Helenka, Queen of Outer Space

Yes, I was tempting fate by going to bed at 2:40. Set the sound machine. It lasts for 30 minutes. Ask me how many times I reset it. I'm too tired to do the math, but I don't think I fell asleep until around 7. And then woke up after 11. Four hours just doesn't cut it.

On top of that, my vision was lousy for most of the day, though the fonts have just taken on a lemon meringue hue amid a sea of pulsing, yellow-fuzziness. Not so good for reading, even if I've continued with the fic that ate my brain!

All I can do is hope for a much better night. Sigh.

Went to bed at 12:15 and woke up at 4:21. Despite the elegant decreasing design of the time, that is so NOT a normal waking time. So I did what I normally do, which is read. I didn't have my usual entrée for brekkie. Instead I had two portions of cream of squash soup into which I added dollops of basil paste. What a delightful taste sensation!

As I was feeling too groggy to accept my meals, S. did it for me. And, then, I was facing a two-hour Conference Call of my blind group. Luckily, we wrapped things up before 75 minutes. Yay for efficiency! Monitored the group's emails and sent out charming responses (now, that's professionalism).

Was too out of it to concentrate on watching TV. I sorta, kinda got through last night's winter opener of Murdoch Mysteries. I'll have to watch it again when I'm lucid again. Sigh. Fading now....

It's all over except for catching up on sleep.

Oh, how desperately do I need sleep. It didn't help that I woke up at 4:00 a.m. Sunday morning hearing a faint beeping sound. I thought Brian was in distress. We talked about it later. He thought I was having a problem. Nope, it was neither of us so we figured the sound was coming from upstairs.

But, when I woke up this time with freezing hands, I couldn't get back to sleep. Once again, the lack of slippers made a difference. So I got dressed and went to sit on the couch with my iPad and continued reading for hours until Brian woke up and came out to make brekkie which was a repeat of yesterday, except that today's luscious juice was mango-orange by my fave supplier. His knife skills had also improved (or else he was getting used to the dull implement). We really went to town on the smoked salmon. And here I'd been worried there wouldn't be enough food through the weekend, so I'd packed a bag of miniature milk chocolates. Ha! I definitely didn't need them.

After Brian's looooooong shower (I envied him because it was cold, damp, and possibly wet out), we packed up the car. I'd wanted to sit outside where there were a couple more Muskoka chairs but, as it had already rained, they were wet. So, sadly, we departed before 10:30. Had one last drive by the Falls and then headed back to TO. It's a good thing we left early, because traffic was still very bad in spots so we had to detour.

After Saturday's drive around in N-O-T-L, Brian loved the town so much he wants us to stay there next time (and already started picking out luxurious homes). It's a good thing we'll have more adventures together! We'll also see each other Thursday as a mutual friend has invited us to a nice restaurant (in my old 'hood) for dinner. We're looking forward to it.

I was in serious pain despite my muscle relaxant, so asked him to turn on the seat heater for me. Slightly better, but made me long for hours in the jacuzzi where, to my surprise, the hot water and bubbles had softened even the dry patches below my elbows. When we arrived, he lugged my suitcase and purchases into the house; we hugged and then he was off home while I did the collapsing thing. So how out of it was I? I was trying to unzip the suitcase but kept tugging at the wrong zipper. Okay, that can wait. I need major sleep.

I woke up in time for the news, puttered around a bit, and tried my jelly beans. The best flavour is cappuccino. Had juice and water, but wasn't hungry, so went back to bed.

Of course, you can guess what happened next; yes, I woke up around 3:00. I got out of bed and began tackling my emails, especially regarding the blind group. Finally got around to having a healthy, hearty brekkie. Finished emptying the suitcase. Then it was back to bed to read a little and sleep some more. Woke up around 3:00 (you know there's too much symmetry here). Watched the news, my game shows and too many recorded judge shows which were putting me to sleep again.

Now I'm worried about my monitor. I think it's really on its last legs, so I may not be able to wait for a sale. Sigh. And I couldn't reactivate my talking clock, so I'll have to hope I wake up at an early but decent time tomorrow. ::crosses fingers::

As if that weren't bad enough, I think I only had about 2-3 decent hours of sleep last night. Why? Oh, it could have been the extra=strength hot lemon drink with its easy-breathing stimulants. No wonder I couldn't sleep. But, hey, I could breathe easily. So, I mostly dragged myself around all day, working on my blind group responsibilities.

Watched my legal and game shows as well as the news and this week's MasterChef. Then I came down with extreme abdominal pain. Ack. Grab some yogurt and lie down. Thankfully, the yogurt helped, but I'm exhausted. The cough isn't so bad but the larynx must be bruised because even my phone didn't understand me when I said, "Okay Google"! Thanks a lot, phone!

