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Life In Motion
Oct. 11th, 2023 08:30 pmOctober 8 and 9 were the anniversaries of my dad and mom's deaths, respectively.
My mom passed away in October 2001 due to pancreatic cancer. She died within four months of diagnosis.
My dad died in October 2021 due to covid, because he did not vaccinate. He died within two weeks of contracting it.
I've had a lot more time to process my mom's death, plus I had a great relationship with her, so at this point remembering her and celebrating her life are a matter of course.
My dad, on the other hand. Our relationship was strained; we didn't hate each other or anything, just butted heads a lot. And he never spoke to me like I was an adult...I should say, he never spoke WITH me, always TO me or AT me. And that was a wedge between us.
But anyway, my sister shared playlists for each of my parents, which was beautiful of her.
I recognized all of the songs on my mom's playlist. She played music often when we were over for visitation, or on road trips. She would sing along, and dance with us, and let us listen to all of her cassettes (and later CDs) without reservation.
I didn't recognize a single song from my dad's playlist...and the fact that he had a playlist AT ALL was a shock. I didn't even know he listened to music, other than the radio when we were on road trips (and then it was mostly talk radio until my stepmom couldn't take it any more.) He never had music on in the house, like playing in the background or on for enjoyment. He never sang. I was really surprised to learn, this week, that he'd had musical interests, and had confided them in my younger sister.
I'm very glad that he shared this part of himself with her, and she in turn with us.
It was difficult for our dad to express himself, so perhaps my sister's quiet, open, empathetic nature led him to feel comfortable enough to tell her a little about himself. I think that's wonderful. Obviously I wish we'd had that kind of connection too, but it wasn't meant to be.
Anyway, I didn't do anything in celebration or remembrance, other than let my remaining family know that I was "here if you need to talk", and swapping a few memories back and forth. Some years I need to get emotional or spend a full day writing, or go out to distract myself. And other years I practically forget it's their death anniversaries unless someone reminds me. This year was something in-between; I just went about my day, and had thoughts, and that's all.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday I got up early to do work. Jameson had his first rehearsal for Disney and was up at 8am. He'll be gone each day until 5pm or so, so during the day I'll get to make a racket on the trombone or clean or whatever without having to worry about disturbing him.
Today I did a few hours of work, had breakfast, more work, cleaned my car out a bit, practiced, ran to the grocery for a few small things, had therapy, and did more work.
Partway through the day I was listening to interviews and minding my business, with the screen door open since it's still nice and cool out. Because the screen was open I was able to hear a loud rustling in the wooded area behind our house. Quietly I slid the screen open and tiptoed outside.
Can you see him?
Here, let me help:
Close-up:
That's a coyote.
Guess I'd better take care when I go across the fence to tend my banana trees from now on.
At 4pm I started making dinner (stuffed sweet potato skins and the potatoes take an hour to cook in the oven) and when Jameson came he had to do some office work and then one of his work colleagues called and wanted to chat so I sat and waited while dinner got cold. I won't pretend I wasn't miffed--like, just call the guy back after dinner--but I also understand. Now that Disney rehearsals have started things are going to be a whirlwind for him, and I need to be patient. He'd been working since 9am, and it was now 6pm and he was just getting home, after all.
Also he apologized profusely after hanging up, which helped :p
Dinner was good, it's one of our favorite healthy recipes that we've made many times.
Sweet potato skins stuffed with lean Mexican-seasoned turkey, spinach, and sharp white cheddar, topped with Greek yogurt (instead of sour cream) and avocado. Very tasty stuff!
Before and after cheese:
You have to scoop most of the guts out of the potatoes, so now I have a big pile of sweet potato. What to make!!
Sweet potato pancakes? Casserole? Pie? Cookies?
So many great options!
Jameson was able to post the first PR image for Jollywood tonight! I've already bought my ticket.
Obviously I'm very, very proud of him!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday I was up early again, Jameson was up early to get to rehearsal.
The morning was cool so I had the screen open again--I may open it every morning from now on--but it got above 80°F in the afternoon so I was forced to shut it at lunch time.
Today's visitor was our red-shouldered hawk. He hunts this area frequently, we can hear his call from the woods and he's dropped from the sky in front of us often while chasing lizards. He's looking nice and healthy.
