One week BTW

I've been B.T.W. (behind the wheel) for a week now. I could do bullet points as to how it's been; exhausting, boring, humbling, fun and low stress.

I've been humbled by some of the people I've met. One woman slipped on the ice in January or February. She suffered two broken legs, one broken arm, and the other sprained from trying to push the city bus off her, which came to within inches of crushing her. I think that's what she said, the acoustics in the bus are not conducive to great conversations. She's still in a wheelchair.

The busiest road in St. Paul, I-35E, is under construction, so getting around that is a pain. I have to count on the GPS voice directions constantly and I'm afraid that's keeping me from learning the streets, literally. I'm using that excuse for not knowing the roads in a week because of my memory issues.

I quit the Buspirone:
I think my sleep is improving and I'm now more than 24 hours off the Buspirone all together, and am just fine! I think it had me a bit numb to the traffic decisions I have to make. On the other hand, Buspirone can decrease the side effect suffered from Depakote of itching. I've been itchy, especially in the evening, so we'll see how that plays out because I can't take Benadryl, it's on the no-fly list. Why not just keep cutting drugs out of the regimen until caffeine is a thing of the past as well as any OTC pain pills?

I'm swimming! 
How would I do this? I'm swimming! Peggy paid for my membership to LA|Fitness. I used to swim a mile non-stop with flip-turns. I'm up to a half mile with flip-turns and my shoulders are hurtin' for certain. I'm experimenting with when to swim. Last night I went to a club a couple miles from work and wasn't out of there until about 10pm. That made for not being sleepy anytime soon afterward but so what, I can sleep late. Well, in theory I can. I woke at 6:00 and did manage to sleep again until after 7:00, then did an 18 mile bike ride.


I took one day off instead of two. My lower back felt like the early stage of a slipped disk and my right shoulder felt like I had a pretty severe strain. But I'm exercising and off to the club now. That should take care of it, right? I'm not joking, that should take care of it. Swimming is the best exercise I ever did and I do not understand why I quit swimming since about 2000. But that's looking back and I'm moving forward, blah blah blah...

I spent several hours with Mia and Steph and had a surprise guest, Jennifer, Jess's best friend since two years before kindergarten. She told me what treatment to use on my feet. It's not the same treating metatarsalgia and that heal pain thing but it felt good so I'm going to get a squash ball and continue on my regimen.

We played the "Dora the Explorer CandyLand" version of and when Jess got home Mia wanted to play it again! I told Steph and Jen to go along with my being assertive and sure enough, Mia was tired of playing after her first turn. We all worked together and she liked it! So, off to Goodwill I went and got the "Dora the Explorer Chutes and Ladders" edition. It was half price on toddlers items at Goodwill so I got it for $1.59. At Amazon.com it's $31.00 plus shipping!  I love G.W.

I had a couple temporary tattoos so we put one on Mia's lower back. That's when I learned they're called "tramp stamps" so here is my Mia with her tramp stamp:

And the other tat went on her belly, of course: