Stumbling Through Adulthood

I'm going to try to write up the trip and GNACs etc this evening, but these weekends are killing me. Fun, but exhausting.

I was in Bend last weekend for Mother's Day. California this weekend. And if she gets into the National's boat -not likely- I'll be in the New Jersey area for a week, from Sunday to Sunday. Splat.

It was a fantastic weekend. Her boat -the open 4, so not important from a championship standpoint- won by open water. That was good. The V4 boat just beat SPU by less than a second, they usually crush them, so that was whatever. Alas the V4's 3rd place wasn't good enough and the team lost GNACs by a point to the arch rivals. I am petty enough to have thought "hah!" because they won last year.

Anyhow. My house is mess, Perry lost his bag with wallet etc -he claims it's at the boathouse, I hope that's the case- and I'm just wiped.

ETA The next day. Perry found his bag.

1. Dh and Anne-Chloe are going to Reading PA for a weekend in February, to go on a ride on a train being pulled by a steam locomotive on the main line. This is a major deal, LOL. I'm so happy Anne-Chloe was willing and able to go with him: I'd have gone, of course, and probably had a great time, but I don't really-really want to go. They should have a great time!

2. I need a new bra (or two) but I don't want to go bra shopping, sigh. But I have to. I think I'll take light rail or a bus from work to dt Seattle and then get a bus back to dt Redmond. It's stupid that I can get from the uni to dt Bellevue, but not easily the 4 miles from dt Bellevue to dt Redmond. Can't wait for the light rail to go all the way there, rather than stopping at Microsoft.

3. My shoes, after spending almost a month going back and forth over the Tampa Bay bridge were finally returned to me, 2.5 months after I mailed them out. Since it was for a warranty claim, I'm going to try to see if the gal I've been chatting with on twitter will help me out. Because at this point, it looks like I had the shoes for five months and am complaining that they're trashed, but no, they were dead within three months! I just really have no idea why, at some point, in Redmond, they covered up the "to" address and shipping the package diagonally across the country. Make that make sense, USPS!

I wrote about how my shoes got trashed waaay too soon for shoes that expensive. They were outside the amazon return window, so I decided to return them to the company (the rep on twitter suggested it), even though they might not replace or refund, because eh, otherwise they were hitting the trash and after two months, I at least wanted to try to get some money back, LOL.

The company is in San Diego.

I bought the postage online on 19 October and dropped them in the package bin inside the post office the next afternoon.

A week later when I checked on them, the USPS had no record of them.

Now it's pretty hard to file a claim when a package hasn't been scanned into the system at all. As in, there is no easy way of doing it. I went to the post office, no dice, they pretty much blew me off. I sent an email through the grievance part of the site and got back a message in such broken English I am still not sure what it was supposed to mean. So I did some more research.

On 6 November, I initiated a "missing mail" claim on the package, figuring that would at least force the post office to look for it.

A few weeks go by. Nothing.

Then, miracle! Package has been located, it seems, in the "Unclaimed/Being Returned to Sender" bin in Redmond? Is victory mine? Hint: no.

The next day, it's in Seattle. OK, maybe it's going to leave from there, headed south to San Diego.

Nope. Spokane. On the east side of the state... almost Idaho. WTF?

It only gets worse from there. After Spokane, my shoes spend a few days "In Transit to Next Facility" before resurfacing in... Indianapolis. Now even someone terrible at geography can tell just by looking at a map that San Diego and Indianapolis are... not in the same direction.

A few days later they're in.... Ybor City, Florida. Yeah, Indiana wasn't so bad, I guess. For the past 10 days, they've been bouncing back and forth from Ybor City and Seminole, Florida. I'm pretty sure that's a toll bridge. I'm glad I'm not paying their tolls.

What the ever-loving hell is going on?

Full details of the journey, if you read from the bottom up!





Dear USPS, please admit you've lost my shoes, and send me a check for $97.91, what I paid for the shoes, and $9.20. Total of $107.11, and you can toss them in Tampa Bay (really, though, don't) and stop paying the tolls to transport them back and forth and back and....

I need to start writing again. Desperately.

But my thoughts are all over the place in a chaotic panicky mess.

If anyone is interested in a better social media platform, bluesky is totally a better place than twitter, LOL. I've had an account for a while, read but did not post there since then, but started transitioning there sometime last month, when twitter got too toxic.

