Connections
Jun. 25th, 2020 08:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
taz_39The week was a week.
Work was the same. A lot of people are getting frustrated...about the masks, about the types of calls we get, about how there's no "normal" any more. I'm not immune from these feelings either. But I think we are all grateful just to have a job, and not only that it's a GOOD job. So most of the complaining I'm hearing is more resigned than actually upset/angry.
I got myself a hair appointment and spent the week feeling guilty about it, but when I finally went to go do it it felt soooo nice.
When I arrived I called to let them know I was there and went in when they told me it was OK. I kept my mask on the whole time. They took my temperature and gave me hand sanitizer, then the rest was pretty much just like a regular haircut. It was a little weird to be wearing the mask for the whole thing, but not terrible. I was hoping for a more "interesting" cut, but the stylist pretty much chose to fix up what I already had. At the time I was happy with it (again, really grateful just to be getting a haircut at all) but the next day at work several people said things like, "Didn't you say you were getting your hair cut?" or "So did you get your hair cut yesterday?", so that made me butthurt pretty quick.
I have bland brown hair, and a horsey face with crooked teeth, and my hair has a ton of cowlicks that make it difficult to do anything with it anyway. And the humidity here makes it virtually impossible to style unless I'm using tons of product. I don't wear makeup or spend money on nice clothes or things to make myself look nice. So I really have no room to complain about little side comments about my haircut.
But it would have been nice, I don't know. Not to get complimented, but for there to have been a difference.
I guess I could have kept my ratty split-end hair and saved $50.
At least it feels cleaner. It felt good to clean up a little, even if it was just for me.
The other thing that happened that was really aggrivating was my computer. It's been acting up lately, so I decided to bite the bullet and reinstall Windows. Everything went fine, but I lost a night of steno practice because of all the time it took to re-download and install everything. The next night I planned to study double, but when I opened my steno software it wouldn't even open, just returned an error message. It's open source so that's not uncommon, but I wasn't expecting it. At least not that night, the night before class, my last night to practice. I tried to fix it and got more and more frustrated until I was about ready to throw my computer across the room. Fortunately my boyfriend, who is way more level-headed and tech-savvy than me, was able to figure out what to do and fix it. I felt so ashamed for getting so flustered and for not knowing what to do. And I was reminded of how patient and kind he is. Honestly, I don't deserve him!
Anyway, I only got to practice for about an hour. That made me feel very stressed about how my class was going to go on Monday, and I wasted a lot of energy fretting over something I couldn't control. In the end the class actually went just fine. I'm pretty far ahead in some areas, and pretty average in others. But my expectations for myself are high, and I am not forgiving. My teacher says I need to cut myself a break. She's right of course, but also I think too many people cut themselves a break and end up not getting ANYTHING done. Whatever, my class went well.
My sister had a lot of tests done to try and figure out what's going on with her, but nothing conclusive was found. I really hope this is all just her body freaking out over changes to medications and hormones and such. I just want her to be safe and healthy, and not have to worry about her body sabotaging her. We watched our mother die when we were young, so any illness is incredibly frightening, not to mention a damn mystery ailment. We don't know what's up, but she is strong, and I'll just have to have faith that she will be able to face whatever comes.
By the time my weekend rolled around I was feeling pretty emotional and pretty stressed.
I know that these are pretty small life events, but sometimes they build up and stack on one another, and a reaction is had no matter how I try to logic it away. I wanted to cry at work, but didn't (well, only a little in the bathroom haha).
You know what kept me going? My sweet, kind boyfriend.
He's not in the greatest mental space right now either, but you know what, that doesn't make him any less wonderful. Especially when he has to put energy into my problems in addition to his. I'm more grateful for him than I can put into words.
So now I KNOW you are wanting a garden update, right? RIGHT?
Well you're getting one because I'm obsessed!
The big deal right now is the sugar baby watermelon. I'm glad I'm taking pictures because otherwise I don't think anyone would believe me when I describe how quickly this thing is growing. It is insane. It is basically doubling in size every week. Two weeks ago it was the size of a grape tomato, last week it was the size of a fig. This week it's the size of an apple, and heavier than an apple too. I was worried that it might break its support vine, so I made it a little hammock out of a cut up shirt (this was a recommended tactic online.) It seems to be working well. I also sprayed it and the vines with spinosad to hopefully keep caterpillars and worms from eating the fruit before I can enjoy it. I find it fascinating to grow something like this!
