Bit of a mixed bag this week.
My workload doesn't seem to want to quit, so I've been having to take breaks and schedule social events carefully to try not to burn out on my work, but also not become a recluse/overly stressed by all the stuff.
I did have some nice time with my mother, her brothers, and one of my aunts, though. The occasion was unfortunate: one of their cousins has died, so they were all in town for the funeral. However, the day after, I was able to have lunch with them and go to Meijer Gardens for a bit. It was a beautiful day for it, and we explored my favorite section of the place: the Japanese Gardens. They had the tiny bonsai trees out this time, which was fun. There are two Japanese maple bonsai there, and my favorite bonsai in the entire collection was one of them, and was out on display. And despite my mother's worries, I didn't manage to char myself (sunburn).
Another event this week was a baby shower. It's only the second baby shower I think I've ever been invited to, and it was definitely the first where the baby was already born. The little munchkin was several weeks premature, so his mother, a friend of mine from college, simply brought him to the party so people could enjoy him. He's still in the "I'm going to nap forever" stage of things, but he strongly resembles his father, which I can safely say since his father is from Thailand. There are actual, obvious facial features that can be pointed to, rather than just a slight difference in the nose or cheekbones or whatever. Subtleties in facial features often elude me, but in this case the features were distinctive enough that I didn't have much of a problem seeing what they were talking about.
A point of amusement to me about baby showers. When presented with a baby shower registry, I usually opt for something that seems essential to child-raising. This last baby shower, I opted for the suction cup bowls, for example. Those won't be useful until the baby starts eating solid foods, but they will be useful. I've noticed that this mentality that I have is... mostly specific to me. Some of the guests at both baby showers seemed to favor clothes, rather than items that the parents will really need, like bottles, car seats, pacifiers, etc. I get that it's fun to play dressup with something tiny and cute, but I do kind of think it misses the point of the shower. As I understand it, the baby shower, like the wedding gifts, is supposed to help the couple start on this new phase of their lives. Clothes, at least to me, are very unpractical. You can save money getting them secondhand, and you don't need a metric ton of them since you can always toss them in with the week's laundry. Other items would seem much more useful. But maybe I'm just a pragmatic killjoy. I don't know.
In more health-related news, I'm still trying to fix my perpetually chapped lips and weird bumpy skin. My doctor opines that we're not truly dealing with dehydration, but since I've had good results with gatorade, I'm trying other things that help fix it anyway. Gatorade, besides being chocked full of sugar, also apparently contains artificial colors and another substance identified as a neurotoxin. Not really an issue for most people, but it can be troublesome for sensitive people such as myself. I had previously tried simply drinking saltwater, which works for some people, but my stomach and taste buds violently rejected those efforts. I apparently cannot stand the taste of even lightly salted water, and my stomach made me miserable even when I choked it down.
My current experiment is mixing coconut water, which contains salt and potassium, into my regular water glasses. I actually have some medical grade gatorade type stuff on back order, but it's taking its dear sweet time arriving, so for now I'm just trying to drink lots of water, and mix in the coconut water. The coconut water is just pure coconut water, but like most fruit juices, it's high in sugar. So I end up mixing it at about 7 parts regular water to 1 part coconut water. The trick with gatorade was to dilute it until it wasn't sweet any more. I figure that's probably a good enough rule of thumb to follow with this, too.
It seems to be mildly effective. I've had a bit less trouble with my lips peeling and drying out. Not as much as I'd like, unfortunately, but this may be a sign I should be including it in my diet regularly. I'm hoping the medical grade gatorade powder (note: not made by the gatorade company) will be the final solution... my chapped lips are kind of a thorn in my side, self-esteem-wise.
The last, notable thing from this week involves carrion. Specifically, carrion somewhere in my apartment, possibly in the air conditioning system. We noticed a foul odor a few days ago. It was faint at first, and we figured it was past time to take out the trash, or maybe clean the disposal. But with both those things done, the apartment still smelled like rotting death. It got really bad Sunday night, disrupting my sleep and making breathing into a chore. At around 4am, I woke up, too hot, and turned the AC up a bit more so I could sleep. I was promptly assaulted by waves of horrid stench. Which is where I got the idea that it might be in the AC. I put in a maintenance request, which was sadly uninvestigated until late afternoon...
By which time, apparently, the stench had begun to fade. I brought the apartment manager to smell it herself, and she could, somewhat. But by the time the maintenance guy was able to stop by, the smell was all but gone. Admittedly, I didn't help matters by opening the screen door and windows. I was so tired of smelling death that it didn't occur to me that the smell might go away.
By now, thankfully, the smell is gone, and I should be able to sleep undisturbed again. Yay.
