CM goes vague

[CourtnieMarie]

 

In no uncertain terms, I'm going to be very vague this challenge. I'm trying this out to relax some high standards on myself but still stay on track. What track? Who knows.

 

goals:

• workout: weights at the gym, tough mudder circuit, running, or yoga
• sleep: TV off by 8pm for Mon-Thurs. Fri -Sun in bed by midnight 11/15 nights. hopefully i get an average of 7h30m
• eat vegetables
• meet with Medicaid specialist
• unpack some boxes
• sell some clothes

 

i haven't been to the gym in about 4 weeks and it'll be worth it to "force" myself back there if only because i think it would enhance my mood. i saw some other warriors correlating their mood to lifting heavy things and i'm shocked i haven't really made the same correlation on myself. the other goals are pretty self explanatory as to why they'd be good for me and my happiness. i'll keep you all (and myself mostly) updated on how this goes  

 

[miss_marissa]

yay! you got this  

[Deckard Gainz]

2 hours ago, CourtnieMarie said:

i haven't been to the gym in about 4 weeks and it'll be worth it to "force" myself back there if only because i think it would enhance my mood. i saw some other warriors correlating their mood to lifting heavy things and i'm shocked i haven't really made the same correlation on myself.

 

I tend to agree with this sentiment and I hope it has similar positive effects for you.

 

Keep it vague, whatever you need to do to keep on keepin on 

[CourtnieMarie]

thanks nerds  

 

 

it's zero week! even more reason to be vague and restful. we had our dog in the house for the first night and she's definitely got some adjusting to do. she's still in the assess everything and try to sleep in your bed phase. so with that, i haven't got 7hr30m yet but both nights were over 7 hrs! i'm happy with that. i feel well rested.

 

so glad i meal prepped on sunday, vegetables are happening. I visited my dad after work yesterday which is now a 40 min drive from home instead of 20  but Spouse had dinner ready to be cooked (broiled chicken thighs [in a broiler that is not annoying to open!] and roasted brussels with bacon). i started a teeny bit on the bathroom closet but mostly we just watched some SHIELD and went to bed.

[raptron]

VEGETABLESSS. And yes, zero week is here to help! 

[Mike Wazowski]

Veggies, and restful zero week - woo!! Bummer about the long drive to visit dad though.

[CourtnieMarie]

Tuesday was pretty good. went for a walk in the park across the street in the morning. work was chill. cooked up a zucchini bolognese in the instant pot with my mom's garden zucc.

 

but the washer and dryer did not want to cooperate. we moved the washer (holy crap those things are heavy!) so that the drain reached the sink. would love to get an actual real drain someday. then we moved the dryer and figured out the we need a new outlet and a longer dryer vent. of course we already had clothes in the wash bc we were at desperate quantity of laundry. so we hung all the wet clothes up around our apartment to dry and asked my brother to come by for the outlet on wednesday.

 

 

and oh what a wednesday it was. woke up to the sound of water... gushing? rushing? splashing? whatever you want to call it, it wasn't okay. the 3rd floor toilet intake pipe decided it would be a good time to crack the plastic connector piece and spray water everywhere. and i mean everywhere. we got the water off and sopped up/wet vac'd up as much as we could. we stayed home from work. filed a house claim. called a restoration company who will be in the house for a few weeks. many many walls and ceilings were too wet to salvage. they had many dehumidifiers and hot fans throughout the house but luckily not in our bedroom area. because those things are HOT AND DRY.

 

so yeah! tired and frustrated. nervous and maniacally laughing. at a loss for words. as much as i know my cup is half full, this year it has been really hard to remember.

 

[CourtnieMarie]

Thursday was back to work which has kindly been manageable. we didn't have use of our oven last night so thank goodness for the instant pot. we had a home chef delivery since i realized i had ~$30 in credits to use up. steak and peppers over cheddar polenta. noms.

and i was able to get some stretching in while we watched SHIELD.

unfortunately/fortunately with the ceilings and some walls gone we were able to see that we still had knob and tube wiring. our co-owner's brother is an electrician and came over just to make sure it wasn't live wire. but of course it is. the previous owners had UNCLE RICO (that's what we call who must've done all the hack jobs we've found) hot wire the knob and tube to modern wiring and then make sure it was all hidden behind walls so that they could con us (and our home inspector)!

