Wow! Dyke Vandenburgh Jeweler did an amazing job on these! This was a 10-week, something-something dollar project that took a total of four trips to the jeweler. I’ll just say… between this, the washing machine repair, dryer duct cleaning, and fireplace panel replacement, it will take an entire year to replenish my savings with what everything cost. But it was so worth it! I don’t anticipate having to pay for anything except maybe a new battery for my car next year. Worst case scenario, tires as well. We’ll see. I put $400/month in savings regardless, so there is that. Savings is such a high priority, cutting it isn’t an option unless the situation is dire. However, I did have to scale back how much cash I stash in my safe due to PGE raising prices next year (by a double-digit percentage, what the fuck?!). Netflix is also raising prices next year, and the HOA monthly fees will be going up. So that savings I gained by cutting three subscription services last month? Well that’s already more than eaten up by 2024 price increases. *eyeroll* At this point, so is my 9% pay raise.
Anyway… the whole point of the sunstone project was to go somewhere I’d never been and experience something I’d never done. I didn’t intend for it to get so expensive, but I ended up with two beautiful one-of-a-kind necklaces– one for me and one for my mom; many Oregon Sunstones to gift to a dozen different people, and a tumbler and equipment to tumble more stones. I learned a lot, too. First there’s the geology behind the gemstones themselves, then there’s the jewelry terminology (like cabochon and box chain), and all there is to learn about rock tumbling. I think the highest learning curve, believe it or not, was the rock tumbling.
This is the fanciest thing I’ve ever done for myself or anyone else. The gemstones are genuine (I mined them myself!). The gold settings are real yellow and rose gold, and the chains are as well. The settings and chains are all 14k gold.
I also had a gold nugget my dad gave me made into a pendant! He’s done a lot of gold panning over the years and when I went to visit in September he dumped a vial of small nuggets into a dish and said, “Pick one you like and keep it.”
Here is the before/after of my mom’s necklace. This is an Oregon Sunstone with such a concentrated amount of copper in it, it’s red. I chose yellow gold because my mom likes it with her warm complexion.
This is the before/after of mine. I could have done a red one also or even the green, but I wanted to wear the quintessential “Schiller” Oregon Sunstone. The copper schiller is actually most visible from the back, but you can also clearly see it on the front. It also has some parting with a slight yellow inclusion making it imperfect, but unique. I chose rose gold because the color more closely matches the color of the copper schiller than anything else.
It was such a fun project and lesson in patience. Each step of the rock tumbling process took much less time than other types of stones, but it was still a good month-long process which I had to pause when I went out of town. Each step of the jewelry took a long time, too. The cutting took a couple of weeks, the settings took five weeks to arrive, and the setting of the stones in them took two weeks. I couldn’t just show up, either, I had to make an appointment each time and drive to downtown Lake Oswego and find parking.
What’s interesting about these gemstones is that when you have them in a bag and they’re all dirty, you have no idea how good they are. Then when you wash them up you can start to see the copper in the larger ones, but you still can’t see their full potential until you either have them cut or tumble them. That green one? I almost threw that one away until I looked at it closer and realized it was copper, not basalt inside. And I didn’t know the tiny ones had copper in them until I tumbled them and looked at them under 10x magnification with a UV light. These things are just phenomenal.
Here’s the YouTube video I love to share because it’s from OPB and explains everything you need to know about them in only nine minutes: https://youtu.be/aHz0V186NUQ?si=QxDoWA7Xtp310vTI
That’s really the most exciting thing I’ve had going on lately. I got the updated COVID-19 vaccine, the one that targets X.B.B. I don’t really care what it targets, as long as I can get as many shots as they let me and it keeps me out of the hospital. This is my fifth Covid vaccine now, and boy was it a doozy. They say that if you have a good, healthy, or just plain “reactive” immune system, side effects are worse. I had the usual sore arm, but I also had body aches, a headache, a low grade fever, and some slight nausea. The worst part only lasted for one day, but then I had an insatiable appetite and copious amounts of gas (on a work-from-home day, thank goodness). I knew better than to do any exercise for a few days, so I stayed away from the gym for the remainder of the week. The last time I had unpleasant side effects from the vaccine (in December 2021), I nearly fainted in the shower after doing cardio too soon after. I had to get out and immediately lie down on the floor. It was actually kind of scary, enough to make me want to stay away from cardio for a full five days. This week I did three gym workouts, a swim, and some yoga. Today I might go for a walk.
I’ve been making a concerted effort of staying ahead of the Seasonal Affective Disorder. It’s a lot of work and requires motivation but, you know, it’s a self-perpetuating cycle, both up and down– and I’d rather be up than down. I have to stay on top of doing my grocery shopping, food prep, and cooking to keep eating clean and healthy. I have to get my chores done fast so I can go to bed early enough to get enough sleep. I have to remember to take my vitamin D supplements. And I have to force myself to get out of bed early enough to use my light box for 30 minutes and go to the gym for regular exercise. I’m still going to the tanning salon a couple of times a week to feel the warm glow and boost my confidence a bit by not looking sickly pale. I’ve been going swimming once every 2-3 weeks, but I do need to increase that to weekly. The plan has been every Saturday afternoon after weekend chores, but most of my Saturdays have been taken up by appointments lately. They should be free from now on with the exception of Thanksgiving weekend. What else… diet, sleep, exercise, light box, fake sun, swimming, vitamin D… I think that’s it. I’m basically faking myself out, making my body think it’s still summer. I do need to go for more walks, too.
