man, that was weird. We wore masks and everything, but after doing it online for a year and a half, seeing other people doing the same thing was weird.) I took a class which is a pre requisite for the Veterinary Technology program at the college I want to go to. I also took a biology class. Now that I write that let me re-think this. Every class I am currently taking is for me to get into the Veterinary Technology program, and every class that I will take this year is for that. I’m hoping to apply for the 2024 program since I won’t have everything done for the 2023 program. I have to take a chemistry class (which I’m enrolled in for the Winter quarter), a biology class which requires me to pass this chemistry class to take, and a math class. I’m also taking a stress management class this quarter (not a requirement for the vet tech program, just a recommendation).

Work had it ups and downs. We gained and lost people. My doctors were amazing with helping me pass my classes and being encouraging during school. A is still there and a thorn in my side most days, but sometimes she’s really nice to me, which throws me off. I don’t know how to act when that happens. We had one person who was there for 3 weeks and absent for the first week and a half, and basically quit without notice, so that was great and a waste of a Christmas card. Oh! I’m finally learning how to do blood draws on dogs. Just doing cephalic veins right now, which I’m fine with since I only hit about 50% of the time anyway. Watching everyone else do it is just amazing and I’m jealous of their skill, but the only way to get better is to do it, so yeah. Just need to keep on doing it.

I didn’t really do amtgard this year. Between work and school and sometimes just not wanting to go I didn’t go. I went to Disneyland for the Oggie Boogie Bash at the end of September with my Sister for a few days, so I couldn’t take time off in October to to go Feast of Odin (formerly Mars). We did go to an Amtgarder’s wedding tho in May, so that was fun. Got to see a lot of people from down south at the wedding. Oh, we did attend the last day of Darkshore on our way to the wedding, so I guess I did go to an amtgard event.

I had some health issues this year. Biggest one was, and still is, having abdominal pain. Been going on since July. I did 2 CT scans, on without dye and one with dye (without actually dying. I can’t breathe if I get the dye without getting premedicated). No answers. Moved onto a gastroenterologist, got a colonoscopy, still no answers. Next step is bloodwork (which I’ve yet to do), for allergy testing which is what I’ve asked for from the start. Frustrating to say the least.

Thanksgiving and Christmas were good. Fiks and I made dinner for Thanksgiving for the holiday. Started off a little rocky, but we got it sorted and under control. The timing could have been a little bit better, but that’s okay. We did Christmas over at my brothers house, and we did tri tip and brisket and veggies.

We are having an epic storm right now, my power has started flickering.

I’ve been wanting to get a new truck for a while now. And I found one that I really like over the hill.

Its a Ford Ranger, a step down from my F150, but it gets better gas milage (more than my current truck ever did), smaller so easier to park. But its expensive to buy, so I can’t do that. But I think I can swing leasing it. So I’m going to talk to poppa at some point and see what he says since his name is also on the title of the F150. I was planning on kidnapping him for a few hours today to take him over the hill, but since its pissing down rain, and roads are flooded and trees are coming down I’m not doing the drive. Maybe I’ll kidnap him tomorrow. Or Tuesday.

My work and school schedule is changing this week. From now until the end of March I work Monday, Wednesday, half of Friday and Saturday. I got to school Tuesday, Thursday, and the other half of Friday. We’ll see how I do with the split days off. I also have to see when I’m going to fit movies in with my Cousin, if I can fit movies in with my Cousin. I really hope we can.

My new years was pretty quite and chill. I ordered pizza for me and Fiks, and for my parents and sister. I watched Elona Holmes 2, Fringe, Turning Red, and Drink Masters (throughout the day). I talked with my Cousin for a while, and a good friend for a bit too, as well as Fiks. Fiks got home pretty close to when the pizza arrived, which was nice. There was no gaming last night, our new DM (J), was not feeling well. Fiks jumped onto his computer and hung out with some of his friends over Discord for the evening. I went to bed around 10 and read my book which Fiks got me for my birthday (a really cool copy of The Princess Bride). I tossed and turned for a while, finally giving in and taking a second melatonin around midnight. I also went and got a cookie, and kind of growled at Fiks and his perkiness in the middle of the night (I am not a night owl like he is, and I was grumpy from not being able to sleep). Sorry Love.

