stormdog: a woman with light skin and long brown hair that cascades over one shoulder. On her other side, she is holding a large plush shark against herself. She has pink fingernails and pink cat eye glasses (Default)
These past couple of weeks were difficult in a few ways. Miriam's parents were for a week. Her dad is pretty conservative in a lot of ways and I got kind of upset with him a few times. I got sick about halfway through their visit. My best guess is I caught something while at the dentist without a mask while people were in close vicinity of my open mouth for an hour or more. Today, I finally feel like the symptoms are just ghosts of their former selves.

I reaggravated my neck and shoulder in the same place that I hurt it while I was in Wisconsin. I think it's because of all the coughing I was doing while sick. That started around when her parents left on the 15th, got really bad on the 16th, and is still giving me twinges as I move around today, but it's finally mostly better after a week of pain meds and a heating pad. I need to be careful not to type too much or do other things with that arm though, or it gets worse again.

Five days ago, I wrote:

"I think I've aggravated whatever was giving me pain in my neck and shoulder while I was in Wisconsin. (Maybe related to all the coughing I'm doing?) There, it was some of the worst pain in my life: far worse than when I broke my wrist. It's not as bad now: I am functional and able to write. But it's around a 7 when lying down and is keeping me from sleeping. I can get in a position while sitting up where it's more like a 4-5. That's while on several painkillers.

I'm also still dealing with symptoms from being ill and trying to manage all of that on like four hours of sleep. And when I did sleep last night, I had a dream where my dad told me that if I needed him he's a phone call away, and obviously he is not, so I kind of don't want to sleep anyway, except I'm exhausted. So I'm basically a mess right now. Sorry for not being communicative."

So yeah, there's some grief too that's keeping me down. That was exacerbated today by going to CostCo to pick up prescriptions and seeing Christmas decorations. I've been expecting some kind of holiday grief to come along, and today was the first big wave of it. I managed to not cry in the store at least.

On the way home, between grief, loneliness, and isolation, I ate a bunch of cake bites. I bought some after deciding that I was not likely to binge-eat them all too quickly. I was wrong. I ate half the CostCo sized container on the way home. I was feeling pretty disappointed and upset with myself while I ate them and thoughts of self-harm were in my mind, but then I thought of the inner-child work I've been doing with myself. If I was taking care of Little Meghan, and someone wanted to hurt her, I would fuck them up. And I am Little Meghan, and sometimes she eats too much because she is really sad and hurting, and that does not mean she is bad. It means she is a human being who hurts and deserves love.

---

My birthday was nice, if kind of lonely. At least Miriam and her parents were there. We ordered tasty Regina style pizza and pretty unremarkable cheesecake from a local place, Western Pizza.

---

I've been having some one-person girls' nights on the couch, snuggled up with my dog and my stuffed animals under a warm blanket and watching sapphic media. Those really help get me away from my thoughts sometimes. Miriam helps a lot too: I was feeling particularly bad on the morning of the 11th after my attempts to reach out in a few places online didn't get anywhere. We were at a grocery store to get something her parents needed and while she was inside she bought me a bouquet of flowers. I cried sad, happy, and deep tears against her in the car, feeling loved, and thought of, and cared for, and validated. I would be lost without her.
stormdog: (Tawas dog)
Save the date!

Miriam and I are haveing a joint birthday party! I am turning 42 in November, and Miriam didn't have a party for her birthday in October, so we are going to have a joint online birthday party the evening of November 13. Exact time and online venue TBD.

More details will be forthcoming!
stormdog: (Tawas dog)
This Saturday will be on online birthday party for Danae! She's in Amstelveen, Netherlands, so in person doesn't work. But if you'd like details on how to connect via Skype/Discord, or if you'd like to join me and my family in Kenosha where we're going to be hanging out, please let me know!
stormdog: a woman with light skin and long brown hair that cascades over one shoulder. On her other side, she is holding a large plush shark against herself. She has pink fingernails and pink cat eye glasses (Default)
I'm feeling some depression this morning, so I'm going to write about some good things from yesterday.

Danae bought me a wonderful, tasty cake in pretty Fall colors from Bennisons and asked them to write "Happy birthday Puppy" on it for me! I took pictures with my phone because it made me really happy!

I got so many caring birthday messages!

I decided to focus on the dining room table for my daily house-work and got the whole thing cleaned off and washed. I can adult sometimes!

I played with my tiny-dog and got lots of nose-licks from him.

I had really nice rides to and from work and my leg is not bothering me as much as it has been. The new seat clamp seems to be doing its job and Longing feels comfortable and fun to ride.

I am almost ready to start production fuchsia potions (more properly known as logistic science packs) in Factorio after spending many hours over several days setting up the infrastructure for doing so. (They need express belts, express filter inserters, flying robot frames, and batteries, each of which requires its own assorted production chain.)

Birthday!

Jul. 15th, 2016 01:09 pm
stormdog: (Tawas dog)
Happy birthday to my friend [livejournal.com profile] restoman! May it be a good one for you. *hugs*
stormdog: (Kira)
My parents sent me an Amazon gift card for my birthday. I spent a little of it on a case for my new phone (a pretty one with cherry blossoms!), but I have some left. I want to buy something enjoyable for myself but I can't decide what. Normally it would be a board game, but I haven't even opened the five boxes of board games I brought with me when I moved, so that would be kind of depressing. I'm thinking about a Spacerail marble roller coaster. I had one of those when I was younger and have wanted one for years. I even have a bunch of parts still in a box in Wisconsin. (I haven't built anything with them because some plastic parts have become too brittle with age to use.) But I have no where to put one here in my apartment. And I'm not sure if the distraction factor would outweigh the relaxation factor of watching it run.