The heat wave is expected to break tonight. It won't be soon enough. Luckily, I've delayed doing laundry until tomorrow. Time to relax and read for a little bit (while I have a terrific connection). Nighty-night (oh, how I hope so), all.

The meltdown in question is both metaphorical and environmental. It was (is?) a scorcher today. It didn't help that I opened my eyes at exactly 0400. But I was stubborn so rolled over and tried to sleep. No such luck, so I unglued myself from the bed at 0500. The only good thing about the hour was that I had lots of time to get ready, leaving getting dressed until the very end. Clothes … ugh.

Still, there was a tiny bit of respite in the shade. I arrived at church at 9:30 and sat outside for about thirty minutes. The service was - no surprise - amazing with the topic being radical hospitality. I was transported back to 1990 because of it. The music was also divine, especially a most dramatic performance of "Man of La Mancha"! After church, I sat outside with Jan who'd become nauseous. Unfortunately, she didn't have a ride home so would have to drive her scooter a couple miles under a punishing sun. But she was smart. She initially drove to the mall, stayed where it was cool, and had some ginger ale before driving home safely. Good for her.

When I got in, I poured myself into the shower and washed the clothes I'd been wearing. Only then did I begin my writeup which was a stroll down memory lane. After I'd posted (in an ingenious way as I still can't open a new word doc), I could finally relax. Continued reading my book (on and on and bureaucratically ON). Just to add to my problems, Grumpy disappeared somewhere in the house so missed getting brekkie. Silly cat. Don't miss brekkie! Silly cat. Good thing your mums are coming home tomorrow. ::crosses fingers:: Watched the news and then had the highlight of my evening: putting on my thinnest nightie which was still wet. ::groans at the relief from stupid heat::

Sigh. So I read for a while in the morning - when I should have been writing. Sigh, again. Then I began to get ready for going out. Took a chance and wore my spring coat again. But at least it was sunny and the temp a few degrees higher. My minivan showed up around 9. Had a great drive to the blind institute. Got there fifteen minutes early, so sat out and basked in the sun.

I was surprised to see not that many people at our meeting. Perhaps peeps didn't want to come if there wasn't a guest speaker and only a potluck. Anyway, I was proactive and enticed a whole bunch of people to join the "popular" table, lol. Met a few new people and reconnected with Janet, with whom I really, really need to go out to dinner. Soon, now that the weather has improved. Well, I told her we'd talk. She's also interested in joining the book club. Yay. The food was delish. We have four varieties of subs as well as samosas and two salads (one was a shrimp one from the winner of the cooking show). Desserts were very well represented, including a really moist banana bread. I managed to snag leftovers from desserts and another mini sub to take home). After the meeting, I bought a package of raised dots to use on my microwave. I'll just wait for Brian ::hollers at him through the ether:: to affix them.

My ride came around 1:15 and I got home very quickly. Okay, so NOW I had to try to write. The story's been developing slowly, but I was so tired there was no way to finish tonight, especially when I started to doze off during the news and game shows. Yes, again. I'll have to devote much of tomorrow to finish it so I can post within the deadline. ::crosses fingers::

So, what's the what? Well, SuM, S and I just had a House Dinner & Movie Night. First, for dinner we had grilled Teriyaki chicken, green beans, roasted 'taters, sliced zucchini. Then we had my bourbon pecan tarts and Hypnotiq for dessert as we watched "Freeheld", based on a true story from last decade of a dying NJ cop who wanted to transfer her pension to her partner (with whom she had a Domestic Partnership). Naturally, the council (a bunch of dicks!) were very sad she was dying, but wouldn't transfer the pension (because they thought gay people were icky, dontchaknow), which would have meant the partner couldn't afford to keep their house (and its memories). Only the cop's work partner supported her; but, at the end, a whole bunch of cops showed up at the town council meeting where they reversed the decision. So, yeah, lots of being all choked up and crying. There's also a documentary, so we'll try to watch that in the next couple of days.

Now, why no pain? Because church-John came a-calling (texting me while I was in the shower ... and he was already parked outside without my knowledge!). After I got dressed, we took my new coat to the cleaners to get my sleeves shortened. When I got back home, I took two pain pills, swallowed down by Coke. Oh, feeling much better.

Anyway, much better than this morning, when I'd woken up at 4:11 a.m. (from the pain lancing through my fingers). So I decided to read and actually finished the book which ended up being horror/crime/mystery/child abuse/sociopathic siblings. Uh ... yeah. So not pleasant, even if it was gripping. After I finished, I returned to reading the engrossing God book by Sawyer. Much saner. I think I'll read a bit more before bed. Then keep my fingers crossed for better sleep, too.

