Silly Site o' the Day

Having made no definite plans to meet anyone at MOCCA, I deciderd to skip this year and resolved to actually plan better next year. I'm way out of practice in simple things like meeting people to go places, and I need to do better. I miss Manhattan and want to visit it again! The next few weeks look to be a great time to take a day off here and there, what with various partners on vacation and such, so I'll have to check my work calendars and maybe seek out like-minded friends on Facebook. Despite starting to cook again (I did spaghetti and turkey meatballs for lunch, Robin made salmon for dinner, and our freezer is starting to have extra space again) I want to do Riverdale Restaurant Week, but I'm definitely not ordering salad lest some AI include me in a frightening caricature of women laughing with salad.

Silly Site o' the Day

It was a pretty gloomy day all around. My wrist/thumb area gave me plenty of trouble so I wore the brace on it, plus two elbow braces for good measure to mitigate as much of the tendinitis pain as I could for the long drive to Mom's house and back. It was good to see Mom and my youngest brother and sis-in-law, and I think this will bode well for me opening up again and going out more. Next weekend is the MOCCA Arts Fest, which I haven't attended since well before the pandemic, so we'll see how that goes considering it's a local-bus-to-subway thing and I'm not entirely sure how crowded the hall will be and how many convention-goers will choose to be masked. Not to mention all the extreme hipsters I might run into! But it's good practice for going into the office the end of next month, though! Glad we chose to leave a bit early as the ride back was much wetter and more precarious than we'd anticipated, and I was in a lot of pain upon arriving home. At least tomorrow we only have to travel locally to do our grocery shopping.

Silly Site o' the Day

My 24-hour medical test over, I schlepped into the big bad city to drop off the results, then to attend a networking breakfast sponsored by my firm's women's group as tomorrow is International Women's Day. I was the only one masked on the bus, practically the only one on the streets, and definitely the outlier at the incredibly crowded indoor potential super-spreader. As I'm very sucky at networking, and nobody approached me despite the obvious icebreaker of the mask, I grabbed my bagel and ate it out in the lobby of the crowded room, then decided to remain mask-free to visit a few of my partners upstairs on the floor where I used to work, before heading home again to log on. I'm pretty certain I kept myself safe, and that (given the COVID numbers are headed in the right direction again) I would be okay should I decide to come into the office and actually work there for a day or so, but I much prefer working from home, where I"m at least twice as productive, and the commute each way got my stomach seriously queasy. Fortunately I saw nobody being captured by a ferocious puppet.

Sillly Site o' the Day

A pretty good day, if you can call anything involving three separate medical things (a doctor visit, an anti-pneumonia shot, and a bone density test) good. I got all three done by 11:30 and walked over to the pretty empty office (such is the case nowadays on Mondays and Fridays) to have lunch with one of my partners who's there every day because she lives nearby. As much as I love Robin, it was really nice socializing in person with someone else for a change. And she treated me to a sushi lunch in a place I love which was pretty empty, so I didn't feel unsafe at any time (and I was pretty much masked except for eating). The only thing better would be having a permament desk again so I could show off one of these mugs, but in truth I have a pretty sweet home setup and I get so much more done now! I got home around 2 and Robin and I ran out to get enough milk to last us until the weekend. By the time we returned I was seriously wiped, and I've been kind of somnambulant ever since. But my diabetes is well controlled, my arm doesn't hurt all that much where it was jabbed, and I'll find out how dense my bones are in a couple of days, so that's all done.

Silly Site o' the Day

An absolutely wonderful autumn day today! I'd been needing new sneakers for awhile (I can always tell when my knees, ankles, and feet start to hurt more than usual), so we made plans to go to the new Balance outlet at Woodbury Commons. Within like 15 minutes I got two relatively low-priced pairs of sneakers. Neither was the style number I was seeking, but if they don't work out it's not like I spent a lot of money on them, and I can just order that style online. The drive up to Orange County was exhausting with the stop-and-go-for-no-reason traffic, but the trip home was much faster. The place is nestled into hills that were about a week or so from peak color, so I was able to scratch my foliage itch. And we did so much walking! Nearly two and a half miles, and we were able to keep our distance from the crowds well enough that I only needed the mask indoors. Most parents did not let their babies out into the wild:

Via Laughing Squid.