In the afternoon I decided to tackle the dead bush out front. It's not very big but it's spiky and of course roots will be difficult to dig up by hand with only a garden spade and hand saw.
Before:
I broke most of the branches off before using the spade to stab around the base of the bush to break smaller roots, find and remove rocks, and find the larger roots that would need to be cut. For the most part I was successful, but after about 45 minutes of hacking I still hadn't been able to reach the large central taproot. I could grab it with my hand, but getting enough leverage to cut it while in a squat, using a hand saw, was proving ridiculous. And my blood sugar was tanking, so I had to give up.
After. You can see the "trunk" is still there; I could saw that off and just leave the root ball and plant something over it, which I may end up doing, but I wanna have one more crack at it.
After lunch I felt drained but better, so I practiced trombone and worked for the rest of the afternoon.
Partway through the work day I noticed I'd been added to a Slack group called "Production Superstars Project" along with six other people. As I was wondering what that was about my supervisor posted the following:
"Hello friends! I have invited you to this group because you have shown, week after week, that you can process high-quality profiles at faster-than-average speeds. I would like to pay you for an hour or two of your time so we can talk about what it is about your work process that enables you to perform in such an efficient way. Ideally, I can then pass these gems along to the rest of the team to help support everyone in meeting our turnaround goals. Is there a time, maybe Thursday or Monday afternoon, that you are all available to zoom with me so we can brainstorm a bit?"
Apparently we six are doing a particularly efficient job!
I'd always wondered if I worked fast enough compared to other employees. Considering they've got something like 60 employees, I'll take it this as high praise. If they want to increase efficiency I'll gladly share what I do...but I also suspect that a lot of it is, uh..."non-transferable." Meaning a) I am the type of person who can do tedious repetitive work and consider it "fun", and not everyone else is like that; b) I have a background in transcribing realtime audio calls at 300wpm, which is unusual to say the least; and c) I don't have kids, pets, demanding partners, or other distractions imposing on my data entry time, that most other adults working from home probably have.
I'll be interested to see what the other five say about their abilities to be efficient. Maybe we're all childless, and that's the key factor. That would be hilarious.
I continued to work until Jameson got home. We had leftovers, then he had to do his office work and schoolwork. While he did that I dug my large suitcase out of the closet and started sorting things into piles for packing. This part sucks, everything scattered all over like the aftermath of an explosion, stuff that can't be packed until other stuff is packed, etc.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday was a little different, I got up early and worked as usual but after Jameson left for rehearsal I got dressed and drove to Whole Paycheck. I wanted to make fish for dinner and the fish counter at Publix smells rank all of the time, so I don't trust it at all. I'd rather drive 40 minutes out of the way and get fish from a fish counter that smells like seafood.
Plus, shopping at Whole Paycheck is like a "treat yo'self" to me. There's always something "extra" that I just "have" to get! This time it was a Koia shake, because I noticed they've upped their protein content and added some new flavors (Cinnamon Toast Cereal!). I also treated myself to pink peppercorns to take on tour. Otherwise, just ingredients for dinner.
Back home I worked, practiced, ate lunch, the usual.
I cooked the brown rice in advance because it takes nearly an hour to cook on the stove. When Jameson got home I started making the mango salsa, then when I hear his conference call coming to an end I started grilling the tilapia. Dinner was ready right on time: lemon garlic cilantro-marinated tilapia with gingered brown rice and mango salsa.
This is an Allrecipes recipe that we've made many times, and it's one of our favorites because it's filling without making you tired/putting you in a food coma. I always feel energized after eating the fresh tilapia and vibrant salsa.
Jameson went out with friends while I poured myself a glass of red wine, vacuumed, ran the dishwasher, did a load of laundry, and put in another two hours of data entry. I happened upon a rather positive resident interview--she was so uplifting that it made the interviewer cry!--so that was a relaxing and nice way to end my night.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Tomorrow (Thursday) I have a normal day but with the "Production Superstars" meeting, and for dinner I'm making whole wheat pasta with chicken in a lemon ricotta cream sauce.
Friday I'll take a break from making dinners, but may experiment with air fryer tofu and/or make some Fallish apple tarts.
