It’s been a while since I’ve posted, and there really is a lot going on in my life. I figured I owed it to you to share some updates. Where to begin…
Kittens! I has them! Mama Cats had her babies just one week after I rescued her (and her siblings) from their hellish situation. It was a complete surprise on a wonderful Sunday morning. I didn’t think she was that far along at all, and suddenly, there they were! Five precious babies.
Since then, they have become the light of my life. I go out to the garage several times a day and just watch them and cuddle them. I will soon be looking for “forever” homes for them all, and I’m honestly not sure I can let them go! However, it’s a lot of work caring for nine cats yo. Oh, I should clarify, it’s nine, because one of the original three rescues has found his (Her. She turned out to be a girl.) home already.
The house. Not so much activity happening there, unfortunately. Most of the work is done, but the carpet has been delayed by…fleas. UGH! It’s not surprising that there are fleas really, if you’d seen the filth these people were living in with their five dogs and three cats. Exterminators have sprayed now four times, and they THINK they are getting a handle on it. The plan is to spray one more time, then we hope to be able to lay the new carpet. Whenever that happens, I can move forward with having it appraised and then listing it for sale again.
Things are going really well at the new job, and I’m still really happy with my choice there. I continue to be amazed at various things that come up. One coworker apologized to me the other day for the “gossip and negativity.” I was like, what the heck are you even talking about?! You people have no idea what gossip and negativity is!
I’m finally starting to get some actual work to do. It’s been slow because right after I was hired, we got word that we might be able to hire another person. They were (wisely) reluctant to tell a bunch of child care programs I was their new supervisor, only to suddenly say, “Wait. No. This other person is.” So the plusses there are that I got to choose which part of the state I want to serve, and one of the choices was the part where I used to live and most of my family still lives. Also, work divided by four instead of three!
I thought that, working for the state, I would pretty much be told my duties were X, Y, and Z, and that hasn’t proven to be the case. There is actually a shocking amount of wiggle room, and the powers that be are very open to what I actually want to do and am actually good at. (Go figure.) So far I’ve taken over the newsletter, provided input on social media, and become to go-to proofreader. Plus they were excited to learn how much I enjoyed teaching webinars, and there may be some room for new opportunities there.
Interestingly, it hasn’t taken long for my life to drastically change once I got out of that stressful environment. I mean, the obvious is that I don’t dread getting out of bed and going to work anymore. But it dawned on me the other day that I basically don’t curse anymore. Turns out surrounding yourself with a$$holes makes one curse a lot. It had gotten bad. I was actually telling R a story right before I left in which I utilized the phrase “F*ck that f*cking f*ucker” and made him gasp a little. I was a little bit worried I’d have to watch my language carefully in this new environment, but I just have no reason to curse now.
Also (warning, talk of girlie things ahead!) my health is drastically improving too. Just six months after my surgery, my periods had gotten heavier, longer, and more painful than ever. The last month I was in my old job, I was bleeding 22 of the last 30 days, and it was heavy. I was soaking through everything and passing clots as big as a golf ball daily. I was really afraid I was going to have to schedule that hysterectomy sooner, rather than later.
A few days after I left, the bleeding stopped. It didn’t start again for a month, and my last period was…FINE. Just fine. Not heavy. Not long. No clots. Fine. I googled whether stress could worsen endometriosis (I’ll save you the trouble. If you’re googling, “Does stress make _______ worse?” the answer is yes. Every time, for every thing. Yes.) and sure enough, it does. Relieving the stress relieves the endometriosis. Or, you could stay in the stressful situation, have surgery and spend nine days in the hospital, only to have it come back worse than ever. Your choice.
As for my walking project…I’m well over 250 miles, and still going. It’s clear I’m not going to hit 1100 miles before my birthday in October, but I’m fine with that, and I’m not stopping. I have to walk over half a mile every day to and from my car. I debated whether to count that, and I decided I would count it as half a mile a day. I think this is fair, especially since it’s uphill (both ways! Seriously.), and I’m always carrying stuff. I’ve even taken to walking around the block on nice days over lunch, just to get out of the office. Of course, I’m walking on weekends too. I don’t do hot, and it’s been really hot out, so it’s mostly treadmill miles. I’m ready for fall in so many ways.
Anyway, I think that covers most of the important things. The only other category might be dating, and essentially I’ve decided I’m just not for a while. I just have too much other life happening. I need to sell a house, rehome some cats, settle into my new routine, etc… I think the new person I’m becoming will be much better equipped to find true love than the overworked, overstressed mess I’ve been for several years.
In the meantime, I have lots of fur baby snuggles, and honestly, those are the best snuggles!