Binge-watching defunct shows isn’t something generally fraught with peril, and yet…
Like most of the women I know, I’m looking forward to the upcoming Gilmore Girls mini-series and a Netflix binge is totally the right build-up for such an occasion, even if we are still waiting for a release date.
Only, well, it wasn’t that simple.
You see, my mother introduced me to the Gilmore Girls to begin with. And, well, we’re not exactly Lorelai and Rory material. If anything, we’re more Emily and Lorelai, only without the family money. The thin layer of civility is there, though, in spades, and the last month or so (or, rather, the 4 weeks after the closing of our mutual employer was announced) was particularly tense.
So I kept putting off watching a show I dearly enjoy just because it brings with it so much baggage (and an increase is semi-witty sarcasm on my part).
But last week I started watching from the beginning and, man, I forgot how good this show was. Most shows have a bumpy start and take a season or two to really find their footing. Gilmore Girls did not have any sort of delay–good job, Palladinos! I was a little shocked about my feelings re: Dean vs Jess, though.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m still not Team Jess (he really needed that chip knocked off his shoulder like whoa!), but until this re-watch I was pretty firmly in the Deam camp (at least until he sleeps with Rory while married to someone else, that’s skeevy no matter how you put it). Now I’m seeing Dean through older eyes–10 years of perspective on the human condition and, wow, Dean was definitely not the right guy for Rory (or possibly anyone). Sure, he started off sweet, but when he starts to get clingy? Calling 14 times in one day? Showing up to wash her car when neither she nor Lorelai are home? That’s only a couple small steps away from stalker.
What hasn’t changed is my devotion to Suki, and I adore Suki and Jackson together. I identified with Suki so much back then, even though I was a couple years past my stint in hospitality and had accepted that I was a career bookkeeper by that point, but whatever.
I do cringe during some of the Emily scenes. Especially that little fake smile she shoots Lorelai at times–I can’t tell you how many times I’ve sat across from a similar expression on my own mother’s face. And wow did I internalize some of the wedding episodes and have them come out of my own head when I was planning my own wedding 2 years ago.
I’m deep into Season 3 and not exactly looking forward to the Logan years still awaiting us, but I will soldier through!
In other news, I have the slowest upload in the world going for a 7 minute card video for The Craft Branch. I scheduled a live stream at 3pm and I’m now worried that the upload won’t be finished and, therefore, the live stream will lag or not go off at all. It’s taking so long it’s not even listing the estimated number of minutes left. I’ve had an upload count down from 300+ minutes, so how long is this going to take? It’s bad enough I had to restart the editing software 3 times just to be able to get the voice-over to actually sit on the timeline–maybe the live stream was a bad idea for today.
It’s one of those weeks, you know? The calendar says it’s Thursday, but it feels like a Wednesday, even though today is my Friday–and yes, I realize how confusing that sounds!
I had a full 4-day weekend thanks to the fact that we don’t work on Fridays anymore (a perk? of the business being in shut-down mode). But having Monday off means this was only a 3 day work week, so I’m completely discombobulated.
I know, I know, cry me a river, right?
The Fridays off thing sounds fabulous, and it is, but I admit I had a hard time adjusting to it this past month. I’m so used to taking a day off for a certain purpose–travel, appointments, party prep, etc.) that having a weekday off for no reason threw me for a bit of a loop. The first week I believe Duncan and I chilled on the couch for a few hours catching up on NCIS New Orleans before finally heading into the Abyss to be semi-productive. The weeks after that were a little better to the point that I’ve gotten into a bit of a rhythm for my Fridays.
Catch up on the RSS feeds
Check Craigslist and Indeed for new job listings, apply if anything promising appears (it’s been slim, lately)
Edit videos and/or film a new video
Blog if I’ve got a post in mind
So that’s my new normal, though it still feels very weird.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to sound like I’m complaining–far from it! I’m acutely aware how lucky I am to a) still be employed, b) have a rather flexible schedule, and c) have extra time off during the week to work on my own projects. Being a creature of habit, though, it’s a little tough sometimes to be so go with the flow. And next week? Next week we might not even work at all! (I’ll find out later today if that’s the case or not.)
