Author: Alyxander James

Emotional Rollercoasters

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Hello, dear readers, and welcome to Thursday! It has been…a week.

We really love Mouse. And we made the hard decision on Monday that we’re going to continue to foster her rather than adopt, because we feel like she deserves a forever home that’s not in a place that makes her panic the moment she sets foot out the door. It wasn’t easy to admit that we’re not the perfect fit for her. I’m pretty sad about it, but there’s also a sense of relief in knowing we’ve made a decision. I knit her a sweater over the weekend that she’ll get to bring with her to her forever home. She’ll stay with us until she finds her forever, or until August when we leave for Song School.

Work continues to be kind of bananas, and my allergies have been pretty bad this week. Neither of those things have helped my mood at all, but it is what it is.

On the happier side of things, it’s my birthday on Saturday, which is wild. I don’t know how it’s already June, but here we are. I am generally pretty ambivalent toward my birthday (grateful to have made it to another one, but not terribly concerned about the numbers), but I’m hoping for a reasonably chill weekend of celebrations with loved ones.

Anyway, I think that’s enough for today. I’ll leave you, as always, with doggo content:

Exciting Developments

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Hello, dear readers, and welcome to Thursday! It has been another bananas week at work, and at home, there have been some exciting and routine-shifting developments.

A bit after I posted last week’s blog, we heard back from the rescue with their suggestions for dogs that might fit well with Nova from the list we had sent them. One of them was arriving on a transport from an Oklahoma shelter on Saturday. They don’t allow adoptions straight off of transport, but they offered to set us up as a foster-to-adopt. We said yes:

The rescue called her Lady Luck; the shelter in Oklahoma had her down as ZeeZee. She responds to neither of those names, so we’ve taken to calling her Mouse, because she is just a wee country mouse who’s landed herself in the city.

It has been, and will continue to be, an adjustment for everyone. Nova’s not quite sure how she feels about the situation yet. There’s been some grumbling and barking on her part. We’ve kept them mostly separated in the apartment so far, since Mouse is still decompressing from her shelter journey. Mouse is also terrified of the city noises – we got her a Thundershirt, which helps, but when we take her outside, our only hope of getting her to relax enough to do her business is if Nova’s with us, too, as Nova’s presence outside seems to make her quite a bit braver (though she still trembles quite a bit). So far she’s only eaten if we hand feed her, although we’re hoping as she gets more comfortable and her appetite increases that will be less of a need.

We requested an extension on the initial 5-day foster period before finalizing adoption, because we want to make absolutely sure she’s the right fit, so we now have until Tuesday to decide if we want to make this permanent or if we’re just going to keep fostering until she finds a different forever family. We really love her, though – she’s very sweet, and her little nub of a docked tail wags her whole body when she’s excited.

Work is calling, so without further ado, here are some doggo photos from this week:

Patience and Balance

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Hello, dear readers, and welcome to Thursday! I don’t know about you all, but I’ve felt for the past couple of days that this week should be farther along than it is…it’s been a long one. Work has been kind of bananas, and summer term at school started this week.

First things first: we’re still a single-dog household. The dog we met on Saturday was not a good personality fit with Nova. Thankfully, someone with the rescue who’s a certified dog trainer was able to sit with us and the two dogs and help us better interpret what was happening. Turns out Nova is not the kind of dog with the maternal instinct for teaching another dog how to be a dog. She needs a companion who will let her be top dog but will still engage and not be overly submissive. So, we’ve learned things about Nova and the rescue is willing to work with us to find a better personality fit. We’ve sent them a list of other dogs we’re interested in meeting, and they’ll set something up with us based on what they know of those dogs and Nova. We’re doing our best to be patient and to trust the timing will work out the way it’s meant to.

