Updates of All Kinds

Hello from my Tortured Poets Department listening party! I'm still untangling the songs from one another to determine my favorites, but so far, I just like listening to all 31(!) on repeat while I go about my day.

Recovery update: I feel 100%. I know that I'm not really, because when I do things like take a slow 2.5 mile walk (my watch is so confused; I'm getting messages like: "your pace has changed" "who are you? blink twice if you need help") and make one trip outside the house I then sleep like a rock for 11 straight hours that night, but I really do feel good. My biggest struggle is remembering that I had major surgery only 7-9 days ago and I'm still not supposed to lift heavy things or push myself too hard (like by using this time at home to reorganize every closet, which I'm totally doing anyway, but you know, carefully, and making James do any lifting).

Cora ended up sick all of last week, so my snuggle in at home and watch grown-up garbage TV time was severely curtailed, but I did learn more than I ever wanted to know about the ruthless world of wild cats through all of her documentaries. They are so sad you guys. Cora told me I'm too sensitive for the real world. This is 100% true and probably explains my fictional reading preferences. I finally made her watch Incredibles 1 and 2 with me, plus the two newee Jumanjis, and she was like, ok this was fun, but can we get back to educational viewing now?

Luckily she went back to school on Friday so I could watch all of season 1 of Hollywood Houselift with Jeff Lewis from my couch as my recovery plan intended. I love a house show and the clients and results are fun. I'm obsessed with Ashley Simpson-Ross and Evan Ross's new bedroom in season 1. Moose even subbed in for Milo's nursing duties and reluctantly watched an episode with me. As you can tell, he was really excited about it.

I'm also caught up on the new season of Top Chef (love! it's in Wisconsin and Kristin is doing a great job as host; my mom came over for the day on Monday and we watched every episode out so far and then craved pretzels and cheese afterward), Loot Season 2 (also LOVE; hate that they're making me wait a week between episodes; don't they know my real life is looming and this is my narrow opportunity for binging?), Ghosts (so fun; finished every season), and a re-watch of Seasons 1-4 of the West Wing because it's my comfort show and I slept through 90% of the watch party in my early days of recovery.

I also organized and edited my photos from August-present and uploaded them into Shutterfly so I can start on the next year's photobook at my convenience. And ordered a few large prints for some new frames in the house. We had an appointment with a local AV company and they'll be here next week to install speakers, wifi access points, and a new TV upstairs. We've met with a landscaper twice to go through our plan for the front yard: new drainage/irrigation system, a parking spot for Landon that doesn't require me to call him everytime I pull up to yell "move your car so I can get in the garage!", a sidewalk, some raised planters, and plants we cannot kill. These are the two final projects for the house and I'm excited to get them going. We were supposed to do the front yard project last year, but I spent that budget item on Taylor Swift tickets (#noregrets), and now I'm glad we waited because having a third driver (and knowing a fourth isn't far behind) has really changed our needs for the front of the house and this new plan is going to be so functional and great.

Speaking of functional and great, I've decided to finish organizing our master closet- the front part is perfect but the back is just plastic bins and the two feet I gave James for all his clothes. He's recently re-discovered that he likes looking nice when he goes out into the world, so I'm re-working the closet to allow for the non-workout-wear I'm hoping he'll buy. Two dressers and two shoe racks have now been purchased and are in-route to our house. He doesn't yet know the new closet plan involves assembling two IKEA dressers, but I'm sure he'll be so excited when he finds out.

On Wednesday I took advantage of my reclusive recovery life and got a photofacial with medium depth chemical peel. As I've written before, I LOVE an IPL/photofacial. I think they are by far the most effective way to improve skin: the procedure is short, there's little downtime, it's non-invasive, and my skin truly glows for a good year after. I had been missing the place I used to go in Fort Worth and was delighted to get a recommendation for a woman in Dallas. She was aggressive but incredibly knowledgeable and clinical. She recommended adding the chemical peel, which I've never done, and it was definitely an intense experience. I'm currently in my shedding stage (like a snake, I told my confused children who wondered why my face was falling off) and I'm excited to see results in a few more days.

Today I'm off to the salon to get a haircut (I scheduled this appointment at my last appointment, like a real grown-up who is now getting her hair cut more than once a year) and my first ever hair dye! We're experimenting with covering my grays that appeared out of nowhere and have multiplied since. I will never keep up with a true hair dye routine and don't really want to; I love the color of my hair and get compliments from strangers all the time, but I'd like to start figuring out a good way to basically keep the color I have. I think today involves a glaze? Or icing? It was something dessert-adjacent. We shall see.

I've also pretty much gotten back to work. Still from home, but I pulled down my out of office message yesterday because it felt more annoying than helpful. I'm very glad for my complete abdication of my email inbox for week 1 after my surgery- I've looked back at text messages I sent that week and I have NO memory of receiving or responding to them, so I'm thankful I had temporarily deleted my work email app from my phone completely. Last week I eased my way in to my inbox. I'm on a new matter I'm genuinely excited about that may have me heading to Houston next week, but it's by choice. And I'm taking the cushy Vonlane bus instead of a plane to be more gentle with myself.

But all in all, things are very good. The humans are good and the pets are perfect. I leave you with this convo I had with a good friend (who I originally met through this blog! 15-ish years ago?) on Monday:

Don't worry little organs, I plan for the rest of you to stay put.