Last night, in the midst of the typical shitty night’s sleep, I awoke from a dream of the vigilante girl telling me the doctors missed an important test. In reality, they didn’t, but I sure hope the dream wasn’t a sign of anything as my negative dreams about Tammy were. 

She called yesterday and hasn’t been doing well at all, which would explain the dreams. She laughed at the one where she was really skinny and said she wished that one were true. LOL, that’s the thing about dream premonitions; you don’t usually dream of exactly what’s going to happen, but you do get enough negativity to tell you something’s amiss. I’ve only had a few dreams play out to a T or close enough to it. A couple were negative and a couple of others were positive. 

Anyway, she’s having more back surgery on Monday and hoping for the best. 

I’m now at the point where I dread going to sleep. Tammy took an OTC thing called Estrogen that she said helped her a lot and that they’ve also got one for sleep. This is good to know, but I don’t want to do anything till I talk to my doctor. I still think I have mild sleep apnea at play, too. 

Of course, she thinks I should be on Lipitor being in the medical field as she was. Yeah, I’m sure she’s right, but right now I’m not going to let anyone “give me any Lip”. ;) 

Just a few hours into my sleep and I awoke right as this intense dizziness swam through my head and my heart was beating hard and fast. Fitbit said it shot to 146, but I don’t think it was much over 100. Anyway, I felt like I couldn’t breathe no matter what position I lay in, despite being able to sit up or open my mouth wide and suck in a deep enough breath fairly easily. I had that lump-in-the-throat feeling. Tom thinks I probably just panicked. 

In my sleep? 

Later… 

LOL, dumped Twitter again, but found one of Kim’s fan sites on Facebook. I then shared one of her pictures and quickly deleted it from my timeline, knowing she’d know it was shared and not be the least bit happy about it. Sure enough, she did what Polly did and went private. I’m sure she (and probably Aly) constantly checks to see if I reactivated on Twitter, haha. It’s all I can do to keep from doing so, but I know I really should move on. They never gave a shit about me. Why give a shit about them? 

Going to attempt to once again get my journal caught up. If I’m not busy, then I’m busy feeling like shit. The fatigue and dizziness have really been sucking the juice out of me and driving me crazy. As usual, no matter what I do to try to help myself, nothing improves it. I did, however, restart my kiddy vitamins with iron, so if that can’t help, maybe my doctor can figure it out for me. For now, it comes and goes at random. I hadn’t had any dizziness for a few days, but then I had it all day today until a little while ago. 

On top of perimenopause symptoms, I have the PMS from hell. My period is now 5 days late and I have enough water on me to fill a swimming pool with. I won’t even bother with how sore my boobies are. 

Despite how I felt, we got a lot done today. We went on a walk this morning and then to Walmart where I splurged on a few cute dolls before hitting the grocery section. 

We later went to Petsmart too, and they didn’t have any rats. Instead, they had this really cool parrot of some kind that really seemed to like me, haha. It followed my movements back and forth along the long cage as if it really wanted to be my buddy. Not for $600! And not for the ungodly loud sounds they make either. 

I’m starting to think the rat we have now will be our last pet for a long time to come. We’ve had something like 7 rats since coming to this state and only 2 of them have been friendly and sociable. The rest have been shy as hell. That’s the problem with the chains. Those stores don’t give a shit about the animals. All they care about is selling them. So they don’t take the time to handle them from the get-go so that they’re not only used to but actually want to be handled by people. Tinkerbell and Blondie were raised by kids till they were sold by small non-chain stores. 

Then I looked and found a local “rattery” that breeds them for temperament and health by being sure to handle them as babies. Tom was impressed with them, too. 

We finished backing the bookcase with the flooring/wallpaper and it looks awesome! I was worried the stuff on the shelves would be lost against the busy flower/rock design, but they actually stand out better. We’re both surprised at how good it looks. It looks a lot like a rock wall with scattered pink roses sticking out of it. 

We had some extra scraps left over that we threw on the kitchen floor to see how well they hold up over time to traffic and mopping. The stuff is more durable than we thought. At first we thought they were just typical stickers that would tear easily, but nope. I even dropped a horse figurine on a section by accident and it didn’t even pierce or dent it. So China-born or not, it’s not cheap shit. 

If we do decide to do the floors with this stuff, I think a less busy design would be more appropriate. 

Loving our new front-loading washer, even if we hadn't planned on one till next year and it’s kind of screwed up our finances. Not sure if we really need a new dryer, though. They may not match at all sitting side by side, but as long as this dryer works, I see no need to replace it. The next and final appliance that needs replacing is the oven. 

Anyway, they said they’d deliver it between 8am - 10am, but they came at 7:30. It was a couple of Mexican guys and I loved listening to and understanding all the Spanish they exchanged with each other. It wasn’t much, though, as they did most of their talking to us. 

Interesting how they hauled the old one out and brought the new one in. The old one weighs about 150 pounds. The new one is about 258 pounds. It’s definitely bigger than the dryer! They put these harnesses on and then ran straps around the washer, which they then hooked to their harnesses, and that’s how they carried it out. I really thought they’d wheel it out on a dolly. 

The floor was filthy, of course, so we cleaned it as best we could. We found a couple of old cat toys, a small screwdriver, and the tub drain that Simone stole and hid. All this time I’ve been wondering where it was. 

They didn’t need to put the new hoses on that we got, so we’ll keep them as a backup. 

It’s a direct drive so we won’t have to worry about it going off-balance since the drum is connected right to the motor. 

The guy asked if we’d ever had a front-loader before and we told him we haven’t. He then said he calls them the high-maintenance washer. Not something I liked the sound of, LOL. He then explained that it was very important to keep the seal dry to prevent mildew. He also said that it’s important to clean it periodically otherwise it’d “smell like sewage.” As soon as I heard that I really hoped we wouldn’t regret getting the thing. He said the seals are $300 and that doesn’t include labor. 

The rubber gasket is a bit of a bitch to towel dry afterward because there’s a crease in the center of it. In fact, a couple of my kiddy-sized ankle socks got caught in this groove, so we got a mesh laundry bag for things like that. 

You have to leave the door propped open afterward to ensure the whole interior dries out. I love how it lights up too, but after a few seconds of not sensing any motion it goes out. 

After 30 washes an indicator lights up to let you know that it needs to be cleaned. He gave us a sample to start us off with. I guess you just throw it in like you do with detergent pods. Liquids, though, have a drawer you pour them in. 

He started a quick wash going on his way out to remove the chemicals they coat it with to protect it until it’s sold. People were complaining about corrosion, so that’s why they started using chemicals on it. 

After the quick wash, we did a full load (amazing the capacity this thing has) and had fun watching how it works. The door’s a smoky color rather than clear, but since I dress mostly in bright colors, I could see at least my clothes well enough. It almost seemed like there was hardly any water in it and like it was just damp clothes tumbling around. It does use less water than top loaders. 

We’ll have to try the steamer sometime for stained clothes and see how well it does. The thing spins faster than I ever knew a washer to spin before. Although it’s quieter than our old one, the sound of the mega fast-spinning was a bit weird. The clothes were definitely not as damp as they would be coming out of the old washer.