Musings of a marginally sane feline-appreciating female.

We’ve got a very light cool rain going right now, and honestly – it’s not terrible. The birds are singing, and the lawn mowers are silent. Kinda nice – everything is just calm and quiet.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to really dislike noise. Especially lawn mowers – and that’s usually all you hear on a weekend morning, so this is very pleasant. I am truly turning into a cranky old lady, LOL – I don’t even like it when our lawn guys come around on Mondays, despite how much I appreciate their work.

But in things that do NOT make me cranky – my beloved Padres are actually doing well this season! 3 game win streak – two against the Mets, who apparently good this season (who knew?!) and 2nd in the NL West. Of course this week has been all 9:40PM games, which is painful when your alarm is set for 6AM.

My big exciting plan for the weekend is to hunt down a small old-school metal trash can for used charcoal (I found the perfect one on Amazon and it never arrived) and try to break out of what I can only describe as “housework paralysis” – executive dysfunction is real and annoying as fuck.

To realize in your late 40s that you probably have undiagnosed ADHD is…something. This is where social media and the internet is good – so many people sharing their experiences gives you those, “Oh.” moments. When I was a kid, ADHD and related issues were only starting to be widely diagnosed – and really not at all in girls.

At least in retrospect, my parents weren’t shitty about it when I was a kid. I didn’t get a lot of “you have potential” BS and got a ton of “just do your best” and I think they just decided that they had a daughter who was pretty decent and caring and so what if she was kinda scattered and disorganized. And in adulthood, someone – I can’t remember who now – told me, “You just have a lot going on in your brain that is more important than housework.” While it may not have been exactly what was happening in my brain, but I really appreciated it.

I go back and forth on whether or not I should pursue a diagnosis. I’m oddly OK at work – I think in no small part from working remotely simply because I have less distractions when I work and I can focus fairly well. But when it comes to the house…hooooooboy. Everything is a distraction and I can find anything and everything to do before housework.

From what I hear, getting a diagnosis is hard, in no small part because of assumptions of med chasing. I do love that joke: Docs: “You’ll get addicted to ADHD meds” ADHD folks: “LOL, I forgot to take my meds.”

I don’t know if trying to get a diagnosis would be worth it just to make it easier to keep house. Not sure if working more on my coping mechanisms is actually harder or easier, but given the state of American healthcare, coping is probably cheaper and easier. I wonder what it’s like to live somewhere with functioning support systems that are actually accessible and affordable.

Welp, on that dysfunctional mental processing musing, it’s time to pry myself off the sofa and go run some errands. Market, Garden Center, Drug Store, possibly Hardware Store and if that – the TexMex spot next door – because errands deserve empanadas.

Miss Lily is an adorable mood this morning and hopes you have a calm and soothing Saturday.

Friday came around pretty quick this week, which is nice. Work has actually been pretty calm – we do have one bug that is causing our poor dev to tear her hair out, she went back to another high level dev who wrote pretty much all the damn code that has been causing our heartburn and he was “well, it’s kinda inevitable” and my dude, that is not an answer, your code caused this. But that’s all above my pay grade and all I can do it say, “Ya gotta figure it out cause it wasn’t an issue before your code went in two months ago and the client encountering it is not happy.” And I am again somehow the go between for dev & my folks 12 hours away and all I can say is “still working on it.”

One lesson here – no matter how senior the developer, always do a code review. Always.

Skipped the hearings last night, mostly because I knew it would just piss me off, but I also realized, I’m not the target audience here. I don’t need convincing – violent white supremacists did what violent white supremacists do, and they were egged on by folks all the way up the food chain. I’d love to see something come of all this, but I am not holding my breath. There are far too many centrist Democrats who think we can be friends with Republicans and don’t want to upset them. Not great.

In fun stuff, my fitbit died and I got a new – get this – “Luxe” edition, LOL. It’s basically the same as my old one, but you can get fancy bracelets for it so it looks more like jewelry. And I think they’re getting ready to roll out new models, cause I got a good deal on it. $110 on the Fitbit site (on sale), $90 on Amazon. Plus another $8 for fabric bands, cause I do not love the silicon bands. If I get 3 years out of it like the last one, $33 a year isn’t bad.

Welp, time to go to the thing to get to the weekend and not put any steps on my new Fitbit.

And for the first time in a while, I will go into it with my line on the capacity chart being green!! I was admittedly snippy in last week’s meeting – it wasn’t intentional, but I’d honestly just had it with being perpetually overcommitted and no one listening when I tell them I’m being overcommitted.

In retrospect, I think it had an impact – cause though we have several bugs swirling around, since the last meeting, I have been left alone to get my shit done and had nothing extra dumped on me, and even when I have said “I can take this bug if needed” – hasn’t happened. So, yay for the occasional snippiness?

Now – we’ll see if anyone tries to fill that so-called “free” capacity I currently have today, LOL.

