Welcome to week 5!

I slept okay last  night, only waking up once, which is fairly good for me. And I was able to get back to sleep after a little while. I turned on my audio book again (Nona the Ninth), and fell back to sleep. I basically tossed and turned until 9am and gave up and went to the sofa and turned on Big Bang where I promptly passed out until Fiks woke me up at 10 something. He was getting dressed and ready to go hang out with some friends and make some new amtgard garb as well as going to amtgard for a while today. While he was gathering things I leveled up my character Nix, gaining a feat that gave me a few new spells and some ability points. I also talked with the DM about changing her season/appearance so that they guy who I flirted with last night wouldn’t be able to find me. He laughed and said okay. We have secrets about the character now.

After helping Fiks load up his car and kissing him goodbye, I went and said hi to Mom and Poppa, and helped my Sister get them into the car to go watch the 49ers game at my Brother’s house. Poppa also asked Mom to marry him again, so I’m assuming a vow renewal is in our future. Super sweet ❤️🥰❤️. I got them loaded up and said goodbye and came back home. I made myself a cup of tea and then I worked on paperwork for my upcoming doctors appointments, put on Sherlock: The Abominable Bride and then I took my chapter 3 quiz for chemistry and did okay, 13/15, and my post lab work 5.75 out of 8, not so great. 

I went to go do homework only to discover the internet went down, and I texted Fiks about it, he had the new router with him, so I just put on Sherlock and turned on my hotspot to do my homework. Well, kind of. I kept jumping back and forth between working on homework and watching TV. I watched a few videos on Khan Academy on chemistry and it seemed to start clicking for me, I will for sure be keeping that page bookmarked.

I went over to Brother’s with my Sister, not sure if Fiks would be able to join us, 3 extra vehicles in the driveway would have been awkward. We met Niece and Sister in law after going into the house, and then we saw Mom and Poppa. Then Brother and Emily came up from downstairs in the garden where the BBQ is (he was making garlic burger sliders), Brother put me to work making salad and keeping an eye on the corn. We had a good time, talking and cracking jokes. Mom even called me a hussy for telling Brother how I got information out of the bad guy last night. We had chocolate cake for desert that Niece had picked out from Costco. We then loaded up and came home.

Fiks was home when I walked through the door, working on the internet. Its not as fast as he wants it to be, but at least its up and working. We then watched the Jack the Whipper show, which is so much fun. If you haven’t seen him, you can find him on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, I think at the Jack the Whipper handle too. I worked on some of my chemistry homework while watching it for a while. Then I got absorbed into the show and put the homework down and forgot it for a while. After the show Fiks and I did the garbage and recycling and then we came back inside and he showed me what he worked on with his garb. Currently we are watching Anna Kendrick (I love her) on Hot Ones.  I watched a couple more videos before heading to the shower and then to bed.

I slept really well last night. I only woke up once in the night and that was to turn my audio book back on. I slept until my alarms went off, turned them off and tried to sleep some more, but I just tossed and turned, so I gave up after a while. I went and made myself breakfast and flopped on the sofa, put on Big Bang and  started looking for Phantom of the Opera music. I found a beautiful cover which was all by Cellos. You know what? I still really enjoyed it, so here’s the cover.

I guess they took the video down…

I hung out on the sofa and waited for my Doctors appointment to start. Fiks came out of the bedroom and snuggled with me for a few minutes while I waited. When she showed up we started the appointment. It went pretty well, we’re not changing anything right now, and we’re going to check in in a few months. Afterwards I went and got out of PJ’s and into jeans and a t-shirt. While I was getting dressed Fiks got a few phone calls from work, thankfully they were easy fixes and didn’t ruin the mood. I grabbed the load of dirty laundry and threw that into a basket and went downstairs and moved the laundry. Fiks got his socks and shoes on while I did this and met me down by the cars. We piled into his little Mazda and went down the mountain to the grocery store. The store wasn’t bad, we got some white roses and went around the store and got everything that we needed.

We came home and the laundry was still drying, so we didn’t move it. We brought the groceries up and I put the cold and frozen stuff away, and Fiks jumped onto his computer. He said there was a “Live” Ralph Report to watch, so we watched that for a while. It was funny. Now we’re watching YouTube video’s. I’ll get ready for our date in a little while (aka straighten my hair). I’ll also do my makeup, but I’ll do that closer to leaving time because I’m horrible about rubbing my eyes when I have eye shadow on.

