starsapart revisits the basics

[Mad Hatter]

Hey, hanging in there?

[Mike Wazowski]

Hey stars, how are you doing??? Sorry I've been totally absent from your thread this challenge, it's been a weird couple of weeks - but glad you got the playroom set up for little starlet!

[WhiteGhost]

I have been enjoying seeing your updates on IG and hope all is well for you guys there.

[starsapart]

On 5/28/2020 at 12:37 PM, Mad Hatter said:

Hey, hanging in there?

 

On 5/30/2020 at 10:07 AM, Mike Wazowski said:

Hey stars, how are you doing??? Sorry I've been totally absent from your thread this challenge, it's been a weird couple of weeks - but glad you got the playroom set up for little starlet!

 

12 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

I have been enjoying seeing your updates on IG and hope all is well for you guys there.

 

Hey, guys! Sorry for being MIA. I really should have warned you that was going to happen... you know how I'm never around on weekends because I don't have to work, and thus I don't turn my computer on? Well, I was on PTO last week, and while it was hardly a fun vacation, I did get the time away from the virtual office, so my computer stayed off the entire time. I don't like using the forums on my phone so... I vanished. But things are actually going pretty well!

 

As I said, it wasn't exactly a fun recharge, but I did spend a lot of time being a lazy couch lump, which wasn't my plan (as usual for me, I was thinking I would COMPLETE ALL THE PROJECTS and my brain and body were like, how about nope), but which I really apparently needed in order to recharge. Sleep was weird but a few really good developments did occur. I took starlet for two walks most days, so I was walking A LOT every day, which was pretty great actually. I spent time outside and got some movement in and did an activity with my kid that we both enjoy. I've been drinking a ton of water. And today was my fourth day of lifting first thing in the morning in the last 5 days! I did take my birthday (Friday) off from lifting, but otherwise I've located enough spoons somehow to talk myself into a brief workout first thing in the morning before baby wakes up (and now, before signing on to work). I do literally just one lift per day, either a 5x5 or a 3x8 depending on how much time I have. I did squats Thursday, bench Saturday (my wrist is finally allowing this!), deadlifts Sunday, and OHP this morning. I'll cycle back to squats tomorrow. It's not super sophisticated, but the simplicity is working for my brain right now. Hopefully I can keep it up now that I'm back to work. Today was a real test of willpower, but I did it, so hopefully that bodes well.

 

Let's see, what else...... on my birthday, my two closest friends came over after starlet was in bed to hang in my backyard and eat cake. We sat a solid distance away from each other and we had to coat ourselves in bugspray AND burn citronella torches, but it was still a nice little hangout. On Saturday, we went to my parents' place for dinner and tea from the samovar, so I felt properly loved and celebrated this weekend. A few people dropped off gifts and I was really touched because starlet's birth mom sent me a small gift and a heartfelt text. It was really sweet.

 

We've expanded our circle again to one of our mom friends who has a son 3 weeks younger than starlet. We had a couple conversations about it over the last week and all of the adults involved decided that we were being pretty careful in our everyday lives, but that we were seeing clear effects of the lack of socialization on our kids. So we had a little outdoor playdate (trying to keep everything outside for ventilation's sake, even though we're all also staying home otherwise) and will have another this week. It was really cute to see starlet and baby B together. They're both so unaccustomed to other kids at this point. She's walking really well and he isn't, meanwhile he's saying a handful of words and she isn't, so hopefully they can learn from each other and develop their social skills a bit too. 🥰

 

Aside from that, I've been playing a fair bit of D&D (recaps coming later) and doing housework and yardwork. We have a little backyard garden now, starlet's playroom is done, and I unloaded a massive number of donations to the VVA last week, so I no longer have boxes of unwanted stuff in my basement.

 

I'm doing pretty okay!

[Scaly Freak]

Happy birthday!

 

Time off is always time well spent.  

[raptron]

Happy belated bday! And ahhh, so many good things. Outdoor walking and playdates and celebrations and lifting. ❤️ 

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

I'm very glad you were able to recharge. I hope you get to keep up the walks and the workouts.

[juliebarkley]

Hooray for seeing friends and family! It sounds like you had a nice birthday with the most important thing - people who care about you.

 

I'm happy too that Starlet had a chance to interact with another kid in a safe way. The isolation does seem to be hitting a lot of kids pretty hard by now.

 

And you got some lifting in too? You are doing just fine. Don't let anyone (including yourself) tell you otherwise.

[starsapart]

Thanks, everyone! I do feel pretty proud of myself for how much I've been moving, and I'm feeling hopeful that I am building a better lifting habit by taking it in such tiny micro workouts.

