tinaalsgirl

Okay, I found a list of the "partners" and... there aren't a whole lot of schools to choose from. There are a couple state universities, but not a whole lot. Lots of online schools. I'm definitely with you on this: weird vibes.

I don't think so...? They mention a Guild "Learning Marketplace" and then later says people can choose "from more than 30 learning providers". Which I'm assuming is colleges/vocational schools/etc. I could be wrong, though. But that's what my interpretation was.

Ugh. We got snow today. And we get another round tonight. Expecting a total accumulation upwards of 12" or more. UGHHH.

What an intense game last night! I'm not usually into football, but with all the time I've spent at my sister's, I've ended up watching the last several Chiefs games with my bro-in-law, and my mom and I decided to keep watching even now that we're back home.

Apparently the Joker visited Missouri today. That was amusing.

As usual, I don't have music going at the moment (I have trouble reading with lyrical songs in the background).... But I have the same earworm as just about everyone else on the planet at the moment: "We Don't Talk About Bruno" from Encanto

My antigen test was very positive. But thankfully I got over the sickness in about the same amount of time as my chronic tonsillitis flare-ups in the past. My smell and taste came back in less than a week (I credit that to my autism; I have extremely sensitive senses). My mom has recovered as well, though still is coughing gunk out every once in a while. On Thursday night, December 23, my Aunt Debbie, the one in California who was hospitalized, passed away. And then on Christmas morning, her son Jason, my oldest cousin, had a heart attack and died, likely from all the stress to do with his mom (he thankfully got to fly out and see her and got back here to MO on Thursday). Mom and I came home today because she had to take care of some bills and stuff, but we're headed back to my sister's tomorrow. Jason's youngest just had his 13th birthday yesterday, so, well, he's had a SHITTY Christmas and SHITTY milestone birthday. So we've planned a party for him that will happen... well, it's scheduled for Saturday, but KC is getting snow/ice/cold then so I'm not sure if we'll actually do it then. Jason's Viewing is on Wednesday; his memorial is on Thursday. Hoping his brother (which was the son who ended up in the hospital for a couple days 'cause of the Covid) and sister and her daughter will be able to come out here for it; they won't be able to do anything for Aunt Debbie until later in January. So between breaking my ankle; half my family getting Covid, me included in that; and two of my family members dying, one on Christmas Day, I've had a shitty last two months of 2021. EDIT: Oh, and my grandparents also got the Covid from my aunt here, and they've been in the hospital for a while. Grandma is in a rehab facility now (because she can't be home alone), and Grandpa finally made it there, too (he'd been on a high level of oxygen). So yesterday is when we had to tell them that their oldest daughter and oldest grandchild had died. It was rough. Grandma has never fully recovered from her stroke a few years ago, so my aunt had to use a dry-erase board to write names and things down so my grandma would understand what she was telling her. I'm never going to get over the look of devastation from my grandpa. I've never seen him cry like that before, and the poor guy had to go through two shocks. My grandma's brain thankfully steered her toward happy memories and church and heaven, so she was able to handle it pretty well after the initial shock was over. I'm still worried about Grandpa. He was ok when we left, but.... god, even my poor sister is still dealing with the grief off and on (my BP goes up every time my brain decides to replay us getting the news about Jason), so I can't even imagine how it's been for Grandpa.

Silver Dollar City: Marvel Cave tour; the Saloon Show; interacting with Terry Wayne Sanders as any of his myriad characters; the Christmas lights, including the tree (I am SO happy they finally upgraded it; I haven't gotten to see the "new" one in person [in quotes because it's new to me], but a storm chaser I follow on Twitch livestreamed from the park a week or two ago and I am very impressed with the current tree) Dollywood: the eagle sanctuary - I could legit spend an entire day just sitting there watching and listening to the eagles

Girls in Bikinis - Poppy

And then I got Covid. And now I've lost 5 pounds in 6 days. Back down to 273.8. I've been living off of mostly slim jims and quesadillas, so I imagine I may have thrown myself back into keto without even trying.

