I admit that in times of extreme stress, I tend to do a little retail therapy when all else has failed. Right around Black Friday, all else had failed, and I took advantage of some sales that were floating around the interwebs. There were four orders: some journals and washi tape from Archer & Olive, a camera harness strap from Cotton Carrier, a polarizing lens filter for my camera (B&H), and a Lensbaby Velvet 56. The lens filter has yet to arrive, but the other three came this week, and all with Stories.

Harness strap: Fedex delivered this with the package half ripped open. Oy. Thankfully all the pieces were still inside. I’ll be trying out this strap for the first time later this morning.

Archer & Olive: When I opened this box from UPS, I was surprised to find three journals instead of two inside. On further inspection, the third (unexpected) journal was not from the company. Instead, it was from some christian planning company, a 2022 christian calendar/planner that was large, hardback, and heavy – and apparently retails for $40! A&O doesn’t sell this planner through their site, so I have no idea how it got in the box. I did write to them to let them know, in case one of their employees is sneaking these into packages – especially since they paid the shipping, not me! One of my friends is going to take this thing off my hands, so I’m glad someone could use it. I’m not even remotely interested in a christian planner…

Lensbaby: Okay so there’s no real fun story to this, but I’ve fallen instantly in love with this lens! I took a few shots the first night it arrived (Friday), in my living room, just to get a sense of how it works. I’ve never had a lens that was full manual on the lens itself, rather than communicating f-stop on the camera. Definitely a new experience, and I can tell that the manufacturing quality is much higher than my two Canon lenses. Of course, I’ve never paid this much for a lens before, so it makes sense! Anyway, the only real story that goes along with this one is that yesterday, I took it out to my garden to try out some good macro shots, and all was going quite swimmingly until I stepped into an ant colony that I hadn’t seen and my feet – stupidly shod in sandals – were swarmed! I freaked out and was screaming. Thankfully Jason was outside and able to get to the hose right away to help me, and afterwards we immediately threw on a baking soda paste to help. I never did go back for the shot of the lavender that I was trying to get when I stepped in the ants… (All photos in collage taken with my Lensbaby.)

The arrival of all this stuff – with or without Issues – has been helpful this week as I continue on in medical hell. I tested negative for mono on Thursday, but the test also shows that I’ve had it in the past (not sure when!). I also had bloodwork done Tuesday, and my Tuesday tests show extremely high white blood cell counts, while my Thursday tests show WBC count smack in the middle of normal, so no one knows wtf is going on. A bunch of other test results from Tuesday show massive inflammation everywhere in my body, especially related to my liver. Which isn’t great, because I also found out (from my GI dr) that I have scarring on my liver, and need to go in for a dye-contrast MRI this week, as well as a second jaw ultrasound and the f/u with my GI doctor. December is turning out to be as awful as November in terms of Every Other F-king Day Is At A Doctor’s Office, so I’m irritated and irritable and glad to have a few fun things to play with. (Despite irritation, though, I’m glad some doctors are finally taking me seriously. I wonder how much damage could have been prevented had they done these tests in 2014/2015 when I had the sudden and unexplained 80-lb weight gain over nine months instead of just telling me that I was eating too much, grr.)