Seven on Saturday

I’m not gonna lie, the struggle is real and it continues over here. My sleep is shit, which is the most prominent issue, and makes managing the hot flashes and other symptoms harder. Cutting out dairy isn’t resolving my GI issues completely and some dairy substitutes do NOT agree with me either. I’m feeling pretty despondent most of the time. But there have been some bright spots, and I wanted to record them here lest you think my life is just a series of perimenopausal indignities.

The 11yo got into the middle school of his choice, as did many of his friends. I expect the next three years will be harder for him than they were for the 14yo (she had a remarkably positive middle school experience) and I’m glad he gets to be where he wants to be for it.

My rosacea is better (gone?). I’m attributing this win to the Rx cream, even though my rosacea flared quite a bit after my two weeks of using it, but also maybe whatever hellish cocktail of hormones is making me crazy is also making my skin look nice? Who knows. The only constant in my life right now is not having any fucking idea, but at least in this case I can be happy about what I don’t understand.

I made myself an appointment on the Tuesday of my break week. It’s with someone random which I’m okay with because I am not a fan of my GP. Hopefully my concerns will be taken seriously. We shall see. I couldn’t get an appointment with my OB (without taking a day off work) until 5/7. I may try to make an earlier appointment (and take a day off), but that honestly might be a good time to go, because I’ll have been dealing with the symptoms for a while then.

I’m stepping up at the dojo and am proud of what I’ve been doing. I taught my first general adult class last Saturday and helped a couple kids break their boards all by myself. I feel a lot more comfortable in my role as a teacher at the dojo and enjoying my responsibilities in that role more.

The husband and I have had some random pockets kid-free of time lately and we’ve actually taken advantage of them. I feel like in the past we’ve been so dumbstruck by unexpected kid-free time that we just squandered it, but lately we’ve turned on a show or taken a walk or grabbed a quick bite to eat. It’s been nice to make good use of that time.

We’re spending two nights in Monterey at the beginning of next week. My spring break is a week after my kids’ spring break, so we can’t go on the trip to Death Valley that I wanted, but I’m taking two days off at the start of the kids break so we can away for a quick jaunt. We’re mostly going to the aquarium on Monday, but I’m looking forward to just getting away for a couple days. I think about it a lot, and I’m glad we finally committed to doing it.

I got to see the 14yo win her event at a high school swim meet. She wasn’t sure she wanted me to come, but at the last minute she said I could be there and I was and she won! We had a nice conversation in the car, during which she declared us best friends. I am so thrilled that our relationship is that close and I hope I never do anything to jeopardize her trust in me.