As I was looking over the syllabi for my two summer classes over the weekend and setting up my homework plan for myself, I realized that I had probably bitten off more than I could chew. We’re traveling the last week of the term, so that means I’d have to get final projects in a week early, and the one class I was planning to take asynchronously had a LOT of work due each week in addition to the big final paper. I talked it over with my husband and thought it through, and decided to drop the asynchronous class and just take one class this summer. I’m feeling much more settled about my summer schedule now, and much more confident that I can succeed without burning myself out. It wasn’t easy to let go of the idea that I’m supposed to be able to keep up with that level of work consistently, but I’m doing my best to give myself grace and remember that I can take my time.

And I think that’s where I’m going to leave things this week. But first, some Nova photos:

Anticipation

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Hello, dear readers, and welcome to Thursday! It has been a wild week. Work has just been busy, and I’m wrapping up my last spring semester class tonight, and my summer classes start next week.

If that all wasn’t enough, we’ve decided it may be time for us to become a two-dog household! On Saturday we’re meeting a potential sister for Nova. We’re very excited and also a little bit nervous, but I think it will ultimately be good – I don’t think Nova’s ever met another dog she didn’t want to be friends with. When we boarded her last summer, the feedback on her report card from group playtime was that she was “the life of the party,” and that she even won over the grumpy dog who didn’t initially want to play. I’m sure there will be some challenges, but overall we’re optimistic that this will go well, that Nova will learn to share the spotlight, and that she’ll ultimately enjoy having another dog to play with, so she’s not totally dependent on her humans for entertainment.

I think I’m going to leave it there for this week – I need to get my ducks in a row at work here before I start a morning full of meetings. I’ll leave you, as always, with some Nova photos:

Continued Recovery

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Hello, dear readers, and welcome to Thursday! It was a short week at work for me, because today and tomorrow are the Spiritual Directors International annual conference, which I’m attending virtually. Very excited to dig into more aspects of this field I’m pursuing with my degree.

This morning, I had my 6-week post-op visit with my surgeon. She was really pleased with how everything looks, and I’m happy with how I’m feeling, so I was in and out in about 15 minutes, which was great.

My husband has been out of town since Tuesday, so I’ve been getting back into the swing of taking Nova out on my own (now that it’s been more than 6 weeks and I’m less worried about getting pulled around by my 50 lb dog). It’s been interesting, I’m a little stiff now that I’ve suddenly increased my activity level, but it’s been lovely weather than past couple of days, so I’ve been enjoying our walks. Poor Nova has been especially clingy the last couple of days with her other parent gone; they’ll be back tonight, so I’m sure she’ll be thrilled.

That’s all for this week, but I’ll leave you, as always, with some Nova content from the week:

Back at It

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Hello, dear readers, and welcome to Thursday! I hope you’re all hanging in there.

I finally started back at work last Friday, which was actually kind of a nice day to start – it meant that I got a relatively chill day to catch up on the mountain of unread emails in my inbox and unread Slack messages from when I was out, and then I was able to really dive back into work starting on Monday. It’s been a pretty good first full week back so far – busy, but not unreasonably chaotic. I think I’m mostly remembering how to do my job.

Of course, I also realized this week that I need to cut back on my coffee consumption. I usually only drink 2 cups a day anyway, but I started developing a fairly persistent eye twitch while I was out on medical leave that has only gotten more pronounced since starting back at work, and my stomach has been kind of unhappy with me. So I’m cutting back to a single cup for now, and contemplating making the switch to decaf. I’m pretty bummed about it.

Going to have to end it here because work is picking up. I’ll leave you with some Nova photos from the past week:

Limbo

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Hello, dear readers, and welcome to Thursday! I was supposed to go back to work on Monday, but thanks to some paperwork-related nonsense around potential accommodations, I still have not been cleared to return. So this week has felt like a lot of hurry-up-and-wait.

I’ve been trying to keep myself occupied while I wait. This week I’ve helped a friend brainstorm about a game they’re designing for a class, gone to lunch with my mom, worked on my spiritual direction website, read, listened to podcasts, listened to music…and spent a fair amount of time compulsively checking my email, waiting for news about the work situation. I don’t mind the extra time off, but the waiting isn’t my favorite.

