jesse_the_k | Joys & Sorrows 2023

Instead of stressing over making a perfect essay, I’ve numbered this summary so it’s easier for you to ask for elaboration.

Joys 2023

MyGuy and Bella are healthy
I was able to be useful in a crisis (sasha_feathers’s seizure)
My great therapist left my HMO and was willing to continue to work with me, now WEEKLY! Together we’ve identified many false beliefs I’ve been lugging around for 60+ years. I finally understand that I’m not broken nor inherently unlovable. My parents were ill-equipped to handle a kid like me.
My wonderful doc prescribed twice-daily Serevent (aka salmeterol) and my highly reactive airways haven’t been this happy in decades. I’ve only had to use my rescue inhaler five or six times since the fall.
MyGuy got me a variable- temperature teapot and it’s wonderful. Making tea at 160°, 185°, or 212° no longer requires I dink around with ice cubes or pouring it between vessels.

I’ve been riding the bus here for 50 years, and I knew my city well. I’m a transit geek — for a decade I served on the city’s Transit Board. This year’s bus system redesign, while necessary, has totally crumbled my mental model. I don’t know if I have the cognitive skill to recreate it.
My wonderful primary care doctor, who I’ve been seeing since 1990, retires next week.
Reading fiction is hard, often so hard I have to give up.
Even through my insistent news wall, just a handful of stray facts from the Israel/Palestine war break my heart