The Castle in the Middle of Town

This is the mosque. Does it not look like a castle?

With all the hate going around for the Muslim community once again, I thought I would share the time I learned about Muslims. We have a mosque in our hometown although I have never met anyone there who I knew was Muslim. I thought it was the prettiest building I had ever seen, like a castle. Driving past it one day, I said to my parents "I wanna go to that church!"

"That's a mosque." said my dad.

"What's a mosque?" I asked.

"That's a church for people who are Muslim." he replied.

I was not unfamiliar with the word "Muslim". I had heard it from Mrs. Doubtfire when Daniel tried to cover his face with a tea towel, replying "I'm not a Muslim." Although I had no idea what the word meant. "What's a Muslim?" I asked.

"Well," my dad replied. I am guessing he was trying to find the right words. "They are people of a different religion than us. We're Christians. Some people are Jewish and some people are Muslim."

Now, I did know someone who was Jewish. Her name was Brittany and she was in my class at school. We knew she was Jewish because she brought in food for us on Jewish holidays. One time she brought in matza and another time she brought in apples and honey. We liked Brittany. Her food was good and she introduced us to old radio shows. It was probably the first time I had laughed so hard my sides hurt. My child brain thought if Muslims are like Jews, they must be cool because they bring food into their class! What kind of food did they eat during holidays? I wanted someone Muslim in my class, especially if they were as cool as Brittany. But I never did at least that I knew about.

Another Busy Day

Weight: 226ish
Mood: Light, albeit a little tired and stressed

It is getting easier to go to the gym every day, but I have to go in the morning or I will lose the will to go. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday are arm days. Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday are leg days. Sunday is my day off. Each day I get on the elliptical for five minutes, stretch, get back on for 10-20 minutes (some days I can do more than others) and then head to strength training. I need to think about when I am going to do my core. Tonight I plan to research gym equipment, how to use it, and what muscles they work, so as to maximize my workout. I am excited actually.

My mayoral website is up: www.sarahklaudaformayor.com. Turns out we only got 10% off a year of having a domain name/website. We ended up paying around $85 for it. I will have to add that to my book. There has been little time for the book. Everything else is getting in the way. There is a little less than a year until the election. We will see how I do.

Many of the past night have ended with me finishing up some work or getting a headstart on the next day before immediately going to bed. I miss the days of Let's Plays but both of us are too busy to think about taking it back up again. There have been some extra expenses the end of this year and MAGfest is in February. And I just realized I scheduled my psychiatrist appointment on the first day of the convention. I will have to reschedule that. Dangit

Keeping it Going

Second day of super productivity and I am feeling good, albeit tired. I will have to work during the weekend but maybe I can rest up on Sunday as I listen to the Ravens game. There is a lot going on in my life right now. There's the gym, keeping the house clean and maintained, clients, general entries for acceptance, my coupon book, my children's story, my mayoral campaign and website, blogs and online stuff, and keeping myself in good mental health. It all makes me feel important and accomplished actually. When I actually need a vacation day, I have earned one, it just feels so much better. I was able to give myself a coffee sugar scrub to sand off the sweaty dead skin the gym has created on my body. Now, I'm baby-butt smooth and feeling fresh. Scrubs are messy and feel irritating but man are they effective.

Khaleesi has a small abrasion on the bottom of her paw. She won't let me get anywhere near it. I have to work on her trusting me with potential pain. Honestly, her paw is not that bad and I could just bandage it with some neosporin and a sock to keep it clean. I will keep an eye on the wound over the next few days. My main concern is that it is a splinter or something is stuck in the wound. That is just asking for infection. She is not limping or anything. She just likes to lick it.

One thing I need to work on this week is delegating tasks to Mikey and keeping him on track. I have myself somewhat on track and he needs help with his goals at home. Like me, work drains him. Unlike me, he can stop when he gets home. My day is from the time I wake up to the time I go to bed, nearly every day. I kinda like it though.

(Un)Eventful Weekend

Mikey did not get as sick as I did last week. He is still coughing, but then again so am I. Nothing got done on Saturday since it was the third dreary morning and my mood could no longer keep up without the sunshine. It was sunny in the afternoon most of the time, but if I do not get a good start in the morning, it can ruin my whole day. Siberia went out to explore the front yard. She went in the neighbor's yard once but mainly sniffed around and waited at the door when she was ready to come in. She's such a smart girl and I am so proud of her.

I tried cleaning up trash yesterday but I forgot to tie back my hair, my allergies acted up, and Khaleesi was not having fun going with me. There was a dog I had never seen before walking up and down the street. Khaleesi wanted to meet it but once we started walking toward it, it turned around and walked away. After a long struggle to put Khaleesi back, I went to look for the dog and could not find it. Then, I got Khaleesi back out, saw the dog again, put Khaleesi back to look for the dog, and could not find it. After all of that, I was done. I will clean up more trash when I do not have anything else to do or when I have a down day and cannot get anything else done. I skipped the property of that guy who has been harassing me about my dog crapping in his yard (which she has never done). I will not touch his yard ever again, good or bad.

Unicorn Poop

I trained my arms yesterday and they are still a little achy. Yesterday, it felt like their muscles were falling off of my bones and onto the floor. It was funny because I went to use the machine that has the bar you pull down but it was too high up, so I jumped for it. The guy working out next to me offered to help me. Mikey said I probably looked like a child trying to work out on the big machines. After my, what would you call them- reverse chin ups?- I went to another side of the machine and used the individual handles that I could reach by myself. It was a great workout and I think it kickstarted my day yesterday which was one big sparkly unicorn rainbow dump. I am proud of myself for getting back to the gym right after my cold. Today's workout was hard. I went for five minutes on the elliptical, stretched my legs, and got back on for another five. To think, I used to be able to stay on an elliptical for an hour. I will build back up to that if I believe in myself.

