What A Day! Food Friday - The Big Grocery Haul

I probably have no business trying to write a blog post today because I am so freaking tired! I slept poorly last night and have had the devil of a time trying to get some necessary prescription refills today... I'm really feeling salty... but I'll give it a shot and if it's fit to publish, I will.

Last month, like an idiot, when I left the pain doctor I headed straight down to Marvin's (that's not the dumb part). Instead of filling my prescription at my usual pharmacy, I went to (what I thought was) the same pharmacy at the location close to his house. It's really complicated because Walgreen's has bought out all the Rite Aid pharmacies in our area. My local pharmacy is literally a Walgreen's Pharmacy in a Rite Aid building. My Spidey Sense told me at the time that it was going to be a problem and I wish I had listened to that inner voice saying, "nothing in life is this simple" because... it's true. Well, that Rite Aid location completely shut down and the prescriptions on file were transferred to the Walgreen's across the street. That's a Walgreen's and my usual pharmacy is a Walgreen's so... easy, peasy, right?  Notsomuch. My Walgreen's Pharmacy in a Rite Aid building is not on the Walgreen's computer system so... in the eyes of the DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) I am "pharmacy shopping" with a controlled substance.

So... when my local pharmacist told me this morning that she couldn't transfer the prescriptions to my local pharmacy, she presented me two options: either go to the pharmacy near Marvin's house (45 minute drive away) or have my doctor call in the prescription to my local pharmacy. She said, "if your doctor will call me, I'll explain that it's really not your fault, it should not have been a problem, you couldn't have known..." etc, etc. Instead the nurse from my doctor's office calls and says, "why were you filling your prescription in Flowery Branch instead of at your local pharmacy?" My internal answer was, "none of your blankety blank business" but... like the polite drug seeking patient that I am... I said, "because I was going to be down there for a few days and needed refills so rather than drive all the way to Cleveland (the opposite direction) when I left  your office, I filled the prescription at the location that was nearest to where I was going to be". "You can't do that". Apparently. I swore on the lives of my grandchildren that I would never, ever, ever attempt to fill a prescription anywhere else in the world except my local pharmacy and she said the doctor would call in the prescriptions to save me from having to drive an hour and a half round trip for a refill.

Except... he didn't call in the prescriptions and they closed for the weekend at 2pm and... too bad for Heather. It's so frustrating. It makes me mad at the pharmacy for being in transition and making things so darn confusing. It makes me mad at the DEA for treating chronic pain patients like criminals. And it makes me mad at my doctor who knows, better than anyone, how severe the withdrawals are from these medications and what living hell it will make my life if I don't drive down to Flowery Branch to pick them up. My doctor also knows, better than anyone, how painful an hour and a half drive would be for me. What I'm going to do, rather than make the drive, is let Cody pick them up for me on his way up here tomorrow and just suffer overnight. BUT I'm not HAPPY about it, trust me!

Anyways... it's Food Friday so I will try to be on topic for a minute and talk about food. I didn't do a restaurant review this week but I will tell you where-all we ate on date night (and day and night and day) this week. On  Tuesday night we went to our usual Tuesday night - on the way to or from softball place - Twisted Taco. I had the ahi tuna tacos in wonton shells with sesame sauce because they are absolutely amazing and I love them with a purple passion. Marvin usually has the Korean taco (hold the mushrooms), the tropical shrimp taco and the ... wild Alaskan taco (I think... ). They also have really good chips and salsa and mine comes with a lot of extra avocado which we both munch on with the chips. Wednesday for lunch we went to Atlanta Highways Seafood Market which... if you're near Gainesville, Georgia, is the best place to go for seafood. It's incredibly fresh and quick and they're super nice there. I had fried crawfish tails because... yum... and Marvin had fried crawfish tails and fried catfish (and I shared some of his catfish and fries because... that's what we do). I bought some ceviche from there for my dinner Wednesday night (because Marvin eats at work on Wednesday and Thursday for dinner). On Thursday we went to our favorite little Chinese restaurant near him - it's called the Golden Phoenix but we always call it the Happy Lucky Golden Seven Phoenix because it used to be called the ... something Seven.... and we could never remember the exact name. I had shrimp fried rice because their shrimp fried rice is the best I've had anywhere and he had the General Tso's Chicken. It's a super affordable lunch menu so it was a win/win for us. Since we went to places that are our usual haunts, it didn't occur to me to take photos of our meals so you will just have to use your imagination.

