I can't believe we're already almost at the May long weekend. The Tulip Festival is half over. As of this week, I've been here over a decade and I still haven't been to the Tulip Festival. I'm always so busy this time of the year, so making it there is difficult.
Arts & Crafts
Craft night was on a new day and at a new location. It was cozy and I enjoyed chatting with some new folx. I brought a crochet table runner that I'm currently working on as it was more portable that day than my fairy cross-stitch.
At the pitching clinic, I crocheted while softball friends learned to pitch. My piece definitely has some flaws, but I think it's going OK for my experience level. It's navy blue, but doesn't look like it in the photo for whatever reason. Probably lighting.
Decluttering & Minimalism
I was surrounded by clutter as I rearranged my streaming spaces for hopefully the last time. I didn't have enough space behind me and that part of the floor is a bit slanted, so my chair was constantly moving away from my desk, which was entirely unhelpful.
I realized that I could move my crafting desk into my other space and have it perpendicular to my work desk. It would basically be where I used to have my work desk. That area felt like a good spot for crafting. Then I have better access to my balcony. First, I relocated a storage thing, so that my air conditioner could be wheeled into place as it's almost time to hook it up.
Then I halted for a while as I had stepped on something and had to do first aid. Blood sacrifice means a project will be successful right?
At some point, somehow, the arms on my desk chair were on backward. No wonder my elbows have been hurting! I fixed that. I still need to take them off and alter them sometime. I want to add holes, so I can have them closer to my body as they would be on a taller person. Maybe my next craft stream, which will be on the 18th.
Also this weekend, I finally had the energy to get my other shelf into my storage area and was able to move most of my sporting equipment there. Perhaps I can hang my bike on the wood wall beside the door. I'll need to hang better security wire then cut some of the wood I have and get a bike hanger. I want to just hang it from one wheel and have it be against the wire, so it takes up as little space as possible. The space is triangular, so it's a pain to get full use of. The one next to me just has garbage in it and it's a nice big rectangle. Life isn't fair sometimes. I don't have a before picture, but I'm pretty proud of this.
A few more items to put in there in the coming days and I'll only have summer sporting things in my condo, which mean baseball and rollerblading.
Getting that piece finally done has me thinking about the rest of the clutter and what to do for the paper clutter. I was able to rearrange some other items and I finally see a future without the clutter despite how much is left to do.
My arm wasn't super happy after the storage room and some further deculttering that I did. I'm glad I got it done anyway. I was struggling to do some basic life things because I hadn't been able to get the rest of that task done and things were in the way. I'm slowly inching towards having a nicer home and just being able to throw myself fully into more important goals like writing.
Gaming & Streaming
This week, I restarted Cyberpunk 2077 as a Street Kid. It's an interesting storyline compared to the others as you get chummy with Jackie Welles a lot sooner. Then it shows you flashes of all the jobs you pulled together before getting the job for the chip.
I also got Stern Pinball for my Switch. The base game is free and comes with one machine. There are packs I will eventually buy to get more machines.
I'm still trying to get the last levels of combat in Stardew Valley. It has been the hardest one to level up. Once it's at 10, there's a door I get to go into that isn't far from the sewer.
Lifestyle & Sports
I began the week with craft night followed by a comedy show where a friend was performing. Not a bad way to start a week at all. Craft night is a bit further from where we used to go, but it's an easier drive since it isn't near Lansdowne now.
I'm out of benefits for physiotherapy, but at my last session we found a really hard knot on my Teres Minor muscle that seems to be a chunk of the lingering problems I'm having. It's basically under my underarm near where the breast connects. It's a very angry spot and is important for rotating as it connects to the deltoid, which is where most of my remaining restriction is. It also connects to the infraspinatus rotator cuff muscle, which is where I first injured myself in the fall. My physiotherapist works with other practitioners, so it's off to the RMT next to hopefully finish up treatment, but the earliest booking available is late June. In the meantime, I have three appointments with the students at Willis College, exercises, and a massage gun to hopefully get the Teres Minor to let go. I'm quite tired of being in pain. It's a hard spot to apply heat and ice to as it's quite deep inside. I'm massaging in there every two days and the day after massage day it usually feels a bit better.
Once I get my tongue tie released, it should also help because a tied tongue affects the neck, which connects to the postural muscles, which all connect to the areas I injured. But I've been having motivation issues on the exercises for that because every time I go I get told I need more. It's all really frustrating and having ADHD doesn't help. That's another thing that should improve once the release is done. I started all that around the same time as my injury and it's all just wearing on me. I think I have appointment and therapy fatigue if such a thing exists.
The PWHL Playoffs began this week. Sadly, Ottawa did not make it, so I was cheering for Montreal instead. Desbiens and Chuli are excellent goalies and they have so many great players like MPP (Marie-Philip Poulin), Laura Stacey, and several former Ottawa players. The first Minnesota at Toronto game was a shutout for Toronto. The first Boston at Montreal game was a close one, but Boston came out on top. I wondered if Minnesota would pull out of their losing streak or if Toronto would continue to dominate them. Toronto won game two, but they had to work harder at it. The second Montreal vs Boston game was absolute insanity. It went to 3 overtimes. The players basically played two hockey games. Sadly, Boston won. I apparently need to budget 5 hours for Boston vs Montreal and have a nap before on those days.
On Thursday, I completed the first course of the front-end web development certificate course I'm taking. Eight more to go. Course two is all on JavaScript Programming.
I really wanted to participate in the pitching clinic on Saturday, but I drove friends to it instead. That's the best way for me to help the league with pitchers at this time. Hopefully, I can try it out later in the season. The draft was that evening and the wait began to find out what team I would be on.
Also on Saturday, I got my fade refreshed ahead of an upcoming wedding.
Sunday was Mother's Day. It's one of those hard days for me. This year, I had comfort foods like mom used to make and did things around the condo. I also reached out to some moms I know to make sure they know that I think they are awesome moms. Otherwise, I watched Centaurworld with friends.
Writing
Several books arrived this week that I'll be delving into as part of the research I'm doing to finish my novel and help guide my series. That'll probably happen in a couple of weeks as I have a wedding to attend on the 17th.