Day five...

SIGH.

The nausea is most definitely worse in the first part of the day than in the latter, but that's probably because I have not had Zofran whilst sleeping.  I need a patch or IV or something of that stuff.

Yesterday, Amos crawled beneath the weighted blanket that Becky sent to me.  He happily stayed there for several hours.  Tonight, Amos spent quite a bit of time (unsuccessfully), trying to get the weighted blanket off the walnut bench beneath the living room window.  I was laughing so hard that I did not even try to help him.  Right now, he's under it again.

Ever since the pit bull attack, Amos has been squeezing himself in tight places ... between my body and the side of the GREEN chair, behind my back, beneath my person (whilst laying down).  After his baths, I swaddle him completely, even so far as to put the corner of the towel over his head, and he will remain that way for hours.  So, in sending me the weighted blanket, my dearest friend actually helped two of God's creatures, not just one.

Last night Amos and I spent hours and hours on the airing porch.

He napped.

I enjoyed the night clouds and a few episodes of "Bones."

Before we left, the clouds had all gone and the sky was full of stars.  I think that I saw the Big Dipper.  Back in the dark ages, I used to know lots of stars.  I have forgotten almost all of them.

These are my flowy skirt and boots at the symphony tonight.  Around mid-afternoon, I was so very nauseous and trembly and weak that I just couldn't see myself going, but I did.  I actually think I made myself go.  And, well, I felt a bit ... hounded ... because the second piece of the first half was a piano concerto.

I don't hate the piano, but I just don't think it fits in with an orchestra.

The rest of the audience went HOG WILD, starting just before the final notes were played.  Many ovations and much shouting.  I swear ... I just don't get what all the fuss was about.  I, myself, would have gone hog wild over the Berlioz piece that came first, but I was too puky to properly express my appreciation to the instrumentalists.

The second half was comprised of two pieces, not one.  The first was actually two short works that were played with the youth orchestra side-by-side, some sort of waltz, I think.  Again, there was much clapping.  The house was FULL, so I think a lot of friends and family of the young players were there.

The final piece was by someone whose name I did not recognize or could figure out how to pronounce.  It started with a D and had an o and v and a k ... I think.  What I found interesting about the piece was not that I fell in love with the composer, but that I thought it was the epitome of what a Myrtle-friendly composition should be.  It had soft parts and swash-buckling parts and shock-and-awe parts.  There were haunting notes and music swirling all around.  For the strong parts, the music was so filling that there was no room for any other sound in the performance hall.  However, it was not like I wanted to go home and track down the composer and find an MP3 file or two.  I just enjoyed the piece.

However, the performance was overly long, and when I tried to stand, my legs gave way and my skirt flew up all around me.  I kept trying to get up, but there was too much skirt and not enough strength.   Plus, the previous dose of Zofran had most decidedly worn off.  SIGH.

The "free" valet parking lost some of its staff, so there was only one person to go fetch the cars.  I very carefully explained that my brain was no longer fully functioning and I struggle to recognize my vehicle of 11 years and asked that the driver pull it up to the very front (where there was some nice empty space) just before a window with a bench for me to sit upon whilst I waited for the vehicle fetching.  Of course, the driver parked my Highlander at the opposite end of the curved driveway and so the evening was even longer for me than need be.

Is it strange that I struggle to recognize my vehicle now?

Even though she's up in the Poconos with her beloved and cherubs, I called Becky to drive home with me.  One, because I wanted her to make a decision for me and two, because I had this strange epiphany when I was at the symphony.

The decision was whether or not to stop at Meijer on the way home.  I will run out of my probiotics on Thursday.  Every week for the past three, I have checked to see if the buy-one-get-one-half-off sale had returned.  It did not.  The boxes are $39.99.  Tomorrow is another sale.  Today, there was a one-day sale that was $10 off of a purchase of $75, plus 10% off all health items.  Do I take the lesser sale today that was known or hope that tomorrow's weekly ads finally had the larger sale once more?  Becky suggested that I might could ask a staff person if she/he knew what would be on sale this coming week.  So, I went on the way home, having checked before leaving that the store was still open.

I ended up saving $32 on my purchases, with a receipt so convoluted that I cannot really read it.  Earlier today, I set up an mPerks account and downloaded the app.  I "clipped" those special coupons from the app that I wanted and added the regular sale items I wanted to the shopping list on my account.  So, when I checked out, I put in my number and started scanning, hoping things would turn out well.  Basically, all the groceries I selected were "free," given the discounts and coupons.  By that I mean, had I bought the two boxes of probiotics at full price, the total would have been slightly more than what I paid for everything in my cart.

One of those "things" was another sirloin steak because I have a second package of sugar snap peas in my refrigerator.  If I were not so exhausted, I would have tried to find another flank steak.  Straight protein and Cheerios are the only things that are really palatable to me just now.  However, when I am staring at a large display of like (similar) items, I become visually overwhelmed and struggle to find things.  [I hate what my brain has become!]  So, I went on to the milk and cheese and other items that I had picked from the coupon listings and sale listings.

I honestly was a bit surprised when the total came up.  Clearly, I couldn't follow the math.

What I need to remember to do is to check the price of the probiotics whenever I fetch the free prescription there (something I already do) and then buy two boxes if the sale is on that trip.  A $20 discount on the probiotics is really helpful in the budget department.  Especially since my GP helped me figure out just the right combination of psyllium husk and probiotics to help the motility in my lower intestines more often than not.

I was mighty tired when I finally got home, however I had to take care of one final task.  The (not very nice) recycling crew did not take the large, flat, cardboard box from the chairs that I had set out yesterday.  Very reluctantly—but doing so because city code states that trash/recycling cannot be put out earlier than the night before the next pick-up (which for recycling is in two weeks)—I worked on slicing up the ginormous box so that it would fit in the recycling bin.  It took me 42 minutes, one fainting, three near faintings, and one sliced finger to finish the job, even using THE BEST BOXCUTTER IN THE WORLD.  However, that ginormous box is now in a million small pieces carefully placed in my bin so as to allow room for the rest of my recycling over the next two weeks.

Amos whimpered the entire time.
He wanted some puppy-momma-snuggling time.
So did I.

I'm too tired (and nauseous) to write about the next bit of the commentary on John.
I'm too tired (and nauseous) to think about the next bit of the commentary on John.
I am not, however, too tired (and nauseous) to mention, once again, how thankful am I for the commentary on John.

PS  I thought Berlioz was a bear. Or an Italian artist. Or something other than a composer.  I don't have the program, but Google helped me figure out this was what I heard tonight as the first piece of the evening: