[Current Mood | unbothered era ]

Hello, world. It’s another morning. We’re up, and it’s still dark. Shawshank had a bad sleep last night and was up early. I woke up to a cat poking me in the face. I ignored him, because I figured it was too early to deal with the shenanigans if he knew I was awake. After a few more pokes, and some biscuits on my pillow, Podrick moved down to the space between Shawshank and I and curled up for a little while. I fell asleep again; Shawshank found both cats on the couch when he got up.

Yesterday was a long day, but a very good day. We got up early, packed some water bottles and a Pepsi so I could have some caffeine, and made a long drive to a city I’ve never been to before. It was an absolutely gorgeous drive, with no clouds and barely any breeze. One pit stop and two hours later, we were in a place big enough for both a Walmart and a McDonald’s, armed with a list of places to go.

The first destination was the entire reason for the drive: a quilting shop. We walked around while Shawshank‘s mom put in an order for a new sewing machine. I was tempted to buy a ribbon skirt kit but couldn’t bring myself to drop $50 on one, since none of them had colors I really wanted. On top of that, I’m terrified of being called a fucking colonizer. Instead, I bought some thread for my barely started embroidery project.

We left the sewing shop, reset the GPS, and drove down the street to a thrift shop. There, we scored a bowl to add to our Pyrex collection – I’ve never seen this one, but it’s now my favorite pattern – plus some stuff we actually needed. After a quick lunch at McDonald’s, Shawshank drove us to the place where our household could drop a bunch of money:

Walmart.

We headed to the electronics department, and he bought us a Switch 2. We didn’t grab any games; as it stands, nearly everything we have is digital and I didn’t see any S2-specific stuff I absolutely wanted. “Baldur’s Gate 3” isn’t available on the console, and while “Elden Ring” looks fabulous, it also looks hard, and I don’t want to be frustrated by my entertainment. The only thing that looks interesting to me is “Cyberpunk 2077” … but we don’t need it yet.

We walked around for a while, grabbing some bulk stuff we couldn’t find in Slightly BiggerTown or TinyTown, then headed back home. We pulled into town in the late afternoon. Shawshank‘s mom unloaded her stuff and took a nap. It was that kind of day.

Shawshank is back to work today, another mid-shift. I’m going to wash my hair, and check out the remaster of “Witcher 3” that downloaded last night.

[Current Mood | drained ]

Hello, world. I’m myself again. I’m up, feeling as human as I ever do. After I made yesterday’s post, I stood under a hot shower, then went back to bed. The last time I had the mystery-sick, I figured out I can sleep through what I call “the cycling”- when my body rapidly shifts between sweating like crazy and then freezing. Sleeping through it all means I’m not “fighting” my symptoms and making myself feel worse. Shawshank had helpfully set my pillows up in the center of the bed, I popped a Gravol, and slept. I woke up a little later to repeat the sick-shower-Gravol-sleep process, sleeping through most of yesterday morning.

Today, we’re going on a road trip.

[Current Mood | weird ]

Hello, world. It’s a dark morning, and I’m not well today. I’m feeling off, and off can/will very quickly turn into an episode. It’s only a matter of time before I fill myself with Gravol and retreat to the bedroom.

This is my own damned fault, I fucking knew I wasn’t hydrating enough this week.

[Current Mood | grumpy ]

Good morning, world. I’m up, because Podrick wouldn’t let me sleep. He wanted me to snuggle him, and I did. Any time he came up on the bed, he lumbered up my chest for a cuddle. However, when he wasn’t on the bed with me, he was interested in only one thing: EMPTY ALL THE THINGS. He pulled everything out of my milk crate of streaming gear. One of my dresser drawers was open just enough for him to snag things out of there. He fucked with a tripod he found, he pulled all the plush chicken tendies out of my basket of “emotional support nuggets”. I did not need that sort of shit at 6am.

Shawshank and I spent yesterday doing stuff. I redid my landing page for all my smutty shit. I smoked a bunch and made the robot overlords write several paragraphs of bullshit that sounds like it’s straight out of LinkedIn. Shawshank handled laundry and played Tropico all afternoon. After dinner, we revived a Halloween tradition and watched the Rocky Horror Picture Show. It’s been a few years, because we only have it on an old DVD and haven’t had a DVD player in over a decade.

Today is fucking gray. Shawshank has the opening shift today, and won’t be home until around lunch time. Once he’s home, we’re heading out to Slightly BiggerTown for groceries.

[Current Mood | unbothered era ]

Hello, world. The sun was short lived, and we’re back to grey skies once more. Grey everything, actually, it’s foggy as fuck out there. The cats have been fed, and we’re caffeinating ourselves.

Last night was another night of stream experimentation, this time with the iPad. After a bunch of arranging and rearranging, I eventually settled on a setup that worked. It’s not much different than the original layout, honestly. I had planned to put the iPad on the little table beside the bean, but it’s just a little bit too much off to the side. I moved my drinks to the table, and sat the Dell and the iPad next to each other on my improvised desk. With the two big screens and a phone to broadcast from, the whole setup looks ridiculous and overly complicated. Since I don’t need to watch chat on the Dell, I put OBS in full screen, and made the preview as big as possible. I watched the chat, messaged Shawshank now and then, and played music on the iPad. By the time I was ready for dinner, I’d met a goal for the night.

I logged out and mostly did nothing for the rest of the time until Shawshank came home. I spend the entirety of my streams talking, so it’s not unheard of for me to just sit in the quiet house after I log out. Shawshank came home, and we watched some wrestling before bed.

But…. today starts my week of “vacation”. There’s true crime on the TV, a load of laundry running, and we’re not doing anything crazy today.