Spring Break New Mexico Trip

 Scott and I work for different public school districts, so our time off does not always perfectly align.  This year was special, though; our spring breaks were at exactly the same time!  We decided this happy coincidence called for a trip.  We had been wanting to visit the southwest for a while, but that's probably not the best trip to do in the summer, so we decided that would be a good trip.  We decided on New Mexico after determining that there were a lot of sites and activities in a relatively small area so we could cut down on long driving days.

Essentially, we visited Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and the Taos Pueblo.  We had hoped to visit the town of Taos as well, but between time constraints and construction in the area, we saved that for a future trip.

We flew into Albuquerque and spent time there first.  We stayed in the old town area, which has the San Felipe de Neri church as its focal point.  The present building dates from 1793.

San Felipe de Neri Church

One of the famous sites in the Albuquerque area is the National Petroglyph Monument.  This is actually spread out; there are several places to park with several different hikes you can take.  These hikes vary in difficulty, number of petroglyphs to see, and accessibility of petroglyphs (whether you need binoculars to get a good view).  I've forgotten the name of the trail we chose, but we chose one that did not require binoculars to see the petroglyphs, and that was probably somewhere in the middle in terms of difficulty.  There was a fair amount of inclines and scrambling over rocks.  With my famous clumsiness, I spent a lot of time crouching down to move (all the squats I've been doing at the gym paid off!).  I'm only going to include one petroglyph picture that I particularly liked.  We saw a lot of cute lizards scrambling around, and one roadrunner, who was presumably hunting them.  I didn't get to photograph that particular roadrunner, but we saw one later in the day who patiently stood still and let us get reasonably close.

We also did some hiking without any specific sites like petroglyphs in mind.  It is beautiful as  long as you like deserts, but even in April, the sun was strong, so the usual precautious of a hat, lots of water, and sunscreen apply.

Both Albuquerque and Santa Fe had a dizzying number of souvenir shops where you could buy all kinds of southwestern and Mexican souvenirs.  Particularly for people interested in buying jewelry, I recommend the Portal market in Santa Fe.  My mom found out about this before our trip and let me know about it.  If you want to support Native American artists, this market is strict about who is making and selling the items available.  Also, it creates a manageable amount of selection.  I bought two pieces from one artist and enjoyed talking with him and hearing more about his process (and his daughter's process, since he was selling some of her pieces, too). I was honestly pretty suspicious about the sheer amount of "Native American" jewelry being sold in some of the shops; someone I met later in the trip confirmed my suspicious and said that shop owners were being busted on the regular for selling items they were claiming were made by Native Americans, but were actually made overseas.

The San Miguel Chapel in Santa Fe is said to be the oldest church in the US.  I particularly enjoyed seeing all the milagros that were placed there.

San Miguel Chapel

Milagros in San Miguel Chapel

While we were staying in Santa Fe, we took a side trip to the Taos Pueblo.  The Taos Pueblo is a UNESCO heritage site, and the structures there have been continuously inhabited for over a thousand years.  While most members of the community live in the surrounding tribal lands, there is a small, rotating community of people living in the traditional buildings and adhering to rules designed to preserve condition.  For instance, while gas stoves are allowed now, electric ones are not.  The guide told us that doors to get into the buildings were more recent innovations; traditionally, people used ladders to climb in through the top.  

I know I wanted to visit Taos Pueblo as soon as I read about it.  I want to assure anyone who wants to visit, but who might be concerned by the less-than-clear driving directions that once you are close, it will be obvious what to do.  Once we got close, there were signs, and a tribal police officer showed us where to park.  There are also clear signs while you are there that let you know where you can and cannot wander.  

Church in Taos Pueblo

New Mexico is famous for its food, and that was another attraction of the trip.  I studied in Mexico for a semester in college, loved the food there, and was curious what the food in New Mexico would be like.  Generally speaking, I would say that New Mexico cuisine is less hot and spicy than Mexican food.  It is generally very flavorful, though.  The state is famous for its red and green chile sauces; if you want both with your meal, you can usually request "Christmas."

Huevos rancheros in New Mexico

The trip was great, and we hope to go back and explore more someday.  We did have an adventure getting back to the airport.  When we were driving to Taos Pueblo, Scott noticed that he was getting a warning about the tire pressure of one tire.  He added more air to the offending tire on the way back to Santa Fe, but we were concerned since we would have to drive to Albuquerque the following morning to catch our flight.  Well, the tire lost a lot of pressure overnight.  We ended up driving the car to the Santa Fe car rental agency (where, naturally, they charged us for leaving the car somewhere other than Albuquerque.  I think it would have served them right if we'd just driven the car on the highway until the tire went completely flat and then made them figure out how to retrieve it).  We then took an Uber to the airport.  Not a cheap endeavor overall, but we made our flight.  Also, our driver also worked as a tour guide, and was very entertaining company on the drive.  He is the one who confirmed my suspicious about many of the jewelry shops in Santa Fe.

All in all, it was a very successful trip.  Given the atmosphere of the DC area at this point in time, it was particularly nice to get away and have some very new experiences.

