Enjoying Meeting My Goals

This Sunday, 9/16 marks one month since my first day working at Angelico Pizzeria. I'm still volunteering, but I'm enjoying learning different aspects of the business, including food prep, cooking, expediting, and answering phones. I'm hoping that by Halloween business will pick up from the summer slump, and I'll be getting paid 2 days a week, which is what I'm working now.

I've been volunteering also with teaching seniors basic computer skills and feeding seniors through Meals on Wheels. On Tuesday evenings I take a free tai chi class.

I've been attending services at an Episcopal church and will be teaching Sunday school once a month. Meeting with my meditation mentor is going well.

Since around August 20, when I had a cold, I've been having some discomfort and pain in my left side and the left side of my back. The pain in my back has gotten better, but the pain in my left side continues. I feel it mostly when I meditate (or otherwise sit erect) and sometimes when I am working. Usually I only sit for about 20 minutes in the evening, but can sometimes sit longer in the morning, up to about 45 minutes or so. This pain in my left side may also be related to the fact that I've only been eating 2 meals a day since the middle of July: breakfast and lunch.

Sometimes I resist the pain and hope that it will go away at some point, but I also play around with accepting it as a friend and teacher. I've talked to my doctor about it, and he thinks it might go away on its own. He suggested physical therapy if I still have the pain in another month.

This Monday marks 2 months that I've been taking 1 1/2 mg of risperidone. I decided not to decrease it again for a while when I got hired at Angelico. At first I thought I would reduce another half mg in December, after Rose's semester is over. Rose wants me to wait until at least May, when she has a longer break (Summer!). So I will probably do that, though I want to talk to my psychiatrist about it this Monday. 1 1/2 mg seems like a very low dose, and I wonder if what I am taking is really doing anything anyway.

As for my other goals from my June 27th post, I've got all 5 of my credit card payments under control for now. Haven't been able to do much with a few medical bills I have. I can probably do something about those when I start getting paid by Angelico.

Rose and I did not go to the Ohio wedding.

Traveling with Rose: I have checked out 3 books from the library about worldwide and volunteer vacations. They are:

     The 100 Best Worldwide Vacations to Enrich Your Life

     The 100 Best Volunteer Vacations to Enrich Your Life

     Volunteer Vacations: Short-Term Adventures That Will Benefit You and Others

I would like to peruse these with Rose and choose something to save up and plan for.

Rose and I are doing well, though she is very unhappy sometimes. It's possible that she will decide to split up with me once she gets her nursing degree and is more financially independent. I fully support her with that if that's what she wants to do. I will probably miss her, but I will also enjoy the freedom from her dramas and verbal abuse. And I will be happy that I will have left her in a good place where she can take care of herself.