Again, I hear you, don’t complain over an impromptu 10-day staycation, right? Right! Half of me is overjoyed at the prospect, half of me is frantically trying to come up with a plan so as not to waste said week of opportunity, and a sliver of me is dreading being at home, alone with just the dog for company, for a solid week. I may have to take an afternoon down at Grassroots or something just to keep my sanity in check.
Duncan’s doing pretty good, by the way, but the barking is still a bit out of control. At night he’s down to maybe a 5 minute token protest before settling down to sleep, but when we crate him to leave the house, or even to leave the room (crated or not), the barking is large and wanting to be in charge. The trainer is coming back on Sunday for our follow-up and we’ll discuss options then. Duncan also has his first vet visit on Friday–wish us luck on that!
Oh, but at least as of yesterday I’m once again insured–we had a month gap in health insurance thanks to being misinformed about deadlines, but I managed to avoid calamity for the month of May and I have a shiny new insurance card just in time for my next prescription pick-up. I’ll be very happy NOT to have to pay the $72 (for 3 months of bc pills) the reminder email listed as due. Whew!
That’s been our scrambled week so far, how’s yours been?
Yesterday I learned that a friend had passed away. Suddenly. Unexpectedly. Tragically. And far too soon.
Someone who made the world better by being in it, no longer is. And I don’t quite know how to process that.
Death and I are old frenemies, going all the way back to when I was 5 years old and my baby sister died during yet another surgery to attempt to correct a birth defect. I’ve gone to many funerals for family members, but since we moved away from them when I was 6, the grief always felt one step removed. There was a distance. I was sad, but not devastated.
Yesterday I was devastated.
It was the first time someone’s death made me sob immediately. I couldn’t help myself or stop myself, even as I called Todd to let him know. I could barely get the words out. I left work early (after collecting myself enough to drive) and instead of approaching this 4 day weekend as a time to power through as many projects as possible, I’m reflecting on the whats and whys of life and all we do.
Yes, I posted about Brian’s passing a couple years ago, and how that affected me. Yes, he was local and a friend, but not the same kind of friend. When I heard about Brian’s death, denial was swift: we’re being punked, right?! For pity’s sake, he’d live-tweeted his time in the hospital on Thanksgiving with his customary humor, it had to be a joke, right? But no.
I didn’t deny David’s death, yesterday. While I bounced around the other flavors of grief, denial was never a part of it. I didn’t want it to be true, but I accepted it as fact. Somehow I knew it wasn’t a joke, wasn’t a prank, wasn’t debatable. Acceptance is not the end of grief.
Part of me is angry, but at whom I’m not entirely sure.All of me is sad.
At last year’s Halloween party, David was one of the 10 readings I did that night. I’m so glad I had that time with him. Not just now, in hindsight, but because he thanked me for it several times. His reading started out general, no specific question in mind, but quickly it zeroed in on career. Not too long after the party he was let go from his job. He told me our session helped him see the event not as the end of the world but as an opportunity, something he would not have without it. I felt lucky to be able to give him that perspective. And not too long after that, he was offered his dream job, and he thanked me again.
The job meant he’d be moving back down to Orlando, and we were all sad to see him go. But Facebook helps. It allows us to keep track of people no matter where they are, as long as they’re updating. It’s our lifeline. I suppose it’s fitting, then, that it was a mutual friend’s post that alerted me to his death.
I’m still processing. Will be for a while. But I’m trying to take something from this other than sadness and despair. A reminder to live each day the best we can, to tell our friends and loved ones how much we care. To let them know they are appreciated.
David was charming, sweet, funny, and smart. He was a good person. I was happy to see him. His absence will be felt.
This was, apparently, one of David’s favorite songs and has been shared by friends in his memory.
On Friday I put his big bed in the crate and just left the door open, he got in there several times on his own to nap, but when I closed the door on him Saturday afternoon he was back to being unhappy
On Sunday the local Bark Busters trainer came out and showed us the ropes of their training system. A lot of it was familiar to us, but some things were different than either Todd or I had learned in the past, and we’re in the process of training ourselves to train him.
The big ask is that she help Duncan with his crate training. Of course, to do that, everything else has to be worked on. While we’re meeting his basic, fundamental puppy needs already, the BB take on things is that in order to get him comfy in his crate he needs to see us as in charge so he doesn’t have to worry about one of his “pups” going off without him into the big bad world.