Work is shitty. New postdoc and I'm the one who is supposedly training him. This sucks and again, not what I want to do in a job. Add in that my PI has all of a sudden decided that there must be something wrong with my cell culture technique and is observing and critiquing me as I work with cells. Comments like "you have some theoretical knowledge of cell culture, but not much practice". Dude, I may not have been doing it for twenty years, but a) you haven't done anything in over 5, by your own admission and b) I've been passaging, freezing, thawing, and otherwise dealing with cells for 6 months now, with no contamination and plenty of live healthy cells to show for it. The one experiment that is not working is something else. Not sure what, but I'm 99% sure, as was the previous postdoc -we worked out the protocol and the parameters together and did the experiments in tandem- that is has zip to do with the cells or my sterile technique. I was very close to walking out yesterday. Plus, my dude. You have bigger hands than me. There are manipulations I cannot do without putting down a cap. "Practice," he says, but practice not going to make my hands bigger. Other annoying thing. He gave me a bit of an independent piece of research to do, YAY. He keeps on asking me where I'm at with it. That's nice. The holdup? Purchasing. I'm waiting on the stuff I need to start the experiment, and it took purchasing three days to get a PO to the company. They're fast when it's a simple please order me this product, but when it's paying for a service, it always takes longer and there we are.

I've been avoiding the internet and doing more reading. I like that.

Weight loss is going fine. I'm up a bit these past few days, which is frustrating, but overall, I'm thrilled. While BMI isn't something I trust as, well, indicative of anything, I'm at this point within spitting distance of "normalweight", a status I never thought I'd even approach. We'll see if I get there. These meds are a fucking miracle. Dh's work plan is high deductible, so I'll be paying a lot for them next year until we meet that deductible, but I can afford it and it's totally fucking worth it. Life changing. Not perception changing, though. I still see myself as a fat person but I'm starting to think that other people no longer do. Body dysmorphia is real.

Planning the holidays. Tonight, I'll start the first Tday shopping, and this weekend I'll start to prep the base for the gallon for so of gravy that I make every year... ok, maybe not a gallon, but a lot. I usually end up with plenty for the turkey, and I freeze the rest to use in chicken stews etc over the rest of the year. I'll also get apples to pre-cook for a pie, I'm going to try to make an apple pie this year. I'm terrible with pies. It looks like Christmas is going to be here. My sister will come up and probably bring my mom. We'll celebrate on Christmas Eve and then on Christmas day, get up early, pack brunch, and go to Vancouver to spend the day with my aunt. It'll be her last Christmas. Not thinking about that right now but focusing on the logistics of "a lot to do, lots of food to prep for two holidays, while working, and a house to get in order for guests".

We went to Bend last weekend for four days; I took Friday off. My aunt flew down with a friend of hers, and we had a good time. She's slipping quickly, but still there. My mom is doing SO much better in memory care. I mean, the issues are the same but she's happier, and even not seeing her daily, the slippage in cognitive function in the time between visits isn't at all jarring, in contrast to my aunt, whose is. Sigh. Anyhow. Dementia fucking sucks beyond words.

Funny idea. Dh has done a "twice smoked ham" in the smoker a few times, and his briskets are now legendary in the family, LOL. I am planning fancy roast beef (Perry and I are mulling beef Wellington) for Christmas Eve. I'll need a separate port gravy, so I suggested dh smoke a brisket so I can use the non-smoked tbc trimmings for gravy/demi-glace. Then I came on the brilliant idea of packing and freezing ham and brisket for Anne-Chloe and Linnea as part of their holiday haul. LOL. I think they -especially Linnea- will be thrilled.

1. OMG, this week. We're going down to Bend, it had just been too long since I'd seen my mom, and then things started piling on. I have no idea how we're going to cram it all in. I normally have an only Zoom for a weight class from 6:15-6:45 Tue and Thu and it looks like I'm not going to be able to cram it in on Thu at least. 🙄 The good part of the trip is that it looks like my niece and nephew are going to be coming to visit in September, they'll be camping at Crater Lake with us, and this will give my sister and I the opportunity to plan and coordinate things for their visit!

2. I've been waiting for book two of a series for a few months, I loved book 1. Then two other books I'd been waiting for came up so I borrowed them and of course today I get the email that the book I wanted was ready. Grrr. There is only so fast I can read, considering how little time I have to read at this point. Sad face. Since I'm on the topic of books. With a warning that book 2 will not be out until freaking November of 2025, I really liked The Silverblood Promise by James Logan.