Midwest Trip, Summer of 2024

 This is another "better late than never" sort of post.  After our trip to Alaska and Washington state with my family, Scott and I went on a trip to the Midwest.  We started in Chicago, then went to Madison, Wisconsin (where Scott went to grad school and we got married), and then to Minneapolis.  We hadn't visited Chicago since 2012, and hadn't visited Madison since 2011.  Both places seemed to be in somewhat rougher condition than they had been when we last visited.  I think the pandemic took a toll everywhere, and the addiction crises may have played a role, as well.  One thing we particularly noticed about Madison was that public spaces were becoming more closed off.  There were a lot of signs regarding loitering near the university.  The university library has an area with tables that had been open to the public in the past.  This time, there was a sign saying that it was for university students and staff and everyone else needed to register.  Full disclosure:  we ate our lunch there one day, and no one asked us for ID or anything.  But the change in the situation made me think that maybe they had dealt with some difficult situations and were having to tighten security, or at least have a pretext to ask people to leave when necessary.  

There is not enough time in the world to go into detail about this, but our time living in Madison (as well as our subsequent visits) were always a mixed bag.  This visit was very pleasant, though, beyond our concern about what time and circumstances had done to it.  This time, there were no job or academic stresses, just a chance to enjoy a nice city.  We ate at some restaurants we remembered (as well as some new ones), took some walks we used to take when we lived there, went to a bead store that I frequented all those years ago.

This was our first time visiting Minneapolis, and we were very impressed.  We only had a few days there, so we're hoping to go back soon and explore more!  We took lots of walks outdoors (when the weather permitted--we got rained out one day) and got to see a number of their famous lakes.  We also got to eat at Owamni by The Sioux Chef, which I was curious about as soon as I read about it (highly recommend, by the way).

For much of our visit, the upper Midwest was having a heat wave.  However, their heat wave was still cooler than the weather we were having in the DC area (which, honestly, was alarmingly hot last summer).  The Midwest can really be a fun place in the summer time, which is a lucky think since the winters can be challenging, particularly for those of who grew up without a lot of snow or the ability to pick a favorite winter sport.

Here are a few photos from the trip:

Deep dish pizza in Chicago

My favorite ice cream from the UW student union (orange with chocolate--yum!)

Butterfly wings, Minneapolis

Minneapolis

Minneapolis

Sequim Trip, Better Late Than Never

 Well.  I didn't intend to go this long without blogging.  I got busy at the beginning of the school year and had additional stress in the lead-up to the US presidential election.  And, let's just say the stress has been increasing ever since said election took place.  So I haven't been feeling very inspired.  At the same time, I wanted to post some pictures for my own benefit, at least.

After visiting Alaska last summer, while we were still on the west coast, we went to Sequim, WA to visit my aunt and uncle.  They chose well as a place to live; it's beautiful with pleasant weather.  An interesting feature of Sequim is that it is famous for growing lavender.  Dairy farming had been the mainstay of the economy, but they pivoted to lavender (I would probably remember when this had happened if I had not waited so long to write this post!).  There are multiple lavender farms in the area, and we were lucky enough to be there during their lavender festival.  In fairness, not every member of our party thought this was a happy coincidence, but I enjoyed it.  I think it comes down to your tolerance for crowds.  I don't love crowds, but living in an urban area, I found the crowds associated with the lavender festival to be less stressful than my daily commute.  

View from our Airbnb in Sequim

Field of lavender

Close-up of lavender plant

Lavender drying

Seward

 We decided to travel from Anchorage to Seward by train.  This was to give everyone a break from driving and to make sure everyone had a chance to enjoy the scenery.  Like many tourist attractions in Alaska during the summer, it is good to book this one ahead of time.  As my mom worked on our itinerary, she ended up adjusting the schedule at one point because the train was fully booked on the original day she wanted.  Anyway, I highly recommend it!  It travels slowly enough that you can get a good look at the scenery.  We were lucky to see moose and Dall sheep from the train.

Be forewarned that the Anchorage-Seward train has an early departure time, but it's still well worth it in my opinion.

One of the reasons we were going to Seward was to take a day cruise in the Kenai Fjords.  I am going to go out on a limb here and not recommend the multi-day cruises on the huge cruise ships, despite never having take one in Alaska.  Why not?  For one thing, they have every appearance of being environmentally disastrous.  Also, small towns end up being absolutely overwhelmed by the sudden influx of hundreds of people from the cruise ships.  Day cruises are a different matter, though.  If you are interested in seeing marine animals, they may be your best opportunity to do so.

The day we arrived in Seward, it was very rainy, as locals told us it had been most of the summer.  We visited the Alaska Sea Life Center, which I also recommend; it's another opportunity to see marine animals, albeit outside of their usual habitats.  The next day, miraculously, it was sunny!  Perfect weather for our cruise.

Since I get motion sickness sometimes, I'll discuss that portion of the cruise.  Most of our time on the ship, we stayed in Resurrection Bay, where the water was fairly calm.  We did venture out at one point into the ocean to see humpback whales.  I was not feeling great during that time, though I'm happy to say I avoided having to throw up in front of everyone.  I would say if you are at all prone to motion sickness, be prepared with anything that has helped you in the past.  I took a Bonine before getting on the ship and wore acupressure bands.  I also brought ginger candy.  I must have had a distinctly seasick look at one point because a kindly deckhand fetched some ginger ale for me and told me to keep focused on the horizon.  All of this helped, and eventually we returned to calmer water.  Even with the motion sickness, I would take a cruise like this again.  Just be as prepared as you can.

We saw lots of wonderful animals on the cruise:  humpback whales, orcas, sea otters, seals, puffins, and sea lions.  We also saw Holgate Glacier, which was amazing.  It's wonderful to just be around the animals and enjoy them.  I like trying to take pictures, so one lesson I'll share is that if you're interested in photographing the marine animals, invest in a camera with a decent zoom lens.  I will share some pictures to illustrate my point.

