serafaery: (Default)
2025-08-28 05:49 pm

it's time to rest.

uuggghhhh just need to say, if your approach to depression is, "it's time to fight!", pro tip: you're not actually depressed.
serafaery: (Default)
2025-08-27 10:36 am

looking forward to sunflowers and note writing.

stalling on getting to the hospital for my x-ray, I really hate walk-in appts! But I've done it before and it wasn't too bad. (I think I had to do this for my shoulder MRI, oddly enough.) I think there is a starbucks inside so I can maybe get a cold brew with cold foam as a little treat when I am done.

Just need to box up an order and drop it off, get packed up for the sunflower farm trip, get gas, x-ray, and then head to Sauvie's.

I am bringing my book/notes/letters as during Halloween they have a really nice outdoor seating area with drinks and snacks and I'm hoping I can hang out and read/write for a bit.

Been studying a house buying book Josh suggested, I'm on sidings and it's a lot. It's really tempting to skip over things like brick and stucco since I doubt I'll buy a house with that sort of siding, but I enjoy completeness when reading physical books. I am getting through it and taking lots of notes!

I still want that Decomposition Notebook with the bats on it really bad. I should buy one for myself, I just haven't yet. I saw them at New Seasons recently but not the bat pattern.

I want to start writing more physical notes and letters since I have become more isolated socially since being in so much physical pain (and resulting deep depression) and the people I love seem to dislike online connection for the most part (grateful to those who are here!), in my ideal world I'd have a messaging group check-in regularly and a weekly zoom with my buddies, but I think because so many people "work from home" they all hate zoom now. My work is the opposite but I don't know anyone else who does service work, except Liz - who was an adventure buddy and figure skating buddy. :( I would love to find a way to reconnect with her but she's also rarely online.

ugh, breaks my heart. Maybe I can send her notes. I need black paper/cards and silver/gold/white paint pens.

Anyway.

The cutest thing happened. I was listening to Sidewalks and Skeletons last night during my sunset walk around the courtyard, and thinking about other current goth/darkwave music, and my new little self-care app that Ta suggested to me suggested that I send her a song recommendation. I was browsing around and it was so funny how this happened, but, last week at the club my DJ played a really good song that I've heard before there several times but didn't know the artist (or forgot), or the name of it. I wanted to know because I loved it but I also was too caught up in the moment to stop dancing, the energy that night was definitely right at its peak when he played it, so I wasn't about to walk over to him and ask what it was. I knew I would hear it again. But it's been bugging me since. So while I was looking for a song for Ta, I was browsing around artists similar to Sidewalks and Skeletons and Crystal Castles came up - and I thought, hey, I bet that's who does that song.

And they are!

So I sent her that song, and I've listened to it probably 15 times since I found it as I was falling asleep last night :) Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaay.It's not a new song, I don't know how I forgot who did it. Maybe because I have early onset dementia I dunno (I really feel like I have this, sometimes).

serafaery: (Default)
2025-08-26 06:18 pm

soft tuesday, allowing myself to grieve.

one day I will try to write a new little intro page thingie. but I don't want to do it when I'm depressed and I'm usually depressed, whoops.

Slept through most of the night pain free, and actually had a pleasant dream for once (I get nightmares chronically most nights, it's a common issue with cPTSD/childhood trauma). But I was slow to get out of bed and the back pain crept back in.

A friend suggested a little self-care app called finch to me (lmk if you want an invite, can send it via email or DM or whatever), I failed to use her invite because I didn't understand how but I did friend her when I got there, at least.

It seemed like the app helped me a lot, today. I got through a bunch of stuff I've been struggling with for weeks. I made an appt for my orthotics for my injured right foot, I messaged my doctor at Rebound (disappointing reply but at least I tried), figured out how to get my x-ray done for my ankle (I might go first thing in the morning and then reward myself with a visit to the sunflower festival at Bella Organic Farm on Sauvie's Island), and asked to reschedule an appointment I am not ready for. I asked our realtor to schedule in Josh for a showing this weekend and asked our broker to draft some payment estimates for the house, in case we decide to put in an offer. I have gotten my heart set on another house that I'm hoping will be right for us. Its downsides are workable and it seems like a good little house overall, but there's no way to know for sure until we do an inspection, so. I'll at least look forward to walking through it again with Josh this weekend.

Got some errands done, attended to some work messages I'd been neglecting for a bit, took my supplements, played with Avalanche a lot, did some reading/studying, did some laundry, keeping up on dishes despite Josh not being here (usually I let it go as soon as he leaves), even did my PT this morning.

functioning fairly well but I still feel just absolutely miserable. It is so frustrating. I am working on avoiding the news altogether, especially NPR, which has become just constant violence. I am working on listening to soundscapes and music and not doomscrolling so much, it is helping a bit, it's not as hard as I thought it was going to be.

Just still really reeling from trying to figure out who I am and how to move forward with this really painful body. it feels like dying and I am fixated on death, which happens when I get really depressed. So I know that even though I am getting through some tasks, even ones that can be really difficult for me (medical stuff), I am not well.

It feels like I will never be well.

It's just really hard to figure out how to move forward.

