November 9, 2026
Year 7 of COVID in the Bay Area.
Year 7, Day 188: After two, no three… no, four extremely hectic weekends in a row, while also winding down work, past me decided my body was going to need a massage today. Past me was right. It hurt like the dickens, of course, especially since it’s been months since my last one, but all those muscles needed help to unknot and it’s worth it. I didn’t get as much post-massage rest right after but I made up for it in the afternoon with a couple hours. Also my massage therapist’s spouse has been out of work for months and as long as I can, I want to support them too. She’s gotten me through a lot of hard years and pain.
Year 7, Day 189: We voted as soon as I could slog through all the ballot measures, and PiC dropped off our ballots in the ballot box last week or the week before.
Today I had a vaccine appointment and laser focused on reading and processing stickers all afternoon with SmolAc to block out election anxiety until a friend mentioned a particularly heated race in the afternoon and BOOM, the anxiety returned (and lasted all night). We did finish up all the production I had planned, and avoided 3-4 hours of anxiety, so I call that a win.
Year 7, Day 190: What amazing news to wake up to. Unfortunately I woke up to it at midnight and a half after a glorified nap. I suspect the melatonin is giving me nightmares, and then election news kept me riveted as the most effective distraction from the general pain and stress. Taking a second sleep aid in 6 hours seemed like a bad idea so I’m pretty punchy today. I scheduled myself for a long liedown in the morning in hopes of a nap, didn’t happen but the liedown was still good.
Year 7, Day 191:
Year 7, Day 192:
November 2, 2026
Year 7 of COVID in the Bay Area.
Year 7, Day 181: I had to carve up the giant pork shoulder (on sale from Costco) to freeze in manageable portions and to cook one chunk for dinner in a narrow 20 minute window before my morning calls started. The problem was that I also wanted to be doing the laundry, cleaning up the weekend mess, and managing my admin paperwork in those same 20 minutes. Too bad, had to pick one. I made it with about 8 minutes to spare, which was lovely. Then I got into the admin work and got the laundry going after my calls, so there to my Instant Gratification driven self. It is possible to get many of the things done even if it’s not all done between 8-9 am.
The weekend was taxing and the number of things on my to do list this week is staggering. Pacing is critical lest I PEMs myself right into the ground but it’s so hard to force myself to slow down. The kids have been given their chores and I’m laying down until we have to go to the next lesson.
I am pleased that I didn’t get the pickup dates and times wrong today, they keep changing on us because of conferences and other things. There’s one more change next week and then we should be stable until the spring conferences.
Year 7, Day 182: This week is WHOA. I still have 4 loads of laundry (I’ve already done 3 loads ).
A European friend is in town so we have to meet up sometime this week.
We have to take JB to two tutoring sessions right after school, and they still need to do homework, practice their instrument, and chores.
My friend needs us to mind their kid four days this week.
It’s our 1Nth wedding anniversary this week and we haven’t had a minute to even think about what we’d like to do to mark that.
We still have work to do on our inventory for the craft fair and signage.
We’ll make it through but I’m feeling it since I haven’t yet recovered from the weekend.
Year 7, Day 183: There’s a sale on Cheerios and Chex cereal at Safeway and PiC has picked up a dozen boxes. It’s ridiculous for normal people. However. He’s an inveterate snacker, and even more so when stressed, these won’t last the month. Given the disparity between our rates of eating, me – 1 serving from a box, him – the rest of the box, we need a dozen just for me to get a few servings. And of course the kids want some, too. So it’s possible we’re contemplating grabbing another half dozen boxes. 😆
The chill in the air seems here to stay. SmolAc usually runs so hot that they’re down to their skivvies by the morning. You know it’s really cold when they wear their cozy jammies and doesn’t strip them off an hour into sleep. We even had to run the heater today. Soon it will be time for me to live full time in my Oodie hoodie AND pants. *rubs hands*
Year 7, Day 184: TIL: My search for a replacement for Adobe petered out for lack of time but today I realized that one answer at least has been staring me in the face. When my PDFs automatically open in Firefox, there are tools available! I can sign and date a document! I don’t think I can combine documents or paste images, also functions I need, but this works for now until there’s time to figure out the rest.
Today was all about craft fair prep – all the admin stuff, all the pricing stuff, most of the signage. Then it was about ferrying children from one location to the next until we hit the final payoff: a Halloween party with rides, games, and goodies. We only made it for the last 45 minutes but it was still fun. Of course, I’m totally worn out now.
