Saturday, October 15, 2022

 Saturday, October 15, 2022

I felt great yesterday and slept like a baby all night. I woke up feeling great around 4:30 and started my in-bed exercises to open my hips and strengthen my thigh muscles. I loved lounging in bed. I felt no guilt no and no dread about getting up. I fell asleep while exercising because I did a savasana after every prolonged stretch.

  On my morning walk, I went up the hill on Kukuna even though my ankle bothered me after the morning stretches. It’s my calf muscle that gets triggered, and that affects my ankle.

   I ran into Laura and Kent on my walk. They were newbies to the neighborhood. Laura just arrived last night. Kent had been here about a week. They’re both nurses—Ken’s retired, and Nora’s teaching online classes. The island hospitals needed nurses. I asked her if she would consider working. She said, “No way! The salary here is lower than what she made on the mainland thirty years ago.” Holy cow! The salaries here are low and the cost of living high. Also, it is impossible to find housing. Why would anyone come here?

  As I came down Punawele, Jackie pulled out of her driveway. She recognized me and stopped to talk. We introduced ourselves when she was out gardening on one of my walks. Isaac also befriended her and tried to hook the two of us up.   Isaac gave me Jackie’s number. It never felt suitable to reach out. As I passed her house one morning, I caught her out front weeding again. I asked her if she was Jackie, and we connected. She gave me her telephone number, and I called it. That way, we had each other’s numbers. When I got home, I made sure she had mine. She called later in the afternoon and commented on how different I sounded. She confused me with another Betty she knew. She assumed my information was a new contact number for her old friend. Massive confusion. Today, she told me she couldn’t find my number. She wanted to arrange to walk with me. We’ll see. It sounds like she is technologically challenged.

   I called my Hanai sister, Jean to tell her how I felt better. Wow! I slept like a baby last night. I was peaceful. Then, this morning, I discovered most of my solar panels were down. As if that wasn’t bad enough, someone said something that upset me. I was so vulnerable. I hadn’t felt this way in years. I felt hair-trigger again. I don’t think I’m acting out as much. People didn’t seem to know I was fragile. I was presenting as intact when I felt like I was coming apart, literally. It felt like I was shaking loose inside. I dealt with it through meditation, talks with friends, and CDB oil pills.

  I shared my mental state with my friend Melissa. She’s a doctor. She said it sounded pretty normal given the loss of Mike and what everyone has gone through with Covid. I hated the feeling of being so wired that everything made me jump. That’s how I lived my childhood. It was horrible.

 My friend Melissa regaled me with incredible stories of her time in med school in the 1970s. She had a young baby and was nursing; she took her to all her classes. The little girl was a doll, generally peaceful and non-disruptive. When it came time for the class to sit for their boards, their instructor insisted the class vote on whether Melissa should be allowed to take hers with the rest of the class. The baby would be there. The class voted yes. In the 1970s, that class had to be almost 100% male. In medical school, tolerating a female, no less one with a baby in tow was amazing. It’s quite a story.

   Today’s Wordle Word was one of those with many possibilities. When dealing with four or five words that could fit but with only two more turns, I do eeny meany miny moe. My mother picked the right one.

   I bathed Elsa Today. Only eight days since her last bath. I should do it more frequently to help contain her skin lesions.

   I figured out how to sign on to Apple TV to watch Ted Lasso, which Damon recommended. He said I would love it.

   I put off completing a legal document because there was something wrong with the formatting on the computer. The margins weren’t under control. Pages one through three had them one way, and pages four through six another, even though the margin icon showed them as the same. I tried varying ways to deal with the problem. I copied the first three pages into a new document and tried to recopy the last three pages. The same malformed format showed up immediately. I had no idea how to circumvent the problem. I would type the last three pages in a separate document if the worst comes to worst. I only need hard copies.