cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/34772864
Whether it’s a project you’re working on, plans you have this weekend, an event you’re going to, etc. What’s something that’s got you excited?
The days are finally longer than the nights and I’m starting to see grass underneath the snow. I’m looking forward to start working in the vegetable garden and being able to have a nice cup of tea outside in the sun.
Enjoy it! We’re going the opposite way now. One of the major downsides of living in the southern hemisphere is people forgot why the holiday season landed in the middle of winter. It was to give people something to look forward to and help them through the dark months… There is NOTHING like that during the winter here. It can be pretty bleak!
I guess you need to get your own version of the swedish summer vacation.
Kicking addiction once and for all. No, I mean it, this will be the year I get my brain back.
Good luck on this difficult road to redemption!
I’m getting married on Towel Day. To a woman who is excited that I wanted to get married on Towel Day.
Bad Ass. are towels a part of the dress code?
No but I think I’ll get them as gifts
Just uhhh, don’t forget to bring a towel.
I’m sure a hoopy frood like you always knows where your towel is though.
May your wedding towels be full of nutrients!
Now I want a towel shaped cake
With mint frosting
I’ve been a vegetarian for a hundred years, but I’ve finally decided to go vegan and I’m kind of excited about it. I’m growing a garden from seeds I started inside, and my seeds have almost all sprouted.
Nice! There’s a bunch of vegan communities on lemmy to check out too
Both for general info and also things like recipes
!homecooks@vegantheoryclub.org
Thanks!!
After years of trying to build a solid workout routine I’ve managed to do at least 40 min of cardio every morning for the last two months, to the point where I’m craving more.
I’ve started taking my writing seriously as well, and after some online courses have vastly improved over the last year. I’m working on a collection of short stories now.
I am finally getting a surgery I have desperately needed for mental health and basic quality of life since the height of COVID. I didn’t see it as a life threatening need-to-be-done so I waited until after the height of COVID to begin pursuing it.
I was scheduled for this surgery in February 2023, and when they took my blood tests, they had to cancel the surgery, because that’s when the found out I had cancer. (Chronic Myeloid Leukemia)
My cancer treatment has been going very well, and now I am once again scheduled for this surgery with the blessing of my cancer doctor and the requirement of not taking my cancer medications for a week before the surgery and three weeks after the surgery. That is because my cancer medications increase bleeding and impact how long wounds take to heal. (Sprycel/Dasatinib, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor)
Here’s hoping it goes well, I absolutely hate surgery, but I really need this done. I’ve been literally waiting for this moment for years, it’s going to be a huge mental health boost.
And to be clear while I am indeed on the Blåhaj Lemmy, this is surgery is not about gender identity or gender affirming care. It’s still important and impacting my mental health, however.
Gosh, the amount of strength life has required from you these past few years is incredible to imagine. I’m glad to hear your treatment is going well and I hope the surgery and recovery are smooth for you. It’s great you’re finally going to get it!
Thank you, I have honestly been through so much more than even that, and it has been so hard. I lost my place to live, the majority of my possessions, and I have just been broken, but I am trying to keep going. I think the hardest thing to lose was my bed. It took me until I was nearly 40 to afford my first bed, frame, mattress, and quality sheets, that was all my own and wasn’t a hand-me-down of some kind. I am back to sleeping on a shitty 15 year old mattress I got for free that hurts my back and I have no idea when I’ll be able to afford a bed again.
I am moving out of Texas. Our house goes on the market in a couple of weeks and once it’s sold we’ll be heading to New England.
Jealous. I will be stuck here for the foreseeable future.
I tried to stick out as long as I could, but we really have no choice anymore. I have a child with special needs and it’s been a struggle to get him the services he is legally entitled to. Now without the Dept of Education things are only going to get worse.
I wish you well and hope you can get out soon.
Every two weeks — this next weekend being one such event —, I have sushi with my grandma and my brother. I love sushi, my grandma, and my brother. Feeling stellar.
In May my spouse and I are going away together for a few days without the kids for the first time in a decade.
The tulip and daffodil leaves are emerging in our gardens and soon we will have flowers.
Our church is starting up again this week & I love choir.
I have big plans for the spring and summer: multiple backpacking/camping trips in the mountains, a week-long family vacation, and (hopefully) getting back into mountain biking after a multi-year break. I can’t wait!
Nice! Those sound like really solid plans. Anything with mountains instantly ignites my happy chemicals.
Absolutely. Like Gillian Welch sang, I’ve been in the lowlands too long.
Roughly four months after being run over and rendered bed bound my mom is taking the next step in her recovery. Literally. She’s been okayed to start walking. She recently went to her first physical therapy session and is working on getting that leg strength back. Still a ways from walking even with a walker but hey progress is progress.
My lemongrass plant that I tend to neglect is showing signs of life. Seriously I haven’t changed the pot or soil of it in at least two years now. Not to mention the amount of times I forget to give it water. It’s a miracle the poor thing has lasted this long really. But today I noticed some new growth so that’s cool.
I have some travels planned this year :)
A friend is smoking a brisket this weekend 🤤
I get to sing in three concerts in the next five weeks. All three are going to be very fun, and one of them is at Carnegie Hall!
Wow! Is that a career? What’s the coolest place or thing you’ve performed?
Is that a career?
Nope, choral singing is something I do as a volunteer. But I do it a lot! Primarily with my local symphony chorus, another small local group, and occasionally on tours.
This will be my third time singing at Carnegie, which is always fun. Hard to say the coolest place I’ve performed, but definitely up there is the American cemetery in Normandy, France. Also Winchester Cathedral in the UK.
The coolest thing I’ve performed is also tough. Literally my first concert with the symphony chorus was a performance of The Two Towers. Like, the movie played while we performed the soundtrack. It was incredible. I’ve gotten to do a few of those movie concerts. I also really love when we get to do video game music, those concerts are always a blast. Getting to shout the grunts in the Dragonborn song from Skyrim on a stage is so cool.
And then of course there’s Carmina Burana which features O Fortuna which most people have heard somewhere, and Verdi’s Requiem which features the most terrifyingly awesome Dies Irae of all time. Staples like Mozart’s Requiem and Beethoven’s 9th are always a blast.
I’m seriously privileged to have the talent and opportunity to participate in this stuff. It’s so much fun.
- Reading. Like I do with online content, I select very strictly the books I read, doing my best to keep hate/anger (as well as proud idiocy) at bay.
- Writing (& journaling)
- Long walks (edit: nicer weather makes it even more tempting ;)
- Quality time with my spouse
- A little music too.
Nothing fancy, but very efficient as far as I’m concerned.
What’s been one of your favorite books so far this year?
Quite early in the year to pick one favorite, but so far I would say:
- A la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time) by Marcel Proust. I’m reading it right now, and probably will take the rest of the year to finish it. I’ve failed for 30+ years reading it, like I just could not get into it and gave up countless times. Earlier this year, it somehow clicked and I’m in awe. It’s amazing.
- An essay and still in French (like Proust, there are many translations available): Du contrat social by Rousseau. Today more than ever, a fundamental text that is worth (re-)reading. What does it mean to live and to work together, in a society? Where does it come from? And how do we make it work and not end in a civil war? The text itself is a rather short read, but the moment one realizes each sentence has a lot of offer and to reflect upon it becomes a lot more massive. Real slow reading is highly encouraged for that text.
- In English (American): The World-Ending Fire, a collection of essays by Wendell Berry. I wish I had started reading him 40 years ago.
Thank you for sharing. You’re a citizen and scholar. I’ll save your message and add those to my queue.