I want to be outside more but it's 90 degrees with poor air quality, alas. Tomorrow will be slightly cooler and a little bit of light rain, I am looking forward to that. x-ray and sunflowers, maybe? I've only been to Bella Organic farm in the fall for the haunted corn maze, it would be nice to see it in summer.

It's nice to have Tues/Wed as my weekend :)

Josh is out of town so I'm a little lonely and eating too much peanut butter (forbidden when he is home) and also relieved that I don't have to pretend to be okay for anyone. I am isolating a bit, I just am so tired of not being seen and listening to what everyone else is going through and not being able to share where I am at because it is too sad.

The friend who sent me the finch invite has been through a lot of death and loss like I have, not quite as much as she still lives with her parents, but her beloved little brother committed suicide a few years ago :(

time for sunset walkies. just had a tearful phone call with josh. he's in New Jersey for work and feeling lonely. we're okay, it's just kinda sad for us right now. walkies will help me not wallow in it too too much.
serafaery: (Default)
2025-08-24 12:04 pm

lazy sunday.

A blessed Sunday to myself. Josh flies home from his weekend with Emily tonight. I'll go get him at the airport, and then take him back in the morning for four days in New Jersey for work - poor guy, too much flying.

It's another 95 degree day so I'll close up the apartment and turn on the a/c for Avalanche before I head out to the farmers market. I haven't decided if I'm biking or driving, yet. I'm a bit worn out from all the hiking yesterday. But maybe I can just take it easy on the bike? We'll see how I feel once I'm dressed.

The crows are chattering sweetly. It's slightly overcast and cooler than yesterday, at least so far.

Tyler and I ran off to the coast yesterday to escape the 100 degree day. It was lovely, but unfortunately traffic was a total nightmare. This is why I never go to the coast on weekends in the summer. But this was the only day Tyler could go so I decided to tough it out. It took about three hours to get there and almost 4 hours driving to get home, it was sooooooo bad. (Usually a coastal drive is less than 2hrs each way, but, I always go on Tues/Wednesdays.) But I still would have rather been with him than alone, the trail itself was empty, the mountain was beautiful, and we were treated to the most delightful beach sunset, which was legitimately chilly! So nice after a hot day of hiking. I didn't want to brave a busy restaurant so we popped into a local grocery store and grabbed some snacks before heading out, I am grateful for this. I brought us food also, but I didn't really bring enough to feed Tyler, whose metabolism is 4x as fast as mine, so extra snacks were needed. We found so many cool mushrooms! Quite the score for summer!

It does always make me a little sad that my presence in a beautiful area requires disrupting the space that elk and deer and other forest life used to be able to call their home in peace. I will never not think about this. Even the bugs that get accidentally squished upset me, I can't help it. These kinds of things are why I hate to travel, I try not to drive very much (I put about 5,000 miles a year on my car), I don't like to fly, I feel like I just cause damage and wreckage by existing. I saw this funny video about Europeans protesting the flood of American tourists and it just made me laugh a little. This is why I don't go! But it's also the case, as always, that my sacrifices make so little difference and entitled rich people will just keep traveling and flying everywhere with no concern for the damage it causes. There was this retired couple being interviewed about getting shot with super soakers by Madrid locals, and they were chuckling and saying it was refreshing in the heat and "very exciting actually," which just, uuuuuuugh. These countries depend on tourism, but it's gotten out of control. It reminds me of the car bloat that has happened in this country - nobody thinks about the social and environmental damage of driving a huge car, everyone gets bigger and bigger SUVs and trucks and act like it's just normal. And here I am in my little Fit, desperately trying to see around all these monstrosities on the road all around me while trying to stay safe, it's soooooooooooo awful and nobody talks about it or cares. Nobody needs giant cars! But it's easy and has become normalized and makes them feel safer and more powerful to tower up over everyone else. It's sickening and I hate it. Just needed to vent about that.

I am just... so mindful and thoughtful about my impact, in a world where people just rampantly cause destruction and pollution wherever they go without a second thought. It's why I have this pet peeve about disposable coffee cups. I have been bringing cups to cafes forEVER, I hate making trash unnecessarily. I do this in restaurants (which I rarely go to) whenever possible too, to avoid all that plastic waste. But even after decades, it just doesn't catch on. It's so easy and only takes a moment of thoughtfulness (oh, we're going to get tacos, I'll grab a pyrex just in case we take something home), but nobody else bothers, and they look at me like I'm crazy and grudgingly take my cup or bin as if I am so crazy hippie weirdo. Everyone should be doing this. But alas. It's just little me. I feel so alone in this. It is all set up this way, it is impossible not to make trash, I did it last night buying Josh's lasagna at that lil grocery store, as I hadn't anticipated the purchase and didn't have a bin. It sucks that this isn't just how we do things. Nobody is perfect and I'm not trying to personally blame or guilt anyone, I just wish the culture was different so that this was not such a painful uphill lonely battle. But. I will not stop. Every once in a while I do get a sweet compliment from a barista or something. "It's that sweet environmentally friendly fairy lady!" lol.

My cups have become fashion statements too, due to the art stickers I've added to them. Spooky bunny and mushroom skull and baby Zero and shooting star flowers all get noticed. It's nice. Even for the iced drinks, baristas will exclaim, "I love mason jars!" :)

....

