sundries

[rm]

- In a fit of intense irritation with HTML (you know when it's just moody?) I decided to clean the apartment instead. I'm sure I'll look at it with fresh eyes tomorrow and be able to solve it.

- Tomorrow I'm going to: work efficiently, finish the above-mentioned HTML project, send Kali my next chunk of EtGB and finish and submit two pieces of actual fiction. And do laundry. Amazingly, this is possible and will happen.

- Patty will be home in less than a week. It's amazing to me how 9 or 10 weeks as it usually is, is long, but manageable, and 3 months (3 months!) which isn't that much longer, just hits this point where the whole thing seems bizarre and insane.

- It's spring. How do I know? Is it the buds on the trees? The thunderstorm? The warmer weather? No, it's the giant fucking fly that I just had to chase out of our bedroom.

- My hair was particularly egregious today. Dry and frizzy and it needs a trim. I look like some chick from the 80s. I just keep telling myself this is not a week to be hot. I can be hot next week when the girl comes home.

- Cirque du Soleil. I've never been. Am getting Patty and I tickets. This is spend a big bucks for the good seats sort of a thing, right?

- Am considering making my diet less carnvierous. As in no red meat and eating vegetarian 3 or 4 days of 7. With celiac disease and the soy avoidance and the fact that I really like meat, this wouldn't be easy, but in the "oh god, what's with everyone and the tumors lately?" spirit of things, I'm considering it. I mean, once upon a time I was even vegan.

- I think I need to talk to my mother about getting a scooter for my father. There's no reason for him to be housebound and I know he has to practice his walking, but at his age, waiting for his muscles to recover entirely from the stroke is foolish. There's a world out there he deserves to continue to participate in. My dad is nuts and difficult and undereducated, but he's also enterally curious about pretty much everything. This will cause a family fight, but it's got to be said.

Comments

[sparta5.livejournal.com]

LOL re: the fly!

:-) My SO was in Japan for 2 weeks once. I thought -that- was a long time. Glad to hear it won't be long now.

[rm.livejournal.com]

It's a little crazy. Patty went on a dig 3 weeks after we started dating and that's how a lot of our early courtship happened, so it's just a given that this is what she does and is part of the package of her, and it's a good awesome thing. But this one between duration and various stressors that transpired during it, has been a bit difficult.

[ophymirage.livejournal.com]

re Cirque: I've been to see several different shows now, and honestly, as long as you're not sitting directly behind a pillar or speaker or something ('partly occluded seating', my ass), you're going to be able to see amazing things. They play to all parts and levels of the stage. :)

Which show are you thinking of?

[mzlizzy.livejournal.com]

I honestly recommend going for seats away from the stage for Cirque shows. There are often things happening above the stage level, an unless you *want* a clown in your lap at some point why pay for the close up seats?

Mind you, I've see them in Vegas, not their tent shows, so YMMV.

[drfardook.livejournal.com]

If you can't get to the bottom of the HTML message me and I'll take a look. Usually its something really stupidly obscure that's making your life miserable.

I hear you on the failed vegetarian thing. Meat is just too easy most of the time, primarily when eating out. On the plus side, being vege at home has been surprisingly easy. Living with a pescatarian for a few years tends to help. You build up the staples and learn where to get everything you need. It just seems far easier to go vege when your partner is already there or into the idea as well.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I'm sending you a PM about it.

[laufeyette.livejournal.com]

I say yes to splurging on the good seats for Cirque. Anywhere is great, but up close is amazingly awesome.

Also, to reference an above comment, you know you want a clown in your lap.

[darthhellokitty.livejournal.com]

Hey lady, is that a clown in your lap or are you just happy to see me?

(I'm blaming this on the antibiotics.)

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

I'm blaming it on the Bossa Nova>

[feyandstrange.livejournal.com]

On the scooter thing: Try going out to someplace with loaner scooters, like a big store, and see if using one of those makes him feel happier and more able to enjoy being out. If so, there's your winning argument right there. Alternatively, a better grade of walker/rollator can also help. Therapists tend to hate rollators (walker things with wheels and usually a seat to rest on) because it's easier to fall again with one, but they are much nicer than walkers. Also, having a built-in seat means you can walk a little, rest up, then walk a little more, at your own pace. Has he got a walker now or a manual wheelchair?

