Reaching Out

Thursday swimming was one of those annoying days when I had to share my lane, and of course as I finished, the pool was emptying.

More fascinating was, there was a dude in the lane over who was like, super hardcore and all? When he got out, the guy I shared my lane with moved over, and then a woman came in and share my lane. And the hardcore swimmer dude just kinda hung off to the side. I wasn't paying too much attention, and I noticed a striking smell of soap, and was like ??? And at first I thought it was the woman next to me, since the smell started only when she came in.

But later I looked off to the side, and saw the first dude had wrapped his towel around himself, and I was like "... why is he still here??" and realized he was actually changing! Which means the soap smell was him having an actual SHOWER in the poolside shower?? With his swim trunks on. And I watched in horrified fascination as I kept coming up for air as he put on his clothes and shoes, and finally left with all his crap (there was a LOT so given the tiny locker sizes I guess I understand?) and I'm still pretty O_O about the whole thing.

*

I worked from home Thursday! This mostly meant a lot of reading. I printed off 100 pages of a manuscript, and there was a printout of a whole novel. This means I got to nap in the afternoon, and even attempted some reading and writing in the evening, and it was so much easier to do that when I'm not tired from my commute?? Who knew?

I AM worried about the necessity of naps in the afternoons. It's not that it makes me sleep less in the nights; in fact, I go to bed earlier when I nap in the afternoons, like my body remembers it should go to sleep at a reasonable time if I've had sleep during the day.

*

Yesterday I needed to go to the post office (and of course the one closest to me is closed), and decided to try one of the Lime Scooters.

I found it quite difficult to adjust the speed I really wanted.
It was not clear to me where I needed to be?
I walked it here and there anyway in front of cars.
There were crosswalks where I slowed down, and was worried that if I went too fast, I wouldn't be able to see a car coming and slow down appropriately.
My arms hurt >:{

Also it cost me $7 for 3.3km / 45 minutes!!! I paused every so often, so maybe that was the problem? STILL, I could have just used that money for a freaking Lyft. Or just walked. Definitely walking would have been better, considering that being on the scooter did't even count towards Pokemon Go.

*

Today Fran and I hit up the Embarcadero for Pokemon Go's Feebas research. We did maybe 25 - 30 research quests? She got a Shiny early, but I got a 100% IV one.

We left downtown around 1pm to miss the Women's March mess, and headed up to the gym near my workplace where I got an Ex Raid invite. Did that, and with 15 minutes to spare we walked around trying to make the most of the Feebas research. I got my Shiny with those 15 minutes left to spare! Then I got a second 100% IV Feebas! So, I'm pretty satisfied with today.

We went to Udupi Palace. Claire forgot about the Women's March and her Lyft got her in late. Maurisa also forgot about the Women's March and was at the BCAF Youth Day, and she and Eric were trapped in traffic for almost one and a half hours past our original meeting time.

I have thus come to the conclusion that most of my friends are just going to need earlier meetup times if I want them on time, haha.

But we had a great time anyway; I haven't seen Eric since before I moved out, and while we didn't get to catch up as much as I hoped, we did still get to chat, and we'll hang out again tomorrow. We went to have dessert at Dandelion Chocolate before heading home. I am sure I have totally ruined any weight loss progress I have made in the last week.

I'm very tired now and tried to wind down but now I realize I should have packed my swimming gear earlier and slept earlier to get to the gym by 8am. Hopefully I can still do that!

I'm gonna have to be serious about cutting sugars out of my diet here on out. I got a box of cookies from the grocery store that I normally love, and something in me snapped and I went whole hog on them, which meant I felt like complete shit the whole day, physically, a perpetual sugar crash. I have been avoiding those cookies for some time now, but I think it's going to have to be more stringent.

To get rid of them I took them with me to the UCR Pokemon Go Community Day and after a couple of rounds, they were gone, which made me pretty happy.

I think garbage eating and lack of hydration has been doing me in lately, especially when I was in San Francisco and spending most of my day outside without a water bottle. I need to be more vigilant about this. I'm also thinking of consuming more hot green tea.

To soothe myself, I might indulge more in cakes from Uncle Chang's, and other Chinese places, because the sugar isn't as intense.

I also bought, alongside cornflakes, some grape-nut flakes from Post. The fiber content appears to be pretty high, so that might be a good thing to mix in with the cornflakes, instead of the Special K stuff I usually get (which, while delicious, is also really sweet... I guess I really am getting tired of everyday sugars). The grape-nut flakes look... kind of disgusting, honestly? They remind me of, uh, cockroach wings. But they don't taste like despair, and mixed with the corn flakes they're pretty bearable, so I might try to do this for a while to see how my body likes it.

