Fun and Frolic With Long-Term Love

[Bluebird]

I spent the afternoon at an arts & crafts festival in Frederick today, with both my loves. I spent a lot on earrings, and a bracelet. DarkKnight bought hot sauce and some spice blends.

I liked being out with both of them, and I was able to do the whole festival without being too wiped out. I’m supposed to be going to a karaoke birthday party tonight at a local bar for one of DarkKnight’s friends, so I’m going to take a nap and shower in a bit though!

DarkKnight, me, MisterMoonbeam:

 

[Bluebird]

Two photos from yesterday, and one of me today.







DarkKnight and I had a good time at the bar last night, and he sang three different songs. He’s really good at karaoke! He did Coheed & Cambria’s Favor House Atlantic, 3 Doors Down “Kryptonite,” and Bowling for Soup’s 1985. I did not sing. lol Even when my voice wasn’t fucked up and strained from this thyroid nonsense, I do not have even close to the caliber of talent that was present yesterday evening!

Today I woke up to a $10 coupon from IKEA for my birthday month, so after a shower I got MisterMoonbeam to agree to go there with me. I’ve been wanting to make some organizers to hold my new earrings and necklaces. IKEA had a pegboard system that looked perfect for necklaces, so off we went.

The Swedish meatball lunch spiked my sugar, but it came down fairly quickly. It was my fault for not eating much for breakfast - I was already at 143 when we left the house, so eating anything was going to pop me high. Lame. I need to remember that not eating can be worse for my numbers than eating the wrong thing.

We got home a little while ago and I got fucked good. It had been so long! Things were medium-level painful in the beginning, but we shifted a bit and ooooh things were NICE. I feel very loved and cherished and now my legs are wobbly and I won’t be walking for a while. It’s a good thing I decided I didn’t want to empty out my closet tonight so we could get the jewelry board put up! I decided I’m going to do that tomorrow and paint the back wall first.

 

[Bluebird]

This week is filling up. The guys are both home today. MisterMoonbeam is removing the two ancient dehumidifiers from the basement walls . Our electric company will give a $75 cash payment for each, to encourage recycling? They’re getting picked up on Wednesday, I think. I don’t know what DarkKnight is doing today. lol Right now he’s working on covering some ribs with a dry rub so he can get the smoker going!

I’m hoping we have a fire again tonight - MisterMoonbeam cut up some of the branches we’ve been amassing along the back edge of our property and we had a small burn yesterday evening. It was nice to start getting rid of them!



The weather is nice enough to maybe go hiking today but instead I am going to paint the inside of my master closet. First I need to go through the paint leftovers we have and see if I can manage to do this without spending any money! I will be home tomorrow all day, so we will see if I can get the clean out and organizing and patching and painting done between the two days.

My seamstress friend is supposed to come by tomorrow evening and snag a couple of my corsets to see if she can alter them for me. I’m still stressed about what I might wear to the PA Ren Faire this weekend. I haven’t had time to try on some of my randomness that does fit, and make an outfit I like.

Thursday I have therapy, and I might do some more escorting at the abortion clinic. We will see how I feel and what the weather is like. I actually told them I couldn’t do this week, so if it doesn’t work out, no worries.

Friday is my long-awaited endocrinologist appointment, where we will discuss my biopsy results and see about getting me a referral to a surgeon. Also about whether or not she’s going to put me on statins or wait until January.

I lost another pound yesterday, so I’m at 185. A lot of my Mounjaro groups have been talking about the Ozempic and other GLP-1 drugs and how everyone seems to be rapidly gaining weight back once they go off of them. I’m honestly pretty calm about that, as I was losing weight before going on the Mounjaro and I’ve radically altered pretty much everything about my eating habits as well. I’m excited about starting a new exercise regimen so I don’t lose much muscle mass, and I don’t know, I just feel like I’m good.

Also, to be fair, this may be a life-long drug for me. I’m taking it because I need glucose control. My dietician is still confident I’ll be able to survive with no meds once my thyroid issues get sorted and my weight is stable. Her goal for me right now is 169 pounds, which is considered a normal weight for my 5’9” height.

