My cartilage piercing was growing over its jewelry so I went to the piercer who has saved my sister's ears to see if she could help.
First thing she said was "...fuck". :x
She dug out all of the crusty bits, drained it, cleaned it, and put in new titanium jewelry. This was a disgusting process!
Between it being weird to not see Illy snoozing on the couch with my Dad and the pain with my ear, I was fairly subdued today. I'm not one to complain about pain, so everyone knew I was off.
Even though euthanasia is a kindness, it’s still hard to let go of a beloved pet. This was a day of tears and sharing memories.
After the post office we were able to spend time with Illy, who in spite of all the pain purred as we pet her. The poor angel was so weak, she could barely pick herself up off of the bathroom floor. There was no doubt in my mind that it was her time to go and I hated that we had to wait until 4pm to help her pass.
Love you forever, Illy. Sleep well.
Even though euthanasia is a kindness, it’s still hard to let go of a beloved pet. This was a day of tears and sharing memories.
After the post office we were able to spend time with Illy, who in spite of all the pain purred as we pet her. The poor angel was so weak, she could barely pick herself up off of the bathroom floor. There was no doubt in my mind that it was her time to go and I hated that we had to wait until 4pm to help her pass.
Love you forever, Illy. Sleep well.
This has been a bummer of a day, obviously. J caught up on some work that he missed yesterday and we laundered the bedding.
Neither one of us had the energy or desire to cook, so we went to The Cookshack for dinner.
Listed some Vineyard Vines shirts on eBay that Uptown Cheapskate didn’t take, along with Reel Drama Frankie and my bonus Aisha key chain. It all ended up selling almost immediately, so I packaged everything up to drop at the post office tomorrow.
Mom called that afternoon, asking for our advice on Illy. The steroid and antibiotic didn’t increase her appetite; she was no longer eating or drinking at all due to the ulcers in her mouth and down her throat. She wanted to know what we would do: would we let her pass away on her own, or would we help her take her final sleep via the vet?
OFC, we said euthanasia because slowly starving to death is a cruel end for a critter who gave us 18 years of nothing but love.
Mom set up her end-of-life appointment for the 20th and we told her that we would come into town to be there for her and Illy.
Finished the biggest diamond painting project I’ve embarked on. It’s a black cat with green-yellow eyes. I had receieved the new stylus I ordered to finish the painting and it’s so much uglier than its listing led me to believe, hahaha. It’s comfortable to hold, at least!
Mom took Illy to the vet yesterday; turns out she has mouth ulcers. No wonder baby girl had lost weight and refused to eat! She got an antibiotic shot and a steroid, so I’ve got my fingers crossed that she’ll start eating again and gain some much needed weight back. Illy’s barely 5lbs now.
I had to use the fire blanket whilst cooking, that was scary af. There wasn’t a fire per se, but I had liquid boil over and cause a huge steam reaction that needed smothering ASAP.
Picked up my Wegovy, which is now $25 through the weight loss management plan. I worked on my diamond painting until my resin stylus rolled off of my desk, landed on the floor, and shattered. I tried to use the plastic one that came with a kit, but it hurt like hell. My art is on hiatus until my new stylus arrives Wednesday, womp.
I also caught tf up on laundry, so I’m going to wash the bedding tomorrow. YAY!
We went over to my parent’s house early. We ran some errands in town, namely stopping in Target for J’s new Mounjaro dose and going to the Uptown Cheapskate that I had a coupon for.
Wow, that consignment shop was nice. Shout out to the queen who donated her 14 longs. I snagged a pair of Abercrombie & Fitch jeans new with tags and a pair of American Eagle jeans. It’s freaking RARE to find anything in a long, let alone the size I need.
I also got a pair of space dyed grey Aerie leggings for the gym, a pair of black-and-white Nike shorts new with tags, a lavender Nike dri-fit work out top, some dark grey Aerie soft cargo pants with a drawstring, and a Hollister long sleeved navy top. J got a nice bright blue Carhartt t-shirt.
I sold a couple more items that no longer fit, so that took care of half the balance. You can’t use your store credit between locations, as they’re all independent franchises. That’s okay, because I got a coupon to send me back to the original store... mwahaha.
I felt bad for JL and CL, so me and J chose to spend the day with them and Mom.
Mom wanted to go to Nebraska Furniture Mart because she’s getting a new washer and dryer. (I AM SO EXCITED FOR HER! I hated doing laundry at her house because the machines were terrible.) So before NFM, we ate BBQ at Hard Eight, which is in Grandscape AKA the shopping center all around NFM. It’s some of the best damn BBQ; I always get a brisket loaded baked potato, which is seriously big enough to feed two.