Everyone okay after those storms on Friday? I'm pretty far north in Missouri but even we ended up with a tornado warning and a rotation that went over my house ended up dropping a brief EF0 just a couple miles to the east.

Some of those pics really hit me with the nostalgia from when I worked there as an airbrush artist in 2014. The skunk especially. Brings back memories of being warned by co-workers who'd worked there longer than me about coming across the skunks. I really do miss the park. Haven't gotten to visit since then. I haven't gotten to see the new entrance in person yet! They've done a lot of excellent work at prettifying the park over the last several years. Were they still using the score from Edward Scissorhands as part of the atmospheric music for Haunt? I haven't gotten to go during Haunt season since.... possibly close to 15 years? Can't remember, it's been that long. Loved reading your report! Looking forward to the SDC portion!

I always hope for any Broadway production to have a touring version, no matter what it is. I love Broadway musicals, but the only way I've gotten to enjoy any is when a movie was made of it (Phantom of the Opera; Sweeney Todd). The couple times I got to see a live production was when I had student discount tickets in college for the touring versions. Got to see Shrek and Beauty & the Beast. They were great! I wish more shows would tour.

Well, I've only read it once, and that was when it was first released (2016), so I don't remember a whole lot. I just remember the feeling I had reading it, and that was... horror. It basically read like really bad fanfiction (like, seriously, the "bad guy" of the play feels ripped straight from TV Tropes and the main photo being used of the character makes them look like they're straight out of "My Immortal" [not the song]). It's pretty easy to find people's reviews of it online; fans who didn't like it are pretty vocal about it. I might read it again someday. Or maybe at least the revised version if they release that, 'cause apparently they're mushing together the two parts and making it just a single play?

Thanks. It's been... extremely stressful. Physically, it hasn't been any worse than any other time I'd get sick before my tonsillectomy (except the addition of the loss of smell & taste), but I'm also autistic and suffer from clinical depression and severe anxiety, which doesn't always get fully taken care of with my meds, so it's mostly just taken a mental toll on me. I'm just really anxious about my mom because she's anxious about my aunts and... well, kind of a cascading thing. If something happens to one of my aunts, I'm worried it could affect my mom, especially since she's sick, too. Stroke is pretty common in our family and her BP has been a bit high while dealing with this. ***** Oh, the aunt in California now has her son in the hospital for it, too. We got our results today. Mom's positive, I'm negative. But with the loss of taste & smell, I'm betting I'm actually positive. I didn't get symptoms until later in the day on the day we got tested; based on the quick research I've done, it's possible my viral load was just not quite high enough yet at the time of my test. So we're having an at-home antigen test delivered from another pharmacy; that arrives tonight and only takes about 15min for results. Since I'm symptomatic, I'm betting my antigen test will be positive.

Yeahhh. There's zero chance of any of the cast members agreeing to do Cursed Child or anything else where JKR is involved. The only reason they're participating in the reunion thing is because JKR will only be present via archival footage; she will not be involved further than that. Also, I read Cursed Child and it was... ugh. Not a fan.

We went to my sister's place for Thanksgiving. Came home that Monday. Few days later, my uncle is admitted to the hospital for a grand mal seizure (still don't know what caused it yet). He tests positive for Covid. My aunt blacks out in the waiting room from all the stress. She tests positive for Covid. She gets sent home with prescriptions. Next morning, she has to call an ambulance because every time she tries to get up, she blacks out. Turns out she was severely low on potassium and not hydrated enough. She's back home now. In the midst of all this, another aunt, who lives in California half a country away from all of us, ends up admitting herself into the hospital. She'd been told she had bronchitis and treated for that. It didn't work. Gets into the hospital and gets a diagnosis of Covid plus pneumonia. They're having to put her on her side, where her oxygen levels go up to 95, instead of laying/sitting on her back, when it dips into at least the 80s (could be lower, but we haven't been getting a whole lot of updates). So, the Tuesday after getting home from Thanksgiving, my mom gets sicky. She had breakfast with the first-mentioned aunt on Sunday. Then on this last Saturday lost her sense of smell & taste. Then *I* start getting sicky. So far I'm doing okay, and for a while I thought maybe I just had one of my reaction-to-cold-temps colds or perhaps whatever bug hit my sister, her hubby, and three of the four kids (they all thankfully tested neg for Covid), but today I woke up to find I'd lost my sense of smell and taste (well, not completely, but I am autistic and have SUPER sensitive senses, so the fact that I was able to sniff and even take a spoonful of apple cider vinegar without puking just from the smell... well, that was the ultimate test. I can get some tang/spices from my SlimJims and a bit of "spice" from my Dr. Pepper, but that's it, and for me, that's a HUGE difference in my senses). I am fully two-dose Moderna vaccinated, and I was actually going to be setting up an appt to get the booster when all this shit started. I am the only person in the entire family who is vaccinated at all, and I think that's why I'm at home dealing with something the level of which I've dealt with before, but I have two relatives in the hospital plus the one who was but is home now.

