AL's Not-So-Secret Hangout Thread & The Apocalypse!

[lovely_sidney]

Anjoulie

lovely_sidney

I LIIIIIIIIVE
Sorry that I've been away for so long. I hope everyone has been alright, especially given the current pandemic...though it seems most other countries are dealing with it better than America >.>

(hopefully people remember me, haha)

Siddles!! emotion_hug
How've you been?

emotion_hug
I've been alright. Sorry to you (and the rest of the regulars) for dropping out for a long time. Have been dealing with personal issues which have gotten better over time. Glad to see the thread is still alive.

Unfortunately, I am pretty sure I've had Covid-19 my for a few months since I have been experiencing most of the common symptoms (fatigue, even worse headaches, shortness of breath, sore throat, muscle aches). crying
My department at work was dissolved near the beginning of this year. That medical insurance lasted for a few months but of course, I only got sick after the ended and the pandemic was in full swing, so was not looking to work during that. Very recently I got Medicaid, but my assigned primary care provider hasn't been responding. All the hospitals/clinics around require a doctor's orders to get a test, and don't guarantee one anyways....IMO the USA's reaction to Covid has been a real s**t show. Pretty much everything is open again even thought cases and deaths are still going on strong. stare

The worst thing I've been dealing with from this illness is the shortness of breath. I get winded doing simple stuff I never got tired from doing before like going up the stairs, cooking, vacuuming, etc. I'm kind of afraid I have pulmonary fibrosis from Covid. Trying to quell that fear until I actually get tested, but seems the tests still aren't accurate.


Well, aside from all that, lemme brighten it up with some pictures of my cats. Gotta upload them though.

[ToraHiroba]

wink

[Anjoulie]

lovely_sidney

emotion_hug
I've been alright. Sorry to you (and the rest of the regulars) for dropping out for a long time. Have been dealing with personal issues which have gotten better over time. Glad to see the thread is still alive.

Unfortunately, I am pretty sure I've had Covid-19 my for a few months since I have been experiencing most of the common symptoms (fatigue, even worse headaches, shortness of breath, sore throat, muscle aches). crying
My department at work was dissolved near the beginning of this year. That medical insurance lasted for a few months but of course, I only got sick after the ended and the pandemic was in full swing, so was not looking to work during that. Very recently I got Medicaid, but my assigned primary care provider hasn't been responding. All the hospitals/clinics around require a doctor's orders to get a test, and don't guarantee one anyways....IMO the USA's reaction to Covid has been a real s**t show. Pretty much everything is open again even thought cases and deaths are still going on strong. stare

The worst thing I've been dealing with from this illness is the shortness of breath. I get winded doing simple stuff I never got tired from doing before like going up the stairs, cooking, vacuuming, etc. I'm kind of afraid I have pulmonary fibrosis from Covid. Trying to quell that fear until I actually get tested, but seems the tests still aren't accurate.


Well, aside from all that, lemme brighten it up with some pictures of my cats. Gotta upload them though.

Oh hey, no worries about dropping out for a while. We all have life issues and Gaia isn't really a priority.
I think threads remain open as long as somebody posts within a month or two. Else it takes Al to revive it, so somebody would have to nudge him via some other means.

It sad to hear about your health and work tho. =( I thought your line of work would be rather "crisis resistant". People have been underestimating this virus for quite some time and too many still do. =( You'll probably have to avoid any exertion as much as possible while you recover.
Yesterday my newspaper had an article analyzing why the US is having such a hard time dealing with the virus (but unfortunately they hid it behind their paywall before I got past the first page). Our health system has its flaws, too, but yours is twice as expensive and much less effective.

I don't know what kind of test they use to detect whether you've had it but chances are these can't be 100% accurate. For fibrosis they would probably use x-rays and lung capacity tests, I suppose. - But in any case, you probably need more time to recover.

Yay for cat pics!
This reminds me that someone brought three bengal cats to my local animal shelter. (The reason they stated was lack of time. rolleyes ) I'd really like like to go see them in person but thanks to the virus they don't have their usual opening hours and arranging for an individual visit just for that would seem like a waste of their time since I'm not going to adopt them.

