Since I already successfully claimed, I can only apply for it. darn it. Cross your fingers for me. 

Hmmm...I've not been posting much recently, perhaps I'm depressed. R caught covid at the beginning of the month after we returned from our overnight. She has been referred to a long covid clinic as her PCP thinks she probably has long covid. R met with them and some of the care she is interested such as the lung x-ray and PT for breathing. She knows she's part of the research but because she would have to go downtown to the major university for appointments and she doesn't want to make this her life, she's probably only going to be a part of some of it. It sound just way too much to me.
Wednesday my mother called us up and shared that she's in stage 3 kidney failure. She has another appointment next month. I don't know if she's in stage 3a or 3b. My Dad was in kidney failure before he had his kidney transplant but he didn't really share that much with us so I don't know what stage but I'm sure it was pretty bad. He never did dialysis and I'm pretty sure my mom will choose not to. This weekend we're going down to celebrate her 80th birthday. Teh boy apparently is not up for it which annoys me and I want to make him do it, especially after this news. I can't make him do it but I sure want to try. And I’ve had some feelings about being an orphan. I feel bad that my older sister might be the one to deal with all the health stuff. R and I are planning to help out as much as we can. My sister’s employer doesn’t allow her to take sick time to help with care for sick kids or parents. She has to take vacation time. (boo hiss on her employer) I share the details with my direct supervisor and she was very understanding and said supportive things.
Speaking of teh boy, he's now 30. R and I went up to share dinner with him. I had been keeping a journal since he was born to share stories of him growing up. The last time I really wrote an entry was in 2010 so I spent many hours catching it up in the last 12 years. Lots had happened and it was also some reflection on things that had happened. I gave it to him and he seemed happy to have it but didn't really want to read it while he was there because he said he knew he would get emotional. It was fun to point out at one point he found it and asked about what it was and I explained. He later wrote something and all you could really make out was something about Pokémon.
I was supposed to work from home today but the evening coworker, Barbara has called in sick for like the last three days. According to our boss, she said she would be at work on Friday but I’m not trusting it. I’ll probably end up working on site Friday. R has decided she wants us to take the minivan/mini-camper and stay in my sister’s driveway. The battery is dead and I have one of those jumper chargers except the battery is dead in it(it’s been years since I’ve even looked at it). R was able to ask the caretaker of our development for help and he’s got a charger connected now. The battery jumper was designed to be able to replace the battery so I’m hoping to do that but I’ve got to get my socket set to get the battery free to go find a replacement battery.
I didn’t sleep well, so much stuff going on. I just couldn’t sleep. At my last annual exam with a new doctor, the doctor mentioned switching my high blood pressure meds to one that will do a better job of protecting my kidneys. It does require monitoring of my liver but she said it would only be monitored like once a year, which I’m now already doing. With this new family history coming from both parents, I think I will. I tried to reach out to her but the stupid system won’t let me. I can only message if it’s within 7 days and related to an appointment. My last appointment was about a month ago. So I tried to call the clinic and I could only get through to the appointment schedulers. This was SO annoying and I was not very nice to when I eventually go through to someone by calling another number. How do people who are elderly, not technologically savvy or where English isn’t their first language handle this? I was furious.
My weight has slowly started creeping up again and I’m trying to figure out how to get it back in check. It’s making me sad and tired. My clothes are tight, my face is less slim. I noticed in the wedding pictures for teh boy and my kin-in-law and yet, I still haven’t been able to turn it around. I hope that summer will be better. I also thought I was going to start this really nice ease into menopause. I skipped one but then it came again right on time for the following month and then again two weeks later. Just stop it.
So, again, I’m tired and cranky and maybe depressed. The weather certainly hasn’t helped at all. And I had to go into work today.
If you’ve read this far, thanks for listening to me whine.

#mylivejournal #lj18 #happybirthday

Today is the last day of my job until after May 2016. I'm going to be doing so many other things. I'm actually a little nervous about it. I'm going to try and take next week to get myself situated so that I've got a plan. I'm also going to try to breathe through the anxiety of this transition and change. I do believe I'm looking forward to some time alone. 

What's the most romantic thing that either you have ever done or someone has done for you?