ADHD
I'm still waiting to see my doctor about trying med number 3. Honestly, methylphenidate works well for me, but I'm allergic to the yellow dye in the Concerta. More on that in a separate post.
My sleeping has been all over the place since stopping Concerta though. Perhaps it's also because I've been on vacation and haven't needed to have a specific routine. This made work extra hard this week.
Arts & Crafts
I've been working on Lez Scarf during meetings. I have several every week and spend quite a bit of time waiting to provide my updates. Knittiing lets me be ready and pay attention while giving me something for my hands to do.
On Saturday I sanded a crate I've had around for years. I wanted to paint it while watching the game, but I had too much to do around the condo before they come to do pest control in all our units. I have two more to sand and paint eventually.
Decluttering & Minimalism
In the early part of the week, I did some light tidying like putting away my little Yule tree. Mostly, I relaxed and recovered from 2023.
Midweek, I began a big reorg I've been wanting to do. I had two sets of shelving to relocate to my storage area for holding sports equipment and tools that I'm not actively using. My storage area kind of sucks as it is largely triangular, so it has been a pain to make use of it. It meant moving a cupboard back to my condo, so it was a lot of tetris/jenga type maneuvering. It was important to me, so that I could reclaim a lot of space in my condo for things I need far more regularly.
I ended up temporarily using the second shelf to store items from my kitchen cupboards. I'm quite annoyed as it seems everytime I'm getting somewhere, the condo corp needs me to do something that derails all my work. Our units are small and I'm pretty sure I'm far from the only person who doesn't have a dining room table to store things on. Especially in a post-pandemic world where a lot of us needed to set up offices at home.
I also made the leap I was probably always headed towards and donated all dresses, skirts, and purses. Well, I kept the plaid flannel ones because I can alter them into regular shirts. In total, I got rid of nine boxes and a bag of stuff that didn't spark joy or make me feel confident. And I felt unburdened far beyond just reclaiming space. I was holding onto a lot of things that other people and society thought I should want instead of the things I wanted.
Gaming & Streaming
For New Years Eve, I decided to use a gift card to get a new Switch game. It was Detective Pikachu Returns. After getting some Pilsbury biscuits the day before, I really wanted to make beef stew to have with them. Younger me would've laughed at the idea of making New Years Eve about solving crime and eating stew, but I've been wanting to stay in on New Years for a very long time. I didn't give myself enough rest and downtime in 2023 and this was the perfect way to slide into the new year.
The biscuits were quite meh and I plan to get back to baking my mom's recipe, which I'm sure is from the Five Roses cookbook.
I began the search for a new router as the one I've had for ages has been showing signs that it is failing. It quite regularly just stops and I have to reboot it several times a week. I reached out to a friend who knows more people who are knowledgeable about the current router market to see what I should look at for a replacement. His friends are pro streamers, so I'll likely get a good recommendation.
Saturday was supposed to be my first craft streaming day. It's new content for my Twitch channel. It was also supposed to be my first stream of 2024. I wasn't ready for it. I'm deep in decluttering and have to provide access to my unit next week, so I decided it would be better to postpone and have a better launch.
Health & Wellness
I had a bloody nose on Tuesday morning. I used to get them all the time as a child, so I'm very prepared when it happens. That didn't make it any more welcome.
Later on, I had a dentist appointment that may be life altering. They've referred me to a specialist. Apparently, I have a little too much of the skin that attaches the tongue to the floor of the mouth and it may be at the root of many things I've been struggling with all my life. It's called a tongue tie. They told me that normally, as you grow, your tongue helps enlargen your mouth unless you have a tongue tie. A tongue tie causes a lot of issues, especially because it leads to breathing difficulties. Without proper oxygen going places, the body and mind can't function at their best. Anyway, I was booked to see the specialist by Friday. Fast, right? The first appointment is $200 just to assess whether or not I'm a candidate for the release or just therapy. I want the surgery if they'll let me get it. If I had been born at a different time, it would have been done already. It's a pretty minor one with local anesthetic. It's going to be expensive. Hopefully, my insurance covers most of it.