Today I did a big grocery shop and a big food prep and I'm pretty stoked that I was that organized. I made a big batch of what I call "Three Bean Salad" but it's black beans, red beans and white beans (rinsed to remove lots and lots of sodium) with tomatoes, red onion, cucumbers, grilled chicken with olive oil and red wine vinegar and cilantro. I did my roasted salmon and veggies... I used tomatoes, sugar snaps, broccoli, carrots, zucchini and.... I think that's all. I've got enough food prepped to last me probably a week or more (if i don't eat more just because it's already prepped and ready to eat LOL!) AND I bought my favorite yogurt to have for breakfast because I'm pretty much addicted to it at this point. I'm fairly worn out from shopping without Austin and all the prep and cleanup but it's done and that feels great. Oddly enough my blood pressure was a happy, normal little 115/79 today after all of that so... who knows? Just the thought of eating better lowers my blood pressure. And I'm taking the beet root and... nothing else has really changed.

Tomorrow Cody and Oliver (and maybe Marquee) are coming up and I'll get Cosy in the morning so she and Oliver can play together. Marvin was such a sweetheart this week.... I sent him a text while he was at work Wednesday night and mentioned that I wanted to get the little swimming pool I had seen at his Walmart for the grandbabies... and he actually stopped on his way home from work after 9pm to get it. It's a good thing he did because it was the last one! He had a heckuva time getting it because the garden shop was closed and it was a real ordeal to get the upc code for it and then he couldn't do it through self-checkout and then he had a hard time getting it in his car (and was sure it wouldn't fit in mine but luckily it did!). I kept wondering why it was taking him so long to get home after work and he's out there getting the babies a pool. So they won't have to swim in buckets this time... all thanks to Marvin! He called this morning while I was in the middle of pharmacy hell and has had to listen to me whining about it all day. Sometimes I'm not so much fun to be around... a lot of times, probably... but he's a good egg and pulls me back from the brink when necessary.

And I guess that's about all I have to say today. Hopefully all will go according to plan and Cody will be able to pick up the prescriptions on his way up tomorrow... and the babies will be cooperative and I'll have some cute photos to share. How many of you are off for the whole week next week instead of just the 4th? Going anywhere fun? I've heard that this is supposed to be the biggest travel week of the whole Summer so safe travels or happy homebody week, whichever the case!

Throwback Thursday - June 14

That awkward moment when Throwback Thursday becomes Flashback Friday... Wednesday night into Thursday became the worst headache I've had in a long time and I could not bear to even do something as simple as post a blog post that was already written. Boyfriend Brag Time: my guy gave me the most relaxing, amazing week(end) (which is actually most people's midweek but it's our weekend. It's complicated.) and took such wonderful care of me. If you've never been a single woman... or a woman married to a man who just doesn't give a rip what you're feeling like... which describes my entire adult life... you cannot imagine how lovely it feels just to have something as basic as, "can I bring you a cool compress for your head?" or to hear "I'm sorry you don't feel well" from someone who means it. He watched over me and let me sleep and made a superhuman effort to keep a quiet, cool space for me to be in so that I could be comfortable. It just melts my stone cold heart into a little babbling brook when he does these sweet things for me. He also fed me so that I didn't have to leave the house until time to go home. And I had to go home because there was this med that I've been missing, as described in my last blog post. I got home... called the pharmacy, they got it ready quickly and Austin hurried over to pick it up for me and although I have bit of a residual headache today, I'm so much better than yesterday!

So let's pick up where you were supposed to be yesterday with a review of blogs from YESTERDAY in blog history. I hope you enjoy!

