Ups and downs

This has not been a good week.

On Monday, I had to take my cat, Lucky, to the vet to be put down. It wasn't completely unexpected, but it effected me worse than I expected. When I awoke on Monday morning she was unable to move. When I tried to pet her it seems to bother her and instead of her usual loud and enthusiastic purr, she just mewed pitifully. She was 16 years old (I had to check with the vet). There is more to say, I'm just not ready to say it right now. I will locate some photos of her and tell you about her later.

I have been trying to keep busy and I have been walking Sadie every day. I didn't eat right on Monday and was not feeling well on Tuesday. I was miserable and had to stay in an overheated room for a class until 8pm. I have increased my protein intake and that has helped. But again today, I was trapped in an overheated classroom for an all day training.

On the brighter side, last weekend I enjoyed the Super Bowl, did some spinning, and played with my Christmas present, a ballwinder, and turned all my homespun into "cakes". It makes a pretty impressive tower (see above), don't you think?  I even tried a couple swatches in preparation for making a hat, but it isn't cooperating in that area.  Erin, that is all "knit-speak", if you really, really want to know, I will explain it later. :)
I took this picture of the pontoon for the  irony of it.  It is 16 degrees and there stands this shiny icon of summer in the snow. Not a bad price either.

Still no nightmares. The dreams are now about heavy lifting, struggling, repeated tasks, and generally unpleasant.  But thankfully, no blood or violence.  (As I sit here watching Criminal Minds)

Knitting Olympics start Friday night and the winter outing for dog scouts is this weekend too.  I am not prepared for either one. I'm not going to worry about it. My knitting buds will not care, nor will Sadie's buds at camp.

Knock on Wood

No nightmares since Tuesday night (since the last post).

I went to the doctor. The chiropractor.

He told me "no more nightmares" with a big grin on his face. So I thought he was just kidding.

No nightmares since - sleeping like a baby. This makes no sense to me.

Or

Could it be that I rearranged my schedule to squeeze an extra day and a half into my weekend?

Who cares? I am finally getting some decent rest.

I will use my time off to catch up on it.

I also have plans to get a haircut and a massage, walk with Sadie, eat some sugar free chocolate, go on a brunch date and watch the Superbowl. In other words, take it easy.

Yea me!

sleep deprived

It's only Tuesday and I'm exhausted.

Did I mention I am having nightmares? Lots and lots of nightmares...almost every night.

But I don't wake up screaming. I don't even wake up. I just keep sleeping and continuing the dream. It is like a watching a sick movie that I can't stop. Maybe I am trying to solve a problem or get myself out of a situation. Any dream interpreters out there? Have at er'.

Last night I was married, homeless, living in the ghetto, and living with my boyfriend, a big black man running a shelter. That wasn't the horrible part. It was the feelings. It was the day to day indignities I suffered to survive. Being unclean. The things I had to do. Then the boyfriend is murdered in the street and I become a screaming and public griever. Days later, the blood is still there.

No wonder I wake up tired.

Lighten up girl! Okay. I'll tell you a Sadie story.

But first a lake photo. If you click on this photo to enlarge it, you will see the ice shanties out near the drop off. This was taken over the weekend at Kelly Beach. Yes, the vehicles are parked on the ice. Sometimes they drive them right to the shanty, but we had some warm weather about a week ago and I am thinking they are playing it safe. Good call.

Yesterday, I came home to a kitchen floor covered in garbage. I take the blame for this. I know she needs to be physically and mentally active. This is a full time job. Fortunately, she loves to run and this is evident from the photos I take. But she can run a lot! When she isn't getting enough exercise, she becomes destructive and does all sorts of things to occupy herself. So yesterday, it was the garbage.

There was a full bag of garbage, so it took awhile to clean it up. The worst is the coffee grounds. They dry and are hard to sweep up. But I cleaned it up, took the garbage out, grabbed something to eat and we went out the door to Knit Knight.

Sadie was acting weird. I watch her carefully after her garbage raids. Sometimes she eats something that doesn't agree with her. But she seemed fine. Good energy. But she was jumpier than usual. She would not settle down. I would move and she would jump. Her eyes were slightly dilated. We began making jokes about her eating the coffee grounds.

When we get home, she gets fed. By now, she's hungry so its the first thing I do when we get home. I went to dump her food in her dish and noticed something in her water dish. Little brown flecks...coffee grounds! Now I think she really did eat some coffee grounds. Geez, I am going to have to be a better dog mom. More exercise for us both, and start putting the garbage in the sink again.

I better get back to work on her sledding skills again also. My boss had some good suggestions for attaching Velcro to hold the bath mat in place. I had to stop him when he suggested Velcro on the bottom of her feet as well, but it was a good belly laugh.

I have made arrangements to take Monday off. I am working on rearranging my work schedule to take Tuesday also. I need some time off!

I went to the chiropractor today and he assures me I will sleep better tonight. I have scheduled a massage for Monday afternoon. I promised myself to put myself first this year, so I better buckle down and get proactive about it. A good start is realizing it. A massage is even better. :)