Tag: life

What a date night :P

We had the availability tonight, so we chose to have ourselves a date night together. We even thought that, since we were going to an early dinner, we might even go to the cook-off just to check it out, try the free barbecue, visit the Jack Daniel’s tent with his special Jack Daniel’s card, and just have a small little hang out there together.

We, of course, fooled around getting ready, and so didn’t actually leave until maybe an hour after intended to go to dinner. Granted, we’d thought we’d stop for a haircut for him on the way, but the place was closed early, so we never even stopped. But that only saved us about 20 minutes or so. Nonetheless, we have dinner, determine that neither one of us really feels like going to cook-off anymore, and we head home. We diddle around at home some more and then put on a movie. But we’re both so tired, we stop the one we’d picked and chose one we knew we’ll and didn’t mind missing if we fell asleep or went in and out. Keep in mind, this is at 9:30pm, now.

We put on Shrek, then. I make it only to the scene where he starts to fall, after saying, “But you ain’t ever seen a donkey fly!” before I apparently passed out. I don’t think my man made it even that far.

At about 2am, I woke up on the sofa, hot and uncomfortable and with my legs falling asleep, lying across his, hanging off the sofa. I wake him up multiple times over the next half hour, as I shower and get ready for bed, because he had wanted to nap and then go to the gym… still not sure st this point if the gym is happening tonight, though.

I’m about to collapse into bed now – just finishing this and my stretches. Got to check on him quickly first, then I can sleep.

But really, how silly is all that for a date night? Clearly, we are exhausted.

Dear God, please, grant us restful sleep tonight especially, please. In your name, we pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

Rodeo time

Well, our first rodeo shift went rather well, especially for a first shift and for only the second day of cook-off. We only got yelled at once, and it was by someone on the committee who clearly needed to ‘be in charge’ and ‘be the boss’ for the minute, without having any idea what actually was going on in the moment. And we got it all handled quickly, anyway, and that person left, because her shift was over, anyway. Aside from that, things were mostly normal and good.

My mom and I stopped in a bathroom on our way out, and I realized then that I hadn’t yet seen myself in a mirror in my rodeo uniform. I had always looked at myself in the mirror during rodeo, in our uniform, I mean, and felt that I looked so blah and not-womanly and not-pretty. I always looked a little bit of a mess, somehow, even if I was freshly cleaned and brushed and whatnot. There was just something about it I couldn’t seem to shake off: I didn’t look very good in our uniform, the black cowboy hat, the vest, and the white collared button-down shirt.

Last year was the first time that, suddenly, I not only didn’t look not-very-good anymore, but I actually looked pretty. I looked like a woman. I looked beautiful. I was wearing the same exact uniform as the year before, the same shirt and vest and hat. And I had the same long hair, just a few inches longer. Yet something was different, because I was pretty. It made me smile like crazy whenever I looked in the mirror. And I noticed that I looked at myself much more often than in the past. It felt good to see myself looking so good. It was the opposite of a Catch 22.

This year, I have short hair. And I’ve been a bit of a mess off and on in terms of looking feminine and pretty and all, ever since I cut it. It’s just about shoulder length now, and I was worried I’d be back to looking boyish again, and very much not pretty.

And yet, when I saw myself in the mirror tonight, I was shocked. My hair somehow looked perfect and cute and girly and pretty. I looked beautiful, gorgeous, good. And so it began again, smiling at myself in the mirror. I look forward to seeing more of this beautiful woman in the near future. This truly shows that what’s going on in our heads impacts a lot in terms of how we appear physically. When I’m happy, healthy, holy in my head, so, too, isn’t body. When I’m uneasy, stressed, and feel like I’m not worth it, so, too, is my body.

Thank you, God, for this blessing of joy that has caused such wonderful beauty in my life. Thank you for this life, and thank you for this love. Help me to share your love, especially with those who so openly share love with me. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

Improving

I accepted where I was in my relationship with my part-time job. I created a rough plan of action to resign. And then, an opportunity arose. I will trust myself and God as I consider this opportunity and see where it may lead, because it feels genuine and right to do so. I don’t know what will come of this next week and the planned conversations, but I expect I will be complete with what to do about the job in a week’s time.

Thank you, God and Universe, for this beautiful response to my trusting myself and taking action. Thank you. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

Improvement!

Today, as of this morning, I feel different. Yay! I feel distinctly different from how I have felt these past two-ish weeks now. I guess the weakness of illness has actually left me, now, and I have a sense of normality within my body’s bounds again. I even am genuinely considering going to the gym tomorrow midday. That’s huge. Truly.

Yes, I still have coughing, especially from too much talking. But it is significantly improved. No full-body convulsion-type coughing fits. Just the occasional few coughs and single coughs sprinkled throughout the day, hacking down that phlegm that is finally clear and white, not yellow.