3. We had thunderstorms last night. We weren't in the thick of it for the area, but a few lightning strikes were very close. Perry, David, and I sat out on the deck under the covered area and watched. It got pretty chill, but it was nice. I love thunderstorms and we don't really get them often.

What a weekend!

It was a last minute trip that, tbh, Linnea guilt-tripped us into. We didn't know if she was going to be in the Varsity 4, so we didn't plan on going. She was put in again last minute (she and apparently another girl have been in an out of the boat. I'm not sure how these things work, but for the past year, she's been in it more than out, but missed out on it on some important races, so we didn't want to plan for her to be in it for Nationals.).

I am SO glad we went.

We knew we'd miss the races on Friday. I only had one vacation day, so had to use it to fly out for the finals Saturday. There were no red-eyes we could get Thursday night to get us there for Friday.

They came in 2nd in the morning heats, meaning they went to repechage, since only the top two advance. The water and winds conditions were terrible (their time that afternoon was almost 30 seconds faster) but they fought for 1st, which ended up being a strategic error. By the time afternoon came along, they went in tired. The boat they needed to beat, otoh, realized they were going to reps and took it easy in the morning. So petite final it was. They were disappointed but determined to win that.

The deal with Nationals is points. You get points for how well your two boats do. They needed to get as many points as possible to boost up the 8, which we all knew had a good chance of winning, and hope for the title.

We met other parents for dinner after we got it. That was... awkward. I'm really not great for social stuff and social stuff in a loud brewery even less! We didn't get to see Linnea Friday evening.

Saturday we got up and went to the races!

OMG, they did so well! They went all out, their time would have placed them 4th in the grand final, they won their race by open water, and secured points.

We watched the start of the race on the big screen, then went down to the beach to actually see the finish live, LOL. There were other parents. There were a few rowers, one who was injured, and one of the back up rowers. And a few other people besides. We made lots of noise, which of course they could not hear, but we yelled and hollered and watched them win. It was awesome.

Two things of note.

The announcers, two women, were actually great. They had lots of details about all the rowers, pretty much named everyone in the boat at least once (including bow seat Linny-uh Ah-lix) and they clearly loved the sport and the athletes.

The other thing was about Jenna, one of the powerhouse rowers in the 8. She hurt her back a while ago, and had been iffy for Nationals. She rowed in the heats but didn't feel perfect and.... made the adult decision to forgo her spot in the boat. It was a hard decision, and I so admire her for making it. Everyone was so proud of her, and all the girls were aware of how rough a choice that was, and what it meant to Jenna, but also what it meant for the team. They were all so supportive. I hope, when she thinks about this in the years to come, that that young woman sees at clearly as all the adults did the strength of character that shone bright.

A little bit of a break after the four, during which Linnea came and launched herself at us, that was nice, as hyper as hyper can be, and smiling up a storm, we watched the start of the eight. They looked good and strong, they'd won their heat with the best time easily, and they should have no problems winning it. But... you never know.

Down to the beach. Again with the parents, and this time a few more rowers. We screamed and yelled as they came into view, the energy was fantastic. And they won. And everyone was screaming and jumping up and down.

And then silence. As one mom who had the official regatta results on her phone pulled them up. Because to win Nationals, the 8 had to win, but UCO had to come in third. They did. The mom said "Mercyhurst was second" and then it was the screaming, yelling, hugging, and jumping of girls who just figured out they'd won a national title. It was fantastic.

Awards happened a bit later. The eight went up to collect their trophies. And then... it was the team award, and back to the stage they went, including my little girlie, my sweet little bow seat, who, like all of her teammates, was smiling so wide!

Photos on the beach, lots of photos, then they dumped to coxswains in the water, then they all decided to swim to the finish buoys, thank god nobody drowned (ok, the water wasn't deep), and finally they took their trophies, and the National Championship Big Trophy, and went back to the rowers area to derig boats and load them on the trailer.

We had a plan for dinner with the team and parents, and people scattered. Dh and I went to the Cincinnati Zoo, where I was able to meet the bloat, Fiona, and Fritz, and Bibi and Tucker. I'd been following Fiona's story since she was an itty bitty hippo being bottle fed because she was so tiny, so this was special. Fritz is a pain in her ass, literally, as he constantly nipped at her, LOL. Visited the lions, the cheetahs, the giraffes. Saw a sloth, but I'm not sure it was Juno. Anyhow, it was a nice late afternoon as the zoo, and I'm glad we did it. And I bought myself a Fiona t-shirt.