Other plans include trombone practice, packing for tour, finishing Megan's Foodie Finds, and probably lots of chores.
My mom passed away in October 2001 due to pancreatic cancer. She died within four months of diagnosis.
My dad died in October 2021 due to covid, because he did not vaccinate. He died within two weeks of contracting it.
I've had a lot more time to process my mom's death, plus I had a great relationship with her, so at this point remembering her and celebrating her life are a matter of course.
My dad, on the other hand. Our relationship was strained; we didn't hate each other or anything, just butted heads a lot. And he never spoke to me like I was an adult...I should say, he never spoke WITH me, always TO me or AT me. And that was a wedge between us.
But anyway, my sister shared playlists for each of my parents, which was beautiful of her.
I recognized all of the songs on my mom's playlist. She played music often when we were over for visitation, or on road trips. She would sing along, and dance with us, and let us listen to all of her cassettes (and later CDs) without reservation.
I didn't recognize a single song from my dad's playlist...and the fact that he had a playlist AT ALL was a shock. I didn't even know he listened to music, other than the radio when we were on road trips (and then it was mostly talk radio until my stepmom couldn't take it any more.) He never had music on in the house, like playing in the background or on for enjoyment. He never sang. I was really surprised to learn, this week, that he'd had musical interests, and had confided them in my younger sister.
I'm very glad that he shared this part of himself with her, and she in turn with us.
It was difficult for our dad to express himself, so perhaps my sister's quiet, open, empathetic nature led him to feel comfortable enough to tell her a little about himself. I think that's wonderful. Obviously I wish we'd had that kind of connection too, but it wasn't meant to be.
Anyway, I didn't do anything in celebration or remembrance, other than let my remaining family know that I was "here if you need to talk", and swapping a few memories back and forth. Some years I need to get emotional or spend a full day writing, or go out to distract myself. And other years I practically forget it's their death anniversaries unless someone reminds me. This year was something in-between; I just went about my day, and had thoughts, and that's all.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday I got up early to do work. Jameson had his first rehearsal for Disney and was up at 8am. He'll be gone each day until 5pm or so, so during the day I'll get to make a racket on the trombone or clean or whatever without having to worry about disturbing him.
Today I did a few hours of work, had breakfast, more work, cleaned my car out a bit, practiced, ran to the grocery for a few small things, had therapy, and did more work.
Partway through the day I was listening to interviews and minding my business, with the screen door open since it's still nice and cool out. Because the screen was open I was able to hear a loud rustling in the wooded area behind our house. Quietly I slid the screen open and tiptoed outside.
Can you see him?
Here, let me help:
Close-up:
That's a coyote.
Guess I'd better take care when I go across the fence to tend my banana trees from now on.
At 4pm I started making dinner (stuffed sweet potato skins and the potatoes take an hour to cook in the oven) and when Jameson came he had to do some office work and then one of his work colleagues called and wanted to chat so I sat and waited while dinner got cold. I won't pretend I wasn't miffed--like, just call the guy back after dinner--but I also understand. Now that Disney rehearsals have started things are going to be a whirlwind for him, and I need to be patient. He'd been working since 9am, and it was now 6pm and he was just getting home, after all.
Also he apologized profusely after hanging up, which helped :p
Dinner was good, it's one of our favorite healthy recipes that we've made many times.
Sweet potato skins stuffed with lean Mexican-seasoned turkey, spinach, and sharp white cheddar, topped with Greek yogurt (instead of sour cream) and avocado. Very tasty stuff!
Before and after cheese:
You have to scoop most of the guts out of the potatoes, so now I have a big pile of sweet potato. What to make!!
Sweet potato pancakes? Casserole? Pie? Cookies?
So many great options!
Jameson was able to post the first PR image for Jollywood tonight! I've already bought my ticket.
Obviously I'm very, very proud of him!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Tuesday I was up early again, Jameson was up early to get to rehearsal.
The morning was cool so I had the screen open again--I may open it every morning from now on--but it got above 80°F in the afternoon so I was forced to shut it at lunch time.
Today's visitor was our red-shouldered hawk. He hunts this area frequently, we can hear his call from the woods and he's dropped from the sky in front of us often while chasing lizards. He's looking nice and healthy.
