Tale of a Shooting Star…

My two favorite things in the world. 😆 After indulging in a stitching day all day on Saturday, I spent Sunday doing a pile of bills and an even bigger pile of laundry.

First was putting away approximately 4 baskets or more of clean laundry that’s been sitting around in various places anywhere from 1 week to several months. Yes, you read that correctly. Some of my whites have been sitting on the floor for months. So long that some of it was summer wear. How embarrassing; I can’t believe that I’m even admitting it in public. Anyway, it felt good to have all of those stuff off of the floor and out of the seriously over-stuffed laundry basket. I then started on the dirty clothes and a pile of towels that has been growing and waiting to be laundered for a long time. What can I say? We have quite a stockpile of towels for just two people. 😉

With the sorting and putting away of all of those clothes out of the way and a start made on the small piles of dirty laundry, I then settled down to write out the batch of bills due around the beginning of the month. Bills tend to come in two lumps; one big one for the beginning of the month and a small batch for the middle of the month. I also had the quarterly water bill and the annual county tax bill to write out this time around.

While I was at it, I wrote out the forms to submit my psychiatrist bills for reimbursement from my insurance company. My psychiatrist decided some time ago (prior to my becoming a patient) that she no longer wanted to deal with all of the paperwork associated with accepting various insurance plans. So, the paperwork is instead on me to submit for reimbursement. Not a big deal; I’ve just been putting it off for a while. I hope that I won’t run into any issues, as I would love to get some money back. Don’t get me wrong, my psychiatrist is totally worth the money, but considering I’ve put out more than $700 out of pocket already for 3 visits, it would be nice to get recoup some of those costs, if possible.

I feel pretty accomplished having gotten so many less than exciting tasks out of the way and I was even able to fit some stitching in at night. 😀

Yesterday’s RSI pain spread across the two shoulders, incorporated the neck and spawned a headache by this morning which kept me from working. There was just no way that with the continued pain I was going to go back to the same activity that caused it in the first place. Not to mention the fact that my laptop seems to be requiring anywhere from 1 to 4 clicks in order to register a single click. Not ideal conditions when I am already in trouble. So I stayed home and slept. And took some Excedrin to quell the headache and some of the pain. Now I’m only on long enough to check my email (both home and work) and do a couple of quick things. I don’t want to aggravate the RSI any more than I already have. Which means I might not be blogging this weekend, in favor of stitching, hopefully.

On a more happy note, we’re going out with a group of college (and work, as we all work for the same company) friends tonight for dinner. With that said, it’s time for me to sign off and go take a shower, as I have some errands to run before we leave for dinner. We’re going to Hibachi and getting an early start to dinner so that we can take advantage of the early bird special to reduce costs, as some members of the party are a bit strapped in the financial department right now. Besides, 50% off dinner always sounds good, if the timing is manageable. 🙂

It’s a beautiful, only now becoming partly cloudy day outside today. The sky is a lovely shade of blue. Too bad the temperature won’t get above freezing and it’s windy, too. Terry just came in from being at a meeting and the poor guy was chilled!

On the work front, I’m developing some RSI symptoms in my shoulders due to the repetitive work that I’ve been doing lately. It’s been coming on at the end of the day in one shoulder and I go home and rest it, but today, it’s in both shoulders. I was going to take a half-day, but Terry went out for sushi after his meeting, just getting to our building a little bit ago in time to inform me that he had a 3 PM meeting that he had forgotten about. *groan* Oh well, I guess the rest will have to wait until after that meeting, as well. Something told me that I should work from home today. Maybe I should listen next time? 🙂

Other than that, though, it’s been a good day so far and I’m just happy to be here!

Yes, it’s true. I’m blogging again. Hard to believe I haven’t done so in a month. I don’t think I’ve touched a needle in that time, either, which is even harder to believe.

The depression is waning. The psychiatrist thinks that we jumped into taking me off of one of the bipolar medications (which also has antidepressant properties) too soon; while I was still coming up to therapeutic levels of the new bipolar med. So, she put me back on a low dose of the medication and I’m feeling better.

It’s been a long, hard road this winter. My therapist keeps telling me that I’m a trooper and that I’m doing everything right, so I have good support in that area.

I also have all of the wonderful comments that keep coming in, wondering where I am, a postcard from Barbara and even a gift from Dawn! Check out her blog to see the post with a lovely picture of the heart box that she made for me to lift my spirits. I have a great support system in all of my blogging friends! THANK YOU!

Most importantly, I am learning how to manage my depression. I know that going into work is critical for me, both to help keep me busy and distracted, as well as the social element. Working from home is not an option right now, unless Terry stays with me. Even now, I still tend to crash out on the couch after dinner. Weekends are a bit harder, unless I have something planned like going out to dinner or something. I tend to turn into a little hermit on the weekends, which just seems to exacerbate the depression, especially while it’s still cold out.

As I said, I haven’t stitched at all this month (yet). I ordered smaller new Just Nan pieces from Drema at Needlecraft Corner to try to help me kickstart my stitching again. They arrived yesterday, so now all I have to do is kit one up and get stitching. Maybe tonight, if I’m not feeling tired again when I get home.

So, that’s it for me right now. I had to mark all of your lovely blog feeds as read so that I can start from scratch; otherwise, I’d never be able to keep up. Look for comments from me as you post anew.