This shift in my diet kind of depresses me, but cutting out sugars for reals will, I think, be for the best. I'm gonna try drinking more green tea to see if I get any kind of intense caffeine crash comparable to the sugar crash, but I don't think it's the case, so I guess I'll just have to be more of a tea aficionado.

yeah that is kind of how I spent the bulk of my day: playing Samurai Love Ballad Party a LOT. I also made a wee bit of progress on the Mean Girls story on Episode but.... I'm sort of... annoyed by it? Like I get people make a lot of dumb decisions as teens? But it feels, idk, unreal? There's a lot of manufactured drama which is deeply unpleasant to read through, and it makes me feel like an old curmudgeon.

After lunch I went out to try my new Go-tcha! I walked to campus, hatched an egg by the time I got there. Then I took out a Zagster bike and cycled around campus a couple of times putting my Gotcha to auto-spin, which worked out really well! I'm back to 1==+ Pokeballs from only 30. Tomorrow I'll do the same, but I'll also put it on auto-catch (I'd turned off the catch option because I wanted to focus on the Pokestops). There's a similar kind of lag between when I pass a stop or Pokemon and when I feel the Gotcha vibrating like there is for the Plus, but the auto function helps a lot so I don't get the extra lag of having to press the damn button. (This is apparently not an issue with iPhone Plus users, apparently.) I'll probably still use the Plus for walks, but the Gotcha might get me to add cycling to my exercise routine. My knees were really wobbly when I got home though, like, ow. I feel that this should not be the case. Might be the bike, might just be me. I... definitely could not make it up a certain hill that I walk up all the time.

I also started reading Courtney Milan's novella collection-- I'd read the first one already and it was really really good (recognized some of it from an article on the romance novel genre and its tenuous relationship with implied consent and how romance novellists are boldly trying to figure out ways of creating consensual situations; I forget where that article is though, will try to find to post later). I'm really enjoying the collection a lot! And enjoying novellas generally. I feel like I'm not being asked to invest a ton in the book which makes getting to the end and re-reading sections more pleasurable. And also because Courtney Milan is a really funny writer.

Roomie and I went out to dinner at a new Chinese restaurant which apparently has dim sum in the mornings! It's OK, overall. It's kinda far so probably not a thing we would go to often but I really want to try the dim sum sometime because the offerings look properly good. Also we don't have a decent dim sum place in Riverside. This place, on the other hand, looks like it has a Very Large Kitchen, which means they probably cook their own stuff?? I'm pretty excited tbh.

Aviya needs a hat for her steampunk outfit that she's wearing to LosCon so I got down my hat box to take pictures of what I've got to potentially let her wear.

This also means access to my MALTESERS BUCKET so, uh, I kinda went to town on it, again. I will put it back up though!!! I've been very good and not touched it in the three weeks since I left it up there!

Sigh. I wish I had more self-control.

Man I need to get to bed earlier tonight. I went to bed last night at 2, woke up at 10am, which is enough sleep, but by the time I got going, it was afternoon, blergh.

I took a Lyft over to Cellar Door Books, and picked up some books. Linda, the owner, asked me for help getting Latin@ YA and I was like "UH" and had to rack my brain for some names, and asked Twitter. Went to KFC to have lunch, and remembered about WNDB's resources, so I went back to the bookstore.

Anyway, because I was so helpful, Linda told me I was welcome to any of the ARCs in the back room, so I went round the back, and picked up Justina Ireland's Dread Nation, which I'm pretty excited about.

I walked to campus to pick up some more books and clear out my mailbox. Vonnie and I spoke a little--I guess the weight loss is SUPER visible to some people. IDK, I think I look mostly the same.

Walked home with my tea set and water filter, and tomorrow I'll grab the kettle, and then have to figure out how I'm bringing home the posters.

I went to swim later than usual--5pm. Did 4 sets of 6 again, and it got cold again, so I sat in the hot tub again. IDK, I'm not a fan of it. I bought a swim cap and new goggles last night and wish I'd thought about it sooner. I should have also bought a lap counter, too, now that I think of it. But as September rolls in, it will probably get colder? So I'll be at the pool less, probably. I'm gonna see if I can push my laps up to 30 before fall officially gets here, because that would be nice as a personal best. Then I gotta figure out what to do next.