The mint is gigantic again...I just don't know what to do with all of it! I can only make so much mint syrup, or essential oil, or mojitos. What else do you do with mint? I guess I'll be making a watermelon mint salad at some point, or incorporating it into my drinks. Even so there's a lot of it to go around, and I'll have to get creative!
A garden orb weaver has moved in next to my planter. She's about an inch long and absolutely stunning.
I hope she is getting enough to eat in here! There are lots of tiny flies that seem to be coming from my planter, so maybe those are a good meal. TRIGGER WARNING for ARACHNOPHOBIA
On Wednesday morning I opened the shutters just in time to see a big black-and-yellow swallowtail butterfly landing on my milkweed, making it swing crazily back and forth. Yay! However I wasn't quick enough to get a picture before he flitted off. Yaaargh. I was unable to get any butterfly pics at all that day, although I saw the spicebush swallowtail again and a little yellow cloudless sulphur. It was really hot out, so I think they were staying mostly in the shade where I couldn't see them.
I've told this story before so sorry for the repeat, but it's relevant now.
You might remember that way back at the beginning of the year, after I'd first set up my planter and filled it with plants, some sprouts popped up that I hadn't planted.
I decided to keep them, because why not. Over time I ended up with six of them, just randomly popping up in the planter (I accidentally crushed one and had to throw it away, so five). I thought they might be a type of weed, but they didn't really look like anything else around. And a part of me wondered...but no, it couldn't be...
In December I had tried to germinate some passion fruit seeds. I got a purple passion fruit from the grocery and reserved some seeds from it, then planted them in a small plant tray. I left them there for two months, as passion seeds are supposed to germinate within 45 days. Nothing happened. I tried to find the seeds again, but they are small and black and blended in with the dirt. So rather than waste the dirt I just dumped the contents of the tray back into the planter. And forgot all about it.
As the mystery sprouts grew, I tried to identify them with no success. I joined gardening groups, I did reverse image searches, I used plant identification apps. The plants were too young and couldn't be identified until they grew larger. There were lots of good guesses, but nobody was able to say with 100% certainty what they were.
Four months later, June. The sprouts have grown quite a lot, but now I've planted watermelon and it's taking up a lot of space. I decided to move the mystery sprouts to their own pot. At this point I've gotten into the habit of taking a photo of them every two weeks or so and running it through iNaturalist to see if they can be identified yet. Last week iNaturalist said it was "not confident enough to make a recommendation", but guessed that it might be laurel. This week iNaturalist said it was "pretty sure" they are some kind of citrus.
One of my friends suggested a different app, Picture This Plant. I downloaded it and ran the photo through it.
The app responded with 98% certainty. Possum purple passion vine.
In other words, the seeds that I tried to germinate months ago ended up germinating on their own in the planter. Every single one of them.
I found this both hilarious and somehow heartwarming, that the little seeds I'd given up on had grown in their own time.
Also, I now have FIVE passion vine sprouts! Uuuh...does anyone want one? Haha.
And before anyone says anything, YES I AM AWARE that the seedlings have singular leaves whereas the comparison photo has three-lobed leaves. But please do me a favor and google "passion fruit seedlings" and look at the image results. Passion vines do not get three-lobed leaves until they are older. These are passion vines. I have had no end of people telling me I'm wrong, the app is wrong, etc., yet somehow these critics are unable to tell me what this plant actually is. So if you think it's not passion, that's fine, think what you like, I don't need to hear about it.
Anyway, this was a nice exciting surprise for me this weekend. So glad to finally know what these are!!
As it got closer to dusk Jameson and I took a dip in the pool. It was really lovely, the water was warm from the high daytime temperatures and the sun was setting. But, typical Florida, our pool time was cut short by a sever thunderstorm :P We scurried inside where I made us a quick meal of pork loin, mashed potatoes, and asparagus. The rest of our night was spent chilling, plaing Call of Duty and watching YouTube.
