Category Archives: Random Life Stuff

I’m alive. Really, I am.

Wednesday was insane. Anyone that hasn’t noticed, I live in the Denver area. So, yes, Wednesday there was a blizzard. At my house, I got TWO FEET of snow. Yes, two feet. Yikes! If you don’t know, a blizzard isn’t actually characterized by snowfall (it can snow very little) but by wind and visibility; to be a blizzard wind must be consistently over 35 miles per hour and the visibility must be less than 1/2 a mile (due to blowing snow) for more than 3 hours in a row. This blizzard also came with crazy huge amounts of snowfall. Everything was cancelled, and the airport closed completely for over eight hours. Sadly, instead of just enjoying the snow day, I was stressed about Dan because he was trying to get home from a business trip and it wasn’t going so well (due to the airport being closed). Thankfully, he managed to get home Thursday morning instead of Saturday like many of his coworkers. Here are some photos from Wednesday:

At about 7:30am it didn’t look too bad. You can still see some of the road even (just over the wall there) and we’ve only gotten about 3-4 inches of snow. Visibility kind of stinks, but it’s not awful yet.
The windows on the north side of the house have iced up pretty well though (at about 8am).
I’d say this is about noon. As you can see, it’s snowing quite hard, and we have a LOT of snow now. It’s incredibly blustery, and visibility is terrible (that wall is really close to my house).
Everything is starting to ice up, even south facing windows, and you can see we have even MORE snow now (look at the pickets on the gate between this pic and the last one). There is only about a 3 hour difference between this pic and the last one, maybe.
It’s done snowing, mostly, and there isn’t much of a step down anymore. Normally, you walk out of my sliding glass door and the porch is about two feet below… The snow is currently over the height of the metal frame on the door.
We got a LOT of snow!

I Survived the Blizzard

Internet Hiatuses Can be Good, When My Stomach Doesn’t Rebel

Whoops. I kind of dropped off the planet for a bit. Though, I have to admit, my three day hiatus from the internet was kind of nice.

fireworksSaturday was my 26th birthday. I can’t believe I’m 26. It’s odd. I am actually starting to finally feel a bit more adult. At the same time, I still feel like I’m “pretending” half the time, but it sounds like that feeling never goes away. Dan and I are starting to fall into an “adulting” rhythm (meal planning, house stuff getting under control, organized, etc) that seems to be really helping to add to the feeling of being an adult. Oh, and I should be graduating in May, which should really help. Not having homework anymore will probably make me feel older.

I woke up on Saturday feeling awful, actually. That morning, it appeared that my new headache medication was really kicking my butt. Or something. I seriously just felt horrid. I was exhausted. cd0ec9ab3ff18c2d10f8c778bd3fc2a9Like, I got out of bed and took a shower and could barely get back into bed type of tired. I’d been up all night tossing and turning and having serious temperature swings and having to pee and it was terrible. Before bed Friday night I’d also suddenly been hit by a wall of exhaustion which pretty much meant Dan had to put me to bed. Thankfully, after rest and some fluids I felt a bit better and was able to get myself pulled together enough to enjoy my tiny get together. Three friends came over and we chatted a bit, played a game, and went to dinner. It was a lot of fun. I pushed myself a little harder than I probably should have, but it was still a much needed emotional uplift. I also realized I do not talk to people outside this blog often enough (or outside of Dan often enough) as I accidentally talked about my physical stuff a little more often than I meant to. Oh well. Thankfully, the friends that came seem to really understand what goes on with me physically so they were very understanding.

Sunday & Monday were interesting…

march18 snowing es signed

Today is 35°F and snowing. The official first day of spring is this Sunday (the 20th). It doesn’t look very springy out.

I like the snow, I really do. However, my depression is not liking it right now. To pick myself up, I’ve been making some springy designs on Zazzle. Hopefully, they can pick you guys up too. (Daffodils are my favorite flower, so the first one is my favorite and I actually made 6 different products with that picture.)