This is our first date night in a while. It’s also our valentines day date, because Fiks wasn’t sure when he’d actually be done on February 14th. We’re going to a restaurant called La Fondue. We’ve been there before. We went 2 years ago for our 2nd anniversary. It’s a fun experience. He was asking me what to wear, I said I was wearing a dress and I always enjoy him in one of his suits. We’ll see what he picks. I haven’t picked my dress yet either.

After watching some Big Bang and looking into doing Oats Overnight, I went to straighten my hair.  I forgot to take a before photo, but here is what I look like now with straight hair. Fiks picked his WALL-E and EVE shirt, so I decided on my Pixar dress. Fiks is hoping into the shower and I’m going to do my makeup.

I did my makeup and decided that the Pixar dress was too tight. So after Fiks was out of the shower I had him unzip me and I put on a dress I got last year; the 50 year Disneyland dress.

We finished getting ready and made our way to the car (after I moved the laundry), Fiks got the GPS up and running and off we went. We made good time, we listened to Dump People Town on the way to the restaurant. We got there early and found parking, so we went for a walk in down town. It was pretty cold and empty for a Monday night. We didn’t really see anyone else walking around, we did see someone walking their beautiful dog – brindle coat I’m not sure of the breed.  We made our way back to the restaurant for our reservation.

While we were waiting I ran and put on some lip gloss and snagged this photo. The original is way darker.

We stood around for a few minutes before being shown to our table. Our host and hostesses were very nice, our main hostess reminded me of Jenna Ortega for some reason. We got everything ordered (drinks and salads and dessert, our main dish was already chosen by the Groupon we got), and just chatted. Fiks told the hostess that it was a mix of our dating anniversary (10 years on New Years!) and Valentines day. Our Groupon was for the Le Freak Menu option, aka lots of meat and fish. You have to be willing to be adventurous for this dish, something I’m usually not, but I really enjoyed this.

It was super fun and enjoyable, and that was after having some garlic cheese fondue with bread and veggies, and then we had chocolate fondue with a bunch of sweets and fruits for dessert. And soooo much sparkling wine. I needed some make up remover wipes, so we went to the closest CVS and found what I was looking for. We then made our way home. We brought up the laundry and got changed, I removed my make up since I was thinking about it, and I started working on this with Dirty Jobs playing in the background. Oh, I forgot to say earlier that Fiks got me some white roses today (my birth flower).

I finished watching Dirty Jobs and went to bed. I meditated for a while and read my book for a while. Fiks came to bed right when I started my audio book which was a nice surprise.

I slept okay last night, once I got there.  I woke up around 3 and turned on my audio book and tossed and turned for a while. I accidentally woke Fiks up with my tossing and turning. I managed to fall back to sleep  and when I woke up he was in bed next to me. My alarms went off and we both grumbled and eventually got out of bed. Fiks just left for work and I’m still waking up on the sofa.

After a while I went and got dressed, gathered my school things and to the truck I went. I got going, the drive wasn’t as bad as it was last week, but it still took about 45 minutes. But I got to school with time to spare. I went and got a hot chocolate and ran into my friend C, and so we chatted for a bit and then we sat down and I worked on the homework that I forgot about. When it was close to class time we got up from the table and headed to the classroom.

Class was pretty good. We started off with a body scan, and then we worked on Polyvagal Mapping for the rest of the class. When we were done I made my way to the truck and then made my way home. I got home with 10 minutes to spare before class, so I jumped on and didn’t feel pressured to be on time. I must be tired because I kept nodding off, so I went and got an iced tea and a snack, and ate that while taking notes.

I had a half hour left in class when Poppa came over and knocked on my door. I opened the door and Poppa said Mom had been whapped by Lumi and he’d broken the skin and she was bleeding. I put on my shoes and walked with him over to my Sister’s house. I got there and Mom was bleeding from her hand in 2 places, one was in the webbing between her fingers (I don’t know how that happened) and then he got the top of her hand. I said it looked like she needed stitches, or at least more care than I could give her. I bandaged between her fingers and put some gauze on top of her hand and wrapped it.