Anyway, it feels like improvement.

Tomorrow, we go to the apartment to see if they’ll do a walk-through with us (because they no-showed for the walk-through today, our last contract day, since they decided to close the office for the day and ignored our appointment… we had to drop the keys in their dropbox… which never seems actually to work, as they’ve lost everything we’ve ever dropped to them in it…). Fingers crossed on that going well for us, please. Prayers appreciated. We really want to move onward from this apartment.

God, help us, please, so that’s e might dedicate our time, resources, and energy to other things and endeavours that will honor you and share your love with the world around us. In your name, we pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

Hmm

Well, I received my black belt. It literally has my name on it. It’s actually quite pretty, really. And, as for the performance we did, it went really well. Also, my mom got to participate in the whole ceremony, too, kind of like last week. Everyone else had a black belt carrying in their belt to the ceremony and presenting it for us. Most of them had a parent as that black belt. But I had a brown belt, my mom, carrying and presenting mine.

When we removed our black-belts-in-waiting belts, the brown with a black stripe through the center, our head instructor had originally just told me we would be handing it to a family member in the audience. Okay, no big deal. I’ll hand it to whomever, so long as he or she is in the front of my family section. Easy peasy. When we actually tied the belts, and she announced to go hand them off, she announced that we were presenting them to ‘the person who had been the most influential in our karate career’. Uuhhh… not what she’d said before… Well, of the options, obviously my mom had played that role. Fortunately, she also was sitting on the front row, making it easy to present the belt to her. I was sure to turn it facing her before presenting it – true Japanese style, of course – and thanking her.

Then we went off with no belts on, breaking rules of the uniform – you never wear the top without the belt and the pants, and without wearing them all fully and properly. Only the pants can be worn without the rest. Then, we changed into our new white uniforms to receive the black belts, again and still breaking the whole uniform rule for another few minutes.

But then the cute and dramatic procession happened, presenting all the belts in rank order, alongside our individual black belts we would receive (carried by our selected black belts and my selected mother who has a brown belt) to music. And we all went back out there one at a time while a photo slideshow played for each of us. After that, we finally were given our belts, and they were tied on for us by our head instructor, and we were officially black belts. So, yay!

It was a good time. So was dinner afterward with my family, and the occasionally chatting with others at dinner.

Separately, I’m still sick. Ugh. Almost no yellow remains in my nasal passages, but the coughing just won’t give up. After tomorrow, I will know if I need to go for more doctor stuff. Ugh.

Also, my apartment lease ends tomorrow. We scheduled a walk-through with the office at 4pm tomorrow. My flat-mate sent me a screenshot of an e-mail she received today – but that I did Not receive, even in spam – that says the office is closed tomorrow. No idea how that is going to go down, but I’m going to pray much about it tonight and tomorrow. This process with this complex has been a huge hassle from the start, and I’m genuinely concerned about what they might try to do to us. Please, say a prayer for our easy move-out tomorrow, if you’re able.

God, help us move forward easily from all of this. Heal my body. Heal my man’s body. Heal all those in need of healing, that we might all serve you better and share your love more effectively. Help us to have a smooth completion with this apartment complex. Please. Please, help me to release this guilt I feel around signing that contract in the second place. Help us, please. In your name, I pray. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

Tomorrow, tomorrow

I receive my black belt tomorrow. I still have a ridiculous cough. It is extremely aggravated whenever I talk. We shall see if I can manage okay just not talking tomorrow. It would be a terrible time to cough the whole day, during the fancy awards and presentations of the day… yikes. Oh, God, heal me, please! I’m supposed to make an announcement with no microphone tomorrow, too(!). Help, please. Amen.

Post-a-day 2023

Seriously?

I’m still sick. I can talk a bit, but talking aggravates the cough. My nose is still dripping on the back, also aggravating the cough. My neck muscles are tired from coughing so much and from such intense coughing. My sides are tired, too, from the convulsions. I am weak and tired from not being able to eat enough, but eating anything causes immense coughing fits. So, I have to eat quickly and strategically – high protein, easy-to-chew, quick meals or snacks. Even then, I still cough up a storm.

Tonight, when doing the saline rinse in my nose, the right nostril suddenly closed up almost entirely – I suppose from something getting pushed over to it up top – leaving the solution to slide slowly but firmly down my throat instead of out my right nostril, as it had been doing quite decently. After too much of this, despite remaining calm and collected, my body revolted and vomited, right there in the sink. I let a little more water rinse through, just to make sure no vomit ended up in my nose, and I abandoned the rest of the saline rinse. I had hit my limit for the night. I had gotten most of the way through, anyway, and that was better than nothing. I had only thrown up a small amount, and didn’t want to consider what it might turn into if I kept at the saline rinse any longer. I’ll just do it in the morning, when my food is well and digested. Because I need that food right now.

Post-a-day 2023