I went to MacDonald's again tonight, this time with a coupon for a Happy Meal. I actually liked it! Four nuggets, half a small fries (SO SMOL!), a chocolate milk, a thing of yogurt (yogurt!!!) and I was actually quite full after. I think that might have been the combo of the yogurt and the milk. I had tummy issues after, which I'll chalk up to the milk, so next time I'll get it with the small orange juice and see how my stomach plays with that, and hopefully it's not the yogurt.

I was thinking of walking to campus to put away some books I'd strewn across a table which was not mine, because Brittany has office hours tomorrow (I think?) so I really shouldn't have all that stuff there. But I thought I'd go home and try to get some sleep early instead, and try waking up earlier.

There are still some citations that I can't seem to find page number for, and the footnotes are going to be messy until the final round because I cannot be arsed to fix it when I know I'm going to have to do it AGAIN after the next round of edits. I re-read the conclusion and it was not as rubbishy as I thought, so I fixed it up some more. I got through re-reading and editing the fourth chapter too, and hopefully it won't need to many edits. (Splitting it off to make it my next book project will probably be the thing, anyway.) Dr. ML says she'll get it back to me on Monday, so that's half a week I've got to take a break and do OTHER things besides my dissertation.

Then I went to campus and cleaned up my desk a bit, and pulled down my posters. I brought home some books, sorted some papers. There's a small thing of stationery I'll take to the big TA office. I should have my office cleared out by the weekend.

I've been eating sandwiches for lunch: sourdough bread, with spreadable ham and some cheese. It's been really nice! The grill is working great even though it's broken and I have to hold it together with an elastic headband. Still have some lasagna left, but the other night I had some shallow-fried fish, and that was nice.

I went for a walk tonight, and for a couple of stretches I jogged a bit. I didn't stretch beforehand, which I think may have made the jogs a bad idea. I'm trying to see if I can get this usual 5k walk down to 1 hour from the 1 and a half hours. It just takes so long! I did forget that jogging/running makes me sweat like my forehead is leaking all over my face and I should have worn a headband. Next time *shakes fist* IIRC I also used to run with a towel, too, especially when running in Malaysia. (I don't recall having to do that in Halifax.) I wasn't as winded for the brief spurts I did do, though, so that's something, I think.

Maybe I'll ask someone if they want to go to the trampoline park.

At 9-ish, after HAUGHing at the weather, not wanting to go to campus because around lunch I'd have to leave the office to find food, I decided that I would go to Coco's, order a bacon and eggs flatbread, because I know I cannot finish it in one sitting, and just sit there for hours, feebly trying to finish it.

It took me 4 hours to get through the whole thing.

Against my better sense, I also ordered a slice of cheesecake pie. I did not manage to finish it, even after two more hours.

I should have ordered clam chowder instead, and maybe fries. Except I'm not sure the fries would have been any better.

I have ~1000 words for my fourth chapter, many of which was not even written today.

When I left, I left a huge-ass tip because I felt so bad for the wait staff because I was so anxious about my writing I avoided eye contact with them almost the whole time.

I DID want to swim today, and thought I would save it for sunset, because it was still going to be a heinous 33'c in the evening. But I wanted to catch a Pikachu wearing Ash's hat so I did my long walk instead. Maybe tomorrow when S. and I go to UCSD I'll hike down to Black's Beach and go for a swim in the ocean? Or maybe not, and go to the Geisel library and work instead (which I never did last year).

My smartphone is having issues charging itself. I'll plug it in, and it'll charge for some time, but then, arbitrarily, it'll decide to just.... not charge. Like the USB cord is in, it WAS charging, but at some point it just stops. It'll recognize when the USB has been unplugged when I pull it out, but otherwise I can't figure out what's going on with it. I wonder if it has to do with the weather, and it doesn't charge so well in intense temperatures. But my laptop is also taking forever to charge fully, despite these being perfectly decent (and new) wires. I'm not sure what's going on.

- Been having a low-grade flu for the last week or so, lots of sneezing at night. Could be allergies too, but I'm feeling a tickling at the back of my throat.

- Yesterday, went to campus with Mary and Leen to do some work. The anthology I'm currently reading is a slow slog, but I'm getting used to making scribbles in the margins.

Then I went to Ten Ren's for Maurisa's birthday. I felt kind of, idk, outside my body for a while? Like I was not quite there.... a fishbowl sort of feeling. I wasn't feel great. Maurisa and I went to Rite Aid afterwards so I could buy a bunch of allergy pills.

I couldn't sleep for HOURS. I blame the tea I had at dinner.

