his last bow

Men decorating crenellated walls with flowers, some climbing on ladders.
Men decorating crenellated walls with flowers, some climbing on ladders, via Bodleian Library, Oxford.

Dear Internet,
I am procrastinating.
I crashed shortly after I posted yesterday’s entry, and woke up on my own sometime after 7. Since TheHusband had the alarm set for 8:30, he, for the first time in any memory, got up and started hitting the snooze alarm until sometime after 9. Turns out he got sick at some point in the night and didn’t end up getting sleep while I snored in the glow of the Benadryls.
Time has passed.
I made it out of the house today, and thankfully our massive shovel yesterday cleared 90% of the snow so that all it took this afternoon to get out was a bit of the gas pedal to push me over the ice packed humps at the foot of the driveway created by recent city snow plows. While it was expected the side streets would still be a mess, as they tend to be during storms like this, the main streets were almost unbearable and unmanageable. An email last night went out from the city that the refuse service was not being picked up on our assigned days this week since the people who drive the trucks were going to be used to do the plowing. After driving in this mess, I’m slightly skeptical that happened.
Thankfully, a good chunk of my errands were located in the same general area, with the exception of having to head to the Ace hardware store a mile north which I decided was going to be a miss as I slid on the straight 2.5 mile towards the grocery store. One thing I had not planned on during all of these storms were the stores being decimated of stuffs. Of course it seems silly to think they wouldn’t be hit by the storms as trucks can’t get through due to the polar vortex, but I was genuinely surprised when I saw some of the things I wanted were not on the empty shelves.
Related: Why are people such assholes in stores when bad weather hits? Granted I was shopping in an area where your self-importance rises by 30% once you cross the city lines, but still. One woman, seeing me trundle down the make-shift one cart wide aisle in the veg and fruit area just stood there and wouldn’t move as I came to the end as she had intended on heading down the same aisle in the opposite direction. Another woman parked her cart and her body several feet apart at the small customer service stand when I went up to buy stamps. Dirty looks were shot by both of them when I said, “Excuse me.” in dulcet tones.
Also related: Observation is that black, mid-to-full length, preferably North Face, jackets are the de rigueur to wear in winter. I noticed this trend a few years ago and today it was like a mob of black marshmallows all over the store. Myself included — though to be far, this is my first black winter coat as I was getting tired of looking like a Lifesaver upon leaving the abode in past winters.
Tonight is the return of Justified, a show I love almost as much as my husband. Before I go make the obligatory nightly bowl of popcorn, I want to leave you with a few things.
Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock.
Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock.

I have been hankering for a purple, velvet smoking jacket for a long time but haven’t really found one I love. June tipped me off tonight to Derek Rose, makers of fine dressing gowns, who also created the one Benedict Cumberbatch wears in Sherlock. I had no idea I was so desirous of such a lovely piece of clothing until now. It is my ever most wish to save up £297.00 / $487.00 to buy one.
If you’re interested in Sherlock‘s wardrobe, Sherlockology has done a great job of putting together a list of all clothing worn by the main characters throughout the seasons.
I am not a runner, but this exercise calendar is pretty fabulous. The inspirational quotes are not too sentimental, it has space to write in your daily routines, and a nice area to wrap up monthly routines and goals.
x0x0,
Lisa
P.S. UVerse fucked up our recording of Justified and I am bereft of my Boyd Crowder fix.

This day in Lisa-Universe: 2003

That roams around the world

Ophanim, 13thC via Bavarian State Library
Ophanim, 13thC via Bavarian State Library

Dear Internet,
It’s late in the evening, ticking towards midnight [now significantly past midnight, thanks mania!], and we’ve been sloths all day. Not too surprising, with the current weather we’ve been having, leaving the house would be borderline stupidity. To be fair, TheHusband and I were at the gym on Saturday, coupled with an hour spent shoveling this morning from the first part of the snows, we feel like we’ve got our exercise in for the weekend. But also to be fair, my own silliness for not taking any kind of drug before gym tripped my arthritis up and while the pain has been moderate, it’s still annoying and it has meant I’ve been spending a lot of time with my leg up rather than being active.
Monday has been called a snow day across the midwest as the snows have started to come down, including MPOW, which makes me slightly sad as I’m naturally off so I can’t claim a snow day in jubilation. My nearly four week holiday comes to an end on Wednesday and I’m both slightly delighted and slightly not. I watched a lot of telly, read a few books, wrote a lot here, and did a lot of research for my book. My MIL was in town for a week, we stayed in on New Years, my dragon tattoo fill started, and I wore a lot of sports bras. Not a bad staycation overall.
But.
I need structure. If there is anything this vacation has finally drilled in my head, I thrive in structure. When we were getting up in the mornings early, setting our rhythms for the day, I found I was more productive than when left to my own devices. As much as my inner bad girl grits her teeth while admitting this, sometimes chaos is not always the best answer.
Monday, I will start prepping to get back into work mode. My brain has been in hibernation for the last month, so it’s time to take off the sports bras, yoga pants,  loose t-shirts and get things back in order. To get this in the right frame of mind, I cleaned out my personal inbox today so if you are wondering where the email I owe you is, you should get it in the next day or so. If we talked about doing projects together, I’ll start getting in the groove for those as well. Monday, I’m also planning on sorting mail, finishing up bills, and maybe taking down the Christmas tree.
While we were absolute sloths during our staycation, we did join the local Y the day after Christmas (via online of course). As it turns out my brother and his girlfriend, my tattoo artist and his wife, my friend Liz and her husband also joined within the same week. It’s time to walk, yoga, and swim. Saturday, during the break of the snows, TheHusband and I scrimmaged playing basketball, where I was not as bad as I thought. We kept getting run over by little kids playing soccer, all wearing European team gear, with one of their parents yelling drill instructions in Italian, which were often punctured by our “goddammits” when we missed shots.
I played basketball all through primary school (but not secondary) and some of the old drills came back to my hands as if I was 12 all over again, not nearly 42. I hate watching the game, but apparently I can get into playing it without a second thought. I give no fucks about NBA, March Madness, or Top 10 or anything basketball related.
In the guilt department, the damned post about being fit has been sitting in my drafts folder since December 2012. I am promising myself this is not going to be another year in which it gathers dust, but talking about being crazy is far easier than talking about being fat because you can’t judge crazy by looks alone.
Speaking of crazy, I’ve been caffeine free since January 1. I have been reading some personal anecdotes as well as studies about the effect of caffeine on bipolar and decided to create a one person sample study – me. On one (and many) of my drugs I was on in 2013 for my ADHD, caffeine was off the table since it amped up the effects of the drugs, which are stimulants, for me. Again, a lovely side effect that affected no one else I knew had. I know many ADHD sufferers who self-medicate with caffeine sans the drugs, but I was finding that maybe that is not working for me since caffeine feeds into my mania. I was already cutting caffeine out of my diet after 12PM, and had been for ages, coupled with my caffeine free existence in 2013 for a bit, maybe it was worth a go to see what would happen.
Not surprisingly, I have felt a lot more stable in the last few days then I had in the last month, and my brain has been less foggy. My ADHD has been getting symptomatic. Crazy or unfocused — oh how shall I ever choose?
It’s now significantly past the witching hour and I need to get to bed. Or pretend to. Or something.
[The internal network went down while I was writing this so I missed my midnight deadline, so I’m backtracking this to 23:59.]
x0x0,
Lisa

This day in Lisa-Universe: 2013, 2013, 2013, 2013