ETA: I had a look at your wishlist. If you'd like some more random stuff, let me know. :3

[ToraHiroba]

Things may get better when that LOKI show debuts on Disney+.

[Toarnaa]

How are you dealing with Summer? Hopefully keeping cool and staying safe!!

[ToraHiroba]

Every day is a war zone when a new disease takes over the world. Things are becoming more and more like Peter May's Lockdown novel.

[Anjoulie]

Posting cats to keep the thread open.

[ToraHiroba]

Distance...it's not just for health reasons.

[yuki_lily]

Anjoulie

I have a problem, Anj. I am up to four work in progress cross stitches. I have none completed at this time. And I have about six other patterns waiting for me to do them. I'm starting to think that actually doing a cross stitch and collecting patterns are two separate hobbies.

Also! I finally put the cat items you gave me on my avatar! =D

[Anjoulie]

yuki_lily

Anjoulie

I have a problem, Anj. I am up to four work in progress cross stitches. I have none completed at this time. And I have about six other patterns waiting for me to do them. I'm starting to think that actually doing a cross stitch and collecting patterns are two separate hobbies.

Also! I finally put the cat items you gave me on my avatar! =D

Okay, this may be a dumb question but ... why did you start the second one? XD

When it comes to you not having completed one of them, I have a theory:



Yay for items! I could probably find some more, if you want some. ^^

[yuki_lily]

Anjoulie

yuki_lily

Anjoulie

I have a problem, Anj. I am up to four work in progress cross stitches. I have none completed at this time. And I have about six other patterns waiting for me to do them. I'm starting to think that actually doing a cross stitch and collecting patterns are two separate hobbies.

Also! I finally put the cat items you gave me on my avatar! =D

Okay, this may be a dumb question but ... why did you start the second one? XD

When it comes to you not having completed one of them, I have a theory:



Yay for items! I could probably find some more, if you want some. ^^

The first was a magic bottle one. I actually made a decent amount of progress on it, but I got three other patterns when I got that one, so I started another one of those. Then there was Disney princess dresses. And a girl with bunnies that I'd like to put as a framed sample at work.

My children are more distracting than the cats. I do think one of my problems is that I am constantly being pulled away from working on it. It's very slow going when you only get a dozen or so stitches, then you have to see to the kids.

I'm good on items right now. I got my inventory organized a little bit more and realized that I hadn't used the cat items yet. =)

How have you been?

[Anjoulie]

yuki_lily

The first was a magic bottle one. I actually made a decent amount of progress on it, but I got three other patterns when I got that one, so I started another one of those. Then there was Disney princess dresses. And a girl with bunnies that I'd like to put as a framed sample at work.

My children are more distracting than the cats. I do think one of my problems is that I am constantly being pulled away from working on it. It's very slow going when you only get a dozen or so stitches, then you have to see to the kids.

I'm good on items right now. I got my inventory organized a little bit more and realized that I hadn't used the cat items yet. =)

How have you been?

Hm, I was never really tempted to do that, although I do have some more patterns (all from that French lady and one from the South African one). In my case, I only ever got the thread for two at a time, so starting more would have required either a trip to the store or ordering more thread and get something to stitch on as well. The French lady is also rather economic with the amount of stitches per pattern, so completing one of these didn't take as much time as the one with the books that you showed me earler.
Maybe you just have to decide on one to focus on?

=D Cats sleep a lot. I was gonna say: 'What about when the kids are asleep?' because I thought that small children do sleep a lot. But during summer break, I noticed that my neighbors' kids were up for far longer than I would have expected. One of them also had a child visitor that looked like toddler age (maybe) and at about 11 pm he or she was still awake and screaming like crazy. o.o

I'm still far from having organized my inventory but slowly trying to get rid of stuff I know I won't use. I still have a ton of these cat items in storage as well as the RIGs that they come from. @.@

I've been doing okay, how about you?

[yuki_lily]

Anjoulie

yuki_lily

The first was a magic bottle one. I actually made a decent amount of progress on it, but I got three other patterns when I got that one, so I started another one of those. Then there was Disney princess dresses. And a girl with bunnies that I'd like to put as a framed sample at work.

My children are more distracting than the cats. I do think one of my problems is that I am constantly being pulled away from working on it. It's very slow going when you only get a dozen or so stitches, then you have to see to the kids.