I slept well once I got to sleep tho. I don’t remember him coming to bed, even though he says I talked to him when he came to bed. Highly suspect. (Okay, fine, we all know I talk in my sleep). I woke up wide awake at 8am (rude!) I don’t know why. So I moved to the sofa and turned on Drink Masters and slept through the last 2 episodes. Woke up in time for the winner to be announced and to put on the last episode of Iron Chef – slept through most of that too. Well and talked with people. I went over and said hi to my Parents when it was a decent time, just to find out my Sister isn’t feeling well. Hopefully she doesn’t blame it on me. I got my COVID booster on Thursday and it kicked my ass. I felt like crap on Friday so I didn’t go in and just stayed home and slept most of the day away, and I didn’t go into work on Saturday either because I felt like crap still.

You know how on Facebook you get those memory things? Or whatever photo backup cloud service you use? I keep getting reminders and I go look at them and 90% of the time they are photos of Gucci. Google Photos wants to clean up all ‘similar’ shots of him. I can’t make myself do it. I get it, I took a lot of photos of him, a lot in a similar vein, but I don’t want to loose them. I know I’ll never get them back.

I still really miss him. I miss his hugs and kisses. His nickering, whinnying, snorting. I miss worrying about him in bad weather (like yesterday and the upcoming storm for the rest of the week.) I see his farrier at work once a month, so I really miss him those days. Just like an extra jab to the heart.

Just got a phone call from the dealership which had the Ranger I was looking at. It sold today. I figured they were closed because it being New Year’s Day, oh well. I’ll just keep looking. I spent the afternoon truck window shopping online and watching Drunk History.

When it was time we got dressed and went over to my Brothers for dinner. Everyone was there when we got there. My Sister and Niece were playing with her new toys, Mom and Poppa were watching football, Brother and Wife were busy cooking in the kitchen. When Fiks and I came in they asked for Fiks and put him to work cutting the garlic bread. Nom Sourdough and Dutch Crunch, so good. We had Shepherds pie for dinner, it was good. Then my Sister and Niece started playing again, I went over and played for a little while with her, and then took a break. My Sister stepped in and started playing with her, they went down stairs and came up and gave everyone a crown or tiara to wear. After disappearing for a second (or possibly third) time they came back, and my Sister stabbed me in the eye with a wand (Don’t ask me how that was done). She just laughed as she continued to put the wings on my back. Then I was dragged down the stairs and played with them until desert was done. Olallieberry cake? it was good whatever it was.

When we were done with dessert we came home, moved laundry, did the garbage and recycling. Fiks found out that rats had been chewing on all of his gloves, which understandably made him frustrated/angry at the rats. We only noticed because the back half of the garage was wet from the rain yesterday, despite the sand bags. But we were good and he got all of his laundry put away, I still have to put away my shirts (hang them up, but more than likely throw them on the pile. I really need to be better about my ide of the closet/bed/sink…. anyway). I ended up hanging up my scrub tops before hopping into bed.

I did not want to wake up this morning. So used to sleeping in on a Monday. I got up and had a muffin and then I snuggled on the sofa for a while watching drunk history. When my next alarm went off, after a few extra minutes, I got up and got dressed. I made my lunch and was sure I was ready to go before I went and got Fiks up so he could move his car for me to pull out the truck. He was a zombie, but he did it. I got a kiss goodbye and a quick visit from my Sister and Lumi and made my way down the hill to work.

There were cars in the parking lot when I got here. But thankfully it wasn’t raining yet. I got out my new shoes and put those on, then one of my coworkers came over to me and told me she was sick and not going in. I hope she feels better. I told A when I got in. So this morning it was me, A, L, S, and the new girl, S. I went to go get hot water for my tea multiple times and the time I finally got it. But I had to walk into A and one of the Doctors arguing. I just kept my head down and left when A started Crying.

