DAY THREE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FIVE OF THE HAPPINESS PROJECT

Day 335.  I called my friend to see if we can get together tomorrow.  It would be good to see him.

Today some folks came over for a barbecue.

It is hard to see family after a long time.  I am the family member that lives far away so I don't get to see family that often.  The rest of my family gets together quite frequently.  They have things to talk about, inside jokes, memories in common.  I have none of that.  My memories are years old.  I usually have very little to add to a conversation.  It is very hard to be the odd person out. Not to mention I am the weird vegan from the West Coast.

We watched Hello My Name is Doris.  It was really good.  I liked it a whole lot.

Tonight I dropped to 5 mg of Prednisone!!!  I am down to the lowest amount I can go.  It only took me about 15 years to get down to 5 mg.

Until tomorrow...

DAY THREE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FOUR OF THE HAPPINESS PROJECT

Day 334.  First day on vacation at the Jersey Shore!  I wanted to relax.  Everyone went on the boat and I stayed behind.  I wanted to relax and read a book.  I needed to decompress.  It was really busy the week I left.  The dog going to the vet, my crown coming off, work, the dog sitter situation.  I just wanted to sit and do nothing.

We watched a terrible movie: High Rise.  It was so weird.  I hear it was up for awards but I can't figure that out.

Until tomorrow...

DAY THREE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-THREE OF THE HAPPINESS PROJECT

Day 333.  Today I flew to the Philadelphia airport.  I got a rental car and drove to the Jersey Shore.  I went to see my brother and his family.  My other brother and his family were also there.  It was nice to see the two families.  One family has kids who are teenagers and the other has toddlers.

It was a long day of travel.  I always have a lot of stuff to carry.  I don't pack too many clothes and shoes but I have other stuff: computer, Ipad, camera, medicine, food.  Always too much!

Until tomorrow...

DAY THREE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-TWO OF THE HAPPINESS PROJECT

Day 332.  I went to see the dentist and thank goodness I did.  The dentist tapped on my onlay and then she picked at it and POP!  It came right off.  She said it would not have lasted one more day.

I am a grinder and I grinded so much and so hard I grinded my onlay off.  The dentist never heard of anyone who wears a nightguard being able to grind off a crown.  I told her that I have cracked all my back teeth and they all have crowns.  Now I am grinding off my crowns.  The natural progression.

She was able to clean off the tooth and glue my crown back on because there was no damage to the tooth.  This was good news.

Until tomorrow...

DAY THREE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-ONE OF THE HAPPINESS PROJECT

Day 331.  Today I got the news that Lucky does not have parasites.  She probably just has a stomach flu.  She ate this morning so maybe she is already feeling better.

I am a bit worried.  One of my teeth is bothering me.  It is a tooth with an onlay.  An onlay is a tooth that is part real tooth and part crown.  Because I grind my teeth I have a mouth full of crowns and onlays.


Suddenly I felt that one of my onlays felt funny.  It felt like my onlay was going to come off or like I chipped my tooth.  My dentist just retired so I didn't have a dentist.  My dentist sold his practice to another dentist who I have not seen yet.  I called her office and told them my situation.  It was an emergency! They gave me an appointment for tomorrow afternoon.  Yay!

Until tomorrow...

DAY THREE HUNDRED AND THIRTY OF THE HAPPINESS PROJECT

Day 330.   Today I took Lucky to the vet.  Didn't I tell you if it isn't one dog it is the other?  Lucky has not been eating.  She will not eat for three feedings and then eat a little at the next feeding.  Then won't eat again. Then she had some bad poop.  I won't go into the details but it was scary.  I called the vet the next morning.

The vet ran some tests on the poop (I brought it with me) and some blood work.  They want to check for parasites.

One theory is that one dog got a stomach flu and gave it to the other dog and now they are passing it back and forth.

The vet gave Lucky a shot of anti-vomit medicine to try and get her to eat.  It worked and she ate a bit.  We just need to break the cycle.

Until tomorrow...

DAY THREE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-NINE OF THE HAPPINESS PROJECT

Day 329.  Today I did it.  I hired a house cleaner.  I have never had a person clean my whole house before.  I have had someone clean parts of my house before but never my whole house before.

It was so nice not to have to worry about having to clean my house this week when I have such a busy week.  This week is just so crazy that I would have no time to clean the house.  It was just such a mess, worse then I have ever let it get.  It was embarrassing.  Now it is so clean.  I see now why people have cleaning people.  It made me so HAPPY!

Until tomorrow...

DAY THREE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-EIGHT OF THE HAPPINESS PROJECT

Day 328.  If it isn't one dog it is the other.  I swear I should get frequent vet points at the veterinarians office.  Now Lucky is not eating.  Since Friday she has not eaten. I thought she had an upset tummy and it would right itself but now it has been a few days and I am starting to get worried.  This morning I could hear her tummy across the room.  She must have a really upset tummy to not want to eat.  I have tried all her favorites too: cottage cheese, baby food.  Nothing.  I guess she will eat when she gets hungry enough.

Until tomorrow...

DAY THREE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SEVEN OF THE HAPPINESS PROJECT

Day 327.  I need a haircut to much today.  I went to my afternoon appointment.  I need some feedback.

I was at my appointment and my hairstylist (the owner of the shop) was cutting my hair.  Then the building cleaner came by to clean the hallway.  My hairstylist stopped cutting my hair and went out to talk to the cleaner.  It wasn't a simple "can you please clean my windows".  It became a contentious interaction.  I was sitting in the chair with my hair half cut and he was getting into a thing with the cleaner.  Finally it seemed like it was over and my hair stylist came back in the shop.  He then proceeded to download all that happened to me.  Trying to get me to agree with him.

He began cutting my hair when I guess he thought he heard the cleaner talking about him to another person (which, mind you, he was just doing with me!) and he got upset.  He went flying out of the shop, stopping my haircut once again, to confront the cleaner.  "if you have something to say about me, say it to my face, not behind my back."  The cleaner sounded confused in his response as if he was not speaking about the hair stylist at all.  The cleaner said he would clean whatever the hair stylist wanted, he needed the job.  Of course this was not his tone during the first discussion but I think he could see his job was about to be on the line and he took a more conciliatory tone.

After that altercation, the hair stylist came in and once again told me all about it.  No, I didn't tell him to stop talking about it but I really didn't want to hear about it.  Do I piss off the guy cutting my hair?  I think not.

Then he was done cutting and it was time to pay.  I thought for a few minutes and decided that I was not going to tip him.  I paid him the full price but I didn't get very good customer service.  He could have waited until we were done to deal with the cleaner or excused himself once and gone out in the hall and dealt with it in a professional manner out of earshot and then not spoken of it to me.  That would have been a professional way to deal with it.

For those of you who think I am cheap think of it this way: if your waitress took your order and then screamed it across the room to the chef, left you waiting with no drinks while she went out for a talk with another person, and then gossiped to you about another waitress, would you tip her?

Until tomorrow...

DAY THREE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SIX OF THE HAPPINESS PROJECT

Day 326.  Today I had to take Happi to the vet.  She is licking everything.  The bed, the blanket, herself, me.  It is keeping me up all night.  She is acting sluggish and walking slow.  She is acting like her stomach hurts.  She is clingy and whiny.  I decided that it was time to have an ultra sound.  I took her in and they shaved her tummy.  They looked at her tummy and they didn't see anything.  That is a good thing!  First the x-ray and now the ultra sound.  We decided to change the Prilosec to Pepcid.  Maybe the Prilosec is reacting badly to her.

Until next time...