Today I want to visit the farmers market, grab some other groceries and n/a beer, read the house hunting book, and write some cards to my friends with cancer/terminal illnesses.

The floors are swept and I'm caught up on orders. There are ants again but I'm working on it. Website maintenance would be nice but I also want to research possible puppets for the festival this year. I could get started on my moth, or look into a possible light up night puppet with moveable wings and paws (I don't know what this animal would be yet - maybe a made up one - a ghost dragon? I dunno).

...

Been craving so many treats: a buttery pastry, a glazed doughnut, a dipped cone from DQ, a vegan fast food burger (maybe the fake chicken or fish sandwich, with sweet potato fries?), olive/rosemary focaccia. Maybe I can find something indulgent at the market, today. But first, more coffeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

...

Wrist feels much better, glad I took a break from silks. I avoided using trekking poles yesterday for Neahkanie mountain, which is a 1400' elevation gain hike with lots of roots and logs and erosion and rocks, but it went fine. I might have to do this a lot more going forward, since my hands hurt so often, these days.

Okay an hour left to get to market, time to cool down the apartment, Avalanche is crashed out asleep, time to get going.
serafaery: (Default)
2025-08-22 10:38 pm

Sweet little angel cat

Woke up from my nap with a throbbing wrist out of nowhere. All I managed to do was feed Avalanche and message Tyler about hiking tomorrow and go back to bed. It hurts so much, I don’t know why. I don’t remember anything happening.

I wasn’t able to give avalanche any playtime today - I had less than 4 hrs of sleep, then counseling and taking Josh to the airport, then work. I had to close up the apartment against the heat so she didn’t have her usual open windows to watch birds and squirrels. I crashed when I got home. Despite not playing with her at all today, she’s curled up between my legs. She loves me anyway. So grateful.
serafaery: (Default)
2025-08-22 04:51 pm

overflow of gratitude

so grateful for my little window a/c unit that kept the apartment cool for Avalanche while I was away at work, today.

so grateful for the a/c at work that keeps me and my customers comfortable on 100 degree days. It's miraculous!

so grateful for iced coffee drinks in the afternoon.

so grateful for dancing late into the night with fun, kind, attractive, silly, fun-loving people and closing the place down at 2am like a bunch of kids, and for Derek playing my favorite songs that kept me going until the wee hours of the morning, causing the required afternoon iced coffee. (He ended with Boys Noize for me! Again!)

so grateful for my sparkly job and the kind, sweet, gentle people who come to get sparkles in their hair from me, for prancing around in faery wings and ears all day, for a beautiful microgreen salad for lunch, for a beautiful breakfast of greek yogurt and berries and crunchy almonds.

for indulging in peanut butter to my heart's content while Josh is away for the weekend.

for a weekend free to do exactly what I want (other than a small mount of work which I am also grateful for!)

so grateful for customers continuing to fill up my appointments, week after week, keeping me afloat, keeping my cat and I housed and fed and our needs met.

thankful for my body not hurting too much today, despite putting it through the ringer this week - grateful I trusted my instincts and opted out of the hike and bike ride that might have increased my pain levels.

grateful for avocados! did you know that they are wonderful with peanut butter?

did I mention how much I love coffee.

I am exhausted and happy and content, tonight. It is 96 outside and 76 in my apartment. I am fed and sheltered and loved. life feels perfect in this moment.

it is 4:59pm! I get to have non-alcoholic beer whenever I want! (I try to wait until after 5pm to start drinking even if it's fake non-beer lol.)

grateful for my sobriety. I complain about it a lot because I get jealous of everyone's quick-fix coping mechanisms (drugs or pills or whatever) to deal with the ills of this world, but it really is better for me to not do any drugs or pharmaceuticals.

someone asked me at the club last night - a cute younger kid in some darker colored raver type pants - asked me if I was a Tiefling. I definitely could be! If I were ever into Dungeons and Dragons I'm sure I'd have played tiefling characters. I had a Tauren the one time I played WOW. I enjoy horns, what can I say.

grateful for saltines, and other small packaged treats that keep me going throughout the day.

grateful for a cozy bed I shall likely fall into at any moment :)
serafaery: (Default)
2025-08-14 09:02 am

loosened talons.

The mountain was so beautiful. Tyler was so calm and kind and patient. Josh also, who encouraged this venture.

I am not depressed this morning and I am confused about it. Normally I am searching for ways to self-soothe in the morning just to function, but I am all right, at the moment, so I don't need to. It's so abnormal it's disorienting.

Maybe I can actually do some PT before work, today?
serafaery: (Default)
2025-08-11 10:00 pm

seeking peace.

Just wanted to acknowledge, I know three beautiful women who are either terminally ill or receiving chemo for very aggressive forms of cancer. I have lost so many friends and family members, I think this sort of thing becomes triggering, after a while. I bought cards for all of them today, but I don't have their mailing addresses. I will figure out how to ask, maybe in a couple of days I will try.

I am so grateful for what I have. I wish I could find a way to be at peace with this life, as it is, in this moment.

