the deep moans round with many voices

All the sleep I've missed over the past ten years came due at once. This is doubly weird since I actually got a full eight hours last night. But I took an afternoon nap, and I think I'm going to bed by 9pm tonight because holy gods I cannot reliably keep my eyes open.

I have also spent the day feeling kind of "Ugh, food" which is an interesting change over being reliably hungry every three to five hours. It's not exactly nausea, and not exactly lack of hunger/disinterest, but more a general discomfort/disgust at the thought of eating any of the leftovers in my fridge. That is strange because they are delicious things and just yesterday I was excited about eating them. *hands* I had mozzarella sticks for lunch and ramen for dinner instead, because at least that's calories and instant ramen noodles (sans broth) are a comfort-food of mine, in a backhanded way.

Occasional general jitteriness has also made an appearance and I hope it fucks right back off again ASAP.

Tomorrow (Friday) is going to be Cook All The Things day.

If you are feeling charitable and have a moment, poke me sometime in the afternoon (Eastern Daylight Time) to make sure I actually get started on the work?

(By 'all the things' I mean a batch of that fancy Persian chicken and rice thing because I have another squash I need to use up, plus grilled beef and steamed broccoli because reasons, plus maybe some noodles to have on hand as easy starch, plus leftover scraps to package up as meal additives for Dottie. This is going to eat my whole afternoon and evening, most likely, as I am not an efficient cook.)

Okay.

Today I emailed TC3 about my missing transcript and asked them to double-check their mail room because I had a confirmation email from SUNY ESC saying it had been mailed on August 1. And I got a reply saying, essentially, "Oops, sorry, we actually have the document; it just never got entered into the database." So my community college application is back on track and hopefully I should hear from them soon, after which I can arrange an appointment with a student adviser to figure out my fastest path to an AA degree.

Today I also called Family Medicine to ask about the insurance issue. I got put on hold a couple times while the clerk tried to figure out who had the relevant information, but she was able to track that down and I now have an appointment with a nurse practitioner on September 7 -- not quite as soon as I'd ideally like, but soon enough to be getting on with.

So that is some good and useful progress on two things I'd been low-key dreading all last week. :)

I am starting to feel vaguely like I could maybe one day put words on a page again, which in retrospect has made me realize that I've been in a blue funk on top of general gray malaise for the past week or two. Whoops! I mean, you'd think the sleeping schedule fucked to hell and back and the obsessive reading in a completely unfamiliar fandom would have been major tip-offs, but apparently not. Apparently those symptoms have started to feel normal.

(This is worrying. I rely on contrast to tell me when my brain is temporarily dropping me down a well, so I can deploy emergency countermeasures, but if 'normal' is already a third to half of the way down the well... eurgh.)

Anyway, I have not yet heard back from the doctors' billing office, so I'm going to call again on Monday to ask what's up with that and also try making an appointment even if they don't yet have my billing status figured out.

Because I am really thinking it is time for meds again. *sigh*

1. I totally forgot today was the eclipse -- I plead lack of sleep and also distraction (volunteering at the final day of my church's annual rummage sale) -- but fortunately I got my two sale rooms closed down by 2pm and was able first to see several pinhole projections other church members were using out on the sidewalk, and later to get a direct look through some glasses that Upstairs Neighbor E lent me while I was out walking Dottie.

It was pretty cool to see the moon take a bite out of the sun. :) It was also vaguely disquieting, because the sky went... not dark, you couldn't remotely call it dark... but noticeably gray. The color desaturated. Also, when Dottie decided that her midafternoon walk should end with a five minute relaxing lie-down in a sunny patch of grass, the direct sunlight was not nearly as warm as it should have been for that time of day and the ambient temperature. So, nothing dramatic, probably nothing I would have noticed if I hadn't been aware of the eclipse and therefore actively paying attention, but still. Pretty cool. :)

2. I called the doctors' office about getting a psychiatric evaluation/anti-depressant prescription, but was unable to make an appointment yet because I'm in a weird limbo where they're not sure if I count as a new or a returning patient, since my last appointment was apparently three years ago. The clerk who answered the phone took some information about my insurance and has sent an inquiry to their billing department. A representative should call me later this week, after which I will be able to schedule an appointment.

3. Three of my squash plants seem pretty definitively dead. The fourth (which was worst hit by the powdery mildew but seems to have escaped the wilting sickness that subsequently struck the other three) might be in the early stages of slow recovery. So I think I'll uproot the dead ones on Wednesday or Thursday and plant new seeds.

4. My church's rummage sale went pretty well, all things considered. I worked 12-4pm on Sunday, and 10-2pm today. The sale runs Saturday-Monday. Saturday is full-price, Sunday is half-price, and Monday is free with a donation box placed prominently at the exit. (We used to have Monday be 10-cent day, but that was immensely aggravating to everyone involved, so we swapped over to "free, but have you seen this donation box???" It turns out we not only save time this way, we actually bring in more money!) Monday is also the day we do preliminary breakdown, starting around noon -- first we start taking down a bunch of the shelving, and then we box everything up and cart it downstairs to the parlor so as to make things less inconvenient for the people hauling the unsold items away Tuesday morning.

(I think the unsold books go to the Friends of the Library book sale, but I wouldn't swear to it. The remaining fabric scraps probably go to one of the local sewing co-ops. I am also unsure what happens to the unsold linens and toys, though I think again there may be arrangements with various local charities. The rest... well, most of it goes to the dump. *sigh* But hey, it was going there anyway, and the sale does save an astonishing amount of stuff from being scrapped.)

5. Cornell classes started today, which meant that last week (and specifically Saturday) were the crush days for students moving back to Ithaca. And also students panicking and realizing they've forgotten to rent parking spaces. *wry* So the rental office was VERY BUSY -- in fact, Mom Boss and Aunt Boss came in to work from ~11am-4pm so we had four people in the office (usually Miss Cactus and I cover Saturdays alone), and that extra staffing was NECESSARY.

We will continue to be busy through... hmm... early October, probably? Here is why: A) people working out the glitches in their new apartments and returning their damage deposit inspection forms; B) the final parking rental rush; C) quarterly rent payments are due; D) people hurrying to pay for internet service after the free trial period ends; D) price listings for the 2018-19 year go up and we start apartment tours; E) current tenants get a couple weeks to renew or switch apartments before open renting starts; and F) open renting starts halfway through September.

But at least we're mostly done with key returns and sign-outs, we have the nice new folders for next year's leases set up, damage deposits and summer photographs are all done, and most of the giant packages in which people ship furnishings to themselves have arrived and been picked up. So that's something!