in which it’s a random brain dump! because that’s what blogs are FOR!

– my sleep schedule is WHACKED, with various levels of exhaustion and insomnia, i’m either sluggish af when i should be awake or wide awake when i should be deep in a REM cycle. was a few minutes late to work every day this week, boo

– it’s been 112 days since my last period, so in another 253 days (if i don’t bleed) i’m officially menopausal!

– i can’t regulate my body temp for shit when at rest (i’m fine at work, still), so i keep a pile of items next to me when i’m studying, reading, or watching movies: a pair of wool socks, a sweater, another sweater, and a shawl, and all these items come off and go on in a never-ending shuffle, plus when i get hot i get SO HOT it feels like prickles all over my skin, which is like a hot flash but also not like a hot flash

– 34,000 americans died of covid over the past 28 days; the government is weakly recommending boosters but is otherwise doing nothing. THIRTY-FOUR THOUSAND PEOPLE DIED IN 28 DAYS, nobody’s doing anything of note, it’s literally fucking insane

– two of my co-workers are traveling for christmas, and no one is still in a bubble as far as i can tell. if anybody brings back covid i’ll be PISSED OFF

– i had an egg this morning and then didn’t eat again all day, so was starving when i got home. made myself a burrito out of various orphaned items from fridge and freezer and IT WAS AMAZING. so yeah, i do recommend you try putting a chopped-up tamale in a burrito with rice and beans, lettuce and tomato and onion, salsa and cheese guac, it totally works!

– i couldn’t finish the awesome burrito; ate a little over half and gave up: i can’t finish anything these days. i remember ordering and eating (!!!), a decade ago, entire mexican platters and it just seems impossible now, like, where did it even FIT lol

– yesterday someone asked if my nose ring “was a snowflake?” (my mask was low, oops) and it made me super happy because it DOES look like a snowflake and i’ve worn this thing three winters in a row without anybody noticing! yay!

– i watched die hard last night because it’s christmas movie season. hadn’t seen it in so long it was like seeing it for the first time (save the stills used in memes). fun!

– seriously considering (once my dental work is paid for, UGH) getting myself a Real Bike next year, maybe an e-bike, something with assist for longer trips? they’re expensive [well, expensive compared to $100 walmart bikes, but cheap compared to cars, of course] but the weather’s SO mild out here it’s always possible to ride, and maybe i could get a true step-through because (a) i wear long skirts more often than not and (b) i’m old, so getting on my bike is rough on the hip muscles when i’m tired after 6+ hours standing on concrete floors at work hauling 20-pound wheels of cheese, crates full of milk, and loaded delivery coolers

– speaking of which, some areas of the creamery are clean rooms, so i keep a pair of crocs at work. i wash and sanitize them at the end of every shift, and those shoes never leave the building, so this way i don’t have to put on slippers ten times a day to walk briefly into the creamery or the cave. the other day i took them off to wash them, and then walked around in my sock feet emptying all 7 trash bins, and HOLY SHIT IT HURT! age-related collagen loss is a bitch, i can feel the bones of my feet in ways that i never could have imagined twenty years ago, when the flesh on the heels and balls of my feet was so thick and plump. omfg those bouncy shoes are a BLESSING, i kid you not. bouncy and sanitizeable!

– my better half got a new job, he’s at whitman college now! likes his new pay rate. wants to buy a house. we’ve been looking, but goddamn the market is blown. reesty shacks are like a quarter of a million dollars?! insane.

– i knit a hat last month but it was too short so i had to pick up the hem, which i did half-assedly, to knit another couple inches so it’ll fit. still in progress, will look like hell

– my potted avocado, which i sprouted from a pit when i moved in with my beloved 8 years ago, seems to have died, and i think this SUCKS, but i’m keeping it inside and not letting it dry out in the hopes that maybe it’ll sprout again in the spring?

– i made cute little PROSCIUTTO-WRAPPED HALLOUMI kits at work: halloumi, prosciutto, a printed recipe, and a custom olive & cornichon mix, all in a little box, and people keep buying them and it pleases me a great deal to think of someone getting one as a gift and really enjoying it

– one aspect of studying in earnest for the CCP next year, which i am half-but-not-fully committed to sitting for because it costs a lot, is that i keep buying CHEESE BOOKS, so now i have a bunch of really cool CHEESE BOOKS in my house