Sometimes HTML gets really attitudinal.

Once the budget permits I intend to try to switch to healthier grades of meat (grass-fed beef etc). We tend to eat a lot of chicken and some pork and fish, with meat one meal a day or maybe two if it's something small. It's just too tricky to get enough protein, especially with cooking being annoyingly difficult. But I seem to do well on red meat, so I want to keep it around - just eat the good stuff and not hamburger.

[tdanaher.livejournal.com]

Wow, I wish I'd known that "Therapists tend to hate rollators (walker things with wheels and usually a seat to rest on) because it's easier to fall again with one," because that's exactly what happened to my mom. She had a knee replacement, and used a rollator afterwards. Sure enough, while using it, she fell again and ended up having to have a SECOND knee replacement. Now it's scooters all the way.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Right now he has both a walker and a cane and refuses to use both of them outside of the house. Even if he did, I don't feel they make a big difference. The cane is largely irrelevant and while the walker helps prevent falls, it doesn't change the very slow/small steps/exhaustion factor.

A manual wheelchair would be a serious non-option just because of both his and my mother's strength, but this idea that neither of them are going to leave the house again for years is insane, so something must be done.

[feyandstrange.livejournal.com]

It sounds as if he should meet the eligibility requirements for a scooter. I asked about a manual because the insurance/Medicare types tend to want to fob you off with one whenever they can get away with it.

Is he getting any physical therapy? It sounds like he could use some. A sensible doctor will probably say "I don't want to give him a scooter because he should be walking", but if he isn't walking, that isn't going to change. Plus a scooter doesn't do well as small spaces like inside apartments, so he'd be walking there. If he takes the scooter to physical therapy...

If he has any arm or upper body issues, a scooter may be difficult to manage - they are a lot harder to steer than a power wheelchair. (They're also often huge and hard to get on buses and the like.) But it is much easier to get a scooter than a powerchair.

Best of luck with that process.

[demotu.livejournal.com]

Oh Cirque! Which one? I saw one recently (in the fall? It was touring, there isn't a permanent one here, though I could very well drive up to Montreal to see it, I suppose), I've forgotten it's name, though. It had the most incredible chandelier act as the opening, there aren't even words.

Cirque, to me, is one of those expressions of humanity at its most glorious. It makes me cry with the overwhelming beauty of it. I've seen it twice, once with really terrible seats (behind a pillar, don't recommend though I still was blown away) and once with excellent but not front-row seats (actually, I don't think there were bad seats in the building for that performance. Or rather, bad seats in the tent.) Being farther back doesn't really diminish it, but being closer might let you enjoy the costumes and set design more.

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

-Le Cirque du Soleil: definitely that sort.
-Not sure I understand about the soy thing, but more chicken and fish, less red meat, treating meat as a condiment and a treat, all seem like good ways to bet, health wise. Maybe think in terms of individual meals rather than whole days.
-Scooter. Yeah, for what little it's worth, I support you here.

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

The main thing is to enjoy your food. If you're not enjoying it, you're doing it wrong!
We live to eat! Only dirty Calvinists eat to live.

[rm.livejournal.com]

My grandmother and great aunt died of breast cancer.
My mother had breast cancer last year.
Soy has estrogenic effects and I shouldn't have it, as hi, I'd like to not get cancer, although I'm not sure the odds are that good.

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

Ah, that makes sense. One more avoidable risk.
Hence the cutting down on the animal products. It all seems like like sensible precautions, given your family history.
I also don't want you to get cancer, and no, the odds aren't so great.
*Bless, no hug.*(Unless you want a hug.)

[qthelights.livejournal.com]

Cirque is the most amazing thing you'll ever seen. It's an experience, and it's wonderful. I second what people have said, you don't need to be up front (and often that's best, to avoid clowns or whatever).. somewhere in the middle should be fine and even best as you can see everything going on around you. I saw 'O' and 'Mystere' in Vegas. O from quite far back and Mystere from a side 2/3 back position. Both were amazing. Even if you can't see the face makeup, it doesn't really matter.. it's still all colour and movement.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

And, in the strange items from your list for Sam to focus on competition...