Silly Site o' the Day

So happy I didn't have to go anywhere today! Not only because of the heat, but I'm beyond exhausted from this crazy jury duty commute. And I had six hours to fit in a whole week's work, some of which had to be pushed to next week but my partners understood. Tomorrow we shop, Sunday is the fast-and-prep, Monday is the procedure and I'll finally get to eat afterwards, and Tuesday is my annual physical then right back to work. So I'm trying for as little activity as possible before then. Sleep, catch up on finances (come on, that's not activity), watch TV, sleep some more, stay out of rooms with food on Sunday, etc. Maybe I'll also peruse some more classical art memes.

Silly Site o' the Day

And so Admin Pro week ends on a high note, with almost all my work done and a lovely weekend ahead of me! We took a walk in the neighborhood and I finally got the blossoms-and-flowers photos I'd been wanting to take, and now we're getting ready for a weekend of seeing Mom and safely shopping for groceries (getting harder and harder to do, we scoped out a block party this afternoon and everyone was crowding around three storefronts completely unmasked). We passed by a few pets on our walk, and I always wonder what their names are. Maybe I should check out Petfinder Names (via The Mary Sue).

Silly Site o' the Day

Wow, I'd forgotten how much a commute takes out of me. I went into the office today for the first time since July to actually participate in an in-person (fully vaxxed) reception. As the COVID numbers in NYC drop and much-needed corporate mandates start kicking in, I've become a bit less nervous about socializing and a bit more confident in my fully-vaxxed-and-boostered capabilities to socially circulate again. It was great seeing folks in person that I hadn't seen in 20 months, and actually partying and schmoozing for a couple of hours! But that commute back at the tail end of rush hour was a killer, and I'm glad I don't have to do it daily any more. At least two maskholes, one of whom played loud media with no accompanying earbuds the entire way home. Opening up the city again means having to deal with these rude jerks, doesn't it? I'm best off remaining primarily a homebody.

Silly Site o' the Day

Another round-the-block walk outside to mail out the electric bill (I spent some of the morning catching up on finances), 10 situps on the bench, 2 miles on the bike, and I feel terrific. Energy begets energy, I guess. As long as I don't wind up hurting myself I think I'm on a good path now. We also just finished watching An American In Paris, which put me in the mood for this:

And now, some dinner then more comics reading. A great weekend!

Silly Site o' the Day

I'm trying to orient myself towards a writing mindset in this new year, the first prerequisite of which needs to be acting with more open-minded compassion and forgiveness. I'm so easy to judge people traveling around these days, and I even snapped at the old couple behind us at the grocery store checkout this morning as they were ignoring the 6-foot distance rule. I can't help it, I don't want what they're having... but I need to take more deep breaths. Aside from the checkout incident, shopping was quick and safe, and I don't need to go anywhere again until the 12th when I get my permanent crown installed at the very safe dental office. And to tell the truth it's January, when I usually feel like cocooning and hibernating anyway, so why would I want to go out? I feel very much like these indoor cats encountering snow for the first time. So, definitely time for a bit of self-improvement of my attitude in the new year! Back to work-from-home tomorrow, we'll see how that goes.

Silly Site o' the Day

I need not have worried about the safety of going to my ophthalmologist for my annual dilation test. The local buses are still free around here because the driver, fare box, and wheelchair-convertible seats are blocked off by plastic sheeting from the rest of the bus, so we have to board at the back, and everyone was extremely interested in keeping their distance. And the office itself was an abundance of caution. They didn't even want their pen back after I signed the receipt for my copay! Turns out I have a bit of a blepharitis at the corner of my left lid, which I thought was just a scab or something, and now I have meds for it and it should disappear in about a week (but will recur, because apparently I have a genetic disposition towards minor but annoying stuff like that). In other body news, I haven't needed ibuprofen during the day, and I suspect the shoulder pain may not be my deltoid at all but a strained rotator cuff. So I'll keep on with the ibuprofen and see if sleeping with one pillow instead of two helps at all. Meanwhile, have some photos of cats in trees.

Silly Site o' the Day

The "essential services only" NYC lockdown has begun, and most of the restaurants from which we've ordered takeout are now closed. Diamond, the monopoly comics distributor, has announced no new distribution after this week. My commuter card company reminded me by email that I can turn that off if need be, which I really need to. So, because I'm fortunate enough to still have a job, I'm saving quite a bit of money so far, albeit not by choice. I'm still nervous about our next grocery foray, but we're fine in the meantime, I don't think we'll need to resort to eating Legos:



Via Laughing Squid. Did I say fine? Well, except for the constant drip of existential dread, of course. And allergies. But no virus! And it snowed today, so we stayed indoors (yes, the ironing got done)...