It’s a Lifestyle

So sayeth the new cashier at the market when I admired the black polish on nails shaped stiletto style, and then said I also see a pair of skeleton adorned motorcycle gloves hooked to her work belt.

A goth girl in the flesh, so I further inquired, "Your name wouldn’t happen to be Wednesday?"

"No, but my dog's name is".

How fun. She and I could be friends, but can you imagine chasing your runaway dog in the neighborhood, calling out "Wednesday, Wednesday, come here girl". LOL.

As to why she and I could be friends ... It’s only April, but I’ve already decided my Halloween costume this year is to be goth girl Wednesday Addams. I’ve already purchased the dress, wig, stripped stockings, and a Thing Hand. Had planned on my usual red fingernail polish, but am now thinking Black nails, lips painted green.

As for why I’m thinking about Halloween so soon …… like Goth cashier said — it’s a lifestyle, my favorite Holiday, and I’m always thinking ahead as to what to wear next for the sure to come costumed events.

Thanks to Saturday’s acupuncture treatment, this morning’s workout was a good one. Nothing hurt when I walked in, nothing hurt when I walked out, and I was once again able to go through the resistance band pulls and curls.

Doesn’t mean the shoulder will ever be 100% healed from the long-ago torn rotator cuff damage (in fact the acupuncturist asked that I bring an x-ray of the shoulder next time), doesn’t mean it won’t once again bother me when the weather turns cold, it just means I’m good for now, or as good as I'm going to get as a 79 year old at this stage of the game.

Granddaughter had me laughing when she said, "I don't think normal aging people pull muscles at a boxing gym. You pretty much only get sports injuries".

So far, that's true. I take my licking, no pain no gain, and keep on ticking.

Happy Easter

Just back from a road trip this morning. It was a last-minute decision after Friday’s workout to head out of town.

Can you guess where I went and what I did?

Bucket List

Driving to the dental office this morning, I kept in mind that the address of the acupuncturist (the one I wasn’t too sure of being a thriving business or some sort of back room thing) was in that area.

Lo and behold, the address is directly across the street from the dentist.

Nice area, but none of the businesses on that side of the street look thriving. No lights were on in any of the businesses, there were no people going in/out and, in fact, there was a “for lease” sign up.

The acupuncturist’s office had signage indicating “chiropractor”.

That’s not the same as acupuncture, and I’d be a little afraid of using a bodywork therapist who dabbles, doesn’t specialize in one or the other.

So, my guess is, though it’s no longer a thriving business — due to the pandemic, it’s an on call operation. In that, the answering service lets the therapist know a client needs bodywork, the therapists shows up … that is for the time being. If he’s not getting sufficient business, he’ll probably have to shut down the answering service, close doors altogether.

Dr. McDreamy shared that the pandemic had the dental practice struggling for a while. When I commented on how busy the office looked today, he said, “Thank goodness. We’re almost back to where we were”.

There’s something about McDreamy’s energy that I feed off him. His handsome good looks, blue/grey eyes, now white hair, now soft kinda pudgy body, his deep sexy melodious voice, those attributes just do something to and for me.

Whereas I wasn’t feeling young Doogie, I most definitely feel McDreamy, and it looks like I’m going to be feeling him for a while longer, I won’t have to worry about changing offices just yet.

I did have a new x-ray technician today. The one I’m accustomed to retired in May they tell me. The hygienist, I was assigned to after the pandemic caused my regular to retire, is working out fine. McDreamy’s son is asking for a car, McDreamy and his wife are looking at the cost of college — which he says is shocking, so it’s looking like he’s not going to be able to retire any time soon.

He is, however, scaling back from a five day work week to four.

And btw, after McDreamy looked at the x-rays and did a visual check, he announced everything was okay. No problems noted, not even the spacing issue Young Doogie tried to pull on me.

So, the dentist is off my bucket list. Acupuncture is also off the list because, the old shoulder injury that was aggravated by that back-to-back beast mode workout, has gone into remission, no longer hurts.

Lesson learned though. I won’t be going beast mode again. If Trainer again needs to rearrange my workout day, because of continuing drama with that teen daughter of his, instead of moving me to another day, which puts me back to back, I’ll just gift him the day and keep to schedule.

On my way back from the dentist, I stopped by Target, picked up a few masks to trick that fast walking maskless Covid recovered resident into masking up (per a comment from JanF, except she didn’t say “trick”, that’s my way of seeing it).

From my perch on the couch yesterday morning, I saw her walking two/fro twice on the side walkway — too fast for me to grab the phone, take a snapshot. Seeing her for a third time, in the afternoon, I was relieved to see she was wearing a mask — a white one, no bling.

