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2024 - Week 51

Arts & Crafts 

I really wanted to finish my shelf. On the Wednesday before the holiday I was so tired. I realised I need to make room for the cord channel that supplies my living room lighting and my brain wasn't happy about it. It means measuring and I didn't know where my measuring tape went. I have two and I couldn't find either of them!

In the end, I decided I would likely finish it after the holidays. I was too damned tired and needed the break to refill my well. I also had forgotten where my flat head drill bits were.

Decluttering & Minimalism 

Sometimes a declutter is more of an emotional clearing. Without getting into the deepest details, if you ever want to figure out if someone is an unhealthy presence in your life, just let them know what behaviour you won't accept anymore. In case you are dealing with this, I found this article helpful. It wasn't the first time I tried to talk to this individual about issues over several decades and I was just beyond done after they said several homophobic things to me. It took me time to digest that and accept that there were a lot of other ongoing issues that I didn't want around me or my loved ones anymore. This article on boundaries is also good. And if quotes are helpful to your recovery, please check out this site. 

As one friend said, "You don't owe anyone anything." I don't like cutting people out of my life. Especially when there is a long history. But my mental health is far more important than sunk costs. I should've used more "I" statements, but I had no energy left for this person. I had been dreading it and they ultimately decided that several decades meant nothing. That's not my take on things, but I do think it's for the best that we've parted ways. I want mutually supportive friendships and relationships in my life and that one wasn't. It stings, but I'll be OK in the coming weeks.

I waited too long partly because it was important to my mother to keep this person in my life. I excused so much crap that I shouldn't have just to please my mom. The last comment sent to me was that I have no direction in my life because I'm not married... Um, OK? It took a lot of willpower not to fire back, but I realized that's probably what they wanted me to do and I'd rather spend my time on my loved ones.

Since music has always been integral to my healing process, I've shared two songs that fit how I've felt about it all. Gotye's Somebody That I Used to Know is the first. There is so much truth in that song. The other is Lizzo's About Damn Time. 

I know I'm better off because my heart has never felt lighter. Onward and upward.

Gaming & Streaming 

Nothing to say here for this week. I figured I'd wait until the new year at this point. I did bring my Nintendo Switch with me for some portable fun. I finished a case in Detective Pikachu Returns. It's a mystery game that I'm enjoying.

General & Miscelaneous 

I learned a hard lesson this week on e-transferring with strangers. I'm not out that much and I reported the fraudulent individual but it sucks anyway. I feel dumb, but it could have been much worse.

Goal Setting & Tracking

The planner geek in me is excited to be starting a new year soon.

Arts & Crafts: Shelf (temporarily paused)
Decluttering & Minimalism: Difficult Chat 100%)
Gaming & Streaming: n/a
General & Miscelaneous: Packing (100%), Gift shopping (100%)
Health & Fitness: n/a
Music & Songwriting: Fender Play lesson (100%)
Reading & Writing: Gideon the Ninth - Chapter 17 (100%)

Health & Fitness 

With the dryness I continued to cough, so I missed curling this week. I figured out that my ears are the culprit for the lingering cough and planned to get some items to help clear them up. Just using some hydrogen peroxide in them brought decent improvement.

Music & Songwriting 

I spent time on Wednesday by singing along with lyric videos and dabbling with my soprano ukelele. I did a lesson on Fender Play and learned that I may want to Low G tune my tenor ukulele for a different tonality. I'm surprised that's possible without the strings being too loose. I think I need to look into it more.

I got to spend time with a friend at a jam night. It's so cool how they could all make something sound good despite not regularly playing together.

Reading & Writing

I read a few chapters on Gideon the Ninth this week. I packed it to get some reading in over Christmas.

I'm thinking a lot about the story structure of Sparker. I may need to make a change. I need to wrap my own mind around it before I can do it.
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