The Raven's Roost

Did you ever eat something so lackluster that you wish you could get a calorie refund? We ate at a local Chinese and sushi place that's usually pretty good. Nothing spectacular - we're not talking about highly refined Asian cuisine and a Japanese sushi master - but tasty, plentiful food. Today it was just ... not up to snuff. Fox said the sushi rice was old, and I noticed the General Tzo's chicken was tough, like it had been reheated. The hot and sour soup had an off taste like they didn't have enough broth so they combined the tail-ends of several different kinds of soup stock. The hostess said something about she was sorry for today and next week it would be better, but the poor lady is always a bit soft-spoken and hard to hear. I know every Chinese buffet has off days but they're always disappointing when you hit one.


We dropped the tractor off to get a backhoe installed - it should be ready Monday or Tuesday. Of course I have to go back to the doctor again because doctor prefers to discuss results in person, go over your treatment plan, nonsensical medical speak yadda yadda, so I'm going to go find out what my treatment and possible surgical plan is for that cancer I don't have. I'm also going to do my weekly grocery shopping while I'm out because I'm getting tired of doing all this driving.

Today we discovered that Starbucks will actually make a green tea frapp that tastes like green tea. Just order it unsweetened. And according to a blog I read, if you ask for extra matcha it's even better, but at least unsweetened it doesn't taste like that sugar-bomb American crap people are always trying to pass off. The frapp base is already sweet on its own, so it doesn't need any more help. Oh and apparently if you get a berry cup swirl with it, that's a Dragon Frappucino, for those of you who weren't into the Unicorn.

Of course now I'm paranoid that the doctor saw something else on my imaging, but you'd think someone would have mentioned that by now. But logic and reason has never stopped my brain from finding a worst case scenario and running with it.


And here's my Zox Of The Day - click to enbiggen - they recently released Declaration and a similar Valley Forge one called Independence in a very limited run on Monday. (People were, of course, whining about how limited they are.) I managed to snag both and today wore Declaration with a Pura Vida set, the Serenity Place Cat Rescue charity stack. I only recently got into Pura Vida, and between them, Zox, and now Rastaclat is sending me emails, I'm running out of wrist space.

I'm mostly done with the "stuff" I do around the house every day, so I've got several personal things to catch up on. I'd like to get some yoga in this afternoon and get back to drawing this evening. I keep saying I'm going to work on art and I keep not doing it. I also have a thing to finish reading - it's a roleplay chat log, and it's been edited so that it reads more like a story, but it's amazingly long. Like it makes me wonder how long it took to actually play all of the story out. So I think I'll set things up as reading - yoga - dinner - evening chores - art - nighttime wind-down for bed.

I ordered more Zox. *hangs head in shame* Well, I'd budgeted for a consolation order if I didn't make the Mystery Stash drawing, so it's not like I'm digging coins out of the couch cushions. Everything has already shipped, too, which in my opinion is blinding speed. They're shipping out of California, so I have to remember that it'll be late this afternoon for me before their postal person picks the packages up, and sometime tonight they'll start moving through the system. Once they leave the Santa Clarita PO they'll take about three days to arrive in Jacksonville, then weather cooperating, they'll be in my grubby little claws the next day. I just wonder if there's someone at my bank looking at the transactions and thinking, "WTF."

And yes, I'm kind of a postal nerd. LOL

I wish it would rain. I was looking at a drought map for Florida and we're so dry right now. And all the wildfires have me worried. It just takes one idiot not watching their trash pile or doing something else dumb. Summer is supposed to be rainy, but I don't see anything out there that might bring some moisture. Of course, I'll be regretting these words if we get another hurricane. We need rain, but not that badly.

Oh yeah, I need to make dough for garlic knots.

A little backstory on me for the new folks: When I moved to Florida part of my new "job" was helping around the house here and dealing with medical stuff of all stripes for Kitty. This included my memorizing her social security number and date of birth so I could be her on the phone in dealing with insurance companies and doctors' offices. She had a very complex set of chronic illnesses and took an almost bewildering array of medications to keep her as functional as possible. Insurance companies are not my favorite entities to engage with, especially when they're dragging their heels on prescriptions.

So of course I'm now tangling with them over my own prescriptions. They recently decided that if I didn't switch to ordering 90-day supplies through them then they weren't going to cover me. I really like my Publix pharmacy and I fought this beak and talon but of course, they won. Today I had to contact my doctor's office to see about getting the scrips reissued, and I'll need to go see him next week. In the meantime, I have enough blood pressure medication to do, but I've been off my anxiety medication for over a week.

And ... I'm not really noticing it.

Anxiety is one of those hard-wired problems that is simply fucked-up brain chemistry. It doesn't just go away on its  own. I was also pretty happy with my "crazy pills," except that I couldn't have grapefruit. I love grapefruit. But so far, I'm not experiencing a lot of physical or emotional symptoms, and I'm honestly considering telling the good doctor about this and seeing what he thinks we should do.

I never needed medication to handle my anxiety until, frankly, I was married to First Husband and I started working at one of the most incredibly stressful jobs I can conceive of. (I was a public housing site manager) First Husband didn't seem to believe in cutting people any slack and routinely did things that made my anxiety worse. Sometimes I think he did them entirely on purpose, just to make me nervous. Actually, I'm pretty sure that is precisely what he did.

The way I see it, there's a distinct possibility that I may be far enough removed from chronic stress, and well enough equipped with behavioral tricks that I may be able to stop taking anxiety meds. And start enjoying grapefruit again. Yes, I'm really fixated on citrus. I live in FLORIDA, man! I could go buy a whole entire grapefruit tree and plant it in my front yard! "Be right back, gonna go harvest breakfast."

Tomorrow is my normal errand day, and I'm planning to go out as far as Flemming Island to shop for new jeans at Target. I also received a Zox order today so I have new straps to wear. I'm leaning towards "Zen," with a grey henley, jeans, and sandals. I may also be slightly obsessed with Zox. I got my first one on April 3 and now have seven of them. I'd have more if I weren't saving up in case they release either a new Zox Box and/or a subscription service.

So I'll get in a run, clean up and go buy stuff. Normally Tuesday is also "eating out day," in that I'll pick up pizza or something, but we're both leaning towards wanting healthier things for a while. It's not the Healthiest Dish Ever, but I'm planning on making buffalo broccoli and chicken. You roast the broccoli and pan roast the chicken, then mix up a light cheese sauce with blue crumbles, flour, butter, and cayenne pepper sauce, toss it all together, and it's actually really good. A friend has described broccoli as being, "Like a toothbrush for your colon." I'll leave you with that lovely mental image!