Year 7, Day 185: There’s the last last paycheck in the bank now.
I was really irritated at Amazon that I had to deal with them for the 4th or 5th time about a defective shipment that that they keep telling me to return, even though they told me NOT to return it at the time I reported it. Today chat says “no no, I took care of it don’t worry about it.” That’s what that last two people said, are you going to compensate me for my time now that I have had to come back AGAIN despite that? They promised to send me a $25 refund to my CC. We’ll see if it materializes (and by that I mean, I set myself a calendar alert to make sure it does.) It’s the principle of the matter, but also I need them to stop harassing me for the return of something they told me to dispose of!
Feelings? I dunno. Mixed!
October 26, 2026
Year 7 of COVID in the Bay Area.
Year 7, Day 174: Farnoosh of So Money has started using her email list again. Turns out that I signed up for it, must have been a decade ago?, and I haven’t yet decided if I’m going to unsubscribe or not but this bit happens to align with my current state of being.
If you’re questioning your next chapter, try asking:
What still interests me?
What keeps draining me?
What could I change or get help with?
Your answer might be to stop doing something. It might be to try a different version. Give yourself some room to find out.
I’m mulling over these questions in the back of my mind this week while I deal with collecting tax documents for our donations from the past few months. I’ve kept records but hadn’t kept up with downloading the receipts.
Year 7, Day 175: We’re rapidly coming up on the end now. After what has felt like an interminable wait, it’s right around the corner. We only have days left.
I’ve been tidying as I go and now trying to make sure I’ve checked all the boxes before the last sand grains trickle through the glass. I’ve done the personal thank you gifts; the thank you notes to external folks; offered recommendations to the external people who have worked with my department who have concerns about their futures; cleaned up historical documentation that doesn’t need to exist any longer; cleaned up personal communications that should stay personal. I’ve maxed out my 401k and claimed all my FSA money. I’ll be pulling everyone’s permissions on all our thingies next week.
I still have some grieving to do, certainly, but the length of this winding down has given me enough time and space to settle the big affairs. Small favors.
Year 7, Day 176: Multi-level shopping planning! There was a 100% rebate offer on at Office Depot so I used gift cards to pay for 2 packs of AA batteries. The purchase price, $59.98, in rewards rebates has landed. That will pay for the holiday cards in a few weeks or so when I get that together. Basically I got a cheap side of batteries to go with our holiday cards.
Also today’s project: collecting all the transaction records for my Rollover IRA. I’m almost sure I might have missed filing a form for it one year but I’m not positive. I definitely don’t know how the heck we tell which gains correlated to the taxed and untaxed contributions. But at least I’ll have a complete record of the transactions to start from.
This also probably answers my semi-eternal question (again) about whether it’s actually worth the trouble of contributing to the IRA solely so that it’s there for future Roth IRA conversions. Maybe not. This much admin work is a total pain and I’m not even positive that it’ll be worth the effort later. Meaning, I’m not sure if the math will make sense to do conversions, or when we should do it. We can’t this year, our income last year and this year will be high. Our income next year will be … er, right now, projected to be ~75% of this year’s. That’s assuming I don’t land a job (very likely) and don’t have another income stream develop (unsure). The year after that, who knows what the future holds. Speaking of the future, I have been up nights worrying about our final retirement number because of reading up on Long COVID (given its high overlap with ME/CFS), particularly about the kids. I am so worried that one of these days they’re going to catch an infection that they never recover from and how we’d bear the costs of that to support them long term. Heck, if any one of us gets hit that way, it’ll be really bad. It’s one of the futures that I fear. I’m already living a version of that life, with the good fortune of being at least half ablebodied enough to work well past my originally presumed expiration point. At 19, it seemed like my train would run out of steam by early 30s, and the stark reality of that existence is very clear. I don’t want it to hit one of us, any of us, and then also not have the money to pay for sufficient care and support.
Year 7, Day 177: Our ballots are filled out and dropped off in a ballot box! The research was, as usual, a total pain in the neck but it’s done done done.
I did one hour of yardwork and it put me flat on my back for the rest of the day. Not that I was able to stay there. Had to drag myself out to pick up kids twice and then to drive to lessons after that. I keep thinking if I could lay abed for a solid 12 hours, that would be sufficient to recover. But that’s not actually possible with parenting duties.
October 19, 2026
Year 7 of COVID in the Bay Area.
