Another work week is beginning, and if I’m being honest, I’m not quite ready for it yet. Monday is here, though, and work is waiting. Thankfully, today is a meeting-free day. The rest of the week is packed.
At the moment, I’d much rather stay curled up on the couch or crawl back into bed, but neither of those is going to happen. Hopefully, once the coffee kicks in and a hot shower wakes me up, I’ll be ready to face the day.
I hope everyone has a wonderful week!
Do you ever wake up and think, I really don’t want to deal with today? That’s how I felt this morning. If it weren’t for Isabella, I probably would have slept in. Of course, she had other ideas because breakfast wasn’t going to serve itself.
I think she has finally gotten the message that I’m not getting out of bed before 5:00 a.m. She still makes a halfhearted attempt to wake me around 4:00, but lately she gives up pretty quickly. Instead, she climbs on top of me and waits, making sure she’s in the perfect position for the moment I finally get up. I’m not sure how she knows it’s 4:00 every morning. Sometimes I swear she can read a clock.
I do know why 5:00 a.m. is the point where her patience runs out. That’s when a light in my living automatically comes on every morning. To Isabella, that light means, “Human, breakfast time has officially arrived.”
Well, I’m up now, and she’s fed.
The good news is that she seems to be feeling much better. I haven’t heard her cough in over a week, and she’s acting like her normal, happy self again. I’m very thankful that her asthma appears to be under control. I’m still planning to go ahead with her echocardiogram at the end of the month. Even though she seems healthy again, I want the peace of mind of knowing everything is okay.
I hope all of you have a wonderful day!
I almost forgot to write a blog post this morning. Even though I got a full eight hours of sleep last night, I still feel like I could easily crawl back into bed. Unfortunately, it’s a workday, so I need to get up, get moving, and get ready for work. Hopefully, a hot shower and a cup of coffee will help wake me up.
I hope everyone has a wonderful Monday and a great week ahead!
Happy Independence Day weekend to all of my friends in the United States! I hope everyone has a safe, fun, and relaxing holiday, whether you’re spending it with family, watching fireworks, firing up the grill, or just enjoying a long weekend.
As for me, I’m taking full advantage of having the day off. Isabella has already made sure she got her breakfast, so my responsibilities for the morning are officially complete. Now my bed is calling, and I fully intend to answer. Sleeping in sounds like the perfect way to start the holiday weekend.
Have a wonderful Fourth of July! 🇺🇸
Severe thunderstorms rolled through the area last night. I was afraid we’d lose electricity because it flickered several times. Between the thunder and the lightning, I didn’t sleep well and was awakened repeatedly until the storms finally moved on. The weatherman said this morning that there were nearly 23,000 lightning strikes in the area overnight. I’m just glad the worst of it is behind us. Unfortunately, we’re expecting another hot, humid, and sunny day today.
The good news is that this is my last workday of the week. We have tomorrow off for Independence Day. Since I didn’t mention it yesterday, Happy Belated Canada Day to my friends to the north!
For my friends here in the United States, do you have any plans for the Fourth of July?
Growing up, my family always celebrated with a big barbecue. We’d have ribs, baked beans, coleslaw, potato salad, and enough side dishes and desserts to feed an army. My Grandmama would make fresh-squeezed lemonade, and sometime in the afternoon we’d either cut into a cold watermelon or churn homemade ice cream—sometimes both. Family would come from all over Alabama and Florida to spend the day together, and those who stayed the night would gather outside to shoot off fireworks after dark.
Those Fourth of July celebrations are some of my favorite summer memories.
It’s finally Friday, but instead of my usual work-from-home Friday, I’ll be at the museum today. I have a tour to give this morning. Normally, I look forward to giving tours, but I’m not particularly looking forward to this one. Part of the reason is that I’m still dealing with a migraine. The other reason is that it’s a long tour. Earlier this week, on Tuesday evening, I gave three tours back-to-back over a two-hour period. Today it’s just one group, but it will still be two hours—an hour in the museum followed by another hour in the basement collections.
The one advantage is that it’s a small group, so I won’t have to project my voice the way I do for larger tours. I can speak in a normal conversational tone, which should make things a little easier. I probably shouldn’t admit this, but I’m also not the biggest fan of the teacher bringing the group. Hopefully, the students will make up for that.
One thing I’ve learned over the years is that when I’m actively giving a tour, I can usually set the migraine aside for a while. Focusing on the visitors, the artifacts, and the stories helps me push through the pain. The downside is that once the tour is over, I usually crash, and the migraine comes back even stronger. If that happens today, I should be able to head home afterward, which is something I’m definitely looking forward to.
I don’t have any real plans for the weekend, and honestly, that sounds perfect. I need the chance to rest and hopefully get this migraine under control. If I’m feeling well enough, I may drive up to Burlington to see Grogu and the Mandalorian, but that will depend entirely on how I’m feeling.
