Monday 9/17/18 EDLM diary
Well, the tradition of waking up early continued this morning. I don’t know if it was the weird dream with my Mom & Dad in it (Mom has been gone for almost 5 years & she & my Dad were divorced for more than 20 years when she passed away) or my husband snoring that woke me up at 3:20 this morning. It took me a long time to go back to sleep but I must have because I was dreaming again when my alarm went off at 5:00 a.m… I laid there for a while trying to get my bearings and for a brief minute contemplated re-setting my alarm instead of getting up to walk. I got up in the dark & went into the bathroom to put on my walking clothes. I opened the bedroom door & was greeted by our youngest cat. I never know which of our three cats will greet me first. Our eldest cat joined the welcoming committee so I knelt down & petted both of them before moving on to put up the gate so I could let the dog out of her crate. She said a brief “hello” before looking out the windows to see what she could chase after when I let her out to go potty. After I let her out I went into the kitchen & laundry room to fill food and water bowls. I still hadn’t seen our middle cat which is highly unusual. I began to worry something happened to him & would need to investigate where he was. I had to let the dog in before she started jumping up on the glass patio door. 75 pounds of German shepherd trying to bust her way through our glass door isn’t good. After I let her in our middle cat finally showed up to say good morning. I have no idea why it took him so long to join the rest of us but he seemed fine.
Once I got all of the animals fed/watered, I got my own PowerAde Zero so I could go stretch before I walked on the treadmill. I had to tell our dog not to chase after the cats a couple of times (that is a constant battle). She finally laid down on the floor with me & sniffed my head & tried to lick my face. It’s like a zoo in our house when we first get up. Two of the cats were still in the laundry room eating & the third one jumped up onto the T.V. cabinet to be near me but out of the dog’s reach. Once I finished stretching I put the dog back in her crate because she can’t be trusted to be left out yet (she’s 1.5 years old & still thinks the house & everything in it is her chew toy–& that includes walls, floor boards, & carpet). She knows the routine & easily goes back into her crate & got her usual milk bone.
I got on the treadmill & thought about it being Monday & what the week would hold. I was still a bit unsettled by the dream I had earlier in the morning. I turned on the T.V. in front of the treadmill & got Netflix setup as I was already starting to walk. I’ve been watching Marvel’s Agents of Shield & am in the 2nd season of the show. So for 3 miles (45 minutes) I was lost in the show & didn’t really think about anything else. Once I was done, I had an audience of 3 cats who wanted some attention once I was done walking. A brief pat for each & back out to the family room to stretch again before getting ready to go back into the dark bedroom to the master bath to take a shower. My husband didn’t have to work today so I tried to be quiet & let him sleep as I got ready in the bathroom. After I was ready, I walked back into the bedroom & kissed my husband goodbye. I turned off the light in the family room before saying goodbye to all the animals as I walked out into the garage to get in my vehicle.
The brief drive to work was uneventful. I did notice how much the trees seem to be changing. They are starting to look like fall but the temperature outside sure doesn’t feel like it!! I was thinking how lucky I am to have a new reliable vehicle to get to work in. When I got to the parking lot at work, it seemed like there were fewer cars than normal. As I was walking in I saw a patient I knew & used to work with a long time ago. He didn’t see me. He looked so old & stooped over, it made me feel sad. I let myself into the front entrance since the doors were still locked. I walked up to the 2nd floor & noticed several of the lights were still not on so I turned them on as I walked toward my office. I turned on the lights in my office & started my computer back up from its’ weekend sleep. When I walked into the break room I had to turn on all the lights so I could see the water machine where I get my next dose of hydration. No one else came in while I was filling up my cup. When I walked back to my office one of my colleagues was outside my office door looking for me. She isn’t usually at work that early. She had stopped by to tell me a patient I knew passed away over the weekend. I was very sad to hear that as I had known the patient from a long time ago when I used to work directly with patients. Another reminder of how fragile and short life is. I wasn’t really enjoying all these reminders of how short life is this morning!
Another colleague stopped in to see how my weekend was. We chatted for a while & then she left to get started on her day–how do Mondays roll around so fast? I have a meeting at the hospital this morning & I am a bit nervous as it is a subcommittee of another committee I serve on in the community. Hopefully I will be able to find the room since no directions were included in the invite. The nice gentleman at the front desk was nice enough to walk me to the conference room. I walked into the room where I only knew one person. Eventually a couple other people I knew joined the group. We got our business completed in the scheduled hour. We all have assignments to work on & a time line to get the work done. It’s nice to be a part of something that can assist so many people when an emergency in the community occurs.
I went back to work briefly to look at e-mails and send responses & then it was time for me to go home for lunch. I had to drop some paperwork off at CIO first though. That didn’t take too long & then I went home. When I got home I was greeted by my husband & our dog. She gets very excited when one of us gets home!! My husband told me about what he’d been up to on his day off–mostly taking care of things around the house. I ate my small lunch and part of an expired Fresca. Then back to work I went.
It’s almost time for me to leave work for the day. It has been a fairly uneventful afternoon except for a manager who left several years ago is back in town & staying with one of my co-workers. So they have been making the rounds on the 2nd floor of any staff who were here when she worked here. There aren’t very many of us left unfortunately. It was kind of weird to see her… she actually was my supervisor for a while before she left. She is apparently back in town for her company (to do business in Indianapolis). It is getting really difficult for me to continue sitting at my desk because of my back & leg pain. I usually do have an increase in pain in the later afternoon.
When I got home my husband told me his son might be coming over to have dinner with us. He moved out of his mom’s house this year while he is going to BSU and lives in an apartment less than 5 minutes from our house. Apparently his roommates were going to have someone with them that my step-son doesn’t care for so he thought he’d spend time with us. He did come over so we decided to go out to eat instead of eating at home. Initially no one would make a decision on whether we were going to go out or not so we flipped a coin to make that decision. Then no one would decide on where we would go so we listed a bunch of options & my step-son did some kind of spinner app that decides for you. It chose Bdubs which was kind of funny because my husband & I pretty much go there every week on a particular day. We couldn’t go eat in the bar area though since my step-son is only 19. The restaurant was not busy at all. It was nice to spend time with my husband and step-son and catch up on how things are going. We went back to the house & my step-son left once we were back. My husband & I played with the dog for a while & then it was time for me to go to bed since I had to get up @ 5:00 again on Tuesday. So, the close to another day and lots to be thankful for. Adios!