Maybe the stars will help.
serafaery: (Default)
2025-08-11 06:52 pm

erosion bird costume, butterfly dreams

This lady is amazing and this cosplay is amazing.



...

I am enjoying the inspiration from her channel, and I went back for the fuzzy white fur. I may make a moth or a butterfly or something else; a little white cursed bird, who knows.

I'd really love to make some sort of soft plushy costume that would completely obscure my human form and be easy to interact with, like Totoro, but I am not sure what that would be, yet. I have imagined variations on dragons and birds, but still have come up with nothing, so far. Will keep contemplating this.

I might make my puppet one of our local native blue butterflies. Fender's Blue has a remarkable recovery story, thanks to the efforts of those who also fought for spotted owl recovery in Oregon.



Its host plant is a rare, beautiful purple lupine called Kindaids. I could base a fairy costume on that flower.





I just love its fuzzy lil blue body and those stripy antennae! Many of our local gossamer winged blue butterflies have these characteristics.
serafaery: (Default)
2025-08-11 11:16 am

list of day-wishes/note to self, plus kittens

Natasha made me a slideshow of Avalanche's kitten photos, I love it so much.



Things I'd love to do today: things to do list )
serafaery: (Default)
2025-08-09 09:02 am

soft sunlit weekend.

9am on a beautiful Saturday morning. So much sunshine!

Will try to get on my bike here in a bit and ride up to the farmers market, I don't need anything but the ride will be good for me regardless, I think we are low on a couple things.

Some friends are hosting a bbq so I will try to swing by for that, I randomly bought some hot dogs for it last night even though they didn't ask for such a thing - I don't know how to show up to anything empty handed.

Finally vacuumed out my car. Dodged all the bullets. That place where we used to go when I was a kid is the only one of its kind in the entire city, so weird! It was fine.

I just need to wipe down the inside before I put all my stuff back in the car. The windows desperately need a thorough cleaning. I'll do that after my farmers market run.

Need to box up one order, it's small it'll be fine.

My hands and fingers ache fiercely today, I don't know why. It hurts so much. They are more swollen than usual, but no redness.

I've been failing to take any of my supplements, I haven't been entirely consistent with collagen and I keep forgetting my fish oil. I think getting back on that stuff would help.

Tummy is unhappy.

I should probably try to take a shower before socializing, ha.

So much cleaning I want to do! Maybe tomorrow. I want to tackle the bathroom and the kitchen and just throw most of my stuff away that's been collecting since we moved here. It'll make it easier to move, when the time comes. I need to do the storage unit and garage, too, but that's much more daunting and requires a lot of emotional work since I have bins of my mom's old things in there. I have to give myself permission to ignore that and just keep storing it, if I have to.

I woke up really sad and anxious but my mood is improving. I forced myself to go to Cynthia's last night to catch up and bake pears that were delivered to her doorstep by a neighbor. We ended up making two vegan sugar free pies, they are delightful. We had fun. Hanne has an aggressive form of breast cancer, she has already cut her hair and started chemo. She just got her diagnosis like less than two weeks ago. So things are moving quickly. It sucks but she has really good support, her husband is retired and they have plenty of resources, and she has friends, it sounds like she has as much support as anyone could hope for. I am glad.

I want to send her a card, and also my friend Robin who is going through chemo for pancreatic cancer, and also Naomi. I will pull those out and decide who gets what or maybe buy more if I need to. Will swing by a shop that has nice cards and look for something for the three of them. Sigh.

I've been so incredibly lonely and depressed. I feel a million times better when I am with others, but I rarely can manage the effort to make myself go be social. I tell a lot of stories to myself about being unwanted. It's gotten a lot worse with perimenopause, struggling with disliking my appearance and my body being in a lot more pain than I'm used to (and I'm already used to a lot of pain).

K, coffee is cold, that's my cue to get on my bike and get some sunshine on my skin and these achy joints.

It will be hot tomorrow. I'm okay with that. But worried about the fires. It seems like we're the only western state area not engulfed in smoke at the moment. Our turn is coming.
serafaery: (Default)
2025-08-07 09:36 pm

not a good night.

had kind of a rough day, the moon is full, I am having no luck getting into the shower so I can go dance at the club. I can just go for an hour. I just want to pop in I think. No crazy outfit this week, no crazy dancing, just, be in the space I feel safest for a small while. I can do this. Why is it so hard to move.

I have devolved into a really painful and nonfunctional place psychologically and I'm not sure what to do about it.

In so much pain, and so scared about it. Worried for Josh, whose parents' health are failing in multiple ways simultaneously, and seeing how he can't handle it, and seeing how I am on the same trajectory. He won't be able to handle my decline, either. Neither will I. It's going to get so much worse, and I am so scared.

I think I am still too traumatized from the unbearably slow and unspeakably painful way my mother died to be able to ever feel safe or unafraid.

My brain has not worked at all today.

I keep doing crazy stuff like, grabbing the wrong key for the wrong door, I sat on the toilet before lifting the seat, the voice inside my head keeps calling Avalanche "Willow" (my cat who died in 2011, that Avi sometimes reminds me of, they are the same size and softness and they both trill, but they don't look alike, and Wil has been dead for 14 years, so it scares me when my brain does this).

