the deep moans round with many voices

Hey, quick update: I am IN MINNESOTA!

More specifically, I am in my parents' basement, because apparently this is my current millennial life milestone to hit. *wry*

Anyway, the U-boxes were delivered on Monday, we sorted and packed Tuesday and Wednesday, and then decided to order a third U-box because my dad was uneasy about the weight limits. So on Thursday the delivery guy (who is also apparently the local warehouse manager) picked up one box that we had completed and dropped off an empty replacement. We finished packing both boxes that afternoon and moved on to packing the cars and cleaning. Friday morning the delivery guy picked up the two remaining U-boxes, we finished cleaning, and I turned in my keys to Landlord Dude in return for my security deposit refund.

(I stayed in my parents' hotel room Wednesday and Thursday nights, since we packed my bed on Wednesday.)

Then we drove from Ithaca to the Twin Cities in two days (Friday and Saturday), which was kind of a lot and included two stints on local city streets in downtown Chicago because of a nasty traffic jam on I-90. My mom kept going through stoplights just as they turned yellow so I had to follow on red; it was extremely stressful. But we made it!

I have spent the past few days changing addresses with assorted companies and getting my license, car title, and car registration switched from NY to MN. Today I may or may not see about getting a local library card and visiting a Verizon store to see if they can clear some unwanted apps off my phone (I would do this myself but they came pre-installed and don't seem to have a delete option) and also ask about international calls to/from Canada. Also I will try switching my car insurance and AAA membership to MN -- I couldn't do either of those before I got my car paperwork dealt with.

We have been eating down some food brought from my fridge and freezer, since my parents' freezer was very full already. I have seen Vicky briefly when she picked up Alfie (her dog) Sunday evening -- my parents were watching him while Vicky and some friends were staffing a booth/table at a local Pride festival. Also my dad had a colonoscopy yesterday, my mom had a cardioversion this morning (for her afibrillation), and my aunt should currently be getting knee replacements. It has been a medically exciting week!

I believe I still have one refill left for both of my prescriptions, and my Ithaca pharmacy said that although they can't mail medications, I can have a Minnesota pharmacy contact them and they can transfer the authorization. So that is a relief, though I should still find a local primary care doctor sooner rather than later.

Oh! And signups for the 2025 Narnia Fic Exchange are open until July 11, so if you have any interest, please check that out over at narniaexchange!

I started feeling a bit off on Thursday afternoon, collapsed into an unpleasantly feverish two-hour nap immediately upon arriving home, and then continued to sleep badly after dragging myself up to eat a minimalist dinner. So I took a Covid test Friday morning and yeah. :(

I was very short on supplies since I'd intended to buy groceries Friday evening, but I was able to get some basics via Instacart (which is now incessantly advertising at me, blargh), and I have been sort of sludging along between naps and large glasses of Ocean Spray cranberry-pomegranate juice, which I honestly cannot recommend highly enough. Delicious stuff.

So far it's been about the same as my first go-round with Covid, which is to say it's like a bad cold and/or a mild flu: upper respiratory gunk, sore throat and cough, utterly drained, everything aches. Fortunately the fever seems to have been a one-off incident during the onset -- thank you vaccines for mitigating that!

I had tickets for the Cayuga Wine Trail's annual Wine & Herb Fest this weekend, but obviously that is OFF the agenda. Instead my goal is to not miss more than one additional day of work, since while this seems to be conforming to the way upper respiratory gunk usually hits me and I expect I'll feel a bit better tomorrow, I will probably still be exhausted and sore all over on Monday, plus of course there's the contagion concern.

I suspect I was infected during my end-of-tax-season Sunday brunch treat for myself, since nobody else in my office is ill and that was the time I was around a bunch of people unmasked in close quarters for a good length of time. Ah well. I rolled the dice and luck was not with me. *sigh*

I have basically spent Sunday through today sleeping with intervals of reading, and I am so tired of being ill. Since I stopped working retail, I get sick much less often, but upper respiratory ailments still tend to hit me like a tractor-trailer. I am distinctly unfond of the experience.

However today I am definitely on the mend -- I had significantly more physical energy and mental focus, to the point where I pulled myself together enough to order Chinese takeout and actually go pick it up -- so I think I will manage to get ONE day at the office tomorrow.

I might then do a make-up day on Saturday to catch up on photo and video editing (I think tomorrow will mostly be emails and advertising updates), but if not, oh well.

I am also considering signing up for Get Your Words Out in 2025. I think that I will go for a habit pledge rather than a wordcount pledge, because what I need to do is build writing into my daily routine. We shall see.

Bodies are so weird.

( hormones and other nonsense )

Dear endocrine system, what on earth was the plan here.

I am so tired of being sick.

I think I have turned the corner on this cold? But I won't know for sure until another day or two has passed.

(There are reasons I have no idea how many times I have caught the flu, and they mostly boil down to, "I get slammed so hard by normal winter colds that I experience no difference in symptoms between one type of upper respiratory virus and another. They ALL come with fever/chills, joint aches, and headaches in addition to the nose and throat gunk." I remain unamused at this quirk of my immune system.)

I slogged through short shifts (~4 hours each) at Not the IRS on Saturday and Sunday, which mostly went all right. I have been wearing a mask at that office so as to hopefully avoid infecting other people. (That is kind of a lost cause at the rental company. Everyone there is already down with some version of midwinter upper respiratory gunk, so we're just washing hands and trying to maintain a bit of physical distance.)

I slept several hours earlier this afternoon/evening, then got up at 9pm to answer a phone call from my parents and eat some dinner. Now I am going to fall back into bed.

...

Sorry I don't have anything more interesting to post about. I have been reading little dribs and drabs of books here and there as I find a few scraps of concentration. But I have been unable to focus on crosswords and similar puzzles that I usually use as distractions, so you can tell my ability to focus is fairly shot.