Good smells, toxic people in 2024

New York is blurry! I can’t wait for my lenses to arrive. I’m now skirting above the Finger Lakes, just under Newark and Lyons. I have about 530 more miles to go.

Haven’t had a drop of rain in days. Oh, I’m sure the storms will be back as soon as I’m sleeping during prime storm time to mess with my sleep, as usual.

I ordered a bunch of incense from Amazon. I hope it’s not late because Amazon seems to have as many delays here as there are power failures. I got a variety pack of incense matches in 16 different scents, and I also got regular sticks in 6 different scents.

Some of the scents will be Pumpkin & Rum, Coffee & Maple Syrup, Chocolate & Vanilla, Cinnamon & Apple, Vanilla & Coconut, Raspberry & Strawberry, Bayberry, Goddess of Egypt, Musk, Sandalwood, Potpourri, Frankincense, Rain, Hollyberry, Jasmine, French Vanilla, Oriental Blossom, Cinnamon, Coconut, and Patchouli.

The $100 gift card I got for letting a nurse come to the home has restrictions. I can’t just use it anywhere for anything, but we can still get plenty of use out of it at places like Walmart, Walgreens, CVS, and the Dollar Store. I just can’t get alcohol with it, of course.

I’m done with the electrolysis treatments on my lower left leg, and now I’m working on my lower right leg. To be honest, I would have been done with my legs completely a while ago had I not forgotten to do it as regularly as I could have. I’ve already done a few treatments on my thighs, so they have a head start.

I’ve been doing some thinking, which is my favorite thing to do, not that I could help it if I wanted to anyway, and I realized that if my parents were suddenly alive today, I could never have anything to do with them. This is because, like with Termite Tammy, I’ve come to see them for the toxic people that they were. Unfortunately, it was much too late in life, and while it doesn’t detract from my appreciation for when they helped us when we first got to California, I could never associate with such toxic people ever again. As much as we’d like to think they do and they may even say they do, people don’t change. Maybe I could associate with just my dad, even though he was an enabler, but certainly none of the others.

Later…

So glad my massive editing job is finally coming to an end. I may not have done a perfect job, but it is what it is. I’m not going through nearly 10K entries again. I tried to not only correct things but also make them more consistent. However, sometimes “OK” was “okay,” and that’s fine. I’ve noticed that different speech-to-text programs write things differently. One may say “10:00 AM” while another may say “10:00 a.m.” Any idiot can understand what I’m saying, though, and most importantly, I get it.

Soon, I’m going to be getting into other things, mostly creative writing and crafts. Just for fun, I may run some of my old stories through AI and let it correct them. I don’t like all the changes it makes, but the ones I do like simply correct things without changing the story itself, and I appreciate that. I don’t want it to take away from my own individual creations and give me something entirely different that makes me feel like someone else wrote them and they’re not my stories.

I wish Aly were alive to enjoy these new technologies! I miss her so much. I’m sure she would have found AI helpful for some things. I absolutely love it and can’t imagine going back to life without it, just like I said when Tom introduced me to computers in 1993 and then when Alexa came around in 2015.

Anyway, I don’t have to run my writing through the text reader anymore. I can just skim it, give it to AI, and then skim it again to make sure it didn’t change anything too drastically. It does like to tone down my swears, though, LOL, but that’s OK. I still let Grammarly have a go at it the first time around. It works while I write.

Soon, I’m going to go through my last manuscript, the blackmail story with Nane as my muse. I haven’t met anyone lately that makes for a good muse, so I’m using old ones. Some were people I’ve seen on- or offline, some came from dreams, and some came from my vivid imagination. I don’t know that I’ll crank out three or four stories a year like I used to, but I’m determined to finish what I start.

I’m also going to finish my latch hook rug once and for all and start the cross-stitch kit I have a feeling I’m going to regret getting. I also have adult coloring books and diamond paintings to do, plus there’s acrylic painting and my oil pastels. Maybe I’ll even go back to studying and practicing languages because it’s good brain exercise. It’s hard work, but it’s fun, too.

I’m continuing to have on-and-off stomach cramps, and sometimes I even feel slight nausea. Tomorrow is lab day, so hopefully, I’ll get some answers, though I don’t think this is anything serious. I doubt it’s connected to my liver. I’m worried I’m going to have a bunch of bad numbers just the same, but there’s only so much I can do about that. Of course, they’re going to call when I’m asleep since nobody can use the damn portal. The worst numbers I’m expecting to come back are cholesterol. Hopefully, my TSH will be under 10 and my A1C will be good along with my WBC. I’m not sure what to think about my thyroid because I still feel like I have hypo symptoms. I’ve been in a good mood, and I’m chilly at times. I have a little bit of hair loss and dry skin as well. If it’s not under 10, I don’t expect it to be over 15. I’m guessing it’s going to be 11 or 12. The question will be why. Is the gland dying some more, or are stomach issues blocking the absorption of the medication?

Last night, I had several dreams involving my old ENT. We were goofing around playfully, and she was carrying me somewhere. I hugged her, kissed her cheek, and said, “I love you.” Then I quickly added, “In a friendly way, of course,” so she wouldn’t get the wrong idea.

It’s weird because I’ll go a while without dreaming of her and then all of a sudden she’s in several dreams. Part of me regrets rejecting friend and message requests on Facebook in case she made good on her word and contacted me, but I know she wouldn’t. No one ever reaches out to me first.

Last updated May 30, 2024