A long overdue update

Hello, everyone! How are you all doing? Well, I hope! I’m definitely doing much better than I was last time I popped up here. And it’s time for an update now!

First things first, dad was taken to the ER as soon as people noticed he wasn’t doing well, and quick medical attention is probably why he’s doing so well today. He spent a week in the hospital, from Sunday to Friday in the ICU and Saturday and Sunday in a regular room, until they released him on Sunday after lunch.

He’s been back home for a week, and we’re still working on getting proper treatment for a condition. He’s going to have to get blood drawn once a week until his blood is no longer too thick, which the doctors suspect was what caused his stroke. He’s walking, talking coherently and remembers everything, so we’re hopeful he won’t have any big side effects as long as he follows all of the doctor’s instructions.

And this is it for now! Thank you for the support, everyone!

Advertisement

A hopefully short MIA

Hey, everyone! Hope you’re doing well. I wish I could say I am. I’ll be stepping back for a while to focus on family, as my dad is in the hospital recovering from a stroke. He’s responding well to treatment, but with going to the hospital when visits are allowed, supporting my mom and still working when I can, I’m absolutely exhausted.

Please take care of yourselves, and I will hopefully be back soon!

A trip in just a few pictures

Hello, everyone! How are you all? Doing well, I hope! I’m doing well enough, having just come back home yesterday after a few days out of state. Why? Well, it’s Mardi Gras, everything becomes super chaotic here during this time of year, and things are much calmer in the other state. And we have family there, though we only coincided with everyone there one day, when we all went for lunch.

This trip was mostly for resting and relaxing, so we mostly left our hotel to eat and take a walk across the street from our hotel, where the beach is. So, I’ll just share a few pictures and be done with it. I’m happy to answer questions, of course! (We went to Aracaju, the capital city of the state of Sergipe. It’s a five-ish hour drive from where I live.)

A chair made with wooden spoons at the place we stopped at for breakfast on the way to Aracaju.

Tamar Project (stands for Tartaruga Marinha, which means Sea Turtle) – an institution devoted initially to protect sea turtles, but which now has extended to other marine species.

Strawberry Gin Tonic at Madí, a restaurant right next door to our hotel.

What happens when you go out in the sun wearing sandals with stripes. The culprit is resting on the right side.

A big cashew apple. Aracaju means cajueiro das araras, meaning the macaws’ cashew tree, so you’ll see lots of cashew apples, cashews and macaws around the city.

And last, but not least, the elevated bridges the government in my state has installed in several points on the road so monkeys and sloths can safely cross the roads. Taken on the way back. Featuring my dad’s hand.

I guess that’s pretty much it. I don’t really have much more to share today, so I’ll love you and leave you for now!

See you on the next!

WP Daily Prompt Feb 23rd, 2023

What is your favorite drink?

Hello, everyone! How are you all doing? Well, I hope!

I’m doing fine as well, just got back from a trip to visit with family and escape the Mardi Gras mess in my own city. It’s a long drive, five hours each way, but it was nice enough. I’ll probably share some random pictures as soon as I’ve had the time to sort through them!

This is not why I’m here, though. I’m here to post about today’s Daily Prompt. The question is: What is your favorite drink? I’m sorry to disappoint, but the answer is fairly boring: water. Ice cold water, to be more specific.

I know, I know. There are so many more interesting drinks, and don’t get me wrong, I like them too! I enjoy fruit juice, soda, and the occasional alcoholic drink when I’m off work. But all of those are, pretty much, treats as far as I’m concerned. The one thing that really satisfies me is water.

There, if you had ever suspected I am a boring old lady, now you have proof.

What about you? What’s your favorite liquid delight? I’d love to know!

See you on the next!

WP Daily Prompt – How I approach budgeting

Write about your approach to budgeting.

Hello, everyone! Hope you’re all doing well! I sure am!

Due to being a holiday week for me, I’m spending some time out of town, but I’ll still try and post every now and then when I have the time and an interesting prompt. Everything else will wait until I am home.

How I approach budgeting is… well, terribly, to be honest. I have always been terrible at budgeting, saving, all of that.

So, now that I temporarily don’t have bills of my own to pay, I simply split my paycheck in two every month. A set amount goes to savings (for a big unexpected expense, retirement, or whatever else). The rest pays my bills and sits on my checking account for any necessary expenses, up to a certain amount. Then, next month, I rinse and repeat, with whatever is left over joining the set amount on my long-term savings or going to replenish my short-term savings pot if I have spent any of it.

Sorry if anyone expected anything highly specialized. I’m not good at that.

How about you, reader? How do you approach your budget, be it monthly or what have you? I’m curious to know!

My dream home – WP Daily Prompt

Write about your dream home.

Hey there, everyone! How are you all doing? Well, I hope! I’m doing well enough – working a lot and learning a lot, and anticipating being off work next week, because my new position does allow me those perks. My old position wouldn’t have afforded me this luxury at all.

I know I still owe a post on my new job, but I’m still learning the ropes, so that will have to wait. Also, who wants to hear me ramble on about work?

With that out of the way, let’s jump into today’s prompt, shall we?

My dream home would be… a bedroom with a basic set up, like a desk for work, a nice bathroom and a microwave and coffee maker to complete the ideal home.

I have to admit that the older I get, the more inclined I become to stay in my bedroom, and keep life fairly simple. With how much raw or premade food I eat, a place to heat water and a microwave would be just fine for me, if not the healthiest.

I guess that’s pretty much it. Not quite exciting, right? But it is what it is. Have you posted on this prompt? I’d love to read it!

WP Daily Prompt Feb 01, 2023

What do you complain about the most?