To bed at 1:00, awake at 3:25. ::groans:: Even though I tried to return to sleep several times during the night, nothing worked. So I read my new (weird) book, looked at clothes online, played solitaire on my phone, and finally just lay in bed keeping my hands warm. The alarm rang at 9; I ignored it. I finally got out of bed, had brekkie, but not enough time to defrost the freezer (in prep for a week's supply of new meals), so I just threw my hands up in the air. Screw it all.

After my meals were delivered, I went to bed for a couple of hours. I may have dozed off for a tiny amount of time. When I was at my computer again, I fou8nd that FOX had a repeat of the first epi of The Orville tonight. Yay! How kind of them. So I set it to record. After that, I struggled to stay awake through the news (fail) and game shows (mostly success). I've just finished watching the new space show and have concluded that I like it. It appeals to the dork in me. I like the mix of characters, especially the aliens with neat physical idiosyncrasies. So I hope it's a hit. It's nice to have something new to follow.

I'm about to take my pills and am so keeping my fingers crossed for a decent night's sleep. I don't want to be all grumpy when I'm out socializing tomorrow. ::crosses fingers::

How long? Well, after I woke up around 12:15 a.m., I tried to get back to regular sleep. Ha! So not happening. After tossing and turning for an hour, I got out of bed around 1:15. And stayed up. I did some writing (which was a relief, though I kept nodding off over the keyboard). Ate my primary brekkie very early and followed it with some refreshing yogurt.

At least I was outside bright and early waiting for my 8:35 minivan that was early, too. There was a very chatty passenger going in the same direction. Oh, my. Could she ever talk. But we had a riot talking. I was dropped off before 9, so decided to sit outside for 10-15 minutes to get some very fresh air. When one of my blind group buddies (a very effervescent woman) showed up, we went into the meeting room to drop off our potluck offerings. For once I had many people to chat with at my table. The potluck was terrific. I had t'other meatballs in a mushroom gravy, pasta salad, cream cheese tortilla circles (yummy), lots of fresh fruit (honeydew, cantaloupe, strawberries, pineapple) and more I can't recall (ooh, spicy Jamaican meat patty). So full, I brought half a large chocolate chip muffin home. Yum. I had way too much time to wait after the meeting, but I got home quickly while engaged in conversation with - you guessed it - my companion from earlier!

Even though I desperately wanted to go to sleep when I got in, I couldn't. I had to write. Desperation time. Luckily, I got some creative dialogue from it and managed to post it around 5. What a relief! Only then could I relax aka fall apart. Which I did, dozing off over and over and over again. Slept through most of my game shows though caught Jeopardy! via Restart. Am still feeling very zonked and not hungry at all. Perhaps some chocolate before I take my evening pain pills? And then setting the alarm to make an appointment with the eye doc in the morning. ::longs for sleep immediately::

... by waking up minutes before 5 after ONLY 3 hours of sleep. Simply ridiculous. So, obviously, I had tons of time to waste in the morning. Why had I woken up? Because - once again - I was under too many covers and not able to breathe. Sigh. OTOH, the temperature climbed to near 60F (AFAIK). I still wore my winter coat open, but only two thin layers underneath.

Church-John showed up shortly after noon and we were off, with the windows down. Just glorious. We stopped in at a few stores. I was unable to find a couple of things, but was able to replenish my drugstore essentials (sorry, store, that I cleaned you out of my fave cleaner/toner). After that, I wanted c-J to drive by the provincial gov't service centre nearest me so that, when I book my rides to get my new photo ID health card, I'll know where I'm traveling. Well, we only got lost ... a little. But we were having oodles of fun.

We finally drove up to the fish'n'chip place, arriving near 2 - past the lunch crush. C-J had just coffee and fish'n'chips. I had a Coke, the most melt-in-your-mouth thin calamari rings with Caesar salad. I also splurged on their home-made key lime pie with a swirl of real whipped cream. I'm glad I ordered the pie but I won't have it again. The calamari OTOH I'll be dreaming about for a very long time.

We finally headed back south-east to my place, arriving before 4. We'd had a very fun afternoon (as we always do). I was so stuffed that I ended up dozing during the news and all of WoF, waking up just in time to record Jeopardy! and rewatching WoF that is in San Diego for a week. Ooooooh, the ocean looks gorgeous. Pat and Vanna were at a Mexican restaurant with the chef showing off her various dishes, including lobster (but I didn't catch its exact name). Oh, yum.

After that, I quickly watched Big Bang Theory where I nearly cackled at Sheldon proclaiming about the "length" of what exciting thing he had in his pants!!! It was actually the long list of ComiCon panels, lol. And, then, there were the adorable kids on MasterChef Jr. Now I'm having a couple of mini apple strudels with Perrier and painkillers on which I'm relying to remove the grotesque pain in ::counts:: my right hand, my left bicep, and my right foot, possibly also my lower spine. There is obviously no coordination between my pains. Ugh.