Year 7, Day 167: I actually fell asleep last night without a sleep aid! That’s … it’s been months since I could get to sleep naturally! But oh my gosh I’m creaky and achy today. We had time in the pool this weekend and it coincided with my throat FINALLY healing up – both good things! However, I also gave my liver a break today and didn’t take pain meds until evening so got to enjoy the new pain in all its glory.
We received confirmation that we have been assigned a table at a craft fair this fall so now JB and I are cranking out the papercrafts like it’s our job. It sort of is! I’m not sure how much of each product to bring for a crowd this big (hundreds) in this economy (terrible) for a whole 6 hours. Thinking positively, we’ve branched out from their art on greeting cards to adding prints, stickers, and buttons of their designs too. They’re all very cute!
Thinking less positively, I’m debating whether it’s worth updating the online shop. It doesn’t get any traffic anymore since Twitter was destroyed and I haven’t had time to do much with it on Bluesky. But that can be a question for later. I’ve been taking progress photos and maybe those can serve for the online postings.
I’ve got to get cracking in my sewing, too, though I can’t imagine that I’ll be able to make a great deal more of them by the time we show. It takes about 3 hours per item and that’s a lot of time and related energy.
Year 7, Day 168: I’m about to go to war with our shower water pressure. It’s been dwindling a little more each day, and just stopped like it was choked off today! What the heck?? I’m not as sanguine about tackling a possible repair here on my own as I was (also not) about fixing the oven. Plumbing is scarier than some oven surgery. I don’t want to have to open up the walls but we are worried this is because of a leak somewhere. For the moment, this is getting backburnered though, we have another shower to use and we simply don’t have the energy to tackle this.
I asked my trainer to crank my workouts way down last month because I’m being pulled in so many directions it’s not even funny. It’s become more and more draining to do even the barest minimum workout, though, which is both frustrating on principle and in the whole chronic illness this problem is not solveable kind of way.
Year 7, Day 169: I’ve been fighting a sad and losing war with the powdery mildew that’s come back to attack my snap peas. I’ve been spraying the plant with a vinegar and dish soap solution to try to treat the affected leaves to no avail. It’s a bit depressing and has led to me neglecting the garden a bit. Usually every day I get a bit of joy from a tiny bit of growth, a new little tendril poking up, a little bundle of flower starting to develop, but the plant essentially looked dead all last week. It was just a matter of time before I had to rip it out, like last year’s, I thought. I had germinated a back up in the house which is growing pretty hardily but hadn’t quite gotten to the point where it seemed safe to
But this morning I spy some little bits of white peeking out from under new leaves! Not just one or two, either, there are at least half a dozen, maybe more. Maybe all hope is not lost.
Year 7, Day 170: Getting near the end here. I’ve put together personal thank you notes for vendors who have worked with us over the years. I wanted to thank them myself. They’ll never get that acknowledgement from the faceless corporation that doesn’t give two hoots about anyone, before I close this chapter.
This week’s loaf of foccacia was a little flat. Turns out I forgot my lukewarm water temp range and mixed in 120 degree water instead of 100-115. Whoops. Still edible! It just didn’t grow much. Oh and I oversalted the top. That was much less great but it’s easy to brush off the extra salt. Ooh! Maybe the next go should be 1.5x to get a taller loaf next time for sandwiches. I’ll skip the kosher salt on top, and stick with a bit of sea salt, since the kosher salt seems to do something funny to the top.
Year 7, Day 171: It’s a bit frustrating that I’ve been taking Tragic Sandwich‘s advice from a few months back to rest as much as I can and YET it’s still not enough. I send myself back to bed for 1-2 hours of rest every weekday and it’s still like peeling myself, a caramel bog, back out when the timer goes off to go pick up a child. No, it’s a lot frustrating. *wild gesticulating*
My sleep in general has been an ever-changing beast. It used to be non-existent and stressful, full of screaming nightmares. When the buyout happened, sleep was only possible in chunks of a few hours and I could taste adrenaline every morning so was too keyed up to sleep any more than that. By the summer, sleep deprivation was so bad that my doc and I agreed to try Ambien just to get some hours logged at night. Now, my body craves more and more sleep, no matter how much I get.
SmolAc has been going around dripping like a faucet this week. Thankfully their throat isn’t painful anymore, it was earlier, but I’m still downing antivirals and directing them to the tissues. Crossing all the things that this one doesn’t overcome my faux immune system.