 

Click here to see more designs

Spring is Coming

Humorous Dysautonomia Sweatshirt

I was clicking around Zazzle trying to figure out some new products that I wanted to make, and was struck with a rather silly idea:

People with dysautonomia often do not have the ability to wear what they used to or necessarily want to. Many of us are forced to choose comfort over any sort of style.

This idea ultimately led to these:

 

What do you think?!

See other shirts

My Social Circles Aren’t That Good For Marketing

Ya’ll know I’m trying to make money from home (posts 1, 2, 3; pages 1, 2) to help with my own medical bills, upcoming student loan repayments, and the car payments we’ll need to make soon thanks to both our cars being really old. I am quickly realizing there is a small flaw in my plan: my social circles are not “direct sales” friendly. My personality isn’t that fantastic about it either, actually, since I don’t like being pushy.

Why aren’t they good for marketing purposes?

The Boring Bit of a New Computer

You know how exciting it is to get a new piece of technology (or at least, I imagine you do because you’re reading this somehow): you want to be playing with it constantly to figure out what it does! In the case of a new computer, however, that joy is killed off when you remember you need to transfer everything from the old computer to the new one and reinstall all of your programs.

Yup, that’s the stage I’ve gotten too. I’m a photographer, too, so I have TONS of large files to swap over. That means, this is going to be a weeks long process (likely) as I transfer everything over and try to get things organized on the new computer. I really hate this part. I’ve already installed most of the programs, and I’ve moved over all of my documents. However, music and photos are going to take forever.

If you need me, I’ll be sitting at my dining table watching progress bars creep by.

New Computer

YAY! I got a new desktop computer!

Both Dan’s and my laptops are making their way, ever so slowly, to the technology graveyard living in the office closet. Even though they haven’t died yet, it’s making us both rather nervous. Dan just started graduate school, I am in my final semester of school, and my only potential income streams are from the internet. Oh, and this blog. Losing computer access, or reliable computer access, just isn’t an option. I’ve also managed to almost completely fill up my laptop because of my photography. Then, tax refund money arrived!

Obviously, a new computer was first up for us!

It’s great and super fast. Right now, it’s just on the dining table, but it’s a lot of fun having a fully functional and speedy computer.

Though, I do now have to learn Windows 10 (so far so good) and start the long process of transferring files. But it’s still exciting! That is, if you couldn’t tell, what I’ve been doing all day (setting things up). I did have my GI appointment, but I’ll post about that later. For now, sleep is necessary.

Grampa Update #5

Sorry it’s been quite some time since I’ve updated y’all about my grandparents. Don’t panic.

Grampa had been at home over a week now. He’s supposed to be using the statutory to go upstairs, but it’s slow so he doesn’t. According to my parents, he really isn’t listening to most of the doctor’s orders about physical activity. Oh well. Otherwise, he’s doing great!

Grama, actually, is the one having problems. Continue reading →

How to Clean with a Moderately Severe Dust Allergy

I’m allergic to dust. Yes, you read that properly, dust. Everyday house dust. (Read post 1 and 2 about this allergy.) As you can imagine, this makes things very complicated. Doctor’s orders say I’m supposed to stay away from dust, especially airborne dust, which also means keeping my house as dust free as possible. Do you see the catch?

Cleaning is very complicated due to the dust issues. First of all, let me emphasize the importance of good air filters if you have a dust allergy or sensitivity. Air filters are CRUCIAL!!! They are also necessary when cleaning. airfilterI have two different types of air filters, three filter units total. I have two Winix True HEPA filters, and love them. After we got them, we cleaned thoroughly, and it took significantly less time for a dust layer to accumulate. They also automatically sense air quality and will adjust the fan speed as necessary (if on “auto”) and can be put on a quiet “sleep” mode for overnight. We have one Winix on the main level of our house, and one in our bedroom. We also have a small Holmes HEPA mini-tower air purifier (I bought it from Target about 5 years ago). We buy the best filters we can for the Holmes, and it runs 24/7 in the office. All the air filters run 24/7. I’m not getting anything for these links, but these are the ones we use and I definitely recommend the Winix ones.

How to Clean and Dust Your House When You’re Allergic to House Dust

Continue reading →