[WhiteGhost]

Sounds like a pretty good birthday given the circumstances.  It was really great that Starlet had some social interactions of her own.  

 

Also, yay for lifting!

[KB Girl]

15 hours ago, starsapart said:

Thanks, everyone! I do feel pretty proud of myself for how much I've been moving, and I'm feeling hopeful that I am building a better lifting habit by taking it in such tiny micro workouts.

Rightfully so! It’s brilliant

 

glad you had a pretty good birthday! How is that chair doing? 

[starpuck]

Nice update and so good to hear from ya again!     It felt like a season cliffhanger on a favorite netflix series haha... Whaaat happppens nexxxt?

I have the cutest imagery in my brain with Starlet and her playdate.     You guys are going about things all the right ways with being safe and cautious.   Well done.

Glad you had a nice Bday time too!  Woot woot.  Happpy Bday !!!

 

[starsapart]

15 hours ago, WhiteGhost said:

Sounds like a pretty good birthday given the circumstances.  It was really great that Starlet had some social interactions of her own.  

 

Also, yay for lifting!

 

Yeah, she really needed it and it helps me feel a little better about giving her the tools she needs to succeed. Plus it's great to tire her out, too. 😋 Baby B came over again this morning for playtime in the yard and it was really sweet.

 

2 hours ago, KB Girl said:

Rightfully so! It’s brilliant

 

glad you had a pretty good birthday! How is that chair doing? 

 

My dad helped me macguyver it into the right height so I have been using it and it's SUCH an improvement! I am getting a replacement part by mail in theory so hopefully I can fix it fully sometime next week, but it's functional for now and I love it.

 

1 hour ago, Starpuck said:

Nice update and so good to hear from ya again!     It felt like a season cliffhanger on a favorite netflix series haha... Whaaat happppens nexxxt?

I have the cutest imagery in my brain with Starlet and her playdate.     You guys are going about things all the right ways with being safe and cautious.   Well done.

Glad you had a nice Bday time too!  Woot woot.  Happpy Bday !!!

 

 

Hahahaha I didn't know people were so invested; whoops, SORRYYYYYYYYYYYYYY! I am here!

 

Speaking of cliffhangers, I need to drop in some D&D updates:

 

Spoiler

Saltmarsh: We had a live game the night of 5/22. The party decided to leave the lighthouse in search of the boat and its captain after the storm passed. We took the subterranean passage, and things got weird quickly - when we got to the room where we'd found the alchemy stuff last time, it was a barracks full of beds that looked like it had been abandoned for years - even though we had been through just a few hours ago. The potential for time travel happening here continues to rise..... In any case, we found a secret passage that led us eventually to a room with a bunch of strange stuff and a treasure chest that my character somehow managed to open without getting blown up despite it being trapped. As we carried on down the passage, we came to what looked like a mess hall of some sort full of dead bodies... which then reanimated and started attacking us, oh BOY! The zombies kept regenerating when we killed them, which was very annoying, but we eventually got them (plus the ghoul that wandered in) down, though not without expending most of our spell slots and half our potions. We are very squishy. I think my bard's finest moment in this fight was to vicious mockery a zombie that had just regenerated; she yelled at it that it needed to die and STAY DEAD, and it failed its throw to regenerate and complied. It was pretty hilarious. Anyhow, we picked up a few things in that room and decided to press on without resting, which I hope doesn't bite us in the butts. The next live isn't until 6/19, but we may manage a little movement via text... if we do, I will note it here.

 

Fraxaria: We've had two more sessions on this one since I last wrote, the first of which was nearly a TPK disaster. As we were waiting for the departure of the whiskey wagons and soldiers we were intending to escort, my rogue ended up hooking up with one of the lady soldiers (I don't even know how this happened but I'm not mad). Meanwhile, the cleric went to put the fear of her god into the town's bard, who was a drunkard with a young daughter whom he apparently neglected in order to go drinking. The cleric took the half-orc fighter and intimidated the guy sufficiently, but instead of promising to straighten up he basically burst out crying and admitted that he had made a deal with a nearby urban legend sorceress called the Silverwitch, who apparently grants people their heart's desire in exchange for their greatest treasure, and his payment moment was coming up and he was very scared she was going to take his daughter. The cleric came to relay this to all of us and we were like, well, if the guy made a deal he needs to pay (the cleric didn't bother to ask what he had received, sigh), but the daughter is innocent so we should go at least talk to this sorceress. My rogue, in a moment of apparent clairvoyance, announced that people don't belong to anyone, including their parents, so obviously the child CAN'T be the price, but the cleric was convinced she was wrong, so they decided to go to the woods and find this sorceress and have a chat. A polite chat, we all stressed to the cleric. We don't know all the details, we told the cleric. Think three times before you open your mouth, we told the cleric.