I couldn’t take her to urgent care right then because I had my doctor’s appointment with my allergy doctor. But I said I’d take her afterwards. She agreed to that and got something to eat and I came home. I turned on Big Bang and waited for my appointment to start. I wasn’t waiting too long before she jumped onto the call. We went over all my allergies and reactions and then she said she was ordering some blood work for me.

After my appointment I gathered my things and went over to Sister’s and got Mom and Poppa ready to go. We couldn’t get their car out so we went in the truck. Mom had PT earlier in the day, so she was tired and had a hard time getting in and out of the truck. We went to urgent care and snagged the last appointment available (7 pm). We got Moms vitals taken after a little bit of a wait, and the nurse undid the wrap I had on her. She proceeded to rewrap it and didn’t do a great job. Mom wanted to come home and rest at home instead of staying and waiting at urgent care. They said to be back by 630, so we loaded Mom and Poppa into the truck and made our way home. But first we stopped by Kaiser for me.

I checked in and got my stickers for the blood work that my allergy doctor just ordered and went to the lab. I barely sat down when the phlebotomists came and got me and took me to the last chair to draw my blood. She found a vein and then poked me and proceeded to take 6 big vitals of blood from me. When all 6 were filled she wrapped up my arm after putting some gauze over the draw site. I went back to the truck and got Mom and Poppa home.

After I got them settled I came home and tried to work on my homework. I somehow fell asleep instead. I woke up a few minutes before my sister texted me. I grabbed my stuff and locked up the house and went over to my Sister’s to get Mom and Poppa again. We pulled Sister’s car out of the garage so I could get my Parents car out of the garage. We got them loaded up and went down the mountain towards urgent care.

We got there a little early, so they took us back to a room. We waited about 45 minutes before being seen by someone. They decided that she would need a stitch, which turned into 3. They wrapped her hand better this time, which was nice. They gave us home care instructions as we were leaving, and some extra gauze, cream, and tape. We came home and got my Parents settled again and then I came home where Fiks was waiting for me. I had some garlic burger sliders from dinner on Sunday, and we both had some cake while watching YouTube videos.

I did not want to wake up this morning. I was quite happy snuggled up against Fiks. But eventually he got out of bed, so then I did. I made myself some breakfast and watched some Big Bang and tried to wake up. When it was time I went and got dressed, and Fiks ate his breakfast. I made my lunch and he went and finished getting ready.

When it was time we both walked down to the garage to our vehicles, kissed each other goodbye and I wished him a good day, and we went to work. The drive was fine, I was only a few cars behind him for most of the way down. I lost track of him at the freeway junction. I got to work in time and changed into my work shoes, grabbed a mask and went inside.

The day was okay. It was a good pace for the morning, not too busy, but not too slow either. I managed to get the call backs done, I roomed and helped with appointments and x-rays and blood draws. I also got clocked upside the head by a dog when I was holding for a blood draw. I saw teeth and got hit so good I fell over. A saw him open his jaws and come at me. My red hair made everyone think that he’d gotten my face, but he hadn’t. We muzzled him for the rest of the time he was in treatment just to be safe.

I was successful 2 out of the 3 times, so I feel pretty good about that. The afternoon went fairly well. G and A did the dental on the dog that was in, Hunny. L and I went to lunch at the same time. Hunny was very loud during recovery, howling at the top of her lungs and holding the howl for a good 30 seconds to a minute.

This is one of the times she was sleeping. A left around 315 and then it was just L, G, E and myself. E and I brought a dog who couldn’t walk in from a car, we carried her in on the seat cover the owner had her on. We took her to ultrasound land and the Doctor looked for free floating fluids in her abdomen, thankfully she didn’t have any. L and I moved her back into the room with her owner and then she got up and tried to go through the open door, the owner was in shock that she was standing and I ran and closed the door and then told the doctor she was up.

The afternoon was filled with tech appointments who were caution dogs. We had one beautiful cat come in for a nail trim. We also had a blind dog come in. Like he’s lost both his eyes blind. And the owners fed vegan dog food (not advised!), I didn’t even know there was vegan dog food. Thankfully he was the last one of the day, we did some vaccines and a heartworm test and a nail trim. Then G and I closed down the clinic and we’re out by 515.

