My focus for this month (in addition to starting to consider the option of not adding Baileys/vodka to my morning coffee) was to get the house organized.
I was gone for a few months and, as per usual, with Jeff left alone, our apartment took on a Tolkien-esque character. Our curtains darkened from white to grey, a mysterious and indelible spot appeared in one of my kitchen pots, and cobwebs grew in every corner of every room, under tables, and between Jeff’s ears.
This month was mainly spent scrubbing the cupboards, doing laundry, and teaching Jeff his name and how to walk again. Haha.
That said, January looked like this:
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| St. Stephen's Green park - one of the most meaningful places in Dublin, for me |
Learning Something:
I learned how to apply HTML/XML to edit the formatting on my blog template! This was a huge pain in the ass and I couldn’t replicate what I learned but I understand the fundamentals of Blogger editing which is already a step in the right direction. Huge thanks to Mr. Robin, the tech genius from India, who was there for me on the day I discovered that I had somehow managed to code the fabric of children's nightmares into the front page of my blog:
Something Social:
I don’t like talking about myself or about things I’ve done, so this was a big one for me: just telling people that my blog is up and running again was hnnnngh and a 'social' challenge for me. Reading this back, it makes me sound a bit like I walk on all fours, backwards, with the curtains drawn all day, but such is the life of an introvert, I suppose.
Something Productive:
This month, I tackled the most soul-sucking thing of all time: I updated my passwords so all those sultans in Nigeria will need to remember the numbers 123 after my first and last name, for every log in, going forward.
I also, obviously, cleaned a lot…actually, so much that I developed an allergic reaction to disinfectant wipes, ain’t that neat?
I had a goal of finishing The Office Podcast ("An Oral History of The Office")…I love it, and highly recommend anyone listen to it on Spotify. It gives you a close look at how they got the show up and running, why it worked so well, and just how much it meant to the cast to be a part of something so great. Also, if you’ve ever suspected Jenna Fischer might be stuck up, this will confirm it. For me it did, anyway.
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| Crocuses growing in St.Stephen's Green park in January! |
Something Caring:
My dad and I don’t have a very close relationship and calling him, to me, means sitting through a monologue about why everything I do is basically wrong….so my goal was to make an effort to Skype him. I’m glad I did because, this time, he taught me about taking folic acid two hours before an interview to help with concentration. And then he laughed and laughed, describing a video about an octopus.
I also wanted to finally sort my photos from Canada which I took when I was there, and send them all to my family. I refuse to figure out how a 'drop box' works and instead emailed them all in batches, so you know what, it took hours, and it ain’t much, but it’s honest work.
Something New:
Well, my hope was to go far, far away within the confines of Dublin, but reality, which has been the biggest cock block of fun lately, dictated otherwise. That said, Jeff and I went into town one sunny day and we walked by streets I hadn’t walked on before and it was so, so nice.
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| Hume Street |
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| Pearse Station |
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| Ely Place |
Something Creative:
I restarted this blog, and re-designing the layout was the most demanding endeavour I’ve had to endure in a long time, and really reminded me of why I’ve been putting it off for about twelve years.
January Challenge:
This has now become two challenges actually, thanks very much:
1. Stay sane while discovering that the walls are somehow dirty (??) and need to be washed. Jeff and I had to actually Swiffer them and I just want my life back.
2. Stay sane while having to cancel my flight home due to the new travel restrictions for Canada.
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| National Gallery of Ireland |
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| Department of the Taoiseach |
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| The Merrion Hotel |
Fitness:
This is a tough one for me to talk about, like I had said in the previous post. A few months ago, just as I had arrived in Canada, I got an ulcer. I’ve never had one before and it was horrific. I ended up going to the ER, and was given this hardcore medication that made me bloat like crazy and put on a lot of weight very quickly. The worst part was that I couldn’t run or even walk for too long without this horrible pain in my chest. Shortly after that, my shoulder/neck injury flared up, and the pain was immeasurable. I started going to physio, but it didn’t help, and every time I would try to go for a run, my shoulders and neck would just hurt more. Shortly after that, I had to go for what was supposed to be a quick surgical procedure. It was supposed to last 20 minutes but instead last 1.5 hours and by the end of it, my blood pressure dropped so hard, they had to jolt my heart with some kind of adrenaline. I was told not to do any physical activity for a while after that, and to be honest, I was really not in the mood to go for a run after nearly dying, anyway. Shortly after that, I was put on a new dose of thyroid medication, which gave me insane anxiety attacks, and sadly, there was nothing I could do to help bring the anxiety down, because my usual therapy – running- was no longer possible. Over the last few months, I’ve put on more weight than I have in years, and I am not embarrassed to speak about this because, first of all, accountability, and secondly, shit happens. Since then, having come back to Dublin, I was told by my new physiotherapist to start trying to run again, but my fancy new weight has made it very hard to run without hurting my ankle..which I have. So, even my little baby 30 minute walk/run sessions have had to be taken down from three a week to two. So….this month….’Fitness’ meant just trying. Just doing what I can, and believing that I will get back to one day running 1km freely, then 5km, then maybe even 10km….then ….maybe a half marathon? Then maybe, if the stars align (dare I even dream…)…a marathon??? I don’t know when or how, but I’d like to believe that I’ll get back there.
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| The Shelbourne Hotel, where I once saw Michael Moore!! |
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| St. Stephen's Green Mall |
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