January Highlights
First year being forever partnered, first month of my 30th year, two years since graduating
Filling at the dentist
• First one in years, very excited to have good dental health
• Went well, the dentist made a lot of jokes and had a TV on a medical grade arm that lets it be above you while he's working on you. I couldn't really see the tv past his head, but it was neat. Can't eat on the left side of my mouth for a week and I'm going to be sticking to mostly soft foods.
Resolution to exercise more and eat more sensible portions/meals.
• Knee got hurt at the end of December, so I can't walk or stationary bike, but I'm trying to do yoga every night and weightlifting/light cardio 4 days a week.
• Using LoseIt! app again. loving sweet potatoes, broccoli, shrimp & black bean pasta
• Having a hard time resisting the siren's call of sugary granola bars
1/12 - Knee is feeling better! I might bike gently tomorrow or go for a little walk.
And my filling is ready to be chewed on again
Still gotta do my Secret Santa, I got an extension till February 12, but I want to try to have it done before my trip. Buuuuut instead today I worked on designing a semi-open species OC
. I've been wanting to do it for a while, but I keep trying to force myself to do the secret santa, so today I just said fuck it and let myself draw what I wanted to draw. The mods of the species approved my sketch too, which I was a little stressed about because they're very strict with the rules of the species.
February Highlights
Orlando Trip Feb 4 - 8
• Disney Springs, Universal, Disney World,
- Pin Trading-- found everything i was searching for and more!! got a VIP DMC Coco pin right after someone put it on the trading board! found the Sorcerer Mickey at the Fantasia store under California Grill, and their pin trading board had the Taurus Eeyore!!!!!!!??? it could have been any zodiac, but it was Taurus! and i literally didn't see any other zodiac pins the whole time i was there. Scout found the spinning Pride pin i had seen and liked, and i found my spinning 2023 pin. i also bought a sliding Minnie & Mickey's Runaway Railroad pin, and a Orange Bird pin because i lOVE HIM and he was everywhere. then i got a whole bunch from trading!! i traded every single pin i planned to trade :D Scout worked hard to track down every store with a pinboard, so it was like boom boom boom trade after trade, it was awesome.
- Penny Pressing
- Haunted Mansion special 50th edition Mickey ears with the blinking eyes and singing wallpaper and a tophat
- Experiencing the lands around the rides
- Went on SIXTEEN RIDES!!!! my feet are so blistered, but honestly i prepped really well for this trip with endurance training exercises so i'm not as tired or sore as i expected. i also used to long distance walk every day through Denver to get to work, so i think my body is kinda built for long walks
- I can't even describe all the rides, but they were so soothing and immersive, even after any frustrations or rushing or anything else, once we got in those gorgeous queues, everything else just melted away. My favorite ride I hadn't been on before was the Navi River Journey, but honestly all of the ones we went on totally thrilled me. Haunted Mansion was like orgasmic for me, it's basically a small special interest, so I had a lot of fun thinking about how everything works and it felt like greeting old familiar friends :')
- Photopass!! We got so many amazing pictures, it was like having a wedding photographer
- Photopass lenses! I studied ahead of time to know what filters were specific to what area, and we had a lot of fun playing with them while we waited between rides or after closing time. The only one i missed was Hector from Coco in Epcot :'( but i got a Coco penny and a picture of the golden 50th Coco statue, so it's ok.
- Lazy river & hot tub with palm trees
- Stayed really hydrated and bathrooms everywhere!
- Got to ride the monorail through the resort we ate at the night before
March Highlights
The weather has been so nice! A couple little snow flurries and a lot of wind, but it's been so sunny and none of the snow has been sticking. I've been going for walks as part of my exercising, but it is scary because there are never many people on the street, so people are always very aware of me, and sometimes they don't like what they see, so it's dangerous for me. I feel like I have some stressful interaction with a random stranger every time I go out, so it's hard to motivate. But usually I can trick myself into going out when I go to check the mail or take the trash out.