J and I actually hate NFM, so we checked out their toy section and then plunked ourselves on some patio furniture whilst the family did their thing. We found Reel Drama Clawdeen, Lagoona, and Frankie on clearance. There was also this build-a-keychain terrarium that featured Draculaura’s bat Count Fabulous and Clawdeen’s pet wolf Crescent, so we got those too because we had never seen them before.
From there, CL looked up nearby malls and we stumbled upon The Shops at Willow Bend, which we didn’t know was a dead mall. We were all like ??????? when we parked and the lot was so damn empty.
It first opened in August 2001 and was planned to be an upscale mall for Plano moms to shop at (AKA wealthy housewives) but the mall never quite found its footing. Nearby Stonebriar Centre had a movie theater and ice rink and Galleria Dallas was already the mall for luxury. And of course, a month later was 9/11 which fucked up everything in the US. No one was going to Willow Bend to spend their pennies, so slowly over time, tenants left. Did you know it was the mall that got Texas’ first Apple Store? Yeah. It was supposed to be a big deal.
There’s been a few half-hearted attempts to revitalize the mall but nothing stuck. Their biggest draw, the Crayola Experience, was recently on the news because its owners abandoned it due to delinquent rent. CL is a locksmith, so he had a laugh when he read the signage up on the door. “Yup, I’ve had to do this a time or two.”
JL and CL had to make the call to help their elderly pug, Lucky, take his final sleep. He had dementia and was scared all of the time. On top of his lower body paralysis, Lucky’s quality of life had taken a nosedive over the past few weeks. They couldn’t bare to watch him suffer. I’ll miss him, he was a sweet dog.
J called our nearest Gong Cha to see if they had the promotional Neopets plushie danglers in stock, so we took a 30 minute drive to the tea shop to purchase some silly plushies that make me very happy. He bought me 6 in hope that I would get an Aisha, which is my all-time favourite Neopet. I have 6 Aisha on my account!
First box: Kacheek. Okay, this is actually pretty cute! Second box: Shoyru. Nice, glad to see I haven’t gotten a repeat yet. Third box… AISHA! OMG, OMG!
At this point, a woman came into the store hoping to buy a box for her sister. I had already unboxed what I came in for, so we gave her one of the boxes to take home. She really wanted to pay us for it, but we didn’t want the money, I’m just happy that there’s people keeping this silly little website alive. I’ve been a Neopets player since I was 11 in 1999.
Boxes 4 and 5 were also Aisha, hahahaha. I didn’t get a Bruce, but that’s okay. I have one of the Aisha on my Lulu crossbody and the other one is hanging out with its friends on my peg board. I’m going to trade or sell the 3rd one.
Anyway, best early Valentine’s gift ever.
I found out why my Wegovy wasn’t covered by insurance; I had to sign up and be approved for a weight management app. Now I’ll have to check in with a dietician ever so often to keep my prescription $25. Kind of annoying, but sure, we’ll roll with it.
J and I played Sky Team for the first time, which is a two player board game where you are a pilot and a co-pilot trying to land their plane without crashing. You have to keep a “sterile cockpit” whilst you take your turns, which means you can’t communicate with each other! In between turns is when you try to strategize. This is actually something that happens in real life flights; when the aircraft is in critical stages of flight (below 10k feet), they cut nonessential chatter to concentrate on the safe operation of the plane. It’s a rule that was written in buckets of blood, unfortunately. (Flying is very much safer than it used to be!)
But anyway, it’s a game that sounds deceptively simple in practice but lots of things can go wrong, forcing your plane to either crash or overshoot the airport. We lost our first game and won the second, landing safely at YUL, or Montréal-Trudeau International Airport. The creators of the game are French Canadian, so it makes sense to me why they’d choose their “home” airport as the beginner introduction to the game! I’d of chosen DFW, or Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport as a nod to my roots.
Today was chill. I got caught up on some chores around the apartment.
I’ve almost got Wish me mell to maximum friendship in Hello Kitty Island Adventure, which is probably one of the biggest slogs in the game. (Unlocking Milk, one of Cinnamoroll’s friends, is the hardest grind.) I can’t progress with the main quest until Mell is 20, so my progress in the game came to a screeching halt weeks ago. Oh well, at least she’s adorable! Her “birthday” is on September 20, which is the day before mine, so bonus points to the little Virgo bunny.
After J got home from work, we went grocery shopping. I have such a love/hate relationship with grocery stores at the moment; groceries have become super expensive, but I like getting out of the house and looking at all of the things.
I wasn’t able to pick up my Wegovy because for some reason, it was ringing up close to $700. Last month, we paid $85 with a copay assistance card, discounted from $185. It even stumped the pharmacist because at the beginning of the year, it makes sense for medicine to be more expensive because you haven’t reached your deductible. Why February? Why after paying a discount in January? Gonna have to call our insurance company to figure out why this is happening.
