amelia_petkova

As of yesterday, I am fully vaccinated. I worry about catching one of the Covid variants but it's still a massive weight off my mind. Having a respiratory condition meant I qualified for a vaccine in NY fairly early on.

Reactions to the Pfizer vaccine, for the record: After shot #1, my arm was sore for a few days when I touched the area around the spot or lifted my arm. After shot #2, I felt fine in the evening, slept poorly, felt a little "off" when I got up, felt better after a shower and breakfast, and developed a fever sometime later in the morning. I spent all day in bed with a fever that crept up to 101.3 F several times, chills, and fatigue. No nausea, so at least I was able to eat regular meals. I slept about 10 hours that night and spent the next day feeling only a little weak. My temperature was a little higher than usual but didn't reach a fever.

Regarding James Mattis's comments about Trump's reaction to the protests and misuse of the military: When a longtime military man commonly known by the nickname "Mad Dog" accuses you of violating the Constitution and says “ 'Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people—does not even pretend to try. Instead, he tries to divide us,' Mattis writes. 'We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership. We can unite without him, drawing on the strengths inherent in our civil society. This will not be easy, as the past few days have shown, but we owe it to our fellow citizens; to past generations that bled to defend our promise; and to our children.' ” you know you done fucked up.

Hello! It only took a pandemic to get me posting on DW again. Overall, I'm doing all right. I'm still employed full-time so that's the biggest source of worry out of my life. I had a minor illness about a month ago but wasn't sick enough to get tested. I get some kind of respiratory infection at least once a year, so it's anybody's guess whether I had corona virus or was just generally sick. I'm still getting my asthma beat back into submission but that's all. I miss seeing my friends in person and I want to travel.

It's good seeing everyone else's posts.

I've been trying to enjoy more books and TV shows since I can't do much outside of work other than going on walks and grocery shopping. Thoughts so far:

After rewatching a number of episodes from later seasons of The Closer, it could easily be subtitled Captain Raydor and Oh My God, What Did You People Do Now? I love her. The episodes featuring the misadventures of Flynn and Provenza continue to be my favorites.

My TV provider unexpectedly gave me a bunch of extra channels (for free as far as I can tell) including Showtime, and I now have access to all of Penny Dreadful. This pandemic just got a little bit better. I can finally watch Season 3! (I already hate the end of it based on spoilers, but I want to see at least the first half of that season.)

I listened to the audio book for Jane Austen at Home by Lucy Worsley and it's great. I want to re-read all of Jane Austen's novels now. On a related note, I read Lady Susan early this year--it was hilarious.

I began reading The Decameron for the first time. It's been on my To Read list for years but this was definitely the right time to began reading a work of literature about a group of people who flee from the bubonic plague to the Italian countryside where they tell stories for ten days. If I began highlighting passages from the Introduction that have meaning for me due to our current pandemic, I'd end up highlighting the entire thing. I'm on Day 1 at this point and the stories are hilarious.

I've been getting lost in a sea of horrifyingly-accurate information the past week or so while I try to figure out what to do first. I'll give a shot at gathering together links I've been seeing on multiple websites so I can find information again later.

Families Belong Together, includes information on upcoming events

a list of ways to help

parallels between current events and history of Native American boarding schools

list of comparisons between Nazi era and current events involving immigrants and other Trump actions

another list of ways to help

Laura Ingrahm compares the detention centers to summer camp because she's a dipshit. I can think of one kind of camp where she would have been a competent guard employee...

complaint letter from church members saying that Jeff Sessions's actions towards immigrant children are child abuse. Boom.

To be updated more and/or better organized as I have time.

1. I finally started the "import LJ to DW" process. I'll only be posting to DW after this but at this time I don't plan on deleting my LJ account since there's still one community I participate in.

2. Finally had my appointment today to see a specialist because of a clogged ear due to ear wax, which became even worse (constant feeling of pressure and difficulty hearing) after a first attempt at flushing it out at my regular doctor. How is this fixed, you might ask? In my case, basically by vacuuming out the ear wax. It was weird as hell and uncomfortable, but not painful and now I can hear again.

3. I clapped like a seal and cheered when I heard that Bill O'Reilly got fired. I'll take any victory we can get.

4. Flowers and trees are blooming everywhere and it makes me feel a lot better.

5. It's so hard making time to write these days. One of the only things I miss about my schedule from the work environment from hell was that I could get up and spend an hour writing before doing anything else a couple of days each week. I'm too tired on weeknights now and I don't always succeed at writing on the weekends. Trying to figure out a solution.

Things I've done since my last post just over a month ago:

My February charity donation went to the Standing Rock DAPL protest fund.

Called Chris Collins' office to state that I disagree with his decision not to hold town hall meetings. He's been an asshole about it. I want to make myself a polite pain in the butt by calling his office constantly as a result but haven't been able to work my way up to it yet.

I submitted a comment on the European Union's website asking them not to require visas of American just wanting to visit EU countries.

That sums it up. I had unexpected time off from work the past couple days and I wanted to call my representatives' offices since it would be easy for me to call during the day for once. But I couldn't decide what to call about and it's too late now. But I did get some knitting done on a scarf I plan on donating to charity or a homeless shelter.

After turning on my computer today and watching some of the morning news:

--John Hurt is dead
--Trump's presidential twitter account is registered with a Gmail address and not well-secured
--Trump bans refugees from majority Muslim countries on Holocaust Remembrance Day

From yesterday:

--Trump continues to insist that American's won't pay for the border wall and Mexico will, despite Mexico's president repeatedly saying "WTF, no we won't, what's the matter with you?" and cancelling an official trip to the U.S.

Fuck it all, I'm making tea.

I got up early this morning and am drinking a cup of strong tea in preparation for going out to vote. The line shouldn't be too long because I live in a more-or-less rural area, but I'm mentally preparing myself just in case. Also, I'm bringing a book and music along. This is one of the times when my frustrating work schedule comes in handy--because I don't have to be there until later in the day, it gives me plenty of time to vote this morning. Good luck to everybody else who's going out!

Some good things, before I end up posting again about annoying life things:

Spring is almost here and there are flowers;
The sock I'm knitting (first of a pair) is looking great;
I'm still finding time to get writing done;
Tax refunds came!;
Tea.

Today I lost any self-control I ever had at the farmer's stand and bought a four-quart container of peaches. My kitchen table now makes me look like the (drug) supplier for the Labyrinth!

I really need to get back to work on that fic about a shortage of peaches...