Thursday was another scorcher. I hadn't made any plans to cook but did get all the ingredients for smoked salmon and bagels, my favorite!
In the afternoon I had a Zoom chat with the all-female band members of the Ruby Princess, 2018!
We all live in different time zones so it took a little organizing, but we managed to find a time where we could all be online. How cool is that! It was so great to see everyone and find out how everyone is doing. Jane and Molly were two of the thousands of cruise ship employees who were trapped on ships for months when the coronavirus hit. They managed to get back home safely, but obviously this was not a pleasant experience for them. Two of the ladies live in Buenos Aires, and while the economy there is not great at least they have mandated mask-wearing and at least so far they are doing well and able to get by. Our trumpet player, Nia, lives in Wales and is working at ALDI's right now to make ends meet, she is making the best of it and giving it her all :) Our bass player Stacey lives in Texas and has been giving bass lessons online, and she's also attending school. Molly (drummer) is at her parent's house in New York and is considering doing DoorDash to make money. And Jane lives in Canada and is getting by on the government Covid stipend, which is **$2,000 per month!!**
Um, I'm moving to Canada.
So everyone is well, or as well as can be expected right now. I was really happy to see their smiling faces, and reconnect and remember what a great group of women we all are :)
After that wonderful experience and after Jameson was done with his meetings for the day, we took a dip in the pool which was lovely. Then we had leftovers for dinner. I uploaded our Zoom session in case any of the ladies wanted to see it while Jameson played some games. I got all of my things ready for work like I usually do. I'm making an extra trip on my commute to deliver a passion vine to someone downtown; I have no need for five passion vines so am glad that someone will take one off my hands! Hopefully it grows up big and strong for them :)
My sister Raven sent us a souvenir box from a trip she took to Morocco, right before all the flights were shut down due to Covid. We enjoyed some date-and-almond chocolates, an almond sesame brittle, and some dark chocolate raspberry cookies. There are some hard candies as well, and an interesting aloe extract that I'll have to research to find out how to use. Thank you, sis. You shouldn't have (really, you gotta think of yourself first girl!!)
That was my weekend. Pretty chill. There's not much coming up for me next week that I know of. Everything is very routine any more, but there's no helping that.
Work was the same. A lot of people are getting frustrated...about the masks, about the types of calls we get, about how there's no "normal" any more. I'm not immune from these feelings either. But I think we are all grateful just to have a job, and not only that it's a GOOD job. So most of the complaining I'm hearing is more resigned than actually upset/angry.
I got myself a hair appointment and spent the week feeling guilty about it, but when I finally went to go do it it felt soooo nice.
When I arrived I called to let them know I was there and went in when they told me it was OK. I kept my mask on the whole time. They took my temperature and gave me hand sanitizer, then the rest was pretty much just like a regular haircut. It was a little weird to be wearing the mask for the whole thing, but not terrible. I was hoping for a more "interesting" cut, but the stylist pretty much chose to fix up what I already had. At the time I was happy with it (again, really grateful just to be getting a haircut at all) but the next day at work several people said things like, "Didn't you say you were getting your hair cut?" or "So did you get your hair cut yesterday?", so that made me butthurt pretty quick.
I have bland brown hair, and a horsey face with crooked teeth, and my hair has a ton of cowlicks that make it difficult to do anything with it anyway. And the humidity here makes it virtually impossible to style unless I'm using tons of product. I don't wear makeup or spend money on nice clothes or things to make myself look nice. So I really have no room to complain about little side comments about my haircut.
But it would have been nice, I don't know. Not to get complimented, but for there to have been a difference.
I guess I could have kept my ratty split-end hair and saved $50.
At least it feels cleaner. It felt good to clean up a little, even if it was just for me.
The other thing that happened that was really aggrivating was my computer. It's been acting up lately, so I decided to bite the bullet and reinstall Windows. Everything went fine, but I lost a night of steno practice because of all the time it took to re-download and install everything. The next night I planned to study double, but when I opened my steno software it wouldn't even open, just returned an error message. It's open source so that's not uncommon, but I wasn't expecting it. At least not that night, the night before class, my last night to practice. I tried to fix it and got more and more frustrated until I was about ready to throw my computer across the room. Fortunately my boyfriend, who is way more level-headed and tech-savvy than me, was able to figure out what to do and fix it. I felt so ashamed for getting so flustered and for not knowing what to do. And I was reminded of how patient and kind he is. Honestly, I don't deserve him!
