Grass and Sky

My phone went all wonky on me yesterday. It was fine, I replied to a text from a friend without trouble. And then next time I went to send another text, it had turned itself off and wouldn't turn back on again. I'm pretty sure there were no 'low battery' type warnings going on, but I plugged it in and gave it awhile to recharge (like, a couple hours). Still wouldn't turn on when I went to bed, so I was expecting to have to go to the Apple Store today.

Luckily, when I plugged it in for another test this morning, it at least turned on, although the battery was super low. And this evening it charged all the way up in about an hour. As I think about it, I remember that when I updated to iOS9 and then couldn't use the phone because I didn't know my wifi password, I encountered something about someone having a lot of battery trouble after they updated to OS9. All they had to do was turn off cellular data for all their apps, except when they were using them. I'm going to give that a try for the weekend and hope that takes care of the problem.

In the meantime, I'm taking advantage of a rare night with no baseball, hockey, Doctor Who or anything else compelling and I'm going to force myself to jump start that damned missing creativity of mine. Wish me luck!

Season nine starts next weekend and in an effort to gear up, I'm rewatching the tail end of season seven and some (maybe all, who knows) of season eight. I started with "The Day of the Doctor" and am now moving on to "The Time of the Doctor."

And then I got side-tracked chasing down all the prequels and little specials that I somehow missed through totally not being at all tuned in to the fandom of Doctor Who. So, yay, lots of fun 'new' content for me today, including this week's prequel to the ninth season.

I've done almost nothing this long weekend and I'm feeling exhausted by it. Today I went to Macy's with lyda_pearl so she could do some of her shopping, and then she took me to the grocery store so I could do my shopping. And then I did one load of laundry. And it's not even 7 and I just want to lay my head down and rest. Boo, body, boo!

I had to work extra hours almost every day this week (and last Friday) so the bosses took pity on me and sent me home a little early today. Yay! Three day weekend and I got an extra hour and a half of free time. And a promise that next week I can just work my regular hours (although I have an early meeting planned with one set of parents on Tuesday morning).

Since I had extra time, I'm feeling super boring and uncreative without any crafty projects to work on, I stopped at Target on the way home. They have limited options when it comes to the kinds of 'crafty' that I enjoy, but ended up spending an inordinate amount of money anyway. I've been watching, for a couple of years, friends on FB who do a letter-posting thing one month every year, and then I happened to wander down the paper aisle at Target and they had all sorts of fun paper and washi tape and colorful pens, etc. I ended up getting a couple different kinds of paper, pens, one thing of washi tape (that stuff is EXPENSIVE) and some stickers, and I'm going to 'write' some fun little letters/notes to every whose address I'm in possession of. If anyone here feels like they get too many bills and not enough fun stuff in the mail, leave your address in the comments (I'll screen the comments) and I'll add you to the list!

Then, when I came out of Target, the sun was just getting ready to peek out from behind a big fluffy but sort of dense cloud and the sky just looked amazing.


And then, about half a block from home on a hot, sweaty afternoon, I came upon a young boy selling fresh squeezed lemonade. Not a huge lemonade fan in general, but it is just about right when one is feeling hot and tired. Mmm, mmm!

I'm not the greatest at these kind of games. I mean, I don't even remember how long I've been playing 2048 and it's cousin Doctor Who 2048 without winning. But tonight, my friends, I am the champion! Finally got a win!

By the time I got out of work today I was so pissed off I was about ready to kick a hole in a wall and then stuff somebody's head in it. I have a few candidates in mind, too. But I have managed to use that rage to get at least a little bit done this evening.

I stopped at Home Depot and bought a trash bin for my little 'outdoor' space, so the trash no longer has to sit in my apartment until trash day. And there were no living roaches anywhere in sight when I got home, so I forced myself to put on my big girl pants and unpack some of my kitchen stuff. I now have most of my dishes (except my mugs, they're who knows where) and pots/pans unpacked. There's one more box that I need to get unpacked tonight and then there's no more boxes in the kitchen. The living room is a cluttered mess but mostly unpacked. The bedroom is nothing short of a disaster. I've just been shoving boxes in there to get them out of the way of the things I need to do in other parts of the apartment.

On the plus side, it's not quite so hot this week and the apartment hasn't felt like a sauna when I get home from work, so I feel a little less guilty about leaving the cats here all day long while I escape to go to work.

Watching The Claws of Axos (Third Doctor and Jo). After the first episode, I must say my impression is not favorable.

( spoilers )

I met up with a friend this morning for lunch and a movie. We went to the Waterfront, ate lunch at Panera (ooh, exciting, I know you all are so jealous!) and saw Mr. Holmes. I'm so out of the movie loop that I hadn't even heard of it until yesterday, when looking for a movie that I might not hate to see. And I'm happy to report that far from hating it, I found it very good. The make-up and acting used to take Ian McKellen from mid-seventies to early-mid nineties was incredibly well done and convincing. I won't include any spoilery thoughts since I'm too lazy to put in a cut, but I liked the movie quite a lot and recommend it.

It was good to spend some time with T. I don't get to see her very often because between her crazy work schedule and her young son, she's not free very often. So that was good. And then, almost as soon as I got home, it was time to head out again. lyda_pearl picked me up and we made a quick trip to Construction Junction so that I could see about getting a set of reclaimed cabinets to make my platform bed.

( I know, I said I was too lazy for a cut. But this got long. )

I've started a thirty day yoga challenge today. Today's session as about 35 minutes long, all gentle movements. I bought the yoga mat and a dvd a couple months ago and ran into some complications. First, the workout on the dvd is about 1.5 hours long and even though it's a beginner workout, it left me super, super stiff afterwards. And there were lots of props needed - chairs, blocks, and a lot of 'do this against a wall' sort of thing which my current apartment doesn't really let me do while keeping the tv in view. This is shorter, a much gentler introduction, and so far doesn't need any props, even a wall.

Things that I became aware of:
*My back - I tend to lean forward and slump a lot, so I find it more and more difficult to find that full-upright posture, especially without a mirror to check in with - that may be another thing I need to get once I move to the new apartment. I also get achy pretty quickly. Large, heavy breasts do not help with this at all.
*At least I haven't entirely lost all of my flexibility since I've mostly stopped going to the gym. I can pull my ankles right in and keep my knees down on the floor with little difficulty.
*Oh hey, there's both planking and a sort of bent knee fifer scissors move (which I used to do all the time when I did my aerobics tape a million years ago). Good thing I've been practicing those things a bit.
*Yoga plus cats is... interesting. Mal spent the first ten minutes headbutting me. At one point right in the middle of my torso, hard enough to almost knock me down. I hope that they get used to this and learn that it is futile to ask for my attention when I have the yoga mat out.
*My belly is getting a bit thick, sadly. Belly and boobs felt like they were in the way of some of the moves. I guess I'll get used to it. And in theory, I'm working towards slimming down, although it's been several years since I've been able to transition from theory to reality on that score.
*I started about forty-five minutes to an hour after eating and, especially in the more curled up poses at the end, I could really feel the food in my tummy. I will definitely need to do the yoga before eating, rather than after.
*All that deep breathing through the nose has told me it's time to scoop the cat boxes. I'm off to make the kitties happy!