I have been sleeping since 6pm, I think I just need to go back to bed. I can dance on Sunday instead, it's okay.

I feel very lucky that Brandie texted me about the moon. I am sad that our friendship fizzled, but I appreciate her moon texts, they have been consistent lately. I asked her to do this for me when Madoc died of cancer in 2020, as he was my moon texting friend back then and I missed his messages more than I could bear. You know those people that are just able to find where the two of you meet emotionally, and make space for you there.
serafaery: (Default)
2025-08-07 12:26 pm

ow.

might need to ease up on the cleaning videos. at first they were relaxing but now they're starting to cause me some stress. I am throwing things away more, and thinking about what to throw away. I like the idea of the "move out/move in" technique of taking everything out of a room, cleaning it, and then putting everything back. But I don't think I'm up for that. culling first might be a better use of my time, especially since we will likely move this fall or winter anyway.

Josh is worried about moving in winter and yeah it would suck but I don't mind wrecking the holidays, holidays suck anyway and it would be a good excuse to skip them. I do love xmas, but just the cookies, tree, music, and a handful of light-hearted things to unwrap. hot cocoa and snow. sweaters and oversleeping. not so much the gatherings and pressure to be festive. I don't feel emotionally safe around my (alcohol-dependent) family and Josh's family is Jewish, so.

...

I'm home because my customer stood me up this morning. She didn't even bother to text me until I texted her when she was 7 minutes late. And didn't even reply when I offered to reschedule, or indicate whether she was going to try to come late or just reschedule, she just didn't answer, after her initial reply that she was having a "weird reaction to a gluten tolerance test" whatever that means. I hope she's okay. It sounds like she's not feeling well and my brain doesn't work in that condition, either, but it's also just so disrespectful to leave me sitting there waiting and not knowing. I hate service work, times like this.

I got really bad cramps again when this happened, I think they are triggered by stress. So I drove home in extreme pain and ate some saltines and granola and now I'm just sitting here trying to relax and not make it worse. I was going to try to vacuum my car in the high-homicide area during my lunch break but now I just can't make myself. Maybe I can just take it to the car washing place and let them do it for me where I don't have to worry about being shot at because I don't look right. There have been *so many* homicides in Portland, lately. People keep telling me it's getting better but I think they are deluded. (This was where we took our car to vacuum it out ourselves when I was a kid, it was not unsafe back then. It's the only way I know how to do it.)

Need to go back to work in half an hour but grateful to be able to just chill for a bit. Not sure what to wear to Shadowplay tonight, I feel so bloated and gross. I'll figure something out. I think dancing later might make me feel better. If this pain would just dissipate.
serafaery: (Default)
2025-08-06 08:41 pm

stick a fork in it.

had an okay rest of the day. made josh some pizza. got henna on my hair and finally took a shower. walked back to the mechanic to pick up my car which now has new brakes and rotors. A little stressed about the potentially leaking newly replaced battery but I will check in a few times over the next couple weeks and call the battery place I got it from if it looks suspect to me. sigh.

was misty rainy cloudy all day, was really nice actually. was almost cool enough to bake cookies, but I refrained. this time. It will be 100 degrees again next week, so, enjoying this while i can.

failed to do any website work or fold my laundry or cull anything, but I'm also in a lot of pain and happy with what I did accomplish. ate reasonably well. got some cat food after I got my car back.

They washed my car! Bless them. This is literally the 4th time it has been washed in the 8 years that I've owned it.

The inside still needs cleaned, I might take it to the coin-op vacuum place and do that tomorrow while it is still empty. Then I can wipe it down and replace whatever I feel like should be in there. There are certain things I like to always keep in my car: spare scissors and gloves and pens, charging cords, hair ties, umbrella, deodorant, a clean jar for drinks or coffee (I have a pet peeve about disposable coffee cups), water, pillow and wool blanket (for emergency strandedness - this has never happened to me and I hope it never will), packaged snacks, napkins, ice scraper, a little bag for wrappers and such, hand sanitizer. Usually I have a spare hoodie floating around in the back.

I need to re-do my earthquake emergency bin but I should clean out the storage closet before I do that.

I think I might go to bed early again. Back and feet are hurting after 4 miles of urban walking, today.

But hey, my hair is dyed, my car can stop safely, and Josh and Avalanche are fed. All is relatively well.

I started taking collagen consistently after a second doctor insisted I do so, and for the first time, I can see a visible difference, in my fingernails. I am hopeful it might help my joints and other physical areas, too (skin and hair, etc). I am so grateful that Cynthia gave me some in pill form, for the days when I'm not able to do my 2nd morning hot drink to consume the powder form. I found the Vital Proteins Marine Collagen powder at Natural Grocers for a full $12 less than the cost at the other grocery store - it is still $2 more than the fullscript price but comes out to be less overall since I'm not paying for shipping. Grateful. I would take gelatin instead but I can't find the Knott's gelatin anywhere? Except in little individual 5g packets, which doesn't work if I need to take 30g a day.

At least during this phase of perimenopause, it has become clear that I cannot do anything meaningful or serious or important after 8pm. I'm not up for folding laundry, so. Might as well just sleep.