That temporary awful thing I’m dreading starts today. It won’t be that long in actual time but it’ll feel like four lifetimes. Wish me luck and survival?
October 12, 2026
Year 7 of COVID in the Bay Area.
Year 7, Day 160: Work stress is coming to a head here for PiC and even though I’ve been seeing the train’s headlights for a while, I still don’t know how to help.
He’s been working so damn hard. He’s trying to do an impossible amount of work AND be here to help out a lot with the kids so that I don’t die. This leaves him working late into the nights and running on 2-4 hours of sleep and that’s totally unsustainable.
Today, promotions were announced again and he was passed over again because they require you to put together this whole promotion packet thing to be considered. So they won’t consider him for promotion. WITH WHAT TIME?!
I was supposed to be so much more free now with less and less work to do. But my damn throat pain is sending pain up to my ears even with the lidocaine because I had the audacity to eat. I am not happy to have a THIRD mystery pain thing, and even more unhappy that it’s compounding his stress because he’s trying to be everywhere at once while none of his work efforts are being recognized in a tangible way. I’d be mad too!
Year 7, Day 161: SmolAc’s first elementary school parent teacher conference was happily a breeze. They are adjusting really well. Their teacher likes their energy (has lots but channels it appropriately and knows when to let loose and more importantly when not to), their vocabulary, and their critical thinking. Apparently when the other kids aren’t understanding a concept, she will call on them to explain how they think about it and it helps the other kids. That’s really not something I would have predicted, it took literally 2.5 years for them to even be willing to speak in class, now they’re an explainer? I’m so happy that they’re happy. Though I would be happier if the other kids would finally learn to keep their hands to themselves! They aren’t distressed by it but they have been telling us about the kids who hit them at school (after which they tell the kids to knock it off and if they won’t, then the teacher is called in). It’s being handled in real time like it should be and they’re not coming home bruised in body or spirit, they’re just very matter of factly letting us know. They’re still very happy to go to school and enjoying loads.
For JB, however, I am displeased with their new school. TWO teachers in subjects that absolutely should NOT be using AI platforms in teaching – because the point of doing the work in those subjects is to learn HOW to do it by doing it and editing it- have been telling the kids to use AI platforms for edits without bothering to inform parents. I’ve been very alert to the introduction of this tech and have pushed back strongly on the requirement to use it when the principal claimed that policy is to allow families to make the call. Sure is hard for them to make that call when you never tell them that your kid is a guinea pig, isn’t it??
Year 7, Day 162: I should continue to read up on the propositions for voting, but I don’t wanna.
I should sort more kids clothes for donation. I also don’t wanna.
I should figure out the Cricut and make some stickers but don’t wanna.
I’m surrounded by so many chores needing doing and I don’t want to do anything.
I have a sneaking suspicion this is depressive sluggishness and would LIKE to shake it off but how? Or is it intense fatigue and depression from the current excessive pain on top of helping out a friend with childcare all all month on top of my kid’s aftercare? That’s also possible.
So for now I push myself to get the kids to school, rest for a while, do a few chores like pay bills or run the laundry, pick up the kids, feed them all, manage SmolAc’s homework and home learning until JB comes home and sort of keep an eye on their pacing through their homework and music practice.
Just survive one day at a time and, if I can, get myself to make some basic donation decisions already because the books and clothes and toys, outgrown hand me downs mainly, are piling up and doing damage to my peace of mind too.
Year 7, Day 163: I’m slowly replacing all the things, services and such, that we have paid through work because my privileges will be revoked in a couple of months and we have to be ready to shift seamlessly if PiC’s layoff lands any time soon. I get a free phone line through Comcast for a year and I’ve set that up to have an extra hot spot on hand, along with a very limited release use case for JB to be able to reach me and PiC on a check in and emergency basis. We’ve been using PiC’s work phone for the data when the internet cacks up a hairball.
I need a good replacement for Adobe since that is subscription that’ll go away sooner than later. I tested RevPDF for a couple weeks but I hate it. Claire Willett advocated for SmallPDF (referral link) which looks very promising so I’ve gotten myself set up with that and will be giving it a good test to make sure it does what’s needed.
I was able to do what I needed at PDF24 (fill a form and sign the doc) but it’s in browser so I wouldn’t feel comfortable using this for anything confidential. For confidential stuff I would only be happy with a reader/editor app that I downloaded directly to my computer and wasn’t loaded into someone’s servers. If anyone has a better alternative, please share!
