Two Weeks in the Life: September 24, 2021

I suppose I won’t bury the lede this week: I got a new job! I had a second interview with New Wave Technologies on Tuesday and got the offer Wednesday morning. I’m feeling good about it. It’s slightly more money and a little better benefits, but what is really great is all the people I have talked to seem really nice and very human. A VP attended my second interview and actually asked me what I like to do outside of work. Pretty wild. I’m starting on October 18, so I have time to give a respectable two weeks’ notice and then take a week off before the new gig starts.

I was sort of holding out hope that the aviation company I interviewed with would call me back too—I thought my interview went well. However, yesterday I got a “thank you for your interest” form email from them, which I think is a little rude to do to someone you have interviewed. So many employers are complaining about applicants ghosting them, but that courtesy has to go both ways. Employers can’t just stop communicating with people who they interview. That’s fucking rude.

It has been a happy coincidence this week that I am off work. This time last week, my vision therapist gave me a light therapy kit to use for 20 minutes a day, 6 days a week for the next month. Adding this to my routine of vision exercises, regular nasal sprays as prescribed by my ear doctor, and the general difficulties of being alive made me want to scream. So, last Thursday I told my boss I needed a week off and here I am. This means I get to show up on Monday and give my notice.

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On the topic of health issues, this week I finally saw the audiologist and ear doctor for the follow-up to the appointments I had in July. I’ve been diligently applying flonase twice a day and saline spray four times a day since then and, friends, I was absolutely fucking sick of it. The good news is that it did actually help my hearing (and I don’t have to keep doing it). My right ear is hearing a little better than it was before (about 5 to 10 decibels, depending on the frequency). The ear doctor said I could get a tube in my ear but I decided against it given that I did it before as a kid and here I am with fluid in my ears again, so I might just get caught in an infinite loop and what’s the point. This has been a lot of ruckus for almost nothing, but the good thing is I now know what to do if my hearing gets shittier.

What I really wanted to talk to the doctor about was TMJ issues, which I mentioned a bit in my last post, because it fucking hurts. The doctor gave me a pamphlet about it that basically says don’t eat tough, crunchy, or chewy foods, don’t open your mouth wide (-insert jokes here-), don’t use a straw, and avoid high-impact activities. He also recommended alternating warm and cold compresses for the pain and trying out some self-massage techniques. I am going to see if this stuff can help. If not, the doctor said I can work with my general practitioner to get physical therapy. I really don’t want to do PT for this until my vision therapy is done because I honestly can’t take any more body maintenance right now.

Consuming

Here are some things I’ve recently read, watched, or bought.

Books and Other Words

• The Season: A social history of the debutante by Kristen Richardson. This cover does not look great in black and white on my kobo reader, but the book itself is good. Richardson traces how the idea of the debutante emerged to solve the “problem” of daughters and help families stay in their social class/consolidate wealth. It helped me understand something I had long assumed to be frivolous.
• Belabored: A vindication of the rights of pregnant women by Lyz Lenz. I subscibe to Lenz’ newsletter, Men Yell at Me, and I like it so I thought I’d read one of her books. Belabored is part memoir, part non-fiction exploration of pregnancy and the social issues that come with it. For me, it’s a bunch more reasons not to have a baby.
• The Fallen by Ada Hoffman. This is the sequel to The Outside, which I read a couple of weeks ago. It was good, but I enjoyed the first book more. However, middle books often seem not as exciting as the first or third since they’re doing a lot of work but not giving us the payoff. I’m looking forward to the conclusion.

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Meanwhile, on the internet:

• The pandemic marks another grim milestone: 1 in 500 Americans have died of covid-19 via The Washington Post. We’ve been pandemicking for over a year and a half now and a lot of people have died. So many of these deaths could have been prevented. I’m keeping this figure in mind anytime I hear employers complaining that “no one wants to work anymore.” Okay, well, 1 in 500 people have literally died and who knows how many people now have a long-term disability. The rest of us maybe don’t want to risk it.
• The disastrous voyage of Satoshi, the world’s first cryptocurrency cruise ship via The Guardian. This is a story about trying to create a libertarian paradise on a cruise ship but, as you might guess, things did not work out. I found it quite interesting.
• A Detroit community college professor is fighting Silicon Valley’s surveillance machine. People are listening. via The Washington Post. This is a great profile of someone raging against the surveillance so many of us have simply accepted.
• Is Becky Chambers the ultimate hope for science fiction via Wired. I’ve loved all of Chambers’ books so far, so it was lovely to see a profile about her and a discussion of how the genre is evolving.
• In 1998, these SF men got a tattoo to snag free tacos for life. Here’s what happened after. via SF Gate. This is the feel-good story you didn’t know you needed.

TV and Music

Kirk and I finished watching all 10 seasons of Stargate SG-1. We’ve been trying to pick shows that go on forever to avoid the pain and annoyance of trying to find new things to watch. Stargate definitely fulfills that requirement, especially because there are multiple spin-offs. Overall, it was an entertaining, often cheesy show.

I’ve gotten on the Maintenance Phase podcast bandwagon this week, partly because I need something to focus on while I sit in the dark and do my light therapy. One of the hosts is Aubrey Gordon, author of What We Don’t Talk about When We Talk about Fat and, once I learned that, I realized I had to tune in. The hosts do a lot of reading about diet and “wellness” trends and present some history and science about them in each episode. It’s really interesting to hear about how thin the science is for any diet trend and the hosts are fun to listen to.

Making Things and Doing stuff

There are some things I’ve made and stuff I’ve done.

Knitting and Crafts

I haven’t been knitting as much lately because I have to wait for times when Fritz is not being a maniac. Otherwise, he will attack the yarn and make it impossible to knit. I got about one-third through a sock recently then, last night, decided I needed to restart because my gauge was off and it was coming out way too baggy. Perhaps I’ll be able to share a finished product again some day.

Kitchen Witchery

I’ve been in a baking mood and I’ve been happy to welcome autumn because I hate summer and I’m sick of it. So, I decided to bake a bunch of pumpkin foods because it brings me joy. First I made pumpkin spice madelines based on this recipe, though I skipped the white chocolate dip and simply dusted them with powdered sugar. I also made the pumpkin spice cake from the Snacking Cakes cookbook. I guess you could say I’m embracing my caucasian roots (lol).

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I also made my first recipe from the Pasta Grannies cookbook, which didn’t go as planned but came out tasty all the same. This recipe called for making little nubs of pasta, called gnochetti, but mine was too sticky so I ended up spooning it into boiling water like dumplings. I also made some mistakes with my chickpeas, which came out pretty mushy, so this soup dish did not look much like the cookbook photo, but we liked it. I’m looking forward to trying another pasta dish this weekend. I also made some malted chocolate chip cookies from the Best of Instagram Desserts book and was not disappointed.

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Cat Therapy

Finally, here are some cat photos for your nerves. I am disappointed to report that, after over a month of good behavior, Fritz peed on the bed again yesterday! I am convinced he’s doing this to express displeasure despite the cat behavior expert we saw telling us that cats don’t retaliate like that. However, I closed Fritz’s windows, Fritz jumped up on the sill and shouted, I turned away for a minute and, when I returned, he had peed on the bed. You be the judge!

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