 

😑

 

Well, we got to the woods and found the witch's house and went in like we had been instructed, and the moment the door opened and we laid eyes on the sorceress, the cleric started to cast sacred flame. Only by using a luck point to reroll my reaction did I manage to restrain her before the spell went off. The warlock smacked her with a pebble and the fighter tied her hands behind her back and we all apologized profusely as the sorceress casually paralyzed her, which was apparently the right move as we heard later from the DM that the SIlverwitch is like 9 levels above us and would have wiped us out with one hit if we started a fight.

 

SIGH.

 

So, with the cleric restrained, we had a very polite conversation with the Silverwitch, who told us the bard had asked for great riches so he could essentially lure away the pretty wife of the town's richest man, and the daughter couldn't be his price because she is her own person ("I TOLD YOU!" crowed my rogue) and that she intended to take his voice in payment. And all of us were like... okay but that's a pretty fair price honestly; also, the evil person in this situation is clearly the bard, who thought he was selling his kid for MONEY so he could go and be a homewrecker and did it anyway. So, you know, thanks, ma'am, we appreciate the information and we'll be on our way. She then offered us a job. 😂 We have a sending stone to contact her if we want to take it after we finish our current one, and honestly, I know my rogue, the warlock, and the monk are all kind of on board to contact her and do said job so... we may see more of her soon. I am sure the cleric (and thus the fighter) will want nothing to do with it, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there. In any case, she sent us back to town with her displacer beast named Solace, and we went to the bard's house and laid into him telling him:

1. You're a man of honor as of today even if you weren't before, you feel me? So you'll pay for what you asked for like an honorable man, and learn a lesson today.
2. Money won't buy you happiness, you dumbass.
3. You're lucky as hell that all she is going to take is your voice. Better figure out how to live without that, quick.
4. Use that money to take care of your child and yourself. If we hear you played homewrecker, you will wish you'd never been born.
5. Stop drinking and be a decent father, for fuck's sake.

First the warlock laid into him, then my rogue did, finishing up by announcing she's three times the man he is, and that's sad and he should feel bad, and then we stormed back to town, dragging the cleric behind us (as she continued to protest that the Silverwitch was an abomination and blah blah). And that is how we avoided certain doom.

 

We headed out with the whiskey wagons and had an unpleasant encounter with some ettercaps a couple nights into travel. Fortunately, between us and the soldiers, we killed the bipedal spider abominations pretty effectively, and we managed to save the little pseudodragon they had been planning to eat, too. After that, we got on with the soldiers very well (and my rogue kept right on getting laid while on the road which to her is basically the perfect situation all around). A couple days later, we came to a farmstead where a panicked farmer told us something had been tearing into his livestock. That night, we had a rather harrowing encounter with an injured wyvern. Thankfully, said wyvern had damaged wings and couldn't fly, and also thankfully, we still had those four soldiers for help, so only the monk got knocked unconscious. After the fight, the warlock and I went to check out the cave where this thing had been hiding out and found a passage to a very strange room with a glowing pool of salt water (we are days from shore), a statue of a headless woman, and a fresco on the ceiling depicting all of the planes of existence. We decided immediately not to tell the rest of the party what we found because we didn't want the cleric blowing it up. 😅 We'll tell the monk (who's got a scholar background) once we're a day or so away and ask her to do some research, and we did mark it on our map to return to later if we can, but first we have to make sure the cleric is under control. She WAS better by this session (I think the near TPK scared the player into being more cooperative) so we'll see. Anyhow, we need to get to the baron ASAP to deliver the whiskey and also hand off the decomposing head in a bag that my rogue is still carrying around.........

 

More to come after Saturday's session. I think it's meant to be the season finale, after which we return to Grimkofe for a month or so.

 

Let's see, other things...

 

I took starlet on a walk after dinner yesterday. I went to bed at 11, which was not ideal. I did squats this morning before work, and starlet had another playdate with baby B between my morning calls. Further plans for today include another afternoon walk, probably.

[starsapart]

I did indeed take a walk yesterday afternoon - all three of us went, in fact! It rained on us at the very end, so I actually ran about a block home. It was predictably terrible and my broken foot is telling me this morning why I should not have done that. My dad came over in the afternoon to fix the broken gate and put up yet another gate because starlet is running now and we really don't want her taking a tumble down any of the multiple sets of stairs in the house. I made dinner for everyone, then after starlet was in bed, helped him pack up and sent him on his way. My wife and I then watched the new Iliza Shlesinger comedy special because we have finally given up on actually ever getting to use the tickets we bought at the start of the year to see her live. I once again wound up going to bed at 11... though the good news here is, I haven't had any anxiety wake-ups in almost two weeks, so I'm actually feeling pretty rested sleeping 11-7.

