#had to reschedule my doctors appointment on account of the snow :)

[skxrbrand]

He's somehow found himself in a drinking competition with a gaggle of half-drunk rowdy men. Bets have been placed; prior enemies collapsed on either side of the chipped old table that the bar is cloistered around.

Skarbrand's daemonic essence means mortal alcohol does little for him, if anything at all.

[remembermemorablememories]

Tuesday, January 29, 2019

post #386

main points:

- banana for breakfast

- colorectal surgeon appointment hemorrhoids

- buy hoagie for lunch

- figure out stuff with second broker, decide to work exclusively with them

- japan trip planning

- dentist appointment cleaning

- dinner with the fam

- asia trip planning with dimitri

- fortnite with josh and his friends (we got 3 victory royales o-o)

- smash online with sheena

- solo smash online

writing this on wednesday january 30

today i:

- woke up at 9am to my alarm. i snoozed in bed until maybe 9:30am then went downstairs and grabbed a banana for a small breakfast then went to the colorectal surgeon

- i got there around 10:15am for 10:30am appointment and checked in, made a co-pay. then i was brought in pretty quickly for height/weight, then blood pressure. i had to go to the bathroom for a bowel movement and figured it was probably good to get that done and over with before anything happens with the doctor

after i finished in the bathroom (which was watery small stool), i went back to the room. the nurse told the doctor i was ready and then the doctor came in shortly after. she asked me about my bowel movements, when i first noticed the hemorrhoids, some other basic things. then she said she will examine my bottom

so she called the nurse over to the room to help. they told me to bend over, my knees were on the foot rest of a chair that was able to elevate itself. then they put a towel around my waist and told me to take off my pants. then the doctor first applied some lubricant, then checked manually with her finger. it felt like a kind of pressure but no pain. she then said she was going to use a scope to take a look, which is a bit bigger. so she put some more lubricant and then inserted the scope slowly. it kind of hurt when she twisted it around to take a look, but for the most part it just felt like a lot of pressure and i needed to have another bowel movement. i was tense the first time she put it in to take a look so she told me i need to relax a bit so she could get a better look. then i relaxed taking a bunch of deep breaths and she inserted it a second time to get a better look and then we were done

whew glad that was over with. i put my pants back on and the nurse left the room. the doctor said that the hemorrhoids look really small, and shouldn’t be too much of a problem. i just need to add some fiber to my diet so that my stools are more soft, and to avoid straining on the toilet. she said give it 4-6 weeks with some fiber and see if it goes away. then if not, they’ll do a band ligation procedure. she gave me a small packet with info and then i headed out

i asked her briefly if she would know anything about my potential chest pain, where it hurt to breathe in yesterday, she said that’s probably better asked for my physician

so i headed next door to ask the available appointments, and was directed to call the phone service to schedule an appointment. the first one today was 2:30pm but i had a dentist appointment at 4pm. so i asked when the next one was and they said 8:30am on thursday. i was like eh okay why not (i later canceled it)

drove home and stopped by the pizzeria to get a hoagie + french fry lunch special for my lunch

- i ate half of a cinnamon bun (dad bought some from ikea yesterday) and half of the hoagie with fries + watched S2E16 of scrubs

- watched jtails lucina competitive video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3vWea0npF0

- had a call at 12:30pm with the second broker after i tried to reschedule my showings with her. she told me on the phone that she also has all of the listings that the first broker may offer and would also like to go first cause otherwise there might be holes in our tour. i feel like both of the brokers were telling me that i basically only need one broker. so i decided to go with her since she’s been so responsive and communicative (even though the other broker firm has such a good reputation). i emailed the first broker to let him know that i’ll be working with her instead