 

Friday morning we went for a short run around the park. just 1.5 miles but i think it really did help my mental state. now to figure out if we should try to get someone else responsible for paying to remove this shoddy electrical work.

 

[JustCallMeAmber]

Dear Life,

Please take it easy on CM already. She's had quite enough to get along with. Thanks!

 

 

Seriously though. I'm simultaneously angry, sad, frustrated and disbelieving on your behalf. I hope everything sorts out quickly!

 

[Harriet]

1 hour ago, CourtnieMarie said:

the previous owners had UNCLE RICO (that's what we call who must've done all the hack jobs we've found) hot wire the knob and tube to modern wiring and then make sure it was all hidden behind walls so that they could con us (and our home inspector)!

Wow. I don't really understand wiring but that sounds so dodgy. Who does that to someone? Sneaky. 

[Deckard Gainz]

2 hours ago, CourtnieMarie said:

unfortunately/fortunately with the ceilings and some walls gone we were able to see that we still had knob and tube wiring. our co-owner's brother is an electrician and came over just to make sure it wasn't live wire. but of course it is. the previous owners had UNCLE RICO (that's what we call who must've done all the hack jobs we've found) hot wire the knob and tube to modern wiring and then make sure it was all hidden behind walls so that they could con us (and our home inspector)!

 

To be fair, most wiring is generally behind walls. The stuff that isn't is easy to replace, and therefore should be replaced. But there are plenty of old houses with TONS of old garbage wiring buried in the walls, because it's prohibitively expensive to tear down your entire interior just to replace wire that is mostly safe unless messed with in a dangerous way. I don't mean to defend UNCLE RICO or any unsafe hacky home repairs, but just saying sometimes that's the pragmatic approach and no malice was necessarily intended. If it's exposed, now is definitely the time to replace it, but I wouldn't feel obligated to now tear down all the walls in your house to root it all out (and it doesn't make you a con to not do so). Just probably don't tell your insurance company about it. Insurance is a scam so it's ok to con them. Insurance companies will absolutely steal as much of your money as possible, for having knob and tube anywhere, or for literally any other reason they can think of.

[raptron]

UGUHGUHGUHGU, GIRL! I am so so so so sorry to hear about last week's trials and tribulations in the new house. Big hugs and I hope that y'all have a good handle on whatever strategy or whatever it is you guys need to do to move forward and that THAT is filling you with the righteousness of agency. 

[CourtnieMarie]

On 8/2/2019 at 4:01 PM, Deckard Gainz said:

 

To be fair, most wiring is generally behind walls. The stuff that isn't is easy to replace, and therefore should be replaced. But there are plenty of old houses with TONS of old garbage wiring buried in the walls, because it's prohibitively expensive to tear down your entire interior just to replace wire that is mostly safe unless messed with in a dangerous way. I don't mean to defend UNCLE RICO or any unsafe hacky home repairs, but just saying sometimes that's the pragmatic approach and no malice was necessarily intended. If it's exposed, now is definitely the time to replace it, but I wouldn't feel obligated to now tear down all the walls in your house to root it all out (and it doesn't make you a con to not do so). Just probably don't tell your insurance company about it. Insurance is a scam so it's ok to con them. Insurance companies will absolutely steal as much of your money as possible, for having knob and tube anywhere, or for literally any other reason they can think of.

oh absolutely! though my co-owner's brother said this was the most masterful deception he's ever seen in his career as an electrician haha! the previous owner apparently had someone empty a romex wire and thread the knob and tube through it. they all hid all evidence of knob and tube in the basement where the wires aren't behind a ceiling. oh and they outright told us there was no knob and tube in the house. and there's code violations (something about boxes being tucked behind walls and ceilings, idk) that now that we've exposed them, it's technically illegal to put a wall back over those violations.

 

we are going to see if insurance will cover some of it and whether we have a case against the previous owner.