I broke my ankle a couple days after Halloween, so November up to now has just been full of doctor's visits and a surgery and recovery. Unfortunately, as a result, the few pounds I'd recently lost came back, but I'm slowly going downwards again. I blame myself for the weight spike; I got so mad at myself for breaking my ankle that I comforted myself with pizza and M&Ms. So, no major exercising at the moment; just wobbling to and from the bathroom mostly. My next ortho appt is Dec 14; they won't even get PT set up for me until Jan/Feb (I live in the middle of nowhere, so the closest PT doesn't take Medicaid, and the next closest is in the next county over and booked pretty solid).

Oh man, I loved Bosom Buddies. RIP, Peter.

I haven't been to WDW since 2012, so haven't gotten to experience any of the New Fantasyland stuff in MK nor any of Pandora at AK. My favorite ride at AK, though, is definitely Dinosaur. I've never been on the Indiana Jones ride (my last visit to DL was 1991); can't draw a comparison to a ride I've never been on, so Dinosaur was my first impression of that type of Disney ride and I loved it!

I just wanted to offer another suggestion for no-carb drinks: Clear American flavored sparkling water at Walmart. A 33oz bottle is roughly 60-cents (I'm in Missouri, so prices will probably vary); it comes out to less per oz than getting my zero sugar sodas, so I've been gradually cutting down on how many bottles of soda I allow myself in a day and then just drink the sparkling waters. They're flavored, but also use artificial sweeteners, so they're sweet unlike a lot of flavored waters (I tried LaCroix.... no bueno). I started off with Strawberry and really liked it, so just stuck with that. I did end up trying a few other flavors: the Red, White and Blue Pop tasted like cough syrup to me, so not a fan of that flavor; Cotton Candy and Watermelon also had similar tastes, so a no go. But then a couple weeks ago I found and grabbed a couple flavors I hadn't tried yet. The White Grape is pretty good, though the taste reminds me heavily of the purple grape Tylenol chewable tabs I used as a kid; it can be a little overwhelming if you want your drink to be refreshing. Orange & Cream is amazing; the aftertaste is more orange than cream, so not a super cloying taste and the orange tastes like actual orange, not artificial. But the masterpiece is Fuji Apple. I have fallen in love. It tastes EXACTLY like having just chewed a bite of apple in your mouth. No artificial taste to it. And because of that, the drink goes down cool and crisp. I very, very, highly recommend trying it!

Nowadays, fanfiction stories between 1-2k word count are all I can handle. I've had a lot of trouble with focus the last few years, and it's been very detrimental to my reading. I used to be able to read a book in a day (I devoured the 168,923 word Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince in the span of twelve hours [5pm to 5am; day of release]). Now I'm lucky to even finish just one novel in a year.

I hope Harmonious stays a while. I would love to see it in person. I've watched it twice on YouTube and it's brought me to tears both times!

I've lost ten pounds since August 16! A few weeks ago I finally made myself get back fully into low-carb eating and started doing intermittent fasting again, and I've been on a downward-only trend!

They got rid of the sock fountain? Damn. That was one of my favorite pieces of decor there.