Look hard to find the fin!

More whale fins and birds circling around hoping for fish

Seabirds in the rocks

Sea lions lounging

Glacier!  No hidden animals here that I know of

A seal relaxing on the rocks

One final indistinct whale picture

Coming up on the glacier

Talkeetna

 When we first started discussing a trip to Alaska, we were considering visiting Denali National Park.  My parents had been there previously, decades ago, and hoped to see it again.  The rest of us were interested, too.  However, when my mom began researching the trip, a number of obstacles came up.  The lodging in the park itself was accessible only by private plane, and was therefore out for us (and most other people, I would imagine).  Lodging within striking distance of the park is limited, and with July being a peak month for Alaska tourism, it was sounding like visiting Denali National Park could turn into a logistical disaster.  After doing further investigating, my mom suggested visiting the town of Talkeetna, where one can sometimes view Mt. Denali (on clear days), and where there is plenty of lovely scenery and places to hike.

As a word to the wise for anyone thinking of traveling to Alaska, lodging in Talkeetna is pretty limited, too, and it seems like a lot of people use it as a stopover between Anchorage and Denali National Park.  So, if you'd like to visit there, particularly in the summer, it is worth booking ahead.  My poor mom had a terrible time booking lodging for us several months ahead of time.  The place where we ended up staying was lovely, but they ended up bending the rules for us (they normally required a three-night stay but allowed us to stay for just one night).  So, we were lucky in that way.

Unfortunately, it was quite rainy while we were in Talkeetna, so no views of Mt. Denali for us.  We visited the Talkeetna Historical Society Museum, which was housed in a cluster of small buildings.  They had some interesting exhibits, and my mom even recognized the names of some people who were mentioned in some of the informational materials.  At least in the past, they had a "moose dropping festival."  I couldn't really figure out what that was about, but they had some fabulous t-shirts on display, none of which, sadly, were for sale.

The town itself had an almost festival-like atmosphere when we visited, with outdoor booths selling a variety of crafts, in spite of the rain.  The scenery was also very beautiful even without views of Mt. Denali.  (Unfortunately, some sort of technological/personal failure seems to have resulted in my losing my pictures from around our lodge, so anyone reading will have to take my word for it!)  One thing to keep in mind about anywhere, really, but maybe Alaska in particular, is that rain can alter your plans and expectations.  Especially if you're on a tight timeframe, it may be best not to have a list of things you absolutely must see or do and just focus on enjoying what the weather allows you to do.

Musk Ox Farm

One of the places we visited in Alaska was the Musk Ox Farm in Palmer.  My parents and sister and I had previously visited in 2002, and it was fun to go back.  I highly recommend it to anyone visiting that area of Alaska!

I always love seeing a furry animal, but we learned a lot, too.  Native Alaskans had traditionally used mux ox hide, but only relatively recently had started using yarn made from the musk ox undercoat (aka qiviut).  At the farm, they comb out the undercoat (so they can get a clean collection, and it doesn't get mixed with dirt, twigs, and poop on the ground if it falls out on its own).  They send it to Peru to be made into yarn, which I thought was interesting.  It made me wonder if there were similarities between qiviut and alpaca fiber.  

Musk ox are also pretty tough customers.  The guide showed us places where they had headbutted the fence.  We were also instructed not to crouch down to take any photos.  

We were lucky in that the critters were obligingly hanging out near their fences when we toured.

Alaska 2024!

 We just got back from the longest trip we've been on in years, visiting Alaska and Washington state with my parents and sister!  For anyone reading who does not know, my mom was born and raised in Alaska.  We were all last there in 2002; she really wanted to go back, and the rest of us were definitely enthusiastic.  This was Scott's first time visiting Alaska, and he was very impressed with the beautiful scenery.

We used Anchorage as a base of operations and made some side trips, including to Talkeetna (with hopes of getting views of Mt. Denali) and Seward (to take a cruise in Resurrection Bay).  Some advice for my future self and for anyone else wanting to travel to Alaska:  The bulk of Alaska's tourism is concentrated in the summer months.  I have no statistics to back this up, but my impression is that most tourists to Alaska take cruises.  These cruises overwhelm small towns (and honestly, even cities like Anchorage) when they come to port.  Cruise-goers also take trains in order to travel into the interior, particularly to go to Denali National Park.  All of this is to say, plan very early if you don't plan on taking a cruise with a predetermined itinerary.  My mom had a terrible time getting lodging in Talkeetna, and she had to change the day that we traveled by train to Seward because the train was booked up.  You may need to make reservations well in advance if you feel strongly about eating in certain restaurants. You also may be eating a lot of early bird dinners to try to beat the crowds.  One thing that fascinated me wherever I went, is that Alaska seemed awash in tourism infrastructure (sometimes there seemed to be more of that than things like supermarkets or pharmacies that might benefit the locals), but yet it doesn't seem to be sufficient for current demand.  

So, here are some impressions (and photos!) from Anchorage.  You can see lovely scenery in pretty much any direction.  There are some good food options downtown, where we stayed (shout out to Fire Island Bakery, particularly their peanut butter cream cookies!).  One thing that I found very sad was the amount of homelessness I saw, particularly among Alaska natives.  Clearly, not everyone is benefitting equally from tourism dollars.  I highly recommend the Alaska Native Heritage Center, where you can learn about traditional culture of Alaska natives from around the state.  I particularly liked the outdoor exhibition of traditional homes.

Our hotel warned us of a very Alaskan hazard.

