The Cure For Monday - A Nap

An example of one of my out of control buns, although not actually from today

Hello Monday! All you work week warriors are back at it again, with my sympathy/jealousy, depending on where you are and what you do. I'm starting a week that will hopefully be very quiet. I have to pick up Austin from work on Wednesday and I have to go to Gainesville to see the pain doctor on Thursday. Unless Austin ends up seeing his lawyer this week, hopefully, not much else will be required of me. So far I've had a slllllllllllllooooooowwww Monday and I'm so grateful. I needed it.

This morning I was awake and dressed before five. Little known fact... I get dressed immediately as soon as I wake up and go ahead and do something with my hair (though it doesn't always look like it) and take my morning meds. I get dressed right away because I usually sleep in the same thing I wore all day the previous day. It's not gross, really, considering I hardly move a muscle. If it's been a particularly *moist* sweaty day I'll change before bed but... eh... why make more laundry if it's not necessary? Obviously this means that I wear clothes that can be slept in... you know, like yoga pants and other stretchy, non-binding clothing. So I don't change into something else to sleep in because... who cares? It's the same reason I don't wear makeup most of the time. Why bother? The cats are not impressed. They are also unimpressed when I shave my legs.

SO anyways... Eddy cat had been annoying overnight and woke me up several times by pouncing on me. You haven't lived until a thirty pound cat pounces on your gut in the middle of the night when you're sound asleep. I'm exaggerating, I have no idea how much he weighs. He looks like a baby kangaroo, though and it hurts like heck when he jumps on me. I slept some in the bed, some in the chair but not a whole lot last night thanks to Eddy. At five a.m. I gave up on the idea of sleep.

I got dressed (as per two paragraphs ago), took my meds, fashioned a bun out of my frizzy medusa head and started my morning Italian lessons. I do SO MUCH better learning in the morning than any other time of day. It's quiet, I'm completely focused and... I guess fresh. Living with chronic pain makes you scattered and ditzy. The greater the pain, the less that stays in the brain. It's unfortunate but true. So I get a crack-a-lackin' as soon as I'm dressed, coiffed, medicated and have a spot of tea in my mug.

Oliver napping. Also not today but I love this one! 

This morning after a couple of hours of alternately studying Italian and watching the replay of the Olympics from last night (although I did stay awake long enough last night to see about half of the gymnastics competition and woke back up for the last half hour, so I knew the outcome) I genuinely just couldn't keep my eyes open. Mom brought me down grits, a fried egg and a strip of bacon (thanks mom... and thanks Pop for the perfectly fried egg!) I ate that and went back to sleep... actually IN the bed, the daybed in my living room. I didn't sleep deeply because there was too much activity in the house but I did sleep and it felt AMAZING! Monday morning naps for the win! I highly recommend napping as a means of starting your week off right!

After the nap I fed the cats and realized they were low on food so I jumped on Amazon.com to buy some. Where we live... and with my ability level/energy level... ordering online is always the best route. It's usually cheaper and it takes waaaaay less effort on my part. While I was ordering cat food I remembered that I need more K-cups ... or in my case because I mainly drink tea rather than coffee... I needed "T-cups" (made that up all by myself. Patend pending.) My favorite "T-cup" is the Lipton Chai tea but it's $7.00 for ten cups at our local grocery store. I feel like those little cups shouldn't be more than 50 cents each, don't you? Amazon had that particular brand and flavor slightly cheaper but you had to buy six boxes of it. Um... loving the chai tea right now, not sure I want to commit to six boxes worth. Then I found it on Amazon Prime Pantry for like... $3 a box... so then I had to fill a Prime Pantry box and... about a hundred K-cup T-cups later... my morning was over.

If you don't know... Prime Pantry is a feature of Amazon where you pay $6 for up to a certain weight limit of grocery items. I find a lot of things cheaper there  and if you're a Prime member you can get even better discounts. Their price on cereal is always cheaper than our stores and, like I mentioned the "T cups" I found several great deals on those. The cat food and cat litter is also cheaper through Prime, although, weight wise that might not be a good bang for your buck, if you need to buy actual food. I bought cat litter, cat food, one box of cereal and like... ten different kinds of k-cups, I mean t-cups. Not sponsored by Amazon, for the record. And in my case, I had bought something through Amazon Prime that I didn't need right away so I checked the option of slower delivery and received a credit of $6. My mom thought she had used up the credit but... nope! It was still there so I got the Prime Pantry prices without paying for the shipping! Napping makes good things happen!

Also notable today... I realized that British people pronounce the letter Z as "zed" instead of "zeeee" as we do here in the U.S. I found out while watching an episode of Zoella which... I should probably be embarrassed about since Cody and Marquee were laughing at me for having Caspar Lee's book on my bookshelf this weekend. On my bookshelf I literally have, the Bible, a family photo book and Caspar Lee's book. And Cosette's books on a lower shelf. Caspar Lee is a South African YouTuber who lives in London. He's Austin's age but I find him quite adorable and charming, in a maternal way, not in a creepy cougar way. Zoella is the sister of Caspar's former roommate, Joe. All these young British YouTubers fascinate me far more than is probably normal and I watch their videos for more hours a day than I probably should. But that's ok. I have to do something to balance out my addiction to C-Span Book TV and documentaries. I'm diverse, y'all. Or schizophrenic. Something.

I've had proper medication today and my pain level has been better. I'm so grateful! Still struggling with a few issues but they aren't as bad when properly medicated. Half the battle is keeping my back muscles from tightening up but it's the muscle relaxer that makes me the most drowsy. Anyways...

I already described my breakfast... lunch was lean cuisine ravioli and some watermelon... I don't know what's for dinner but I smell food cooking upstairs so there will be dinner.

Despite my morning nap, I'm still drowsy - medication side effect - so I may not be able to stay awake for the Men's gymnastics tonight. I don't love it as much as the Women's, though, so I probably won't record it. How awesome is Simone Biles? I can't wait to see the rest of the competition. ALSO... did you see the 41 year old woman who was competing in her 7th Olympics in Gymnastics? I could still do a split past 40 (although we now know that was due to my freakish extra vertebrae in my lower spine) but I couldn't do all those other things. I'm just blown away by the human interest side of the sports, much more than the actual sports themselves.

Ok. I've rattled on forever. I don't know how long I'll keep up the daily blogging but I am encouraged by your response! I thought I didn't have much to blog about since I don't go many places or do much. I'm surprised when I get to the end of a long blog like this and realize how much I've had to say! Hope you are enjoying then and again, I truly love your responses, even as simple as a "like" on Facebook. It keeps me going. A week from today is the first custody hearing for Cosette. I'm trying to keep from "feeling all the feels" and being too emotional about things. I have to keep it together for Austin. Writing about normal, everyday life makes that looming, epic court proceeding less of a focus.

So Happy Monday, everybody... hope you have a great week and I'll chat with you again tomorrow! Love and hugs!