Couch 249: The Self Care Couch

Before it was Tuesdays and Fridays, both in-person. So same spacing as now, every 2-3 days. Now it's going to be 1 day and 4 days. She said we might be able to do a session between Thursday and Tuesday, which I'd be grateful for, but 1. H is going to hate it and 2. I don't really want to pay for a third session.

Hugs, Scarlet. Out of curiosity, has she said why her schedule would be like this? Is it a childcare thing? I agree that it's difficult with longer spacing.

Yeah, it's childcare. She says they're on a wait list. And I guess her H's paternity leave is coming up? And family won't be able to help out as much? I'm not sure exactly. We barely talk about anything to do with the baby because it's so triggering to me: my complicated feelings and my infertility. It's hard when you've had to compete for attention your whole life and then a baby comes. You can't compete with a baby.

Hugs, if wanted. I wasn't sure whether to ask because I was afraid it would be triggering. It just seemed like an odd schedule, so I was curious. I'm sorry that your therapy is affected by this.

They don't use real bullets but people get eyes put out and fingers blown off by what they do use. They do use gun powder and black powder

I prefer my hobbies to come without a risk of losing an eye or finger. I mean, I guess, of things I consider hobbies, cooking could fall in that category, but still.

How are things going for you at the moment, LT?

I wasn't sure whether I missed an update on the house repair situation.

So no climbing Mt Everest? Keeping your nose and your toes? I am heading into prime mountain-climbing-reading season as i strive to keep cool in the summer heat domes.

Thanks for asking, Lost. Struggling a bit due to some OCD stuff hitting me hard last night (in one case, literally, with water bouncing off a spoon that had fallen in the garbage disposal and hitting me in the eye).

Also triggering the OCD, we seem to suddenly have a cockroach problem for the very first time--we've just seen a couple babies and one maybe adult so far. We're trying home methods, including bait traps and diatomaceous earth, but may have to call exterminator. I'm hoping if we do, we could schedule that for when I go to the beach in a couple weeks, and I'd take the guinea pigs with me to be safe if they have to spray or bomb.

So I had an extra Dr. T session today (in part because I upset D because I was upset about stuff last night). It was helpful, and we're continuing the conversation at my regular session tomorrow. I talk about my anxiety in there quite a bit, but less so the OCD, and I think we need to focus on that more (I know it's a branch of anxiety, but I have both that and generalized anxiety).

As for the house, the mold remediation is done and we've moved some furniture around so that I have my own room with a door for sleeping and work (plus closet), but still working on organizing and setting stuff up. (This room was H's office--he's moved his desk to the master bedroom. I was working and sleeping in the open space of the living room, which is also where the guinea pigs are. So now I have more of my own space. D's room stayed the same.)

I'm weirdly fascinated by movies and books about that sort of thing, but no desire to do so myself! Any book recs on that topic?

Thanks for the update, LT.

I'm glad the mould treatment worked.
Sorry to hear about the potential cockroach issue - hope they can get that under control for you soon.

I can understand why you'd be frustrated at the spoon from the garbage disposal.
Sorry to hear that it scared D, though.

I hope talking about this with Dr. T is useful.

I figure life is sort of dangerous so if one enjoys an activity one just tries to mitigate the chance of harm. We were out kayaking in Lake superior last week and it was choppy very cold water -we wear life jackets and sometimes helmets, but things can happen. The same thing is true about hiking or biking and so on. I mean I don't like to take risks for things that don't interest me but some activities I'm in can be dangerous if you slip or something. No one gets out of life alive.

If you like to watch terrifying things there's a movie called free Solo about a rock climber guy that scales sheer cliffs. He's OK in this movie but he had to get the film guys to step back because they were distracting himFree Solo | National Geographic Documentary Films

And for those of you to get into the background and why they actually did scans of this guy's brain to see his response to fear. Also apparently he had a rotten father (I'm adding this part for exhankster) Free Solo - Wikipedia

I hate all that background crap of course – I hate watching the Olympics because they always try to make it into some background story about the athlete. I don't care about how or why they became an athlete- I just want to watch the competition without getting their life story. The human interest stuff will never interest me

Actually i like the books about the amateur Denali climb in 1967. Very tragic but the psychological aspects and the lack of technology make it very interesting. It was like right before "my time"? I was just starting high school.