Wildflowers, including my mom's favorite, fireweed

Large flock of seagulls!

Replica of traditional dwelling at Alaska Native Heritage Center

Totem pole at Alaska Native Heritage Center

Losing Stella

 A few weeks ago, our beloved cat Stella had to be put to sleep.  She had had some months of ups and downs.  It was startling how quickly the final decline took hold, though.  One day  I was telling Scott that we needed to bring the cat sitter over to show her where Stella's food was ahead of a trip we were planning.  The next day, she stopped eating and didn't start eating again, no matter what we offered her.

I think euthanasia is one of the odder duties of pet ownership.  Nobody wants to have to make the decision about when an animal will die.  Yet, very little of it was truly in our hands.  Stella stopped eating when she stopped eating.  Ironically, it was a couple weeks before both Scott and I would be free for the summer, and not a great time for either of us to miss work.  But since death was inevitable, we wanted it to be quick and humane.  The vet who ultimately came to the house to euthanize her cautioned us against waiting too long.

The bright spot in the sad situation is that we both got to spend time with her at the end.  Due to a primary election in the district where I work, I had the day off the day before Stella died.  I had the opportunity to check in on her and see that she truly wasn't eating.  The day she died, Scott and I both made the call to just stay home.  We spent time with her until the vet arrived, and stayed with her, talking to her and petting her, throughout the process.

Perhaps inevitably, losing Stella made me think of when we lost our old cat Laila.  She was also euthanized after a series of ups and downs.  With Laila, I was less aware of signs of decline in cats.  I also didn't think to arrange at-home euthanasia, so one of her last actions in life was taking a car ride, which no cats really like.  I was also in the midst of my dreadful grad school 2.0 program, so I went to campus, and even dealt with a bunch of tiresome drama, before heading home to spend time with her before we took her to the vet.  This is a regret of mine.  I'm grateful that things were different this time for Stella and that I am no longer under such pressure to minimize actual life events (the principal at my school, who only rarely responds to emails I send when I need to take time off, responded about how sorry she was about my cat and encouraged me to stay home with her).

Right now, it just seems way too quiet at home.  We even miss the things that drove us nuts, like Stella consistently waking me up ten minutes before my alarm and yowling during our phone conversations.  She and Laila both added a lot to our lives--two very different kitties with very different quirks.  I think the best tribute to both of them is to give a home to another kitty, and I know in time we'll be ready to do that.

A First Time For Everything

 Being liberal has been an important part of my identity since I was a teenager.  I have always voted for Democrats.  To be honest, I'm pretty unenthusiastic about most Democratic politicians, but I generally like the party's platform.

Virginia, where I currently live, is one of the Super Tuesday states.  It is also a state that allows you to choose which party's ballot you request during the primaries.  I decided to vote early on Saturday, since our early voting location is close to the farmers market I usually visit.  I will confess that I don't always vote in the primaries.  When I've lived in other states, the primaries have often been all but decided before I even get a chance to vote.  Really, one could make a very strong case that this is true in this election as well.

And this is where it comes down to my first time voting for a Republican.  I didn't feel that there was any point in voting in the Democratic primaries because we don't have a real choice (and no, I don't count Dean Phillips as an actual choice).  There doesn't appear to really be a choice for the Republicans, either, but the idea of another Trump presidency so horrifies me that I felt compelled to try.  I voted for Nikki Haley, a politician with whom I have little to no common ground, but who I don't think is actively trying to destroy our democracy.

The funny part for me was having to actually request the Republican ballot from the election workers.  Apparently, I was very afraid of what people I don't know, and whose political leanings I don't know, thought of me.  When they asked which ballot I wanted, I said "I'll take the Republican ballot this time," hoping they would read between the lines and realize my true party affiliation.

And that's my story of expanding my horizons in a way that I never thought I would.  

A Modern--And Decidedly First World--Problem

 Anyone else hear of our modern day, swashbuckling porch pirates?  I first saw the term on Nextdoor, a social media site I joined mostly to learn about local fireworks displays and see if anyone was giving away any good free stuff.  Suffice to say, I'm engaging pretty minimally with it, although it's occasionally good for a laugh or even some useful information.

As everyone knows, times have changed when it comes to packages.  Many of us (and I'm as guilty as anyone else) are ordering things, usually online, that we might have purchased from brick and mortar stores 20 or 30 years ago.  This means a constant stream of packages going pretty much everywhere and posing a potentially tempting target.  The flipside of this bonanza is that the packages are at least as likely to be, say, underwear or cat food as they are the newest iPhone.  In fact, in one of the times when Nextdoor entertained me, someone found an abandoned opened box of CPAP supplies on a street corner.  She kindly decided to drive it to the address on the box

We've had a series of package thefts in our condo building.  We don't have porches, but I guess you could still call the perpetrators porch pirates, since mailroom pirates doesn't quite have the same ring.  Since our building was built in the late 80's, it dates from a time when people were receiving fewer packages.  We have a little alcove with our locked mailboxes and shelves for the packages.  The going theory is that our porch pirate has been coming in behind residents who are not properly conscious of security (we've received a number of accusing emails to this effect) and then helping himself.  Someone isolated a security footage photo of this person and posted it on the outside door.  Whether this is to warn him or to shame him, I'm not sure.  We're being led to believe that this is a top priority for our city's police....