That’s a different way of looking at it compared to the “I’m lonely, please don’t leave me” side that we would normally think, right?
So, yeah, we’re working on his leash manners, commands like come and sit, and his attentiveness to us vs the plethora of things out there to distract him. We’re helping each other remember the relative body language cues–things like standing for corrections or redirections, crouching at his level for the fun things–and proper use of the correction command (that has us sounding like zombie sheep, Bahh!).
Overall, though, it seems to be working.
Night one, the same day as the BB visit, was a bit of a cluster. It was completely our own fault that we didn’t go to bed until the wee hours of the morning so Duncan’s hour of protest meant it was 2am before we got to sleep.
Night two was more on-time. (Actually, Todd tried to go to bed early, bless his heart, but Duncan wasn’t having it.) It was still the same hour of protest (he really would rather sleep with us, and we were tempted to let him, but we have to stay strong until he fully groks his crate is his den) but it was louder, more insistent, and less open to correction. And then, when he did quiet down and let us sleep, it was only for 15-40 minute intervals for the first several hours. Finally, around 3am, he exhausted himself and we got a few hours of uninterrupted sleep.
Night three, last night, was better, though! It only took him half an hour to settle and there was only one “relapse” of loud whining about 30 minutes later. After that he kept quiet and we all got a much-needed solid six hours of sleep!!!
Now, there’s a few things at work, I think, that made the difference between nights 1 & 3 and the hell that was night 2. Mainly, I suspect that it’s because I have had more time with him–between bringing him to work that week and a half plus getting home before Todd and having Fridays off with Duncan–so I’ve had more opportunities to work with him, I have more authority to him. Plus, Todd has been a little more indulgent with Duncan than I have, he’s a little more tolerant of the nipping, for instance, and other behaviors. Still, we’re both working on consistency. It could also have been that I was working downstairs while Todd was trying to go to bed early on night 2 and Duncan might have heard me moving around.
The FOMO is strong with this one, so I’m making an effort not to stay up later than Todd & Duncan to, hopefully, lessen some of that. (Though he wasn’t as bad about it when he slept with us, previously, when I’d come to bed it would definitely wake him up and he’d think it was playtime again.)
Sleeping in the crate is part of the process of getting him comfy with it, the other part is feeding him in the crate. This, I think, moreso than the night-sleeping, is what has yielded the biggest change: no messing in the crate during the day!
Granted, it’s early days yet, but Monday and Tuesday were mess-free when Todd came home and lunchtime as well as when I got home after work. That’s a big step for little D, and one that makes it worth toughing out the barking and whining at night.
Plus, we decided if he could keep up the good crate behavior for a week, then we might let him back up on the bed for a night and see if he maintained that habit. If so, we could all sleep easier and avoid the hassle of moving the crate downstairs and back up again each day. (We thought about a second crate, but that dilutes the “this is your home” vibe, and we can’t leave the crate upstairs in our room during the day since the upstairs tends to get very warm during the summer.)
The other crate issue, though, is the barking. Oh my stars, the barking. I’m not sure how we’re going to “cure” him of the incessant barking during the day, but we have to figure something out. The goal is that he gets used to his crate and doesn’t feel the need to voice his displeasure the same way he’s figuring out not to mess in there and that he’ll make the correction on his own.
As our Bark Busters trainer noted, though, Duncan is a smart puppy, and the smart ones are tougher to train (she said “I don’t get called for the dumb ones”). It’s a mixed blessing, that, but one we’ll figure out. There was talk of maybe a puppy cam with a feature where we could talk to him during the day. We’re leaving the TV on for him for some white noise, and have draped his crate to make it darker and cozier. While we’re currently leaving the soft bedding out of the crate until he proves he won’t mark it (the laundry spike was like having an infant, at first)–that was the trainer’s suggestion–he does have a couple of toys in there with him, and he gets a filled Kong each time he goes in for the morning, afternoon, and overnight in there.
If we can’t get the barking under control, we may have to look at the humane collars out there with various deterrents. There are scent-based ones, vibration-based ones, and ones that emit a high whine (that last one was used successfully by a friend with a headstrong Havanese). All with the idea to distract them from their barking and keep them from ramping up into a full-blown fit without shocking them or other harmful methods. We’re not ruling it out, but we’re hoping we can avoid it, too.