My workload doesn't seem to want to quit, so I've been having to take breaks and schedule social events carefully to try not to burn out on my work, but also not become a recluse/overly stressed by all the stuff.
I did have some nice time with my mother, her brothers, and one of my aunts, though. The occasion was unfortunate: one of their cousins has died, so they were all in town for the funeral. However, the day after, I was able to have lunch with them and go to Meijer Gardens for a bit. It was a beautiful day for it, and we explored my favorite section of the place: the Japanese Gardens. They had the tiny bonsai trees out this time, which was fun. There are two Japanese maple bonsai there, and my favorite bonsai in the entire collection was one of them, and was out on display. And despite my mother's worries, I didn't manage to char myself (sunburn).
Another event this week was a baby shower. It's only the second baby shower I think I've ever been invited to, and it was definitely the first where the baby was already born. The little munchkin was several weeks premature, so his mother, a friend of mine from college, simply brought him to the party so people could enjoy him. He's still in the "I'm going to nap forever" stage of things, but he strongly resembles his father, which I can safely say since his father is from Thailand. There are actual, obvious facial features that can be pointed to, rather than just a slight difference in the nose or cheekbones or whatever. Subtleties in facial features often elude me, but in this case the features were distinctive enough that I didn't have much of a problem seeing what they were talking about.
A point of amusement to me about baby showers. When presented with a baby shower registry, I usually opt for something that seems essential to child-raising. This last baby shower, I opted for the suction cup bowls, for example. Those won't be useful until the baby starts eating solid foods, but they will be useful. I've noticed that this mentality that I have is... mostly specific to me. Some of the guests at both baby showers seemed to favor clothes, rather than items that the parents will really need, like bottles, car seats, pacifiers, etc. I get that it's fun to play dressup with something tiny and cute, but I do kind of think it misses the point of the shower. As I understand it, the baby shower, like the wedding gifts, is supposed to help the couple start on this new phase of their lives. Clothes, at least to me, are very unpractical. You can save money getting them secondhand, and you don't need a metric ton of them since you can always toss them in with the week's laundry. Other items would seem much more useful. But maybe I'm just a pragmatic killjoy. I don't know.
In more health-related news, I'm still trying to fix my perpetually chapped lips and weird bumpy skin. My doctor opines that we're not truly dealing with dehydration, but since I've had good results with gatorade, I'm trying other things that help fix it anyway. Gatorade, besides being chocked full of sugar, also apparently contains artificial colors and another substance identified as a neurotoxin. Not really an issue for most people, but it can be troublesome for sensitive people such as myself. I had previously tried simply drinking saltwater, which works for some people, but my stomach and taste buds violently rejected those efforts. I apparently cannot stand the taste of even lightly salted water, and my stomach made me miserable even when I choked it down.
My current experiment is mixing coconut water, which contains salt and potassium, into my regular water glasses. I actually have some medical grade gatorade type stuff on back order, but it's taking its dear sweet time arriving, so for now I'm just trying to drink lots of water, and mix in the coconut water. The coconut water is just pure coconut water, but like most fruit juices, it's high in sugar. So I end up mixing it at about 7 parts regular water to 1 part coconut water. The trick with gatorade was to dilute it until it wasn't sweet any more. I figure that's probably a good enough rule of thumb to follow with this, too.
It seems to be mildly effective. I've had a bit less trouble with my lips peeling and drying out. Not as much as I'd like, unfortunately, but this may be a sign I should be including it in my diet regularly. I'm hoping the medical grade gatorade powder (note: not made by the gatorade company) will be the final solution... my chapped lips are kind of a thorn in my side, self-esteem-wise.
The last, notable thing from this week involves carrion. Specifically, carrion somewhere in my apartment, possibly in the air conditioning system. We noticed a foul odor a few days ago. It was faint at first, and we figured it was past time to take out the trash, or maybe clean the disposal. But with both those things done, the apartment still smelled like rotting death. It got really bad Sunday night, disrupting my sleep and making breathing into a chore. At around 4am, I woke up, too hot, and turned the AC up a bit more so I could sleep. I was promptly assaulted by waves of horrid stench. Which is where I got the idea that it might be in the AC. I put in a maintenance request, which was sadly uninvestigated until late afternoon...
By which time, apparently, the stench had begun to fade. I brought the apartment manager to smell it herself, and she could, somewhat. But by the time the maintenance guy was able to stop by, the smell was all but gone. Admittedly, I didn't help matters by opening the screen door and windows. I was so tired of smelling death that it didn't occur to me that the smell might go away.
By now, thankfully, the smell is gone, and I should be able to sleep undisturbed again. Yay.
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