Bubbling and Squeaking

The holiday table is all set up; the bowl filled with copious amounts of sugar-free chocolate goodies we've been buying was the piece de resistance. No card wreath this year since we won't be sending out cards. t's all I can do to keep myself together, between Mom's situation (slowly improving again) and my impending birthday week. But having the fiber optic tree trimmed and festooned does provide some sort of comfort, and between that and Robin (who is always a comfort!) I'm okay at the moment. We got through about half of the Beatles Anthology remaster, and will probably finish it again by the end of the weekend. And the bubble and squeak today was delightful.

Graditudinousness

Yeah, that's how Robin and I talk sometimes. In any case, I'm grateful that yesterday I got to see Mom, who has taken a turn for the worse today so we're back to a day-to-day watch to see if she's going to rally again or face the worst. With sepsis infections it's often this type of waiting game. But she's in the best possible hospital, they've cared for my brother and sis-in-law on a number of occasions, and as I mentioned in yesterday's post they impressed me greatly, so I live in hope. I'm also grateful for a job that allows me to buy food for the Thanksgiving table, and for the wisdon that comes with years that teaches me that less is sometimes more, especially when Robin doesn't have the appetite he used to. The most labor-intensive thing I made was the apple and chestnut dressing; the Marmite gravy (surprisingly tasty!) was a cinch, the sprouts were just boiled with some lemon glaze (not worth it, I think they've gone past their best), and everything else was microwaved. The Macy's parade was a bit bewildering, as it is every year when I recognize fewer and fewer celebrity performers, but it led me to check out the K-Pop Demon Hunters movie as at least five of those heavily Autotuned songs are Grammy nominated and at least four are on the Billboard Top 100, so I feel a bit less removed from that now. Tomorrow we start rewatching the newly-mastered now-9-episode Beatles Anthology, which we haven't seen since it first came out as 8 episodes. So yeah, grateful again for my job that allows me to have the money for streaming programs. Lastly, grateful it wasn't that cold today, as the landlord still doesn't provide enough heat, but that's a convo for after the holidays.

On the Road to Recovery

After two consecutive exhausting commute days, I knew I wasn't going to get much rest today what with the drive into New Jersey (on what's always been touted as one of the year's busiest travel days), so I was up around 4 or so, lay back down at 5:30 for an hour, and couldn't stay asleep due to leg cramps. I did what I should have done much earlier, put on compression socks for the drive and the visit to see Mom in the ICU. If you're at all in the Morris County, NJ area and you need urgent medical care, I truly believe you could do no better than the Morristown Medical Center. Everyone there was attentive, professional, knowledgeble, compassionate (which Mom, having been a nurse for decades, took pains to confirm to her nurse today, saying "if you don't have compassion, you have no business being a nurse"), and extremely helpful as we wound our way around the corridors and environs trying to get a bearing. Mom was still pretty out of things, but she's been pretty ill and needs time to recover, and she was able to hold up her end of short conversations. And she's trending better! By the end of the day she had been moved from ICU to stepdown, the next stage before she can be released back to her long-term care facility to continue her recuperation. I could see the relief on my brother's face, which I'm sure matched my own to an extent, and felt good enough to treat Robin to sushi on the way home (Kura currently has great fish & chips!) before I simply collapsed. (Although I must say, I never felt anything near to a "biggest travel day" traffic situation!) I was going to do some prep for tomorrow's Thanksgiving-for-two, but Rob's appetite isn't what it used to be so we've cut way down on the sides and when I woke from my afternoon nap I couldn't do anything more than chop the chestnuts Robin had roasted and peeled. That dish will have to wait to be assembled and cooked tomorrow, when I will have so, so much to be thankful for!

The Day the World Came Crashing Down, and Was Forestalled

So I was getting my work done in the office, just humming along, when I got a text from my brother, who has been Mom's primary care advocate for at least the past decade. She was pretty unresponsive and incoherent this morning, just moaning in her bed, and hasn't eaten in a few days as she couldn't keep down what little food she had tried. Off they went to the ER at Morristown Medical. My sis-in-law said this might be "the final decline." Nobody knew what was wrong. Lots of tests were run, most seemed fine, but her BP kept dropping and I kept panicking. A 94-year-old woman in the ER is never a good thing. I couldn't concentrate, left work early, and told colleagues I'd be taking tomorrow off to visit her for what could quite possibly be the last time. A little while ago my brother's latest text had some potentially very good news. A cause was found; a kidney stone which had majorly infected the bladder. Everything was drained and a stent was inserted to keep the stone at bay until the doc can do an outpatient lithotripsy (that's what I had a decade ago when my kidney stones developed into a similar infection, which someone in their 50s can tolerate a bit better than someone in their 90s). Now that the cause of her alarming symptoms was found and treated, she's still in the ICU, the numbers are starting to trend in a good direction, and she was coherent enough for me to tell her I loved her and hear a response. We almost lost her this time last year as well, so I'm very grateful we appear to have dodged another bullet here.