 

[Bluebird]

I finished painting my master closet today! It took two coats of “rejuvenation green” (leftover from DarkKnight’s bedroom) and two coats of a can of standard white cabinet & trim paint that I found in the garage. I did have to purchase a new paint tray and some liners, as well as two small hand-buckets.



My entire body aches, but I’m super happy with the results. I’m not a great painter, but this worked. Originally I had plans of using different shades of green in different areas, like in a patchwork. However, I quickly realized that I am not good at cutting in when in a small space - and there were a lot of tighter spaces! So I did the back wall, realized I couldn’t make a straight seam on the left, so I continued around to do that entire other wall in green as well.

The back wall that sticks out a tad I painted white, but the left edge that you can’t see is green. The shoe shelves have their far side painted green as well. I just couldn’t make the edge even, so around I went, even though they aren’t sides that anyone will ever see.

The entire rest of the closet is white.

 

[Bluebird]

Ugh! The last few days I’ve been waking up at 4:30 am. Lame. Yesterday I was able to fall back asleep but today I am up. I want to go back to sleep, but the electric company has a scheduled pickup between 8 am and noon, which means after I write this, I have to put on clothes in case they come at the earlier time. MisterMoonbeam managed to pull one of the old dehumidifiers out of the basement, so now I have to be available for its disposal. Recycling it gets us a $50-$75 payment.

I’m going to spend the rest of the day reloading my closet and cleaning the master bedroom. I feel motivated at the moment - hopefully that continues!

The guys and I decided to request a ticket exchange for our trip to the Pennsylvania Ren Faire on Saturday - it’s supposed to pour rain. I asked for Sunday instead, and I’m hoping it’s approved. I’m hoping my purchases from Moresca arrive on Friday as scheduled so I can wear the outfit I want. My friend did come over for a couple of hours yesterday, and she is confident she can alter my corsets down as I need. She took one that I want to wear to the masq next Saturday, as well as one that currently fits as a measuring guide. I’m feeling positive about both events.

I have been feeling anxious the last couple of days because I came across a Reddit post where people were upset their Dexcom sensors weren’t covered by insurance - apparently you need to be on insulin for that. Well, I’m not on insulin and my 90-day supply needs to be renewed on Friday. So now I am worried that it won’t be approved. I remember initially my endocrinologist saying she would put in the request but wasn’t confident I would be able to have them covered, but then we were both surprised that they were. I’m really really hoping to continue using them because they’ve made a world of difference in monitoring my glucose levels! I feel like even if I could just get one more 90-day series, that would be good. We will see!

I have therapy tomorrow but I won’t be going to do the abortion clinic escorting. I forgot that the first Thursday of the month they block new (less than 3 previous attendances) escorts from helping. Apparently that’s when enthusiasts from Pennsylvania come down and act insane - PA systems, loud praying, signs, big lifted trucks driving up and down the street. They want experienced escorts on that day. So I will sign up instead for next week, after the weekend, and I can see when MisterMoonbeam needs the car.

 

[Bluebird]

Well, I worked for about an hour and a half in the garage while waiting for the dehumidifier pickup. It felt so good to be able to make some progress in the space, after not even being able to be in it for so long due to my health!



My youngest is bringing my son over this afternoon so he can help me with moving about 10 or so boxes/bins downstairs into basement storage, and to carry up parts of the cabinet that MisterMoonbeam destroyed for me earlier this week - that’s going to the dump this weekend!

I focused a bunch on this shelving unit - it was full of randomness but now it’s got paint supplies on it.



It’s a start, anyway.

Several pieces of furniture are being donated this weekend, as well as at least two totes of stuff. I also found some items that belong to my two oldest children, so they’ll be on notice to come and get their stuff!

I really feel optimistic about being able to move our car in here this winter! We will see.