- spent some time planning out my japan itinerary. i first figured out which dates i’d be spending where. i’m gonna spend 5 days in tokyo, 2 days in kyoto and 3 days in osaka. but potentially 3 days in kyoto cause i also realized i might actually have 11 days not 10. also talked to sho/asked him for some  suggestions. i just came up with a timeline and started looking into things to actually do there. and pulling up some videos on youtube to see people’s vlogs traveling around there. i still need to book housing, figure out itinerary, and when to fly to taiwan (decide whether to spend 3 or 4 days there)

sheena also came home early, around 3pm. cause all after school activities got cancelled since it started snowing

- around 3:20pm i left the house to drive to the dentist for cleaning. apparently i hadn’t been there in a year and a half. which makes sense cause i did some cleaning in boston the past year. the woman who helped me was new and said she joined in november. she was really nice, i think from her accent she might be from japan? she also reminded/showed me how to floss and brush my teeth cause of my gum inflammation. i wrapped up around 4:45pm and then drove home

the drive home was kind of scary. it was raining earlier on the way to the dentist, and on the way back still raining. but midway through it started to snow. and then started snowing hard... rain + snow is not a good combination. and the front windshield started to fog :O so i had to keep wiping it with my hand to see. and there was also traffic / rush hour so i decided to listen to some planet money podcasts

i listened to #889 pay what you want about panera’s experiment

https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=686660129

and #690 All in about a professional poker tournament

https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2016/03/18/470866146/episode-690-all-in

interesting stuff! haven’t listened to a podcast in a long long while

- came home and played smash doubles online with sheena for a bit. then went downstairs to eat dinner with the fam around 6:30pm. mom got back from work just as i came out of the bathroom. sheena started chem so we talked a bit about chem at dinner and other stuff, a wholesome time :D 

- went back upstairs around 7:30pm to hop on a call with dimitri. we figured out HK and beijing housing and then we were done. we just need to plan some itineraries for the locations and we’re good. dimitri also added me to a group chat with cae simon and sam cause they’re planning to go to greece in august!! dimitri and i just kind of hung out on the call afterwards. i started patching smash cause pirahna plant was just released with v2.0. but then tried to play online and it said the servers were under maintenance until 10:30pm :( we hung up around 9pm. i wasn’t sure what to do so i decided to play some botw. i haven’t touched it since 11/22/18 according to my last save file

i played for maybe 15 minutes and then sheena came in asking if we could play online and i told her about the servers being down :’( she was like darn. cause she’s free for once cause it’s the start of the new marking period. we decided to mess around with pirahna plant locally against each other

josh messaged me on disc saying they have room for one more in fortnite squads if i wanna join. i was like ooh yeah. i told sheena i’m gonna play fortnite until 10:30pm so then we can play online

so i played fortnite with them around 9:30pm. it was a solid squad, it was josh with two of his friends. the second game we already won a victory royale LOL. i only got 1 kill though and was basically carried. but the very next game we started at tilted, and i got 4 kills and we won victory royale again. then a few games later, we won a third time :D and they called it a night and we stopped

also while this was happening, around 10:30pm i told sheena our squad was on a roll so i said she could play online solo if she wanted. so she played in my room while i was playing fortnite with them. sheena was having fun/also a bit of gamer rage :p also i asked jwoos to switch my online back to my old account. cause 1.) i thought i needed my old account cause i paid for pirahna plant on there (this turned out to be untrue). 2.) i was done experimenting to see if i was good enough to get into elite smash cause i thought win-loss ratio matters (but it doesn’t). so now i’m back on my old account with all my frens on switch :’) 

i signed off fortnite around 11:30pm, then played some doubles with sheena until 12:30am. then sheena went to sleep

i should’ve just gone to sleep buuut i wanted to play snake on the old account to get him to elite smash and got him there around 2:15am. took a shower and then went to sleep

the end

whew what a long day

[janiklandre-blog]

Thursday, March 16, 2017

9:40 a.m. very cold   Ken, oh Ken, why did you have to die - once again I'm struggling with this here weird computer - used by the Chinese for their loud movies - I want to get the Asus - it could be ordered on line if we could figure out which model I need - but then it still has to be programmed and I have no one - this get so complicated -

