Oh man! I’m so behind with these! And with my memory, things are sure to be spotty with what I can remember the last 6 weeks. I was surprised when I noticed it was 6 weeks. I really thought it was maybe 3 weeks. Sorry if I worried anyone – I’ve had a few of you reach out to ask if I’m okay and if I’m still blogging. I’m still here – just have been SUPER social, staying busy and living life. By the time I’m home, I just haven’t had the energy to write.
Let’s start with mental health and therapy. It was a really good last session but felt like I ran out of time really quickly for everything I wanted to touch on but got through the biggest ones first and had some good thoughts and things to think on. I always write myself notes of things that happened or thoughts in my head in between appointments so I remember while on the call what I want to work though.
Physical health, I pulled a muscle in my calves (yes, both) and I had such sore legs that it was uncomfortable to walk. It started on the left side, moved to both and then would bounce back and forth between the left and right. Now, a few weeks later, they’re both finally not sore at the same time (knock on wood), but they’re still tight and makes moving really slow. When it first started, was just a few days before I went to the doctor for my follow-up from taking my blood pressure numbers at home (which I’ll talk about next) so I had her take a look to make sure it was only the muscle and not a clot forming or anything like that with the now concerns of high blood pressure – which she confirmed, yes it looks like it is just the muscle. She put me on meds and wanted to see me in a month to follow-up, which has happened since I last wrote. Unfortunately, it’s still a little high, even though it did come down a little. She increased my dosage from 5 to 7.5 to see if that helps a little more. She also sent me for some blood and urine tests and thankfully most of those came back great. The previous concerns of B12 and iron are both good now, she checked my sodium and potassium – which were both good too. The only thing that came back a little off was the urine with a little protein in it and a little cloudy, so she’s sent me for a more indepth check there – but she did say that it could be because it was first thing in the morning and I hadn’t had much to drink yet – and that’s exactly what it was. The 2nd test came back fine. I see her again in about 6 weeks.
Just after I wrote the last post, it was my birthday! Another year older and feeling it in my body some but I definitely still feel young in my head. Have a few more grey hairs that I’m noticing pop up with this whole aging thing too. It was a nice quiet birthday. The day before, my kiddo and brother got me dinner. The day of Jay took me out for dinner. The following week my dad took both me and my brother out for dinner (for those that don’t know, my brother’s birthday is exactly a week after mine).
A few weeks ago, I got to see my bestie and her family at a pool party at her sisters and mom’s place. As always, my heart is full from spending time with them. I think I stayed in the pool over an hour, and it was fantastic. I wish we could hang out more often, so I really cherish the time when we do get to spend it together.
This has been a great month so far for the side biz. Both the Fall catalog and Halloween collection have dropped, and Halloween is always popular. Something new that just launched today is some make-up. You guys know me – I’m mostly a nail girl and if I do use make-up, it’s usually just my eyes. What they’ve started venturing into is lip stuff. There are lipsticks in 3 different finishes, lip liners, a lip primer and a tinted lip gloss. The only thing I’ve bought is the tinted lip gloss, because I do use a Chapstick frequently and occasionally a gloss. I’ll let you know what I think of it when I try it. If you’re interested in lip stuff – I’d love a review if you try it! I got a few different mani’s done these last few weeks and my current one is to match my Thanos team – I have all different gemstone colours on each finger to look like the infinity gauntlet! I haven’t gotten a good picture of it yet.