In the afternoon I decided to tackle the dead bush out front. It's not very big but it's spiky and of course roots will be difficult to dig up by hand with only a garden spade and hand saw.
Before:
I broke most of the branches off before using the spade to stab around the base of the bush to break smaller roots, find and remove rocks, and find the larger roots that would need to be cut. For the most part I was successful, but after about 45 minutes of hacking I still hadn't been able to reach the large central taproot. I could grab it with my hand, but getting enough leverage to cut it while in a squat, using a hand saw, was proving ridiculous. And my blood sugar was tanking, so I had to give up.
After. You can see the "trunk" is still there; I could saw that off and just leave the root ball and plant something over it, which I may end up doing, but I wanna have one more crack at it.
After lunch I felt drained but better, so I practiced trombone and worked for the rest of the afternoon.
Partway through the work day I noticed I'd been added to a Slack group called "Production Superstars Project" along with six other people. As I was wondering what that was about my supervisor posted the following:
"Hello friends! I have invited you to this group because you have shown, week after week, that you can process high-quality profiles at faster-than-average speeds. I would like to pay you for an hour or two of your time so we can talk about what it is about your work process that enables you to perform in such an efficient way. Ideally, I can then pass these gems along to the rest of the team to help support everyone in meeting our turnaround goals. Is there a time, maybe Thursday or Monday afternoon, that you are all available to zoom with me so we can brainstorm a bit?"
Apparently we six are doing a particularly efficient job!
I'd always wondered if I worked fast enough compared to other employees. Considering they've got something like 60 employees, I'll take it this as high praise. If they want to increase efficiency I'll gladly share what I do...but I also suspect that a lot of it is, uh..."non-transferable." Meaning a) I am the type of person who can do tedious repetitive work and consider it "fun", and not everyone else is like that; b) I have a background in transcribing realtime audio calls at 300wpm, which is unusual to say the least; and c) I don't have kids, pets, demanding partners, or other distractions imposing on my data entry time, that most other adults working from home probably have.
I'll be interested to see what the other five say about their abilities to be efficient. Maybe we're all childless, and that's the key factor. That would be hilarious.
I continued to work until Jameson got home. We had leftovers, then he had to do his office work and schoolwork. While he did that I dug my large suitcase out of the closet and started sorting things into piles for packing. This part sucks, everything scattered all over like the aftermath of an explosion, stuff that can't be packed until other stuff is packed, etc.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday was a little different, I got up early and worked as usual but after Jameson left for rehearsal I got dressed and drove to Whole Paycheck. I wanted to make fish for dinner and the fish counter at Publix smells rank all of the time, so I don't trust it at all. I'd rather drive 40 minutes out of the way and get fish from a fish counter that smells like seafood.
Plus, shopping at Whole Paycheck is like a "treat yo'self" to me. There's always something "extra" that I just "have" to get! This time it was a Koia shake, because I noticed they've upped their protein content and added some new flavors (Cinnamon Toast Cereal!). I also treated myself to pink peppercorns to take on tour. Otherwise, just ingredients for dinner.
Back home I worked, practiced, ate lunch, the usual.
I cooked the brown rice in advance because it takes nearly an hour to cook on the stove. When Jameson got home I started making the mango salsa, then when I hear his conference call coming to an end I started grilling the tilapia. Dinner was ready right on time: lemon garlic cilantro-marinated tilapia with gingered brown rice and mango salsa.
This is an Allrecipes recipe that we've made many times, and it's one of our favorites because it's filling without making you tired/putting you in a food coma. I always feel energized after eating the fresh tilapia and vibrant salsa.
Jameson went out with friends while I poured myself a glass of red wine, vacuumed, ran the dishwasher, did a load of laundry, and put in another two hours of data entry. I happened upon a rather positive resident interview--she was so uplifting that it made the interviewer cry!--so that was a relaxing and nice way to end my night.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Tomorrow (Thursday) I have a normal day but with the "Production Superstars" meeting, and for dinner I'm making whole wheat pasta with chicken in a lemon ricotta cream sauce.
Friday I'll take a break from making dinners, but may experiment with air fryer tofu and/or make some Fallish apple tarts.
Other plans include trombone practice, packing for tour, finishing Megan's Foodie Finds, and probably lots of chores.