Plaint number one for the day. Plaint number two - roads for cars in perfect condition - I ventured on Third Avenue to 8th Street - good condition - on 8th street an area untouched, later on Second Avenue where the explosion was, half a block untouched, street crossings treacherous - while the cars are happily zooming along

Plaint number three - not a soul to talk to in the morning. I wake up, get up in an empty apartment - and yes, there are lots of peole with house mates they detest who would envy my privacy - still it is a lot more natural to share living space with some one you can talk to. Sometimes talk on my way out to Security (many women stop there at length and pour their hearts out - not very fair to Gloria who has been there since midnight at minimum wage and now may lose the job because management has decided to change agencies - and we have to deal with nothing but new faces) - anyway, Gloria was on her phone. Then I sometimes these days talk a bit to the woman at Moishe's bakery - her family came from the former Yougoslavia - she knows nothing at all about the history of the country, not even where her family came from, she does not talk to her mother, has raised two daughters as a single mother and lives on Lake Hopatcong in New Jersey, a 40 minute drive - and she says, she does not sleep. Sometimes she enjoys me telling her a bit about the country where she was born - but now she has taken to video games.

And this here my house is weird. I think there are ten apartments on my floor - many now occupied by Chinese - one woman doing her exercise walking up and down the hall and telling me long stories in Chinese - I've never been in any one's apartment - have exchanged a few words with a couple of women who I believe are 100 years old - in great shape - zero interest in talking. By now I have talked to half a dozen others - they all hate each other - and I have little to say to them. Yes, this here noisy, overheated apartment has allowed me to stay in Manhattan - now surrounded by people who happily pay $3000 for a strudio - no idea how they all make this kind of money - and so aware of the 3000 people closed waiting list for an apartment in my house - alas, you have to be Chinese to get in - still - most of the half dozen women with whom I exchange a few words call the house a prison and complaints galore - and I must admit, I too, am beginning to feel a yearning for more "normalcy".

There are in New York those normally occuring old age settings - where people moved at a young age into one of the few houses with a decent land lord - best a land lord who also lives in the house - their rents are rent controlled or stabilized - affordable - and they have become friends over the many years, raised kids together - on my block here there is a lovely woman, with a lovely husband - I believe it was her father in law who bought the house when these houses went for the proverbial peanuts, and this here was a high crime area - he was a lawyer and started an organization GOLES Good Old Lower East Side - it still exists - and when he was till alive three generations lived in the house - now his son and daughter in law and a son of their's and his family, lovely young kids - enough room - separate apartments - for everybody and these houses also in their court yards have large gardens - yes, in theory - when Robert an I got married in 1956 we easily could have bought such a house - but instead lived the unwise life that we lived - Robert died, I am still around living in this here government supported housing and our sons fled the city.

The people in Manhattan living in ideal situations are more the exception than the rule. Even on these icy days I find them hovering in corners on the street - countless have fled Manhattan - and of course with Trump who knows what the government will be up to and silently I am counting my days here - already very nostalgic for the city where I've spent close to 60 of my soon 85 years - I do know I would miss the city terribly. Still - I have to be prepared - giving the matter some thought - did not pick up the applications for similar housing in the area where my sons live - tell others "keep dreaming" - while I still am dreaming of conditions of my dreams.

One of my files somewhere in the external drive is called "Laments" - over the years I've gathered a lot of laments. Laments, laments.

In the meantime - yesterday - I did enjoy writing this here blog - appreciated by some, less appreciated by others who tell me they put their laments, plaints, thoughts into private journals that they plan to burn - of course Kafka famously asked for his works to be burned but you better do it yourself, while alive.. I, as one of the great believers in our subconsciousness - thanks to Freud - do see the subconscious around me at work everywhere - and while I am unlikely to see these journals published - I think there is a good chance they will be. I at this point picture most of my still extant writing in a dumpster - with the very unlikely chance of someone climbing into it and finding a treasure trove. So, I am sending this here out happy for the readers it finds - happy for those with the time and inclination for a comment - letting me know they read some of what I wrote - and even found it amusing!