Dinner was great, chatted mostly with Linnea, and some of her boatmates. Dry season is over so a few of the over 21 girls had drinks, which still felt weird! They were all so happy and tired, and not looking forward to finals in a week, having missed the last full week of classes.

We went back to our hotel, just absolutely thrilled with our day. A bit stressed because of some luggage issues I might have to post about.

We had a long day of flying, but got into Seattle on time, Perry picked us up and told me to check Instagram where I got to see the police honor escort the team bus got when they got back to campus! How exciting is that?

Adding a cut here, there will be photos and links to Instagram pages etc.

( Read more... )

Dh has the good photos on the camera, hopefully I'll get those uploaded. In the meanwhile, this is my full Flickr set!


I am so glad we went! I keep on saying that, but man, when I think how close we were to missing this weekend!

This is a big change from me as fatter to less fat.

I don't pack multiples of every item of clothing I use. I pack what I need.

I mean, before?

I would take two bras, even for a three-day trip. And two pairs of pants. And an extra shirt. And some extra undies.

Because things could not be replaced easily. It was never a matter of just hitting a Target and being able to fine replacement clothes if something went wrong, though tbf, WalMart might have had stuff. I also hated to check luggage for that reason and would carry-on or gatecheck. At this point I'm reasonably confident that I could find something that was weather appropriate and fits reasonably easily.

So I'm travelling with the clothes on my back and t-shirts and undies for the next two days. Nothing extra.

Sometimes, it's the small things.

Not my favorite colors at all, but I really liked the effect of the masses of red and orange.

Had a fantastic trip, and a very lucky one with regards to weather.

We had a perfect clear day for the eclipse in Conway, AR.

We were the last plane out of MSY yesterday morning before pretty bad storms with flooding etc came through.

I'll consider the very bumpy plane ride payment.

Perry picked us up at SeaTac and I was able to get a half day of work in. Updates when I can.

Oh. Perry's coach feeds them dinner most nights (Perry coaches, Matt makes dinner for that session) and I think Perry lived off of that and instant pudding while we were gone. The kid is a very decent cook, but mostly doesn't bother with routine feeding of himself.

Working with a travel agent: it was great. Would I do it again? I don't know. It fit this trip because of some of the constraints: David working a lot over the past few months, me busy/stressed with my mom, and most importantly a winter trip in a format that was very different from our usual "get car, get out of city" pattern.

Which brings me to my next point: I prefer the flexibility of a road trip. Indeed, as soon as we got to Iceland and got a car, things felt more... comfortable. We were on our own schedule, not tied to trains, buses, or whatever, when I felt like crap, we were able to leave later in the day, something that wasn't possible on the days David felt ickiest. I think an additional thing is that because of it being winter and the amount of cold weather stuff we needed to bring, our bags ended up heavier than we'd like, so that's another thing where having a car or a campervan would have made life a bit easier.

Winter travel: would 100% do again, though, again, the problem with road tripping in the winter! But it was wonderful in many ways. I would get some YakTrax or some such. But this was also not a trip on which we were planning on doing any hiking or even much out-of-city walking, and that was something I definitely missed. BTW, I was very happy that I managed the whole trip without ending up on my ass a single time, since that was a source of concern for me! Anyhow, our gear held up to even the worse cold with one exception, and in most of the photos of me I'm wearing two coats with a rain shell on top. Total Michelin man time!

Gear exception: my cold weather boots. I tried on every single wide width pair I could find, and the pair I bought were the best of the bunch. They felt ok when I wore them inside to do some minimal breaking in, but OMG, one day of walking in Tromso and the night we were walking and standing on snow waiting for the Northern Lights made me realize that no, nope, not happening, they're going back. They fit nicely at the wide part of my foot, but the heel was waaay too big, and after some walking, my socks migrated uncomfortably. They had no give at all, I've worn leather boots before (my regular hiking boots are full leather) and these were beyond that, like flat pieces of 2x4 strapped to my feet. In addition, they weren't even warm enough. Back they go to REI. I hate returning stuff that I've used, but these were just too awful.

Last long trip we took, I was a lot heavier than this time. I was walking regularly then too but losing the weight this year made for a better trip. I cannot fathom how uncomfortable I would have been with two coats and a rain shell at my larger weight, this was bad enough.