This will likely be a traveling entry. My brother should be landing any minute. He's landing at a gate that is connected to the airport by train so even if he touches ground now, it will be a while yet before I can pick him up.

My annual doctor's visit was very interesting. I aced my old people's exam, - remember 5 words, name animals, draw a clock. Then I asked her to mark my COPD as resolved and she was happy to do that. She listened to my heart and lungs and was very happy with what she heard. Then she asked me asked me if I had any issues. I explained that I thought my back was giving up the ghost and affecting my legs but I knew it was because I'm fat and old and out of shape and would work on at least the last part maybe but no promises. She was very cool about all of it and then started talking about semaglutides. She said "we used to say there was no magic pill but now there is one!" I told her that I thought you had to change your diet for those. I am willing to not eat as much but I am not going to turn into a kale tofu bunny. She said 'We'd look at this in terms of relieving your pain, not for specific numbers.' Interesting.

She explained the differences and the possible side effects and options and price.

She said that supposedly Medicare will be picking up coverage in April. "Wanna think about it and reconvene then?" I told her that sounded perfect.

Then off to get labs. I drank a giant bottle of water so I was ready and it turns out she didn't even order a urine test!! I guess diabetes is off the table. Nice. The blood taker was grateful for the extra hydration and, she got it all in one try. Woot!!

Now, of course, I'm trying to decide if I want to brave the porta potty here or hold it til we get to a decent toilet.

He has landed!! More later.

I finished up exercise class and walked home trying not to smell myself because I stink (no shower yesterday - same shirt). I picked out clothes to wear and went to turn on the shower. I pulled back the curtain and found this.



That towel was hanging from the top of the shower door when last I saw it. These little HGTV cats apparently redecorated with found materials and made themselves a cozy den. If the pool was not broken, I would have showered there and may never have even found out.

I turned on the light to 'encourage' them to vacate the premises but apparently, they voted against that. I actually could use some more steps this morning, maybe I'll just gather up my clothes and go down to the gym.,,

The woman who lived in this apartment before me 'donated' a very ugly Christmas table centerpiece. It lives in a credenza a long with other holiday decorations. Every holiday usually Bonny and/or Joan dig into the cabinet and sprinkle around whatever crap they find in there. I have now lived with this ugly Christmas centerpiece for three years and it was time to put me out of my misery.

So this morning, before anyone was up, I quietly moved it from the credenza to the dumpster. Next year, those who are still alive might say 'wonder what happened to whatsername's centerpiece?' or not. But at least I won't have to look at it for six weeks.

I have a load of laundry going and have done a bit more organizing/decluttering. I want to go snap a BEFORE of the storage area. I found the label maker!! Now, I cannot remember what I wanted to label. ARUGH. But at least I'm ready if the memory comes back.

Someone using susandennis@gmail.com for their email address has now set up shop on Poshmark and has items that people want to buy. But, sadly, all those people - and Poshmark - are sending their requests to me. On the up side, Poshmark does require that you validate your email and that ain't goin' happen so this should all die down but so far I'm getting about 10 emails a day. Why can't the Susan dennises of the world get their own fucking email address right????

I actually have a Poshmark account. I just deleted it so now I can just mark all the Poshmark shit as spam.

I need less stuff, not more! I did dream about closets last night. I also realized that when I empty my closet of everything that is not clothes or shoes, I will no longer have a closet problem. There will be plenty of room. hahahaha

But plenty of room is exactly what I want. I do not want Tetris storage. I want the kind of storage that is in catalog rooms - you know, they open a giant drawer and there are 4 spoons, 4 forks, 4 knives and enough empty space to put a baby to sleep in there. That's the kind of storage I want.

Yesterday, I went back to that exercise class. And, honestly, I liked it! A lot. I might make it a regular. Might. I will go back on Monday, for sure.

Today is elbow coffee and then a trip to UPS. I was going to wait until next week but returning the shelves means a car full so best go get it done today. That's about it for today's plans.

Christian is such a fun friend and such a wonderful interior engineer. We had a great lunch. I learned that Jathon, the building manager at the condo who drove me crazy, has left the job. Christian says he thinks it was mutual. They redid his list of responsibilities and he said NFW. And now he's gone. I would sure be doing the happy dance if I still lived there.

Then we came up here to talk closet. Christian is very good at big picture and equally good and close ups. He asks all the right questions and listens to me. We talked about a biscillion options and different ways to do different things. We agreed that the next step is to clear out everything in there except clothes and shoes.

This meshes perfectly with the first items on my brother's ToDo list!

We also looked at the storage area. The shelves I ordered are ones he has used and he says they are perfect for my use except I ordered the wrong size. NP. I ordered the right size. They will be here on Monday. I'll take the others back this weekend.

I was just getting ready to ask my one last question 'What about using one of the closet design companies?' when he said 'What about using one of the closet design companies?' So we agreed that 1st I'd get it all cleaned out except clothes and shoes and then have Closets By Design* come in.

I'm quite relieved and excited to get this all done and to get Christians ideas. He said his new clients are just getting started with their new apartment so he'll be in and out over the next month or so. The apartment they are moving into is huge. The previous resident was the original one who moved in 17 years ago! She's now 104 and has moved into the nursing wing. He has his work cut out for him.

*We have basically Closets by Design and California Closets. Ruth, one of Christian's other clients out here, recently vetted both and found that they came within $2 of each other but chose Closets by Design because they don't hang as much stuff from the walls. She's got a lot of experience with building and knows her shit. I'm going with her choice. Plus California Closets pissed me off in 2005, I can hold a grudge!

Also, turns out, Closets by Design wants me!! I just went to their website and filled out their form and requested January 15 at 10 am as my first choice for a consultation and within minutes I got an email and a voice mail saying the designer would be here then.

The only problem I have with Christian is his billing. He never bills me enough for his time. And he takes forever to send an invoice. I used to wait and stew about it. Today, I dug out a old invoice, gave him a raise and wrote him a check for his consultation today and even went downstairs to get it into the mail. (He also uses a bookkeeping system from the 80's - checks. ha!) Worth every single penny.

My friend and designer, Christian, is coming today for lunch and closet consultation. It will be the first time he's been back in the apartment since he put his final finishing touches on it. I've made a fair number of unauthorized (hahahah) changes that he does not know about. Should be fun. Plus he is always tons of fun just himself.

Before lunch, I'll go back to that stupid exercise class. Mostly it's just moving and not too difficult but there is a bit in the middle - standing with arms across your chest holding weights - that is really hard and my thighs will testify. Plus, I did sweat so I must have done something. So I'll do it again.

Then back here for a shower. My shower has an adjustable extension and a hand held option. All of the adjustments are overhead and one is too far overhead for me to reach. I can reach the one that switches from shower to handheld but it is not an easy reach. Getting it the way I want it is not easy and I cannot get it tight enough. When the housecleaner cleans, she manages to fuck my set up twelve different ways and it's a bitch to put it back right.

1. Her English is very limited but still way more than my Spanish. So having a conversation about it is not an option.
2. When the pool is working, I rarely shower at home anyway. Like almost never.
3. The pool should be working again in a couple of weeks so I'll only have to rejigger the thing 2 more times.

I'm trying to not stress about this. I'm clearly failing at that.

Out my window I can see two of the garage doors. Both lead to resident only parking. This morning there has been a ton of traffic in and out. I'm particularly curious about the people coming home at 6:30 am. I'm impressed that there are that many people here still driving in the dark.

I've been wanting to do another miniature room kit. I don't have time. I still don't have a need/use/room for the end result. So I've been watching you tube videos of people putting them together. It's not helping.