- This morning I got up at a reasonable hour, did laundry, and cleaned the kettle. This is a big deal because the kettle had a LOT of calcium buildup (roommate uses tap water for boiling). I used up most of the white vinegar in the house, but the kettle is mostly clean now! The spout area is still a bit grimy; I don't really know how to fix THAT.

I made pork rib soup. Went to the grocery store and got some sausage and chicken meat. Now I have lunch for the next couple of weeks, I think. I also marinated four thigh, each in a different ziplock bag of their own, with different marinade mixes! Yay food! When I want dinner, I'll just pull one down from the freezer. I think this will work out OK.

- I received big news that will be announced tomorrow. Can't wait :D :D :D

- Almost done the SEAsteampunk manu!

- I made macaroni alfredo tonight. Minced meat, cheese. I have enough food for three meals.

- Somehow had a rousing discussion about LosCon on FB.

- My brother's ex, who I do not like, tried to send me a friend request. DO NOT WANT! I don't care how long it's been, STILL DO NOT WANT.

I said to my friend Rubato yesterday, everything feels like it takes so long in Southern California. It's so exhausting. I wake up to do one thing and suddenly it feels like that's the only thing I can do all day. Part of it for me is the suburban sprawl. But I don't know, it feels strange, that I'm so unproductive here.

Anyway, the highlight of today! Was harvesting my worms' poop for the first time, officially! I've done it before, of course, as part of the outdoor adventure, but this is the first indoor one. Pictures of the process here. I distributed some of it in my garden, and have some leftover in a clear plastic tub. Because my bin was really damp, there were these little mites being part of the ecosystem, and they have been coming out of the dry castings, confusedly wandering along the walls of the plastic tub.

Rubato also drew me a Chinese steampunk earthworm mascot yesterday which appears to be becoming the theme of my life: blending all my hobbies together. I'll go to JoAnn's sometime to see what I can find for making a plush worm XD

My eyes are kind of sandy, and I think it's because I wore eyeliner yesterday. I've noticed this in the past where if I wear eye makeup for protracted periods of time, my eyes are super sandy the next day and it just feels like I'm sleepy although I'm probably not.

Anyway, I also did laundry, and it's exciting when I do laundry. Laundry is so great. Even better, when I got the laundry out of the dryer, I decided to pour it all on my bed and burrow under it, pulling my comforter on top to maintain the temperature. As one does, as an adult, right?

I had a very strange dream of being a butler-robot forced to accompany my mistress back in time to nurse her mother through her birth. Then giant robots attack and the baby escapes with the father, but I have to watch the mistress and mother die. And there is a causal loop occurring, and each time the deaths escalate in violence until my character tries to break the causal loop somehow. I don't know if it happened because I woke up because a crazy crab robot was trying to kill me and I noped out of the dream!

(Before that there was another dream about a sea captain who ignored this girl and her pet something on a raft, then on a boat, because she was some sort of bad omen, and then suddenly all the ships he and his crew came across were ghost ships, and his crew began mysteriously dying, until he finally decided to rescue the mystery girl, who then recruited him to go on some land-locked mission with her. I don't really know how this transitioned into the time travel giant robot explosions, sorry.)

I actually got out to the grocery store, which was fairly impressive. I actually have a whole chicken from my last trip to 99 Ranch which I'm going to put into the crock pot tomorrow, and I also bought some lasagna things... gonna try making lasagna sometime this week for the first time! The catfish nuggets I bought, though, smelled a little funky.

I got out of bed before 10am to work some more on my skirt, and around 2.30pm tore away from it to head to campus, where I met with PK and starlady to go downtown to the Mission Inn tour! We then went to get cupcakes, and hung out at my place for a bit before going to Marlen's for dinner, where I overstuffed myself with tacos. I always underestimate tacos!

Anyway, while walking home, first, there was a creepy guy behind us who was either talking to us or to himself, which freaked PK out so much she asked us to slow down so he could pass us. Then just as we thought we were safe, someone threw an egg from a car and hit PK on the side of her head. I thought it was a fucking litterbug throwing their juice out of their car and hitting someone, but no, dudes were lobbing eggs out onto the sidewalks. Awful end to what was a pretty good evening otherwise.

I got home and finished the skirt waistband and attached some hooks and eyes (might re-do those in the future, we'll see how I feel about it) and good thing I measured the waistband one inch longer than initially planned because the way I made the skirt, I underestimated how much for the waistband. I don't do shaped waistbands, and work with straight ones, so it can get a bit weird. I might try shaping my skirt segments next time. Anyway, some pictures of it!