Rae Roy

It's Yule and it has been so hard to focus on work this week. Everyone should give themselves a pat on the back for getting this far. Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay. 2SLGBTQIA+ News This week in 2SLGBTQIA+ News, Pope Francis declared that Catholic priests can bless same sex couples, but not in conjunction with a wedding or civil union because he maintains that only one man and one woman can marry each other. What a load of bullshit. I'm not a Big 3 believer, but I did attend Catholic school as a child and went to church on occasion. Anyway, there are a lot of other options that don't involve adding the, "hate the sin, not the sinner," crap to your already challenging existence. And there are a lot of options that celebrate gay marriage just as much as straight marriage. The Catholic religion also has a bad record involving child molestation, so there is even more reason to seek spiritual and moral guidance elsewhere. Furthermore, marriage is a legal contract.

Holy crap, 2023 is almost over! It's a good thing too. I can't handle much more of it. ADHD Update I have had a headache from time to time and I can't tell if that is the med or the stress, but having some electrolytes seems to help it some. I read that these types of meds can deplete potassium. I also got a bit of milk rash, so I've started taking lactase pills and hope that it will stop that from happening or I'll need a different form that doesn't have lactose in it. This rash issue is common with me and medications, so it's not unexpected at all and is more annoying than anything, but  it could become concerning. Curling GSL was a bit frustrating. I felt like I just couldn't get my rocks where they were wanted. I also still haven't made a takeout shot. A friend was there and he took a video of me, so I learned I have been a little left of the target. I've let my skip at Rainbow know, so that we can work on that. I've been trying second po

This week was been stressful, but I managed to get some things off of my to-do list. It was also the official start of holiday event season for me. My first event was a paint nite with friends. We gifted each other a painting. Below is the one I painted. It was gifted to my friend Cat. Yes, the bunnies are shaped like snowmen. They're aliens pretending to fit in on Earth during the holiday season, but don't quite have things right. The red balls were added after this. The one I took home was painted by my friend Jennifer and it's metal AF. Truthfully, I'm not much for the holiday season at all. If it were up to me, I would've stopped the whole gift thing many years ago. My brothers and I are all adults. I'm the youngest. None of us have children currently. Neither brother plans to. With the right person, I'm open to it. I care more about spending quality time together and having tasty food than I do about getting gifts. I wish we could all just buy ourselves

This year, my car has been a bit off. It was noisy during my road trip with friends in October, but it wasn't having any other symptoms. I had changed out the engine filter and the cabin filter because it sounded like it was straining a bit. That seemed to improve it, though didn't fully correct it. Recently, the engine light turned on as it always does at this time of the year. Then it turned off again. It has never enjoyed the winter weather. The steering gets briefly tight and then it accepts winter and is fine. Well, after turning itself off, it turned on again. I still wasn't worried because the weather had been up and down prior to the first snowstorm of the year. But then I recently noticed a burning smell. It didn't smell like when the brakes get hot. It smelled more like burning plastic. It's never smelled like that before. Anyway, I had the winter tires put on last week. On Saturday, I checked my mail and found a recall notice about a part that causes engi

This week began roughly as I was still clearing the bad med from my system at the start of it, so I was quite tired. Overall, I was hopeful for better days ahead.  ADHD Update My biggest priority this week was to get my meds situation sorted out. On Saturday, I had left a message asking for an appointment with my psychiatrist. They called on Monday and booked me in for the afternoon. The new plan was to try a different stimulant type. Vyvanse is an amphetamine type, and that was very bad. Next up was Concerta, which is methylphenidate based like Ritalin, but lasts longer. I started it on Wednesday at the lowest dosage. Early on, I felt like I was reasonably able to get back to my life. My head did feel a bit odd, but not like it did with Vyvanse. It was milder. It's normal to have some odd feelings up there as it helps fix the dopamine issue. I didn't want to get my hopes up though as I had felt OK very early on with Vyvanse. Dose one had some of the same side effects, but at s

I've gotten my season tickets for the inaugural season of the Professional Women's Hockey League. I had put my deposit down as soon as it was open. Am I a hockey superfan? No. I enjoy hockey. I started watching it quite a lot during my divorce. I also used to practice my slapshot against the foundation of our house when I was an angst-filled teen. I care about women in sport having amazing opportunities like this. Anyway, some people in the comments section on the posts are truly something. The league posted the schedule, which was more of a calendar without time blocks listed. They happened to post that on the day that priority purchasing was opened for the season tickets.  So then there are a bunch of people who didn't put deposits down that were complaining they can't buy tickets yet. Makes total sense 😒 And then there were a bunch of other people complaining that nothing has been announced on the streaming and televisation of the games. Some were even suggesting th

I'm going back to a more organized topic-based post style as I'm sure some readers don't care about my curling adventures or my gaming or whatever. ADHD Update I lost 11 lbs in 18 days because the appetite loss thing with my meds made me entirely forget to eat lunch on most days. I figured it wasn't entirely terrible on my low activity days. If I felt light-headed, I took that as a sign that I probably needed a snack. I grazed most of the day until the evening when I actually got hungry. This can be normal with ADHD meds for the first month, so I wasn't too worried about it. {I should've been worried about it} Overall, my mood was improved. I'm pretty sure the last couple years of dealing with untreated ADHD coupled with having to fill multiple roles at work had me burned out. It's no wonder I couldn't create much or complete some of my other goals.  Some days, my meds made me quite sleepy and a nap was just the thing. Yeah, maybe it's weird to s