Since none of our packages have gone missing, I have the luxury of being mildly fascinated by the porch piracy phenomenon.  I've been wondering how any of these porch pirates make money off this endeavor.  How do they even decide which packages to take?  If there are too many to take them all, they have to choose a few, probably quickly.  Otherwise, they risk being stuck with the dreaded box of CPAP supplies with no resale value.  Even if they were to get something potentially resellable, how do they find a buyer?  I have limited experience selling things, but enough experience to know that it's not always easy to find any buyer at all, or in particular to get someone to pay what you think an item is worth.  All in all, it seems like a lot of risk for not very much reward.

In the case of our building, I don't think pretending that the residents are willing to get into it with someone trying to follow them into the building is going to solve the problem.  I think the problem might cost money, either collectively by paying for some sort of additional security for the packages (e.g. creating a locked package room or paying a doorman) or individually (e.g., people who are worried pay for P.O. boxes and pick their packages up).  

Just as I'm as guilty as anyone else of receiving packages, I'm also as guilty as anyone else of sometimes forgetting my own good fortune and getting upset about things that are definitely not matters of life or death.  So I'm not trying to shame anyone for being upset about their packages going missing.  I know it would bother me, too.  But I do think it's mostly a problem that stems from good fortune, both in terms of having the money to buy stuff and having this modern convenience of not having to head to stores every time you want or need something.  To name just a few areas of tremendous misfortune in the world, I think many people in Gaza, Syria, or Ukraine would be very grateful if porch piracy were the most dire problem they were currently facing.

The US Healthcare System Strikes Again

 Recently, Scott and I attempted to be savvy consumers.  His employer (a local public school district) had replaced their previous PPO health plan with one that was somehow covering fewer healthcare expenses while not becoming any cheaper.  So when open enrollment season came around, we decided to investigate the health insurance plans that my employer (another local public school district) offered.  After comparing the two of them, we decided to give one of the PPOs my employer offers a try.  Scott cancelled his health insurance during open enrollment, and I enrolled in my health insurance.  So far, so good, right?

Not quite.  I had thought that it was fairly standard for health plans that people enroll in during open season to begin coverage on January 1.  For reasons I cannot fathom, coverage under our new plan does not begin until January 14.  Meanwhile, Scott's health insurance coverage ends on January 1, leaving us with a small--but potentially financially ruinous--gap in coverage should one of us, say, develop appendicitis or get into a car accident.

Fortunately, (a) because of the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare), we are able to qualify for private health insurance even though I have a preexisting health condition that probably would have disqualified me previously, and (b) I discovered this impending gap in coverage before December 15.  I can't speak for all the state insurance market places, but in at least both Maryland and Virginia, you have to enroll by the 15th of one month to be covered for the first of the next month.  I knew this because this is not our first experience with buying coverage.  We were briefly on Affordable Care Act insurance plans in 2017 when we both lost our jobs and in 2019 when I was in grad school 2.0 and Scott changed jobs, triggering a gap in coverage.  

Unfortunately, it's still very expensive.  We are sinking over $600 into what appears to be a pretty crummy plan just to avoid dire financial consequences if we happen to be unlucky in the first two weeks of January.  I'm feeling particularly annoyed because I remember (some years ago and in Maryland) paying a comparable amount and getting better coverage.  I don't know whether to blame the state of Virginia or just inflation for the shoddiness of the coverage.

This has made me wish--and definitely not for the first time--that the US could just come to grips with the fact that everyone needs healthcare at some point or another and view it as a basic human right.  This idea that people will be covered through their jobs has been disastrous, what with layoffs, employers that purposely give their workers less than full-time hours to avoid paying benefits, and these sorts of awkward transitional periods like what Scott and I are experiencing now.  What's scary is that he and I were pretty much ideally suited to not have a break in coverage, what with both of us being full-time employees in public sector jobs, but yet, here we are.  I shudder to think how precarious health insurance coverage is for other people who don't have as stable of jobs, particularly those people who don't have the money to purchase private health insurance during coverage gaps.

As for us, we are going to try very hard to stay healthy and uninjured during the first two weeks in January.  We've even gone so far as to reschedule medical appointments that were originally in early January.  Ironically enough, this is $600 that I hope will just be money down the drain and not be used, and I'm hoping that the insurance we get on January 14 is amazing enough to justify all this annoyance and expense.

The Holiday Equivalent Of The Lost Socks In The Dryer

 I'll admit I've been slow to get into the holiday spirit this year.  The pace at work has been unrelenting, and we keep having waves of sickness wash through our household.  In an attempt to get a little more with the program, I decided to start working on sending out holiday cards.  That's when I made an important discovery:

My holiday cards had gone missing.

Well, okay, there were about five left in a box that I opened last year.  But I distinctly remember buying a new box of cards after Christmas last year, in preparation for this year's card-sending.  I bought said box of cards because I had the exact same problem last year of looking for holiday cards to send and coming up short.

So, this year, some people will receive fairly traditional looking holiday cards.  Others will receive blank cards that I ordered from Shutterfly with a photo of Apamea that I took back in 2004.  I'm hoping the recipients of the Apamea cards will find them charming, or at worst, mildly idiosyncratic, rather than wondering if I've completely lost it.  People for whom I am just now getting an address may receive either an Apamea card or a yet-to-be-purchased holiday card from the supermarket.  Maybe next year will be the year when I put antlers on the cat, take a picture of her, and order a bunch of custom holiday cards from Shutterfly right before the card bonanza begins.

Sometimes It's Worth The Money

 Our cat Stella is a nervous and sometimes grumpy old cat.  We adopted her from a local animal shelter as an adult.  When we brought her home from the shelter, she hyperventilated and yowled the whole way.  She was initially very skittish with us, flinching even when we opened or closed the blinds.  Over the years, she's become more comfortable with us, but she has her limits.  Perhaps not surprisingly, trimming her claws is one of those limits.

