Monday-ay-ay

Since I had slept late Sunday, I could not sleep Sunday night. Such is the way. Of course, I fell asleep after Dave went to work and slept until later in the day.

I ran the air purifier over night and throughout the morning (only turning it off in the afternoon when I opened the door to let in some fresh air and sunshine) and it did its job, I am glad to say. I woke up not sneezing, not red faced, not in the midst of an allergy attack, but almost completely fine. (I had an ever so slightly stuffy nose, which: I'll take it.) In fact, the only time I sneezed all day was when Dave opened the door to leave for work and who knows what blew into the casita and right up into my sinuses.

The new purifier has an optional ionizer function; it's supposed to release electrons which supposedly go off and bond to particulate matter, making them larger and therefore easier for the filter to catch and hold them. Dave also told me that people have reported an improvement in their mood when they are exposed to ionized air. I don't know how much of any of that I believe, but isn't it pretty to think it might be true?

In the afternoon, I prepped dinner early (we had a later than usual pilates class tonight and I wanted to make sure everything was ready to go), had a shower, and did some reading. I checked my email and watched a stand-up comedy special on Netflix by a comedian who I've never seen before, Melanie Comarcho. She was pretty funny.

I took a shower and found something to wear to pilates. (I hadn't washed my usual work-out clothes.) I put some red quinoa on to cook.

My face has been dry as a bone recently and my usual moisturizer has been causing me to have an allergic reaction (I think my system has been revved up by seasonal allergies). I've taken to slathering on pure jojoba oil for some relief. It's not quite strong enough to combat my dry skin, but it's better than nothing.  And it's not just my face, either, that's dried out. My hands and legs and hair are all dried out, too. I feel like my nose has been a faucet, draining all the liquid reserves from my body.

Dave called in the afternoon and I asked him about whether or not he was going to want dinner before pilates. He didn't, so I put away my prepped veggies for later in the evening.

Our pilates classes are normally at 6:30, but we had a 7:30 class this time. It was a pretty strenuous workout; I am definitely going to be sore. I can do more of the exercises and I'm trying to push myself a little more each time. We left class a little after 8:30.

While we were driving home, I told Dave I had a craving for a burger. I think PMS always awakens a huge protein craving in me, and this month is no exception. Even though I had a super healthy dinner planned and prepped, it was a little light on the protein, so we came home via Blake's Lotaburger where I ordered a double Lotaburger and a diet Pepsi to go. (We walked into the restaurant about 15 minutes before they closed, which I would normally never do. But we hadn't changed the clock in the car during daylight savings, so it said 7:45 and our pilates class usually gets out at that time, so I completely forgot it was actually 8:45, too near their 9:00 pm closing time.)

Anyway, I did get my burger with a side of guilt.

We came home and I made dinner. To go with the red quinoa I had made earlier, I steamed asparagus to serve with lemon-garlic butter. I sauteed kale with garlic and lemon juice. I threw together a quick broccoli and soy "beef" stir fry with onion, garlic and ginger. I had my burger and asparagus, kale, and a bit of broccoli from the stir fry. Dave had a big bowl of everything over quinoa. Then we packed up the extra for our lunches tomorrow, and I did the dishes and even took out the garbage. (The caffeine from the diet Pepsi began to take effect and I felt pretty energized.)

And that was Monday!