It’s hard to do it all– be the breadwinner, homemaker, accountant, gardener, chef, life coach… and still find time for friends, family, and my own physical and mental health. And hobbies, let’s not forget those. I haven’t picked up my ukulele or guitar in so long. Well, I did play my guitar for a few minutes last week, but there’s never enough time for everything. I am still slowly plugging away at the T-SQL textbook. There are 16 chapters and I’m on chapter 5. I have until my next performance review to finish learning it and that’s in July, so I have a reasonable amount of time. I think my boss’s intent was for me to learn during work hours, but we both know that’s not possible. I’m working on three different e-commerce systems now, and I’m so busy all the time he has to run interference for me when another department asks me to do something. He also insulates me from angry sales reps when there’s an undesirable outcome from a decision made by another company, one of which is out of my control.
I’m getting concerned about my mom. She seems to be quickly losing her short term memory and she misremembers details of the distant past. When I see her in person, she also seems… spacey… like she’s lost somewhere inside her own head. Major cognitive decline is inevitable for her, given her family history and her current and past lifestyles. Because she lives in the middle of nowhere, she can’t continuously eat fresh produce and she isn’t exposed to different cultures and opportunities for learning. She takes a walk every day and goes to church, but I really don’t know what else she does. She has no worldly knowledge of anything, and I don’t think she reads books anymore. Clearly she doesn’t spend all of her days cleaning house. The floors are filthy and you can barely see through the windows. There are cobwebs everywhere. I think recently she’s been spending a lot of her time dealing with what my grandparents left behind, but aside from that, I have no idea what she does. I’m still so flabbergasted that she’d never heard of Thai food before I took her to a Thai restaurant this summer. I told her I’d be taking the day before Thanksgiving off so I could spend the day driving there, and yesterday she asked me if I was taking that day off and when I’d be driving over there because she “forgot” what I’d told her. She’ll be 71 next month; she’s not that old.
Meanwhile, my 70-year-old father recently learned how to replace the hard drive in his Mac and he recalls every detail of the conversations we’ve had. And my 70-year-old stepmom remembered that I was coming for my daughter’s wedding; I didn’t have to tell he twice. She doesn’t seem quite as sharp as my dad, but she’s sharper than my mom. I’m seeing a pattern of women in my family experiencing the most cognitive decline. This is why I’m so focused on diet, exercise, learning, and socializing. Getting old terrifies me. I live in a condo with stairs. Can I climb them forever? I work with my brain and can’t ever afford to retire. How long will I be able to work? I’m always so concerned with what I eat, I frequently fret about whether it’s healthy enough. Then I go to either my mom’s or my dad’s place and I’m wondering where the vegetables are and how they can stand so much processed food. Hell, I can’t even eat wheat and I spend at least an hour each week just chopping fruits and vegetables to keep in the fridge for easy access. I always feel like I’m never eating healthy enough until I see how other people eat.
Things are getting strange here in my little town. Aside from the murder suspects being arrested and the high-speed police chase where they shot at the cops, this summer a woman was found dead just a couple of miles from here. Her body was dumped in a vacant lot. Then this week a man was arrested after a SWAT team was involved. He’s being charged with first-degree rape and first-degree sodomy, among other things. Apparently he’s raped two women here in town and had met them on “online dating apps.”
The character of men these days makes me want to continue not dating.
I haven’t had sex since April and I don’t even care. No one is worth the effort and the quality of sex has declined tremendously over the past five years. Why even try? And dating? All anyone wants to do is go out to eat at restaurants, drink, and have their MILF porn fantasies fulfilled. That’s it. If/when I do start dating again, I’m going to be extremely choosy and refuse to date anyone under the age of 40. I did see that a few of the “trending searches” on Pornhub lately have been “curvy milf,” “best friends mom,” and “friends mom.” Ugh. I’m so over it.
I am a lot happier than I seem. I come on here to vent, mostly. But life is good. I have a good job, own my own home, my car is paid off, and I’m working on savings and student loans. My social life is just enough to keep me satisfied (I am an introvert, after all). Two out of three of my kids are doing well and happy. I’m so proud of them. I’m branching out and trying new things. I think I will text my coworker and see if he wants to go for a hike with me next Sunday. I also talked to a woman in the swim lane next to me yesterday and learned her name and what she does for a living. I see her at the pool every time I go. I am feeling healthy and happy and keeping busy and entertained. I’m doing everything I need to do and helping my son navigate the nuances of adulthood.
Recently I’ve been trying new-to-me cheeses. I’ve discovered BellaVitano to be my favorite. Love that subtle crunch.
As for next year? Maybe I’ll go out to Hood River and do the fruit loop or ride the train. See, those are good date ideas! I have a list going, you know. In addition to my best-hikes-of-each-month list and snowshoe route list, I have a good long list going of unique date ideas. Of course I can do them alone as well and probably will, but if I do ever meet a man who isn’t simply awful, they would be fun dates. Last year I couldn’t even find anyone decent enough to take to a concert, so I’m not holding my breath.