In better news, I found a single Generation 3 Monster High Robecca Steam doll left on the shelf at Target, so she came home with us. The Generation 1 Robecca doll was one of my favourites, so I’m really excited that she was added to the line up.
I wore my new sweater and the Fwee pudding pot out today, I love them both!
On Sunday, J and I got up early to head to my parent’s house. The eldest of the family cats, Illidan, has been losing weight and slowing down. Illy was born in 2008, so she’s going to be 18 this summer and she already deals with hyperthyroidism. We’re unsure if she’s sundowning, or if she’s unable to eat the foods that Mom has been offering her (mostly shreds of meat with broths), so we went into a Petco to pick up some NutriCal gel and Churu to mix it with.
She ate the whole serving of NutriCal / Churu slurry with a quickness, which is the minimum amount of calories that she needs to eat in a day contained in one single treat! Yay!
I taught Mom how to do the ratio: 1 tbsp NutriCal, 1 tbsp Churu. The specification was to NOT add more treat than NutriCal because we’re trying to get as many calories into her as possible to get her weight up. Liquid treats are low cal because they’re mostly water. Water is obviously good for her kidneys, but she’s urinating fine.
After helping with Miss Silly Illy, JL and CL needed to go back out to Frisco to get his phone fixed at the Samsung store in the Stonebriar Centre. His phone had a manufacturer’s defect with its camera that was covered under warranty, so of course he was gonna take the opportunity to get the thing about his phone that annoyed him fixed for free. The fix took about an hour and a half, so we wandered the mall.
The Miss A store had a new addition added to it: Seoul Scandal. I don’t shop at Miss A but anything to do with K-Beauty catches my eye. I knew from a past YesStyle order that I like the Skin1004 brand, so I’m excited to try the sheet mask and soothing cream. The Fwee pudding pot and Bringgreen sleeping pack were impulse buys; I played with the samples of the pudding pots and it’s a really fun texture.
I had a 15% off coupon for Hollister, so I bought a henley and a hooded sweater, both in a grey-blue. The sweater is white and grey-blue striped with a v-neck. The henley has some lace detailing around the collar, so it’s a pretty detail that breaks up the basic. I like the Y2K revival, I don’t feel like my style has evolved all that much since high school so it’s nice to see that fashion swung back around to that era. Hah. At least I can find t-shirts that aren’t cropped!
We tried K-Dogs in the food court for lunch, which was okay. I’ve had better Korean-style corn dogs and definitely way better tornado fries. It was edible though and the cheese pull was satisfying! I did like the addition of sugar on top of the cornmeal, which was surprising because I usually hate sweet with savoury. It paired well with spicy ketchup and mustard to cut the sweet.
Before driving back home, we stopped in Uptown Cheapskate because I wanted to see if I could get consignment credit for some clothes that were too big for me. They ended up buying nearly everything I brought in and I got $98 in store credit. The clerk even told me how nice my things were, hahaha. Look at me, winning the consignment game.
I spent a little less than half of my credit and got:
- a black fleece Columbia vest
- a pair of boot cut dark blue Lucky Brand Jeans
- a light blue pair of straight legged Abercrombie & Fitch jeans
- a navy-and-white striped Tommy Hilfiger top
With the receipt, I received a 20% off coupon for a different location that’s not that far from Mom’s, so I’m going to try to sell a few more things and see what I might find there this upcoming Sunday! Consignment stores are treasure hunts; most of the stuff isn’t worth it, but you can find some nice things in good condition if you’re patient.
I’ve spent most of the day updating my domain (new layout!) and retooling pages on my personal site. I don’t think J’s minded, he’s been playing games on Steam with two of his longtime friends. I enjoy body doubling like this, it makes me very productive.
Went to a doctor’s appointment yesterday. Since I take Wegovy, they check my weight loss, symptoms (new or sustained), vitals, and see if any of my medications need to be tweaked. This very exciting appointment happens every 3 months. I saw the Nurse Practitioner for the first time and she was impressed with the BP numbers that I had logged without taking Lisinopril or Metoprolol, so she said continue to monitor and stay off the medications. She also halved my dose of pantoprazole because she feels like my weight loss will lessen the affects of GERD. I guess we’ll see. JL’s been really struggling with acid reflux lately and she’s much smaller than I am. But yeah, 90lbs weight loss in a year, everyone’s happy to see it.
I’m actually in a good place, physically and mentally.
Tomorrow is the Super Bowl and I didn’t even realize that, whoops. I was wondering why J had said “everyone’s going to be ordering pizza tomorrow”. I was just excited to go back out to Frisco and the Stonebriar Centre and didn’t put two and two together. (I like mall walking!)