That Was Tuesday

I woke up very early again last night, sometime before 1:00 a.m. I had breakfast (egg whites, toast, some kale left over from dinner, strawberries and blueberries, yogurt) just before 4:00 a.m.

A little after 5:00 a.m., I went back to bed and slept until 7:30.

I was having a terrible dream and I woke myself up from it. I woke up exhausted. I hate that awful, overwhelming exhausted feeling, that deep physical ache mixed with mental dullness. Even my eyes hurt. I wanted to get back to bed right away, but ended up staying awake for several hours before I finally fell asleep again.

When I finally woke up, it was late. I got up and had a banana and some coffee while I watched an episode of Begin Japanology.

Today's episode was about Tokyo Skytree, the world's tallest tower, which opened three years ago in my old neighborhood, Sumida, in Tokyo.  I had only been in Tokyo a few months when plans were revealed to build it there and even then I felt insulted that people joked about putting the new tower in such an ugly, old part of the city. That was my home! Sumida-ku had the last laugh though; the neighborhood seems to have been given new life from the influx of tourists who come to visit Tokyo Skytree.

After the episode, I took a shower and got dressed.

While I had lunch (red cabbage, carrots, and jicama, sliced up, alongside the last of the taco leftovers, beans and quorn mixed together with some sour cream, salsa, and a crumbled taco shell), I read a bit of the Laura Ingalls Wilder biography Pioneer Girl. I started it and then put down awhile ago. It's an interesting read. I'm so familiar with the books that it's easy to see where and how the story was changed to adapt it to child readers (rather than the adults it was originally intended for). The book is full of copious footnotes though (it would have made David Foster Wallace's head spin even). There are several runs of pages that are nothing but footnotes, devoid of the main text, so it can be a bit of a slog.

I did get a big laugh out of the book when Laura writes about how, at the end of the long winter, one of the first trains to get through to the cold and starving settlers held nothing but telegraph poles. The men in the crowd wanted to buy them to use as firewood (they had been burning hay to stay alive during the run of blizzards) and were told no. They went and took them anyway and chopped them up and burned them. Laura reports one man said as they were unloading the poles, "The man that won't steal from a railroad company isn't honest."

In the afternoon, I prepped dinner (vegetable soup, cheese sandwiches to be grilled, beet slaw with a garlic and ginger dressing) to have after pilates.

Pilates was okay today. I felt very tired before we even began, so I went through the motions and came out the other side just fine. Sometimes the victory is in the showing up.

We took the very long way home, driving up to the heights to check out where my new therapists office is. I have an appointment with her tomorrow at 11:00. I am not really looking forward to it, but I know it's time.

We came home and had a late (for us) dinner while we watched the last episode of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.

And that was Tuesday.