I’ve missed your postings.
I thought you’d stopped posting, but I never deleted your blog from my bloglist.
Even if you never updated it, the old entries are still there for me to read and remember.
But now, you have posted new entries! However few and far between, your writings are always most welcomed.
Welcome back, girl.
Ochiya’s the journal of the mouse
One of my main worries when I left behind a steady 9-to-5 job was that I would no longer be indoors for the better part of each weekday, and how that would affect my lupus as I’m not supposed to be out in the sun too much, especially during the hottest part of each day.
When I was working, that was easy to manage. My job was mainly carried out indoors, so once I got into the office each day, I would remain out of the sun until I went home in the evening. For a long time, I didn’t even go out for lunch as I was bringing lunch from home.
Of course, that could continue even tho’ I’m no longer going to work each day. I could stay indoors during the day and go out after sundown. But given that much of the rest of the world, including the people I would be meeting, are out and about during the day and go home at night, I don’t have much choice but to do likewise.
Another problem that I am prone to is I get bad headaches if I’m out in the car during the day. And that happened a couple of times initially, but now the headaches are getting less. I attribute that not so much to the fact that I don’t drive out during the day, but to the fact that, in the time since I left the old job, I’ve been good to myself and letting my body heal. Being good to myself included leaving what I now recognise to be a poisonous work environment.
I feel good and apparently I’m looking good.
I met up with my former project team leader* this afternoon. We were chatting when she suddenly burst out, “You’re looking good! Your face has cleared … it used to be all red.”
And I used to think the redness came from being out in the sun too much. Apparently not. I can only attribute it to my new life where my stress level has gone down.
Thank You, Lord.
This time from Canada. Brought over by Anne. Canadian authors, of course.
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Three by Margaret Atwood, two of them non-fiction that I’d specifically asked for, while the third is a bonus, that Anne saw and thought I might like.
The lone non-Atwood book is by Wayson Choy, a Canadian Chinese author I’d discovered while browsing at a bookstore in either Toronto or Vancouver in 1997. It’s the same title – The Jade Peony – as the one I bought in 1997 which, for some reason, I gave away as a token of friendship that I now recognise as plain silly.
In return, Anne got from me autographed copies of Dina Zaman’s I Am Muslim and Kam Raslan’s Confessions of an Old Boy.
On google chat with BD, fellow gadget-olic:
BD: Hey, how’s your Zen keeping?
C: My Zen is still going strong. Impressed a friend with it recently when I logged in and showed her her blog on it!
BD: Don’t understand the showing your friend’s blog bit..
C (after re-reading earlier part of chat): Sorry, I got my Zen and my TX mixed up. LOL!
BD: Grrr…!
C: It was the TX I was showing my friend’s blog on. I haven’t used my Zen for a while, but recently took it out to use again.
BD: I can’t live without my iPod
The Zen is an MP3 player (full name: Creative Zen Xtra), while the TX is a Palm PDA with built-in wi-fi
It sometimes amazes me that people want to speak with me, even more so when they seek my advice. But then, friends are not any people.
And so it was that JM, a young friend studying in Canada, said hello online and proceeded to ask me what to do about her new apartment which doesn’t allow pets, at least not the type she has. Her lease begins in July and she thinks she may have to break it if the property manager doesn’t reconsider not letting her pets in.
We chatted about what to do, the main plan, back-up, etc. At the end of which, she said “If I were to talk to my dad, he’d just say get rid of the chinchillas!”
Maybe that’s an advantage of being single and on my own, and not having to deal with kids 24/7/365, which gives me the distance to be able to help?
She still hasn’t been able to reach the property manager yet, a very busy woman who wasn’t in the office all day today (JM’s time).
Among my suggestions – send over pictures of her pets, or bring them along to meet the property manager! But apparently, chinchillas don’t like travelling.
Oh well. Hope it all goes your way, JM. If not, remember the back-up plan!
