Ask me Again in a Year

 Good, mid-morning!

How are you doing today? Happy? I hope so and if not, I hope your day gets better. I have off work today and have been taking it relatively easy this morning. I slept in some and have cleaned up the kitchen. My greatest duty today is to get the lawn mowed, so I am going to work on that here shortly. 

Although I don't have a particular topic in mind, I wanted to post in my blog. Yesterday I went out for drinks with Tim after work. It was nice- we stopped by a place called, "On the Edge." It's a typical Florida bar on the water. My friend Amy and her husband randomly surprised us and stopped by for a few minutes. Tomorrow night we are probably going to meet up with them at their local moose lodge and do some karaoke- so I am excited.

Last night ended with me coming home and singing in the living room. Tim entertained me for the most part- it was a good sport about it. Overall, we had a fun, light night. Yesterday I also browsed some apartments for rent in the areas of Ohio we would likely move to- Ravenna, Medina or Kent. Of course that is all completely subject to change but the rent is so much less!

Our town home here in Florida was around $1100 a month (not expensive per se, pretty average in terms of rent) in an area that was "okay." 2 bedrooms, 1.5 baths. The apartments I was looking at in Ohio are under $1,000/month for 3 bedrooms, 2 baths with over 1300 square feet. Tim said that's actually pretty common but it blew my mind! That is definitely not the norm here. The general plan now is to probably, initially stay with family for 1-2 months as not to get locked into a 6 month to a year lease to rent. It would not be ideal to stay with any family due to the number of pets we have (we have a damn zoo) but it wouldn't be impossible and it wouldn't be forever. 

It's just all very hopeful. Tim doesn't like visualizing ahead, often, because he feels like his plans always get crushed or changed. I don't think that's a good enough reason to deny yourself the pleasure of imagining what good things could happen. Why not? It's always a risk when you don't know- and what's the worst case scenario? Details change or that even doesn't happen altogether?

Booooo. If it's up to me, I'll always enjoy thinking ahead. Oh, and if you're still reading, one of the grounding techniques that I have used recently is to stop and start studying the detail of something in your direct line of vision. As my therapist put it, "don't just look at, really look at it." So, for example, if I was feeling a very anxious/ unnerving thought, I could look at my end table that has some glittery pumpkins on it. I would trace the object with my eyes, the outline of the objects and really study every detail of those pumpkins until I am completely focused on that. The point is to make you present. Turn off that thought and just be in the now. 

My therapist said she does this often during the day herself, even when not thinking of something anxious just to remind herself to be in the present moment. I think that's a good habit to get into too. 

So, for today I would like to clean the house, finish laundry, mow the lawn and maybe find a good spooky book? I haven't been to Barnes & Noble in quite awhile, maybe I'll make time to visit later today (unfortunately both are somewhat far- one in Melbourne and the other in Jensen)

I got invited with my old Lenscrafters coworkers to go to this mini-golf bar thing on Sunday but I'm hoping it won't be late. This Monday morning is the start of our season (yes, finally!) 10 surgeries, beginning at an 8am "cut time," so arrival by 7am. Our last clinic patient ends at 16:50 so, we'll probably be leaving by 18:00 or so. Busy, busy day. But I wouldn't have it any other way. 

Yours Truly, 

SM