We used to be able to trim a front claw or two at a time occasionally before we moved to our current home.  We think the move stressed Stella out as much as it stressed us out, and even though we've been in this home for three years, she hasn't cooperate with claw trimming.  Occasionally, Scott will be able to trim a rear claw while she's sleeping, but that's about the extent of our success.  Every time we take her to the vet, we pay for a nail trim.  But honestly, vet visits with her are stressful (and expensive!) so we try to be sparing with those.  It was becoming increasingly clear that she needed at least her front claws trimmed more often that she visits the vet.

I learned recently about a local pet sitting company that also does nail trims and other grooming at home, so I made an appointment.  I was somewhat skeptical; I was going to get charged for the visit whether the person could successfully trim her claws or not, and it seemed like an expensive gamble.  But I was also desperate.

When the pet sitter/cat groomer came over, I was immediately impressed.  She came armed with not one, but two kinds of treats that I hadn't seen before.  She made liberal use of the treats to ingratiate herself with Stella.  She also spent a good 45 minutes at our place, waiting for Stella to warm up to her before going in for the trim.  Stella made some motions of yowling and trying to get away, but honestly, it was a pretty feeble effort, and appeared to me to be more about principal than anything else (and believe me, I've seen her when she's making an honest to goodness effort to get away).  In the end, all of her front claws were trimmed and nobody got bitten or scratched in the process!  Count me impressed.

This was a good reminder to me that sometimes when you have the money, it's worth spending it to make your life easier.  This person clearly has a skill that I don't have.  Now, I don't have to worry about Stella getting her claws stuck in something or about being stabbed when she kneads her paws on me.  It's definitely a service that will become a regular expense.

Climate Musings

 On Monday, a severe storm system swept through parts of the eastern US.  The DC area was expected to be hit hard.  Federal government offices closed early to allow their employees to get home safely (as a former govvie myself, I'm going to say that this was a very big deal).  Metro ran additional trains to help get people home in a timely fashion.  Our electric company even emailed us to warn that power outages were likely.  We were in no mood for a power outage, having lost power the previous week in another severe thunderstorm for about 11 hours.  There wasn't anything we could do, so we hunkered down and hoped for the best.

It made me think of Hurricane Fran from 1996.  I grew up in Chapel Hill, NC, which is inland and very rarely experienced severe damage from hurricanes.  On a Thursday afternoon, my high school canceled all after school activities (marching band practice, for my purposes) and canceled school for the following day.  I thought I had really lucked out, having had it with both marching band and school as a whole.  A missed marching band practice and a day off for some rain and a few downed tree limbs?  Yes, please!

Well, we woke up the next morning to find that four large trees had fallen on our car and that we had lost power.  I think the only reason we slept through the destruction was sheer exhaustion.  When we checked in on some retired neighbors, it turned out that had been up much of the night, terrified.  I forget how many days it took for power to be restored, but it was definitely multiple days. A complicating factor for us was that losing electricity meant losing water, so I remember trips in a rental car to a local creek to fill up buckets of water to flush toilets.  Let's just say my naivety regarding severe weather and closings/cancelations ended then and there.

In the end, with Monday's storm, we ended up being very lucky.  We kept power and damage in our immediate area was minimal.  But this was on the heels of a more destructive storm and part of a summer of horrific climate disasters around the world.  The environment has been my number one issue since my teens, and I have long been upset that we collectively have not been doing more to change course.  Up until recent years, I think most of us thought we had more time before we started to see severe effects of climate change, but now they are here and we are all living these effects one way or another.

Particularly in the US, a lot of blame goes to the government for not taking more action.  To be fair, there have always been some people in the government who have tried, but they have been overruled by others, many of whom I suppose thought they would be dead soon enough anyway, and were happy to leave a climate disaster to their children and grandchildren whom they profess to love.  Others have been in the pocket of the fossil fuel industry (where is campaign finance reform when we need it?).  But I am increasingly frustrated with individuals who seem to believe that government inaction is some sort of free pass to be as wasteful of resources as they want.

I'm not writing this to be sanctimonious.  I certainly have room to improve in this regard.  But there are choices we have made to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, such as living in a smaller home, driving a hybrid vehicle, using mass transit when possible (I, for instance, use it to commute to work every day), and composting.  I have no idea why the health of the one planet where humans can live has been so politicized, but for what it's worth, I live in a fairly liberal area, and am continually blown away by both the number of gas guzzlers on the road and the number of people who refuse to use mass transit, even in an area that has pretty decent mass transit options.

Regardless of what the government does or does not do to try to save us from manmade climate disaster, we owe it to ourselves--and to the younger humans in our midst--to try.  I wrote previously about the success of our community composting program.  When enough people decide to do something, it makes a difference.  

A Clean Bill Of Health, Part 2

 I had alluded here to my saga of the breast lump that was biopsied and found to be benign in early 2022.  The radiologist who did the biopsy told me I could consult with a surgeon to see about it being removed, but I figured it wasn't bothering me, so I wouldn't bother it.  I thought it was the end of the story.

Not quite.  I had a mammogram in April and learned that the offending lump had grown larger since it was biopsied.  The radiologist strongly recommended that I have it removed.  I, the person who spends a lot of time trying to persuade children to "use their words," responded with a series of monosyllabic grunts.