I'm good on items right now. I got my inventory organized a little bit more and realized that I hadn't used the cat items yet. =)

How have you been?

Hm, I was never really tempted to do that, although I do have some more patterns (all from that French lady and one from the South African one). In my case, I only ever got the thread for two at a time, so starting more would have required either a trip to the store or ordering more thread and get something to stitch on as well. The French lady is also rather economic with the amount of stitches per pattern, so completing one of these didn't take as much time as the one with the books that you showed me earler.
Maybe you just have to decide on one to focus on?

=D Cats sleep a lot. I was gonna say: 'What about when the kids are asleep?' because I thought that small children do sleep a lot. But during summer break, I noticed that my neighbors' kids were up for far longer than I would have expected. One of them also had a child visitor that looked like toddler age (maybe) and at about 11 pm he or she was still awake and screaming like crazy. o.o

I'm still far from having organized my inventory but slowly trying to get rid of stuff I know I won't use. I still have a ton of these cat items in storage as well as the RIGs that they come from. @.@

I've been doing okay, how about you?

It's hard to decide which to focus on. I suppose the one I would like to be the sample at work ought to take priority since I don't have a sample of any sort of needle craft.

The boys have been sleeping in and going to bed late. The 22 mo old will usually take a nap in the middle of the day. Though not today. They're both very active today, despite me making them get up at 8am this morning.

I found a couple of threads that give RIG info based on their release date, which is how I'm organizing all that. Though knowing me, I'll probably change my mind in a few years and decide to organize it all in a completely different way. XD

I've been alright. We finally started to extend our hours at work, so we'll be closing at 8pm instead of 7pm. I think they're just trying to get customers use to us being a bit later for when we get closer to Christmas. Though we already have Christmas ribbon and stuff for making wreaths. Seems a bit early, even to me.

[Anjoulie]

yuki_lily

It's hard to decide which to focus on. I suppose the one I would like to be the sample at work ought to take priority since I don't have a sample of any sort of needle craft.

The boys have been sleeping in and going to bed late. The 22 mo old will usually take a nap in the middle of the day. Though not today. They're both very active today, despite me making them get up at 8am this morning.

I found a couple of threads that give RIG info based on their release date, which is how I'm organizing all that. Though knowing me, I'll probably change my mind in a few years and decide to organize it all in a completely different way. XD

I've been alright. We finally started to extend our hours at work, so we'll be closing at 8pm instead of 7pm. I think they're just trying to get customers use to us being a bit later for when we get closer to Christmas. Though we already have Christmas ribbon and stuff for making wreaths. Seems a bit early, even to me.

Yeah, that would make sense.

Unfortunately, I don't remember much from when I was this little. XD But somehow, I don't think I got to stay up very late back then. There was one short TV show that was always on at a certain time (I'm guessing 7 or so, and that would be all of my TV exposure) and after that it was off to bed with some bedside reading or storytelling.
On a related tangent, recently I only just managed to avoid some kind of debate or tirade: I came across the mom of two of my schoolmates and she shoved her phone in my face to show me a picture of one of her grandkids (about 3, I think) who was sitting on airplane seat with headphones on and seemed to be completely absorbed into a tablet screen. I made the "mistake" of not seeming to be convinced that this was such a great thing. So she went on about how that was the only way you could take trips with children. - I decided not to enter into this debate. (As well as the ones about whether it's really necessary to a) go on plane trips with small children at all and b) in the middle of a pandemic.)

Yeah, I did that too but then ... I have some items with release dates that are sometime in the far future. o.O And I still have lots of random stuff and unopened RIGs that I'm slowly getting to. And getting rid of stuff also takes time. Now that they gave subscribers the perk of loads of shelf space, it's hard to sell anything that's halfway common. I threw a bunch of items that would never sell into the dumpster.

Oh, I thought they would delay that for a while longer, given the state of things.
I don't know about craft stores but checking two home deco and three art stores online, they don't seem to have any obvious Christmas stuff yet. Supermarkets usually start selling Christmas cookies and stuff by September which seems early to me too. (Although last year, I caved and bought some ginger bread in Mid-September while it was still warm outside, so I probably shouldn't complain. XD)

[ToraHiroba]

stare