Done yesterday (20090602)

[mdlbear]

0602 Tu
  * up 6:15; W=188.2; drugs, nose; coffee, C
  & pay some bills
  & Colleen suggested using Safeway.com to take some of the shopping load off
    ! surprised and pleased
  & Talked with Colleen about getting an evening off; she agreed.
  <- We should make our own granola!  We'd save a bundle.
  * 5pm mindfulness group.  
    Will be useful.  tag=zen
  * YD made dinner.  Chicken, rice, roasted zucchini with olive oil and
    maple syrup.  Yum.
  * Colleen back from Britex expedition with fabric.  In great spirits.
    ! glad she's back safely.
  & Marty noticed that A. is a non-stop talker, too
    ! relieved to know that I'm not the only one
  @ see comments on this post
    & Colleen seems interested in BA fanish caregivers' support group.  We'll
      see.
    & Colleen will be holding Ladies' Sewing Circle and Terrorist Society
      Tuesday nights -- that'll be my night off.  Plus any Wednesday I choose
      to take off and not be sociable.  Work from a coffeehouse some Wednesday
      afternoons?
  * told Colleen about N painting her purple with leopard spots via IM 
    She was amused; we both noted that it matched her favorite caftan (from N).
  * check to see whether uverse bill got paid -> it did
  * YD needs a hotter video card for Sims 3.
  & 22:30 snuggle Colleen
  & chat with N about sexiness.  We're not as different as I thought.
    see comments
  * 23:33 bath.  A couple of minutes at most of meditation afterward.
  * midnight: bed

Again, a pretty good day. I'm not sure what's making the difference, but I'm not complaining. Colleen and I are starting to think about ways of taking some of the caregiving and errand-running load off of me (see comments on this post in particular). I expect to be posting more about this later.

The short version, though, is that she's going to be shifting a lot of the grocery shopping to Safeway's online store, and holding a Ladies' Sewing Circle and Terrorist Society meeting on Tuesday nights to give me some time off.

Colleen went off to San Francisco in the afternoon with Marty and Ali to a 50%-off sale on Britex's remnant floor. I'm delighted -- she had fun, and came back happy and unharmed, and planning additional fabric-oriented mayhem. (See previous paragraph.)

The "Being Mindful" group finally started up at Kaiser. (For those not into the latest psychobabble, it's about the theraputic version of Buddhist meditation techniques aimed at achieving mindfulness: a "mental state, characterized by calm awareness of one's body functions, feelings, content of consciousness, or consciousness itself.") Mindfulness looks like a useful addition to my mental toolkit, and I'm starting to try to apply it. (Tag: zen.)

Finding a support group for caregivers may take a little more work; there's one at Kaiser, but the description is specific to caregivers of Alzheimer's patients.

And the YD made dinner -- the chicken was OK and a trifle underdone; the roasted zucchini slices drizzled with olive oil and maple syrup were surprising and wonderful!

I don't think I mentioned it at the time, but artbeco's gorgeous Amethyst Rose card that I ordered from her Etsy shop arrived a couple of days ago. Wow.

Good conversations, a little silliness, a happy Cat, and snuggle. Yeah, a pretty good day.

Comments

[pocketnaomi.livejournal.com]

I can't take credit for the caftan, it was cflute who spotted it (so to speak) and grabbed it, saying "This is just so Colleen!" But I was definitely thinking of it when I chose a paint pattern for her. :)

[mdlbear]

/me laughs at the pun. Thought you probably were.

[harmonyheifer.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad you are looking for solutions and maybe finding them, and delighted that you had a day that you could characterize as "pretty good."

*hugs to all!*

[mdlbear]

*hugs* Thanks. Your comments have been extremely helpful. I have a strong tendency to see the problems first, but sometimes I can eventually think past them to an implementation. Something else I need to work on, I suppose.

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

I am now in my second course of mindfulness meditation thru the Penn Program in Stress Reduction, which I learned about through a sign at the cancer center. It is very helpful to me in many ways. I'm glad you're trying it.