ARCHIVE: Today

*** This entry was originally posted to LiveJournal June 5, 2008 ***


So let's see . . . what's going on with me these days?

My daughter is in California with her mom and the guys from the cabaret where her mom works. I'm sure they're having a good time. They're due back next Tuesday.

I FINALLY have the new siding and gutters on my house! More than two years after the storm that caused the hail damage, the repair is finally done. I think this should about cover it now. It took me about a year to file the claim, because I hadn't really noticed the damage. But when every other house on my street got a new roof, I figured I'd better have mine checked out too. The roof got replaced right away; that was no problem. The siding has taken until now because only one side of the house was damaged, and they don't make my siding anymore. The insurance company didn't want to pay to replace the siding on the whole house when only one side was damaged, and the contractor had no way to match the new siding for the damaged side to the rest of the house. At long last, a new adjuster came on the claim and he agreed to re-side the whole house. So this past weekend, it got done. My new siding is a grayish green. I rather like it. I took before and after photos, and I'm sure I'll soon be posting those in one or more locations online. When the storms came through last Friday night, I just kept telling the storm that it could do what it liked with my siding--since it was about to be replaced anyway--but that I really wanted it to leave my roof alone. I never got any hail at my house, so I think everything's fine.

I haven't done very well with my eating this week, and I haven't exactly been a regular at the gym, either. That's not such a good combination. I'm right at the spot at which my daily allowance has dropped another point, and while that's really a pretty miniscule difference I think I flip out a little psychologically at the thought of having even less to work with on my program. Oh well. Each day is an opportunity to make new choices, right? And I have until my official weigh-in Monday morning to rescue this week and keep it moving in the correct direction. And if I don't do that this week, then I'll do it next week. I know there will be ups and downs and I'm pretty accepting of that. I just want to keep the overall project on track, and I don't want to undo too much of my hard-won progress.

I am in the process of weaning myself off of Wellbutrin, the anti-depressant I've taken for a long time now. I've been on half-dose pills for a week. I have one more week of that, and then I'll start taking one of these every other day for two more weeks, and then I'll be done--assuming all goes well. When I was still prone to major depressive episodes the pills didn't stop them--they just kept them from getting too low and too hard to climb out of. And I haven't had a major depressive episode in quite a while, so to me that reinforces how well I'm doing with all my other coping mechanisms that I have in place now (and that I didn't have when I started on the pills). For a long time now the biggest reason I haven't stopped yet is not so much about the depression as it has been about the irritability that comes over me when I've gone without the medication. I'm hoping the slow weaning down will help with that. I did find myself feeling pretty irritable this morning, but that may well be from the crappy sleep I got last night and the slow start I got this morning. I'll keep an eye on it. And some amount of irritability may just be par for the course while my body adjusts to going off the medicine. I just hope I don't alienate people along the way. Again, I'll watch it and I have others who've said they'll help me watch it. Depending on how it goes, I'm open to going back on the medicine if I really need to. I'd just rather not.

It took me until the night before it closed, but I finally saw Iron Man. I loved it. I thought everyone involved did a really good job with it. I even liked Gwyneth Paltrow, and that takes some doing. If they do attempt an Avengers movie, my friend Ryan thinks Matt Damon should play Captain America and Karl Urban should play Thor. I can only agree. Meanwhile, though, next up in the it's-good-to-be-a-geek summer: The Incredible Hulk and The Dark Knight. I am particularly chomping at the bit for the latter.

Tonight Catherine and I are having dinner with some friends, and possibly her mom. I'm really looking forward to that. These are great friends, and I haven't even seen Catherine since Sunday.

Then on Saturday is the Vintage Indiana Food & Wine Festival. If the weather holds, that'll be a great time.

I've decided I'd really, really like to do a production of Becket, by Jean Anouilh. I'd like to work on it with <lj user="mr_antrobus">. It doesn't have to be right away, but I want it to happen someday--and relatively soon is good. Now to find a director and a venue . . . .  :-)

It's looking like 2008 may be The Year of Love, at least in my circles. It seems like a number of people around me are finding fulfilling relationships (sometimes at long last), or at least growing in that direction. And, of course, my relationship with Catherine just continues to deepen and to get more wonderful. So this is good--I like to see people I care about growing toward and/or finding real, lasting love. Warms the cockles of me 'eart, it does.

That about does it for the moment, I think. Love to all--I'm sending it to you from me and hoping that it floods outward from you and permeates your whole life.