I came home, dropped off my bags and then I walked over to my sister’s house to check on my Parents and change the bandage on Mom’s hand. The hematoma she had yesterday had spread across her knuckles today. And her hand was still swollen. I got the water warm and gently poured it over her wound. We then went and let it dry for a few minutes and started chatting. I rewrapped her hand and put a bandage on between her fingers, and asked if the pressure was okay.

After I got Mom settled and Poppas bandage on his back changed I came home and jumped into the shower and got clean. I then got dressed and moved to the living room and turned on Big Bang. I tried getting a hold of Fiks but I wasn’t successful. I went back over and checked on Mom and her hand (she was doing fine), then I came back and watched the end of the lecture from Tuesday. (I still haven’t finished it, got like 15 minutes left).

Fiks came home while I was working on chemistry, and I decided to give my brain a rest and hang out with him for a while. We watched YouTube videos and he ate his dinner. Then I went to bed.

I slept really well for me last night, I don’t remember waking up until Fiks alarm went off. I woke him up after a bit, not sure if he turned off his alarm or snoozed through it. He got up and got dressed, I kissed him goodbye and snuggled back down under the covers for a while more. I reluctantly woke up to my alarms, went to the kitchen and made some breakfast before turning on Big Bang and dozing to that before getting motivated to go get dressed. Once I was dressed I ran down to the truck and dug out a hoodie because it was fricking cold! I swung by and got gas and then I was on my way.

I made it to campus in 45 minutes, not too bad. I texted Fiks that I got to school okay since he was at training in Oakland, but I do that every day that I go to school. I was on my way to the lifts when I walked by the goats playing in the pen. They’re also wearing jackets. Super cute! I will meet them one day.

After grinning and taking pictures of the goats I went to the lifts and rode up to the third floor, then I swung by the coffee shop for a hot chocolate to warm up my hands and I got a rice crispy treat since there were no cookies. Took a bite and man, I almost broke a tooth on it, and I wasn’t even close to an M&M.

My friend, C, joined me at the table, more like snuck up on me while I was working on this. I put my phone down and curled up with my hot chocolate as we chatted. We saw the teacher approaching, so we went to the classroom and got ourselves settled. We chatted a little bit about pre-req’s for the vet tech program at school, which she is going to apply for this year, I have to wait for next year. I asked her how she did with chemistry and she said she struggled and had to hire a tutor, I might have to do the same thing. Class started and we did our breathing exercises and then we talked about the book that I (forgot) to read. I’ve barely broken chapter 1, and we’re talking about chapter 4 on Tuesday, I have a lot of reading to do. And we have guests coming down this weekend, so I don’t know where I’m going to squeeze it in. But we haven’t seen them in a while, so it will be nice to see them. Anyway, that was a derailment. We talked about chapter 1 and 2 today, so I took good notes since I hadn’t read the book.

When it was time to go I packed up and said goodbye to C, and whished her a nice weekend. She seemed kinda off when I said goodbye, but I have a time crunch to get from school to home for my second class. I’ll text her during the weekend and see if everything is okay. I made my way down to the truck, loaded up the Ralph Report and my GPS and went home. Traffic was good, and I had a bit of a lead foot on some parts.

I got home in time to join class early by like 5 minutes. We went over the end of the last lecture, and then we started on more stuff about valence structures and other things that I have no idea what they are because he went super fast. I’ll have to go to the recording and go over stuff again. But we went over the worksheet 2, and I got some answers done that I didn’t have on my own, and we worked on the pre lab for tomorrow. 4 questions, pretty easy. After the extra help I went over to say hi to Poppa, Mom was out with Other Mother. We chatted for a little bit, and I said I’d come back over when Mom got home, so I went home and watched some Big Bang. Right when I was on the verge of a nap I went outside and saw Other Mother and Mom, and Poppa was there too. So I walked over there to help and I got a hug from Other Mother, and an invitation to go over and ride Smoke and Mora anytime. I might take her up on it.

I changed the bandage on Mom’s hand, I’m going to have to swing by the feed store tomorrow to get some more bandaging material for her on the way to school so I can change it when I get home. Its looking good. I got Mom settled and my Sister came home while I was bandaging her hand. I came home and watched some Big Bang and took a quick nap. Then I started undressing the Christmas tree, its still up, but its naked now (all I have to do is stuff it into its box, and then get the boxes downstairs).