 

so masterful deception was the phrase of the weekend and lots of cursing folks who just basically are shit humans. we did have a great night on saturday seeing barenaked ladies and hootie

 

zero weeeeeek:

• workout
  • i did a bit of yoga and a short run!
• sleep: TV off by 8pm for Mon-Thurs. Fri -Sun in bed by midnight 11/15 nights. hopefully we get an average of 7h30m
  • i was in bed by midnight on friday and sunday but unfortunately i could not get to sleep at all last night. i ended up tripling my melatonin dosage to no avail. so strange for me. avg of 7h31m since last night's terrible sleep is counted under this upcoming week.
• eat vegetables
  • salad for lunch on saturday and crudites while tailgating. no real veggies yesterday unless you count peppers in my chipotle burrito
• meet with Medicaid specialist
  • happens tomorrow! i have collected all of the paperwork they asked for except for a bunch of bank statements that aren't available online
• unpack some boxes
  • definitely did this, our dining room is almost empty now and we have permanent places for bookshelves so book boxes can start to be unpacked.
• sell some clothes
  • brought them all to the local thrift shop and she took 7 for now. i'll go back in late september to pick up my earnings, if any, and give her my fall stuff. i ordered a thredup bag for the stuff she said outright no to.

[CourtnieMarie]

week 1 plan

M: visit dad

T: meet with Medicaid specialist; pick up Randolph things

W: visit dad

T:

F:

S: groceries; beach?

S: meal prep

 

monday ended up being very monday-ish. my dad got sent to the hospital for another infection but it seems like they caught it very early. seems to be just a UTI. so i spent a few hours there and then went home to discuss our plan for those issues. thankful that Spouse had time to cook our last home chef meal which was delicioussss. we'll see if i can get some movement and more sleep in soon!

[RedStone]

Oofta, new house be trippin! That's crazy about the sellers pulling that shit, I hope it isn't too much of a hassle to sort out!!! Mucho love to you and SO 

[CourtnieMarie]

2 minutes ago, RedStone said:

Oofta, new house be trippin! That's crazy about the sellers pulling that shit, I hope it isn't too much of a hassle to sort out!!! Mucho love to you and SO 

thanks love <3

 

one highlight of yesterday was a recipe book that one of my co-owners brought home from work. it's compiled of submissions from local elders! it's a goldmine, friends. i had never even heard of fasolakia and there's at least two recipes for it in there. also a recipe for "spinach delight" consists of one line of directions: sautee spinach in oil and water until wilted. these fiesty folks! i'm excited to try some of them out.

[Harriet]

1 hour ago, CourtnieMarie said:

week 1 plan

M: visit dad

T: meet with Medicaid specialist; pick up Randolph things

W: visit dad

T:

F:

S: groceries; beach?

S: meal prep

 

monday ended up being very monday-ish. my dad got sent to the hospital for another infection but it seems like they caught it very early. seems to be just a UTI. so i spent a few hours there and then went home to discuss our plan for those issues. thankful that Spouse had time to cook our last home chef meal which was delicioussss. we'll see if i can get some movement and more sleep in soon!

 

Thursday and Friday are looking quite mysterious. That's when you do your part time espionage work, right? That's why you can't tell us? 

Oh, I hope your father recovers quickly from the infection. 

 

58 minutes ago, CourtnieMarie said:

also a recipe for "spinach delight" consists of one line of directions: sautee spinach in oil and water until wilted. these fiesty folks! i'm excited to try some of them out.

Is the delight in the spinach, or in the oil? Surely it's not in the water. 

[CourtnieMarie]

41 minutes ago, Harriet said:

 

Thursday and Friday are looking quite mysterious. That's when you do your part time espionage work, right? That's why you can't tell us? 

just keeping it vague  

 

41 minutes ago, Harriet said:

Oh, I hope your father recovers quickly from the infection. 

 

thank you, it was looking good as of last night.

