Day +184, Thursday

Thursday was decent – not so bad, in Minnesota speak. It started out with coffee and an early morning chat with Christine. And by early, I mean 4:30 for her, 7:30 for me – it was lovely hearing her voice and discussing future backpacking plans. At one point during the call, one of my other favorite people stopped in briefly; Debbie dropped off a heating pad for my back, which was very thoughtful!

My back is doing better – it just feels as though it’s been tweaked a bit. Again, long drives + air mattress + sleeping at a weird angle in the car was more than my body could handle. So I’m doing my best to be smart – gentle stretching, heat, massage, and the occasional Motrin – and it’s feeling much MUCH better.

After my conversation with Christine ended, I ate breakfast, did morning meds/skin care routine, had a workout at HEW (weights were light ), walked a new trail (Owl Ridge) in the NC Arboretum (gorgeous! Empty of people! It was steep!), ate poke for lunch, tidied up a bit, had my Better Together Support Group and did boring things like end of month bills. It felt good to get those done & completed!

Evening was chill – we had another happy hour date on the front porch. I was happy with my orange spice tea, especially when our neighbor, Breege, popped out to give us cinnamon biscotti! It was a fantastic treat – I love the stuff and really enjoy the change in texture after it’s dunked in tea or coffee. Chatting with Andy was great, and before we knew it, an hour had passed. Dinner was burgers via Hello Fresh and post-dinner involved starting the movie “John Wick”. I knew there would be a very sad scene in the beginning (per Andy’s warning), but I was unprepared to cry the way I did. I ended up giving myself a 5-minute time out upstairs , crying on the bed. After washing my face and reminding myself that it’s just a movie and no animals were harmed in the making – I returned downstairs. Andy had switched to watching House, and was waiting for me to restart the episode.

So that was a thing…I’ve always been highly sensitive about animals and children, the innocents of this world. Combine that with a vivid imagination and my own struggles in life, and it’s a tough combo. Oh well – it’s just a movie.

My body is doing well, aside from back discomfort. The poke was just fine on my GI system, thankfully and my energy level seems to be good! I’ve got a few slight very small mini bumps – pustules almost – on both hands (2 on the left, 4 on the right) and I’m not sure where they came from? It almost looks like a cat scratch that my body is trying to heal, so who knows? I don’t have them anywhere else and they don’t hurt. Just making an observation. And that’s it! Have a great Friday everyone- and for a more cheerful image, here’s a photo of my poke bowl just before it was devoured. Nom Nom Nom!