I did some homework, did okay on the assignments. Not as good as I want, but I don’t really understand the material, so its to be expected. I started working on this when Fiks came home for a short break before heading down to the station to do some paperwork. We had some Chex Mix together and watched some YouTube videos before he left and I walked back over to check on Mom’s hand. I saw that she was sleeping and was about to turn around when Lumi sounded the alarm and woke Mom up. Her hand is looking good. They were just about to have dinner (pasta), so I came home and I worked on this some more with Big Bang going on in the background. I’m waiting for Fiks to text me he’s on his way home before I start cooking dinner.

He texted me that he was going to be a while, but I was hungry and started cooking. While I was waiting for the oven to warm up I started talking with T, who sent me photos of her family dinner which was 3 different dishes. I wanted the choppino (sp), with the lobster claw. This is what I wanted to cook tonight.

So once the oven was ready I went and started cooking, I got out and cut the potatoes and put them in a pot of water to boil. I cut the brussel sprouts and threw them in the oven, then I cooked the salmon. It all turned out pretty well, even if I could have mashed the taters better. I showed this picture to Fiks and he said it looked like it was a crime scene picture, which made me laugh so hard, so I wanted to put it here.

Here’s how it actually looked.

I sat down and ate dinner while watching TV. Fiks texted me he was on his way home, and so I started watching YouTube videos. We had been sitting on the sofa for a few minutes when someone rang our doorbell. We looked at each other and then I got up and answered the door. A woman was standing there, and asked if I was housing an Uber driver or a scion. I told her no and I asked the address she was looking for, and she said our address, so it was weird.

Now that I’m thinking about it I had something like that with a similar woman a few years ago looking for a Uber driver.

Oh! I started a new audio book a few nights ago, The Librarian of Crooked Lane.

I slept really well again last night. I’m not sure what I’m doing but I’m not going to take it for granted. I remember waking up with my alarms and Fiks kissing me goodbye (maybe not in that order), and then after I woke up again I went and grabbed some cookies and flopped on the sofa and turned on Big Bang. I dozed off and on to that for a while. When it was time I went and got dressed, threw my chemistry stuff in my bag and my laptop, and made my way to the truck. But before school I swung by the feed store.

I don’t think I’ve been inside a feed store since I lost Gucci, so it was kinda hard for me. I found the first aid section and grabbed some telfa pads, gauze, hot pink vet wrap. I think it took me longer to get rung up then it did to pick out the stuff. Once I had everything I went to my truck and then off to school.

It was really weird, I only saw 10 cars coming southbound on the highway from where I get on until halfway down the other side of the mountain. There had been an accident. A poor blue Ford ranger (older) had smashed in his front end. I don’t know if there was another car involved, I didn’t get that good of a look because I was driving and it was a windy part of the highway. The rest of my drive was fine. I got to school at a good time. I hopped on my laptop and hotspot and went over everything again, and I watched the video so I had some understanding of what was going on today.

It was our first time using a Bunson Burner, and my first time since highschool. Thankfully the instructor was the one to light it and handle it. Todays lab was a case of hurry up and wait. Wait for it to boil and reduce, then to the oven and wait for it to reduce some more. Get it out and weigh it, then back in the oven and wait some more.

My partner, S, and myself finished the experiment and got the right results, so we were done with the rest of class I went over the post lab quiz, and then double checked I had done all of worksheet 2, which I had. I decided I was good for the day (my brain was squishy no squishy at that point anyways), so I packed up, said goodbye to the instructor and came home.

The drive home was fine if a bit wet. I didn’t drive too fast and crazy, I left that to the other drivers, and there were plenty of those. I got home safely and sat down and had some snacks before heading over to my Sister’s house and checked on my Parents. They’d just gotten home from a doctor’s appointment and ordered flowers for their vow renewal next Saturday.

I came home and watched the new Great British Baking Show: The Professionals. It’s fun. I called Fiks at the end of the episode because I hadn’t heard from him all day. He was fine, just doing paperwork when I called. We decided on Chinese for dinner, so I told him to let me know when he was done and I’d place the order. While I was waiting, and after I took the Christmas tree down, I had some chocolate for a snack, and I didn’t like the taste of it, I think it was hazelnut. I spat it out and took my prescription strength Benadryl and told Fiks. He made sure that I was doing alright. I’m breathing fine, I just don’t feel well and my throat is a little bit tight. He showed up with the Chinese and made sure I was okay, and then we dished up dinner and sat down to watch some Vox Machina.

