Merry Christmas and more!

Hi, there! It has been a while. I hope that you are well.

I'd like to wish you a happy Christmas with family and loved ones, if you celebrate it. This year will be the first time in years in which I am not cooking a turkey dinner. 

I just came back from a week in the Twin Cities and Winnipeg. I ended up catching a nasty cold. I have been sleeping it off for days. Right now, I feel the most energetic in days. I still have a phlegmy cough. At least I am on the mend and don't have to go back to work until the second week of January.

I was too weak and sick to hit the grocery store. I'm fine with soup and items that I have at home. It's just not a full-blown turkey dinner that I typically make for my parents and me.

On Christmas eve, I had a financial counselling appointment pertaining to my consumer proposal. The Teams link didn't work. I sat there waiting to be admitted. I cancelled the call, which prompted the woman to say that we could do it over the phone.

I have a lot of thoughts about my consumer proposal. I am happy with it on the whole. The firm preparing those who are going through one for the first time needs to provide more support.

I hope to write more here. It has been a challenge trying to focus when my blog has changed its original purpose. It will be about whatever I am experiencing in my life. I haven't thought about spanking in ages.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Due to a snowstorm that blew in on Christmas Eve, I decided to make Christmas dinner (it was more luch) early. My parents and I feasted on Christmas Eve. Today, I've have been eating leftovers, which I love.

I was stateside last year for Christmas and New Year's Day. It's nice to be home for the holidays this year.

I hope that you and yours have a fabulous holiday season. I am currently dealing with a sore throat and a mild cold. I'll write more about my recent travels once I have a chance. I am on a break from work.

I basically slept for two hours this afternoon. I felt tired from being sick. I'm more energetic now, which is encouraging.

My boss recovering from COVID-19 and my sleepiness due to humidity

My manager caught COVID-19, as did his entire family. He returned to work yesterday, working remotely.

We had a virtual interview to conduct. I had asked the person who had set up this interview to reschedule it to accommodate my manager.

My manager started losing his voice today. He talked for maybe two minutes during the interview. I did all the talking in the interview with the candidate.

The kicker is that this candidate wasn't a perfect fit right off the bat. I wanted to shut down the interview immediately because she has no writing experience.

Such a waste of time!

Anyway, I didn't sleep well last night. It was way too humid overnight. Having the air conditioning on has made things better. I've been napping throughout the day to make up for my sleepiness.

Heel pain and sleep

Last night, I had the worst heel pain. It kept me up. Pain killers took a while to kick in. It was to the point where I finally went to sleep at 6:30 am.

Before I finally went to sleep, I sent a work e-mail to indicate that I'd be taking a sick day. I'm glad that I did. I woke up at 8 am, had breakfast, and then went back to bed.

Here's hoping that I have a better night's sleep tonight.

Weekend thoughts and humidity

Weekends come and go so quickly.

I spent Sunday writing, cooking, and relaxing. It was nice.

The only downside is that I feel like I am overheating at home. With two fans on, it's humid on the top floor of my home. Absolutely no breeze came in when I opened all windows.

Ugh.

Here's hoping that I can sleep better tonight.

Sore wrist with minor swelling

Friday is here. Yay!

I have a sore left wrist. I also have a bit of swelling. My guess is that one end of my cuff bracelet dug into it while my head rested on it as I slept.

I need to sleep differently.

It's weird. I took my cuff bracelet off and hope that the swelling subsides.

Weekend over and a new humidifier

Weekends fly by.

My humidifier that I've had for over a decade died. I loved that it was a penguin. However, it wasn't a top-loader, which was a pain.

I got a new one to replace it. I love it. It changes colour. I oddly don't find it bright when I have it on at night. I simply change it to dark blue and I'm good.

I do find it soothing to look at when I have it cycle through all the colours. I fill it with water from the top, which is life-changing.

It works well. I find that it's so dry in the winter that I'm congested, so I need humidity.

Early meeting and snow

I have an early morning meeting in several hours. I'm trying to wind down. 

The good news is that I'll end my day at 3:30 pm. It's supposed to snow on Wednesday, so I'll run my errands after work today.

It's snowing right now, but it's not heavy.

Okay, I should get some sleep or I'll be sleeping through my meeting!

Nose bleed while stateside

While in the States, I did have something odd happen to me. I didn't write a whole lot while away because I wanted to immerse myself in everything. I did want to write about this weirdness, but I didn't want to alarm everyone.

Just before I went to bed, which was a Friday just before 2 am, I had sneezed three times. I am normally not a sneezy person, so that was a sign. I then felt the need to blow my nose. I did. That's when I ended up with a nose bleed.

I don't normally get nose bleeds. The last time I did before this incident was in grade 2. I was standing in line behind two boys in my class. They were fighting. An elbow landed on my nose and it bled. My teacher helped me stop my nose bleed.

So, here I am, trying to pinch where my nostrils are starting, find a can of vodka soda to put on the bridge of my nose and forehead to stop the bleeding, and lean more forward than tilting my head back. After maybe forty minutes, my right nostril stopped bleeding.

Weird. My take is that it was so dry in my room that my nostrils weren't as moisturized as they typically are at home. The sneezing and nose-blowing ended up rupturing a blood vessel. Thus, I had a nose bleed.

