Winter is Coming

 Xander and I are currently hunkering down in my bedroom as my bathroom gets worked on. Work resumed last week while I was at work and Xander had a vacation week with his extended family in Windsor. The tub surround was supposed to go in on Friday but the first two were broken so now the third is going in today. Hopefully the floor will be ripped up today also and the floor guy will finish it before Brandi and Laura are here the first full weekend in November. I really don't want to lock up my sweet boy in a room for the rest of the week. I'm glad I'm at least able to be here with him today. My goal was to finish this and go for a nice long leisurely run before my 4 PM therapy appointment but it has taken me 3 hours to get to this point. The day is ruined and now my weekend is shit because I'm unable to accomplish much of anything. I do this all the time now and I hate myself every time. Part of me has given up because the country seems like it's heading towards civil war anyways so I guess there's no point in living life like it's going to last the way it has prior to this year. I digress. I was able to get out of work early Friday so I could go pick up my baby and bring him home for our Friday date night. Saturday, I went to Barre then straight to Newbury for electrolysis. I stopped to visit Jess for a little bit and meet her new baby Mason. I went home through Newport so I could visit Grammy and grab a grinder. I couldn't get off my butt to accomplish anything else before going to Heather's for a birthday dinner for Susan who turned the big 7-0. It was weird because I haven't seen them since Simone's birthday except for my mom (I've seen her 3 times since then). Once I was there, it felt like it hadn't been that long. I swear this year never happened. We had salad, steak and lobster. Cheesecake for dessert...I shouldn't have had any because last week was terrible for my diet but such is life. Sunday morning, I met Emilee and Maddy for breakfast at Lou's. It took and hour and a half to get food delivered after getting in line. There's usually a wait but it's never been that bad. Part of the issue was waiting for a table inside because it was cold out. Regardless, it was a nice visit...Emilee has a new boyfriend and Maddy wants to be a nurse. I actually tried something new on the menu and it was yummy. Once I got home, I meal-prepped, cleaned up the kitchen and cleaned Xander's potty room. I was going to work out but I decided to grab groceries instead. 

When I filed my last entry, I was getting ready for a visit from a boy so let me explain how that went! I won't go into too much detail because my email to him explains the situation pretty well. So, I had a week of work to get through as I had taken the week of Labor Day off. A little back story, so my friend Suzy had reconnected with a friend of their's during the summer, a friend that I had met when I visited them in San Jose 5 years ago. His name is Mike and he was a Marine with James (James and Suzy are divorcing now, BTW, long story). So she said I should reconnect with him too so that's what I did. We started talking and it turned into daily talking and getting together the next time he would be in New England (he lives outside DC) turned into I'm coming to visit you. My vacation week became the chosen time. We talked pretty much every day and the more we talked, I liked the idea of starting something. There were a few things said here and there that made me pause and feel differently but it wasn't enough to cancel the visit...in hindsight, I should have listened to my gut and explored the topic more. Hindsight is 20/20. I felt like I knew him pretty well by the time he got here because we had talked a lot about a lot, even difficult subjects. I'll just recap my entire week off: so Friday I was home. Saturday, I did stuffies and went for a nice long bike ride out to Canaan and back. The weather was perfect. Sunday, I deep cleaned my bedroom and my bedding. Monday, I did some more cleaning, errands, odds and ends while keeping tabs on Mike's trip (he drove). I made time for a short visit with Erin and to meet her new baby Aubrey. I grabbed a pizza and Mike arrived around dinner time. We hung out, chatted, sat on the deck with a few beers. We watched a movie and stayed up late talking. Tuesday was a pretty low key day, we had originally planned to hike the Quechee Gorge but we were too tired. Instead, we had lunch at Molly's, did a hospital drive-by, he grabbed some things at the store while I voted and we just relaxed for the evening; another pizza and movie night. He arranged for us to hang out in Portsmouth for a few days so we headed down Wednesday (later than planned). We walked to an adjacent restaurant when we got there and got margaritas and nachos before heading up to the room. It was a really nice and spacious room. We hung out, grabbed dinner at the rooftop restaurant and had another movie night. Thursday, we had brunch at the Friendly Toast and had planned to explore Strawberry Banke but the weather had alternate plans. It started raining so we ducked into a bar and that was the beginning of the end. We had planned to drink a little more than usual just to have a little fun but it turned into an obnoxious situation and I was turned off pretty quickly. By the time we left, it was clear that he had had too much. He wanted to keep drinking at another bar and he tried to make out with me on the street. Um, no. Back at the hotel, after he started watching a news report on his phone, it was clear he had lied to me about his political beliefs. As soon as the words "fucking liberals" came out of his mouth, I was DONE. He fell asleep so I was able to make my escape with the help of some good friends. It got worse before it got better, but, long story short, we had spoken our peace and officially parted ways by Friday evening. What adult male behaves like that and expects a relationship based on lies to work? Dumbass. By Friday night, I felt safe enough to bring Xander home. Saturday, I set up a dehumidifier in my basement, went for a walk, had dinner at Lui Luis with my mom and Ray, then grabbed some groceries. Sunday, I did some meal prep and Monday, I went rock climbing (attempted, anyways) with PA Crain near Stowe. 

The following weekend was pretty low key. I did stuffies on Saturday, then headed to Ctown to celebrate Ashley's birthday. We went to Long Horn for dinner, shopped at Yankee Candle and Target and enjoyed some basement time before I headed home. I was on call for 24 on Sunday; we did one diagnostic case in the morning. We prehabbed it (I ran for 90 minutes on the treadmill, so proud) then I relaxed for the rest of the day. I watched the new Challenger documentary on Netflix and made banana bread. On Monday, I went for a long walk (part of it with Erin on the rail trail) and did stuffies for the rest of the day. 

Last weekend started out so promising then it didn't quite go as planned. Saturday morning, I left my house in a hurry to go to Barre class and locked myself out. I had to call AAA to break in to my car so I could open my garage door to use my hidden key to get in to my living space. I was so fucking irritated. I did some stuffies, bought mums and spent a couple hours reading on my deck. It probably was the last nice weekend to do that. Sunday, I did laundry, cleaned my bathroom, grabbed some groceries and did an elliptical workout. Monday, I went for a run, visited with Suzy (she stopped in on her way to Burlington to visit family), and I brought Xander to Dayna and Cory's for the week.

I brought Xander in for his annual check up and now we have a teeth cleaning scheduled. He better be ok. 

A reggae legend and RBG died. I'm losing my desire to live. 

The first presidential debate was a travesty and I feel embarrassed for this country. Oh, and DJT has COVID. NBD because he's bigly strong and healthy and is receiving the best healthcare while paying very little taxes.