I did already receive my new PA Ren Faire tickets in my email - they were quick to respond to my inquiry about swapping the dates due to the weather. I’m excited about that! This also gives my skirt order from Moresca an extra day to arrive. Lol

I just had lunch and now I’m going to start reloading my closet. I think I’m going to start with the storage solutions I already had in there - clear bins for my purses and green fabric cubes for miscellaneous items - as well as my shoes. I’m not going to put clothing in there for a short bit, as I want whichever of my dudes that is going to hang up my new jewelry pegboard, to have space to work in there.

Anyway, I figure I’ll work on the closet for 30 minutes or so, take a short break, and then arrange items for my son to carry inside when he gets here later. This week has been great for me, as far as feeling motivated and like myself again, post recovery.

 

[Bluebird]

My closet is still not completed.

I decided to move my shoe holder along the back wall, and then remembered I had a second one in our coat closet! When I checked - yep, it only had two pairs of flipflops on it! Then I pulled it down to my room and stacked them, filled them up and felt accomplished. Then…yeah, it smelled like pee!

I remembered that our blind kitty Poppy had peed in our old coat closet at our other house right before we moved. She was stressed because of all of the boxes and activity. We had cleaned it up, but apparently some had gotten onto the shoe organizer and no one noticed, because it got loaded onto the truck and then stashed in the back of this other closet and never used.

Well, now it’s in the back of the van, waiting to go to the dump! There was no way I was going to try and get urine-soaked pressboard clear after a year! And I couldn’t use it in my closet - I don’t want to accidentally leave the door open and one of the cats smell that and set off a marking war near my clothes!

So, I ordered a new one from Lowe’s and DarkKnight picked it up on his way home from work. I put it together, and I’m very happy!

However, once MisterMoonbeam came home, we soon realized I fucked up with my pegboard purchase at IKEA and bought the wrong one. I was so frustrated last night. MisterMoonbeam hung it for me, on the green wall and then he saw it wasn’t going work there. He moved it to the white wall, and I made it work. I was pretty aggravated but it should be okay. I have 4 holes now in my freshly-painted green wall, but whatever.

Yesterday actually turned kind of scary for me at one point - I spent another hour and a half in the afternoon in the garage, organizing. Then my son was helping with the bird feeders and my phone sent out a low-sugar alert. I started feeling dizzy, and yep, my blood glucose levels had been dropping and I didn’t notice. I had some Nutella and ginger snaps and it came up okay.

Neither DarkKnight nor TheEngineer got notified, which was crazy because they both had downloaded the app so they could monitor if I had an episode. This was only the second time this has ever happened though.

I only felt a little dizzy, but a bit after my sugar had recovered, I felt nauseous for quite a while. I also became exhausted, and was weepy before I went to bed. I got my necklaces and shoes squared away, but then had to hang a picture and just couldn’t find the energy to go and get the hammer and picture kit for a nail. I climbed into bed and went to sleep.

Today I am motivated to finish this closet! I have therapy at 12:30 pm and if I have anything else I need to get to finish up the closet I will buy it after. I know I need hooks for my belts - they might end up on the green wall, which is comical to me because that where they were to start, but they were a hot mess.

 

[Bluebird]

Oh, here’s what’s done in my closet. Not fucking much. I spent an hour trying on every dress and skirt I own, and it was brutal. I got rid of a bunch, so I felt accomplished, but I felt like an alien putting on fake skin. I don’t know how to describe the disconnected feeling I felt with how everything fit.

Thank goodness I had therapy right after! She told me to drag this out for a few days more, so I don’t overload myself with negative feelings. So today when I get up I’m going to do tshirts and I guess a cami or two. I’m actually anxious a little about tshirts, so it does make sense not to overload my brain with these feelings.

Here’s what I wore yesterday, anyway.



After therapy I started texting with a friend and I invited her to lunch (I had a free birthday burger at Red Robin) and it turned out she was visiting her girlfriend at the mall just then. When I pulled into the parking lot, they were in the car next to me! Not planned or anything, and that made me laugh! It was a good connection - I hadn’t seen her in a couple of weeks.

