RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING. AGAIN.

2020. Day one-thousand and twelve. Yikes, doesn't it feel like this year has been a thousand days long?

1) We had to have the rest of the trees cut down last week and I'm sad about it!

The big ass tree that fell a couple of weeks ago (a hackberry rather than a persimmon as I reported earlier) actually cracked the trunk of the other big hackberry tree that stood next to it when it fell, so we knew it would have to be cut down as well before it fell.  Steve hired someone to come and cut it down, but because of where it was leaning, he had to cut down the three trees next to it. Our yard looks weird  and way too bright now.

I feel guilty, somehow. I know it's dumb, but I feel like God gave us these amazing trees for all these years, and we must have done something wrong for them to fall/break/have to be cut down. The worst thing I can think of was having a brief, smug thought that I bet a lot of people didn't have such nice trees in their yard, but I was glad we did. I'd like to think that God isn't that vengeful, but pride and destruction and all of that, so who knows?  Anyways, I really do miss our beautiful trees.

2) Heehee, I know I don't have to admit this, but in light of full disclosure, I will. The guy that came to cut down our trees was one of those guys that is tall, fit, and looks like the kind of person who climbs rocks without safety harnesses, rides a bike everywhere and drinks craft beer and may be a vegetarian. Hipstery, if you'll allow me to use the term. Cute and beardy.

Anyways, I was home when he and his coworker knocked off for the day and I looked outside to see if they were gone yet and saw the tree guy had taken off his shirt before getting into his truck. He had a lot of tattoos on his arms and chest, and I was originally looking at them before I noticed he was kind of buff. I caught myself staring and realized that I was acting like a desperate housewife looking at the pool boy!  Steve was home by then and saw me looking out the window, and I said "I'm sorry I'm looking at the handsome, shirtless man in the backyard!" He said "That's ok. If a topless woman was in our backyard, I'd be looking at her!" Touche, Steve. Touche.

3) Friday night Steve, Anthony and I drove down to Jasper to attend a trivia game! We have really missed our Monday trivia nights, and have been playing online trivia hosted by one of the guys who appears on the "It's a Southern Thing" videos. He talked about a live trivia event he was hosting in Jasper at a brewery, now that a lot of the restrictions have been lifted, so we decided to go on a little adventure so we could attend it.

Now, I'm sure you've heard about the COVID-19 numbers in Alabama and that they aren't exactly going down right now. We might not have gone, but the event was basically called "Social Distance Trivia" and was going to be held outside, with tables spread far apart, no contact payments and the trivia was played on our phones instead of on paper. We also had our masks for any inside stuff we needed to do. It was about as safe as going anywhere these days. Except for the fact that we got rained on, and had to play trivia in wet clothes, we had a lot of fun! It was a lot harder than we anticipated, and Steve is a slow typist, so we didn't do so great at first.  However, once we got to the second round, and I started typing, things got better. The hardest part was when he played two songs over one another, the words from one song and the music from another, and we had to tell him the artists (not the song) that were singing/playing. Luckily, Anthony knows every song ever recorded, almost Rainman style. In the end we came in second, and we won a Nerf gun and a Harry Potter coffee mug! Whee!

It was so late when we left, and we still had a long way to drive. We also hadn't eaten dinner, so we had to find a place in Back Forty, Alabama late at night that was still serving food, which wasn't easy. By the time we got home, we were so tired. I had some stuff I wanted to do, but I fell asleep before I could. Being old sucks.

4) We were supposed to be on our trip to Germany, Austria, Prague, and London this week. I'm a little sad, but not nearly as bummed as I thought I might be. I mean, the band is going to attempt to go next year, so there's that. Oddly, this trip never really felt "real" to me anyway, so maybe that's why I wasn't more upset it got cancelled. Who knows? I wouldn't mind a real trip somewhere, though. I know it won't be possible for some time yet, but I would love a nice change of scenery!

STILL ALIVE

Yep. Still here.

If you thought you could get rid of me that easily, you were wrong! HAHAHA! SUCK IT!

Hehehe, sorry. That is just my way of saying that as of this writing, I'm still here! Yay! If you're reading this, it means your still here too! I'm so glad!!!

Today I'm waiting for a meeting I'm having with my not-church boss to discuss not-church business. It's very exciting.

Currently, I can hear Steve doing one of his Very Important Meetings (the kind he'd usually go out of town for, but is doing remotely) through the wall. His business voice is very soporific. If I fall asleep and miss my own meeting, it will be his fault for not having vocal inflections.

So, what else is going on...

