Bibliomama

 I've been tired and achy all week. On Monday I came home from work and everything hurt so much I sort of just sat on the couch or limped around until I could take a bunch of Advil and go to bed and put pillows under my knees and behind my back and read until I went to sleep. When this happens it's hard not to get into an icky self-pitying spiral. I made a list of anti-inflammatory foods. I contemplated ordering purported pain-relieving essential oils. I complained to my sympathetic friends. I slept well and did a good yoga session Tuesday morning and then took it kind of easy for the rest of the day, and I felt better. And I realized that I just had a bad day, and every day won't be like that. My massage therapist says I should go to a rheumatologist and get formally tested for fibromyalgia, but I'm not sure I see the point. My old doctor thought I had it, but when I google it now it still says there's no way to definitively diagnose it, so what would be the point?...

1. I had book club last night - second part of Don Quixote, which I finished reading at 2:15 yesterday afternoon. It was at Carolyn's new house, which I had never been to, and I was giving our new member a ride because she had shoulder surgery and can't drive yet and she was closer to me than anyone else. It turned out that it was helpful to have Laurie with me because she grew up in Ottawa and knew the area we were going to better than I did. I dislike night driving more and more, especially when I don't know the route, but we made it to the area and parked on a side street about five minutes away. The house fronts on a beautiful park, so we were walking down a really pretty lamplit sidewalk, looking for number 128. I have a bad habit of not noting down people's addresses in an easy-to-locate place, and then having to ask for them again every time. The night before book club I had very carefully put Laurie's address and Carolyn's with their contact information ...

 I saw Ruth the Massage Therapist of Awesomeness again today. She's at the same massage place I usually go to, but a different location. This is not an issue - it's pretty much the exact same distance away, just in a different location, and it's not a women-only place but I don't care about that. The principal difference has been the music. At the place I used to go to, it was generic spa music - pan pipes and quiet chimes. At the new place it's piano arrangements of, well, every song ever. The first time I was lying there thinking 'huh. Is that Wonderwalls by Oasis?' just before it ended and I then thought "huh. That is Hit Me Baby One More Time". Today was energetic keyboard renditions of Love Me Harder by Ariana Grande and Despacito. I fully expect to hear a tinkly version of WAP before my treatment program has concluded. The rest of Eve's week at home was wonderful. The kids came over and painted the pumpkins on Tuesday, and then engaged in...

 The inaugural photo shoot in 2019 2020, during semi-lockdown. I overheard Eve on the phone with Jackson saying "well you can go in Marianna's if you want, but I feel like that's the most infectious car". Pumpkins were painted outside that year 2021 2022 2023 This year No Climbing On the Pumpkins My all-time favourite pic (from 2020)