After eating we went to the craft store and their flowers were 40% off. I bought a bunch to make a flower crown for Sunday’s trip to the Pennsylvania Ren Faire. I hope I get it done in time! I picked all of the flowers based off of a photo - it’s really difficult to match the color of the the corset because it changes, depending on the light. Sometimes it looks really purple and other times it’s more indigo.









We will see how it goes, but I am feeling positive!

After shopping I went home and my order had arrived from when my online friend went to the Utah Ren Faire. So MisterMoonbeam and I now have the matching base pieces for Mythicon next year - he has two new vests and I have two new corsets. The purple color is unreal and amazing and I’m glad he suggested we get it. The green is good too, but wow the purple! lol



DarkKnight came home and his new black boots had arrived as well. He tried them on and he’s happy! He’s going to be wearing them the next few days to break them in. He didn’t want actual styled leather boots for the Faire, but instead combat boots that he can also wear day to day. I think I paid $150 for them? Which is a steal since MisterMoonbeam’s will probably set us back $400 or so when he gets new ones!

I also helped DarkKnight pick out his outfit for Sunday. He’s gonna wear a teal-colored kilt, a white shirt and a black corset vest. I have a black and teal feather for him but no hat, so that will probably be his purchase at the Ren Faire, unless I can find one to ship here by tomorrow!

The three of us went to trivia last night and were winning in the first half. Unfortunately the halftime puzzle page was partially listing out quarterbacks, and we got zero correct. Then the 3rd quarter questions were abysmal, and we barely kept it together at the end. We were 7 points behind at the final, and missed that question as well. We still ended up in second place, but since we lost to our team of friends, it was all good!

This morning I have my appointment with my endocrinologist. I’m going to find out more about my biopsy - do I have hashimotos? - and see who she is referring me to for the surgery. Is it going to be half my thyroid, or all of it? We will also talk about how the Mounjaro is making me feel, how it’s affecting my blood glucose and whether she’ll want me to bump up to 7.5 in a couple of weeks. I’m actually a little interested this morning to see if I lost more weight, which is weird to say after sharing how strange I feel in my clothes lately.

I have a hair appointment at 3 pm and I don’t know what will happen! My hair is as long as it’s ever been in my life, I think! I know I want to get rid of the last vestiges of color on the ends. Not sure if I will just have it all chopped out and go with a collarbone-length cut, or have it just trimmed and then stripped out. I know I want a rinse or color job on my natural grays - it’s looking yellow from not being able to use my silver shampoo because of all of the blue and green on the ends.

Funny enough, I got some questions on my hair yesterday - I had let it air dry after washing it and I didn’t use my straightener. My therapist asked if I had gotten it styled, but no, my hair is naturally wavy! I actually kinda liked it down and natural. So I think I am okay with leaving the length - but how much time is it gonna take to strip this stuff out of the ends? Sigh.

 

[Bluebird]

Endocrinologist Appointment Today:

1. I do have Hashimoto’s.

2. I’m being put on statins as a preventative and to improve my cholesterol. I asked to wait until after the surgery but nope. She wants me to be on it now.

3. I am being recommended for surgery to remove part of or all of my thyroid. That office should call me in a week to schedule a visit.

4. She was irritated at my biopsy results. She wanted them to sample one nodule on the left and one on the right, and instead they did two on the left. She said she’ll let the ENT surgeon decide if he wants to put me through another biopsy, but she said the two largest nodules on the right are big enough that they should have been done.

5. My blood glucose is doing amazing and she’s very happy with my response to Mounjaro. It’s doing its job. She’s going to keep me on the 5.0 level for 2 months and then reassess. The goal is for my glucose to be in range 70% of the time. I’m at 97% of the time, so I need to stop beating myself up over when it spikes, because even my spikes are below 200. I’m going to continue with the Dexcom sensors as well.

6. I’ve lost 7 pounds over the last month and a half. She likes this rate, and so do I. She’s cool with my dietician’s recommendations.

I got weepy in the parking lot. None of it was unexpected or terrible, but I think this whole thing can just sorta be overwhelming and scary. I’m home now and I’m going to focus on getting the flower crown started. I don’t have the energy to try on shirts and have to deal with more focus on my body shape right now.