Hello, everyone! How are you all doing? Well, I hope! I’m doing well enough at the moment!

Thought I’d take the time to post on today’s WP Prompt, since I’m pretty damn prone to complaining about a lot of things. I have to admit I’m a somewhat grumpy human “bean”.

And anyone who knows me knows that the thing I have been complaining about the most is work. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoy working, and I generally like my job. What I really struggle with is dealing with people’s mistakes and/or irresponsibility affecting my ability to do my own job.

With a new job inside the same company now, I believe and hope this will improve, even though we’re still in the process of well, defining the process. We’ll see. I’ve only just started in full today, so maybe I’ll check back in a month or so and share my impressions.

For now, I have to admit I’m relieved to have a job that has a process at all, instead of the mess my old position was. We’ll see.

Have you posted for today’s prompt? I’d love to read it!

See you on the next!

A stroll down memory lane

Hello, my darlings! How are you all? Doing well, I hope!

I’m doing just fine myself, dealing with a very hot summer, and trying my hand at a new job – I’ll probably talk more about it on a dedicated post.

Today, I was talking to my friend about memories, and this came out, so I thought I’d share it. It was just one of those memories that hit you like a freight train sometimes.

One of the fondest memories I have of my grandpa is that he’d wake up at like 5 am on Saturdays, go out, buy bread and the newspaper, and then let himself in our home, a 30 minute walk from his own. By the time we’d wake up, he would have quietly made breakfast and be sitting there patiently reading his paper so he could have breakfast with us and then head back home. He did that for years, until he got too sick to keep on doing it. It drove my grandmother crazy, but he loved it. And so did we.

Just typing this makes me a little misty-eyed. My grandpa wasn’t a perfect man. He was a grumpy old retired police officer, he was as stubborn as one can be, and he had a gambling problem, yes. But he was also an intensely loving grandpa for us kids, and had embraced my father (his stepson) as his son, to the point where all you had to do to piss him off was to call my dad his stepson.

I don’t know why I’m sharing this. I guess after a certain age, you become nostalgic.

What about you all? What leads you down memory lane? Please share!

See you on the next!

Folklore – Dom Sebastião, the Portuguese King Arthur?

Hello, everyone! How are you all doing? Well, I hope! I’m alive, and still getting used to this whole 2023 thing. I’m also still sorting out my job situation, but everything will eventually fall into place, I hope.

With that out of the way, I thought I’d share a tiny tidbit of folklore I have always been fond of. I first heard of it in Literature classes, and it was all so fascinating I thought I’d share it. So sit down and grab your favorite beverage.

Dom Sebastião (Dom was a title commonly used for noblemen in the Portuguese language, mostly for king and princes – nowadays it’s still used for Catholic bishops and abbots) was the King of Portugal from 1557 to 1578, when he vanished during the battle of Alcácer Quibir, in Morocco. He was an only child, and his father died before he was born, meaning his birth and survival were extremely important for the country.

He rose to the throne at the age of 14, despite having rights to it from the age of three when his grandfather, the king, passed away. Dom Sebastião wasn’t particularly well versed in the art of war, but he felt he had to go to Morocco in order to protect Portuguese interests in the country against the encroaching Turkish armies.

It all came to a head on August 4th, 1578, when the battle of Alcácer Quibir came to pass, and the Portuguese army was defeated. That included the death of disappearing of Dom Sebastião. He was last seen alive refusing to surrender. His last recorded words were “Royal freedom shall only be lost with the loss of one’s life”. Once those words were said, the Turkish army went on the attack and Dom Sebastião was surrounded until he could no longer be seen, meaning there were no actual Portuguese witnesses to the moment of his death.

Some bodies have been found and given as Dom Sebastião’s body, but there was never actual proof of identity, thus giving rise to the legend of Dom Sebastião as “the sleeping king”, a Messianic figure who shall rise to aid Portugal in its darkest hour.

A fun fact is that in Brazil, at the end of the 19th century, a group of dissidents with a strong religious component, during the War of Canudos (I can talk about this one in the future if you think it’s interesting), believed Dom Sebastião would come to their aid and help them re-establish a Monarchy here.

There is a lot more historical stuff, but who cares about that? Just kidding, but I wanted to share the folklore part. I may talk more about Portuguese and Brazilian history at some point.

That’s all for today! See you all soon!

WP Daily Prompt December 28, 2022

Have you ever been in an automobile accident?

Hello, everyone! How are you all doing? Well, I hope! I’m doing well enough for now, still struggling, but working on improving my overall health!

I’m here today because today’s WP Daily Prompt is something I do have an answer to, and the answer is yes.

You can see the prompt right on top of the post, but it asks: Have you ever been in an automobile accident?

I have. I was 11, so it happened almost 30 years ago, but I still remember it. It happened at my mom’s home town. My cousin took us all to a drive somewhere (can’t remember where), and the roads there were… well, not good is a huge understatement. And, as it was considered pretty normal years ago, nobody was wearing a seat belt.

All I can remember is us hitting a bump on the road, and then the car started flipping a few times, until it landed upside down. The smell of dirt and blood hit my nose, and my cousin, the driver, was unconscious behind the wheel. My brother and I, around 13 and 11 respectively, panicked in different ways, since the one adult present couldn’t do anything. I started punching the glass on my side since all the windows were stuck. My brother eventually managed to open one enough that we could get out of the car, and then proceeded to try and flip the car back to its right position.

We were lucky that a truck driver spotted us and stopped to help. I don’t remember much more about it, but I still have the scars on my right hand from my repeatedly punching the glass.

And this is how I have developed claustrophobia and an irrational fear of driving.

I think that’s all for today! See you on the next!