Monday, April 01, 2019

April Currentlies

Time for my April check-in! Let's see, what happened in March? Well, the half-joking comment I like to make about how I expect to die under an avalanche of collapsing bookshelves nearly came true when one of my bookcases did, in fact, collapse all over the place, but fortunately I managed to duck and run in time. (One of the books got slightly water-damaged by falling onto water splashed out of the cat's bowl, though. Woe!)

I've also had Vir in to have his glucose levels checked a couple of times, and he's doing well. The last time, the vet said he was actually on the low end of normal and cut back his dosage. Cats' pancreases sometimes mysteriously recover after you've given them insulin for a while, so fingers crossed that may be what's starting to happen. I do think he's started drinking and peeing a bit more on the lower dose, though, so it may be too low. He's supposed to get checked again in a few days, so we'll see.

Current clothes: Dark blue jeans. Black t-shirt with a picture of Buzz Aldrin on the moon. (At least, I think it's Buzz Aldrin. You can't read his name patch or anything, but I believe I recognize the picture.) Black socks. Brown work boots.

Current mood: Tired. I've been on night shifts for the past two weeks, including one of those 65-plus-hour work weeks that happen pretty much any time someone takes vacation time, and I'm so ready for it to be over. Especially because I haven't been sleeping well. At all. In those last two weeks, I think there've been two whole days when I've gotten a roughly adequate amount of sleep. I just keep waking up too early and not being able to do a damned thing about it.

Current music: The soundtrack to the original Muppet Movie. Which is pretty much my definition of pure distilled joy.

Current annoyance: Long hours and little sleep.

Current thing: Long hours and little sleep? Also obsessive binge-watching, but we'll get to that under "currently watching."

Current desktop picture: Still the same bookish one as last month. So boring.

Current book: Thirteen by Richard K. Morgan. Which I cracked open this sleep-deprived week thinking it would be an easy, quick-reading SF thriller. Turns out, it has a complicated plot, and multiple points of view, and lots of deep world-building it doesn't hold your hand through. All of which is good, but it means it's going much more slowly than anticipated.

Current song in head: "I'm Going to Go Back There Some Day," sung by Gonzo the Muppet, a song I have found incredibly poignant since the first time I heard it, at the age of 7.

Current refreshment: Mint tea.

Currently watching: I just recently binge-watched The Orville, and that was a very strange and interesting experience. The combination of earnest Star Trek plots, goofy and sometimes juvenile humor, and relationship comedy/drama is an odd one, and early on it doesn't necessarily work very well. And then at some point things click together a bit, and at least in some episodes, it starts to gel nicely and is pretty entertaining. And then somewhere in season two, I found myself thinking, "Huh, wait, they're actually doing some stuff ST:TNG did better than TNG did it, and that's... interesting." And then a couple of episodes after that I'm sitting there watching the thing with my mouth hanging open going, "This is awesome! When did this turn into legitimately really good SF television? How did this turn into legitimately good SF television?!" What's funny is that people kind of told me that would happen, and yet it still took me by surprise.

Current happy thing: Legitimately really good SF television. Almost being off the damn night shift. Heading into that time of year when I can just walk around outside in a t-shirt even at night. The idea that some day I might actually get some sleep. The Muppets.

Current thought: To probably no one's surprise but mine, I find myself particularly fascinated by the robot on The Orville. My predictable character tastes, let me show you them! Somehow it's always the weird and alien ones. Which is probably also why I have the Gonzo song in my head.