7 Random Things #SOL19

Whew, there is a lot to cover from the past two weeks, so let’s just dive in.

1. First of all, my brilliant daughter got accepted to not one, but two study abroad programs: one for the summer and one for next school year. The summer one is at a Buddhist monastery in China and completely funded through scholarships. The second is at a university in Japan, so she has started a GoFundMe to help cover the costs. Please click over, read her story, donate if you’re so moved, and/or share her page with others. Everything helps!

My daughter is also posting all of her pre-study abroad prep on Instagram and plans to keep it up while she’s abroad, so if you’re interested in that, please follow her there (@starless_knight39) as well. At some point, she’s going to start a vlog about all her adventures as well. I mean, the girl is on the move and living all of her dreams. I’m so proud of her.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bf4Gnezg_iC/

2. Speaking of my brilliant daughter, she was here for her spring break this past week, and we had a really good visit. We went to a taping of The Price Is Right, and let me tell you, it’s a completely different experience knowing you won’t be called on stage. I was able to relax and enjoy the show without that deep sense of anticipation and longing.

My daughter has already told everybody she didn’t get called up, my friend E definitely didn’t want to get called, and we’re sitting way in the back, so I doubt there will be any shots of us on screen. The episode airs June 5 if you want to maybe try to catch a glimpse of us.

Also: being in the audience is still fun and exhausting (WHOO CLAP YAY WHOO, etc.). And this time I went to an afternoon taping, and afternoon audience is different from morning audience, for sure. Same level of excitement but just a different energy overall. Maybe because afternoon audience is well rested? Probably.

3. I managed to completely burn myself out by attending three conferences in a month on top of everything else I normally do, so I wound up taking Thursday off just to get caught up on work. It was a mental health day/physical recovery day/catch up on stuff day. I mean, I hadn’t even gotten my gradebook set up for crying out loud. So, yeah, this past month has been a lot.

But I did manage to set up my (paper) gradebook, grade a stack of essays, catch up on some online grading, and do a little bit of course prep, so it was time and energy well spent.

4. Oh, so I also finished the IBS Audio Program 100, which has seriously improved my quality of life so much. I am so glad I found out about it (through Heather’s Help for IBS site) and tried it and it worked. Seriously, some of my symptoms have been reduced by 100%. 100%! And when I was about a third of the way through, my mom was like, “You haven’t been complaining about your stomach lately, so you must be feeling better,” and that was before I had finished the whole course. (Yes, I did all 100 days.)

Apparently, the discs aren’t being manufactured anymore, but I found it on eBay, and I think there are some available on Amazon. Do seek it out if you or someone you know suffers. It really made a huge difference for me.

5. Why is spring break only a week? My daughter’s visit was too short. Wah.

6. I may have mentioned that I ran into both a parked car and a pillar? Well, I finally got my car fixed, and it looks like new. Also, I knew it was a hot mess, but there’s nothing like having an insurance adjuster circle all the damage on a car to point out just how badly banged up it is. But that’s behind me now.

The highlight of that whole deal is that I got to drive a Mercedes for a week.

And, yes, the Mercedes was fancy but not all it was cracked up to be. For one thing, it had no keyless entry or start (something my Sentra has). So I had to go around taking my keys out of my bag to open the doors like some kind of animal. (I didn’t realize how quickly I got spoiled by the keyless entry thing.) It’s especially annoying when it’s RAINING or my hands are full of groceries. Like, yes, let me take precious time rummaging around in my bag to find my keys, which I haven’t had to do for the past year. Sigh.

Also, it took three of us to figure out how to work the radio. My friend and daughter both made fun of me for not being able to figure it out until they got in the car and could only figure out part of it themselves. So it was definitely the car and not me, thank you very much.

On the plus side, the Mercedes obviously was a smoother ride than the Sentra and it’s the style of car I most want (a mini-SUV), so those are things I will miss. But that keyless entry thing is a bigger deal than I thought, whew.

7. I wanted to end this on an up note, but alas, I need to point out that I am BEREFT that One Day at a Time got canceled. Just…Netflix, how could you? HOW COULD YOU???

Save it, Oprah. Or Jesus. Or Lin-Manuel Miranda. YOU ARE OUR LAST HOPE.