Decided to do this entry while Tom was still asleep and before we get on with the day’s plans.

Been raining hard and steady since I got up at midnight. It should NOT be winter here now! It should be warm to hot and dry as a bone. Fuck having to be bundled up in my robe and slippers with the heat on!

Believe it or not, I’ve now slept well twice in a row. It definitely helps not to be crashing really early in the morning and especially during the week. Crashed around 3 p.m. and got up at 8 p.m. to pee. Was just getting back into bed without the earbud when I heard the little mama’s boy leave, so the timing was perfect. Still can’t believe someone that young would spend Saturday night at their parents’. If he never gets married again, I wonder if he’ll ever at least get some kind of partner to occupy more of his time? Haven’t heard him as much overall but that seems to be an on-and-off thing.

The new pillows I got also helped. For just ten bucks I got a two-pack at Sam’s Club and they’re much better for stomach sleepers like myself. Not as good for side sleeping but I think that in order to have a decent stomach pillow, it’s got to be flatter and therefore not as good for being on your side. So I use my old pillow if I’m just relaxing or listening to my book, and the new one to sleep with. If the airbed arrives before I crash, I’ll also be sleeping on a level surface which will be nice.

No longer caring what this place looks like, I’m going to lean the coil mattress against the bedroom window closest to the street. It would be best to keep it close by in case the airbed springs a leak. There’s room for it now that we’ve rearranged. We put the bean bag in the living room and I sat Suki on a chair in the bedroom by the bathroom. I don’t know if this is going to be a permanent setup. That depends on how easy it is to move the cocoon and if it works in the first place, which I highly doubt.

The cocoon may be delayed a day or two like all our plans usually are because he couldn’t find the saw he needed to cut the PVC pipe we picked up at Lowe’s before going to Sam’s. So he had to order one on Amazon. That will arrive today as well. The question is at what time.

My HR has been elevated for a few days now and I’m wondering if it could be because I’m low on thyroid. Therefore I took a full dose today but I won’t go back to doing that every single day because I’m not done with my experiment yet. Tomorrow I enter the critical zone of the testing. The next two weeks should tell me quite a bit. It won’t tell me for sure if it was a dosage issue but it will give me a good hint either way, depending on what happens and how I feel.

Also, I’m determined as ever to cut out almost all processed foods. Not because I think I’ll lose weight but because my blood pressure is too high due to the extra sodium, and the bounding pulse which causes what I call neck knockers gets annoying when you can feel and hear your pulse beating at the side of your neck like I sometimes can when I’m overdoing the sodium.

The problem is that I can’t cook very well because not only did it never really interest me but it’s just not something I’m naturally good at. So many recipes seem simple at first glance but then I find they’re actually a bit complicated, requiring a million ingredients. I figured it could get kind of expensive and wasteful if I get a ton of things that I only need a teeny part of here in there and then the rest of the stuff goes to waste.

Aly’s a good cook so I’ll ask her any questions I have but I’m basically going to do my best to keep it simple. I know I shouldn’t be having much cholesterol either but at this point, I’m mainly focused on what I can feel. If my arteries are getting any plaque buildup from too much cholesterol, I can’t feel that right now. But I can definitely feel when I overdo the sodium so rather than worry about cholesterol, calories and things like that, I’ll just focus on sodium which basically means sticking with unprocessed foods. I’m not going to give up my coffee creamer and my fake sugar, though. It’s mostly the frozen dinners I’ll be kicking out.

Now here’s some really good and interesting news. I’m the closest I’ve ever been to finding Stephan (Steve)! Everything he ever told me checked out. He really was from Chicago. I ended up on a site I’ve never seen before. I don’t know if it’s new or what but he’s listed as having lived in Chicopee as well as Springfield like Jessie told me. Also Holyoke, Plattsburgh, New York and Pensacola, Florida. The places he lived in had the dates he lived there next to them, and I could see that he left our apartment building the same year I did. I left in April and he left in October. The last date listed is 2000. If he hasn’t moved since then he should be in Chicopee right now.

There was also an email address present so I sent a quick message, as well as a few Facebook messages to possible relatives. Tomorrow I’ll call the number that was listed for a landline. Would love to reconnect and find out how he’s been all these years!

Poor Aly and Cam. Cam was admitted to the hospital after having pains all over and weakness in his legs. I guess the doctor thought he might have a tumor but then said it’s likely spinal stenosis. Aly said Cam disagrees, will see another doctor he trusts, but will be in the hospital overnight.

Damn! These two have more medical emergencies than most people I know.