I saw Free Solo at the movies for that big screen experience. Pretty cool.

Dang, SD! Kayaking in Lake Superior?! I could barely rinse my aluminum cup last time i was camping up that way without freezing my fingers.

It was somewhat important not to fall in last week. And we had the right equipment and stuff like wetsuits.

If you like stuff about people overcoming things – Wild by Cheryl Strayed -the woman who set out on a through hike with no experience to deal with grief. When I read the book I thought she was an absolute idiot who's lucky to be alive but some people found her inspirational.

For a tale of a strong woman-there's always the story about grandma Gatewood – the 67-year-old woman who solo hiked the Appalachian Trail after a life of abuse and misery. Grandma Gatewood: The First Woman to Solo Hike the Entire Appalachian Trail | Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC)

I loathe Cheryl Strayed’s book. I didn’t finish it, I had to stop when she

.

I like reading of polar disasters—like Scott’s Endurance. Several books about it. Taking row boats from Antarctica when your ship gets frozen in the ice and actually reaching land and civilization.

Yes I also just hated her. I mostly kept reading it just because I could yell at her I would read a chapter and then yell what a moron she was. Raging at her sheer stupidity was somewhat cathartic

I did like the story about the two women who were going to do a cross Antarctica trip and how they trained for it and stuff.No Horizon Is So Far: Two Women and Their Historic Journey Across Antarctica
|
Viking.TV
it was kind of fascinating.

I also like the story of the woman who did her own breast cancer surgery at the south pole I think. Physician Recalls Breast Cancer Battle at the South Pole

Thanks for all the recommendations and anti-recommendations. I've had Wild on my Wish List for a bit. Trying to read more memoirs as I'm working on mine, though I already have a few to read sitting here. I need to be reading those instead of scrolling Facebook and such.

Thanks for the warning ATAT.

I wanted to read that for a while - now it's off my list..

I'm honestly not much of a memoir reader and most of the ones I have read I thought should not have been written. I'm not someone who believes that everyone has a book inside them. Or at least I believe if they have a book inside them they should keep it there. Lance Armstrong comes to mind.

I had a professor in Law School who also wrote murder mysteries – when I was in school I looked them up and read them all -they were deliciously awful. I mean truly awful writing. I didn't mind the guy but it was a good thing he kept his day job

Forgot to mention something rather amusing from the bonus session. At the end, I was talking about other aspects of my OCD, one of which involves trying to avoid the number 13 in things.

Dr. T: That's actually my lucky number, 13.
Me: Seriously?
Dr. T: Yes. Are you now thinking, "I'm out of here, and I'm never coming back!"
Me: Well...

He explained that it's usually available on sports teams, so he made it his regular jersey number back then.

I said at least he didn't put his new office on the 13th floor of a building. (Most of the buildings in our area are only a few stories anyway.)

Mahler was so upset by other composers who died after composing their ninth symphonies, that he refused to label his ninth symphony as a ninth symphony instead calling it -Das Lied von der Erde. But as we all know, that sort of human hubris always fails and he contracted pneumonia, I think -if it wasn't pneumonia it was something else that proved extremely unhealthy, while he was writing his 10th symphony and exited earth.

Interesting...

I don't speak German - what does the title mean?

Oh, that's interesting.

And for pop/rock there is the 27 club -janis joplin and jimi hendrix and more that i am not that familiar with:
A Brief History of the 27 Club

So - pee day (also a great poop day, btw), and i exercised, and i had a light supper, and i made visible inroads into the hoard, i.e., i broke down and bagged up some boxes, andd i cleared some room on a food shelf in anticipation of deliveries tomorrow. I also watched an episode of Grace (british detective). And im feeling better about the election.