Oh the amount of clients I have is beginning to pile up, which I love and hate at the same time. It means more money but it also means I do not have time to work on my mayoral campaign or my recreational writing. At least it keeps me busy and gives me hard deadlines.

Mikey caught what I had. He's in the beginning of it so he can rest this weekend but that means he will not be able to help me with some of the things I needed his help with. They will have to wait until next weekend. It also means my parents cannot come up and go to the Y with us until at least two weeks from now. I need to get working on their Christmas present. It is going to take forever. Not telling what it is. It's a secret!

Back to the Real World

From what I can tell, I might still have a cough and it has been keeping me up for the past two nights. It might have been allergies and the vacuuming I did today might help. It ends up being a tickle in the back corner of my throat that will not go away until I drink water, have a cough drop, and wait it out. We will see what happens tonight. I did not go to the gym today because I still had a bit of that cold lingering in my body but I promise I will go tomorrow.

At least my schedule is back to normal and I have mostly caught up with my house chores. I was incapacitated for less than two days and the house turned into a mess. This is why it is so hard for me to take a sick day and when I need a mental health day, I feel like a waste of space. I need to let myself be flawed and have bad days. It is going to happen and there is little I can do to prevent them besides eat well, exercise, and keep up with the rest of my mental health maintenance.

Also, I cut my hair this evening but forgot to thin it out. It was filthy when I did it but it turned out better than expected. Now it is so much easier to wash my hair and it is not touching my collar or the back of my neck. I want to dye it but my MAGfest costume prevents me from doing so. I need blonde short hair. I also need to lose some weight to fit into my costume. Not too much like I would need a miracle, just enough to get back on track of losing the weight. I can spend more time at the Y when I do not have a ton of clients. For now, the workout in the gym area will be fine with the occasional sauna and swim, maybe on weekends.

Speaking of weekends, this weekend I plan on going around the neighborhood and cleaning up garbage since I missed the beautification day a few weeks ago. We were out and about getting our eyes checked and running important errands. I forgot about it and I feel bad. If I am going to be mayor, I need to be involved in this type of thing and show my support for my neighborhood, despite the meanies who do not like Khaleesi or me.

At 50% Power

I need to redo the ads on my blog. I am not getting anything from them, nada. Not even a few pennies a month as I used to. Not asking you guys to click on ads or anything.

My cold is nearly gone. I was able to get a few things done today without passing out. People's voices were not echoing in my head either. But I did have a headache throughout most of the day and went through a good amount of tissues. Hydration and a good amount of rest helped. I was super sick yesterday and I realize that now. I grew up with the idea that if I did not have a fever, I was not sick. My body is weird. When I feel my worst, no fever. If I have a high fever, I am just tired. Hopefully, tomorrow I will be back to 100% and I can tackle what happened in the world while I was out.

Yesterday, I was walking Khaleesi and I do not usually bring bags with me because Khaleesi rarely goes poop outside of the fence. The one time she did and I did not have a bag, I picked it up with a piece of trash and threw it in the nearest trash can. One of my neighbors appeared from behind his truck and started accusing me of allowing my dog to crap in his yard. Although in no health to argue, I tried my best. He talked over me, so I just walked on. It still bugs me because I am a responsible dog owner. I see dog crap someone did not clean up and it is always a smaller size dog, not a toy size though. A shih tzu size dog. There are tons of them around that owners do not put on leashes and do not clean up after them. I have found dog crap in my yard too. I want to compare Khaleesi's crap with one of the ones on his lawn right in front of him, and demand an apology because he was quite nasty. People in my neighborhood do not like my dog but do not bat an eye at all the loose mean smaller dogs. If I was not running for mayor, I would march right back there and give him all I have.

One True Sick Day

At first, I thought I had allergies but now I am sure this is a cold. But I had to hold up through the weekend because I had work to do, parties to attend, and got tickets to the Ravens game at the last minute. That game was an all-day affair and we had to climb four floors of ramps and stairs. These are stadium floors two, so about twice the size of normal floors. Against all odds, the Ravens beat the Chargers. I was too weak to finish my last assignment, due today. Mikey woke me up at 5am and I worked through it. Afterward, I just laid in bed until 11 only to get up to take Khaleesi for a walk and to have some soup. I also slipped and fell on the stairs, giving my left leg a good bump and breaking the handles off of my and Mikey's favorite mugs. I am forever grateful that it was just the handles. There is a lot of swelling on my leg but not too much pain. I am feeling some better but I still have more recovering to do. I just hope it does not go into my chest. I want to be able to taste again.

Someone put together a Bob Ross stream on Twitch. It is soothing to the core, especially now since I am sick and stressed out. I was never a fan of Bob Ross when I was young. I thought he was boring, but as an adult he is a great inspiration for any artist. It is like opening a time capsule and comparing 20-30 year difference. I am thinking of playing the channel as I work and see if it increases my productivity. That will have to wait until tomorrow at least.

Tomorrow is going to be a doozy of a day. Before I was sick, I had a minor depression so I have not been at my best in awhile. Going back to the Y will hopefully not release more toxins hiding in my body and will put me on the road to happy recovery.