We worked our way through the morning. It was a good pace with no really slow spots. A went home while I was talking to a patient outside, making sure he didn’t have kennel cough before I brought him in. Sounds like he has congestive heart failure. Took xrays of him and they were a mess. I think they have a hard decision coming their way.

I’m currently on lunch working on this. I just had a ham and cheese sandwich with some chips and an ice tea while listening to the Ralph Report. Fiks came and visited me quickly at work to get the card for groceries. We talked a little bit then it started to rain so he left. I spent some time reading after Fiks left, then I went back inside.

The rest of the shift was…. interesting.

We had a dog come in earlier for a dog fight wound. Had a different dog come in for a fight wound in practically the same place. The dog also belonged to a relative in the clinic. So we got the dog in back and knocked her down. Well, the vet hooked up the anesthetic machine backwards, so I had to help once the dog was waking up and scrambling. I turned it around and she went back down. I got to hand the vet her surgical things, like a scalpel, her suture, get a penrose drain. I kept it together pretty well for me, I didn’t really shake during the time I was being needed. I just felt antsy when I couldn’t find a piece of equipment incase things took a turn for the worse. S, the new girl, asked the doctors and they knew the location and showed her, so now I know too.

The Owner of the dog came back after a little bit and the vet asked me to bring the dog to the room. I got the dog out and saw she was bleeding, what looked like a lot. I called out to the doctor and she came and took a look and had me apply pressure on the drain. We got the bleeding stopped, she thinks that it was just blood that was sitting there, because when we got her cleaned up there was no more blood coming out of her drain. Then it was just closing duties after the last appointment of the day. Well, technically, second to last. The last appointment was a no show. So S & S closed while I waited for a blood test to finish, filled a prescription and did a few other things until everything was done and I could check the vets that we were good to go.

I came home and it was raining. Not as bad as the other day, but still pretty heavy. I could feel my tires slipping a few times with all the water on the road. I came home and put the garbage cans away and then parked the truck in the garage and came upstairs to find Fiks cooking dinner. Pork Chops, mashed potatoes and Brussel sprouts. Nom. I ran over to say hi to Mom and Poppa and Sister really quick, then I made my way back home and jumped into the shower because I was wet and dirty from work. I heard a lot of clanging and banging in the kitchen when I was in the shower, so I got dressed and made my way into the kitchen to see if everything was okay and if he needed a hand. Nope, he didn’t. Minus discovering the burned Brussel sprouts everything was great, and even those were good after some balsamic vinegar glaze on it.

Fiks jumped on Discord and was hanging out with his friends, and I watched an episode of Fringe before trying to work on this and just needing something on in the background, so I switched to Suits.

After a while I downloaded a new book to read. During that time I saw the news about the Buffalo Bills player who collapsed during the game. He’s not on my team, but I hope he’s okay. Been trying to find news/an update about him for a while now, but all I’m finding is news that’s a few hours old. I found footage of it happening. It’s spooky. He just fixes his helmet then drops.

I slept okay last night. I’ve been kicking my gravity blanket off me the past few nights, so I wake up freezing at some point. I remember Fiks coming to bed and making sure I was snuggled in, so I had it on at that point in time. We slept in until his work phone went off. Then we fell back asleep and then my Sister texted me saying she needed help with Mom and Poppa today. And with Lumi. So we slowly made our way out of bed and Fiks made breakfast while I went over and said hi to everyone and went and walked the dog. Took forever for him to go pee today. Dogs, am I right?

Anyway, after walking the dog I came home and had some breakfast and watched an episode of Suits. When it was time I went and got dressed and Fiks and I switched positions with the vehicles in the garage so that he could leave while I was gone. Then I went and got Mom and Poppa, we hopped into the car and left for Mom’s appointment. I was expecting a lot of traffic because they had shut down the bridge to clear the debris from underneath before the next storm system comes rolling in tomorrow. Well, they had it open when we went. So we got there way early. We sat in the lobby and watched people come in and go, get called for their appointments. There was a girl who was doing laps with her son who was trying to learn how to walk. Super cute. Still doesn’t want me to make off spring though.