 

41 minutes ago, Harriet said:

Is the delight in the spinach, or in the oil? Surely it's not in the water. 

unfortunately the author has passed and they actually had her memorial service yesterday. but she was the spearhead for this recipe book project and we think she just thought it'd be hilarious to include a sauteed spinach "recipe" and call it a delight 

 

[raptron]

I FIND THAT DELIGHTFUL. 

[CourtnieMarie]

29 minutes ago, raptron said:

I FIND THAT DELIGHTFUL. 

WELL PLAYED

 

i slept in tuesday morning to catch back up on sleep and my insomnia sunday night. i put calls in to our claim handler for the water damage/electrical stuff and a call to a second contractor to bid out the replacement work. contractors never call back, ugh. my brother went in to visit dad and said he was smiling and doing much better   i went to the medicaid specialist meeting which was helpful but a bit non-productive. she ultimately referred me to her colleague who's more versed in state insurance for folks under 65. 

 

spouse took over getting our last thing from randolph and dropping off her keys. we still have mine bc we have to meet the gas company on monday for them to turn it off.

 

we ended up getting hungryroot (due to a mix up) which we weren't expecting so we have all this produce to finish before it goes bad. we combined two hungryroot meals into one (shredded crucifers, butternut squash noodles, chickpea salad, tofu, and lemon tahini) and added the brussels we had bought at the grocery store. it was delicious and there were leftovers   Spouse also did laundry and I took out the trash and we were pretty much in bed at our preferred time for the first time in AWHILE

 

[Harriet]

36 minutes ago, CourtnieMarie said:

we ended up getting hungryroot (due to a mix up) which we weren't expecting so we have all this produce to finish before it goes bad. we combined two hungryroot meals into one (shredded crucifers, butternut squash noodles, chickpea salad, tofu, and lemon tahini) and added the brussels we had bought at the grocery store. it was delicious and there were leftovers   Spouse also did laundry and I took out the trash and we were pretty much in bed at our preferred time for the first time in AWHILE

 

Anything with chickpeas, tahini and lemon has my vote. It sounds like a deconstructed hummus. 

[CourtnieMarie]

40 minutes ago, Harriet said:

 

Anything with chickpeas, tahini and lemon has my vote. It sounds like a deconstructed hummus. 

ha! hummus as dinner. i'm in.

[miss_marissa]

Ugh house stuff what a mess!  Hoping your claims and everything go well and you can get settled back into some semblance of normalcy relatively quickly

 

SHIELD!!! Can we squee about this? I was very iffy on season 5, but I'm all caught up on s6 now and I have different thoughts about it. I've started thinking of it as more of a sci-fi show instead of a marvel show and really been loving it a lot more. (kind of separating seasons 1-3 and 4+ in my mind) what do you think?

[CourtnieMarie]

1 hour ago, miss_marissa said:

SHIELD!!! Can we squee about this? I was very iffy on season 5, but I'm all caught up on s6 now and I have different thoughts about it. I've started thinking of it as more of a sci-fi show instead of a marvel show and really been loving it a lot more. (kind of separating seasons 1-3 and 4+ in my mind) what do you think?

oh absolutely! i know every so often they reference marvel universe but especially after last season it's in its own sci fi world now   just finished episode 11 last night so two more in s6 to go. i love the new villain this season too  

[CourtnieMarie]

wednesday was good! i did a yoga video in the morning and visited dad after work. dad is loads better, hoping he's back at the rehab facility by tomorrow. Spouse made broccoli soup for dinner and cooked up some bacon for a batch of biscuits we're planning to make tonight. house restore is slow, we've gotten one contractor in to prepare an estimate but they still need to contact an electrician to come out and do the same for that part. now it's just kind of a waiting game. we were able to have the contractor come back out and put plastic over our heads so we don't have to keep dealing with dust and debris floating down on us.

 

i also had a continuous giant puddle in my passenger side floor for a few days but got it fixed this morning, there was a blockage in the AC pipe thingy. i had been hoping to try for the gym this morning but it didn't happen. i did yoga again and will try again for tomorrow morning!

 

the plan.

M: visit dad

T: meet with Medicaid specialist; pick up Randolph things

W: yoga; visit dad

T: yoga

F:

S: groceries; beach day

S: meal prep