Back To Reality

Groan! We were on vacation for two weeks. Most of the time we were on the ocean. We have been home for a few days already but I allowed myself to stay in vacation mode until this morning. In the past two weeks, I:

• Have not had a doctor appointment - that changes as of 1045 AM this morning. I have an appointment with my therapist. Later this week I see the periodontist and have a medical exam for my Social Security Disability application. 
• Gone to the gym - I thought I needed a break. I haven't been sitting on my butt. I have gone and floated around the ocean and made sure I did get some exercise in.
• Taken care of housework or home repairs or work - Back to repainting the rooms in the house. I will start with one wall of the basement today. It will probably take me several days to finish because I have to rest in between but I really hate the dark navy blue that is on two of the walls down there. I figure it will take me a year to paint at this rate. The cleaning lady is coming on Wednesday so I also have to tidy up so she can clean.
• Gotten together with any friends. I am meeting one for lunch tomorrow and will probably catch up with a couple others on the phone in the next few days.

But this has been a welcome break. I don't think its a vacation if you keep doing all the things you normally do. Even thought I do not go to work any more, I do need a change of pace from time to time and get away from it all. 

Not having doctor appointments is a nice break. I tried not to think about my medical issues except when I am in so much pain I couldn't do anything. It was a needed mental health break. 

I usually go to the gym three times a week. I have felt a bit flabby from time to time but I also wanted to see how I physically do without going to the gym. A big part of it was to see if I actually had a reduction in pain by not exercising. Or to state it differently, are my regular workouts causing pain or other problems.

I have no schedule for painting the house. I just hate the colors the rooms were painted. I have no expectations that I am a perfect painter but since I can't work any more, I can't justify paying someone to paint. Nor to I expect to rush through this as I am so limited in my physical abilities. But its one thing that I can do to help around the house. 

Not talking to friends is fine. We were with my family and its not like I have a huge social calendar that needs to be juggled. I will catch up with all in the next few weeks. 

An emotional break from a lot of obligations made me relax more. Unfortunately it has to come to an end and I will go to the gym and my therapist this morning to get back in the swing of things. 

Sometimes I Feel I Am Being Lazy

I run into the problem that I feel like I am being lazy because I don't do much during the day often. Yesterday afternoon I felt I should have been doing more than just sit around most of the time. But I really was not up to more. Yesterday I did not have a good day. My right hip and spine were giving me so much pain I spent the afternoon doing a lot of nothing. I even used the drive through at Walgreens to pick up my prescriptions so I didn't have to walk through the store. Maybe I should have taken fewer books out of the library.

I was also really tired from having fun. I think I got about 10 hours of sleep last night. I was also exhausted. Completely exhausted. I need to do a lot more 'laziness' today and try to be productive while not moving around and recovering.

Today I am doing my usual Tuesday schedule which means I have nothing planned. I have to finish doing the laundry but I also need to rest. Usually on Tuesdays I have time to start projects that I can finish over the next few weeks. I think this week I will not start any projects. I will watch my garden grow as I do laundry and a lot of nothing.

And try not to feel lazy. But I need to be lazy. Its called 'recovering'.

Recovery Mode

One of my oldest and best friends came to visit with her husband. Now I need to recover. No alcohol. No walking around. No standing. No doing anything. And only salad for the next month.

Also I need to rest. They left under an hour ago. I am lying in bed with my feet up. Waiting for a pain pill to kick in so I can begin to move again.

And I forgot I have a doctor appointment tomorrow morning. Damn.

However I spent the last five days having fun and not being any kind of patient. It was worth it.

A Recovery Day

This has been a chaotic week. I am exhausted. Why you ask? I worked and attempted to be a normal person. Monday I worked until 130 and went for a 90 minute walk with a friend. Tuesday I worked until 130 and went to the gym and then got my hair cut. Wednesday I drove my father to a doctor appointment, worked for 5 hours, picked him back up, and went to the grocery store. Thursday I worked from 8 until 2 and was very tired driving home.

When I got home from work yesterday, I took a nap until dinner. (My husband was happy to let me keep sleeping but the DAMN cat wanted food and wouldn't leave me alone.) Then I got up and cooked and ate dinner and went back to bed.

I did read for a little while but I was asleep by 830 and woke up at 7. I did sort of wake up a couple times in the middle of the night. But mostly slept through it. The DAMN cat again needed me to get up and feed him. So I did get up, feed him, make lunch for my husband, go back to bed.

I do have plans for today but they allow for a lot of down time. My goals are:
- return two library books before they become over due
- get my blood work dealt with
- get Walter's prescriptions dealt with
- make dinner for tonight as my parents are coming over - all of it is made ahead and they will leave early and I can go to bed early again.
- catch up on bad tv watching - the TIVO is pretty full.
- catch up on knitting which bad tv watching
- maybe take a nap
- go to the gym

I will not go to work. I will not run around all day. My errands will take my three stops and except for the time spent at the gym, they will take about 45 minutes.

It was a stressful week at work dealing with technical support issues, new computers, and lots of marketing that is my real job.

Its a recovery day. My body does not handle too much work and running around any more. So it is a recovery day. Herbal tea with my feet up sound good.

Today you can call me 'Pajama Girl'

I have been very busy recently. I worked Monday and Tuesday. I made pies and did all sorts of things Wednesday. My brother arrived Wednesday evening with chaos (four nieces and nephews) and we had spaghetti and meatballs and salad for dinner. Yesterday morning we cooked more - my older nephew helped make a cabbage dish and my younger nephew helped make the scalloped potatoes. We went for a walk. I was exhausted by 2pm but went and picked up my aunt and uncle and we went to my parents house for a big dinner where we all ate too much. By 7pm or so, I was done for the day so my husband brought me home.

I went to bed early so I could recover and get to today's planned activities. These consist of buying a birthday present for my younger nephew who hit the ripe old age of 9 recently and recovering from the past two days. He found what he wanted on Amazon so it is now en route to him and I got to stay in my pajamas. Everyone else has taken a shower and gotten dressed.

My brother started calling me 'pajama girl' in that loving and sarcastic sibling tone - evidently I wasn't setting a good example for the kids. I will take a shower shortly but the cat is stressed because too many children have been interrupting his naps and right now he is snuggled up against me to recover. When I over do things (like I have for the past few days) I need time to recover from the exhaustion.

I have probably less than an hour and then I will take my younger niece and nephew to the used bookstore and a little local shopping. This will be local shopping, where you park the car in the center of town and walk around to the different stores - like in the old days. No malls will be involved.

Then we will head over to my parents house for some more food - left overs. Because we didn't eat enough yesterday and there are lots of left overs. After that I will come home and put on pajamas again.

I did mean to go to the gym today but I don't think that is happening. Maybe tomorrow. Or maybe I'll be pajama girl again.