So she did have a mask other than the bling one she couldn’t find, thought I to myself.

Carrying a purse, she appeared to be headed out.

She no longer has a car, so I’m guessing someone was out front, picking her up and, for the sake of the driver, she masked herself.

Sicnce she’d not been affording us seniors that same courtesy, her white mask for that occasion wouldn’t have been enough for me. She could have wrapped herself in cellophane and I still wouldn’t have had her in my car.

Also yesterday, reviewing Trainer’s Instagram account, before I headed out for the day’s workout, I saw he’d celebrated his birthday the previous day.

I quick fast in a hurry made a Starbucks run for a gift card.

I’ve not yet been to the bank to purchase $2 bills but, had I have done so, I would have included one in the gift card envelope, because I think it would be fun to get those in circulation again.

A birthday yesterday means Trainer’s sun sign is Leo the Lion. All my astrology books are in containers at the back of the patio storage area, so I can’t research to determine why it is he keeps moving thing around in the studio, but moving things around he does.

Readers who’ve been with me for a while will recall that when I began training in September of 2019, the treadmill was located in the back room. Since that time, the treadmill has moved six times, ever closer to the front door, prompting me to jokingly accuse Trainer of trying to push me out the door, get rid of me.

I don’t have to now worry about that being his goal because, when I walked in the door yesterday, I had a shock — there was a couch, where the treadmill had been two days ago.

Did he finally get rid of it you ask?

Well … not exactly.

We’re back to where we started.

So that’s how yesterday and today went. Now that I’ve a mask to pass on to Little Miss Fast Walker Covid Recovered, our paths will probably no longer cross — Murphy’s Law.

That’s just fine by me.

All’s Well that Ends Well

Finished reading that old journal, 94 pages, single spaced.

It was a great read. Sometimes I was on the edge of my seat to see what happened next, because I’d forgotten so much.

It was like reading someone else’s life. Watching as the person grew strong, rose up, out, and got to a place where she was able to look down, watch as the toxic ones began to self-destruct.

Though the journal ended on a high note, I was sorry to see it end. There was more to come, and though what came after was not always pretty, it was never again as difficult to deal with because of what I'd learned, how I'd grown as the result of working myself through those years with the witches.

I had plans, once I finished reading the journal, to trash it. However, it was such a good read, and details so much of what I had to deal with in Corporate America, in order to raise my daughters — who didn’t always understand how hard life away from home was, and give me a break at home.

I don’t want to say I’ve decided to keep it around to guilt my girls for how they were when younger, but I’ve decided to keep it around so my girls can one day read and feel regret for giving me such a hard time. In other words, guilt them. LOL.

Going beastmode at the Pain Cave last week — not having a day to recover, caused an old right shoulder rotator injury to flareup.

I began thinking that I should probably go see the acupuncturist, in China Town, for a needle touchup.

I haven’t been in about five years, but I remember how terrifying driving in Los Angeles traffic was. There’s too much traffic and everything is fast, so I began looking for a local acupuncturist.

Checking online, I found one that appeared to be in a good location — just down the street from my dentist. I checked Yelp and saw the reviews were good, so I requested an appointment through the online set-up.

The next day, I received an email asking for my telephone number, that the acupuncturist would call me when he’s in the office on Monday.

I replied with my telephone number AND immediately, and every day since, I’ve been getting out-of-state calls on my phone from unknown callers.

I don’t answer, of course, but it just strikes me as odd that I give this guy my number and unknown callers follow.

THEN, I get a voice message on Monday saying the doctor is in his office until 1:00, call him to schedule. ONLY, it sounds like it’s coming from an answering service.

Sorry, if I sound elitist, but I was under the impression from the website, this was a thriving business. But the answering service called up an image of a hole-in-the-wall backstreet setup.

That, plus the unknown callers, gave me a weird feeling.

Not only that but, at one point, an image flashed through my mind.

The image was me lying on a table, just the acupuncturist and I in a small room, me immobile, unable to defend myself because I’m stuck with needles, while he molested me.

Now I don’t know where that image came from, why it popped up in my head, but I’m taking it as a warning.

I called the answering service back and said I would not need services of that acupuncturist, that I was going to schedule with the people I’ve used in the past.

I’m still not down for that long drive to China Town. I’ve not even checked to see if Dr. Chan’s office is still open or taking clients at this time.

I’m going to try sleeping in a shoulder and elbrow brace, to stabilize the areas at night, use pain patches in the day, see how it goes.

Once I get a chance, I might drive by the office of the local acupuncturists, as detailed on his website, to see what's actually going on there.