Overall, we’re really pleased with the progress he’s making and definitely happy with the Bark Busters system so far. We have our follow-up appointment in a couple of weeks to see how we’re doing and reinforce her training, and in the mean time we’re doing our homework by working with Duncan a little bit every day. More than that, though, the trainer helped us (okay, mostly me) feel like less of a puppy-training failure by assuring us that, no, Duncan really is a smart little bugger and that he’s pushing limits and testing us.
And if you read through all of that, thank you! Here’s a well-deserved treat: some clips of Duncan being the sweet boy he can be, and the reason why he’s worth all this training hassle.
Neither Todd nor I are what you’d call overly concerned with cleaning the house.
Don’t get me wrong, we both like and appreciate a clean home, but we will happily put off one chore or another in favor of far more fun things and not stress out over it one bit. I often tell people, as they enter our home, that Todd didn’t marry me for my housekeeping skills (which is true), but at that point I’ve usually done a good top-level clean if the company was expected.
One of the many reasons I like hosting parties is that it gives me the motivation I need to clean the house.
My Power Trio!
All of that being said, why then, you might be wondering, did I sign on as a Brand Ambassador for Mean Green Degreaser? Simple: when it’s a least-favorite thing, it’s even more important to have some reliable go-to products to make it easier. And I have been very happy with my decision!
When my shipment of Mean Green Degreaser arrived, the first thing I did was do a much-needed deep clean of the fridge.
We tend to keep our fridge rather full and, while it’s a good thing in general, that means it’s easy for a spill to go unnoticed or something to mutate in the crisper drawer undetected. And sometimes the fridge just develops a smell. It happens. So that Sunday, while Todd was out shopping, I grabbed the Orange Champ, emptied the fridge completely, and gave everything a good wipe-down.
Let me tell you a few things about me:
The barest hint of bleach fumes gives me major headaches
I worry about mixing chemicals and unintentionally gassing myself into oblivion (how many showers between is safe to try a different product on a tub, for instance? I don’t know!!!)
I’m pretty sensitive to scents in general, good and bad
So when I researched Mean Green and saw that they were bleach* and ammonia-free, that was a definite point in the pro column. And when I used the Orange Champ I was happy that there was only the lightest of scents and it was very pleasant–not overly chemical or floral like some cleaners. I was also surprised at how much help the slightly orange tint was–I could easily see if I’d sprayed an area but had failed to wipe it down. And that’s on top of how easy it was to clean out the crisper drawers and the glass shelf with the Orange Champ.
*The Mildew Destroyer that I also received is one of the few products that includes bleach, and it makes sense for that. Thankfully it’s not an issue we have right now, so I haven’t had cause to use it, but Todd knows that he’s welcome to if he wants to give it a go.Â
For a first run it was quite a success!
This past weekend I decided it was time to give the kitchen a good cleaning (even though no company is expected any time soon) and used the Anti-Bacterial Multi-Surface Cleaner instead of the big-name-brand kitchen wipes I had been using on the counters, etc. Not only was I happier with the light scent and cleaning power of the Anti-Bacterial Multi-Surface Cleaner, but I was thrilled that there was no sticky residue left on our laminate counter tops (an issue I had with the aforementioned wipes). I don’t know if it’s the degreaser component that eliminates this “sticking point” or what, but I’m sold!
(If only they made refills for my Swiffer WetJet–maybe I can finagle my own refills?)
Finally, with the new pup underfoot we’ve had a considerable uptick of messes to manage and the Maximum Strength cleaner has come in quite handy. I won’t go into details about what I was cleaning up (I’m sure you can guess quite easily… *sigh* housebreaking), but the concentrated cleaner made short work of it–thank goodness!
While I have no lofty ideas about becoming the next queen of clean, I can safely say that my new Mean Green products are making cleaning up easier and even a little more enjoyable. This weekend I’ll be giving the bathrooms a once-over and I expect to have the same positive results that I’ve had in the kitchen (and dining room, and hallway, and living room… thank you, Duncan, for the thorough proving grounds?). Want your own (Mean Green, that is, not Duncan), check out your local Lowes or use the store locator on meangreendegreaser.com!
In case it wasn’t obvious, this post was sponsored by Mean Green Desgreaser. I receive product and compensation for being a Brand Ambassador but I assure you, all opinions and experiences are my own.
