nagi_schwarz | Day 1355: A world full of fire

Raining down on you.

This week was long. It should have been easy, because there was a holiday in there, but it wasn't.

Monday was a long day. It ended the best way possible, though - had dinner with my Bio Aunt and Bio Uncle and his wife at my Aunt's house. Food was delicious. Conversation was amazing. Had FHE after, which was a new experience. True fact: I am the worst singer of my relatives. But my Uncle is a really great teacher, and to be able to share that with them is a miracle.

I was watching videos about a Korean boy who was adopted by an American couple and raised in an all-white town in America, and he talked about trying to find his bio parents, and he always assumed they were doing all right, but when he finally found out about them, they were in poor health and kind of dire straits, and he was confused. I always assumed the worst about my bio parents, that poverty or natural disaster had done them in. To learn that most of my extended bio family is doing well has been kind of amazing.

After we hung out with my family we swung by the theme park to grab my phone, and then on Tuesday for the holiday we were lazy but ran a lot of errands, including getting a new one. Thank heavens for phone insurance! I got a screen protector right away. Waiting for the case to arrive, because the phone as is is slippery and keeps trying to get away from me and already has a couple of minor dings. I am lucky my phone survived as well as it did. The screen worked, all the data was intact, but the receiver was busted, so I couldn't talk to people. If I plugged in headphones with a microphone it was good, though.

On Tuesday I always had a long chat with my sister about her pending divorce, walked her through her ex's proposed set-up, and it's pretty impressive. She's guaranteed alimony (fewer than 15% of divorce cases include an award of alimony) and she doesn't have to pay child support or any childcare expenses for four years (and child support is pretty much always awarded). She got emotional and cried, but I did my best to talk her through it. Doing the work I do and dealing with broken families all the time like I do, I'm pretty sure I've become callous to how emotional a shattering family is. It's just another day at work for me. I know the process. I know the timelines. It's familiar to me, and it's not scary.

Wednesday was a full day of court. I got to see my new colleague totally rock her oral argument. I went to lunch with the prosecutor again. Bonding, she calls it. I think we make a good team. Also I went to a fun church activity with the ladies, but it ran about ninety minutes long. Got a good bath bomb recipe out of it, though. I know I have some bath bomb molds somewhere, so I should buckle down and make some. Hopefully using real bath bomb molds and not cupcake wrappers should prevent any future incidents of people trying to eat my bath bombs.

Thursday was a bit more of a chill day. I went and watched Youth Court for the first time. Interesting experience.

Been sleeping lousy this week. Cody's been in a couple of OCD spirals, where his brain gets on a track and he rides it to the end of the line, no matter how late I've worked, so we went to bed crazy late some nights. I know he gets anxious about going out alone, and he's stressed out about school (though he finally threw down about 1000 words on his dissertation this week), but sometimes I need to not enable his anxiety, for reals. Honestly we're lucky that he's got a pretty mild case and doesn't need meds and for the most part he can manage it with minimal disruption.

Friday we went to an Offspring concert with Cody's younger brother and one of his friends. Gym Class Heroes opened, and they were fun. The Offspring was amazing. Hands down I want to learn Dexter Holland's piano arrangement for Gone Away. And their song about road rage was made for Utah drivers, because I saw some super crazy driving this week.

A guy got impatient at a light, backed up (he was in front of me), went around everyone else, and turned left.

On a red.

Also a guy was losing zucchinis as he drove. Oh, Utah. Cody always jokes, You know you live in Utah when you leave your car unlocked and no one steals anything but someone leaves some fresh zucchini on the front seat.

Saturday was lazy and full of errands. Cody finally fixed the swamp cooler - we didn't even realize it was broken - and now the house is cooler. Naomi and I went to another concert up at Deer Valley. We stopped in Heber for burgers and onion rings and shakes, and then we listened to the music of John Williams. There might have been crying during the theme to Schindler's List. They did the theme to Far and Away, which was amazing. And also so much Star Wars. We had a great time, only the children around us were unruly and their parents made no effort to corral them.

Naomi and I were up late, though, so this morning I was so exhausted I literally felt nauseous from lack of sleep. I pulled it together and went to church anyway, and it was worth it.

Took two naps after, though, and then Cody and I went to the lab.

Cody was super sweet and finished the laundry while I was at the concert, had it folded and everything. He pointed it out when I got home, and of course I thanked him, and then he apologized and said, Only a chump expects praise for something he should do anyway.

We're back from the lab and ready to face another week. The drama of my sister's divorce is ongoing, and I just worry about the kids. Cody's dad apparently slipped and fell getting out of the tub (he has a bad ankle after he fell off a ladder last year, and then he wrecked his truck earlier this week - had a black eye and everything), and he broke a rib. That guy's having some bad karma, no lies.

Goal check-in:

Fitness! Abysmal this past week, but at least on my smart watch it looks okay because of two concerts.

Spirituality! On a personal, dail level - much worse than last week. But in some ways better. At least, I feel less dead inside, so yay? Gotta keep working and improving, though.

Work! Not the greatest. I am super burned out, no lies.

Writing! I shorted pretty bad twice in a row and missed a deadline for the first time ever, but luckily I've got some amnesty working for me, so yay! I can get the fic finished in time for the amnesty deadline, so there you go. But still.

Here's to hoping this week goes better.