We are currently browsing YouTube, and I’m starting to get a headache. Hopefully it’s just from the noise.

Well, I didn’t die in my sleep, so that’s a plus. Probably one of the reasons I was worried and couldn’t get to sleep last night. Like worried that when my pill wore off I’d start going into shock in my sleep. When Fiks came to bed I felt calmer and fell asleep snuggled up next to him. He woke up really early and was on his work phone, so I’m sure something was happening. He came back to bed for a little bit and I think he slept some more, I know I did. I remember kissing him goodbye and went back to sleep until my alarm went off. I got up, had some breakfast and turned on Big Bang for a while and tried to wake up to that.

When it was time I went and got dressed. After digging through the laundry we didn’t put away last week I found some scrubs and an under shirt. I got myself dressed and fed the fish, grabbed my waterproof jacket and went down to the truck. It was freezing, so I cranked the heat up in it while I got my music and GPS going. It was raining most of the way down to work. When I got there it was drizzling, so I was able to change into my work shoes without getting totally soaked. I grabbed my stuff and went inside and punched in.

I said good morning to A, and she said it back in a nice voice. I started working on call backs and labs, which there weren’t a lot of today, which was surprising and nice. I left messages on the first 2 calls, and then a clients file came back, and it was only A and myself, I went to go room. When I came back I saw S and S. S the second was now doing my callbacks. I’m getting frustrated with her taking my responsibilities and doing them when I’m working on them. Grrr. I know she’s helping, and I need to understand that in the moment so I don’t get upset.

I worked on a towel pack, and then S was done with the phone calls and jumped on my next stack of towels for a towel pack. I just let her do it. I kept rooming clients and S and S kept doing whatever they were doing, which felt like nothing because I was constantly rooming and cleaning the rooms. It was a full schedule but it was going at a nice pace, which helped me out. When it was time we started doing closing duties, but I didn’t vacuum or mop today (yay!)

I came home in the rain, and I felt my back tires slip a little bit, but I was going slow and kept the truck under control, I got home in one piece. I came inside and dropped of my pens and my bag before heading over to my Sisters to check on my parents. Lumi and Poppa greeted me at the door, Mom asleep on the sofa taking a nap. Poppa and I started chatting for a few minutes, then when I was leaving Mom woke up, so I said hi to her and said I’d be back later to change the wrap. She was fine with that, so I came home, got into some sweats, fluffy socks and a sweatshirt and sat down and turned on Great British Baking Show: The Professionals.

I woke up a little over an hour later and went over and changed Mom’s wrap on her hand. We cleaned it off before apply new antibiotic cream, gauze, and some new vet wrap. She chose hot pink today. I got her settled on the sofa before coming back home for a while. I submitted my homework, and I took a quiz. I didn’t do as good on the quiz as I wanted, I was stupid and rushed through without reading the answers fully the second time around. I went and checked on Mom after a while, and Poppa and Sister had gone to church, so we sat and talked for a little bit. Apparently my Sister was grumpy when she got home and kind of took it out on her, which sucks. Said if she wanted anything then I would be the one to have to help her.

I came back home and talked with Fiks about what he wanted for dinner, and he said he was coming home. I figured we could decide when he got home. And we did, kind of. I ended up ordering pizza even though I wasn’t really feeling pizza for dinner, but I ordered a salad, so something healthy for me at least. Fiks went and took a shower after we were done watching Bake Off, and then I watched some YouTube videos with Disney songs, so that was fun. Fiks sang some of them from the bathroom, which made me smile.

It was soon time for gaming, so I jumped onto Discord and saw that other people were on, so I jumped on too. We BS’d and said hi until everyone was online, and then we started the session. I threw everyone for a loop because I changed Nix (my character)’s appearance from Winter to Summer (aka making her red and flames). We are currently back at the mansion and killing everything for some reason. We ended up taking a hostage and making our way down to the sewers.

I’m going to leave it here for this week!

~Just keep swimming~