When it was Mom’s turn we went back with her. She started on the bike, and whenever she would talk, she’d stop peddling then wonder why her rpm/step count wasn’t super high. Then they took a lap around the building and Poppa and I went and waited at the next station for her. She did some work on the parallel bars, and then we moved over to the bed where she did more exercises. Afterwards we went to the bank for Poppa, and then I ran into the grocery store. I got almost everything. Then Mom asked for a few things that weren’t on the list and I told her this, so we stopped at the market on the way home and I bought what I had missed that was available.

I got Mom and Poppa inside and then I made my way home. I had a sammich and turned on Fringe and started talking with a friend about trucks. Talked the pro’s and cons of getting a new one. Then Poppa came over and I talked with him about it. He agrees I need a new one just not right now. At least its in his mind. I think if I find one at his favorite dealership he might change his mind sooner. But we’ll see.

I snuggled down and watched Secretariat. I went over and helped with my parents for dinner. Left over Shepard pie from Sunday at Brothers house.

I tossed and turned all night last night. So I’m kind of tired today. We have an epic storm coming in, so I made Fiks text me that he got to work okay. I must have been mostly asleep when I responded because the first line was a garbled mess, but I got out a yay on the second line. I got up when my alarm went off and went and had some breakfast and dozed to Suits for a little while. Then I got up and got dressed, made my lunch, fed the fish, and made my way down the hill to work.

I got to work okay, but a little wet. I walked in and said hi to A, and she said a cheery hello back, which shocked me. I went and got some hot water for my tea and started working. We only have one doctor on today, the second is on the verge of a mandatory evacuation and couldn’t come in. It was A, L, and G and myself. The day went so far so good in the morning. But we had a patient in for seizures. The owner couldn’t take care of her (apparently), and so they decided to put her and her sister down. Everyone at the clinic was sad and disappointed about putting them down. The kids wanted nothing to do with the dogs. They didn’t even stay to say goodbye. It was the fucking dog walker who stayed with them. At least it was someone they knew and weren’t totally abandoned.

I’m sitting in my truck trying not to cry about it. I’m also hearing a steady dripping noise somewhere, but I cant find a leak. I read my book (2) for a bit and then worked on this. I ran inside when lunch was done and was a few minutes late. I lost track of time working on this. The rest of the afternoon was sllooowwww. Everything was cleaned within an inch of its life. We even cleaned the handles of our swiffers, the mop buckets, a few other things that are dirty that we never get to. I finished a towel pack for A, G & L basically hung out and did everything together, leaving me the odd man out.

We had some people not show up for appointments, some show up early, all because of the storm. Thankfully we were done and out of the clinic before the storm hit. It started raining on me on my way home, and I ran over to say hi to my Parents and Sister once I divested myself of my work stuff. I hung out over there for half hour then I came home and took a shower. Fuck the rain is cold this time around. Felt like it could hail, but looking at the temps I know that it won’t. It’ll just keep pissing down rain, praying that we don’t have a mudslide or a tree down, or have our power go out. After I had a few nibbles I turned on the TV and turned on Fringe and started working on this again.

I called and talked with Fiks, he was having a rough day. And I wanted to check in and make sure that he had power down there still. Like a month ago he had the power go out at the station, and I had to grab all of our flashlights and lanterns and battery packs and run them down to him.

I spent the evening watching Fringe and snacking, eventually eating a slice of pizza from Saturday for dinner. Fiks came home around 830, we talked while he made himself dinner. He had a rough day so we talked about what he could talk about. I’m hoping he has a better day tomorrow. We sat down on the sofa and watched some YouTube videos before I gave in and went to bed for the night.

I slept okay last night, which was nice. I woke up this morning to it pissing down rain, I think that’s what woke me up. I had a couple of cookies and turned on Suits and watched that for a little while before getting up and heading over to check on my Sister and Parents. I’m picking my parents up from getting their hair done around lunch time. I came home and was browsing through Facebook and came across a story from Lzzy Hale, featuring a new song with Daughtry. Well, its a cover, but I really enjoyed it. Its not the song I had in my head when I woke up, but it quickly replaced it, so I don’t even remember what it was.