I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. Sunday marks the anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, and there will be Pride celebrations and parades taking place across the country this weekend. If you attend one, have fun, celebrate safely, and take a moment to remember those who came before us—the LGBTQ+ people who were forced to hide who they were, who risked everything to live authentically, and whose courage made it possible for so many of us to celebrate openly today. We owe them a debt of gratitude that should never be forgotten.
I worked late last night giving tours to kids attending a camp on campus this week. It was after 9:00 p.m. by the time I got home, which meant it took me a while to wind down for the night. Even Isabella seemed to notice. She let me sleep a little later than usual this morning, a rare gift from a cat who normally believes that breakfast should be served at precisely the same time every day.
I’d really like to go back to sleep for a while, but I know that’s probably not going to happen. Once I’m awake enough to feed Isabella, my day has effectively begun. She may return to one of her favorite napping spots, but she has made it very clear that I should remain awake and available. Instead of trying to go back to sleep, I’ll make a cup of coffee and something for breakfast before it’s time for me to stop eating and drinking because of the ultrasound.
The good news is that I’m working from home today, even though I’ll be back at the museum tomorrow and again on Friday, which is usually my work-from-home day. Today will only be a half day, though, since this afternoon I’ll make the trip up to Burlington for my biannual liver ultrasound.
Fortunately, my recent bloodwork showed that my liver has remained stable and has not gotten any worse. That’s always encouraging news. Even so, my doctor continues to order an ultrasound every six months to screen for liver cancer or any other signs that my condition may be progressing. It’s one of those appointments I never particularly look forward to, but I’m grateful that we keep a close eye on things. Catching a problem early is always better than discovering it too late.
For now, though, I’m going to enjoy a quiet morning at home, get some work done, and spend a little time with Isabella before heading north. Some days are busy, some days are routine, and some days are simply about being thankful for good test results and another ordinary day.
Some mornings, I sit down to write this blog and know exactly what I want to say. Other mornings, the words come easily because something happened that I want to share. Then there are mornings like today when I stare at the blank screen and realize I don’t really have anything noteworthy to write about.
Maybe that’s not such a bad thing.
Life doesn’t always provide dramatic stories, major milestones, or profound insights. Most of our lives are made up of ordinary days. We get up, feed the cat, drink our coffee, go to work, come home, and do it all again the next day. There is a certain comfort in that routine, even if it doesn’t always make for exciting blog material.
Today will be another day at the museum. There will be emails to answer, projects to work on, and the usual tasks that keep everything moving forward. Isabella will likely remind me several times that her food bowl is not nearly as full as she believes it should be. The migraine I’ve been dealing with is hopefully beginning to ease after yesterday’s Botox appointment, though experience has taught me that patience is often required.
Sometimes, simply making it through an ordinary day is enough.
So, if you’re reading this, I hope your Thursday is a good one. It doesn’t have to be remarkable. It doesn’t have to be productive beyond reason. It just has to be one more day lived, appreciated, and endured when necessary.
And perhaps that’s worth writing about after all.
The museum reopens today. The floor waxing was finished on Friday, and the floors needed the weekend to dry before we could return. After more than a week of working from home, I’ll be heading back into the office this morning.
Unfortunately, I’ve had a migraine since Saturday night. Despite taking all of my rescue medications, it seems to have gotten worse rather than better. At the moment, I’d much rather crawl back into bed than go anywhere. Still, after being away from the museum for over a week, I feel like I should be there when we reopen. I’m going to see how I feel after I’ve been up for an hour or so before deciding whether I need to call in sick.
It’s already shaping up to be a strange week. I have a doctor’s appointment this afternoon, Botox on Wednesday, an audiology appointment Thursday afternoon, and I’ll be working from home on Friday. Sometimes it feels like my calendar has a mind of its own.
One thing I’ve never gotten very good at is calling in sick. Even when I know it’s justified, I always seem to feel guilty about it. Perhaps that’s something I should work on. For now, I’ll finish my coffee, see how the migraine behaves, and make a decision from there.
Have a great Monday, everyone.
It’s Friday, and my work-from-home week is almost over. I’ve enjoyed working from home, though some days are more productive than others. Then again, the same is true at the museum.
One advantage has been that I seem to have had fewer headaches this week. The absence of strong perfumes certainly helps. Another advantage is that I’ve been able to keep a closer eye on Isabella and her asthma. Some days she seems greatly improved, while on other days she doesn’t seem much different than she was before I took her to the veterinarian.
She’s also becoming more difficult to medicate. By the time I’m finished, she’s usually mad as fire at me. Thankfully, she forgives me after about 30 minutes to an hour and stops pouting. When Isabella is pouting, she does one of two things: she either hides or sits somewhere and gives me the death glare.
This morning she woke me at 4:00 a.m., as usual, for breakfast. I fed her and went back to bed. About 45 minutes later, she informed me that returning to sleep was not an option. This actually drives me crazier than being woken up for food. She wants me awake and in the living room, but then she curls up in her corner and goes back to sleep herself, where she’ll likely remain all morning.
Life with a cat. 🙄
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