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I've had an interesting and beautiful dream that I can remember, and I told ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) dragon_spirit about it in the hospital recently: One night a few weeks ago I dreamt that I was in a big grassy field lined with wildflowers growing in big bunches and surrounded with tall pine trees and aspens in the distance. The sky was a hazy peachy colour, as if it was preparing for an amazing sunset, and kaligrrrl was with me. kaligrrrl and I walked toward a house with a wooden back deck on it, and walked up the steps to the deck. And it was an utterly cool deck, because the entire deck was handpainted with ground cover, grasses and vines, and wildflowers right on the wood itself, as if the owner had tried to make the deck a continuation of the field nearby. Also, there were giant gerbera daisies surrounding the edge of the deck, flower blossoms facing inward, and they were even larger than sunflowers. At one point, a giant monarch butterfly flew down to the flowers and landed on a blossom, and kaligrrrl and I watched it in amazement as it opened and closed... It had a good 2' wingspan on it. I vaguely recall having a conversation with kaligrrrl about an event that a friend held the previous night that we were both invited to, but only I attended. The idea of the event was that you went there to answer the question, "What is the worst mistake /what are the worst mistakes you ever made?" and also to elaborate on what you learned from the experience. kaligrrrl told me she'd never attend such an event and didn't understand why other people felt the need to go, and I thought it could be a valuable experience because people could learn not only to accept that they make mistakes and can learn from them, but that a lot of people have made mistakes. We're not alone in this making mistakes business, and perhaps it could be healing. I don't remember anything else. Which is fine. This was interesting and lovely just as it was. Current Location: Concord, CA
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My life 5 days a week generally looks like this: 7:00 am - Wake up. Not want to get out of bed, but take morning meds and stagger out. 7:15-7:30 am - Drink chai or green tea that starry_sigh has made for me. 7:30 - Take a shower, get dressed, nibble something (maybe - often yoghurt). 8:10 - Leave with starry_sigh to drop kid off at school. 8:30-8:47 - Hope somewhere in there to park and catch BART. 9:00-9:20 - Show up at work. 9ish - 5:30/6 ish - Work. 5:30/6 ish - Head back to Concord. Pick up kid from afterschool care. 6 ish - Make dinner, even if I don't eat much of it. 7-11:00 - Do chores, sometimes grocery shopping, pick up meds, childcare, *maybe* read LJ, do some socialising. 11:00 - Quick shower, read in bed, prep things for work the next day. 12:00 - Hope to be asleep. Rinse, repeat. This is what my life generally looks like these days. If I don't seem to spend as much time on livejournal, it's because I already spend that big block of time from 9-5:30/6 pretty much sitting down in front of a computer for work... Now I'm doing it again, and I realise I feel better if I move around more.
The health reportYou knew this was coming, didn't you? Yes, where there is Hope, there seems to be weird health stuff. So be it. The news is somewhat different this time: - I had a CT scan recently and it showed no abnormalities. Blood tests were also well within reference range. I appear to be normal, but of course, we know that not to be true because I've been bloating up like a watermelon and have had trouble eating without it causing pain. =/
- I've been referred to a gastroenterologist for this. I have an appointment with one in San Ramon on the afternoon of the 12th. It's the earliest appointment I could manage, and the doc was referred to me by someone in cohousing.
- I saw my specialist recently. He is retesting me for presence of Lyme, other coinfections, H. pylori, and a general immunology workup. He would like to try me on another antibiotic, but for now I am not doing anti-biotics and will not be for some time as the other meds he'd like to get me on are ones for which I have a history of allergic reactions. In order to do so, I have to see an allergist and undergo desensitisation treatment. I am not sure how I feel about this.
- I need to investigate allergy desensitisation, and get referrals for this. I doubt I can be desensitised to mushrooms, but perhaps I could be desensitised to at least some moulds? I know very little about this.
- Part of me wants to know how effective alternative treatments for Lyme are in the meantime, so I'm investigating those.
That's the big bullet points. The only other thing I can say here is that while I did eat an almost normal size meal today of normal food, I'm having trouble digesting it properly. I don't know what is up, really, and possibly won't until I talk to the gastroenterologist.
WorkMy job is really beginning to take shape, and I'm having a greater appreciation of the tasks ahead of me. In a nutshell, I have to gracefully degrade an old RH server and replace it with a new production one that has files pushed through a dev/test cycle first... Right now the production server is backed up, but I am surprised it doesn't go through any dev/test cycle first. I'm also trying to figure out how to snapshot capture external sources in a build... such as how does one implement RSS feeds and blogs so that they are part of a build and get into revision control? Static pages with mostly static content can easily go through a traditional development cycle... but dynamic externally generated content does not. This is where I have to apply my 2.0 chops. There is a lot I have to learn. Right now the clearest thing I've learned is that I have to come up with a process and design for all of this on my own, and find a CMS that other people will be relatively happy with and will want to use instead of vi or ed. As for the social part of work... There are 2 guys on my team who I regularly go out to lunch with and geek with so far. And a third guy who spent some time pointing out important local landmarks to me, so I got a long lunchtime walk in where I could walk to my bank and the deli, and see where Spice Monkey is (and find out it is NOT me-friendly, and also not Indian, and disgustingly trendy). I seem to be getting along pretty well with everyone there, and someone else is volunteering to install and try one of the CMSes I want to evaluate on his own machine. Now that I've sent him a list of my desired criteria for a CMS, he'll be able to assess it in line with requirements. My only concern at work right now is that I have medical appointments to manage around it, and I hope they don't interfere with what I need to do. That and want to do, because frankly, I enjoy working where I work so far. About the only thing I'd change about it right now is the existing web server and to get a room with windows in it.