It's that time of week where I look back to this day in past years on my blog and share a few clips and updates. Since 2017 and 2016 were a bit crazy... I'm going to start with this day in 2015. We had just returned from Connecticut (where we attended my brother's wedding, see Wedding Wednesday from last week if you missed the flashback). Cosy was here and melting my heart but Oliver was not yet here. I was looking forward to holding both babies at once and I have so many times since then... but what I wasn't prepared for, that has been the bigger joy for me, was their sweet interactions (and sometimes not so sweet) with each other. I never, ever, ever talk to Oliver that he doesn't ask me where Cosy is. Any time I say, "guess who is coming to play with you this week?" she immediately guesses Oliver. They might... possibly... who knows... be my only grandchildren and they might very likely be only children. I so very much want them to have each other to lean on! That's another thing about grandparenting... you find yourself focusing on helping your grandchildren foster relationships with other people who will be in their lives long after you are gone. Cosy is really attached to Austin's girlfriend, Jessie. I would be jealous every time Cosy asks me to let Jessie push the shopping cart instead of me... but then I think, if Jessie is involved in Cosy's life long term, I want Cosy to WANT to be around Jessie. I want her to be surrounded by people who love her and make her feel loved. This perspective helps me a lot in dealing with the fact that Oliver is so far away... he sees his other grandma and her mother and sister more than once a week and me just once a month, usually. As much as I wish I could see him more, I'm so glad that there are three other ladies loving him to pieces when I am not around!

In my blog post on this day in 2013, I talked about my thoughts about boys and girls (men and women) and their different perspectives in relationships. This was while I was in sort of an "I'm not ever doing that again" stage of life when it came to relationships but I still stand by what I said. If anything is different with this whole "later in life love" this time around, I'd say that it's taking my own advice of not trying to change him...

Girls fall in love with boys hoping they can change them.... boys fall in love with girls hoping they don't change a bit. And what happens? Guys do what they've always done and if they want to play video games from dark til dawn, they do. And girls get lazy, feeling unappreciated and... let themselves go. I've done it in every single relationship of my life. I've seen a guy as a rough draft that I can improve on... a fixer up, so to speak. And they see me as "move in ready" and expect things to stay perfect, with no attention from them. Relationships fail because we love people for who we want them to be, not for who they are.

If anything is different with this whole "later in life love" this time around, I'd say that it's taking my own advice of not trying to change him... just appreciating who he already is. I don't mean that we never have anything to gain, no opportunities to grow. I hope that I'm always going to learn new things throughout my life and I know he feels the same way. I'm talking about someone's fundamental personality and character traits not their knowledge and abilities.

On this day in 2012, I was getting ready to move back to Riverdale for (what I wasn't sure then would be) a short time and looking for gainful employment / trying to decide if I should go ahead and file for disability. When I look back to that period in time there was so much uncertainty in my life. I'm really glad that things are so much more stable now. Obviously, life can change in the blink of an eye but wow! that was a time of really big decisions. I moved to Riverdale in June and my parents bought a house in Cleveland in August. In the meantime I found a job in Fayetteville (near Riverdale for those who aren't local) and it was exactly what I needed to end my career with a little bit of self-esteem but also with the documentation that was crucial in getting my disability approved. Being able to attempt to work as little as an hour or two a day and not being able to do even that small amount of time consistently was key.

I really focused on finding humor in the situation back in  2011 as we were sort of figuring out that things were not going to get better. I read these posts in 2011 KNOWING that my house is about to get struck by lightning (literally) and I'm about to have to move and what little rest and comfort I had at the time (my home base) was going to be ripped out from under me. Of course, I also didn't know that I was going to find a cheaper, quieter place closer to work... and because of Renter's Insurance the move was going to be done by someone  other than me, including the packing. Yes, it was a real stressful situation at the time but it ended up ok. That's the important thing. It always ends up ok.

In 2010, I was getting back into Weight Watchers and did lose a good bit of weight before my back problems started and I had to get on meds that really don't allow me to lose weight. Even when I eat practically nothing for an extended period of time I don't lose. It would be great to have less weight to carry around but I'm not too stressed over it. I'm ok with me.

And that's all I have for this week! I hope you enjoyed this look back on today in my blog history. Happy Flag Day!

Wednesday

Usually I write my blog posts for Wednesday and Thursday in advance so that while I am with my guy... I'm not spending a lot of time typing away on my laptop. This week I wasn't quite so organized and he has left for his Wednesday night trivia show so... I thought I'd do a little mid-week update before I commence spa night.