I rested for a bit. I then decided to take Friday off as a sick day and sleep in. At this stage, it was just after 3 am when I recovered from my efforts to stop my nose bleed.

I'm glad that it wasn't an epic nose bleed that couldn't be stopped. Thank goodness I kept calm. I didn't drink the vodka soda after that, but I did the following evening.

Later on that day, I got saline spray from the drugstore to moisturize my nostrils. I have been nose bleed-free ever since.

Things are never dull. Sometimes, I prefer dullness!

Weekends need to be longer

Weekends are so short. They are much needed for me to recharge.

I liked the extra hour to sleep in. I felt refreshed.

I would love a three-day weekend all the time.

Half the day off to break

Yesterday, I decided to take half the day off. I was tired and felt like I needed a break. I'm glad that I did.

I slept. I felt much better afterwards.

The good thing about a shorter workweek is that it's over faster. The downside is that folks seem to feel the need to cram more work into the week. Weird!

I managed to book my second trip to the States. I leave in late November and return in early December. I then go back just before Christmas and stay there for three weeks. Yay!

Rest and working from home

Yesterday, I needed the morning to get some more sleep. One of the nice things about working from home is that I can get away with it when I don't have many meetings to attend.

I woke up at 8 am and didn't feel great. I attended a meeting at 10 am. I went back to bed. I woke up at noon and felt better.

It was perfect. I had meetings at 2 pm and 3 pm and attended those. I was so productive thanks to some rest.

Early meeting and a nap through the first hour of it

Yesterday, I woke up early for my 7 am meeting that typically lasts for four hours. I managed to sleep through the first hour after I said hello at the start.

It was a productive day. I worked on a PowerPoint presentation that I haven't had a chance to do in weeks.

On a completely different note, my friend and I made plans to get together on Friday night. Yay!

Weekend, rapid COVID-19 test, and sleep

Another weekend has come and gone. I slept extremely well last night. I love the cooler weather.

I have been doing more research on travelling to the States. Things are looking better. I simply need to figure out where I can do a COVID-19 rapid test before I leave. Shoppers Drug Mart offers the test, but you have to call the drugstore and ask. It doesn't give any indication when you look up your local drugstore online.

Have a great week ahead!

Compression socks and foot pain

Last week, I bought a pair of compression socks. They are open-toe socks that go past my ankles. I wear one on my right foot before I go to bed because my foot pain happens with that foot only.

Last Saturday, I did a lot of walking downtown. The following day, I could feel my foot pain starting. I put on my compression sock immediately. Between one to two hours later, the pain went away.

It seems to be a great purchase. I'll need to test out my theory some more to determine whether it truly works or if this first experience was a coincidence. I'm hoping that it's the former.

New pillows

The other day, I bought two pillows. I realized that I have been sleeping on the same pillow for a decade and it wasn't supporting my head as well as it used to.

I bought the same pillow style and brand. It's amazing how a decade of making small enhancements to it makes a huge difference. My old pillow did not have trim stitched around the pillow's perimeter, which made the fill inside move about more. My new ones do, which I love.

These pillows also come with pillowcases. I don't remember my old pillow coming with one. I had to buy one separately.

I'm going to replace the flat pillow that I use under my knees with the second new pillow. I am looking forward to analyzing my sleep quality.

Cutting it close for an early conference call

I had to wake up early yesterday for a 7 am conference call. We had a couple of months off from it, but it's back.

I had two alarms set up. I sleep with earbuds. I typically set my watch that I wear to buzz, but I forgot to.

Luckily, I heard my phone's alarm at 6:53 am. It was enough time to boot up my laptop and sound sort of coherent for the first ten minutes of the call where I needed to speak.

It's never a dull day. The good news was that I ended my day at 3:30 pm. Yay!

Sleep and hope for next weekend

I slept a lot better last night. I was tired, so my sleep was sound.

My weekend is drawing to an end. Here's hoping that this week is a good one and the weekend arrives for everyone to enjoy!

Less sleep than expected

Last night, I woke up at 5:30 pm. It was a weird combination of my being warmer than normal, having my right foot start to stiffen up, and my bladder wanting some relief.

I ended up turning on my fan, even though the air conditioning was on. It has been extremely humid lately, but the humidity must have risen overnight for me to sense it. I also took some potassium for my usual right foot issues and attended to my bladder.

After 1.5 hours of being away, which included placing an order for pair of compression socks to help with circulation, I went back to bed and woke up at 9:30 am. I had roughly five hours of sleep. I tend to be functional with five hours of sleep, but crave more of it.

When I came back from running a bunch of errands, I had dinner and took a nap. It explains why I'm still fairly alert, but I'm ready for bed.

Here's hoping that I sleep better tonight.

Long weekend coming up and asleep during an online meeting

I found out that this weekend is a longer one. Yay! I am thinking about extending it by taking a vacation day next Tuesday.

I didn't sleep all that well last night. I had foot pain thanks to doing more driving than I had anticipated on the weekend. I actually fell asleep during an online meeting on Monday morning and I'm pretty sure that no one noticed!

My foot is much better now. I should be able to sleep better tonight.