All posts by Savvy Spoonie

I am an artist, writer, jeweler, and a Spoonie. Before becoming a Spoonie I was a very busy high achieving attorney and advocate bent on saving the world. Now I'm struggle to redefine my life to fit within my reduced energy level. Some days are better than others. I have fibromyalgia, trigeminal neuralgia, and chronic daily migraine.
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Job hunting?

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Well….. I submitted my resume to Vonage yesterday….

Because apparently they don’t have enough of us working there!! No really, its a combination “bring in money, combat insanity” move on my part. I am feeling unsettled, in part because we are unsettled, but mostly because I am used to working. I have always worked. Me not working has always been a little manic.

For example, this was my “day off” today:
8 am – woke up, made coffee, showered, dressed Monkey, dressed myself, drove Lee to work.
9 am – searched entire house for lease agreement so I could sign Monkey up for school.
10 am – got directions to the school
11 am — enrolled Monkey in school, drove home for lunch
noon — ate a lovely lunch of cheese, chicken, peaches and plums with Monkey while we watched the Berenstain Bears.
1 pm – Took Monkey to the knitting store for a crochet needle (closed my wallet to the balls and balls of lovely, lovely yarn), the metaphysical store (watched the clerk cry into the phone and try really hard not to let me see it), and then the Cold Stone Creamery for watermelon ice cream.
2:30 – put Monkey down for a nap, crocheted a headband (my first incorporating beads) while watching Law and Order.
3:30 – Crocheted a necklace. (This one also incorporating beads, and also while watching Law and Order).
4:10 – Came upstairs to read email and post on my blog. (Hello!!)

Later I will clean a little, wake Monkey up, go get Lee, and cook dinner.

This is me relaxing, which is why I am much more relaxed when I get to go to work, pay someone else to clean, buy my headbands and necklaces, and spend my home time playing with small child.

So yes, I have applied to Vonage, and if I am too afraid that working there might make me cross over to the dark side, the metaphysical store is hiring, and I am sure I could launch back into the world of spiritual advising, drum circles, and exorcisms with little or no problem.

Still missing my Denver crew…. M

Monkey, New Jersey
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Shelf paper and temper tantrums….

Regardless of how “easy to apply” shelf paper may claim to be, I have yet to come across any that actually is easy to apply. If it doesn’t stick to itself, it doesn’t stick to the object to which it is applied. We are re-papering our kitchen cabinets, as the person before us felt that white plastic and packing tape were appropriate tools for shelf covering. The shelves themselves are a dark and forbidding particle board. Ick. Not that the re-papered shelves look much better than particle board, but at least you can see when they are dirty!!

Today was a hard day, continued resistance from the Monkey front occurred all afternoon. I tried to get her to take a nap, mainly because she wouldn’t entertain herself long enough to let me finish any work, and that did not go over well. It began with the normal resistance; “I’m not tired”, “Can I just rest?”, “If I can’t sleep can I play?” and then became a full fledged attack! “I am going back to Colorado without you!!”, “I hate it here!!”, “I don’t want to live here with you!” etc. I maintained robot mom status, calmly informed her she wasn’t leaving the state without us, and then told her her choices were nap, or grounded in her room until it was time to get her father. An hour later she was asleep. (Thankfully)

Still, a hard day. with many tears on her part and a dull headache on mine. So when she woke up we went and got Pizza Hut to try and restore good humor. Luckily it worked. She and I were happily singing away in the car and giggling all the way to get Lee.

Well, it is getting more real. This whole “Crap! I live here now!!” feeling. I keep expecting to get on the plane home, but each day, there is less of that, and more of a sense of permanency. Not a sense of home, but a sense of permanency.

Oh! Last night we were getting Monkey to bed when she started yelling ” a firefly mama! A firefly!” AND THERE THEY WERE!! All these little bugs with light up bottoms flying around my front yard. Neither she nor I had ever seen one before, so we got to share that experience together. Which was very, very special. After it got really dark, I got her out of bed to look for more, but alas, they were finished with thier light show for the night. I will have to try and catch some on film.

Missing you all…

Your Denver girl, signing out on the east coast.

house"keeping", New Jersey
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The Garden State

Why would anyone name a state “The Garden State”? Did these people stop to think about what is usually present in a garden? Yes, you can have lovely flowers, and veggies, and if you are lucky, butterflies and hummingbirds. (Lucky, or extremely skillfull like Tracy!!) However, there are also bugs, millions of bugs. Bugs abound in gardens, and a whole garden-esque state provides flora for more bugs than you can imagine. Creepy crawly monster creatures all over this state. And FLEAS!!! I have to get my dogs flea collars!! Argh! So…. Welcome to the creepy crawly state.

Sigh. Also, it is hotter than satan’s sauna here. It reminds me of the time I did Bikram Yoga at the little place on about 4th and Broadway. I went in thinking, well, I enjoy hot weather, and I enjoy Yoga, I bet the two together are an amazing exeprience. I wasn’t entirely wrong. Amazing is defined as: causing great surprise or wonder. And I was greatly surprised at how hot a single room could be. Half the poses I couldn’t do because the sweat prevented me from holding my body in any of the positions!! I wondered how people can stand to do this all the time. My first Bikram experience was my last. Until I moved here, of course. Since it is impossible to leave my house at anytime of day or night and have it be cool outside, Marlena and I have taken to dashing between air conditioned locations. Leave house, dash to car, leave car, dash to mall, leave mall, dash to car, etc.

On the upside, the dogs are well behaved on their walks! They are too hot to do anything but balefully gaxe back at me and eat some grass from time to time. They don’t pull on thier leashes at all and they don’t go after other dogs anymore. They just pant, drink a lot of water, and pee as qjuickly as possible.

The cat is still traumatized, she was locked in the bathroom all night with a cat box so she could remember how to use one. She is now glaring at me from her perch on the arm of the chair, her earlier remonstrations having secured her (temporary) freedom.

Slowly we are getting it all together. I miss you all, I miss my lovely house and my lovely city, I miss air!!