The Adventures of Sheila the Wonderbink

I am reading “A Study in Celluliod” by Micheal Cox producer of Sherlock Holmes. It is a very interesting look behind the curtain of the making of the 1984 Granada series. The only thing that stopped it was the death of Jeremy Brett. There were plans to continue the series after the last season.

I have been blogging more often than I thought I would. It is sort of a brain dump for me. I am hoping someone finds it amusing or useful. I know one of the most read ones is the one about my miscarriage and people said it did help them along with my mental health entries.

Writing about mental health is important to me. I hope my situation and what I am doing for it gives even just one person the courage to take on their mental health journey. I know I am a very different person than I was before the pandemic. Right now I am getting back into doing things I stopped doing because I was so depressed and felt off kilter. That’s a good sign for me. Also, I am talking to my therapist every two weeks rather than every week. I am stable right now and enjoying it.

I am grateful for the right medication that is helping me be stable.

It comes out of my stage management days where I learned a list could save your Kister. I would write notes as they came up and then typed a post rehearsal memo with all the notes, so everyone was on the same page. The great thing is I could go back to the notes to solve arguments. I was told more than once I was excellent at taking notes.

Today is a gym day and I am going to visit Peter. Around that I must finish the laundry and clean up the kitchen. Then puppets are next on the list. Tomorrow will be a gym day. 

This week we recycle paper, and I have a bit to recycle. Ordering fabric online leads to a lot of paper to recycle. Also, Peter got some graphic novels, and I finally got two books I ordered quite a while ago.

Caroline and her traveling buddy are in Japan. Caroline said that when I said the room was going to be small, she hadn’t really grasped the concept of how small until she got into the room. They do need to go outside to change their mind. They did have a pleasant first day in Tokyo.

I am grateful for safe travel.

Laundry is the name of the game today including changing the sheets and towels.

I have been watching through the Muppet Show because I know them so well, I can leave the room and come back knowing exactly where I am. It is still so funny. I have my favorite episodes but this time I am going through all but two episodes. Those episodes have different problems leading them to be left out. Really wish I could see the Brooke Shields episode again. It was their Alice in Wonderland episode and the Jabberwocky was amazing. There is an innocence to it that, with the possible exception of the Jim Henson Hour, has not been seen since especially after Jim’s death.

Storyteller is next on the list. Thank goodness I have that on DVD.

I really hope I get to the point of cutting out some puppets today. Possibly even sewing a few together. Once I get going, I’ll be fine. It can be the starting that is the hard part.

In positive mental health news, I am laughing again. I am finding things funny again. Can’t say I have done much of that since November 2022. Apparently, we have found the secret combo of medication that is keeping me even and feeling better. Mental health has been on my mind a lot. Not only mine, but others I care for.

I am grateful for the right meds.

 
Time and I are at slight odds with each other.

 Tuesday is almost ephemeral. I keep thinking it is Monday or Wednesday.

 Thursday is solid since I work on Thursday.

 Friday is the day after I worked so that one doesn’t slide around a lot.

 Saturday and Sunday are easy to mix up or turn Friday on repeat.

 Monday is almost solid for some reason.

 Months? What are months? I can remember what month it is just because I am vigilant with my calendars, so I know where I am in the year. Doesn’t always work but works enough that I can keep up with it.

2025 I have firmly in my head, but we are past January.

Then there is the amount of time Peter has been ill. We are two years and five months into this saga. Not much has changed recently except his white blood cell count is normal for the first time in over a year. We had a new normal but now he really is normal. Dialysis can cause the white cell count to tick up a bit. I know when he has an infection. He hasn’t ever run a fever but there are other signs that make me alert to an infection.

There is the amount of time Caroline has been on this planet. I keep up with that. She has gone from someone the length of my forearm to a young lady with ambition. She is still just a bit shorter than me. I am so proud of her. We gave her a start and she has taken that to become the person she is. She’s in love with her partner and they were made for each other. She had to fight hard to get into FIT and harder to get into the animation program. She would not take “it is the way it has always been” as an answer and got administration to think about why it was this way. She is the first film student to major in animation and with that opened the door for others to take that path. It does mean an extra year of school for her. She doesn’t mind that. She is even working in the industry doing storyboards for a project. She is a go getter. She is also an empathetic and kind person. She told me that she learned from my example of how to treat people. She is a good problem solver. 

Then there is the amount of time I have been on this planet. As I have stated before, I can say many things about my life, boring is not one of them. I have been able to do and learn things that have served me well through out my life. My first teachers were my parents who did an excellent job raising four very different children. Then there was school and my peers. College then Grad School and all the people I met long the way. Peter expanded my horizons by just being Peter. Then there are all the people I have met at conventions, in fandom, online, just to name a few. Puppetry has led me lots of interesting places and people. Over time I have gotten better about building puppets. I am starting the most complicated set yet and I feel confident in what I can do. I am confident in my writing as I have sold stories to various anthologies. Something I never thought I would do when I was younger.

Tempus fugit but I am here for the ride.

I am grateful for Time in all its forms.