I met with a surgeon in May.  He explained that if the lump continued to grow, it could press against nerves and cause discomfort.  Also, this type of benign lump (a fibroadenoma, if anyone is interested) could sometimes obscure more problematic things.  Fortunately, since they felt it was most likely benign, they allowed me to have the surgery after the school year ended so I could recover without missing work.  I scheduled the surgery for the week after school ended.

This surgery was my first time having general anesthesia, so that was an experience in and of itself.  I still think it's truly amazing to have no recollection of anything that happened during the surgery.  The surgery itself was quick and successful.  With my lack of experience with surgery, I had a constellation of weird symptoms in the immediate aftermath that I spent a lot of time googling, including blurry vision and general allover poofiness.  There were other symptoms that I expected, like a sore throat from the breathing tube, and general fatigue and wooziness for several days.  Amazingly, the pain at the surgical site was very manageable throughout.

I had a follow-up appointment with the surgeon last week.  The lump was indeed a fibroadenoma, like they thought.  Also, there were no abnormal cells in the tissue surrounding it, so the news seems very encouraging.  I was happy to receive another clean bill of health, and hope this is truly the end of this particular saga.

The Things That Made The Difference

 At the risk of promoting materialism, I will admit that sometimes things make a positive difference in our lives.  These are some recent acquisitions that have actually lived up to the hype, in my opinion:

• New bath sheets.  For anyone who shares my generally low level of expertise on household linens, bath sheets are really large bath towels.  Middle age has brought some horizontal growth, and our old, average size bath towels were not easy to fully wrap around my body when I got out of the shower.  The bath sheets are much cozier.  As a bonus, since we hadn't purchased any new towels in several years, I was reminded of how much softer new towels are.
• Loop ear plugs.  Nope, I'm not making any money for promoting them, but decided to put in the brand name in case anyone else has any need for good ear plugs.  They're definitely more expensive than the drugstore foam kind, but they are much more effective in blocking noise and nearly always stay in my ears overnight.  The main reason I got them is because Stella is an exceptionally noisy cat.  These don't completely block her nighttime news bulletins, but if I'm already asleep, they sometimes muffle them enough that she doesn't completely wake me up.
• Linen pajamas.  This is sort of a cheater acquisition because I made these (although I did have to purchase the linen I used!).  My previous cooler weather pajamas consisted of a knit top that had gotten very stretched out and knit pants with a waistband that had lost all of its elasticity.  I wanted something prettier, with pants that I did not have to continuously hike up.  I'm very happy with these.  The pants stay up without the waistband digging in.  The linen is cozy without being too hot.  And, since I made them, I got to choose the color (it reminds me of the "periwinkle blue" that I had in my crayons box as a kid).
• Click and grow garden.  There I go dropping brand names again, with no hope of any compensation.  Basically, it's a tabletop indoor gardening system.  My intention is to write an entire post just about it at some point (though my recent blogging track record doesn't make that seem promising).  To give it a quick synopsis now, it does make it possible, and even easy, to grow plants inside, without needing to be by a window or taking up a lot of space.  We love our home, but since space is at a premium, I'm happy with any company that figures out how to do cool things on a small scale.

May everyone's new acquisitions not disappoint!

Wrapping Up The Year Of Plague And Pestilence

 So...I may be writing this prematurely.  My school district is on spring break, but after that, I still have the last part of April, all of May, and the first few weeks of June to get through.  But because I'm rushing toward the ultimate prize of summer break, I'm going to count this time as "wrapping up the year."

In some ways, it's been a great year.  After the disappointment of so many sub-part speech-language pathologist jobs, it was a relief to become a salaried employee again, with a union that secured a raise for us, no less.  Working in the schools can be overwhelming, and my experience was not without its problems, but on the whole, I've enjoyed it more than I thought I might.  As an interesting bonus, a lot of the kids in my school come from Spanish-speaking homes, so I've gotten a chance to speak Spanish on a regular basis again.

What hasn't been great has been the near constant rotation of illnesses and ailments I've had.

To be fair, the first major health problem of the school year was a severe allergic reaction that left an extremely nasty rash on my torso (I still have splotches on my skin months later!).  I can't blame the allergic reaction on the kids or the crowded conditions at my school, but it does contribute to my perception that I've spent about half the year recovering from something.

Other than that, though, I'm completely blaming the kids (they produce so much snot!) and the conditions in my building.  After my rash started to subside, I caught two colds in quick succession.  I was feeling cocky after spending January mostly healthy, and then got hit with Covid in February.  I spent the first part of March healthy, only to catch something that rapidly developed into bronchitis.  Only now, during my spring break, can I say I feel completely recovered from that.  At this point, having exhausted most of my sick leave for the year, I'm wondering if we're far enough into spring that I'm relatively safe from any more illnesses.

I'm also wondering in horror if every year will be like this one.  I've gotten conflicting messaging on that point.  My doctor said this was a particularly rough year for everyone as far as respiratory viruses were concerned.  A long-time teacher at my school echoed this sentiment, saying that she had gotten sick so many times this year that it felt like it was her first year of teaching again.  On the other hand, one of the administrators told me she thought there was something unhealthy about our building, and that when she was still teaching, she used to get bronchitis twice a year(!).  

So, wish me luck.  When I go back to work on Monday, feeling rejuvenated from a week off, I'd like nothing better than to experience a spate of good health stretching until at least the end of the year so I can comfortably wrap up the considerable amount of work I have to get done.  And I'm hoping I can continue to refer to this year as the year of plague and pestilence, rather than calling it just another school year.

