MONDAY...AGAIN

Good morning, Dearies. I'm up and moving, but not very far and definitely not very fast. The fatigue level is stupid-high lately, and it's about all I can do to keep my peepers open.

But I am freshly showered with clean hair...a mighty undertaking when doing so feels like running an IronMan marathon...and I am happily attired in my "leisure wear". (It's basically a pajama set that I fished out of the closet, but it's black and with the right accessories could pass for...pajamas.)

I've got my water filled and ready to go. I have to ask, though....is it possible for these sippy cups to lose their ability to keep things cold? I notice that ice is not lasting as long as it used to, and by the time I make it to the bottom of my fourth or fifth fill, I've gone through much more ice than I used to.

I had never understood what a hyper-fixation meal was until it dawned on me that I have been eating the same thing for my first meal of the day for over a year now:

There's something about the contrast of the cottage cheese with everything bagel seasoning combined with the fruit that makes me feel both healthy and satisfied. This is just such an easy go-to for me, and I usually have it between 11ish and 2ish. I can't seem to eat when I first wake up, and my appetite really only wants two meals a day with maybe a small snack of cheese and crackers in between, but this is a) highly approved by my people, and b) somehow exactly what I want. 

Go figure.

I finished Anna Karenina and sat with it for a few days and then grabbed this off of my TBR shelf. I really loved her previous book, Babel, and although it was completely out of my normal genre comfort zone, I decided to try this one, too. It's good, and I'm enjoying it, but definitely different than my normal thing.

When I finish this, I'm going to do a deep read of Joyce's Ulysses. I've never read it, but I wrote my Senior Thesis with a Joyce scholar named Ed Cronin, and he always told me to wait to read it until I knew it was the exact right moment to do so. 

I think this might be it.

My stitchy life is so quiet I have to poke it with a stick every now and then to make sure it's not dead. No worries, though. I go through this every single year at this time, so I'm sure that once I get a needle back in my hand all will be well once again.

My evening television viewing has been bingeing, bingeing, bingeing. First, I watched the final two seasons of Outlander. I had already seen Season Seven, but was so lost that I decided to re-watch it so I could enjoy the final Season Eight.

And I did.

Then, I watched Rooster on HBO. I was never a fan of The Office, so Steve Carell wasn't somebody I knew/liked a lot, but Rooster really did it for me. I loved his character and acting so much that I finished Rooster and jumped over to The Four Seasons and watched all of it.

Now I'm on Season Two of The Bear. Totally different sensibility, and I find myself having to pull my shoulders out of my ears because of the tense feeling of the scenes, but I'm also loving it (and Jeremy Allen White).

Other than that, I'm trying to behave myself while Rich is getting his mom situated in New Jersey. She had another fall a few months ago, and has been in a re-hab facility, but it's time for her to transition from living alone in her condo to a more secure situation. I think they've found the perfect place...so fingers crossed that it will all work out. (And if you're so inclined, a prayer to The Big Guy that the nuns at Villa Raffaella in Pleasantville can work their magic would also be appreciated!)

That's life in a nutshell here in Hoosierville, Dearies. Quiet. Easy. Beautiful. As I sit here writing to you, a teeny little girl is playing and singing on one of the balconies across the courtyard. Every now and then, her mom bursts out in the most beautiful laughter over something the little girl has sung, and it sounds like wind chimes to me. I can't understand the words...they're in Mandarin maybe?...but I could listen to her sing that funny little song all day.

Happy Monday. I hope your week is off to a wonderful start. What are you up to? Come tell me all about it!