The 39000 Steps

Some things I'm starting to get the hang of. For the second time in as many trips, the local bus was right ahead of the express and I made the exchange perfectly at the transfer point. I also figured out how to order ahead and use up more money from my Starbucks cards that have been sitting around forever. That timed perfectly as well, and my order was waiting for me, all prepaid, by the time I hit Manhattan West. Work was nonstop, but I made time to eat lunch away from my desk on the other side of the floor, with its cushiony seats and handy tables, and I think I'm going to do that some more and encourage my fellow exec assistants to do the same. I did a bit of mentoring today, lots of helping folks out, and a heaping amount of scheduling. It seems everyone wants something on a shortened work week! Since I was unburdened by my backpack which is stored in my temporary locker at the office (where I'll be returning tomorrow), I decided to see if taking the "E" train to 53rd Street then walking one block west to Sixth Avenue was worth it, as that's what I'd planned for my next trip to the medical center on 51st Street in a couple weeks. Alas, that didn't work. It took forever to even get the "E" train, as I had to walk through a long corridor and up at least two flights to get to the platform (no elevator as with the "1"). But that was nothing compared to the 7th Avenue stop. I counted at least eight flights of stairs on my way to get the heck out of that station. Way too much for me, although I got quite the cardio workout, from which I'm still recovering. So I'm afraid I'm going to allow more time and instead just get a crosstown local bus to a northbound one for my next appointment. I didn't even care for the express bus ride home; the traffic on the Deegan was a mess and the driver was one of those stop-and-go guys. So far the optimal ride home is still the "1" to the local Bronx bus...

A Sunday Kind of Love

Have I mentioned how I much I love Robin? How we just mesh so perfectly together, complement each other, work really well as a team, and enjoy each other's company? I don't mention it nearly enough, either here or to him. I mean, he knows, but still. That's all.

Shopping Accomplished

I'm sure there's a few things we've forgotten, but the pre-Thanksgiving grocery shopping is done. And my goodness, what a madhouse the supermarket was! But it's all done now, as done as Liverpool (which lost again, I'm this close to giving up on the 2025-26 English football season). Now we just need to get through the rest of this weekend without shivering too much; I sense another call to our landlord in my near future, probably right after the holiday weekend...

Monitored No Longer

I finally reached Inbox Zero again by the end of today's workday, and about an hour ago Robin removed my heart monitor allowing me to actually take a regular shower again. Meanwhile his new UK passport came (the first one to reference HIS Majesty) so we can now take it to the Yonkers DMV and get his non-driver NYS ID done. Once again I'm feeling forward momentum at the Riggs Residence, lurching into the Thanksgiving break. All ready to hit the office again on Monday and Tuesday, but first we do our Thanksgiving shopping tomorrow and possibly at the farmers market on Sunday. Looking forward to the weekend, and perhaps sleeping through much of it!

Cramps Aplenty

Between the heat never being on long enough to truly feel toasty, yesterday's awful commute, and my lack of sleep lately, I knew I was in for trouble today. Sure enough, at around 4 AM I was jolted awake by my most dreaded cramp, the one in my left hamstring. I find those at least thrice as painful as the calf cramps, and fortunately I don't get them that often, but this morning's was a doozy. And at work my right hamstring must have felt left out, as it proto-cramped on me at least a half dozen times leading me to jump up in my chair to prevent a full-blown episode. Definitely no more local-to-express-bus trips in the evening! Sure enough, while the morning bus exchange was great (the local was waiting at 72nd as the express pulled up, and I got a seat right away) I knew better than to reverse it. And after a 15-minute walk through the Moynihan Hall and the LIRR level of Penn Station (my hallux didn't thank me), I hit the elevator for the "1" train just as the announcement came that the subway was pulling into the station. Right from the elevator doors opening on the platform level and into the subway car, and got a very well-placed seat the next stop, 45 minutes in total to my Bronx neighborhood and waited maybe 10 minutes for a non-crowded local where I also scored seating! Home at a very reasonable hour whilst I suspect all the express buses were dealing with gridlock-alert traffic. Well worth it. Not having regularly traveled rush hour subways since well before COVID, I noticed they're a lot quieter now, probably because most folks are on their phones. Still pretty crowded, but I can deal with that for 45 minutes if I'm sitting. And I'm getting to know the Hudson Yards neighborhood, although further exploration will wait until the weather warms. So far I'm unimpressed with the food options, although I've now loaded both the Whole Foods and Starbucks apps onto my phone (and I have about 35 bucks on two Starbucks gift cards to use up on breakfast sandwiches that are, frankly, uninspiring but free). Aside from the cramping, work was almost fun, and I've settled into what will be my "permanent" workspace each time I'm there. Naturally it's the space closest to the ladies' room because, well, I'm me. And I've finished drafting my goals, hurrah!

Goalposts

Today we had a meeting about how to set our goals for the coming year, which was a good thing as it seems to change every year. As we're encouraged to use AI, which is much better at corporate-speak than I am, I had it conjure up the appropriate gobbledygook to sound like what they want to hear, and I'm almost all done setting my goals, which amount to "get to know my new assignment and otherwise maintain my usual high standards." My commuting standard is anything but high, alas; once I found the secret escalator in Whole Foods that lets me out onto the corner of 10th Avenue and 31st Street, I decided to try taking the local bus to the express again, and to my detriment I found the same issue I'd had last week, only worse. The bus was SRO, and although I lucked out and got a seat after a few stops (being an Old has its advantages) I wound up having a very hefty woman plop herself next to me, and had great difficulty standing up again and trying to find purchase once we neared my stop. Fortunately the express bus was comfy, but it's just not worth it when I can take a subway from 34th to 231st in the same amount of time it took this evening's local bus to get from 31st to 72nd. We'll see how I am tomorrow, my hallux is not doing well...