I just don't know what I want for my birthday I guess. I want something that will make me feel happy; a real present to myself that I wouldn't buy with my own money. But I don't know what that is. Regardless, this is an issue the existence of which makes me feel loved, and I am grateful for that.
stormdog: (Tawas dog)
I had a great dinner with [livejournal.com profile] restoman at Firudo. I thought for a minute I'd over-ordered sushi and was going to have to pay extra, but I managed. I like the restaurant a lot, and their wasabi was really good. I may take Danae there rather than to Sakanaya (the conveyor belt place), which is fun, but possibly not quite as good, more dinery, less relaxing and low-key, and in fact, more expensive. They have deserts to please a variety of people, too; from green-tea ice cream to tempura bananas (and even tempura oreos). It was a good birthday dinner with good company. I may make a sushi person out of Glen yet!

While I was out, my dad posted this picture of he and my brothers on our way to New York City for the week in August of 2009. If I remember correctly, they picked me up as I was getting out of work in downtown Chicago and we left from there. I'm not sure why else I'd be all dressed up. That's my brother James in the back left, and Timothy who's in the front row looking like he's ready to throw down. I miss them, and I hope we get to another trip like that sometime, hopefully with my mother. I certainly do look different these days!


On the Way to New York City
stormdog: (Tawas dog)
I'm taking motivation from [livejournal.com profile] sabotabby and showing you what I'm wearing! To go out for birthday dinner, I'm wearing clothes I really like but that don't feel quite right for school here. Here's the belt I thrifted yesterday; I love it! I need more like this if I can find them.


New Belt


And now back to reading Suzanne Mettler's The Submerged State: How Invisible Government Policies Undermine American Democracy.
stormdog: (Tawas dog)
I'm trying to decide where to go for my birthday meal. (Oh wow; that's this weekend!) All-you-can-eat buffets are a rare treat for me, so I want to do one of those. I'd have conveyor belt sushi in downtown Syracuse, but I'm taking Danae out for that while she's in town and it's pricy to do twice.

There's an independent pizza, pasta, and salad buffet that looks pretty good, but it's 20 miles from here and I don't know if I want to devote most of a day to a ride out there. I thought I might go for Ponderosa. I haven't been to a Ponderosa for something like twenty years and it would be a lot fun to see one again! But I just found out that the one I thought was nearby closed in June.

The Chinese buffet that Glen and I went to last week was pretty good; I might go back there. Or I might try the *other* Indian buffet in town. You know, the one where I didn't walk in to find an employee repeatedly spitting into a sink in full view of the tables. Ew; that one is out of consideration permanently. (And their gulab jamun were cold.)

Anyway, that'll be my birthday present to myself. I'd thought about getting a cake, or even an ice cream cake from Carvel (there's a Groupon), but I have *so* much chocolate here right now. Maybe [livejournal.com profile] restoman will come too. I think I'll see if there's anybody he wants to bring. Meeting new people would be another good birthday thing!

I just found this place, too; I'll have to check them out some time. The lunch buffet includes some tasty looking rolls and is fairly affordable. http://firudous.com/

Globalization is weird. No "American-style" buffets are anywhere near my 150,000 person city in central New York State, but there are at least four places (counting Chinese buffets) to get all you can eat sushi.
stormdog: (Geek)
My parents took me out for all-you-can-eat sushi yesterday, and had red velvet cake at home afterward, as a belated birthday celebration. They are wonderful, and I feel loved. I also feel like my birthday lasted almost a week!

Now, though, it's back to work as the end of the semester approaches. I'm going to submit a poster presentation to the American Association of Geographers conference. The deadline is tomorrow, so I'm working on my abstract. I also joined the organization today. That, plus conference registration will set me back about $200. And you folks think fan cons are expensive, huh?
I'm going to register for a volunteer program that offers some compensation for the fee; hopefully I'll be accepted and get some shifts. Of course, that means I actually have to plan out what I want to see while I'm there way early and ask for shifts that won't take me away from neat presentations!

I have a number of things I need to do this weekend. Interviewing for a short paper on public space in Kenosha and more work with ArcGIS are the big ones. I have a paper on the Tunguska event due in December, but I can write that over Thanksgiving break. Things feel mostly under control.

Here's what I'm submitting for AAG. It's one facet of my larger Pike Creek project, which I'll also be submitting presentations on for an undergrad research symposium and an anthropology conference in Minneapolus. What do you think? I think the last paragraph still needs a little tweaking....

---

This poster examines the historical geography of Pike Creek, a buried urban river in the post-industrial Great Lakes town of Kenosha, Wisconsin. This research highlights the significance of this nearly-forgotten river to the city in both the past and the present. Urban Streams and rivers are receiving increasing attention around the world. Restorations of existing streams, or “daylighting” of streams rerouted underground have taken place in cities as varied as San Luis Obispo, California, Detroit, Michigan, and Seoul, South Korea.

My mixed-methods research into the historic geography of Pike Creek involves archival research with plat maps and tax records, early written histories of the city, newspaper archives, municipal board of health records, and academic theses. Research on the present context includes oral history interviews with people who have lived memory of the creek as well as first-hand exploration and photography of remaining portions of the waterway. Finally, I performed GIS-facilitated spatial analysis of the creek by comparing census data and city zoning information with the creek route to highlight the number of people living within the watershed and the wide array of cityscapes that it connects.

In light of the growing body of work concerning the restoration of urban riparian zones and the transitioning economy of the Rust Belt, the status of culverted rivers such as Kenosha’s Pike Creek are seen to have economic, environmental, and social ramifications. The transformation the river has undergone has implications for understandings of, and relationships with, waterways on both an individual and municipal scale.

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stormdog: a woman with light skin and long brown hair that cascades over one shoulder. On her other side, she is holding a large plush shark against herself. She has pink fingernails and pink cat eye glasses (Default)
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