Archives for November 2018

Still a pretty good day, though.

Woke up from the alarm and started slowly into the day. My husband was still in a rather bad mood with no motivation for anything but then he went running and when he came back I had already peeled the potatoes.

I did spend most of the day reading the last Ben Aaronovitch novel which left me unable to do anything else.

We had kale for lunch, from our yard from last year. We had put it in the freezer:

I did the dishes and quite a bit of laundry. Then I tried to make myself write but only went on reading. I am rather happy that the minute I started feeling better I was actually doing things again. Part of me is always afraid of sinking into perpetual sloth.

Since my husband had complained about feeling lonely and excluded we all sat down for dinner together as well, and then the boy and I watched Star Trek together. And at the end my husband even joined us. Family TV watching! It’s good for us to do things together even if it’s only watching TV. We also had a discussion about „Emilia Galotti“ by Lessing over lunch because the boy has to read it for school, and we tried explaining to him why this might appear stuffy and old and not relevant to him now but how it was rather exciting then. We even looked up Lessing while eating, as one does. So I did learn quite a bit yet again.

I had planned to at least write some words after that but didn’t want to. I am rather screwed NaNo-wise. No idea if I even want to try to finish on time.

Today there will be a little yoga. And definitely writing. I might have to follow Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s example and forbid myself to read fiction before I have written the required words myself. We’ll see.

Despite not quite getting enough sleep I felt much better yesterday morning.

But.

There was no internet. For once I had done the sensible thing when we realized the night before and hadn’t started trying to fix it – apart from rebooting the router once or twice but in the morning after breakfast I couldn’t wait any longer.

It looked like a problem from the provider side but I couldn’t be sure. So I used my cell phone as a hot spot and started trying everything I could. Changed two cables, Restarted the router, re-configured it, tried another one (though that one probably doesn’t work anyway), and then I sent a message to my internet provider.

Then I decided to order a new router just in case. A new router that was definitely not in the budget.

But.

Then the internet started working again. Turned out there was a problem with the provider after all.

I did manage to cancel my order and won’t have to pay for a new router. Which is very good.

Unfortunately, my husband had to eat his breakfast all alone without the chance of chatting with me because I was sitting in my studio trying to fix the internet problem. I also did not meditate.

I did manage to do most of the weekly cleaning, make frozen pizza (I get a dispense for being sick) and taught all my students including the singing student. After that my voice was almost gone but still better than the day before.

The boy and I watched Star Trek. My husband finally finished teaching all the students, the end.

Today there will still be no running but I’m hoping for the rest of the cleaning and also for being able to write all the words. And I’m hoping to feel better still.

It was a slightly weird week.

I slept for about ten hours or so and felt much better in the morning.

I didn’t feel well, though. I’m hoping that things are looking up but who knows, maybe this cold is morphing into something else. Only time will tell.

So I spent another day mostly in bed. As much as I like reading and drinking tea not doing anything else is getting old.

There was chili for lunch:

And then I went back to bed starting to read yet another novel (novella, actually, „The Furthest Station“ by Ben Aaronovitch because I had pre-ordered his new novel that came out that morning and then realized I hadn’t looked at the novella that came out a year earlier at all) – excellent read, by the way.

I started a load of laundry, ordered some stuff on the internet, taught a few students and that was it.

The boy had asked me, „Can’t you cancel lessons if you’re feeling like this?”

Well, I could. Only then I would either lose the money or would have to re-schedule and I’m not feeling bad enough for that. I did re-schedule the only student I could, by the way, and told the boy we’d do his lesson on Saturday.

And early to bed. No writing again. Things are getting a little urgent with NaNoWriMo.

Today there will be cleaning, I hope, and there will be frozen pizza because I decided I’m feeling bad enough to prefer the taste and nutritional value of cardboard over the energy it takes to make pizza from scratch. Then there will be all.the.students and then it will be the weekend.

There’s a concert tonight that we thought about attending and a birthday party that might have been fun and another concert tomorrow and such.

I’ll be here, at home, lounging around in bed instead. I’m hoping that I can make myself write again soon. I did buy yet another book on writing, „You’ve got a book in you“ by Elizabeth Sims that is highly motivating and almost got me to pick up my laptop again yesterday.

After a rather restless night due to trouble breathing and drippy nose I spent as much of the day in bed as I could.

I did fold a load of laundry and put it away and hung up another one but I didn’t even help cooking. No writing. Completing NaNoWriMo is looking more and more unlikely and/or stressful. Lunch was rather tasty, though:

I did call the optician and re-scheduled my Thursday appointment. And I decided to move the next podcast episode to next week as well. Sorry. And I’m perfectly aware that I should have written a patreon newsletter by now as well.

I have to say that sitting and reading in bed does become old after a few hours. At least I managed to start the first sleeve of my NaKniSweMo sweater. So at least one thing is showing progress.

