JPEG GHOST

 It's Alex's birthday!

I let him sleep in today (usually I'm in his face at 9 AM, being someone that wakes up at 7-8 AM), and when we finally got to breakfast it was Voodoo Donuts! I shoved the bacon maple in my face at light speed and groggily slouched around for 30 minutes because it was too much sugar but it was so GOOD.

After working out we went out to a Japanese bookstore that had all kinds of cool stuff. Penpal friends, I finally got some stationary so expect something ... ... Soon!
I got him a shiba toy and he got himself a Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice art book which is from some videogame series he likes. We then went to the Container Store cause sure, why not, and envisioned all the organizing in our house. Ooo, ahhh. Pull out drawers and cabinet organizers ...

Right now we are taking a break to do things (I have some school to work on), but I'm also working on drawing him a birthday card. He draws me a card for each of our monthly anniversaries, which is always on the 13th (which seems very on brand for me). The least I can do is draw him a birthday card. I'll take a picture later of it.

In other news, I found our county's agricultural extension office and am balls deep in all the sustainable farming and plant care classes in it. If it wasn't for Covid, they'd be having free classes at the libraries 'round here every Thursday, but since we have a pandemic that has become politicized, it's all online. I signed up for a course on Fall Garden Preparation on the 23rd with Friend Chelsea and I'm honestly so excited, you guys have no idea. FALL GARDEN PREPARATION!!! Spaghetti Squash! Acorn squash! Pumpkins! Uh -- Other things!

It does make me sad, though. While it is USDA funded, just a little, the Department of Agriculture has been so hacked and slashed since the Reagan era that our extension office struggles and has to be college funded by Texas A&M University. I was going through archive.org (as I am wont to do) and found radio transcripts of "Homemaker's Chat", a radio program founded by the Department of Agriculture in the first half of the 1900s. Some of the information is so useful. For instance, Christmas decorating on a budget and healthy snacks. It's too bad that we have slashed all our public work offices to bare bones just to militarize our police departments. SIGH.

Anyways I may post notes from my sexy sustainable gardening class if you guys are so interested. I feel like it'll be pretty straightforward -- Or will it?

 All my finals are over, yeehaw. I passed all of them but I'm so burnt out I don't have anything else to say other than I'm closer to my final certification. I don't know what to do with my new free time. I wake up and think of all I have to study (nothing), and when I am done making dinner or lunch or finish exercising I think of all the research I must do (for nothing) so I'm sort of at a loss. What do I do?! Enjoy my life?

Work was fun yesterday because of aggressively stupid nurses. The secretary who usually catches the phones was out on her 43rd smoke break of the day, so I caught a call from a doctor's office and it went something like this:

Her: I've been trying to contact (Funeral Director), this is my second time today.

Me: Sorry, she's with a family, can I have a call back number?

Her: I'm not at the office and I don't give out personal information. So no. -hangs up-

Alright lady.

The second I hung up the call, the funeral director in question was done with the family and walked by. Apparently she (the FD) had been calling that doctor's office for a week as they were overdue on death certificates -- Doctors have 10 days to sign DCs, and we often have to strong arm them to sign a little piece of paper so that the family of the dead can, you know, apply for SSA or VA benefits amongst other things. They realized they were late by 4 days (!) and finally were rushing to contact us but ... The nurse wouldn't give us a callback so ...?

Amongst other things I got to glue someone's mouth shut yesterday, hulk out on an obese body and lift them into a freezer, and was told that funeral home from several posts back (the one I helped at) was asking for help again and specifically wanted me, but my boss is cranky to the idea of loaning me out since I guess I'm of worth. I'm excited to go back. I like the director there and all the little old ladies behind the front desk are so sweet to me.

I'm aggressively checking Dreamwidth to see if any of you have received those nice cards I sent out. I understand the USPS has been backed up lately, but I really hope they're not lost : ( Some of them are rather close to Texas while others are in like ... Vermont? So I guess we will SEE.