I think the cleaning videos are overwhelming me a little bit, because they sort of are forcing me to remove my blinders around my own clutter piles. or DOOM piles as they are affectionately called in the ADHD community. ("Didn't Organize Only Moved.") My entire apartment is pretty much a collection of DOOM piles, oops. I do not think I have ADHD. I think I have Attention Deficit, but due to screen usage, not as an actual neural type. It's not a disorder, it's an appropriate and expected symptom of staring at screens too much.
serafaery: (Default)
2025-08-06 01:34 pm

days like this.

have not had a shower since Saturday.

in so much pain, today, physically and emotionally.

It's devastating on a different level to go from an elite athlete to crippled within a couple of months. I am still adjusting. No one knows, no one sees, this is an entirely invisible struggle. Josh doesn't get the level of distress I am in. He can still do all the things. He can't imagine not being able to. I try to help him have awareness around it, but I also don't want to be a bummer all of the time. He forgets. Maybe it's better that he does.

It's just a really lonely feeling.

I can still walk, I can bike, I can dance a little, I can hike, so from the outside, it doesn't look too bad.

But I can do none of these things without constant pain.

Anyone would be depressed. But I've had major depressive order for decades. And I'm in perimenopause which also triggers depression.

It's just too much, days like this.

I am less angry at the auto shop. It is what it is. If my brand new battery is leaking, so be it. It was only $150, it won't destroy me to get a new one I suppose. I am skipping the oil change because that is absolutely inaccurate, I actually checked my readings on my way to the shop and it clearly indicates that I'm not anywhere close to due for one, so that's annoying, I don't know if they're making up numbers or just found an old sticker or what. I will not go back. But I'm not angry.

I just wish I could make myself eat and take a shower. Maybe take some vitamins. I forgot my hormones this morning, oops.
serafaery: (Default)
2025-08-06 09:46 am

soft summer rain.

Took my car in to get the brakes fixed, walked home from the shop. It's in an unpleasant area so the walk is mostly unpleasant, but the weather is so lovely. It's this soft grey summer light rain overcast morning, there was not enough rain to use my umbrella. I couldn't pass up walking in that.

But my ankle and back were twinging a mile in. (It was maybe a two mile walk.) So I will skip silks again, today. I have Friday off so I can go then hopefully. The Friday open gym host plays generic lo-fi music which is unbearable to try to work out to, everything in that "music" screams "plz sit idle and mindlessly scroll the internet and do nothing else," to me, but I will try to push through and just ignore it. I can bring my earbuds maybe.

I am so sad. My body hurts, my heart hearts, my tummy hurts, I had to just pause and sit with my face in my hands for a minute. I cried on the way home. Walking past the mall that I grew up in and seeing what pandemic did to it can be emotionally crushing. I can't wait to move away from this area.

But so grateful for the soft summer rain.

So far we have been spared wildfire smoke. I know it's coming, so I am just so thankful for every day that goes by that I'm not inhaling smoke.

...

I cleaned out my car entirely before taking it to the shop. I am totally wiped out from doing that. I pulled out enough blankets and sheets and clothing to do four loads of laundry. (Stuff leftover from camping and hiking.) I might try to work through that pile, today.

I also want to do more culling, it is just so difficult and slow-going. I'd like to tackle the bathroom. It seems like there are always more important things to do, but it would feel really good to have one room entirely cleaned out.

I have so many more to tackle, I can't think about it or I get paralyzed with anxiety and overwhelm.

..

I would also love to work on my website, we'll see if I can motivate at all toward that, today.

...

While walking through the neighborhood where we do Thriller flashmob practices every year, I thought really hard about whether I want to do that again. I've been teaching for 12 years at this point, and I just don't want to anymore. I am in so much physical pain, I probably have no business dancing on concrete at all. But also, practicing at the park is awful. Most of my classes only had 3-5 people in them, so we were not enough of a presence to deter aggressive basket ball players from shooting baskets near us (the basketball courts are where we perform every year, so we have been using this as practice space), and I got hit with a ball last year. I don't want to risk a hit that results in injury, for me or for anyone else trying to learn. I hate the sound of the balls too, it hurts my ears, I have tinnitus now and that will make it worse.

We do all of this for free, we have no budget, there is nowhere I wouldn't be embarrassed asking to use space to practice in, since Michael Jackson is such an unsavory character in general. It isn't a celebration of Michael, it's just a troupe of zombies and an appreciation for the song itself and the dance, but many people would view that as condoning child abuse or whatever. I am a child sex abuse victim myself so I just don't feel comfortable even asking.

So, I need to talk to our fearless organizer about this. I am the last of the instructors left, so if I go, the entire thing will most likely fall apart. I feel bad but I can't hold it up by myself, and I don't want to.

Need to refresh my Wednesday dance, in the meantime.