 

[Bluebird]

Okay! I got a 2-inch trim and she made the ends more of a gray-blue than the green I was rocking previously. I did an all-over glaze and it looks brighter! I am happy. Also it was only a little over $100 and I was expecting $250. Sweet! The guys took me out to dinner at Nikkos, so there we spent the extra funds! Lol



Actually, now I’m watching my glucose numbers. I know rice and noodles and steak dipped in teriyaki sauce and yum yum are not good choices. But, I did want some happiness! My numbers climbed, but I took a walk with both MisterMoonbeam and DarkKnight afterward around our neighborhood, so I’m hoping that helps! I’m honestly astonished it hasn’t spiked above 200 yet - the highest point has been 180, and then it dropped from there. Keeping my fingers crossed!

I talked to MisterMoonbeam and he said I can keep the car on the 19th, so I scheduled myself to do another abortion clinic escort. They only allow 2 new escorts each time, and the available days didn’t match up with his work schedule. I’m going to grab days where I can to help out.



The Moresca order arrived and the skirt looks fabulous with my outfit! I didn’t try it on yet - I’m too tired - but the color match is divine! I’m behind schedule now because I did not work on making the headpiece yet. Instead I came home and fell asleep all afternoon. That’s what happens when I wake up at 4 am and then have anxiety about health stuff and a doctor’s visit that leaves you having an emotional drop afterward. Apparently.

My youngest came over and did our cat litter while I was asleep, and MisterMoonbeam left and picked up McDonalds for his lunch. A lot happened while I was passed out! I was a little bummed to miss LittleMichigan because she messaged me yesterday distraught and ended up borrowing $300 from us. I’m pretty sure she won’t pay it back (we’re okay with that) but she had said she would do some cleaning - so that’s why she was here doing litter. I had set out 5 totes that we didn’t need and she wanted to pick them up, and I asked her to do the litter while she was here. I guess she did. I wanted to talk to her about payday loan places. I don’t think she’s fallen into that trap yet, but I know she pawned her guitar and it makes me worried for her. I want her to know to come to us first! All of my kids are independent about stuff like that, so we had zero hesitation in giving her money. She doesn’t ask so we knew it was dire.

 

[MeeraReed]

I had thyroid surgery in 2018 (4 years before my hysterectomy). Lobectomy, removing half my thyroid due to a suspicious nodule with inconclusive biopsy results.

The surgery was out-patient and the recovery was not painful.

After they removed it, they were able to determine that the nodule was not cancerous. I have other nodules (or at least one other one) on the remaining half of my thyroid that I have to get looked at by ultrasound every year.

My remaining half-thyroid has been able to produce enough thyroid hormones (normal functioning) that I do not need medication.

A friend of mine had her full thyroid removed and she is fine. Takes daily medication to replace the missing thyroid hormones.

A wife of a friend of mine got treated for thyroid cancer a few years ago. She is now also totally fine. Just had a baby.

 

[Bluebird]

I’m actually not too worried about the thyroid removal. Whichever they feel is best - half or whole - it seems like an easier recovery than what I’ve already gone through this year! I’ve been in and off levothyroxine most of my adult life, so taking it again doesn’t concern me much either. Mostly I just want to get things under control and be done with the nonsense!

Good news - in spite of the huge carb-heavy meal I had last night - my numbers didn’t hit the moon after dinner. They went to just under 180 and stayed there a long while, but I didn’t make a mountain. I’m shocked! I think the walk after eating helped.

 

[Bluebird]

MisterMoonbeam:

I had fun today at the Pennsylvania Ren Faire! MisterMoonbeam managed to go the entire day without spending money (except cash on lunch), but DarkKnight bought a belt, a new black shirt, a leather belt pouch, and an arm cuff. He also bought me a copper rose right as we entered the fair (it matched my outfit!) and a mushroom hat I thought was cute. He also paid for a new vest for MisterMoonbeam, so I guess MisterMoonbeam did get something new. lol

DarkKnight:


I think this was the most compliments I have ever received at an event! People really loved my corset, or my headpiece, or my fox skull!