And in other weird work shit, multiple times this week, I’ve had to make decisions that should have been made by the lead, but 12 hour time difference, answer needed now, etc, and well, there we are. And one of my product managers made a point of making sure I knew we had a design position just open – I like what I do, but it’s nice that she thinks I’d be good at it. (I said, “Not sure a mantra of ‘not my fault people are stupid’ is good for a designer.”) Feels a bit like “shit, she may quit, make sure she knows we think she’s competent.” You could just not stress me out ya know. 🤣

In outdoor gardening…the local wildlife has found the tomato plant and the two cherry tomatoes that were ripening have mysteriously disappeared, LOL. I hope they enjoyed it. Indoor gardening – I’ve got three plants I got in 2020 that are blooming! They didn’t bloom last year at all, and I have zero idea what I did differently this past winter/spring that they are flowering now. But, pretty!!

Well, time to go to the meeting and try not to get more shit assigned to me, LOL. You have a great day.

Things may be slowing back down to something resembling normal at work. Mind you, I’m probably jinxing it by saying it out loud, but I’m very ready to get back to 40 hour work weeks. Even got two birds with one stone yesterday by showing everyone how a new feature worked and since the meeting was recorded – demo done for the product managers. (I *hate* doing demos, so this was good.) Of course, no good deed and all that, one of the product managers asked, “So, can you write that all up for clients?”

Sigh. We have documentation people, but, OK. At least it’s not needed right now, just before we release the next version. I jokingly mentioned that my lead wouldn’t be happy cause of the time it would take and she seemed surprised it would take a fair amount of time. Well yeah, to do it well, it will take a while.

I don’t know what it is with everyone thinking things take no time at all. It’s like the old saying, you can have it good, fast, or cheap – pick two. And you’re already getting it cheap.

But, with my comp time and increased vacation accrual I realized I would need to take some more time off, LOL – multiple long weekends, here I come! This on top of my announcing that the “sneak peek” program for our next version is likely going to take another 10 hours a week out of my availability from July to November. My lead is probably beating his head into a wall right now.

Welp, time to go do the thing to earn the vacation time to not do the thing.

You have a great day!

Yours truly is pretty bright eyed and bushy tailed for a Monday morning – amazing what an actual restful weekend will do for you.

Now the big challenge for the day and week is to not let work totally steamroll me. Goals are to get out on time, not pick any fights, and hopefully get one more new feature ticked off my list. (All my new feature testing keeps getting pushed out because of current version maladies.)

And on the non-work front – get some things done around the house. I’ve gotten so behind in the last month cause of work. I’d stayed on top of things well enough for the last six months that nothing is TERRIBLE terrible, but I’ve got to get back on track so I can slide again if need be. (I don’t want to work to make me slide again, but I need to be prepared for it.)

So today it’s gonna be hitting all the daily stuff, and then I think focus on the kitchen. It’s not bad but the counters are getting a bit out of control, the floor needs to be done, and it’s a good jumping off point for the rest of the house. Next will be the living room.

Though I’m not *excited* for work or housework, it’s nice to start the day feeling like I might actually have the mental & physical energy to tackle it.

The takeaways from this last week & weekend are:
– Get some exercise every damn day
– Get off work on time
– Limit social media (this is a hard one cause I am a doomscroller to be sure.)

I’m watching the BBC and they’re covering studies that are going on for 4 day workweeks – COME ON FOLKS, PLEASE MAKE IT WORK!

Well, time to go knock out the workday and get my home a little shinier. You have a fantastic day.

It’s so nice to be pleasantly tired because you’ve been out and about in nice weather all weekend vs. being ground to dust by capitalism and the news.

I did go back to the festival. Got a patio seat at the wine shop and had some great shrimp eggrolls and a fantastic glass of wine. And a corndog. :-D Sat by the river, people watched, walked a bunch, and played more Pokemon.

And I found out I don’t need an emissions inspection to renew my car registration, so after multiple “we can’t find your records” clicks on Virginia DMV, it did suddenly find it and I was able to renew.

No Sunday Scaries here.

OH – it’s feeling GOOD and not utterly exhausted. What a weird concept, but I’ll take it. I’m going to chalk it up to a few things:
– A short week at work that was *actually* a short week at work.
– Finally finishing off a task that had been hanging over my head for months and kept getting shoved off for other emergencies. My lord, it was great to cross THAT off my list.
– Getting outdoors in gorgeous weather for a few hours yesterday.

The fair was really awesome – it was all great. I probably spent too much money, especially after bitching about inflation, but I’d rather my money go to these small businesses where my purchase makes more of a direct impact – and interestingly, nothing seemed more expensive than any other year at any other fair. And where else am I going to get FIVE different kinds of spiced pecans?! (Never had sweet cayenne pecans before, and they are awesome and I keep thinking they’d be great on ice cream, but I suspect they’ll be gone before I get a pint of ice cream.)

At the end of the main street, there is a park on the river and they had a beer garden and a good cover band, and just sitting there in the sunshine with a beer watching the water was incredibly relaxing.