I snuggled down on the sofa for a while and dozed until it was time to go get my parents. But first I ran to the post office and then I went to pick them up. I made an appointment for my hair next Saturday, so it’ll be nice and bright again. I know I just got it done, but I’m not happy with it. We came home and I got my parents settled, then I came home and had lunch. I turned on a movie and waited to hear from my Cousin, but we canceled for today. Raincheck. Somewhere next week…. I’ll have to talk to her to figure out what we’ll do with my work and school schedule and what works best for us.

Fiks and I ordered me a new phone the other night, a Pixel 7 Pro (phone dealer was having a sale on them). My current Pixel has been giving me problems where the touch screen won’t work on the top half most the time. Anyway, I ordered a phone case and protective glass for them (because I’m me and am hard on things), and they got delivered today. Well, not to my address. I don’t even know where they delivered it so I can’t go and look for it. Its a photo of not my door and not my door mat with my packages. They usually just deliver it next door, but it doesn’t look like they did it this time. Hopefully the house it got delivered to will try to track me down. And Fiks said it was going to come FedEx and he’d intercept it for me. Nope, coming UPS tomorrow when I’m at work.

I spent my afternoon reading and watching movies and TV shows. Super productive, I know. I wanted to get stuff done, like taking down the Christmas tree, but I just couldn’t find the motivation to do it. I went over and checked on Mom and Poppa, and Poppa was making mashed potatoes to go on top of the Shepard’s Pie that they got from Brothers. I’m surprised they’re still eating it, to be honest. I upgraded my plan on WordPress, wanting more storage for images. I went through the hassle of going through the old photos and starting to delete them, but then they said that they won’t stay on the blog posts. I had a bunch of credits, so I just thought I’d upgrade. :: shrug ::

I talked with Fiks and we decided to order Chinese for dinner. But first he had to swing a package by the harbor. But it was 8 o’clock at night and no one was there. He had a rough day today, I wish I could help him more with work. We have some big decisions coming up, and I told him I’ll have his back and help him out as much as I can. We then sat down and watched YouTube videos for a while. We watched 2 or 3 in a row about movies and framing from various pictures. Then I brushed my teeth and crawled into bed. I can hear him playing music out in the living room. Currently it’s Mr Blue Sky. Wanna place bets that’s going to be stuck in my head first then in the morning?

Well, I was wrong. Mr blue sky wasn’t in my head this morning.

I didn’t sleep great last night. Lots of tossing and turning and weird ass dreams. It’s 1 in the afternoon so I don’t remember them now. I woke up and Fiks was still home, which was a nice surprise. I thought he was running late. He said he’s going in late since he worked late last night. I got to kiss and hug him goodbye this morning and actually remember it (sometimes I’m asleep and will talk with him but I don’t remember). I had my breakfast and watched Suits for a little bit and then I went and got dressed for work and made my lunch. I loaded Waze and they said there was an accident on the highway so I went side streets until I was passed the accident. Well the traffic was fine the whole way down to where I jumped onto the highway. I got to work with some time to spare.

I changed into my work shoes and went inside and got to work. It was a fucking crazy morning, non stop appointments and helping the doctors. It just kept going. And we have 6 surgeries today, meant to be done by 2, but I highly doubt it. They always go over into appointment time. I asked my manager if I was working all day or just until 1130, and she said I could stay all day if I wanted. So I am. I’m currently on lunch and pinned in by other vehicles. I’m going to have to park differently next week so I can leave for school without bugging anyone. Before I left for lunch we had all the dogs in the runs howling at the top of their lungs. Out of sync and out of tune, not even singing the same song. So rude.