Anyway, I only got to practice for about an hour. That made me feel very stressed about how my class was going to go on Monday, and I wasted a lot of energy fretting over something I couldn't control. In the end the class actually went just fine. I'm pretty far ahead in some areas, and pretty average in others. But my expectations for myself are high, and I am not forgiving. My teacher says I need to cut myself a break. She's right of course, but also I think too many people cut themselves a break and end up not getting ANYTHING done. Whatever, my class went well.
My sister had a lot of tests done to try and figure out what's going on with her, but nothing conclusive was found. I really hope this is all just her body freaking out over changes to medications and hormones and such. I just want her to be safe and healthy, and not have to worry about her body sabotaging her. We watched our mother die when we were young, so any illness is incredibly frightening, not to mention a damn mystery ailment. We don't know what's up, but she is strong, and I'll just have to have faith that she will be able to face whatever comes.
By the time my weekend rolled around I was feeling pretty emotional and pretty stressed.
I know that these are pretty small life events, but sometimes they build up and stack on one another, and a reaction is had no matter how I try to logic it away. I wanted to cry at work, but didn't (well, only a little in the bathroom haha).
You know what kept me going? My sweet, kind boyfriend.
He's not in the greatest mental space right now either, but you know what, that doesn't make him any less wonderful. Especially when he has to put energy into my problems in addition to his. I'm more grateful for him than I can put into words.
So now I KNOW you are wanting a garden update, right? RIGHT?
Well you're getting one because I'm obsessed!
The big deal right now is the sugar baby watermelon. I'm glad I'm taking pictures because otherwise I don't think anyone would believe me when I describe how quickly this thing is growing. It is insane. It is basically doubling in size every week. Two weeks ago it was the size of a grape tomato, last week it was the size of a fig. This week it's the size of an apple, and heavier than an apple too. I was worried that it might break its support vine, so I made it a little hammock out of a cut up shirt (this was a recommended tactic online.) It seems to be working well. I also sprayed it and the vines with spinosad to hopefully keep caterpillars and worms from eating the fruit before I can enjoy it. I find it fascinating to grow something like this!
The mint is gigantic again...I just don't know what to do with all of it! I can only make so much mint syrup, or essential oil, or mojitos. What else do you do with mint? I guess I'll be making a watermelon mint salad at some point, or incorporating it into my drinks. Even so there's a lot of it to go around, and I'll have to get creative!
A garden orb weaver has moved in next to my planter. She's about an inch long and absolutely stunning.
I hope she is getting enough to eat in here! There are lots of tiny flies that seem to be coming from my planter, so maybe those are a good meal. TRIGGER WARNING for ARACHNOPHOBIA
On Wednesday morning I opened the shutters just in time to see a big black-and-yellow swallowtail butterfly landing on my milkweed, making it swing crazily back and forth. Yay! However I wasn't quick enough to get a picture before he flitted off. Yaaargh. I was unable to get any butterfly pics at all that day, although I saw the spicebush swallowtail again and a little yellow cloudless sulphur. It was really hot out, so I think they were staying mostly in the shade where I couldn't see them.
I've told this story before so sorry for the repeat, but it's relevant now.
You might remember that way back at the beginning of the year, after I'd first set up my planter and filled it with plants, some sprouts popped up that I hadn't planted.
I decided to keep them, because why not. Over time I ended up with six of them, just randomly popping up in the planter (I accidentally crushed one and had to throw it away, so five). I thought they might be a type of weed, but they didn't really look like anything else around. And a part of me wondered...but no, it couldn't be...
In December I had tried to germinate some passion fruit seeds. I got a purple passion fruit from the grocery and reserved some seeds from it, then planted them in a small plant tray. I left them there for two months, as passion seeds are supposed to germinate within 45 days. Nothing happened. I tried to find the seeds again, but they are small and black and blended in with the dirt. So rather than waste the dirt I just dumped the contents of the tray back into the planter. And forgot all about it.