And on a silly note – the town is utterly FILLED with Pokestops, LOL, and with all the walking, I hatched a ton of Pokemon eggs, too. And I have finally done my 5K for the animal shelter with all the walking yesterday, so I can wear the t-shirt now. :-D

IT’S ALMOST LIKE GETTING OUTSIDE AND GETTING SOME EXERCISE AND BEING AWAY FROM SOCIAL MEDIA IS GOOD FOR MY MENTAL AND PHYSICAL HEALTH.

I wasn’t kidding when I said I may go back again today and just wander. My brother tagged along yesterday and the one thing we didn’t do was eat – oddly, neither one of us was super hungry, so if I do go back, I’m definitely getting a corndog or something. It would certainly be more enjoyable than trying on overpriced shorts at REI.

I’d move down to Occoquan in a heartbeat – it’s a cute walkable town on the water, which is what I want in life, but the condos there are in excess of 750K, LOL. The ones that actually face the water are over 1 million. I’ll have to settle for just going down there on the weekends more often – it’s a whopping 15 minutes away, with excellent food and cute little shops and a whole damn river right there.

I just can’t get over how much better I am feeling today – it’s not a manic thing (oh yes, that does cross my mind every time I don’t feel like 10 miles of bad road) – I’m just very genuinely rested and refreshed and after several months of NOT feeling that way – there is definitely a little euphoria that comes along with it.

To paraphrase the great Ernie Banks – it’s a great weekend for an arts & crafts fair – let’s go twice!

Once we got our friends Covid timeline sorted and our negative tests – we went to the festival.

I have ALL THE SPICED PECANS. Some tea, some nice rocks for wire wrapping, a swoopy sundress WITH POCKETS, and some fancy smoked salts.

And it was just really, really nice to be outside on the river in gorgeous weather.

I may go back again tomorrow.

Our friend that we saw last weekend just texted and has Covid.

Granted, we were outside the whole time, and it’s been a week, but we’re testing now. I know I was negative before we went last Saturday cause I tested that afternoon – and I’d been meaning to do a followup test this week, guess that time is now!

I’m so very glad he let us know, and luckily before we headed out the door and onto a shuttlebus for the fair. I’m also worried as hell for him – he’s not at any particular risk, but you just don’t know WTF Covid will do to you, even vaccinated, and his Mom & sister are high risk. (He doesn’t live with them, but sees them a lot.)

Of course, if one of us is positive – easy enough to isolate and keep Lily safe with the negative person. Both of us? IDK what we’ll do. And of course the LilyMonster wants to be all lovey right now. I am petting her and breathing in another direction…

Just got a text back from him, he’s certain he got it on Tuesday, so while it 110% sucks for him, that is good for us.

Five minutes left on the test.

I will say, I’m pretty impressed with the fact that it’s been over two years and this is the first potential exposure either myself or my brother has had. We’ve worked hard at avoiding this.

Whew, solid negative, not even a hint of a line on mine. Waiting on little bro’s test… Negative!

Even though he is sure he got it Tuesday and we saw him 3 days before that, I am so appreciative that he let us know.

Now thinking maybe we’ll walk from the commuter lot to the festival vs. taking the shuttlebus, LOL.

I mean, I know why – war, plague, supply chain issues, and a lot price gouging being blamed on the previous three issues. But I haven’t really had to shop for anything outside of groceries since things went really nuts on the inflation front. And while I can’t point at a specific thing at the market and say, “Oh, that cost X a year ago” – I do know pretty much every time I check out, I think, “Fuck.”

But I wanted to snag another pair of shorts & summer pants. Hopped onto my beloved REI and searched for Kuhl cause they’re seriously good quality and HOLY SHIT BATMAN, nothing on sale and my hand to god, the prices are up 50%. Admittedly they were a bit on the pricey side to start, cause they’re so very well made, but this is nuts.

So…I think tomorrow I’ll go to REI in person and see what’s on the racks – maybe I can find something on sale or a different brand that fits and has good pockets.

Or maybe I’ll just wash what I’ve got more often. I mean, I make a decent living and if I’m balking at new pants, I know it sucks for folks less lucky than I am, especially with kids who keep growing out of their clothes.

And it’s not that I didn’t believe inflation was out of control, just outside of the market & gas station, I’ve just been able to avoid it for the most part – guess I thought I was more prepared for the sticker shock.

In silly Lily things, it’s pleasantly cool this morning and this furry one is totally full of herself. I’ve already had to retrieve her from behind the plants in the front window and now this.

And other fun things are afoot – I am going to the arts & crafts show down on the river today! It’s all outdoors, there should be lots of pretty things and food trucks! And I know myself well enough to know that this is one place I will not think a second about inflation, just getting cool stuff from local artists. I’ve been setting aside cash and got my backpack purse all cleaned out. FANCY SOAPS AND FOOD TRUCKS, HERE I COME.

And it’s Pokemon Go Fest Weekend and I will be spinning ALL THE POKESTOPS down in the cute river town to boot.

So, it’s gonna be a fun day with beautiful weather and being outdoors and food and arts & crafts and capri pants with cargo pockets and the hardest decisions being “long or short sleeved shirt” and “which food truck to hit for lunch.”

I hope your Saturday is awesome.