Category Archives: Personal Issues

Catching Up: January 27, 2023 Edition

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Long time, no see!

[+] Grief. On January 14th, I learned about the death of my friend Dottie Evans. It wasn’t necessarily unexpected because she was 92, but I miss her terribly. She was one of the first two people to welcome me at the door of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church when I started attending in 2016, and the two of us bonded over being pastor’s wives and some other similar interests. She was always incredibly interested in what I was doing at the college, how my students were doing, and how Daniel was doing. Everyone who knew her was saddened by her passing.

[+] Work. I have Accounting students again! I also have a Business Math student this quarter, so I’m playing to my strengths.

[+] Health. I went to Urgent Care with a sinus infection two weeks ago, and the witchy doctor who saw me told me I couldn’t possibly have one, but she gave me a script for doxycycline in case it persisted. The doxycycline made me incredibly sick, and it has only been a few days since I’ve been off the antibiotics and able to eat again.

Catching Up: New Year’s Eve 2023 Edition

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Wow. Where to start…

[+] Offline. Both of my parents have had health issues in the last 6 weeks with my dad actually being in the hospital for a couple of days at one point. I voluntold my brother to help me with stockings, and I think we did a good job? It’s been stressy to say the least.

[+] Snow. We finally got hit by a snowstorm in Mount Vernon with all the other storms bypassing us. We only got 5-6 inches at our house, but Bellingham got a foot or more of it. Seattle iced over, and TikTok was full of videos of people attempting to drive in it. I did something to my right hand (which is my seriously dominant hand) shoveling and clearing paths, and it’s getting aggravated almost daily because I can’t not use it.

[+] Wow. I found out that my Aunt Muggs passed away yesterday at age 104. She had been a widow for 31 years, so I think she was probably happy to be reunited with her husband. I only met him twice before he passed away, but they were very positive memories. I’ve been keeping up with Muggs through Christmas cards for years, and my parents used to go visit her when they’d be up in Washington visiting my grandma. They went to her 100th birthday 4 1/2 years ago, and I started getting to know her granddaughter who is around my age this year. She was my paternal grandmother’s sister, and she was the last of that generation left on both sides of my family. It’s 3 1/2-4 hours to where she lives on roads that are probably still snowy, so we most likely won’t make her funeral mass.

[+] Word of the Year. I did Jen Fulwiler’s Word of the Year generator and got steadfast. Given that my word for 2020 was “build” and I built a lot of framework for my church to do worship online, I’m kind of nervous about what that means for me this year.

[+] Saint Generator. I did Jen Fulwiler’s Saint’s Name Generator and got Ignatius of Antioch. He’s the patron saint against throat diseases, of the church in the eastern Mediterranean, and the church in North Africa. Does this mean thyroid issues or me bonding with the Coptic church more? Am I going to become Antiochian Orthodox?

[+] Resolutions. I think I’ll work on 2020’s resolutions again.

Catching Up: December 9, 2022 Edition

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Where do I begin…

[+] The depression fairy. I’ve been dealing with depression since menopause hit, and I’m at the point where pushing through is getting harder. I really want to just curl up in bed with the covers over my head, but there is so much that nobody is going to do if I don’t do it. Single motherhood, even living with family, is hard.

[+] Imposter Syndrome. I’m not going to lie. I suffer from this quite often. I graduated with TWO degrees and almost a 4.0 GPA in my late 30’s, and I still have a hard time believing that I’m good enough to be hired in my field. I need to start thinking about interviewing in six months, and I’m having to psych myself up to do it.

[+] End of the quarter. Finals are done, and I am exhausted. There are some boundary conversations I need to have with a student, and those are being left for next week.

Catching Up: November 4, 2022

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It was a dark and stormy night…

[+] Baseball. All of the baseball teams I hate were kicked out of the playoffs, so I’m chill with whatever happens in the World Series.

[+] Stomach pain. I’ve been fighting stomach pain for the last few weeks, and we’ve managed to rule out things like an ulcer, pancreatitis, and possibly gallstones. I have an ultrasound coming up on Monday, and I’ll be interested in what it shows.

[+] YouTube. I’ve gotten addicted to Apple Texts, and it’s like watching trashy TV. They are basically text conversations based on true stories, and they are read in different voices. I’ve got a ton of crocheting to do in the next couple of months, so it should keep me entertained while my fingers are busy.

Catching Up: October 21, 2022 Edition

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Wow…

[+] Baseball. Unfortunately, Seattle is out of the playoffs, but the 18-inning game that knocked them out was amazing.

On the plus side, the LA Losers and the Cleveland Goof-Ups are out as well. Now if the Yankees could please go ahead and lose their last two games so that all three of Satan’s teams are out of the play-offs…

[+] Work. Work is crazy, but I’m at least getting to tutor some classes I like this quarter instead of just HSERV and Interpersonal Communications. FERPA prevents me from telling you the better stories I have about my students, so I’ll just say that I have a few who are… special.

[+] Media I’m binge-watching a lot of “Court Cam” on the A&E website, and it has been interesting. I’ll move to “Cold Case Files” eventually, but this has been keeping me entertained.

Catching Up: September 23, 2022 Edition

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It’s the first week of Fall Quarter for me. Whee.

[+] Mary of Steel Magnificat needs a new car. If you’re familiar with her blog, you know that her now-defunct car was the “Neighborhood Trolley” and used not only for her family’s needs, but she also drove people to the grocery store, to the doctor, and to myriad appointments that would have been very difficult (if not impossible) to get to on public transportation. The GoFundMe for her is here. (I can’t donate at the moment, so I’m sharing it.)

[+] Queen Elizabeth’s coffin was flown from Edinburgh to London last week on a RAF Boeing Globemaster C17. The story behind the choice of that plane is beautiful.

This is what leadership looks like.

[+] The services at Westminster Abbey and Windsor Chapel made me happy to be Episcopalian, but what undid me were the pipers. I think the most touching moment was the pipe band playing “The Skye Boat Song” as they were parading behind the hearse to Windsor Chapel. I also loved the two appearances by the Queen’s personal piper.

Between the pipers and the military parade through Central London, I have no doubt my grandpa was geeking out at all of this in heaven. I’m pretty sure the Queen was also pretty happy with everything as well.

Catching Up: September 17, 2022

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It’s been a mentally tough few weeks since I posted. Summer Quarter burned me out to the point where I spent a few weeks just playing Cross-Stitch World on Facebook because I was so mentally drained.

Daniel started school, so I’ve had some guilt-free naptime after getting him on the bus. He also had an Audiology appointment this week which went well. He liked the audiologist we saw as well as her assistant, so we got a good hearing test. They’re repairing his hearing aids, so we’ll probably have them back next week.

I have my schedule for the quarter, and I will be on campus three days a week. I’m kind of stunned by this because I’m “getting my life back”, but it’s tinged with some bitterness because the last 2 1/2 years have shown me the utter selfishness of people who are angry because they’re being mildly inconvenienced by having to keep others safe. We could probably have been back to “normal” sooner if people had quarantined, worn masks, stayed home, and gotten vaccinated.