 

I did not lift this morning because I woke up feeling super worn down and sore and in pain (thanks, foot). I did the last four days straight, so I think taking today off is okay - I might take an online flexibility class tonight after starlet is in bed instead. Back to lifting tomorrow.

[starsapart]

Flexibility class was cancelled yesterday, but I did get in a short afternoon walk with starlet.

 

I benched this morning and felt twinges of wrist pain coming back, which is annoying as I thought the sprain had FINALLY healed. Still, I got through it. I've got a full day of conference calls today, about half on video, so I pulled myself together (make-up and all!) and it feels very strange to look kind of like a semi-attractive human.

 

starlet is up to six teeth officially as of yesterday, which certainly explains some of her explosive fussiness over the last week.

 

I'm feeling low and kind of hopeless about the state of the world right now, but aside from donating money to organizations that are out there doing good, I feel like I personally can't do much - protesting isn't an option for me for a whole slew of reasons. Given it's also Pride month, it's been an interesting experience watching the various queer activists I follow looking for the points of intersectionality to lend support both to the BLM movement and the continued push for queer rights - there is a LOT of work to be done for black trans folk especially, who are disproportionately impacted by violence and whose deaths are frequently ignored.

[Mad Hatter]

I'm so glad to hear that you disappeared for a good reason. Happy belated birthday! 😄

 

1 hour ago, starsapart said:

it feels very strange to look kind of like a semi-attractive human.

Quite the understatement!

 

1 hour ago, starsapart said:

I'm feeling low and kind of hopeless about the state of the world right now, but aside from donating money to organizations that are out there doing good, I feel like I personally can't do much

Don't we all. 😥

[starsapart]

1 minute ago, Mad Hatter said:

Quite the understatement!

 

You can't see me, you don't know that. 😜

[Mad Hatter]

27 minutes ago, starsapart said:

You can't see me, you don't know that. 😜

 

[Scaly Freak]

4 hours ago, starsapart said:

I'm feeling low and kind of hopeless about the state of the world right now, but aside from donating money to organizations that are out there doing good, I feel like I personally can't do much - protesting isn't an option for me for a whole slew of reasons.

 

Why not? Who says we have to go out into the streets in order to do something? 🤨

 

If it wouldn't get me in serious trouble I would copy-paste the links my employer has been providing to everyone, via emails and intranet newsletters, on what people can do as an alternative to taking to the streets in protest. Donating to organisations working for change is one of them, but there are also things like attending online/virtual events, signing petitions, contacting our legislators on Federal and State level and demand they call for change, not to mention registering to vote and then actually voting in our local elections. Lastly but more importantly, we should be educating ourselves on the history of systematic social injustice and racial inequality and how that history has directly created our present lives.

 

This article has a long list of good resources: https://bthechange.com/4-steps-we-can-take-as-white-people-to-fight-racism-a582e826eb92 

 

[starsapart]

Yes, I've been donating, signing petitions, and emailing representatives. I started taking steps to educate myself on these issues a couple of years ago, so that has been an ongoing thing for me since before this specific incident. Thanks for the link - I'll check it out along with other resources I'm looking at.

[KB Girl]

On 6/3/2020 at 4:33 PM, starsapart said:

though the good news here is, I haven't had any anxiety wake-ups in almost two weeks, so I'm actually feeling pretty rested sleeping 11-7.

That is great!

[sylph]

Heya--hope you and your fam are safe and well ❤️

 

[starsapart]

Oh gosh, sorry, I've been soooooooooo absent, but things are okay! I've been walking a fair bit and am trying to drag myself back to IF land. I haven't lifted in about a week because my wrist got wonky again and my broken foot is bothering me, but I'm actually feeling pretty okay. I haven't had many spoons to spare and my presence here has suffered. I'll summarize at the end of the challenge and hopefully carry on next time.

[Scaly Freak]

1 minute ago, starsapart said:

I haven't lifted in about a week because my wrist got wonky again and my broken foot is bothering me, 

 

This is wise. Deadlift with a broken foot would not be wise. Your priorities are as they should be.

 

Ration your spoons!

[WhiteGhost]

On 6/12/2020 at 3:24 AM, starsapart said:

hopefully carry on next time.

Please do!