This afternoon was more crazy and frantic than this morning. It was just non stop. At one point I was rooming both doctors and doing tech appointments. I have no idea where the other girl was. L was on lunch, G was in surgery, and S was missing. I got yelled at for answering a question that was asked of me, I got yelled at for rooming and doing the tech appointments. Fucking rediculous. They are so screwed from next week until April basically. Im not missing class in order to get yelled at for doing my job. They need to get extra bodies in there for Friday afternoons asap. Either that and/or stop doing tech appointments in the afternoon.

The doctor and L were in surgery until 430. Clients started picking up pets at like 330. So that also added to the chaos and stress. We were cleaning by 520 and out by 545ish. I’m surprised that we got out so soon. I was throughly expecting to be there until around 6.

I came home, forgetting to get a prescription for Poppa. I remembered when I got home. Thankfully I had everything else that my Sister asked for. I guess Poppa has been having a really bad case of the hiccups for the past 2 days. It’s keeping him from sleeping. Dr Google says that benadryl is meant to help that. Me? I would have taken him to the doctors considering he was having trouble swallowing after his stroke. We’ll see if he gets better. The nyquil is to knock him out so he could sleep. Hopefully that will work too.

I came back home and took a shower and then I sat down on the sofa and started working on this. I tried calling Fiks to talk with him but he was busy and didn’t answer. I got a text that he was on his way home a little bit later. When he got home we had dinner together and then we sat down and started watching YouTube videos. I introduced him to the Daughtry and Lzzy Hale song, he liked it. I then made salted caramel brownies. The whole house smells like brownies now. I love it.

I slept like a rock last night, so that was nice. I didn’t really wake up until 6 when Fiks got up and got ready for work. Then I put a Disney movie on on my phone and fell asleep to that until about 9, which is when my alarm went off. I got up and had some breakfast and went over to my Sisters house, but the house was closed and they were all asleep still. So I came back home and watched some Suits for a while and then I jumped online and into the orientation meeting for class. While waiting for that to start I set up my accounts for the program we are using, so that was nice to get it out of the way. I was one of the first ones in. My instructor asked me to be a co-host because his internet was shit and he was running on hotspots. He was talking about how he’s been without power since Wednesday and is hoping they get it back on today.

The orientation class was okay. Nothing that you couldn’t figure out by just reading the syllabus and going through what it says. What he did to that is really cool is that he gave out the final questions already, so that’s nice. And he breaks down what section of the class they come from. After a quick break we started working on some math. 2 hours later my brain is dead and I feel like a Zombie.

I went over to see my Parents again and everyone was up this time. Mom and Poppa were doing their blood pressures while watching a James Bond (Sean Connery) movie. Sorry, got distracted by something gross on Fringe. Anyway, Mom still wants to get out of the house and come with me. So I have to get moving a little bit sooner than I wanted. Damn. And my new phone still hasn’t showed up yet, I hope I don’t miss it again. That would suck. I stayed on the sofa a little while longer and then I got up and dressed. I went over and picked mom up and off we went.

I drove to European wax center in town, and ran in and got in fairly quickly. We talked about our holidays and school, my stylist went back east for Christmas and didn’t get caught in any of the plane canceling flights disaster. When I was done I scheduled another appointment and went out to the truck where Mom was waiting. We ran to a few more stores. Well, I ran, Mom stayed dry and warm in the truck. We went to the house and made sure everything was okay before coming home. I got Mom settled in at my Sisters house before coming home. I turned on Fringe, had something to nibble on, and just hung out for a while. Fiks said he was coming home early, so that was nice. Once he was home and showered I ordered pizza for dinner. And just a little bit ago my new phone show up :: happy dance :: So I currently have that on a charger while I back stuff up from my old phone.

I backed up my phone while waiting for the pizza to show up and gaming to start. We are doing a campaign in Boulders Gate this time. I got to keep my character I made at the end of the year, just changed her name. We had a good time, even if we were a little ADHD/short attention spans. My Brother’s character died died halfway through the session, so he had to go and make a new character. He finished it by the time we called the session. But we’re playing next week. So yeah, we’ll meet his new character then.

Alright, I’m calling it here.

~ Have a good week and just keep swimming ~