Couch 235: Home State Advantage

John Cage, right! I knew I had the wrong name.

I hadn't thought of it distorting my view. Thank you Mobius!


Thank you @@, both interpretations together just feel right for this one. My trying to see the world as if it were a hallmark movie script sometimes keeps me from seeing the way it really is.


This is a perfect example I think of why dream work can be so fascinating - mascara is so far from being a part of my everyday world there's no reason for me to be dreaming about wearing it except for psyche trying to send me a message. I love it!

I just remembered another time I felt joy in every fiber of my being - when I was in Assisi, Italy with h and my brother and we were staying in an old hotel that had shutters only on the windows (no glass). That night there was a glorious thunderstorm so we opened our shutters fully and h and I just laid on the bed watching the storm through the open window. I love thunderstorms, I truly loved being in Assisi, and I felt such thorough joy in my soul watching that thunderstorm. It was incredible. That should have been the first thing I recounted about feeling joy!!

That was really the most incredible vacation I've ever been on, going to Italy. My brother (in the Army) had been stationed in Naples and he gave h & I plane tickets for christmas that year, so we could come visit him. Otherwise we wouldn't have been able to afford it. We had a whirlwind of a week over there - went to Naples, Assisi, a little town in Switzerland, to Milan, to Pisa and Rome, and walked through the ruins of Pompeii, hiked up Mt Vesuvius... I'll never forget that trip.

Great pic and story, Artie! Thanks for sharing.

How long does the 'edit' option stay on a post? I can't remember.

Four hours after posting, Artie.

Thanks, Lost. I always forget.

I ordered a pizza even though I knew I shouldn't. But I still wanted pizza after eating a salad and some cauliflower. So what was I supposed to do?

My dad just chewed me out. My sister called him complaining that her ex was there to pickup the girls for the exchange. Pissed my dad off, which I understand. But then he comes raising his voice at me telling me that L and I are wrong: that processing things is bs, and that distraction is the right way to cope. Like wtf? I told him don't take it out on me. He denied it, and then said "Well you have your way, and I have my way. Yet he did not see that him complaining to me was the same as my sister complaining to him. My dad has seriously gotten mean. I'm really hurt right now...

Hugs, Scarlet.

Ive been prophylactively eating refried beans. It keeps me from getting so hungry that i order pizza. But i dont think they are making me skinny.

Watch out here come the prophylactic jokes. You cant take this couch out anywhere!

We are a multi-talented bunch, after all.

Yeah but kudos to you for seeing it! Thats huge. I dont know that i would have had the presence of mind. I still need to avoid any contact from my relatives.

What would processing it with him look like? Im thinking, well at least the girls will get to spend some time with their other grandparents, that the grands want to see them? Thats a positive?

There's a possible case pending against the father for CSA. And a pending restraining order against him for my sister as well. That's why they're upset.

Well, I did not allow myself to give up on cleaning my house just because I regressed a bit. I am proud of myself for that. I didn't stay in bed all day. Just most of the day. The rest of the time, I worked on tidying the kitchen, putting things away, etc.

Maybe I won't be able to show my psychiatrist a bunch of new progress, but keeping things under control is just as difficult for me as cleaning up, it seems.

And I even went to the trouble of preparing food for myself. I also did order a pizza, but nobody's perfect and pizza is my favorite. And I only ate two pieces which isn't bad considering everything else I had today was a vegetable or fruit.

LT, I think of joy as something more sustaining than happiness. Really being present in the moment with those people and activities that fill me up. It lasts longer. Or something, anyway.

You've inspired me to wash my dishes before I go to bed tonight. I have no clean plates left. Oops.

I liked some of the mini challenges on that Unf*ck your habitat site. I'm thinking of putting some from the site and making up some of my own on index cards or something similar and trying to do one a day.

I feel like i have oppositional defiance disorder TO myself when it comes to doing anything positive FOR myself. Like, i might do something, but i will make myself pay. Wtf is wrong with me, idk.

So today, i peed (i take a diuretic every 3rd day, its a witch honestly), and i recycled some boxes. And put away some package grocery. So - a couple three things. Moving the story forward.

Plus the bottom half inch of my phone has reappeared! IdkY!

By accident



but I’m going to be walking around with my thumb stuck out like a hitchhiker for a bit.

With a mandoline?

Do I look like I own a mandoline?

What, no sympathy? Cold.

Egg coddler!

Eta - im still trying to picture that recipe you make with eggs and cream, but my cholesterol gives me tunnel vision just thinking about it.

I am officially Not Talking to You.

SD, will you please tell ex-hankster that she’s thinking of shirred eggs? Mine are delicious and she will never taste them.

Mandolines can be quite dangerous. One time my person was cutting vegetables for tempura and she basically cut the ball of her thumb almost off. She was shrieking and I was trying to get her to hold still long enough to wrap her hand so we could go to the er. I went back to turn off the boiling oil and she was upset that I did it because she wanted to go to the hospital. When things calmed down, and they drugged her enough, she finally got that we couldn't leave the house with a pot of oil boiling on the stove and still hope to have a home when we got done with the er. Quite the exciting evening. I was accused of being cold as well -because I thought it would be worse to also have the house explode with all the pets inside.