8/31/2020

It's 8:15pm on the last day of August and it's nearly dark out and I'm wrapped in a blanket, and wearing slippers cuz my feet are cold. It's supposed to get hot again during the day for the next couple weeks, at least, but for now it feels like autumn is definitely on the way. The leaves have started changing, and have been for the last couple weeks now. I do like when it cools down a bit. 

I stayed at work till 4 today, there was enough stuff to do that it just made sense. My coworker is coming in tomorrow cuz there's some stuff we need to go over that's easier to do in person than trying to explain it in an email or over the phone. Not sure what she needs to go over, but I made a small list of stuff to go over. My boss is still on vacation for at least another week. And I found out for sure that we definitely have Labor Day off and now I'm really looking forward to a three day weekend this coming weekend!

Last night, I started brainstorming about one of my characters from my book. I'm going to change his ethnicity which means a lot of research, but it's going to make the story much richer in the long run. I don't have a lot of mental energy for my book, but I'm hoping that these little spurts of interest mean that I might be able to get back into writing. This pandemic has definitely taken a toll on my writing and creativity. 

Leftover teriyaki chicken and rice for dinner, and Punky Brewster tonight.

8/30/2020

Well, today ended up being quite the adventure day. We had to go back out to get gas and yet a few more missed items from the grocery store, and we have been wanting to get some cloth and a pressure rod to set up a bit of door for the den, so we decided to go out to Joann Fabric's and the Safeway out on Aurora in Shoreline to see if the fabric store was open again to let people in. It was, as long as you wore a mask.

We looked around and found the perfect fabrics. We wanted one for each season, that was generic enough to keep up the whole season without having to worry about holidays. My sister sewed up the first one and now we have summertime sunflowers in the doorway and it's just so perfect!

It's sad that an impromptu trip to a fabric store was such a highlight, but it was. It was something we haven't been able to do for a long time, or even had a reason to do in a long time. And it was impromptu. I haven't done something on a whim really since the pandemic started. Everything is planned out now. I never realized how important spur of the moment things are until now.

For lunch we stopped at Ivars to see if they had reopened to the public. Before it was set up only for delivery, but now they're open for takeout or eating outdoors. We got ours to go and it was do delish! Again, it's been a long time since I've had it, but it brought with it a sense of normalcy.

We came home and watched POTC: At World's End, and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. I also got some chores done, including two loads of laundry. Leftover pizza for dinner and now we're watching So Dear to My Heart in our Disney watch. This is a first viewing for both of us. It's pretty cute.

No idea how work will go tomorrow, but it's nice to not feel stressed about it. Whatever happens will happen, and we have the ability to keep it under control better now. It may end up being a full day at the office, or I may end up finishing the day at home, I just don't know! Hopefully I'll get a good night's sleep, that's what I really care about!

8/29/2020

Lazy Saturday today. We had a few things we needed at the store, in spite of having done our grocery shopping last week, so our day started at the store. Then it was just lounging around watching movies till it was time to go to our parent's house to meet up with family again.

We picked up teriyaki on the way and sat around outside like we've been doing. It was really cold tonight and the mosquitoes were really bad so I wrapped up in a blanket but I'm sure I still got a few bites. We'll see what develops tomorrow.

On a positive note, my foot is doing better. No more pain, really. I still need to take it easy for another week or so before I consider starting to walk on it again more than just absolutely necessary walking. I hear it's supposed to be hot this week, so it's probably a good week to take it easy. But eventually, it's going to start cooling down and it'll be better for walking again. I might do outside walking until it gets too dark to go out safely. Then I'll switch to the treadmill.

We took home several pounds of potatoes that my mom got for free, so now I have to figure out what to do with them all. I might save some and make a potato salad, the one I developed after the SNL skit with Chadwick Boseman, next weekend for Labor Day weekend. I'll eat it in his honor...

8/28/2020

Today was a pretty good day, for the most part. I worked from home and it was pretty steady for the most part, but it did slow down in the afternoon. It was a lot less stressful than last week, which was nice. I was able to watch The Golden Girls, and then did a lot of episodes of Dear White People, and a couple episodes of the new Charmed on Netflix. I didn't do a lot of chores in the slower times. It's actually still pretty clean around here, for once! I did put the clean dishes away and caught up the dirty dishes in the sink, though.