As I learned more and more about the tongue tie and all it's far reaching ramnifications, I heard Owen Wilson in my head:
Kia HECU Recall Update
It's looking like my issues here will be resolved before winter ends. At least, that is what the complaints department said when I spoke with them. It's truly worth being a squeaky wheel at times.
Movies
On New Years Day, I did like some friends do and had an all day Lord of the Rings marathon. This was with the extended editions, of course. Naturally, I needed to take out my ring to properly undertake the journey. It's a replica from a bookmark I once had. It turned out to be one of the best New Year's Days I've had.
PWHL Ottawa
The day of the Home Opener game was packed. I had a hair appointment, which was sorely needed after not making it in before the holidays. Later, I had the dentist appointment mentioned above. The journey to the game was a bit less smooth than I would've preferred. I got to Blair station and a sign said I could catch a 451 straight there, but it didn't actually exist. A driver helped me find out how to get there. I was locked out of the train platform and had to use the video chat at the payment terminal. The customer service rep printed me out a day pass to let me have no more issues getting there.
Eventually, I got from Parliament to a bus that went to Lansdowne. I can just take the bus from my house to Parliament station in the future and avoid the whole train thing. Transit is free with a ticket to and from the games within 3 hours of them, so it should be a touch smoother.
I was looking forward to it and I was curious about the special gift for having put a deposit down. It was a toque.
The game started with the captains hugging. I suspect this may be odd to people who only watch men's sports. Comraderie outside of the actual game. It was the perfect beginning.
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| Photo by PWHL |
During a stoppage in the game, I looked around the room and just took in the momentousness of this piece of history for Ottawa, for women, for hockey, and for women in sports. One of the signs in the crowd read, "It's about damn time." Yes, it is.
My favourite player is currently Maschmeyer. Given my proximity to the net, I see a lot of Masch. I've always been more drawn to goalies. Carey Price is my favourite NHLer. I suspect my love for goalies was influenced by Julie "The Cat" Gaffney from The Mighty Ducks. I love that franchise. Julie should've been the starting goal tender. She was always better than Goldberg.
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| Pre-game huddle - Rae Roy |
My thoughts on the home opener game are that there is one thing I think Ottawa can do better at and that is getting shots out faster. At times, they held the puck too long. It's a weak spot that made it easier for Montreal's goalie to predict what was coming. Montreal played dirtier and Ottawa may have to figure out a plan for shutting that down in future games like the upcoming January 8 away game.
There were some hard hits, but the women are all friends and don't get lost in the fighting. They also just enjoy playing the game so much that they'd rather get back to it than fight. It's one of the enjoyable things about women's hockey. More hockey than other stuff.
The Timbits players were adorable and I hope this league is still going strong when they come of age to enter it. I'm going to do my part to make that happen by getting merch, having season's tickets, and watching games from home whenever possible.
On the way home, I spoke with the driver as I didn't know where to go from the bus I was on to get to my station. We chatted about the game. He listened as best he could to the stream, but it killed his phone battery. I had a brief issue at the station getting back to the train because my day pass said it was already tapped and the doors wouldn't open. A stranger held it open as he went through and I thanked him.
It took awhile to fall asleep because I was still so energized.
In the morning, I let the PWHL know that there are people who would really benefit from a radio broadcast of the games.
I also watched the PWHL Toronto vs New York game. I missed the January 1st one where Toronto lost 4-0. They came to play hockey on Friday and won by 1 point. We'll see if they do better than the Maple Leafs as the season progresses.
Saturday held the Montreal vs Minnesota game. Minnesota won in a shutout. All the goals were scored by Zumwinkle. She scored in their previous game as well, so she's someone to watch.
OK, it's time to wash up and head to bed.
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