I don’t have a whole lot else to report on this week, but I’ll leave you, as always, with some Nova content:

Winding Down, Gearing Up

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Hello, dear readers, and welcome to Thursday! It’s gone from late winter straight to summer here in the Twin Cities this week (it was in the 40s last week, and yesterday we almost hit 90F), which has me feeling very thrown, and grateful that it’s supposed to calm back down to a much more seasonable 60-something in the next couple of days. Still, I’m glad for the sun that’s come out and the feeling of life re-emerging.

I am also re-emerging – this is the final week of my medical leave, and I’ll return to work on Monday. I’m a little nervous, and part of me wishes I had another week or two off. But at the same time, I’m looking forward to getting some structure back in my life. I don’t honestly know if my anxious brain could handle one more unstructured week.

In the meantime, my Comparative Religious Ethics class is wrapping up this week, and I’m trying to get my final paper written before the deadline (tomorrow at midnight). I have accepted (mostly) that it’s not going to be my best work. I think I can get it done in time, and I’m happy to see that I have a bit more focus than I did a couple of weeks ago, at least.

I still have another month of my Spiritual Direction class…because it’s through a different university that’s on a different timeline, that class will end right before my summer classes start up. I’m a little bummed that I won’t have a break between semesters, but at least this is the less stressful class. This summer I’ll be taking a class on Buddhist scriptures and one on early Christian theologies. I’m looking forward to both of them.

As I get further out from surgery, I’m trying to remember to stop and appreciate the feeling of rightness in my body. It feels more like it’s…mine. The fact that I never have to worry about menstrual cramps again (which I occasionally got mild versions of even after almost a decade of taking testosterone), or that if I were to lose access to testosterone, will never need to worry about my period coming back, is giving me an even deeper sense of peace and rightness within my body than I expected. So that’s cool.

I should get back to homework, so I’ll leave it here for this week. As always, here’s your weekly dose of Nova:

Resting

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Hello, dear readers, and welcome to Thursday! It’s been a decent week – recovery continues to go smoothly and although I’m still figuring out the limits of my energy, I’ve been feeling good overall.

This week has included listening to a handful of audiobooks (all books I’ve read before, because it turns out I have very little capacity for new information right now), knitting, and building a bunch of Lego sets:

The bouquet was a surprise gift from a friend, and was a delight to put together. My husband built the bonsai tree and the T-Rex, and I built the rest. This has been a really great way to keep my hands and brain busy, so I ended up ordering a couple of additional sets, which should get here today!

On Tuesday my cousin and I went to see the new D&D movie. We enjoyed it immensely! I was pretty beat after that excursion, but it was worth it.

Not a lot else to report on at the moment. I’ll leave you, as always, with some Nova moments from the past week:

Recovering

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Hello, dear readers, and welcome to Thursday! I am 9 days post-op from my hysterectomy, and feeling pretty good.

The procedure itself went really smoothly – the whole care team was fabulous, and the only thing that was less-than-stellar was the number of attempts it took to get the IV going, but that was unsurprising (my line is always “I’m not afraid of needles, but my veins are”), and even through that the nurses were really great. I haven’t needed to take anything heavier than ibuprofen for pain since the day of surgery, which was a pleasant surprise. I was feeling so good last Friday (three days after surgery) that I joined my husband and best friend for Nova’s morning stroll around the park across the street – I was a little wobbly when we got back inside, but mostly thought I was fine…until about 5pm that evening when I just crashed. I’ve been taking things a bit more slowly since then and letting myself sleep as much as I feel like I need to.

Really, recovery has been remarkably easy so far – the biggest challenge has been some brain fog and an extremely short attention span. I’ve been blown away by the support we’ve gotten from family and friends – surprise care packages, gift cards, sweet notes, visits…it’s just been really lovely to feel so cared for.

Since I don’t have a whole lot else going on right now, I’ll leave you with some extra Nova content this week – she’s been a trooper with having the household routine totally thrown off.