Then I taught a few students (first student didn’t show, apparently she had forgotten about her lesson according to her mother’s call) and went back to bed. I did eat potato chips for dinner which was not my best idea but I do tend to eat for comfort when not feeling well. It is habit I’m trying to break, seems I’m not quite there yet.

Then early to bed.

Today there will be more lounging in bed, no grocery shopping, and some teaching. I’m hoping to feel better soon. This nose-thing is highly distracting and I’m starting to develop a cough on top of it. Not amused.

Well, I only need to write about 3,000 words per day every day until the end of the month to reach my NaNo-goal, so there’s that.

When I woke up I felt pretty good and then my nose exploded. So this cold isn’t done yet, I just entered phase two. Didn’t feel well all day.

So no writing yet again because I just didn’t have the energy. I did go to the health food store and the optician and the supermarket and afterwards I just wanted to lie down for the rest of the day but I couldn’t. Those are the wonders of being self-employed.

My husband had planned to make chicken, potatoes, peas and carrots but when I came back home he was cleaning and peeling black salsifies from the garden (Schwarzwurzeln in German, I had to look the word up). Which took longer than expected. The boy had lunch with his grandmother, so we ate alone:

The blob in the front is sauce. It didn’t like sitting around fifteen minutes before being eaten.

Then I taught all the students all afternoon. Then I went to bed early. Skipped another webinar. I’m thinking rest is more important than information at this point.

My sleep was a little disturbed by sinus issues. Fun!

Today I’m hoping for a little more energy, we’ll see how that goes. Definitely no run, and probably no podcast-recording tomorrow.

I even woke up before the alarm.

Decided that I felt well enough to see the doctor to have my thyroid looked at. No writing. I’m trying to eat less sugar so I left the rice sirup off my muesli and it tasted good, even.

I wasn’t sure if I should take an earlier train to the doctor or one that would get me there just on time. Well, the earlier one would have been better because the one I then wanted to take didn’t go at all. I ended up being twenty minutes late. I did call the doctor’s office, though, to give them a warning, and it turned out to not be a problem because when the doctor called me she was apologizing that I had had to wait for so long. Um, no, I just got there as well.

No blood work this time, just an ultrasound of my thyroid. The nodes seem to be about the same size as before which is a good thing. I wasn’t sure if I should talk to her about how I’m feeling because I just realized that I’m basically feeling the same as I did last year when I went to the doctor. I’m a little better with the thyroid meds but I’m not well. My energy levels aren’t quite right, and I’m still a little foggy and I’m cold, cold, cold all the time.

I told her. She looked at the computer. Said, „Your test results are all fine, your TSH is fine, have you considered therapy?“ Um, yes, but that’s not the issue here. When I came home and told my husband he thought I was joking because before leaving I had talked to him about this. I wasn’t sure if I should tell her that I’m still not feeling well, and I told him that she would look at my test results, say that they’re fine and tell me it’s all in my head.

We agreed that I should come back in nine months for the next ultrasound and that I should see an endocrinologist in between. Oh, and I’m not looking depressed. (I never have. The years that I spent seriously depressed knitting on the kitchen bench? I was still going out, seeing people, doing my job and smiling. I’m really good at pretending to be normal.)

Yeah. Endocrinologist.

I’m also thinking about changing up what I eat. Maybe that will help. Well see.

After the doctor I went to the nice health food store and bought all the meat and all the spices and only very little chocolate for the boy.

Then I went back home, first waiting for the train that was supposed to be fifteen minutes late but ended up being right on time. Maybe that was the train before, no clue.

I did the dishes from breakfast and dinner the day before, helped making lunch:

Improvised Thai-like thing. Our Thai curries were both off, we didn’t quite have enough coconut milk and my husband would have preferred chicken which we didn’t have.

Then I lounged about, re-knitting everything I did in the morning because of mistakes, then I taught my three students and watched ‚Doctor Who‘ with the boy.

We had a long, long conversation about school and about how to learn stuff for school because he came home for lunch telling us that he completely failed an economy test and a German test. He also got a C- on his last Latin test which made us all very happy.

So he explained what the problem is with learning for school in his opinion, and how he never gets what his German teacher wants. And I explained to him that we would be happy to help him, and that he doesn’t have to get things on his own and that I’m a professional teacher who studied how to learn and teach stuff for decades. He might not be able to see what’s important to learn for his German test but I bet I can. My husband and I used to game that system for years.

We made an appointment for looking at the stuff on Saturday. Since I’ve put it in my calendar I’m hoping that it will actually happen.

I’ve decided that while I don’t want to become a helicopter parent maybe a little hovering will be okay. My husband coined the term hovercraft parent.

We also draw up a plan to put Latin grammar into the boy’s brain as fast as possible.

Somehow I never got around to writing. I did feel better but I didn’t feel all well again.

Which brings me up to 2,600 words per day until the end of the month. Great.

Today there will still be no exercise but a rather full teaching day. Maybe I’ll go to the health food store in town. There really should be writing as well.

The sweater is coming along rather nicely, I’ll close the shoulder seams later today and start the first sleeve.