Last night for date night we tried a new (to us) place... Pure Taqueria in Duluth. I'd like to save this little food update for Friday but I didn't take photos and can't really do a full on review so I'll just give you a little paragraph or so today. Pretend it's Friday. Click here to visit their website, if you'd like. We shared an appetizer of Tres Ceviches. It's three individual ceviches - shrimp, octopus and fish - served with tostadas and fried plantains. I love ceviche but usually find that it's too spicy. Theirs was not. It was perfect for me! Honestly, I could have made a meal out of the ceviche, even sharing it. I also had an ensalade de verano - salad with smoked salmon. The salad was not your basic - it had grilled corn, watermelon radish, queso cheese (which is basically like saying, "cheese cheese" but you get the picture), tortilla chips in a lemon vinaigrette. I'm not usually a salad girl but this just sounded like it had all the right parts for me. Marvin had scallop tacos which he liked fairly well. We did have probably the worst server we've had in all our restaurant endeavors. We were literally begging for a refill of tea which was frustrating because otherwise, it was a really lovely meal. They do a really fresh take on Mexican and there were several other things on the menu that I would like to try.

Today we had a deliciously lazy day. This is a picture Marvin got of me dressed in his sweats this morning. The a/c in his house is set really cold and I wasn't prepared. We normally go out for lunch on Wednesday but today we stayed in and did grilled cheese. We had a garlic and herb cheese on rye bread and it was amazing! So good that it could easily become my new go-to meal! We finished watching the series Altered Carbon which... I've struggled with because it's science fiction and I had such a hard time keeping all the details straight but... by the end I was thoroughly invested in the story.

I realized today that I have forgotten one of my medicines for - at least the past week - maybe longer. I take a lot of meds between the different pain meds and blood pressure meds and migraine meds. I think there are 12 different prescriptions in all. I have one drug that I take that is traditionally an anti-depressant but it works well on pain, lowers your blood pressure and helps with migraines- it also helps you sleep - so I'm on sort of a high dose of it. It occurred to me today that I didn't sort it into my weekly drug divider this week and I'm almost certain that I didn't last week. I've struggled with sleep the past several days, my migraines have been terrible for the past week or so and my pain levels are higher than normal, which I was attributing to not sleeping. There's this whole sleep/pain cycle that you learn about when you're a chronic pain patient. Sleep is really important for healing inflammation in your body so when you have interrupted sleep, you have more pain. I slept poorly for several days in a row but fortunately, last night I slept great. I ALWAYS sleep well at Marvin's. His space is quieter and cooler and darker and there are no animals climbing in bed with me and I truly believe that I feel safer when he's near. Not in an... I'm endangered at home kind of way. Just that I know he's nearby and in charge and watching over me and I am therefore more relaxed. Hopefully I can get another night of really deep sleep in and when I get home tomorrow I can figure out what happened to the medicine I'm missing.

I've had a headache all day today and I left my migraine rescue meds at home so I'm just winging it with ibuprofen. It's not really working so this may be a shorter post than I meant.

Cosy and her new kitten came over yesterday. Baby girl loves that kitten like an obsessed stalker. The kitten is still tiny and submissive. It will break Cosy's heart if she gets too big or skittish to let Cosy cuddle her like she wants to. I tried teaching her how to lay her on her back and rub her tummy like I do with my kitty. One good thing about the kitty... somehow she was a trade off for giving up the pacifier so ... I think the paci habit is well and truly broken. We'll see. I told Marvin that the picture he snapped of her last week at lunch with her paci may be the last one we have. I'm glad to see her grow up and not be attached to it but... she's growing up! I'll miss that sweet little face in the rearview mirror with her sunglasses (her "hater shades") and the paci plugging her little mouth while we drive along.

And... I guess that's it for now. I'm going to see if I can find something to get rid of this headache. Hope you had a great Wednesday... I heard thunder but I haven't even peeked outside all day so I have no idea what the weather is like. I'll be back tomorrow with a Throwback Thursday post! Love and hugs!

Throwback Thursday - June 7 - what's changed over the years?

