weapons of massdistraction

The year has been off to an interesting start. Especially after spending a week in Portugal (possibly my new favorite country that I want to explore more of). I love Lisbon! That hilly city gave me such a great workout. 10 or 11 miles daily while taking it all in. And the equivalent of 84 flights of stairs one day. Fitbit sent an email update the week after and it was looking pretty sad, comparing more current stats with vacation week stats. All red arrows pointing down. Speaking of down, I was toying with the idea of taking my son somewhere for his Spring Break in March. Top of the list is Meow Wolf’s House of Eternal Return in Santa Fe. But fiscal responsibility is even higher on the list. More staycations may be in my future.

• Next month my son’s annual climbing gym membership renews for $499.
• I need to hire a plumber to see about our bathroom sink that is both draining slowly and leaking. Hooray for homeownership.
• We’re staying in a somewhat expensive hotel in Milwaukee over Memorial Day Weekend, when I go see Bikini Kill for the first time in years.
• I still want to get a damned Peloton bike but I haven’t had a chance to do the test workout to see if I’m tall enough for it. I dislike a lot of what’s associated with Peloton too but I need some sort of exercise I can do first thing in the morning at home, without waking my son up, that has some sort of accountability (their classes).

Now that I’m back in Minnesota for the foreseeable future, and back to teaching, we need to make the best of winter. And that includes all of the winter activities on offer. Like the Art Shanty Projects, Lake Harriet Winter Kite Festival, and the Winter Carnival’s Saintly City Cat Show. When I realized we missed the annual Art Sled Rally, which was also Saturday, my son exclaimed “sheesh, we can’t do it all.” Thank you for the reminder, kiddo. Another winter activity to tackle? Photo editing. I did take my DSLR on my trip but haven’t gotten through all the pix just yet because I’ve been somewhat social (dating) lately.

Lately, I keep losing the plot. I’ll swing by this space intending to make a blog post. But I’ve had trouble pulling my ramblings together. My mind wanders instead. So much has happened. It has been an eventful year. Highlights:

• At the very start of 2019, I began teaching Front-End Web Development courses in Minneapolis College’s Continuing Education program, part-time. It has been an interesting learning experience. For me and, hopefully, for my students. I just signed my contract to continue teaching through Spring 2020. Though the days I teach feel very long. A three-hour evening class after working my FT day job.
• For my son’s Spring Break, we enjoyed a wonderful trip to the Netherlands. It was his first European adventure since he was six years old.
• The time was right for me to become a homeowner again. This go around it’s a lovely, manageable condo in the perfect location. Halfway between my son’s two Dads’ houses (about a mile and a half either way), right off the bus line and walking distance to so many wonderful places including the chain of lakes.
• Right after the purchase of our new home, a new car didn’t seem quite so overwhelming. Scarier was the thought of trying to make it through another winter with that cursed Volvo. For the first time, I have a car with AWD (very practical in MN) and bonus backup cam and heated seats. I’ve already had it out in freezing rain, on black ice, and in blizzardy conditions and it handles like a dream.
• For the past five years I’ve been working in tech support for the same SaaS company and burnout was imminent. Thankfully, I was able to make a change without having to leave the company. And it’s a change I’m very excited about! I am now an Accessibility Analyst on the manual testing team.
  

  The power of the Web is in its universality.
  Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect.
  - Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director and inventor of the World Wide Web

• Random To-Do list item, tackled. After 22 years, I finally went down to the Social Security Administration office and had my SS card updated to reflect my name change from my 1997 divorce. That’s when I legally changed my first name from Sharon to Sharyn. It feels like a lifetime ago. And it was (for one thing, my son was born two years later).
• Just last week I checked to see if a certain domain name was available and, lo and behold, I was able to snap up werewolfcop.com. Hoping to hold myself accountable and actually finish writing this novel that I started years ago.

There were lowlights in 2019 too, to be sure (beyond the existential dread of late-stage capitalism in this gun-happy country). But I’ll leave those in the shadows instead of rehashing them.

My anxiety can make it difficult for me to focus. For years, I’ve been wearing over the ear headphones while working. And while walking, listening to podcasts on my daily treks. My weak points are stillness and mindfulness. I’m working on it. Recently, I cut off contact with someone I care about because I find him to be exhausting. If he takes steps to take care of himself I will happily revisit this relationship. Until then, I don’t want that kind of chaos in my life. It’s draining. But I will miss his companionship. Last year we came together for “cuffing season” and it was mostly comforting and comfortable (but not without its ups and downs). This season I will be partnerless. Again. But probably for the best until I get a better handle on my anxious attachment style.

I’ve also begun using the Calm app for guided meditation, at the recommendation of my therapist. I’ve been following through daily but I’m still fidgety. I can feel the difference after one of the 10-11 minute sessions but during them I find myself yawning, sometimes nearly drooling - while trying to focus on my breath - and my mind definitely wanders. A work in progress but a worthwhile one to help manage my anxiety.

Yes, I’m trying to focus but I do love my distractions. Here are five of them:

• Neat. Building a Mystery: An Oral History of Lilith Fair - “In the mid-1990s, female musicians topped the charts and sold out shows, but were told over and over again that no one would pay to see more than one woman onstage. Sarah McLachlan set out to prove them wrong.”
• I love this idea: “Laundromat Libraries Aim To Boost Literacy In Milwaukee“
• When I heard the news about a live-action Cowboy Bebop being made I was like “heyyy! No one wants that!” But then I saw that dreamboat John Cho was cast as Spike and reconsidered. But he was injured, badly, just after production started and now everything is on hold for seven to nine months. What a rollercoaster.
• Adventure Time Returns: HBO Max Resurrects Cartoon Network Show. Our household has mixed feelings about this. My son feels the Cartoon Network series ended perfectly. He’s not wrong. We’ll see.
• Happy 100th Birthday to the Theremin! “[Léon Theremin] was just experimenting in his lab and somehow found out that you can create a sound by moving your hand in electromagnetic fields.”

Bonus: It’s that time of year again! “5 Hours of Edgar Allan Poe Stories Read by Vincent Price & Basil Rathbone.” We love Halloween around here. I’ve posted an ode to All Hallows Eve on my photoblog and now I can’t get Werewolf Bar Mitzvah out of my head. Spooky scary.