Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Tuesday morning things

* They mentioned this morning that allergens are at "March or April levels" right now because of the warm late-winter. And I wonder: could that be partly why I'm feeling so awful of late? For me, allergies manifest as much as emotional symptoms (cranky, sad) as physical ones.

I DO kind of have that "grey fuzz covering everything" feeling that I get when my allergies are bad - not that everything's awful but that it's not as good as it can be, and I look back at my earlier life and go, "but didn't I use to be happier?" So maybe that's it.

I hope that means the tree-allergy season is going to be over soon; they are the worst allergies for me.

* It's weird to suddenly not having to be pushing like crazy....I did some finishing touches (incorporating the analysis my advisor did for me) to the manuscript yesterday and my colleague apologized that he hadn't read it yet (I figured, given as he had relatives in this weekend, he wouldn't get to it right away, that's okay). When he does I can put whatever changes he suggests in and send it on.

But it is weird to be able to go, "After I go home for lunch today....I really don't have to go back this afternoon." These past several weeks I had actually been carrying my lunch to work on Tuesdays and eating at my desk because I needed the time to work.

I think I worked too hard these past few weeks.

* I think I might take some time this afternoon and go to the local gourmet shop (aka Our Last Interesting Small Business In Town) and see if there's anything for my dad's birthday. He's hard to buy for...I may also try to figure out something this weekend.

For a while in my family birthdays come every 2 weeks - mine, then my dad's, then my brother's. Then it's a gap until May when my sister-in-law's and my mom's come.

I might do a Lego store giftcard for my brother again, I don't know.

* I tried Green Giant brand frozen mashed cauliflower last night. It was....okay. While it was heating up, I thought, "wow, this actually smells kind of like mashed potatoes" but then when I took the film off the top to stir it, there was that wall o' cauliflower stink. (That's the big issue with some vegetables for me - less the taste than the smell). They were okay when they were done, and I will be able to continue eating them. But they aren't mashed potatoes and no one who had ever had proper mashed potatoes would be fooled by them.

But they're better for you.

As much as anything, that's the indicator for me that this is a fallen world: the things that taste really good, by and large, are not very healthful to eat, and the things that are especially healthful, with a few exceptions, don't taste that good. (And yeah, I know: if we still lived in caves we'd need the most calories possible and it tends to be the super-high-calorie stuff that tastes really good, so it's just as much "human evolution" as it is "a fallen world" but whatever it is, it kind of stinks, and I'm really noticing it with trying to eat lower carbohydrate to drop a few pounds....)

* Someone in my Twitter timeline commented on the idea of "feeling sorry" for a particular individual (who I won't name here but you probably know who he is) who has lost a book contract and the like. (The person on my timeline didn't say you SHOULD, however)

Anyway: I don't feel sorry for that person. The person traded on being a jerk and an a-hole to others, and now he's getting his comeuppance. And one thing I can say: the reason I am so broken in particular ways as a person is because of jerks and a-holes in my past, and so I really DON'T feel sorry for the consequences of being one coming back to bite someone. And maybe that's not a very Christian way to feel, but...yeah, your actions have consequences and in some cases you should suffer those consequences.

And while I'm saying things I will probably have to account for in the next life, I might as well also say: this would probably be a nicer world if people who were jerks to those around them faced more immediate consequences for that more often.

"Sorry not sorry" as the cool kids (of which I never was one) say.

*Edited to add: because I am making a conscious effort now to look for the joy, I give you More news of the Sweater-wearing Shetland Ponies.

They went on a boat trip to "visit their roots."

There needs to be a series of picture books about the sweater-wearing ponies, I think.


Is it wrong of me to really, really want a Shetland pony? They're like all the goodness of a horse but in a dog-sized package.

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