...

erg, the mechanic tried to upsell me an oil change and a new battery. I just replaced my battery in January and my oil change also just happened. I think I will go find another mechanic after this. This is a place Josh found, and I've used them because I can walk home from their shop. I think because my car is filthy, they think I neglect my maintenance. I do not. It's filthy because I take her to the mountains, and don't have access to a hose or shop vac.

uuugghhhhh okay need to get over this anger-induced cortisol burst and get something done. :( might need some breakfast. my cramps are super painful right now and I don't want to eat, but I probably should.
serafaery: (Default)
2025-08-04 10:02 am

little doves public version (minus the personal stuff in previous entry)

I was today years old when I discovered that the word for popcorn in Spanish means "little doves" and I will be forever calling it that, and imagining little delicate papery doves taking off in bursts and flurries out of the popcorn maker :)

Popcorn is one of my favorite foods. I was raised on it. For a time I was eating it almost daily, and had to limit myself to one day a week, as I generally devour a bowl twice the size of my own head in one sitting.

Sundays are popcorn day. Or, "little doves" day :D

Popcorn is "popcorn" in French. Listening to Josh work on the pronunciation of this was adorable.

...

It's August, and normally I am elated but it's been such a stressful three days that I am just... embracing the fact that there are already Halloween decorations in the stores and dreaming of pumpkin spice. Not like me, but that's where I am, today. I sat down with my giant bowl of little doves, topped with fresh chopped rosemary and nutritional yeast, and re-watched Edward Scissorhands in its entirety.

I have avoided doing so for many years for the heartbreaking sadness and over the top silliness of the film, but tonight, those aspects were maybe my favorite. I just needed something not serious and profoundly sad. Like life. I loved Dianne Wiest so much, I relate to her more than to Kim, at this point (I was fifteen when that movie came out!), I feel like an Avon Lady at times, she was 42 at the time but that meant something different in 1990, and I'd forgotten how fun it was to watch Edward do topiary and dog grooming and hair styling.

I glanced at Johnny Depp's bio and my goodness, to come from a blue collar broken family that moved all the time, to drop out of high school and have the principal literally tell him not to come back, at age 16, to pursue his dreams of being a musician, and to create such a beautiful catalog of work from such a rocky start is so impressive. Some people are just able to do ten times what I could ever accomplish in a lifetime, even if they don't get dealt the best hand to start with. That said, his step dad was Robert Palmer, which inspired him to pursue music, which is how he got into acting, so I guess he had that going for him, ha.
serafaery: (Default)
2025-08-03 12:28 pm

Emerald City.

At Emerald City Circus, waiting for Josh's flying trapeze class to end, not much time but just wanted to write a tiny bit.

This Seattle trip has been really difficult. Unfortunately I opened my appts late because of getting ready to leave, and I'm not sure what's going on but I used to get a dozen bookings in the first 24 hours, and this month I have had two. So I am a bit spun out about work, and what to do to fix this, and haven't been able to enjoy anything about this trip really.

To be fair, I didn't anticipate enjoying it anyway, I'm just supporting Josh, because his friend canceled and he has these flying credits and he loves to fly and this is the closest place to do so since Portland has no flying trapeze.

I do love the airbnb. It's so beautiful. I love being in a clean, carefully decorated, carefully designed home. It's lovely.

Seattle is so ugly. I really hate this city, this has all just confirmed that.

It doesn't help that it's smoky up here. It did not even cross my mind to check the air quality. It's not bad, but it's enough to make me feel stressed and anxious.

I have not been able to sleep at all since we've been here, despite the lovely bed. I tried to sleep on the couch last night and just laid awake from 2-6am. I finally got a little bit of light sleep (with the usual horrific nightmares) from 6-7ish.

I cried during flying trapeze yesterday. It was my third time flying, and my third time crying during it. Aside from the moment of a catch, none of it feels in any way fun or exciting or cool to me at all. I did not realize this in Santa Monica, since we were flying on the pier with a view of the beach and pacific ocean. This is just not at all my thing. It scares me so much, it's painful, I can't think when I'm swinging, I don't feel good at any point except when the catcher is holding my hands, which gives me a sense of relief like "thank god that's over."

My body is angry about it, also.

I had this moment after when I asked Josh to fly a bird (L-basing acro), and he likes to balance me in his hands, and when I got into position, he told me to arch.

I am the queen of arching. BUT. I have been forbidden to do so, EVER AGAIN, because of the bone spurring in my back. He forgot. I do not expect him to remember everything about my body and what's wrong with it. But it was a really emotionally devastating moment. My flexible back has been a key feature of all of my circus skill and it has been taken away from me. So. I feel half alive when I work out, and a key source of pride and strength and a lifetime of development remains inaccessible and hidden and I will never be over it.

Despite being careful not to arch, it inevitably happens when I'm out here and it always hurts after. I'm learning to avoid it in silks but at flying trapeze it was a lot harder, with all of the craziness, to control a lifetime of habits. I've been training my backbend since I was ten years old. To my great detriment, turns out.

There are so many thoughts racing through my head endlessly about how much my body is failing me. The bone spurs in my feet make me afraid to even walk, I literally avoid walking. My podiatrist told me to *never* walk barefoot. I realized this means I need to get one of those old lady thick pads for the shower, since that is a hard surface and I go barefoot in there, obviously. All these things, it's all day long every day. My ankle is still messed up from stepping down wrong on father's day. Hips are twinging again. My menopause symptoms are all still raging on top of this - tinnitus, rosacea, eye pain, genital issues, depression, and more than I can bear to list right now.

cut for weight issues )

Josh is done, time to pack up, I need to write about cleaning and some more morbid thoughts about life at 50 with this crippled painful body and what it feels like it means for my future. Getting rid of all of my things and all of my dead mother's things feels like dying, but I think it might help ease my guilt over having a better quality of life than say, innocent children in Gaza. Right now it's really hard to enjoy the beautiful aspects of my life. I know they are there. I feel like I don't deserve any of them. So I turn away.