Monday was a floater holiday for me. I take this one every year in the hopes that I will get some writing done on whatever I'm working on for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). I also had some errands to do. I visited a friend to get my documents sorted for my passport (again). Yeah, an unfortunate moment, where a signature box was missed, had me have to resend part of the application. I was quite embarrassed about this. I'm so very thankful I have awesome friends. If you're into house music and such, check out DJ Little Fever on Twitch because he's an awesome human I've known for 25 years. Yeah, we had to do the math. He also does irl gigs. After my errands, I tried to write, but I was falling asleep, so I headed for a nap. I've been a bit tired since I updated my vaccines and then injured myself. Unfortunately, late Monday evening I learned about a scandal involving NaNoWriMo and children , so I have since deleted my account. Several other friends have

Image by Larisa Koshkina from Pixabay. Eleven years ago I made a tough decision and got out of a bad situation. Five months later, I moved to Ottawa and began rediscovering myself. The following November, I began writing the first novel of a series. I'm still editing that novel, but in that time I: - Attained a blue belt level in karate - Bought a condo. - Got my full G license. - Played a season of roller derby on a championship house level team. - Got to Nidan level in Iaido. - Got to Ikkyu level in Jodo. - Won 2 bronze medals in Iaido tournaments. - Had some short stories published by small presses. - Was restructured out of the job I had moved to Ottawa for. - Returned to school for Scriptwriting. - Tried some other martial arts. - Attempted piano lessons with several instructors. - Got into guitar and ukulele for a bit. - Reached a semi-final level in a screenplay contest. - Got a new job with a wonderful team of people. - Had a number of relationships. - Survived the pandemic

Was this the beginning of another full week? That has been the trend. At the start of the week, I had mainly curling on tap along with my usual biweekly meet up with my non-theistic congregation. Monday, I lost some time waiting to get my ADHD meds. The doctor had told me he would send the prescription to my pharmacy and I'd be able to get them first thing in the morning. Remember that old saying where if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is? Well, somewhere between the pharmacy and the doctor's office, the prescription didn't arrive. That had me leaving a message with the doctor's office, later explaining that it's my first rather than a refill, and the staff resending it to the pharmacy. When I initially tried calling the pharmacy an hour or so later, there was no answer. So I tried again two hours later. Then I got through and I was able to pick them up after work. It's a good thing I had gotten some groceries in the morning including some Red Bull t

Exhausted from the weeks prior, Monday was a bit slow moving for me. The first snow had occurred and neither I nor the squirrel who habitually visits my deck were having it. Squirrel pictured here for posterity: By noon, the snow had mostly melted away and the grey, nearly November sky held clouds that would likely bring more of the fluffy, white, precipitation. Some friends were delighted to be heading into the colder months, while others dreaded the emotional and mental impacts of the winter season. I was personally looking forward to more time at home for crafting, gaming, reading, streaming, and writing. I was also looking forward to the hearty, comfort foods of the season like soups, stews, and chilis. As tired as I was, I also wanted to get things done around Tiny Condo. Those things included installing a curtain wall and slightly moving my desk. I was quickly able to come up with a mount for my crafting camera using a cross-stitch frame that I didn't love using for cross-sti

Monday was partly in-office and partly at home. I was able to clear my inbox, which had me feeling quite relieved. I ended the workday with the completion of the 2SLGBTQI+ Trivia PowerPoint that I'd been working on for a while. It's for an upcoming diversity event at work. The date is TBD. It was also studio day for my friend, so I hung out in her Discord server as they finalized another one of the songs for one of her upcoming albums.  My new curling gripper came along with earrings I've been wanting: I spent some time in a Twitch channel focused on costume making. I liked it and will visit again. I think I can learn a lot there to further improve my sewing skills, which is something I've wanted to do for a long time. I didn't sleep well after about 2:00 AM. I kept waking up, so I let myself sleep until 8:30 AM before starting work on Tuesday. I had found a new lead to getting my ADHD medicated, so I was eager to get on it. I got an appointment for the afternoon an

Will this week be the answer to life and everything? That answer is probably as unique as each individual on this planet. This week began with a lot of soreness for me, particularly my shoulders after all the sweeping at my first curling game the day before. Despite that, I was gung-ho to install a shelf above the door in my bedroom. Problem? I put the parts that actually hold the shelf somewhere super secret. Regardless, I put the wall part they hook into up, so that it would be ready for when I inevitably tripped over them. I was really quite annoyed that I couldn't find them as they were getting in the way of me reorganizing my bookshelves, which is a necessary thing after a writer's conference. After some more intense searching, I found them and was ready to deal with my bookshelves, but I was too tired to hop to that. It was time for a break. The ominous sky held splashes of hope on the horizon. I finally put a note in my mail box to request no flyers or junk mail and was

Monday was taken up traveling back to Ottawa from spooky vacay, playing a little Diablo IV , and getting to bed early after such a full weekend. It was hard to focus on work on Tuesday, but I got some good news about an issue at least. Not that there is a resolution on the horizon exactly, but I now know I'm not alone in facing it, which is helpful. I'm being deliberately vague as it's day job related. I was a little tired at GSL Curling, but I learned some advanced things about sweeping related to who should sweep closest to the rock. I told a former teammate who has far more experience and he was pretty surprised. On Wednesday, I needed a little lie down after work before my stream. I was still recovering from the late night curling. But I don't need to attend the Wednesday morning meeting anymore, so I can sleep in and flex my day going forward. This is a relief as the learner curling program is a 2-year program and the second level group is on the ice at the same ti