This made me happy because I literally made the headpiece yesterday! I actually wished I had maybe 30 minutes more to fuss with it, because a small part in the front (a leaf and another stem) was coming apart and I really just needed a minute with a hot glue gun to stick it into place! Everything is just held together with fabric tape, so I must have not given that bit enough wrapping! (In the next picture it’s the stick of little purple fuzzy balls.) I don’t think anyone looking could tell but it was a pain in the ass to keep poking it back into place! Also, the entire crown was just a smidge too big. I will definitely fix it up tomorrow and then put it away until the next time I wear this color combo.



Speaking of which, I also need to do some crazy shit this week. MisterMoonbeam decided he wants to match me this coming weekend at the Masks of Mischief dance. I don’t know why I didn’t plan on that! Anyway, we’re now going to wear our new black and purple medallion pieces - he has a vest and I have a wench corset. But…I don’t know what I will end up pairing with it! I need to pull stuff out and try it on. Also, I have to look through my items and see if I have anything to put on my head. So I may be making another flower crown! I’m pretty sure I have black horns - as does he - but I would jazz mine up a bit. That’s my plan for tomorrow. I’ll run to the dollar store and grab some purple flowers if I need to do so. I am pretty sure I have black flowers on my craft table downstairs!

Anyway, Tuesday my youngest is coming over to help me clean. I’ve decided to focus on one room each day this week to get things freshened up for Fall. MisterMoonbeam’s oldest son is visiting DC for work so he’s going to come and stay over one evening the following week. He lives in Florida, so I want the house to look nice when he sees it for the first time. Tomorrow my focus is going to be my bedroom and finishing the master closet. I still have some stuff to try on before putting it away.

Once I finish typing this, tonight I’m going to straighten my garb closet. Because of getting ready this morning, it is a disaster! Ribbon and fabric everywhere!

 

[Bluebird]

Well geez! Last night my Dexcom alarm was alerting me to an urgent low for over an hour, but a finger stick said my glucose was right where I thought it should be. I ended up reporting it to the company and they’re sending me a new sensor, so DarkKnight swapped one for me. Then, the new one started alerting! I’m like, what the fuck? I took another finger stick and this time the sensor allowed itself to calibrate.

The first time, the sensor was saying my blood sugar was 49. Finger stick said 168. Huge difference there! I was literally just driving my car and then walking around the house.

The new one was saying 69, and the finger stick was 101. So much closer. When the sensor recalibrated, things stayed right around the 100-115 mark. Whew!

Overnight, I did have 3 instances of insane mountains followed by plunging decreases, but those I think were caused by me shifting in my sleep. None of them were low enough to be alerts. I definitely attribute those to putting pressure on the sensor. I had one happen this morning - my fat cat Harry was laying on my arm. However, it was way more than I am used to having.

Hopefully today will be drama free when it comes to my numbers! Ugh. Look at this bullshit:



Let’s see, I had a Greek yogurt this morning - DarkKnight brought me a Dannon Light & Fit in pumpkin pie flavor! It was yummy, and I generally detest Greek yogurt. I mean, it tasted fake AF, but for Greek yogurt, it was good. I need to have my gummi fiber rings but right now my sugar is up to 173 - again, this is a crazy climb that doesn’t make sense. Sigh. I was kinda leaning on that arm again…yeah, now it’s dropped down to 148.

I woke up at 4 am again this morning. I’m tired now, that’s for sure! I have a list of stuff to do and I might ignore it for a bit and try to go back to sleep. I’m a little anxious because an aquaintance on Facebook was going off about how people who have a net worth of over $100 million deserve to keep their money and not be taxed. I’m like…what? I can’t understand that point of view at all, honestly. I have heard the excuses/explanations as to why people get into that headspace, but it’s foreign to me. Anyway, it’s making me anxious and I hate election season. I don’t want to think about this nonsense right now.

I guess if I get up at least my numbers will even out as I won’t be laying on my arm anymore.

