In this life…
APR 18, 2024
Hello there wonderful friends. ❤
A good update today, and some positive news… I want to report that I’m feeling a lot better. I think a lot has to do with the fact I established a good support system that I was starting to lack. Well, it’s not so much as lacking it, as it was, I wasn’t utilizing my tools in my mental health toolbox and I decided, well, hey let’s try this! It’s not like this stuff hasn’t worked before, but I knew I needed to establish some good healthy habits that I wasn’t keeping up because—well, I’m not really sure. I guess my depression over Hope was starting to seep in a little bit too deeply. But oh mi gosh—cats really do have 9 lives.
To be honest, I thought when Hope went through what she did when she was discovered in Philly, North Philly to be exact… she was found in a detrimental state. Anyways I thought that would have used all her lives so to speak or something to that effect. But it didn’t and deep breath, she is doing so much better. I’m so happy about it, I’m almost euphoric.
But it’s not so much major ups and downs with my bipolar disorder here, as a reader has asked me about in the past. At least I hope not and if it was it’s manageable. I did have my mood stabilizer (Tegretol XR or Carbamazepine XR (the XR is for Extended Release) if you’re looking for it in generic form) levels checked and I’m sitting right in the middle so I’m all good there. It’s just, it’s hard when I get into a FUNK as my grief counselor mentioned today. I struggle to get out of it sometimes and I begin to dwell. I also think Mounjaro may have been doing a little bit of it too but that side effect has since subsided, although I do expect the anxiety. ANXIETY! UGH. That’s a whole other beast that rears its ugly head and has it’s own methods to treat it, but my goodness, I’m glad for spring and to be feeling a lot better.
I’m really beat right now if I’m being completely honest. I worked out hard this morning after finishing a book, and I worked yesterday. I’m really excited to be reading so much again in my “spare” time or what I’m actually doing is making the time for it. I don’t watch much TV but I do watch a lot of sports games. Not only Phillies but yeah, the Flyers season just ended but a lot of playoff hockey is upon us and that’s the best type of hockey to watch! It gets so exciting I guess in any sport when the playoffs roll around and here, they are, and unfortunately the Flyers had too many things that had to happen, including winning their very last game… but man, did they make it exciting at the end of the season. They lost 8 games and if they had just won 2 or 3 of them, they would have been in the freaking playoffs. Kind of frustrating as a fan but at the same time this is a rebuilding year or WAS a rebuilding year and no one expected it to be as fun or as WILD a ride as it ended up being and I’m grateful that we had a good season, and it was FUN again. Clap Clap Clap.
Anyways, it IS spring and it’s here (although somedays the weather is still kind of crappy and awful. A little cold and damp and just cloudy but we have those bright and sunny days too and then the warmth! Love it. Wish it could stay about 70 degrees and sunny for a month and rain during the night or something—wouldn’t that be perfection?) … and my little azalea bush is getting blossoms on it. I’m so excited about it and totally am geeking out on this. It’s kind of great because it’s my first year with it planted and it is finally blossoming! Patrick (Brian’s brother) planted it for us last year at my request. I would love for him to plant a rose bush somewhere at my Dad’s house, I think it would be lovely but my Dad (and my mother, actually my mother especially) have had so many issues getting flowers and plants to stay alive. Something is up with that soil… I don’t have enough of a yard to plant much but I do plan on getting some flowers in pots this year and also I want to grow grape or cherry tomatoes as well. I’ll try to plant them.
So, in other news… we saw Hadestown! (2nd time for Brian and I—yes, they sang it again!) We saw it in Philly this past Friday night and during the show, not a dry eye in that audience. The role of Eurydice was played by a different “hungry young girl” who I heard from one audience member as being so good and different because she was “wild”… I agreed. I must. This show was even better than the last time we saw it in Philly. I really need to see it in NYC and I plan to within the next year because that ish ain’t going anywhere anytime soon. I love it even more than Phantom of the Opera, which is tough to beat for me, because I geeked out years ago on the part of Christine in that show. Persephone is my favorite in this show and I truly adored the woman who plays that role. (Ani DiFranco plays the role in the NYC production of it on Broadway right now but only through til June. Maybe they will extend it though! Would that not be great?!? ) Oh I’m showing my geeky side and I’m loving every minute of it… hope you do too. LOL. If you have a chance to see it, I highly recommend it above any other show.
I also went down the shore for a couple of days. Mostly to get away for a couple of days and to focus on some writing. More was done, of course, and I’m super proud of how far this memoir has gone. I also have news in this department: I’m going to be working on another WIP (Work in Progress)… I’m giving myself a year to get as much as I can out of it then I’ll decide about publishing. I did hear from one of my publishing options this week, so I’ll be giving out some type of news on that in an upcoming newsletter. =))
WHAT I AM READING: I did not like that last book I read called “Expiration Dates” by Rebecca Serle. It just made me kind of cringe. The characters were so underdeveloped and just the storyline had a good premise, I guess, but it was just like I said, kind of cringe worthy. (STACE—there’s another one! LOL)… then I read a really amazing book called “Memory Piece” by Lisa Ko. OMG so good! SO GOOD. I was happily satisfied as I had been anticipating this book for a little while. I knew this book was going to be good for some reason, I guess because the author has won awards for her writing and GOOD awards too if I’m being snotty and a bit of a writing snob, which I will be when I want to be. But yeah, it focused on these women that all knew each other, Asian women, and they all lived different types of lives. The book was written way into the future and it was ALL THE PARTS of PROLIFIC. HOLY SHIT. The way technology is perceived and headed, you won’t want to put this book down, you’ll want to know what happened and see where all this leads.
Then, I read “The Wife Between Us” by Sarah Pekkanen and Greer Hendricks and it’s actually my 2nd read by them and it kept me on the edge of my seat turning page after page quickly. It moved super fast for all 462 pages; I read in 2 days. Just yet another excellent book.
So last night I watched an Author talk with Xochitl Gonzalez (yes, that is spelled correctly) and it was about her new release “Anita De Monte Laughs Last” and that’s going to be read next! Third book of the week yet again. I’ll squeeze it in of course between other activities and I’m working on Saturday… I must get a car oil change tomorrow and was thinking about asking my boss to pick me up so we could work a few hours because his office is nearby. And we don’t have much of a busy weekend this weekend. I was considering going to the Phillies game on Sunday for the Phanatic Birthday but a girl on Twitter (X) reminded me that there will be lots of KIDS there and they all scream and cry and it’s no fun with that on Sundays, plus, I checked the weather and it said it’s going to be kind of cold? So, I decided against that. I was going to pickup Standing Room Only tickets because I love just walking around the ballpark (the times have changed from me being close to 300 pounds and barely able to walk to my seat—thank goodness, pat on the back to me (or was it prescription weight loss, lol) and finding a place to sit and chill in Ashburn Alley if I need to. But, again, it’s going to be cold, and I don’t want to deal with that to be honest. That’s the deciding factor. We are going June 21st to the Phillies game for Cole Hamels retirement night. I’m glad I’ll be there for that as he was my FAVORITE player ever. I’m sure we will be there sometime in May. Our 2nd wedding anniversary is coming up May 14! We have a night out planned and I’m super excited for it that weekend!
As always, thanks for reading my newsletter… and I hope you enjoy my writings and musings. I hope you all have a great rest of your week and a wonderful weekend ahead!
-xoxo-
Me0w Mix 
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