Film at 11 . . .

The first quarter of the year is my busiest time at work - particularly January.  I went up and down same five pounds all month, and my exercise was sporadic, at best.  But I was able to do some thinking - the time for which has been in short supply for me lately.  Most days it's all I can do to pound through the day and collapse in my chair when I get home.

It didn't help this week that I had an appointment with the sleep dentist to have my dental appliance checked.  It's fine.  My teeth are fine.  My bite, although a bit fluid, is fine.  The appointment was at 5:30, which rocks because it means that I don't miss any work.  Unfortunately, it lasted a long time, and I missed the last express train home.  That meant I had to wait nearly an hour to take the 7:20 p.m. train home.  The 7:20 means that I didn't get home until 8:30, which means a really late dinner, and not going to be on time, and the cancellation of my Thursday morning workout.  Seriously, it throws me completely off my schedule  :-D 

I made the choice this week to return to being an Ovo-Pescetarian.  Again.  I tried to do it last year with some modifications.  I was not successful.  But, once again, we see that it usually takes me more than one try to get something right.  I thought long and hard this week about when I have felt the best in my recent life.  It was when I was on The Strict Program for Three Months. So, I've started down that path again.  I know it's possible that it will be challenging initially - but I also know that I'm going to feel a whole lot better in relatively short order if I can power through the initial stumbling as I get back in the groove.

Another thing I have been working on again is tracking my sleep.  This is something I've learned that I need to check in with myself periodically about.  The stress and destabilization that the current administration seems hell-bent on has been stressful for me.  One of my friends, who does not share my political beliefs, encouraged me to pick my battles and not fight them all.  She feels that the protesting that it going on is pretty much only partisan in nature and she has a strong faith.  Thankfully she is better able to discuss this than others are, but still - we both know that this is a subject that we will likely need to avoid going forward.  I decided to share my response to her here, because it's the most clear I have been able to be about my feelings about what is happening in my country:

This is the last thing I'm going to say about this to/with you because I know you don't agree with me and would rather I keep quiet.  I can't.  And I can't pick a battle because this IS the battle.  Please remember that I said these things, because if I'm wrong and Trump turns out to be a truly great leader, I'll happily eat my hat.  No one would be happier to be wrong.

He has ushered a white supremacist through the front door of the White House, and put him in a position of great power - a man who has told the free press it should shut up.  He fired the Acting Attorney General for standing up to his unlawful executive order.  It was her JOB to uphold the Constitution.  And, seriously, let's call things what they actually are:  alternative facts????  We call those lies here in the real world.  Alt-Right????  Hello - that's all about white supremacy/neo-Nazism.  These things are not OK and not normal.  He does not have a demonstrable plan to replace the Affordable Care Act - the decimation of which is going to hurt a LOT of people - many of them children without recourse to any other form of health care.  In addition, the Republican Congress is the most hypocritical that I have ever seen - having set their collective cap (on record) to fight every progressive step of the previous administration, now they think everyone should bow down to Trump's destabilizing agenda quietly and without question.  The majority of Mr. Trump's cabinet picks - like him - have no experience, and many of them are on record as wanting to dismantle the very agencies they are being appointed to head.  

No.  This it not normal . . . I don't recall anything like this with either Bush, so no, I don't think it's just a party issue. I don't see any benefit to that things he's doing via executive order.  He seems to be motivated only by greed - to line his own pockets and those of his 1% pals at the expense of all else - who cares if they know anything about government.  This is cronyism at its worst.

I wish I knew why this is happening.  Yes, God is in control but we all have free will, and in my heart of hearts what is happening here is wrong.  I know right from wrong and I cannot (and will not) sit back and take a wait and see attitude while the (quite possibly mentally unstable) leader of the free world appears to be governing at whim and doing his level best to take us backwards in time while rolling back decades of civil and human rights achievements.

This came across my FB feed yesterday:  "If you ever wondered what you would have done in 1933, you're doing it."  I'd like to think I would have been in the thick of it back then, just like I am now.  Viva [sic] La Résistance.

Yes, I spelled "Vive" wrong.  I didn't touch on my fears about what might possibly happen to Medicare and Social Security - that's another story.

Anyway, it's Saturday.  I had to cancel my workout on Thursday (because of not getting home in a timely manner Wednesday night), and we were scheduled for this morning - and he canceled because he's not feeling well.  I decided to write instead of go out in the freezing cold to the club.  It was my plan already to go tomorrow, so I'm OK with that.

I'm going to catch up with a friend later this morning who reads the Angel Cards - I'm looking forward to that! I need to toddle on out to the kitchen and figure out something good to eat for breakfast, and then I'm going to cast on a Mystery Knit-Along shawl called Hale-Bopp!  It's all the rage on Ravelry!  These are the skeins I'm going to use.

All Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock Lightweight.  The colorways (L to R), are Blade Runner, Yuletide, and Fir-Ever-Green.

This just rolled up on my iTunes.  Enjoy  :-)