Thus Concludes My Annual Pathetic Scavenger Hunt

 At the beginning of every new year, I start watching for tax documents and create a "pile" area for them.  We pay an accountant to do our taxes, mostly because I really hate paperwork and seek to avoid it whenever possible, but there is that preliminary step of giving him something to work with.

I've written about my employment ups and downs here before, but suffice to say, this was a year that generated three(!) W2s for me.  I wasn't excited about the prospect of watching for all three of them, and was imagining the awkwardness and tedium of having to contact previous employers for my tax documents.

Well.  Turns out I needn't have worried because my two previous employers of 2022 sent my my W2s in a timely fashion!  It was my current employer that fell down on that essential task!

If there's one thing I don't like about the school district where I work that I really think I can blame on the district itself, it's the complete chaos with all matters related to HR or payroll.  In theory, we have a self-service website where we can take care of some things ourselves; in practice, it's highly glitchy and often requires intervention from someone in HR anyway.  It took me weeks--and multiple emails to HR--to change my transit benefits allocations earlier this year.  At a previous job, I could change my transit benefits allocations at will, on my own, online.  Anyway, the lack of a W2 is another example of this chaos, but even worse is that it wasn't obvious whom to contact to complain.  My email directory showed multiple emails for payroll.  I started emailing them, and eventually one got back to me to say that I needed a different payroll office.  Naturally, that office has not yet responded to my email.

I value the service our accountant provides and have no objection to paying him.  However, at the same time, I'd prefer to not have to pay additional money for him to file for an extension for us.  I emailed him today and asked what options we had in the absence of one of my three W2s.  He suggested that I send him my final pay stub from December and then follow up by sending him the W2 if I ever receive it.  I'm happy to report that recovering my pay stub was something I was able to accomplish on my own on my employer's self-service HR website.  I mailed our accountant the documents today and am happy to no longer have a pile of tax documents in my line of sight.

Valentines Day Was A Wash, Figuratively And Literally

 This Valentines Day may not rank as one of our best of all time.  Scott and I are still recovering from Covid, though we both went back to work this week.  We gave up on the idea of eating in a restaurant on Valentines Day years ago, but we often look forward to buying some treats at the supermarket and having a simple meal of "special occasion" foods at home.  This year, we're both still struggling from a loss of appetite and an inability to eat much at a time.  This has been a particularly baffling symptom to me, since my life generally revolves around food and I spend and inordinate amount of time planning what I'm going to eat.  Suffice to say, we are ordering a Peruvian chicken dinner tonight, a very nice meal to be sure, but not one either of us thinks of as an occasion meal.  I guess the good news is that by the time we recover, the Valentines crowds will have cleared out of the restaurants and we can eat wherever we want.

As for the literal part of today being a wash, the last kids I worked with today were kindergarteners.  One of them had some glittery slime, which she had gotten from her teacher, allegedly for being good.  I spent much of the session trying to get her to put it away and keep it put away.  When it was time to take her to dismissal, I noticed that her shoes were untied and decided to tie them for her.  In a clear example of no good deed going unpunished, she took that opportunity to smear her slime on my back.  Needless to say, I was not pleased.  I was hoping it would peel right off, but of course it didn't.  The website I consulted about this predicament helpfully mentioned that glue is one of the ingredients in slime, which makes it particularly hard to get out of clothing.  (This website also framed this problem as one of getting slime out of kids' clothing, probably supposing that adults are too dignified to end up with slime on their clothing).  Anyway, slime removal has been my major project this evening--very romantic and sophisticated, I know.  I've had early encouraging results from soaking the slimed area in white vinegar.  I'm hoping for an ultimate triumph to this wash of a day when the shirt comes out of the laundry.

Pandemic Daze: Then The Plague Visited Me

 I didn't fully understand this when the pandemic began, but there hasn't been (and likely never will be) a point at which it is truly "over."  For many of us, myself included, life has largely returned to some sort of normal, but Covid continues to be a monkey wrench in our plans.

My officemate wasn't feeling well toward the end of last week, but she had tested negative for Covid, so she still came in because there was plenty of work to do that wasn't going to take care of itself.  However, on Friday evening, after losing her sense of taste and smell, she retested and got a positive test.  She texted me to let me know.  I, in turn, texted some friends who I had planned to see on Saturday to see how they felt about seeing me after I'd been exposed to Covid.  We decided to have a video chat instead.  But by the next morning, I wasn't even feeling well enough to do that.

Considering the number of people I'm around in my job, I've been lucky to have held out so long without getting Covid.  I actually think there's a possibility that I had it at the end of 2019 (when it was apparently already circulating in the US, but nobody knew what it was), but I haven't had any confirmed Covid infections up until now.

I feel pretty lousy.  I haven't been sleeping well, and have a splitting headache I can't get rid of.  Still, so far, this hasn't been one of my worst sicknesses.  Whatever I had at the end of 2019 was worse, for instance.  This would indicate to me that the vaccines are doing their job in making symptoms milder.

Even though our lives have largely returned to normal, Covid still gets special status among diseases.  The earliest I can return to work is next Monday, and that's only if I haven't had a fever in 24 hours and don't have severe symptoms.  My direct supervisor tells me I can do telework if I feel up to it, which I may do later in the week so I can at least keep up with some paperwork and virtually attend a couple of meetings I have.

I wonder if there will come a time when Covid is treated like any other sickness.  But I'm grateful that my main concerns right now are being uncomfortable and inconvenienced, rather than worrying that I might need to be hospitalized.