As the mystery sprouts grew, I tried to identify them with no success. I joined gardening groups, I did reverse image searches, I used plant identification apps. The plants were too young and couldn't be identified until they grew larger. There were lots of good guesses, but nobody was able to say with 100% certainty what they were.
Four months later, June. The sprouts have grown quite a lot, but now I've planted watermelon and it's taking up a lot of space. I decided to move the mystery sprouts to their own pot. At this point I've gotten into the habit of taking a photo of them every two weeks or so and running it through iNaturalist to see if they can be identified yet. Last week iNaturalist said it was "not confident enough to make a recommendation", but guessed that it might be laurel. This week iNaturalist said it was "pretty sure" they are some kind of citrus.
One of my friends suggested a different app, Picture This Plant. I downloaded it and ran the photo through it.
The app responded with 98% certainty. Possum purple passion vine.
In other words, the seeds that I tried to germinate months ago ended up germinating on their own in the planter. Every single one of them.
I found this both hilarious and somehow heartwarming, that the little seeds I'd given up on had grown in their own time.
Also, I now have FIVE passion vine sprouts! Uuuh...does anyone want one? Haha.
And before anyone says anything, YES I AM AWARE that the seedlings have singular leaves whereas the comparison photo has three-lobed leaves. But please do me a favor and google "passion fruit seedlings" and look at the image results. Passion vines do not get three-lobed leaves until they are older. These are passion vines. I have had no end of people telling me I'm wrong, the app is wrong, etc., yet somehow these critics are unable to tell me what this plant actually is. So if you think it's not passion, that's fine, think what you like, I don't need to hear about it.
Anyway, this was a nice exciting surprise for me this weekend. So glad to finally know what these are!!
As it got closer to dusk Jameson and I took a dip in the pool. It was really lovely, the water was warm from the high daytime temperatures and the sun was setting. But, typical Florida, our pool time was cut short by a sever thunderstorm :P We scurried inside where I made us a quick meal of pork loin, mashed potatoes, and asparagus. The rest of our night was spent chilling, plaing Call of Duty and watching YouTube.
Thursday was another scorcher. I hadn't made any plans to cook but did get all the ingredients for smoked salmon and bagels, my favorite!
In the afternoon I had a Zoom chat with the all-female band members of the Ruby Princess, 2018!
We all live in different time zones so it took a little organizing, but we managed to find a time where we could all be online. How cool is that! It was so great to see everyone and find out how everyone is doing. Jane and Molly were two of the thousands of cruise ship employees who were trapped on ships for months when the coronavirus hit. They managed to get back home safely, but obviously this was not a pleasant experience for them. Two of the ladies live in Buenos Aires, and while the economy there is not great at least they have mandated mask-wearing and at least so far they are doing well and able to get by. Our trumpet player, Nia, lives in Wales and is working at ALDI's right now to make ends meet, she is making the best of it and giving it her all :) Our bass player Stacey lives in Texas and has been giving bass lessons online, and she's also attending school. Molly (drummer) is at her parent's house in New York and is considering doing DoorDash to make money. And Jane lives in Canada and is getting by on the government Covid stipend, which is **$2,000 per month!!**
Um, I'm moving to Canada.
So everyone is well, or as well as can be expected right now. I was really happy to see their smiling faces, and reconnect and remember what a great group of women we all are :)
After that wonderful experience and after Jameson was done with his meetings for the day, we took a dip in the pool which was lovely. Then we had leftovers for dinner. I uploaded our Zoom session in case any of the ladies wanted to see it while Jameson played some games. I got all of my things ready for work like I usually do. I'm making an extra trip on my commute to deliver a passion vine to someone downtown; I have no need for five passion vines so am glad that someone will take one off my hands! Hopefully it grows up big and strong for them :)
My sister Raven sent us a souvenir box from a trip she took to Morocco, right before all the flights were shut down due to Covid. We enjoyed some date-and-almond chocolates, an almond sesame brittle, and some dark chocolate raspberry cookies. There are some hard candies as well, and an interesting aloe extract that I'll have to research to find out how to use. Thank you, sis. You shouldn't have (really, you gotta think of yourself first girl!!)
That was my weekend. Pretty chill. There's not much coming up for me next week that I know of. Everything is very routine any more, but there's no helping that.
