Good things about being woken at 4 in the morning

Ok, there really aren't any good things about being woken at 4 in the morning. I would much rather still be sleeping - so I will type a few words and then slip back into sleep.

First, helping mom to feel a little less stressed is a good thing. I got her a yogurt and put more music on. Hopefully that will help her to feel more relaxed. Anything is possible.

Then, as I was starting to go back to sleep, I looked at my phone and somehow that reminded me (oh, right, there was a reminder on the screen) that the recycling needed to go out. Brrr. But I did get another little accumulated recycling out with the regular weekly amount of stuff. Huzzuh!

Off to sleep land, but first check snapchat - I don't get this app yet - out of the people I know on there, only one person consistently posts anything - and she posts two or three times a day. Then a quick look at a few other things - mostly instagram on my phone - then a game or two of Word Jigsaw. Then, oops, opened my computer - looked at Facebook - and found a cool animation that I shared on my timeline.

Woo hoo. What excitement. Now I am going to try to sleep some more before a long work day at The Smith. Zzzzzzzz

Oops, opened my yahoo home page by mistake - now I have a bunch of tabs open to be skimmed. Sigh.

And up again - mom wanted to tell me all about the messes she has been making. Yay. So I gave her some more fruit and some cold water and asked her to tell me more about it later. Hopefully, I can get another hour of sleep. Right. (I didn't)

Watched The Winter Bone last night and enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. I was going to watch it with mom, but at the last minute decided against it, which I think was a wise choice. I don't think she would have been able to follow it. I also watched a couple more episodes of Agents of SHIELD. Now I am up to the point where I need to watch a Marvel Movie (Thor: The Dark World - which I think I may have seen but can't remember - if I did see it, it didn't make that much of an impression on me, despite having Natalie heartthrob Portman in it) before continuing on with the series. I added it to my Netflix list anyway - maybe this time I will remember it. I wish Netflix kept track for me...

Fear of feeling fearful - is there a phobia of fear? Phobophibia.

I hope, that as I age, I maintain a modicum of fearlessness. My mom is afraid of everything - including everyday stuff - like breathing and walking and, well, everything. I don't know that I would be able to live in a such a constant state of fear...

My right ear is blocked again. Poo. I will adjust or it will get better or both or neither. Grrr.

When I first came to take care of my mom a few years ago, she was pretty autonomous. Now, I am a little worried to leave her alone for more than an hour at a time - maybe two or three depending on the day - but four makes me really anxious. And I can't really tell her where I am going as a) she just forgets and b) gets anxious if it is someplace new. OK places for me to be going are: grocery shopping and The Smith. So if I am headed out for whatever reason, I am doing one of those two things in her mind. Luckily, right now, there isn't a lot happening at the Smith, so I don't need to be there for long stretches of time. We shall see what happens come the Spring.

I took most of the day off from the puzzle yesterday. I got a couple of pieces put together and a couple of pieces added to the pieces already attached in the puzzle - but not the leaps and bounds that occurred in the past few days. Moderation and patience - always working on those two "virtues."

The Smith did get a bit of my time yesterday. One of my projectionists was really, really late. Got there at 1:45 when he was supposed to be there at 1:00. Sigh. So I got to go in and be there for a while. Which was a good thing, since it seemed like he had also forgotten how to run the movies. Double sigh.

Oh, I did get to Lake Drum's chocolate and beer and BYOV (bring your own vinyl) event. Sadly my copy of Court of the Crimson King is totally messed up. Maybe all of my records are. I don't know. I haven't actually played many of them since, well, for a long, long time. Why the heck am I holding on to them still? Silly Augustus. Speaking of which, I did decide to let go of some plastic baggage that has been accumulating for years and years (and years and years).

But I got away from my subject. There was quite a crowd at Lake Drum - especially for a Sunday afternoon. My enjoyment was spoiled a little because of my ear being stuffed up. We early muggers got a yummy taste treat as well - I think I posted a picture of it on Instagram - pulled pork plus! The taste of chocolate was pretty yummy, chocolate with bacon. I did think that there would be more chocolate tasting than just the one little tidbit, but there wasn't. The tasting of beers that Victor and Jenna shared more than made up for it, though!

I didn't end up buying any of the chocolate that was for sale. Lake Drum was out of the beer I have been partaking of there most recently, so I made do with the Smoked IPA.

Next stop yesterday, grocery store. Yippee! I love going to the grocery store. Is that acutely weird?

I spend a lot of time on Facebook. And recently on Instagram as well. And I comment and "like" a lot of posts. I do worry (a teeny bit) that people get tired of me always writing on their posts. But I like to feel like I am actually engaged in something, rather than just sitting here passively and not interacting. If they don't want their crap commented on, don't post it. Anyway...