Social lifeWhat. social. life? Okay, I did go to a BBQ last weekend, and a ritual a few weeks before that. I did see mikz and his mum a few days ago ( mikz smsed me when he arrived in Buffalo, but I haven't heard from him since), and we spent some time together then. But I really haven't had much of a social life, and I knew that was going to happen. I am hoping that once I have more consistent physical health that I'll be going out more... Lately, as soon as I get home from work I really want to lie down at times, and I end up pushing myself to do more because some tasks need to be done but also I tend to feel better if I'm standing up rather than sitting when my abdomen aches (compression feels bad on it, so does lying down flat). So I move around. I'd like to return to Bab5 night at worthyadvisor's, and to Torchwood/Dr. Who night at the Rabbit Warren. And go out more on the weekend. But I think I'm just going to do what my body feels like it wants to do and go with that, and hope I can manage to keep doing what I'm doing and build strength.
The two things I really could use lately? A well-functioning digestive system sans pain, and several solid nights of sleep. I really do feel that I've been running a sleep deficit since I began working, and pain made it worse. Current Location: Concord, CA
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Not long ago, we had a quake that was 2 miles ENE of Alamo, CA.I felt it pretty good here in Concord... I was in the middle of kneeling over a couch, getting my back rubbed. Suddenly, I felt one short jolt, then another jolt, separated by a brief 1-second pause. After that, there was a little gentle shaking and I watched the lamp over the dining table swing to and fro. I thought it felt like a low 4, and lo and behold, USGS is saying 4.0. Good call, there. Did anyone else feel it as two separate jolts? Tags: california, concord, quake
Current Location: Concord, CA
Current Mood:  excited
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Pros: On Saturday night, I saw Who Killed The Electric Car with pure_agnostic and starry_sigh. It was a pretty good movie but depressing (as spider88 said it would be) and I am now wondering why they just couldn't keep making and selling EVs rather than scrapping them, since the market is there and Priuses have sold very well. I would be perfectly happy to buy a commuter car that was totally electric if I could charge it at home and perhaps charging stations near rail stations. I got out to the BBQ yesterday, and while I drank far more than I could eat due to digestive foo (I had an Asian pear, a peach, a slice of toast, and some plain chicken broth), it was good to see people and get hugs and hear what was happening in their lives. I'd like to get out more each month, whether I have work to do or not; whether I feel icky or not. Being around people often boosts my mood. Last night mikz and I watched a little bit of that weird History channel program about ice truckers. It didn't last long, and I'm really surprised they could make an entire series based on this concept... Suffice it to say, we ended up watching some Yes Minister and I fell asleep through part of it, and slept soundly for much of last night. I think I had some dreams, too, but I really can't remember them now. I only wish I didn't wake up as early as I did -- sleep is fabulous. Cons: I am really not feeling so great today. I'm concerned I'm going to have trouble eating much of anything, and woke up in some pain this morning... Soon we're going to take a Zipcar to the airport to pick up mikz's mum, and I don't know how I'm going to be good company through today. I wish I'd had another CT scan already. I'm annoyed I have to wait to schedule an appointment for the scan and can't even schedule until tomorrow. I wish I had an effective pain killer that didn't space me out. Right now, I'm trying to simply breathe through the pain and avoid eating anything with fat in it. Going to Gaylord's in Sausalito is going to be a challenge... I might not eat at all. *sigh* Current Location: San Francisco, CA
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Hi... I don't know how much I'm going to up to doing for the next few days. I'm hoping to make it to a BBQ tomorrow afternoon, but around that, I'm going to try to rest a fair bit. In the meantime, can you recommend your favourite game sites to me? Especially if they are weird games, silly games, artistically cool games, word games, or... hey, does anyone know where to play a good game of Scrabble online now (sorry, I am out of the loop on that one)? Thanks! Tags: games, request
Current Location: Concord, CA
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So I've made it to the weekend, and am just trying to hang in there. So far, on the plus side: My insurance is now on file at Walgreen's. I am less likely to go to Costco now to get my meds, simply because the pharmacy opens at 10 (when I need to be at work before then) and closes at 6 (when I often have a hard time making it back from work by then) and is closed on Sundays. Costco is definitely a cheaper place to get meds when uninsured, but it's not really convenient. I went shopping this morning and got an under-sink water filtration system from OSH. I look forward to putting it in, and have Concord water taste more like San Francisco water... there's something about a lot of East Bay water that just tastes wrong. I ate something this morning and so far it is staying down... A piece of toast with marmalade, a few spoons of apple sauce, and a little TJ's carrot-ginger soup. I have a tray of new Veronica and some Campanula that needs to get planted in the front yard. I have been informed by the landscaping committee at cohousing that I can't plant anything anywhere until they do more soil and water drainage studies, so I am waiting to do new gardening. Mostly I am weeding and trimming the lavender bush on occasion these days. I have an appointment at John Muir Urgent Care at 2:30... I need to follow-up from my recent ER visit. I am looking for a new GP... Not to be confused with gdmusumeci, I mean general practitioner. I have a referral for a gastroenterologist in Walnut Creek, but have yet to see him. On the minus side: I am feeling like ass. I don't know if the food I ate this morning will stay down. I'm having intense stomach pain that comes and goes and bloating. On top of this, guess who just got their period? Yay. =/ I may not go out much this weekend, though I am really hoping to catch a movie, maybe buy more underwear, and go to a backyard BBQ on Sunday afternoon. If I'm lucky, I'll make it through a TJ's run today, but I'm not really even sure what to buy because my digestive system is so bizarre lately. *sigh* Things have got to get better on the health front. At least not so distracting? I can cope with a certain level of pain on an ongoing basis, but sometimes I just want to curl up in a little ball. Hope everyone out there is having a good Labor Day weekend. And I hope all the Burners out there are having a good time in BRC. Current Location: Concord, CA
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