OH!  Ok, the last time I wrote I told you about the lawn man weed eating my potato plants! Turns out, they are ok! He cut off the big part of the plant, but it started sprouting again, so it's all good! I'm honestly surprised, but maybe the potato gods took pity on me or something!  Last week I posted a video about it on IG (and accidentally cross posted it to Facebook) and as it turns out, people thought I was crying in that video. I wasn't crying, I was mad! I went back and listened, and it did sound like I was crying. That's embarrassing. No wonder no one ever takes me seriously when I'm angry! This is why I throw things. Heehee!

I've gained an impressive amount of weight in just one month, which is fun. I blame emotional eating. That's pretty much how I deal with stress, which is not good, but I seem to have no control over it. Don't roll your eyes at me. If that's not how you deal, that sounds stupid, but it's how my brain is wired. Eating and sleeping to deal with stress is how my brain works. It's like being addicted to something. I hate it. If I had my druthers, I'd be one of those people who think "Hey, I'm going to go run 10 miles, or bike 50 miles, or lift 400 pounds! That sounds like fun!" but I'm not that person. One day I'll figure out how my body works so I can fix it, I hope. You know, that awful diet we did a couple of years ago was supposed to train me out of that kind of thing, but I genuinely think it only made things worse. It's easy to lose weight when you're systematically starving yourself (and let's be frank, that's what we were doing, albeit with medical supervision) but all it did was make my emotional food dependance worse once I was off of it. What a fucking waste of money and time. I'll just have to deal with the self loathing until I figure something out. Oh well, at least no one who might care has to look at me.

Tangentially related, we have been going on hikes about once a week since all of this started. I think I mentioned that before. I've really enjoyed it, except for last weeks trail. It was muddy and incredibly rocky, like we were walking down a dry riverbed. Halfway, my ankles were screaming at me. It was also mostly downhill, which sounds nice, but when you're trying not to fall on a bunch of smallish, but pointy, rocks, gravity is not your friend. It was easier walking back up that trail, if you can believe it. I like climbing on rocks, but not for an entire 4 or 5 miles.  We did get to see a big well that had been drilled in the mountain back in the day when people lived out there, so that was neat. We threw rocks in it! We plan on going to a much better maintained trail next time. It wasn't all bad, though! It was a beautiful walk. The trees were gorgeous and the wildflowers were blooming. There were streams and big, rocky bluffs. It's easy to forget out beautiful Alabama can be (even though a reminder is literally our state motto!) when you take it for granted, but I'm trying not to do that these days. With the development going on around here, you never know when the pretty stuff will get paved over!

Geez, this post sounds depressing and full of complaints! I'm sorry, that wasn't my intent. I'm fine, really. I hope you are too!

PROOF OF LIFE

Just in case anyone is wondering, I'm still here.

My days consist of:

I. Work
    a. Church- Keeping the office going, paying bills, making videos.
    b. Cyber Security - Marketing Research and strategy

II.  Home
    a. TV - Been marathoning The Middle. It's delightful.
    b. Painting - Have slacked off lately, but need to get inspired because I miss it.
    c. Potato Plant* - Got weed whacked by a careless lawn maintenance guy.
    d. Cat - Napping with and petting.
    e. Eating - Too much and too often.
    f. Exercising - Not. I feel quite bad about this both mentally and physically. Considering spending
                           money on equipment because outside is full of pollen and migraines.
   g. Sleeping - Sometimes too much, sometimes not enough.

*I shouldn't be as upset about the stupid plant as I am. I recognize that, but y'all, it was my sanity project. I think we can all agree that things are weird right now, yeah? It started out as something kind of funny - I found an old potato, let's plant it and see what happens! - but it actually started growing! I was helping it live! I was weeding it and learning how to take care of it, and I figured that while everything else in the world was going to hell, I was keeping my stupid plant alive. It was a little thing, but it was MY thing.

I'm constantly worried about my friends and family right now. I lost my best friend three weeks ago, and everyday since I am afraid that someone else is going to get sick, or die of this awful virus, or something, and the world is going into an economic depression, and people are going hungry, and people are being awful to one another, and I have to wear a mask that restricts my breathing when I go out to buy bread, and our president is a crazy person. I can't even fucking HUG ANYONE!  So maybe my plant was just a way to focus on something that didn't seem scary.

But don't worry, otherwise I'm fine. The way I treat produce, I'm certain I'll lose another potato and it will sprout and I'll plant that one. In the meantime, I'll find something else to focus on.  It might be learning to give myself prison style tattoos, but I'll figure it out! Hehe

Hope you are doing well and staying safe! I hug you!