 

[Bluebird]

I went out and bought 3 new bras from Torrid yesterday. I’ve lost so much weight in my boobs, omg! All of my cups were gaping badly, and I had them all on the tightest hooks. My band size is now a 40, down from 46! I was a DD but now I am a C. 40C. Omg me and my tiny little titties will be over here in the corner crying!

Anyway, I’d already sized down to a 44 and I’ve been in a 42 since I last bought bras. I was feeling ridiculous lately and suddenly I snapped. That’s $100 on the credit card, but I have three bras that fit now! I was not able to find a strapless bra that works so I am a little worried about that - I need one for some of my garb! I tried on what they had in the store but my boobs would not fit the cups and it was empty and gaping everywhere. Ugh.

While out, I stopped at 3 places and bought (hopefully) the flowers I need for my headpiece this weekend. I am going to make MisterMoonbeam a boutonnière as well. Purple was an elusive color - one shop told me people buy them out for Halloween. I got what I could, but I honestly haven’t matched them up against the corset I’m wearing yet. Hopefully it works!



I plan to make the floral crown this morning after I shower, and then my youngest daughter will be over to help me clean. She now owes me $300. We would let this disappear, but she volunteered to work off some of the debt and I’m not going to say no to that! So she’ll be making $25 an hour. My plan today is to focus on both the spare bedroom and the sunroom in a deep clean.

My chartreuse corset that I sent with my friend to be altered is all done and she’s bringing it back today! I’m excited to see it. I’ve decided to switch up what I am wearing to the Maryland Ren Faire on the 21st, and this corset will be a key piece!

OMG I just realized that I have been so focused on the Masks of Mischief dance on *this* Saturday that I haven’t thought about Friday at all! I’m getting a new tattoo!!! Ahhhhh I hope I am able to sit a long time. All of my current tattoos are small, and this one is going to be my entire forearm and maybe stretching up - I would love to start a full sleeve. It’s going to be an English fox with a globe behind it. I have a $200 gift certificate to a watercolor shop, so I’m not sure how much more I will need to add to it to get it started. I’m a baby, so I hope I can at least get the outline going!

Here’s me yesterday:



I didn’t complete everything on my list for Monday, but my cat Harry did help with sorting my corset ribbons. I have maybe 10 more to wind? I will do that during lunch, probably. My garb closet is now looking organized. That said, I have some clear stackable storage totes in my garage that I want to clean and bring inside the closet to store my headpieces and accessories in. Not sure if I will get to that or not.

Here are half my cats hanging out in my sunroom (ColePorter, Milton, Albus):

 

[Bluebird]

I’m going to be a fucking GODDESS this weekend! I love the crown I made soooo much!



Trust me, it’s much more sparkly in person.

 

[Magdlyn]

Yes, the kitties in the sun!

 

[Bluebird]

I’m packing up stuff to take to Virginia this weekend. I have two trash bags full of my older clothes that I was hanging on to with the last little bit of strength I had, but, yeah, they’re way too big. I need to pull out my hanging zip-up suit bags to pack the garb.

Stuff is going to start arriving today for my outfit next weekend - the Maryland Ren Faire. I’m going to be a mushroom! DarkKnight got me the hand-felted hat at the PA Faire this past Sunday. I’m going to wear it with my wedding dress and my chartreuse corset, which I just got back from my friend after being altered. I bought a bunch of accessories, including red shoelaces with white polka dot hearts for my Docs.





I think it’s going to be super cute!

I spent some money I didn’t have this morning - Children’s Place was having crazy clearance sales, so I bought MisterMoonbeam’s granddaughter a clothing haul after verifying sizes with her mom. I guess I should call her my granddaughter now. lol Gosh I love her so very much. They’re going to try to come visit from Florida during Fall Break next year. Her dad’s the one coming to stay next Monday!

Then of course I just couldn’t buy for one granddaughter, so the baby in Texas got a bunch of onesies and a cute outfit. We will see her for the first time in December!

LittleMichigan is back again today and she’s currently cleaning windows in the sunroom.

I guess I should get to work and finish packing. I also need to put away all of my flower crown materials. They’re all over my game table right now!