I am trying not to completely lose hope in any worthwhile future for myself. I can care for Avalanche and support Josh as much as I am able. Take videos of him while he's flying on trapeze, make him his favorite lunch, drive when he gets tired. That's all I feel capable of at the moment.

I still look for beauty. We visited some trolls yesterday. We did not make it to Jacob Two-Trees, after driving all the way to Issaquah, as there was a bear on the trail on the way there, which turned us around. We realized as we walked back that the park had bear boxes everywhere, so I guess he lives there. Bears are better than trolls anyway, really.
serafaery: (Default)
2025-07-31 09:24 am

just a little bit of dread interlaced with little wins

Avalanche let me trim her claws with no fuss! Didn't even pretend to try to bite me once. She was getting caught on everything and her claws tapped the floor when she walked, she was overdue. She seems much happier, we always have a play session right after as a reward so she's gotten a ton of playtime this morning.

Just saw a youtube video, "man crawls 11 hrs to rescue himself after getting injured in mountains," and thought, this is so going to be me one day. I figure I will have to stop hiking solo at age 60, if not before. Everywhere I go lately is pretty highly populated so I wouldn't be stranded for long. But I feel like injury on trail is just inevitable at this point.

Dreading work today, I love my job, it's just the getting there part.
serafaery: (Default)
2025-07-30 04:24 pm

sad day.

There is a little skinny black 15yo senior girl cat named Nikki at Darwin's shelter in Corvallis looking for a forever home. She looks so unbelievably perfect. I was wondering for a moment if Avalanche might want a big sister. Sigh. They would probably hate each other. Girl cats tend not to want to share their human.

I finally got some groceries and cat food, and a new toy for Avalanche. Natasha's cats tore apart most of hers while they were here, so I've been slowly replacing them.

Josh and I are avoiding each other but being civil. He will go without me to Seattle this weekend.

I ate junk food all day as planned. I'm not sorry.

I would love to do some gentle exercise, a light evening bike ride later maybe, but maybe just rest. I don't feel well. From the junk food and also the emotional stress.

While hiking Neahkanie yesterday, I put a foot down wrong. This is an ankle I hurt on father's day that has not gotten better. ugh. This tends to happen pretty much every time I do any hike or bike ride, and each time it happens I wonder how many more hikes and bike rides I have left. It is so heartbreaking, when that was my reliable way to feel healthy and strong for so many years. Now it makes me feel weak and broken and fearful.

Need to water my neighbor's plants and sweep the floors here. Hoping Josh might make himself scarce tonight so that I can do some cleaning. Otherwise I might just sleep. I'm afraid even a gentle walk would hurt my body, but maybe a sunset walk in the park would be a good idea. I doubt I'd run into my brother, he generally goes in the early afternoon I think. I've been avoiding mom's memorial bench ever since I saw him there, except for a quick spin by on my bike. I have such confusing feelings around her memory, everything from severe childhood neglect (during which horrible things happened to me) and emotional abuse to a desperate desire to have her as a resource to deep painful shame around not being a good enough daughter to her to horror over how much she suffered during her 11+ year decline with Alzheimer's (she was diagnosed quite late, in my opinion; I think she had it for closer to 15 years). I wish so much that life could have been better for her, and to her. I wish having kids hadn't been so hard on her. Wish she could have had the resources to feel safe and protected and keep herself healthy and get support for her mood disorders and addictions. I wish she'd had the support she needed as a mom so that her children did not get brutalized by strangers and caught up in addictive behaviors, so that she'd been able to support us rather than steal from us, so that we in turn could have learned to support ourselves and then be of better help to her when she needed it. She was in the care of the state for the last 11 years of her life and although we did everything we could do help fill in the gaps where they failed her, and spent time with her several hours a week, it could have been better if we'd had more support and resources of our own, to learn how to navigate life better and have more stability and financial security to be able to do more for her. We were all just too far behind to ever catch up.

I feel these feelings amplified with my father, whose ashes were dumped into a nameless stream out of a plastic bag by his second wife/widow while she was stoned out of her mind and sobbing over her dead cat more than over him. I forgive her for this, she was also doing the best she could, and so were we, I just. He deserved better and I feel a lot of inescapable shame over the way he died, too. Too young, too sick, in too much pain.

It's too much to bear most of the time and I still don't know how to move forward, except to pretend that it doesn't hurt, until I can't, and days like this happen, and I don't understand why I keep going at all.

Full day of work tomorrow and Friday, then the weekend to myself thank goodness. I got my order out. Will have scheduling hanging over my head tomorrow but that's okay. Maybe I can work on the websites over the weekend.

It's okay to have down days. Days of no forward progress, wasted days. It happens.

At least I'm stocked up on non-alcoholic beer for a bit.