sueeeus

…or…  …List Friday…   …or…   …catching up…

• It’s Friday.  I’m taking a vacation day today, because I’m in a use it or lose it situation again.  Some time ago, our company switched its vacation accrual policy so that it accrues constantly instead of once a year.  We can have up to two year’s worth of vacation accrued at any time, but it caps off if we don’t use it by the time the hours accumulate.  My number is 320 hours, and yes, I know it’s pathetic that I have that much time saved up.  I had planned to use it up as part of my maternity leave and return to work schedule, but I ended up working from home and the baby slept all day and the job demanded so much at that time, etc etc etc.  So, I didn’t end up using it, and it accrued.  And it keeps accruing.  And Mr. Gadget’s job gives him only one paltry week a year, so it’s difficult for us to plan much of a hiatus as a family.  I treat myself to a day off here and there, during which I do whatever I want.  Which is usually catching up on housework, running errands, and blogging.  Because these things help settle me.  A clean and tidy home.  No loose ends.  These things bring harmony to my life. 
• Today, I plan to catch up on blogging.  I’ve been away for a while…  …Not so much away, but I have a toddler and a full time job and a household to run, so I don’t get much time to blog.  Plus, my husband recently rattled off some statistic that he heard on the radio about blogging interfering with couples, marriages, or some such blather.  (He made it up, but it was his special way of telling me that he thinks I spend too much time blogging, or really, that he wants more attention.)Things I’d like to blog about today:
1. The wonder of feeling connected.  Check.  Did that already.
2. My silly bathroom window situation.  Check.  Did that already.
3. Sleep apnea.
4. Coffee, and, even better, the gorgeous receptacle that holds it this morning.
5. The things that I want or need to do today.

• I have sleep apnea.  What a DRAG!  I have probably been living with it for many years.  Now I’m making cpap a part of my life.  CPAP.  Continuous Positive Air Pressure.  Or something to that effect.  It’s a machine that forces air in, keeping the airways open all night.  It takes some getting used to.  Mr. Gadget lovingly says, “May the Force be with you,” as we drift off to sleep.  It is very Darth Vaderesque.
  
  For the first several days I felt more tired than ever, but have since perused many forums and learned a few things:
1. Sleep debt.  Some people theorize that one’s sleep debt needs to be repayed, and until that is done, one won’t realize the benefits of a full night’s sleep.  Seems like a bunch of hooey to me.  How many mothers have years and years of sleep deprivation, yet function very well on limited sleep   Why would only people with sleep apnea have to repay a sleep debt, and not the general population.  Hopefully I won’t get a tirade of angry comments from the multitude of readers (ha!, do I have readers   I flatter myself, she says, with much sarcasm) about how little I know (which is true, I know very little about sleep deprivation, sleep apnea, sleep debt, and sleep disorders).
2. Humidity.  Aha, that humidifier thingy that is built in to the machine should be used.  Like an idiot, I had it set at zero, thinking I’d get cool air through these hot summer nights (oh, that reminds me, how I love Neil Diamond!), but lo, one needs heat to humidify, so now I have set it to 5, max heat, and amazingly enough, the air is not hot, but nicely moistened, and whodathunkit, I’m sleeping much better.
3. Masks.  People with allergies and general respiratory challenges that accompany germ-laden toddlers who attend day care with other germ-laden children tend to need a full face mask, because sometimes it’s nigh unto impossible to breathe through one’s nostrils.  Now I have two masks.  For bad days, the full face mask.  For days when my nostrils work, a nose-only mask.  Either way, the Force is with me.
• Today I’m drinking coffee from a bowl.  Because these bowls   I love.  And I had to have them, and I didn’t know what I could use them for, but I had to have them.  Because I love them.  They’re from Target, and they’re an exquisite crackled turquoise glaze on the inside, and a smooth matte slate color on the outside.  Zazen, they’re called.  Gorgeous!  There’s a whole line of plates, bowls, mugs (too thick around the rim, they’ll never do).  While I adore them, I couldn’t justify a set of plates.  We have many plates.  Or more bowls.  We have many bowls.  But I had to have something, so I got two of the rice bowls.  I use them for green tea, or today, for coffee.
  
  Sigh.  Coffee.  I have a Senseo machine, which is very overrated.
  
  Here it is in action.  I like the one cup at a time deal.  That works for me, as I’m usually the only coffee drinker in the vicinity.  I like the foamy froth.  That part is aesthetically pleasing.  The problem– is that it requires pods.  And pods have many problems:
1. They’re pods.  Pods.  ??
2. Pods are tres expensive.
3. Pods are too small to hold sufficient coffee to make a decent cup of appropriate volume.
4. Pod manufacturers don’t produce pods that contain good coffee.
5. Inserts that bypass the pod, thereby allowing the coffee drinker to use her own grind of respectable coffee, either don’t hold sufficient coffee to make a decent cup (and make a giant mess), or bypass the frothing effect (which is the only redeeming quality of this machine, rendering it a complete waste of time, effort, and emotion).
6. It takes two pods make a reasonable cup of coffee.
7. See items 2 and 4.
• Today, I have many things to do, besides blog.
1. Find a safe home for my chotchkies.  I still don’t know how to spell that word.  My mobile young man can now reach beyond the barrier that we temporarily placed in front of the glass cube display that they currently call home.
   
   If it looks tres department store-ish, it’s because it is.  In point of fact, when one of the old glamorous department stores of the region closed its doors several years ago, I bought a portion of their display cubes.  I’m not so sure how I feel about them any more, but I’m not quite ready to put them on Craigslist, yet.
2. Return sundry items to Target, and p’raps find others to take their place.
3. Sort through my closet and collect items to donate, as the donations truck is making its rounds next week.
4. Housework.  The usual.  Dishes.  Laundry.  Finding shoes that a certain young man has absconded with and since forgotten.  Water plants.  Dust.  Tidy up.
5. Relocate the surface of my desk, which is buried somewhere beneath a bunch of crappe important papers and whatnot.
6. Learn to use my new camera.  Yes!  I got a new camera.  A video camera.  Oooooh.  It’s a Canon (I’ve been quite pleased with my Canon PowerShot G1 that I’ve now had forever).  Optura S1.  Yes, it was on sale.  The footage taken in daylight is exquisite.  Indoors with low lighting…  Jury’s still out on that one.  I need to read the manual and find out how to use the thing before I judge it harshly.
7. Take a timeout, just for me.  (Oh, I forgot, this entire day is a timeout, just for me.)

…and I’m spent.

A list of lists of lists.  I’m blogged out.  But by the looks of things, I should also spend a little time cleaning up my blog’s style sheet, what with the embedded lists and such.  Perhaps another day.