The high of my week was having dinner with Mikaela and Olive on Wednesday night (aka, Olive’s birthday!) We went to a Mexican restaurant and they sang happy birthday to her with maracas. It was really cute! And just special to have this time with Olive on her birthday. I haven’t gotten to spend much time with Olive, since she was quarantined pretty heavily during her cancer treatment, and I’m glad I can finally actually get to know this special girl!
The low of my week was finding out the antibiotic cream my doctor wants me to use for the rash under my nose will cost me $107! Ack. Thankfully, I have an HSA, so I won’t feel the hit to my wallet, but dang. I hate being on a high-deductible plan for my health insurance, but I really love having an HSA. Except I’m not really saving much since I’m spending so much on copays at the doctor’s office. Meh.
A funny Tik-Tok I saw this week was this hilarious “if libraries were like delis” skit. Ahh, Internet people can be the greatest sometimes.
A podcast episode I enjoyed was Strange Bedfellows’ episode on “A Scot in the Dark” by Sarah MacLean, mostly because they had Tanner’s wife, Jaime, on and I always love the way the dynamic changes when she joins the podcast! It was such a fun listen.
I’m currently reading four different books, again. I’m still slowly making my way through Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation by Kristin Kobes du Mez. It’s good but hasn’t been life-changing for me so far. I’m also reading Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century, which I am finding so valuable. There is so much about disability rights that I don’t even think about, like deaf people in prison not having an interpreter. (That seems like such a human rights violation!) I just started A Gentleman Never Keeps Score, a queer romance by Cat Sebastian. And, finally, I’m still making my way through A Better Man by Louise Penny (just two hours left to listen to!)
The best money I spent was $100 on Christmas presents! Woohoo—finally got my Christmas shopping started. I don’t buy Christmas presents for a ton of people (my extended family doesn’t exchange gifts, and that is such a blessing, lol), just my mom, my brother, my sister-in-law, my nephews, my stepdad, and some friends. It feels good to get it started, though!
My plans this weekend include dinner and/or a reading date with a friend tonight. Tomorrow, I have a writing date with Mikaela and then in the late afternoon, it’s time for one of my most-anticipated events of the year: RUNNING OF THE WIENERS! AHHHHH! They didn’t have this event last year for obvious reasons, and I can’t wait to see how Chip and Lucy do in their races. Mostly, though, I’m excited to be surrounded by dachshunds for a few hours tomorrow. MY FAVE. And Sunday will be a low-key day of watching football with the fam!
What was the high of your week?
That picture of Olive is beautiful- I love her eyes.
I also started my Christmas shopping- I got the cats’ present. Yes, our cats get presents, they have their own stockings and even their own little Christmas tree! (yep- we’re officially insane.) Now I just have to get started on the people shopping and I’ll be all set.
i MUST see picture from the Running of the Weiners!!! That sounds hilarious. Hope you’re enjoying your Friday!
Doesn’t it feel so good to get Christmas shopping started?!
I had a big project I’ve been supposed to be working on for work. It’s due on Monday. Yesterday I really went to town on it and when I finished my draft, I felt so good about it. That’s been the best moment this week.
So happy to see sweet little Olive.
And good for you that you started your Christmas shopping – I am in the planning phase myself (as in “researching” some gift ideas).
What a cutie little Olive is. I’m so happy to read in your posts that she’s beating that horrific disease. I wish her many, many more happy birthdays.
Just to annoy you even further, any prescribed medication in the U.K. has a standard cost of about $10! It’s incredible to me that you pay so much for your health care costs in the US.
My immediate family doesn’t even exchange gifts! The siblings used to draw names but people were giving gift cards (which I love but when you are just exchanging gift cards it defeats the purpose?) so we did away with it years ago. And we told my parents to stop getting us gifts since they have so many grandkids to shop for. So there is a cousin gift exchange and us siblings get my parents something but that’s it. Easy peasy!
It’s hard to come up with a high of last week honestly. Will was sick and I only got 1 day off instead of 3. Those 2 days home w/ him were harder than if I had been working and he was at daycare. So I was very cranky by the end of the week. Obv not at him because he can’t help being sick. just at the situation and feeling overwhelmed. The 5:30 am wake-ups every day did not help matters! But Friday was really nice so I guess that is my high? I spent the morning doing only what I wanted to do and then had a productive afternoon.
It feels so good to get Christmas shopping started, yay! I love that a lot of my family has cut back on gift giving throughout the years – we just buy what we want throughout the year. But I made so many new rock painting friends this year, I’ve added a lot more people to my gift list!
Hmm, the high of last week was delivering a rock order and having the person really love it.
Love this SO much, particularly the part about Olive, wonder kid! She is amazing, and so glad you got to spend special time with her and her mom this week.
Also, totally late on this but… have you reached out to your doc to ask whether another med would be effective? It’s rare that only one is, and another may be covered (at least a little bit) more?
My shopping consists of finding out to what charities my family wants me to donate to on their behalf, then getting the donations in. We gave up on presents long ago. Except. My parents still give us stuff. I’ve tried to get them to stop but since I can’t, have taken to asking for practical items. 😉 Glad you got a head start!