Day 33 - LA County enters yellow tier

Finished this today…

Friday. 6/4/21.

9:00 – 10:00 - Up and in the shower. Lotion. Make-up. I wear the same clothes from yesterday. Re-pack my overnight bag. Load everything in the car.

10:00-12:00 – B. arrives with coffee and donuts and we have breakfast on the patio. I eat part of the donut and an apple with almond butter that I brought from home. The contractor who was supposed to give me a bid on staining my garage floor never calls or shows. I leave.

12:00-12:30 – Driving.

12:30 – 3:30 - Home and I don’t feel well.  In fact, I’ve felt sick ever since I woke up this morning. I heat up leftover salmon and salad from B.’s house and finish The Push.

It’s been awhile since I’ve read a novel and this book was a nail-biter. It reminds me of We Need to Talk About Kevin. The mother, Blythe, gives birth to a daughter, whom they name Violet. She’s a difficult, colicky baby and from an early age, states that she hates her mother. Blythe comes from a sordid background of three generations of mothers abandoning and hating their daughters. She desperately hopes the problem is Violet, not her (Blythe), because she can’t face the fact that she is just like her mother and grandmother.

It is too difficult for Blythe to determine who is at fault unless she has another baby. She gives birth to Sam when Violet is 6 or 7. Blythe has a wonderful experience with her second child, until his 1st birthday, at which point, while he is in the stroller, Violet pushes him into oncoming traffic, where he is hit by a car and dies.

There is so much more to the book. Blythe and her husband split up and he finds a younger girlfriend who gets pregnant and also has a baby. Violet would rather live with her Dad and his new girlfriend because, for whatever reason, she has hated her mother since birth. There is a sub-plot where Blythe wears a wig to alter her appearance and gets to know the Dad’s new girlfriend at a Mom’s group they both attend once a week. There is tension and anxiety in the second half of the book because, as the reader, we don’t know if Violet is going to hurt the new baby that her Dad’s girlfriend just had. I won’t spoil it for you. Highly recommend!

-L. leaves for work.

3:30-4:15 – I watch the first half of The Dry [video on Amazon], then pause it to use the second half as incentive to get some things done around the house. I feel like I might have the flu…

4:15-6:30 – Kitchen duty and I sweep the downstairs.  Wash a vase. Water my four jasmine-vine pots outside. Pick up dog poop. Unpack two bamboo baskets that arrived from IKEA. Start a load of towels in the washing machine. Unpack my overnight bag. Superglue the back of an earring. Etc.

6:30 –7:30 -  Return to The Dry.

-L. returns from work and I pause the movie so we can debrief about her day.

7:30-8:30 – L. starts working on a homework assignment and I finish The Dry. Excellent movie and highly recommend. Thanks Mom!  I move the load of towels to the drier.

9:00 – 9:30 - Still not feeling well. I want to skip walking the dog tonight, but I know it’s important to her and we missed yesterday.  I drag myself off the chair, grab my flashlight, and tell her we’re going for a walk!  Yay!  She is so excited. I feel nauseous, like I have vertigo, as we walk.  I just feel off. I listen to Film Week on Air Talk.

9:30 – 11:30 – The walk is over and I’m starting to feel a bit more like myself. Gardening. I sweep the entire patio, trim dead leaves, and clean and fill the fountain. After, I sanitize the Astroturf with buckets of Simple Green then water ALL of my plants. I listen to Martinis and Your Money and the Pop Culture Happy Hour.

-L. leaves to pick up N. so they can go to J.’s house. J. just broke up with her boyfriend and wants to discuss.

11:30-12:30 – I read a Money Diary then pull the instructions for my last assignment from my French Cinema class so I can think about what to write. The paper is due on 6/7/21.

-L returns and we debrief about her time with J. and N. tonight.

12:30 – 1:30 – I do an Insanity-Max Cardio Pylo workout, but stop after 45 minutes when I start feeling pain in the upper left quadrant of my chest.  Yes, you read that right.  I’m having chest pains. In fact, I’ve felt this same twinge over the last couple of days, but attributed it to the more intense Insanity workouts I started doing – they involve multiple sets of push-ups.  Or maybe it’s from all the garage painting. Or the heavy lifting as I repack crates and lift them onto the storage racks. Or maybe I feel sick today because I’m having a heart attack. Who knows?

1:30-3:30 – I crack a Prosecco-in-a-can and work on blog posts.

3:30-4:30 - Nighttime routine. Bed.