coming out of the dark

 

It's been a rough time for me these past couple of weeks which is why I haven't been posting (also, the holidays are crazy-busy). It's been rough due to a number of things, primarily the weather, the dark days, and my busted ribs. 

My bike accident three weeks ago ended up hurting longer and more than I had anticipated and caused me to work shorter work days. I'm very lucky to be in a workplace where that's possible. Mostly, I would have to bail after 6-7 hrs and go home and medicate with pot. What's also been hard for me is not going to the gym. I was on such a good streak before this but any lifting was discouraged by Dr Google plus it hurt when I did minor lifting at home so I skipped the gym for three weeks. But I returned today!

Over the weekend, I felt better and at the last minute today, I decided to go in and see what I could do. I didn't bench and I couldn't do my inclined sit-ups but I managed to do all of my free-weights, albeit at a lower weight. Still, I feel good for going in and this way I'll be able to get in almost two weeks before I go back to Nebraska! My new thing was bussing (and then walking) to the gym.

What else?

Most of the days, my new thing was a new work contact but I'll touch on the highlights:

On Tuesday, 12/15, my office mate brought in her baby who is about 6 months old so I couldn't help but pick him up a few times (and parade him down the hallway).

On Wednesday, 12/16, I finally finished "A Tale for the Time Being." I really need to read more books and less comic books this next year.

On Friday 12/18, I DJ'ed the work party for Ashes. This is the first year in seven years that I haven't DJ'ed the client party for GW so it felt good to have one gig. It was nice and chill and I got to get better acquainted with people that I had only met briefly before. Plus there was a pug.

On Saturday, 12/19, I went to Tim and Sophia's and we played a bunch of games. I tried Exploding Kittens and we also played 'werewolf' which I had played years ago as 'mafia.' I was originally only planning on being there for a few hours but I stayed all day because I liked the new people that I met.

On Sunday, 12/20, I spent most of the afternoon working on Hayleigh's x-mas present. I can't go into more detail because I haven't given it to her yet.

On Monday, 12/21, I tried two new-to-me dark beers at NWIPA's dark beer fest, one of which had coffee in it. I don't think I slept that night except for maybe two hours.

On Thursday, 12/24, I walked all of the way home from work which was only possible because A) we got out early for Xmas Eve, B) it wasn't raining, and C) Andrew worked from home that day so he was with Ava. It took me just over an hour which isn't too bad. Also, for dinner, we went out for Bejing Hot Pot. Neither of us had done Hot Pot before so it was quite an experience.

On Christmas Day, I got up early-ish and made coffee in the house! Since we've been living together, we have never had the capability to make coffee in the house but Andrew bought a French press the day before so I made coffee (and pot chocolate chip cookies) first thing. He got me a bathrobe, underwear, and a new vape pipe. I got him a shirt, a sweater, and rain pants. It was nice just to have an easy Christmas morning. Afterwards, when we were both high on cookie dough, we walked around Tabor with Ava. We took her into the dog park quick and she did not attack another dog! It's a Christmas Miracle!

On Saturday, 12/26, we tried to go to the new Tarantino film The Hateful Eight but it was sold out. I had to buy tickets on-line for almost a week later (New Years Eve) instead. However, we did go to the upper part of Sam's Billiards to have a drink.

On Sunday, 12/27, it snowed! Plus I went to Tim and Sophia's where we played Power Grid. It was fun but I don't have a strong inkling to play it again.

random wednesday holiday

 

I'm never one to complain about taking a day off work but this holiday caught me by surprise. I had forgotten that we get Veteran's Day off before this month approached. I was pleasantly surprised but that also meant I had to work on Sunday to ensure everything could get done and I also didn't make plans for the day. At the last minute, I switched Ava's blood donation appointment to today so I wouldn't have to take time off work to get her there. She's been kind of a pill lately. She's been growling at Andrew randomly and on Monday she ran out of the ballpark to attack a dog who was running alongside a cyclist on Center Ave. So I was really really pleased with her today. She did a great job giving blood and ended up getting a sock monkey who I've named Lana. When I headed to the gym, I told her it was time for the kennel so she went to grab her monkey to put into her kennel with her. It was adorable.

What else?

On Monday, aside from being pissed at Ava for attacking a dog (which unfortunately isn't a new thing), I also took half the day off work to wait for the new internet provider to install our new service. Comcast jacked up the rates and CenturyLink had a good sales pitch so I went with them. I am susceptible to salesmen and shouldn't be allowed to answer the door.

On Tuesday, I met a lady through work that works at a crisis line. The day before, I had a crisis meeting with a customer and can't imagine that being my entire job. I'm glad there are people out there who can handle it.

Today, I also made new pot cookies. The dosage was a lot lower this time and I plan on giving most of them away to people. I had one this morning and it lightened my spirits a bit but I was completely functional.

the cookie experiment

Years ago, when I still lived at Long House, a guest from a party brought over pot cookies. Ashes put them in the freezer and later told me that I could have them. There were three of them and, on two separate occasions, I ate the first two. They were nice and mellow so I didn't think a thing about eating the third on another night. It turns out that the third was so much stronger. I came out of my bedroom and informed everyone that I was going to need comfort. Ashes told me it would be okay, assured me that I couldn't die from a THC overdose, and told me to sit on the couch while we watched TV. Every time I tried to get up from the couch, Dean would stand up from the floor in front of the couch and push me back down. He was such a good stoner helper.

Yesterday, my new thing was making totally legal, home grown pot cookies. Today, after work, my new thing was eating one. I knew I should have started with 1/2 but I wanted to honestly say what a full cookie would do. To make the THC oil, I took 10 grams of pot and cooked it and then cooked it in oil, and then cooked it again, froze it, thawed it out, strained it through a cheese cloth, and it was ready. I only used 8 teaspoons of oil as the recipe recommended using 1/2 teaspoon for every serving. I still have at least half of the oil left. However, one cookie was enough to fuck me up proper.

I use pot frequently but I'm a very low user. I like to ride a long but shallow high during the weekend or a quick puff after work so riding an intense cookie train was a bit too much but I survived. I tried watching the Walking Dead but it was too intense so I cooked. I managed to make some really good enchiladas and do some laundry but I couldn't leave the house. After a bit, I couldn't do anything but lay on the bed and wait for it to pass. I did look up how much pot you'd have to take to OD. A 175 lb adult would have to ingest 33 grams of pure THC. I definitely didn't have pure THC, and I only used 10 grams of pot for the oil, only used 1/2 of that for the cookies, and only ate 1/25th of that in the one cookie I had so I knew I'd be fine. I had bought the ticket so I was going to ride the ride.

Fortunately, Andrew came home and we watched Party Girl which is the perfect movie for my situation. Next time I try baking, I will eat 1/4 or 1/8 of a cookie first and work my way up. But, it does mean that I have way more pot and edibles that I'm going to be able to use.

the harvest

 

Today, we harvested. Well, Andrew did. I helped tied up the trimmings tho so they could dry out. I imagine having our own weed harvest will lead to a lot of other new things as well.

What else?

On Thursday, I met Andrew on the benches outside of the Barley Mill on Hawthorne.

On Friday, I tried a grapefruit margarita at Ole Ole on our date night before we went to see Black Mass which was good but violent. Since we did a mob movie last night, this afternoon, after harvest, we went to Shaun the Sheep the Movie which was cute and the polar opposite of Black Mass.