Time once again to look back on this day in Blog History... which also, as it turns out, is a flash back in Presidential history. The post I wrote on this day in 2016 expressed my concerns about the possibility of a Clinton vs. Trump election and how I felt about each candidate. I wish we could go back to the innocence of that Summer, especially of that time. There's so much division in our country now and it breaks my heart. Speaking of being divided, this post was written about a week and a half before Cosy was taken out of our life for two months... I was recovering from my hysterectomy... I compared the difference between Oliver and Cosy's approach to playing with dolls. There was such a bad storm brewing and I had no idea at that moment. It's important to embrace today because you don't ever know what lies ahead, do you?

I'm cheating by one day on my post from 2014 because I didn't post on this day that year and the post from June 8 is a question and answer post that was fun for me to look back on... I hope it will be for you. One question that I'll go ahead and include here for you to answer: what is on your Summer Reading List? I don't read enough. Partly because of migraines and partly because I'm a couch potato. What SHOULD I be reading? Tips? Suggestions?

In 2013, I was adjusting to being at home full time. On this particular day I was dealing with quite a bit of pain and I came to an epiphany about how being a chronic pain patient was going to change my life. At this point I was already two years into this rocky road and was STILL trying to figure it all out. Now, seven years in, I feel like an expert because I've gone through so much trial and error. I also realize that it's ok to ask for help, it's ok to do what you need to do to feel comfortable - it's not selfish, what's selfish is putting yourself in a situation where you're no good at all to anyone, yet it's also ok to take risks and stretch your boundaries at times. I've been to two concerts in the past six months WITH A WALKER! The key is to build a support network of people you can trust to help you navigate the difficult parts. The bulk of my support comes from three guys who are not by nature cuddly/maternal/emotional people but they all three love me enough to help me get through life. I'm talking about my youngest son, my dad and my sweetheart. They know how to help me because I TELL them what I need, I verbalize my concerns and I trust them to do what I need them to do.

This day in 2012, I found myself feeling particularly grateful for my internet support system... the people who read my blog every day whether they be "real life" friends or people I only know through the internet. I've been blogging off and on since 2004. I've been active on the internet since 1996. The people I've met online, even the ones I've never met in real life, have been constant and consistent and as real to me as the people who live right down the street from me. There's a group of ladies that I refer to as my Blogger Babes and Mother Hens who I know without a doubt are there for me when times get tough. You proved that to me again last Summer during my mom's illness. You sent me flower and texts and cards and messages and truly, just really sustained me during that time. Internet dating may have been a huge mistake for me but internet friendships are the staff of life for me.

Life was particularly difficult in 2011 because I was still trying to work full-time despite the pain that was literally ruling my life. I was trying to get Austin through high school. I was trying to keep the bills paid and the lights on and food in the refrigerator and it was hard. Somehow though, every day brought a real sense of purpose and little moments of joy. My life is so different now. I come in contact with only a fraction of the people I came in contact with at work. My opportunities to make a difference are fewer but now I have time to take with people. I can go at a slower pace. I can have a more deliberate impact. To everything there is a season. This season of life for me is about quality, not quantity.

For some bizarre reason this post from 2010 went relatively viral (for me). It got 840 views which... at that time I got about 60 views per blog entry. Now it's about double that. These numbers don't matter a HUGE amount but I wouldn't mind growing my readership enough to make a little pocket money every month. Social Security doesn't go far, trust me. It's a basically unremarkable blog post so I have NO idea why it got so many views but... maybe posting the link will bring me a few new readers. If you know someone who might enjoy my style of blogging and the topics that I cover (toddlers, living with chronic pain, dating at 50, etc), please share my link! I don't expect to get rich but doubling my readership would at least pay my pharmacy co-pay every month.

Life comes full circle for us. I was reminded of this while reading my blog post from 2009. I talk about a lady who was feeling a lot of bitterness toward her ex-husband. In one of the newer blog posts on this day in history, about two years afterwards, I think, I talked about her son and how he was such a big part of Austin's life. You just never know how the seeds you plant today might bloom in the future. You never know what bridge you might have to cross again.

That's it. I hope you enjoyed this look back with me. I'll have a Food Friday post tomorrow (hopefully) about a really awesome restaurant that Marvin and I visited on Wednesday. Love and hugs, y'all!