Year 7, Day 164: All my labwork came back negative for anything solveable so, dammit, it could be outside referral time. The one bit of good news is after 3 weeks of intense pain (up from the 6 weeks of moderate barely tolerated pain), I think the increased dosing of the antivirals broke the blockade. The swelling finally seems to be reversing course – not getting worse each day. If I’m lucky, this will also start to get better 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻
What a huge, temporary, relief. It’s been 3.5 years of surviving with yet another daily medication to just kind of manage the problem. I want answers. Preferably answers I can DO something about. But that process is a slow one, I’ve been warned.
October 5, 2026
Year 7 of COVID in the Bay Area.
Year 7, Day 153: The last few nights and mornings my pain did a weird reversal. Normally, pain hits me when I lay down at night and then I can’t sleep for hours with painsomnia. That’s when I do my best reading sprees. These past days, when I wake up the bones start to buzz with pain. Weird. Likely won’t last but weird.
PiC and I have been discussing sports for weeks and I think we might be starting to settle in on the idea of competitive swim for JB and swim and beginner baseball in the spring for SmolAc. The time commitment would be almost balanced between the two of them, JB would have practices 3 times a week (and we might be able to carpool with friends), SmolAc would have 1 practice and 1 game each week. The staggered start time is also helpful so that we’re not trying to juggle three sports at the same time. We can ease into it. After the cast is off.
Year 7, Day 154: All I wanted for my birthday was… Well. A lot of things. The replacement of no less than 10 key Republicans in power across all three branches of government, a billion dollars to spend on people and animals (I get to keep 2-3M to shore up our accounts, pay off the mortgage, and whatever I’ve forgotten but the rest of the cash can go into making life sustainable again for folks), to not be exhausted anymore. To be cured of my fibro and CFS. To have all the clutter and dust and dirt cleared out of the house in one fell swoop without having to Pay A Price (physically). A horse and two dogs. Two horses if we’re wishing for the stars. For the kids to stop being obnoxious.
More realistically, I got a short nap, vacuumed under furniture that usually doesn’t get moved but haunts me since I moved it two weeks ago and saw all the yuck under there, spent 3 hours organizing the donations and orders for the Red Shirt village on Pine Ridge, and decluttered a fraction of a corner of the office. Also there was a slice of cake. It worked ok for the reality we do live in.
Year 7, Day 155: I made a simplified (no herbs, no cheese) version of this chicken zucchini stirfry and other than the zucchini getting too soft too fast (note to self, next time, cook them for 30 seconds max), it was quite good. I wonder if I swap out for a veggie that doesn’t soften too much, maybe that might be better. I’ve had a huge hankering for cauliflower lately and that could hold up nicely in this recipe.
I also want to make Mediterranean cauliflower with sumac one of these days. Or is it better with za’atar? I’m not sure! I’ve seen recipes both ways.
Year 7, Day 155: The first two of four new camping lanterns arrived. I’ve charged and labeled them. The next two should arrive later this week. I don’t know how much runtime we get from the small lights but I feel better knowing we have 4 big lanterns with 12 hours each in addition to the 4 smalls. Judicious use of both sets should give us a reasonable light supply for any 2+ day power outages.
I’m pondering on how many Ilona Andrews worlds I’m emotionally invested in that I crave more of: Innkeeper, Kate Daniels (Wilmington), Iron Covenant, Blood Heir, Inheritance. Maggie is good but I’m just not as invested in that world right now. Probably a time thing? It’s new and all the others have had time to sink into my marrow. Although Inheritance is also pretty new and I very much want more of that.
I think we got really lucky with the full ten books for Kate Daniels, I keep wanting that much of everything else but trilogies are more the thing now. Sadly. Ponders brought to you by all the rereading I’ve been doing.
Year 7, Day 157: My throat has been a problem since August but it really spiked a doozy these past few days. It went from sore and hard to swallow to referred ear pain, feels like swallowing knives when I eat or drink, and even breathing hurts. No idea why it escalated so quickly when I’ve been on my maintenance meds without a break but this is the worst.
It’s not been this bad since 3 years ago when I finally got it sort of diagnosed and was prescribed antivirals that helped most of the time but not all the time.
