Personal Digest Saturday: October 9 – October 15

Life news this week:

• Saturday I got up early to frost Victor's cake and it went fine. I planned everything well and went over to Victor's apartment for an early birthday celebration. We ordered in some barbecue, talked, I gave him his present, and we watched some cartoons, then had some cake. I left when he was getting drowsy watching TV after the big meal. After I got home I didn't feel like doing much else so I just did my blogging and chatted with pals.
  
  
• Sunday I managed to be lazy and get a lot done at once. (I know, right? I'm talented that way.) I did laundry, talked on Polos, listened to band music while packing my bags for my trip, and taking out the trash. I showed some outfits to Meg to ask her to help me decide what to wear to Cara's wedding. Then I did karaoke and some organizing.
  
  
• Monday I had meetings and an expanded letter package going out. Also got to do some data entry. Wrote my webcomic storyboard early. Pest control visited. Finished reading a book finally! It's been months--I'm not making time for reading. Took some silly toy pictures of my collection. Played games with my friends online, did some editing, ate crackers for dinner, and got more than halfway finished with my comic!
  
  
• Tuesday work was mostly data entry and dealing with sporadic requests from the guys, plus a new person's resume. I got my water system treated, and a handyman came and took the dangerous hanging shelf down for me in the garage. I finally fell off the wagon doing something writing-related every day--couldn't find time to edit, write, or submit--but I plan to start again after I'm not so busy from preparing to go out of town. Got my webcomic done and uploaded for posting on Friday, finalized my packing, and went to sleep on the early side.
  
  
• Wednesday I had to get up super early to check in for my flight (24 hours before, you can do that). Went back to very light sleep for a while and then got up for work. Talked to Tony outside while he was there to handle my lawn. Finished up a bunch of stuff for the guys before my travel, most of it being in the last couple hours because that's when they sent it. Finished another Not-So-Giant Women podcast and posted it. Got some walking in, talked to Meg on Polo, and Jeaux came over to get me for shopping. We grocery shopped and ate food from McAlister's, and watched our shows. Jeaux stayed over because he was taking me to the airport in the early morning.
  
  
• Thursday I got up super early (4 AM) to have a giant breakfast and fly to Detroit. I had three waffles and two latkes. Jeaux drove me to the airport with little fuss and the flight was uneventful except that I was mad at how many people wear their masks wrong (one of them was next to me on the plane, grr--she fixed it shortly after she got situated, but it especially annoyed me because she coughed sometimes on the flight! Sure hope I didn't get Covid from her). I got to the hotel after an expensive 45-minute cab ride, checked in, came back to the lobby to get some takeout restaurant food (a Greek salad and a grilled cheese kids' meal--ate the salad and fries, then saved the sandwich for dinner). Took a lovely nap, talked to people on the phone, and relaxed online.
  
  
• Friday I had to get up super early for check-in for my flight again, and just stayed up. Took a shower, went to the lobby's restaurant for breakfast (brought back to my room--a bagel sandwich and breakfast potatoes, plus hotel room coffee). It was a big enough breakfast that I just had nibbles for lunch. Chilled in the room getting my webcomic posted, talking to Meg, looking at online stuff, and getting ready for the wedding. I waited a bit too long to call a rideshare (they are in shorter supply than I'm used to), so I really almost missed the beginning of the wedding!
  
  
• I got to the church and literally as soon as I sat down the doors opened and the brides began to come in. I watched my friend Cara get married and learned a new skill of how to cry with a face mask on without messing up my eye makeup. Then I was able to share an Uber to the reception with a couple other wedding guests. We had cocktail hour and I spent some time going around to look at the adorable centerpiece photos on the tables. I hadn't made a great choice of shoes so I had to sit down after a while. The brides arrived and everyone did their speeches and dances, and we had our salads and meals. I had a delicious gnocchi meal and spinach salad! And got to share a little bit of nice conversation with some of the friends at the table. I got to talk to Cara briefly during the meal and then later she pulled me aside to just chat a little outside where we could actually hear each other, which was super great. She was such a beautiful bride in her mom's wedding dress, and I loved hearing the stories about her from her family and friends. And I got to very briefly meet her wife Beth. Got a shuttle back to the hotel and hit the hay a while after that. It was a nice night but I was bushed!

New Reviews:

• Dan the Review Guy gave The Invisible Orientation a five-star review on Amazon.
  
  
• Austin Pierce gave The Invisible Orientation a five-star review on Audible.

Health Plan Update:

• Weight stuff: I don't have totally accurate information this week since I was traveling and couldn't weigh in a couple of days. But I generally ate pretty well the first half of the week and that devolved somewhat while just trying to get calories while traveling. High weight: 114.6. Low weight: 113.1.
  
• Nutrition stuff: I'm still relying on quick carbohydrate-heavy foods more than I should and again really need to get back to eating vegetable soups more often. I am pretty sure I came up short on nutrition goals this week though I did have a lot of spinach (which is definitely a goal of mine).
  
• Activity stuff: No missed goals this week! I seem to be getting the urge to walk more than I actually need to to meet the goals. My low day was Monday at 10,023, and my high day was Friday at 12,521 steps.

Books Read:

• Finished Reading: Six Characters in Search of an Author and Other Plays by Luigi Pirandello. Three-star review.

• Currently reading: Catch and Kill by Ronan Farrow. I'm just getting started.

New singing performances:

This week's karaoke song is "Californication" by Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Stuff drawn:

Webcomic Negative One Issue 0857: "Not For Me." 

New videos:

Not-So-Giant Women Episode 27 is out. Join Daria and Ivy as they watch and talk about "House Guest" and cover such topics as theories about the Warp Whistle, what the heck the Geode is, the Gems' opinion of Greg, the mystery of how inconsistent Steven's powers are, why Greg doesn't live with the Gems, Chekhov's duct tape, the comparison of Pearl fixing Greg's van vs. Greg fixing the Gems' Geode, our desire for Pearl to have a mechanic's outfit, opinions on "Dear Old Dad," and thoughts on Greg being a flawed but authentic character we can believe in.

New photos:

Victor's birthday cake

Drinking Coke and eating broccoli at Victor's

Some toy photos:

A little desk lizard buddy!

Now some photos from Cara's wedding and my travel adventures (entire wedding album here)

Social Media Counts:

YouTube subscribers: 5,314 for swankivy (no change), 671 for JulieSondra (lost 1), 17 for v & V Vids (no change), 133 for Not-So-Giant Women (no change). Twitter followers: 926 for swankivy (no change), 2,119 for JulieSondra (12 new). Facebook: 297 friends for swankivy (no change), 632 likes for JulieSondra (no change), 80 followers for Negative One (no change), 230 likes for So You Write (no change), 85 likes for Not-So-Giant-Women (no change). Tumblr followers: 2,454 (6 new). Instagram followers: 241 (2 new).