There’s been a whole lot of stuff around Heroclix these last few weeks. Devin and I travelled by Greyhound to Rochester to play in Joe’s Clixnexus 20th anniversary Tilt event. It was a different format with the build being 400 and at least half of your build had to be silver. I used this as my way to finally try to make Vision prime effective – and ended up successful! I was able to put the 30pt infinity gauntlet object on the board to equip to him so I could give him power cosmic and gave him a bunch of support in the form of robots (danger room Magneto and Mister Sinister, Supermen robots and Skyscraper Wonder Women). I went into the event fully expecting to lose map and just have people stealing my infinity gauntlet, but it never happened! I either kept winning map and the time I didn’t, they didn’t take it. Of the people who showed up to play, there were only 3 Canadians – and we ended up coming 1st, 2nd and 3rd – only losing to each other the whole day. Devin won, I came 2nd and Dan came 3rd. It was such a fun event and I loved meeting and playing against new people and getting to see people I hadn’t seen in a few years from the pandemic. The travel part of the trip was ummm interesting. Devin and I met after work and grabbed dinner before getting on the bus. The trip there was fairly easy – just sucked having an hour layover in Buffalo while waiting for a driver shift change. That station is so sketchy – but nowhere near as sketchy as Rochester. Greyhound doesn’t have a station in Rochester, just a sign on the side of the road. It’s between the Trailway’s bus station and the Amtrack train station – both with signs on the doors that refuse entry to those using Greyhound and there is literally nowhere to wait. I’m so glad that I had Devin with me, getting dropped off in what felt like a not very safe area at 11:20pm and grateful that Ares was there to pick us up. Getting home was even worse. The bus was late, which means finding ways to kill time. I LOVED getting to spend some time having brunch with Joe but then it was tricky figuring out how to spend this now extra time. Thankfully, Devin remembered that Ricky told us that there was a comic store near the Greyhound, and he’d be there playing and invited us as well if we had time – so Joe brought us over there to hang out. We didn’t make the actual event, but as we killed time, we just bought a couple boosters and played a sealed game. The event ended just in time for us to make it to the Greyhound with a few minutes to spare before it arrived, and Ricky brought us there and let us hang out in his van until the bus was due. The trip home was so much longer than it should have been. With the initial delay from the bus being late, we made up a little time at the Buffalo layover by only having 15 minutes there instead of an hour. However, traffic getting to the border made that 5-minute trip almost an hour. Then there was a bus in front of us that we had to wait on before we could cross. Then there was a family that got called to the back for further questioning and we had to wait another hour before they got through and we could go. We did make good use of our time on the bus and were thinking of different team ideas for me to try out for Worlds though!
Since I got back, that’s what the focus has been on – practice for Worlds. I got an online game in with Sam where I tried out an Avengers/Latveria double swap team. I tried it again on the weekend when I had Mike and Jay over for some games. I came to the conclusion that there are too many moving parts and things to remember, and I’d definitely have too much mental fatigue to play it in a long tournament. So back to trying a Thanos team, which I’m much more familiar with, just tweaked slightly. There are still a few more teams I want to give a shot to and will put them on the map at least once or twice, but I’m likely back on Thanos for Worlds, even though I wanted to try something else. Since I wrote the first bit of this and have had a bunch more practice, I’m confirming here that I am back on Thanos. It’s just what I know and have practiced most, so I know that will make for the best experience for me. This way I should remember what my stuff does and be most efficient and optimal with it and be able to try and see what my opponent is trying to accomplish while I’m on autopilot with my team.
Speaking of Heroclix Worlds – I leave for Graceland tomorrow and travel back on Monday, so it’s actually a proper vacation! I decided to travel the day before and the day after the actual event is happening so I can relax a little bit and not be so worried about getting to airports and potential delays on tournament days. This also gives me some down time to spend with friends who are also going a little early or staying a little extra too. Real talk – I’m a little anxious about the actual travel part. This is my first time trying to go with only carryon luggage and not checking a bag. I’m also travelling there alone (thankfully a few friends are on the same flights back, not planned, just happy coincidence!). I’m nervous of delays and missing my connecting flight (there were no direct flights at all). And for those of you who have been reading for years, you may remember the one time I had to ask for a seatbelt extender. I’m really nervous of having to do that. Airplanes are all so different and what is fine for the length of it on one, might not be on the other. All of this is super anxiety provoking but I’m super proud of myself for pushing through and doing it anyways. I know that the reward of getting there and seeing everyone and playing a game I love will be totally worth it. It always is. Travelling to play Heroclix is one of my favorite things to do and I always have such a good time.
The other Heroclix stuff has been playing in the month 1 storyline events for X of Swords. I’m feeling grateful that we have 3 local venues who are running them. Getting the pieces from this set will be very difficult to come by, as you can only get them from playing in these events. I’ve done pretty well at them so far, being at the top table at all 3 venues and actually winning at one of them!
That’s about it for me – from what I can remember anyways!
Until next time, xoxo