I've been riding my indoor bike and lifting weights regularly, I would say it's been about every other day, so that makes 3/4 days a week, which is my goal! I had been slacking because I didn't want to get re-injured before Disney, but now my goal is to build strength and get more fit before next year's Disney trip, so that I don't have to stop working out next time and I'll be more ready for those 30 miles. I have this weird muscle tension in my left foot, I guess because my shoes don't have enough arch support? So hopefully I'll get some good insoles, and I'll be all ready for the walking we're gonna do on our New Mexico trip. But I've been stretching it a lot, and doing little 1 mile walks has seemed to be helping.
I've been figuring food out really well too, I've decided to always have one protein prepped, either shrimp, salmon, or tofu, and I've been cooking them when I'm not hungry so that I have them for later instead of feeling like omgomg gotta eat right now. I've been doing the same with sweet potatoes, so I have a good filling source of fiber, and then I'm still sticking with those frozen veggies. Broccoli has been my saving grace. I also decided to start baking my shrimp scampi so I don't have to babysit a sautée pan.
Scout and I got Orange Bird shirts!! I don't know why but I love that little guy so much. I like having matching shirts with Scout. We're cute.
We've been doing a big project to get all our trip photos over the years uploaded and then also we're making Orlando 2023 scrapbooks. It's been fun, we've been cutting out the photos the traditional way which I haven't done in foreverrrr. It's making me be really creative, I've always loved scrapbooking and collages. I even got rejected from an arts academy for middle school because I made my acting portfolio a scrapbook with like paper cutouts and bubble stickers and everything
St. Patty's day went kinda ignored by us, we didn't put up any of our decorations. But I did dress in green, and I got some stickers a few days afterwards, so I still felt in the spirit. But we don't drink so it's kinda like eh to celebrate.
April Highlights
• Found an awesome boba place near us! Their decor is super cute, my partner said it looked like they raided a dollar store
but i think it's awesome. it's very green, with a clean white and bamboo color palette, neon signs, and pandas everywhere. And there's a giant boba cup outside. We went twice this month, I got Thai iced tea with yogurt boba the first time. the yogurt boba didn't quite go with it because it was citrusy, but they both tasted good individually. The second time I got vanilla with red bean, and it was really good. Next time I want to try Taro.
• Everything is starting to bloom. I've been teaching my partner Ndee Bi'yati', and the word for this time of year is T'aa Nachil, which means the buds are swelling. He likes when I text him pictures of little things blooming, it makes me so happy to have someone appreciate my dorkiness like that. My succulent started to bloom! Just one of them. At first I thought they were a bunch of succulent petals bubbling up, but then they started to stretch out, and one by one they opened until it was a full bush of blooms. They bloomed all month, and it was a really gradual process. I've only had one succulent bloom before, so this was really cool.
• Easter in Staten Island with Scout's family was fun! His mom set up an egg hunt for all the grown-up kids (me, Scout, his brother, and his brother's wife) and the three of them got so competitive about it, shoving each other out of the way
i just went around scavenging the remainders
• I got to ride the Staten Island Ferry and see the Statue of Liberty all lit up at sunset, and then I took the train all by myself from NYC to Albany. I had a really good Jamba Juice, my partner got one too. I had Electric Blueberry Lemonade and he had Blue Vanilla Sky.
• Scout is redecorating our kitchen all Disney themed for our birthdays! But classy
we have a bunch of framed prints and we did our best attempt at putting a skin on our fridge (we kept it with imperfections instead of perfectly smooth, it kinda looks like paint) and we have special themed plates :D And I have Haunted Mansion prints in my room, which is a dream come true.
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I wasn't even scared of the needle, it was just all the bullshit I had to go through in the waiting room, and then they started asking me all these questions, and with my brainfog and medical trauma I have a really hard time answering them, and then they waited until AFTER that to measure my heart rate, and they wouldn't even let me step outside to let it go down, I had to sit there and get more and more nervous...
but he still appreciates the humor, he just doesn't have the familiarity