I found out this afternoon from my dad that the chair I ordered on Wayfair was cancelled without any notice from them. He just logged in randomly to see if there were any updates and saw it had been cancelled. Now I'm back to square one with finding a reading chair for my bedroom. I'm really bummed because it's not really easy to get to places that sell reading chairs in a pandemic...I was really looking forward to reading in my room when the weather got cooler...

Pizza for dinner tonight. Always a fun Friday treat!

The sad news is that Chadwick Boseman passed away today. I had seen pictures of him recently and he didn't look healthy, but didn't know what the issue was. He'd battled colon cancer for four years, while filming all the Marvel movies he was in. I'm devastated. 43 years old is too young to die...

8/27/2020

Today went pretty well at the office. I was busy till about 2pm and then I took off to finish the day at home. There was some mail that had something messed up with it and on top of that, it went to the wrong address. With the state of the post office right now, we thought it was just never gonna come back to us. But it was waiting for me in our mail box today, so I was able to get everything fixed and out in the mail again to the right address this time. I was very happy!

I will be working from home tomorrow and hopefully my tv will work properly and I can watch The Golden Girls again in the morning.

After I logged out of work today, I sat out on the lanai again and read. It's so relaxing and it's the perfect temperature that time of day. I had the rest of the bratburger patties for dinner tonight and made some fries in the little oven to go with it. The Office and Punky Brewster tonight. 

It's not a very exciting life, but this is actually a pretty typical series of events in a pre-pandemic world, so it's actually something I'm not complaining at all!

8/26/2020

I started the day at the office and there wasn't a lot of new jobs to work on, but there was some stuff to do that's more "once in a while" tasks that I focused on. By noon, though, everything was caught up so I came home and finished the day out remotely. That way I was also able to help cover the front desk so my coworker who is covering for my boss could have some time to breathe. I'm going back in tomorrow, as usual, and we'll see how long I need to be there, but we already decided that like last Friday, I'll work from home and she'll go into the office if anything needs to be taken care of.

Once I logged out of work for the day, I sat out on the porch and read for about an hour. It was lovely! The plants needed a good watering so I did that first. While I was out there reading, I kept thinking how it would be nice to have a cat around the apartment. I don't know that I'm ready emotionally yet, but it does seem like maybe I'll get there one day.

Dinner was bratwurst patties cooked up like hamburgers. My sister didn't like it, but I thought it was great. Now I'm researching fabric for our den to make a "door". We're thinking 4 kinds, one for each season. It should be nice when it's all set up.

The Office, Parks and Rec, and now Punky Brewster to finish out the evening.

8/25/2020

Another full day at the office. Not a stressful day, so that was nice. I got a lot of stuff done and have stuff to do tomorrow too. I've come to really enjoy listening to music on the speakers in the office. It really helps pass the time, especially when I'm generally alone in the office most of the time. One of my other cowokers was in the office today though, so that was nice to have her to talk to once in a while. My boss is on vacation so I definitely spent more time straddling the two jobs. It worked out pretty well and I think it'll keep going on for the next couple weeks.

My foot is pretty sore right now. I still can't tell if it's a break or a sprain. Sprains would be fitting with my life. My foot is fully functional, but sore. It gets a bit red now and again but there is no swelling. From what I read, most of the pain and the symptoms are the same, so it's hard to say. I could go to the doctor, but I know there's not much they could do about it besides tell me to not walk on it as much as possible, which is what I'm already doing.

We had some leftover chicken from our roast chicken this weekend so when I got home from work today, I made chicken salad for work lunches the next couple days. I put a bunch of spices in it and some slivered almonds and green onions in it. I put a pinch of curry powder in it and it's amazing! I've been eating tv dinners when I go to work but now that it's pretty much guaranteed that I'll be staying full days now, I'd be better off with actual lunches like I used to take to the office.

Leftover tacos for dinner, and now an evening of Punky Brewster!