I finally changed the name. Since going biweekly for visits to the LENS, it just hasn't seemed quite right to keep calling it the old name. And I think it's probably fair to say my life involves a lot of legwork right now, for health, career, and wedding.
There is, for instance, the legwork involved in figuring out how to best take care of myself. Last Thursday evening, I took myself to the hospital and proceeded with the sleep study. The tech was a very nice man, at least, but I still didn't enjoy sleeping with approximately 20 wires hooked up to me, most of which were tangled in my hair. I have longer-than-shoulder length hair, and the wires had to be applied to my scalp with some kind of waxy, sticky, greasy adhesive. Needless to say, it did not help me feel pretty.
I'll write about this more in detail later, but I slept very lightly and did not awake feeling rested and refreshed (again, this is normal for me, hence the study). I then had to get myself packed up, cleaned, fed, and off to Lansing by 9am, because there was a meeting for the board of a new statewide self advocate group. There's no website yet, but the name is now apparently decided: Self-Advocates of Michigan. I guess the state of Michigan is in the process of changing how their disability policies are made, and since this board is made entirely of people with developmental disabilities, we hope to be part of those decisions, or even make them entirely ourselves.
So I drove the hour to Lansing without killing myself, and proceeded to be very very tired at the meeting. But I somehow still managed to make myself useful, at least, contributing to the discussions and playing tech support for the microphone system. Mostly I just kinda felt crabbity and disconnected from it all. That shouldn't stop me from being decent to my fellow board members, though, so I made an effort to be friendly and chat with people. The food was decent, at least. For these things they tend to provide lunch, and I've always had to put in for vegetarian options. The tastiness of those options varies, but that day it was beautifully served giant cheese ravioli in alfredo sauce. I love alfredo sauce, I'm not going to complain. I unfortunately didn't get to enjoy it all in one sitting, because I kept having to get up to talk to specific folks and help out, but I did finish it all, and that made me happy.
After I got home, it was not time to crash, it was time to drop everything and run to my next event, which was a musical at Calvin (my college). A friend of mine had written all the music for it, so Chris and I both went. I mainly enjoyed the experience, although the topic (bullying) had its wince-worthy moments. I was bullied when I was in elementary school, so the topic can be touchy and difficult. In true Calvin style, there was a discussion afterwards, which we stayed for. Mainly so we could congratulate our friend, who we hadn't realized was also playing the music live at the performance. So that was pretty cool.
The next day (Saturday), we quickly cleaned house for company, because friends of ours were coming in for the local art festival. We have a spare bedroom, so that's where they tend to stay. What I didn't realize is that they were hiding supplies for a bachelorette party, and Chris was in on it. I thought we were going out to have dinner, but he sneakily ditched me at the restaurant and went off to hang out with other friends. It was a small party, just four and myself, but a fun one. We had dinner at the restaurant and then went downtown for Pokemon GO hunting. The organizer had made me a sash-thing with badges from the first Pokemon games, and everyone got a headband-thing patterned after their favorite Pokemon. Mine had the wing-ears of Dragonair. She also got some balloons and drew on them so they looked like some of the favorite original Pokemon. It made the evening extra fun. I'm not overfond of the local art festival, but I definitely enjoyed walking around with friends hunting Pokemon, so it turned out well.
Sunday was church as usual, but then we also had D&D for the first time in months. When it finally warmed up and got to be good camping weather, the people who played in that particular campaign scattered for various outdoor activities. It's funny, actually, I think of all the people in that group, Chris and I may be the least outdoorsy. But fall is coming, so they're winding down a bit. We played for about 7 hours straight, which I was grumpy all the way through because I was tired from all the previous activities. Usually my weekends involve 7 hour periods of rest and relaxation, but this one kept me busy the whole way through. It still wasn't terrible, I just wasn't enjoying it much because I wanted to curl up and do nothing.
Monday evening actually had another D&D campaign, run by the those same friends that had come to visit us. They went home on Sunday, but we use a remote tabletop program to hang out virtually. That kept us pretty busy, though Chris and I did also manage to make a quadruple batch of corn chowder with ham. 5 pounds of potatoes and about the same of ham, plus a ton of vegetables in the biggest pot we had available. Which is actually pretty huge, and barely fits in our cupboard when we're not using it.