The sun is shining - if only the streets were not so forbidding. Yesterday I ventured out - one of my many medical obligations these days was to get my doctor to certify I am in good health for the upcoming cataract op - she is wonderfully available and I also told her - called and was told come - decided on the bus 103 on block up and stopping outside her office - alas - it rarely comes. I stayed in the street - no way of climbing over the mountain of snow, leaned against a cop car, an SUV - two women cops came - and offered to give me a ride! Does happen more and more often. Came to the doctor's office, no wait, she quickly checked off how healthy I am (other than the dysfunctional gait) - my blood pressure thanks to the pills I believe cost me my teeth fine - and - my heart spiking less than it used to. She had wanted me to see a cardiologist which I never did - some things still seem to repair themselves. We had a nice chat, in 15 minutes I was out, crossed the avenue, a bus came - and in less than an hour I was back to the apartment I am treasuring now in view that I could lose it.

Have a little espresso gizmo for one shot, sweeten it with Irish cream liqueur - eat a couple of cookies and fall fast asleep for an afternoon nap (alas not always) - make a pleasant call, eat some cold cereal with half and half for dinner (not the veggies I do love but only rarely cook and rarely find in the countless restaurants surrounding me - like creamed spinach, that I love - have had a package of chopped spinach in the freezer for a long time - can't quite figure out how to make it tasty) - then my friend came, got her to listen to some of my grievances, not easy, then we watched a Dutch movie Antonia - sweet. The back to the land scenario many of us in the 60's persued - only a few found. I later visited The Farm in Tennessee and have read accounts - of the large numbers who headed there - Stephen W. whom I often mention among them, he took me there in 1988 - a tiny handful have stayed. I also did read tales of horror of farm life in Bavaria - where my father's mother originated - this totally traceless woman today. I know the farm was near Passau, where Hitler was born - but I don't know the name of the village and not the name of a single relative. That farm life was very far from idyllic - my young grandmother headed for Munich, became a waitress and pregnant from my grandfather, the rich dandy from Amsterdam, whose Calvinist mother made him marry her. Also a tale. It's 11. There is the NYT to read. I've cancelled three medical appointments - said I was out of town - tomorrow the optometrist wanted to check if the eye drops I've been clumsily using had any effect - he already wanted me to come last Friday, after he had seen me on Tuesday - and by the way, my doctor yesterday suggested I go for free standard lenses - she says hardly any difference, he only makes a lot more money out of the special ones - in Africa she said they use lenses that cost 3 or 4 dollares - compared to the $1200 for the special ones. Also from Weill Cornell I got a copay bill for $93 - the doctor asserting the neuropathy I already had been told I have - now I wonder how much copay there is on the physiotherapy sessions in unpleasant cramped quarters and I don't do those exercises - hope walking that I enjoy will do some good.

In one phone call a friend told me about her friend who falls each time she goes for physiotherapy - this is in Great Barrington - then doctors call for MRI's, cat scans - of course the nyc doctors pay these sky high rents - my optometrist at 25 Fifth Avenue has two offices across the hall from each other - he must pay a fortune and of course wants to see me as often as he can and charge medicare maximum and me a copay - it all is such a sad racket - but I got to get these cataracts fixed if I want to continue driving, also it will be nice to recognize people in the street again.

Probably I should reschedule with him for next Friday, I don't want to make him angry at me. Tomorrow I hope Molly will come.

I'll venture out at noon today - but more extensive walks risk slipping on ice - and - that can be an unpleasant end - so I may stay at home. There are many things I could do - clean, put some order into much disorder - go through so much of my writing I never read - and on and on - still, I prefer going out.  I can go on the roof for some sun. May do that. Adios, Marianne