When I went to see Cirque's Kooza, "good seats" turned out to be on any aisle or at the front of any section, because they did so much audience stuff; there were three sections (front-middle-back) and I was in the front row of the middle and got popcorn thrown at me, it was awesome :D It's nice to be close, but I wouldn't pay to be in the front section, because you see all the imperfections -- the little muscle wobbles, the makeup smears, the zips in the costumes. Much better to be just far enough back to preserve the illusion. Unless, I suppose, you or Patty are intensely interested in circus performance technique :D

[sykii.livejournal.com]

Re: Cirque du Soleil, yes. Though you may want to consider your idea of "good" seats in light the knowledge that, both times I've been (some years ago) there was audience participation going on with the front rows and aisles.

[ursamajor]

Cirque du Soleil is amazing. I saw La Nouba when I was in Orlando for Christmas a couple of years back, and even with our day-of-show upper balcony tickets it was worth it.

The serendipity of being greeted with it a couple of weeks ago when I flipped on the tv just overwhelmed me. (It was on Jon and Kate Plus Eight, a show that I would never watch normally, but interracial couples on TV, yay; unexpected reminders of beauty, even better.)

[silmaril.livejournal.com]

Cirque du Soleil: Yes, especially if you've never been.

[bodlon.livejournal.com]

Am considering making my diet less carnvierous. As in no red meat and eating vegetarian 3 or 4 days of 7. With celiac disease and the soy avoidance and the fact that I really like meat, this wouldn't be easy, but in the "oh god, what's with everyone and the tumors lately?" spirit of things, I'm considering it. I mean, once upon a time I was even vegan.

I should do this. I really should. But god, so lazy. And right now so broke. And meat? So tasty.

...my next chunk of EtGB...

This is why I needed a 3 day weekend. Reading this was on my "to do" list and didn't happen. Argh.

[rm.livejournal.com]

And this is comparatively short!

[jendaby.livejournal.com]

It is my experience with Cirque du Soliel that there really aren't bad seats in the house - they try to stage it so that there is something beautiful to watch from every angle. That said, mid-range, so that you can see the whole stage at once but are not too far away, is a good safe bet for seating.

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

Cirque du Soleil - yes, get the good seats. What show is it? I really want to go sometime. Mike loves them.

I just realized today, as my hair has grown out from my previous cut, it looks a lot like your hair back then. Weird.

[nex0s.livejournal.com]

I have seen Cirque twice - once from the side and rather high up, and once from the side, close to the stage (like within 3 rows). I preferred close to the stage, mostly because I can see the details of their bodies and how they move far more easily. We went to see Zumanity in Las Vegas, and I splurged on the loveseat so we could cuddle and drink champagne while we watched the show, and it was VERY worth it.

N.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I was tempted for half a second to do the thing with the special VIP lounge and the food and the booze, but since I won't be able to eat any of it and the price is crazy, I'm now leaning towards good seats for a 4pm show and then a fabulous dinner after.

[stardragonca.livejournal.com]

That sounds like the most romance for your finance.:)

[dsmoen.livejournal.com]

Rick and I have seen three Cirque shows -- you want close but not too close.

This will help you pick your seats: http://www.cirquetribune.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=13

[guruwench.livejournal.com]

Oh hells yes re the flies. I've been *divebombed* by one of the blasted things when I was in bed talking with my sweetie, fer cryin' out loud. LOL

OMGYES spend the big bucks (if you can afford to) on the good seats for Cirque. Tapis Rouge if you can afford it. Is well worth it.

(I'm a newcomer to your LJ. I've been enjoying reading. Hi. :) )

[guruwench.livejournal.com]

D'oh! Just saw re your food allergies - yeah, with that, skipping the Tapis Rouge makes sense, sadly. (I have been to a Cirque show exactly once, with Tapis Rouge, but that was my birfday prezzie to my sweetie as it was his 40th birthday. I splurged.)