 

[Bluebird]

Wow was I not feeling well yesterday! It took me over half of the day to remember that I had a shot on Tuesday night, so of course I feel nauseous and have a headache on Wednesday! Duh. I fell asleep early last night but woke up at 4 am and had terrible abdominal pain. MisterMoonbeam gave me an early morning enema and that helped relieve the pressure, thank goodness. I fell back asleep until a few minutes ago. Gah!

I’m irritated that I even needed an enema - it had been quite a while since I had to deal with nonsense like that. I happened to skip my daily dose of Miralax on Sunday and apparently this was the result.

The 5.0 dose of Mounjaro seems to be amazing for my blood sugar though. I’m consistently under 120 now. I’ve still got quite a bit of disordered eating going on because of it, however. I’m not able to eat enough and I’m struggling to fit in multiple meals because I’m not buying the right stuff. Also, Amazon has failed to deliver my bulk order of Fairlife protein shakes twice now. It’s getting to be a joke with that, only it’s not funny because this is my health. If they don’t show up today, I may start sourcing another place to buy them from that can at least be consistent.

It was Milton’s 9th birthday yesterday, so here are some more cat pictures. He was from our very first batch of foster kittens. He has severe separation anxiety (PunkRock and I splitting damaged him SEVERELY - I’d say more than it did me, so you know it was serious!) He’s been on and off Prozac and is neurotic AF. I’ve always loved him but he’s never been MY cat - PunkRock was his person and he shifted that to DarkKnight about a year after PunkRock left. This year, Milton has been much more loving to me, and he’s actually seeking me out for attention lately. So that’s been nice.





He’s polydactyl and has the loudest voice out of all six of our permanent cats. He’s also one of the few interested in the cat highway we built, though he’s fallen off of it twice because he gets excited and will start rolling around on his back, forgetting he’s up high.

 

[Bluebird]

Yesterday was busy!



MisterMoonbeam and I had lunch with his parents in Virginia, and then it was time for my tattoo appointment. I was more than a little nervous. I’ve put off getting this tattoo because I’ve been worried that it wouldn’t capture what I saw in my head. But the artist did such an amazing job, and I was more excited than afraid once we talked for a bit.



Initially he had created a separate picture of a fox, with a globe just positioned above it. I was like, what? I thought my email had been clear that I wanted the globe positioned behind the fox! He easily changed that, and then I asked him to please make the continents more defined - they were very vague, and I absolutely love geography and wanted them more accurate. The stencil was small, and I always pictured it larger, so he quickly made it bigger and altered the design as I asked. It took exactly a half hour for him to draw the tattoo and then apply the stencil.



I went in to the shop with a $200 gift certificate that I won last October, thinking it would at least get the idea started. I was told it was $300 an hour - so I could use the certificate plus $100 cash to get the outline. I was skeptical, but it was completed in exactly an hour!

I took a bathroom break and decided I wanted to get the color done if I could manage it! He said I was welcome to come back at another date, but I felt I had handled the pain okay and really did want to see the completed work. However, as accomplished as the owner of the shop was with watercolor, I was pretty nervous about not having any idea of how the color splashing was going to look or be laid out. Again, he said he’d be happy to draw out a color map for me to approve for another appointment.

I decided to just say fuck it and trust that he knew his craft. OMG I am in LOVE!



My tattoo even has a little Easter Egg if you know what to look for! We had a brief conversation in the beginning about how PunkRock has a tattoo of me as a mermaid on his arm, and how my tattoo artist always tries to dissuade people from doing faces or names or matching tattoos. I said I had thought about getting the Cygnus spacecraft put into the design as a satellite above the globe, as it is one of MisterMoonbeam’s projects with NASA that he was involved with and is most proud of. But oh well, nah, didn’t need it.



Y’all he incorporated it as a shadow in the blue of the globe. I was shook! Fucking PERFECT.



Overall, it took exactly two hours to complete. I paid $400 on a card plus the $200 gift certificate. I left an $80 tip.

I am extremely happy!