It was a good, if highly exhausting, weekend. Today I get to try to decompress some, so that's good too.
There is, for instance, the legwork involved in figuring out how to best take care of myself. Last Thursday evening, I took myself to the hospital and proceeded with the sleep study. The tech was a very nice man, at least, but I still didn't enjoy sleeping with approximately 20 wires hooked up to me, most of which were tangled in my hair. I have longer-than-shoulder length hair, and the wires had to be applied to my scalp with some kind of waxy, sticky, greasy adhesive. Needless to say, it did not help me feel pretty.
I'll write about this more in detail later, but I slept very lightly and did not awake feeling rested and refreshed (again, this is normal for me, hence the study). I then had to get myself packed up, cleaned, fed, and off to Lansing by 9am, because there was a meeting for the board of a new statewide self advocate group. There's no website yet, but the name is now apparently decided: Self-Advocates of Michigan. I guess the state of Michigan is in the process of changing how their disability policies are made, and since this board is made entirely of people with developmental disabilities, we hope to be part of those decisions, or even make them entirely ourselves.
So I drove the hour to Lansing without killing myself, and proceeded to be very very tired at the meeting. But I somehow still managed to make myself useful, at least, contributing to the discussions and playing tech support for the microphone system. Mostly I just kinda felt crabbity and disconnected from it all. That shouldn't stop me from being decent to my fellow board members, though, so I made an effort to be friendly and chat with people. The food was decent, at least. For these things they tend to provide lunch, and I've always had to put in for vegetarian options. The tastiness of those options varies, but that day it was beautifully served giant cheese ravioli in alfredo sauce. I love alfredo sauce, I'm not going to complain. I unfortunately didn't get to enjoy it all in one sitting, because I kept having to get up to talk to specific folks and help out, but I did finish it all, and that made me happy.
After I got home, it was not time to crash, it was time to drop everything and run to my next event, which was a musical at Calvin (my college). A friend of mine had written all the music for it, so Chris and I both went. I mainly enjoyed the experience, although the topic (bullying) had its wince-worthy moments. I was bullied when I was in elementary school, so the topic can be touchy and difficult. In true Calvin style, there was a discussion afterwards, which we stayed for. Mainly so we could congratulate our friend, who we hadn't realized was also playing the music live at the performance. So that was pretty cool.
The next day (Saturday), we quickly cleaned house for company, because friends of ours were coming in for the local art festival. We have a spare bedroom, so that's where they tend to stay. What I didn't realize is that they were hiding supplies for a bachelorette party, and Chris was in on it. I thought we were going out to have dinner, but he sneakily ditched me at the restaurant and went off to hang out with other friends. It was a small party, just four and myself, but a fun one. We had dinner at the restaurant and then went downtown for Pokemon GO hunting. The organizer had made me a sash-thing with badges from the first Pokemon games, and everyone got a headband-thing patterned after their favorite Pokemon. Mine had the wing-ears of Dragonair. She also got some balloons and drew on them so they looked like some of the favorite original Pokemon. It made the evening extra fun. I'm not overfond of the local art festival, but I definitely enjoyed walking around with friends hunting Pokemon, so it turned out well.
Sunday was church as usual, but then we also had D&D for the first time in months. When it finally warmed up and got to be good camping weather, the people who played in that particular campaign scattered for various outdoor activities. It's funny, actually, I think of all the people in that group, Chris and I may be the least outdoorsy. But fall is coming, so they're winding down a bit. We played for about 7 hours straight, which I was grumpy all the way through because I was tired from all the previous activities. Usually my weekends involve 7 hour periods of rest and relaxation, but this one kept me busy the whole way through. It still wasn't terrible, I just wasn't enjoying it much because I wanted to curl up and do nothing.
Monday evening actually had another D&D campaign, run by the those same friends that had come to visit us. They went home on Sunday, but we use a remote tabletop program to hang out virtually. That kept us pretty busy, though Chris and I did also manage to make a quadruple batch of corn chowder with ham. 5 pounds of potatoes and about the same of ham, plus a ton of vegetables in the biggest pot we had available. Which is actually pretty huge, and barely fits in our cupboard when we're not using it.
It was a good, if highly exhausting, weekend. Today I get to try to decompress some, so that's good too.
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