I finally caved and called the doctor. Ultimately ended up spending 5.5 hours between the primary care and specialist to get it scoped and scraped until he got blood from the sore (frickin OW) and blood drawn for labwork but honestly the ENT isn’t sure what to do or think after he went through the whole list of types of stomatitis. That’s the drawback to asking for help, medically, I have to spend the whole damn day or three worth of energy to get maybe some of the right questions asked but more than likely no answers.
We have a plan to refer out of Kaiser if these tests come up with nothing. That’s going to be a whole new complicated mess that I very much don’t want to deal with.
September 28, 2026
Year 7 of COVID in the Bay Area.
Year 7, Day 146: Welp, we were approaching “better schedule and carpool arrangements” last week. Now we’re redoing everything because JB’s mobility is very limited for the next four weeks. We’re trying something new with dropoffs and pickups. It requires a lot more driving on my part but it also involves a lot more carpooling.
Maybe this change will help me put together a better schedule for post-cast life?
They were walking with a sorta friend a lot of days before and they weren’t enjoying that relationship so much so we can take the opportunity to reconstruct a set up with a lot less time with that person.
Year 7, Day 147: I can’t remember the last time I did anything purely on impulse and I’ve just reminded myself why. I’m not good at it and it’s probably not a muscle I should flex more because it’s annoying and uncomfortable. Going to pick up JB, I suddenly decided that we should get our flu shots today instead of waiting until later in the week. I had an inexplicable brain itch that didn’t like the idea of “later in the week” and since it couldn’t be reasoned with, I wanted it over with.
I decided to borrow a page from Maggie‘s book and preemptively offered the kids a treat: ice cream and fries (we never get fries!) for their cooperation. We went to the clinic and the universe saw me surprising the kids with this sudden decision and raised me the surprise that the COVID vaccine was in, did I want it? Yes I do! Except, I had no antihistamines on me to manage the COVID vaccine effects and we’d be out for a few more hours after the vaccine. So I took my chances with the vaccine and side effects. Then we had no sweaters for when the winds kicked up, for me or SmolAc, or a water bottle because I left the house with the barest bones of supplies. I did have just enough stuff to get by, but not being prepared for all contingencies was annoying. I need to have all the things all the time. But we all got flu vaccinated! Yay!
Year 7, Day 148: I was wondering what the formula is for recovering from burnout. Discord friends suspect that it’s the same as divorce – one month per year of thingie. If true/accurate, that’s not great for me! It’s been 26 years, burning myself to a crisp the whole time. I’ve got 12 months budgeted for, not 26! And there’s no possibility of full decompression since I’m running flat out taking care of the kids’ stuff now.
My therapist thinks I’m already doing some of the healing now by cranking back my working hours dramatically and spending that time and energy on other priorities. I hope that’s accurate. I’m trying!
I have no clue what healing actually looks like but I hope it’s a lot less exhaustion and frustration. Linda’s lengthy mental load recovery post-retirement sounds like it could be what might be in store for me post-job – even if I am actively working on working less all the way to the end, there’s still a mental connection and a responsibility looming for the last weeks.
Today’s not the day, though, because I didn’t get antihistamines into my system fast enough. I was hammered today with post-vax weary.
Year 7, Day 149: We’ve had four power outages this month. Two of them were very short but two were long enough to be an inconvenience. Thankfully not more than that. Our new garage door with the backup battery worked so that’s one really nice thing about having to replace it recently. Before, I had to lift the door manually which is fine if my body is ok but on a bad day? Nothing doing. My new lanterns from Costco, ordered just after the first long power cut, came in time for the second and they were great. Of course SmolAc claimed the big lantern and JB claimed the tiny one.
Now I’m wondering if I should pick up a few more so we have more than the bare minimum to share between the house and cars. And for some redundancy of charged lanterns in case we have a longer shut off. Yes, I think the answer is yes.
We need to solve our water supply and storage problem. We need safe, clean and high volume storage that I can fill, empty, and refill even when my joints aren’t functioning properly. If anyone has already solved this problem, please share!
Year 7, Day 150: I woke up before 5 am, vibrating with unnamed stress, and wondering how much difference it’ll make to officially be out of limbo and out of work. We have what, a month and change left? Two months felt a bit like mental thumbscrews were in. 6 weeks felt more tolerable.
My days are so full right now with things I have to do and kids to care for (mine plus bonus kid on some days). Some days I’m picking up kids for an hour. There’s only 3 of them and it feels like a circus.
I have applied to exactly two jobs to date and have not yet found as many as a third to be interested in. At this moment in time I don’t have time or energy for any other jobs, paying or not.