#WeekendCoffeeShare (July 6, 2024)

Hi everyone. Today, I’m joining #WeekendCoffeeShare. As I start typing my post, I’ve just had dinner, but I probably won’t be finished with my post until after my evening coffee, as I’ll take a break from writing for my evening activity time slot. In case I am able to offer you a virtual coffee – which I will anyway, since it’s virtual -, I will offer you a stroopwafel biscuit with it too. I bought those at the supermarket this afternoon, because the staff ordering groceries this week either forgot to order large cookies for the weekend or thought they’re bad for our health. Anyway, let’s have a drink and let’s catch up.

If we were having coffee, first I’d moan about the weather. It’s been rainy and chilly most of the week with daytime temperatures barely reaching 20°C. On Wednesday, the daytime high in fact was as low as 16°C.

If we were having coffee, next I’d share that I tore my Apple Watch wristband in two last week. That is, I pulled a tear into it when putting it on once, then when trying to put it on once more thinking I could still use another hole, I tore the entire thing in two, thereby dropping my Apple Watch. Thankfully, it didn’t break, but I couldn’t use it for a couple of days because of having no wristband. I mean, the wristband that broke wasn’t the original one, but somehow I must’ve discarded part of the original, since I could only find half of it.

I initially tried to order a new wristband and screen protector online, but the Apple Store would only let me pay by credit card and, though I did manage to order a screen protector off Bol.com, it was delivered to my in-laws’ house and hadn’t been delivered there yet by the time my mother-in-law visited me on Tuesday. I finally decided to just give it a try and order a wristband at another store and have it delivered to the care home. Like I’ve said a few times, the care home does have its own postal code, but I was originally instructed to address mail to the main building and add my home as second address line. Bol.com won’t accept second address lines and so I always used to have them deliver to my in-laws. Not anymore, since the wristband, addressed to the care home, arrived promptly and so did the screen protector I ordered that evening. Now I’ll have two screen protectors once my spouse brings the one that’s lying around at my in-laws’, but who cares? I have a working Apple Watch at last!

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you that the fact that it was raining plus the fact that I didn’t have my Apple Watch meant I didn’t walk nearly as much over the past week as I usually do. On Monday, I got pretty frustrated, because a temp worker happened to be assigned my two-hour activity time slot three times this week. Granted, he’s a regular temp worker here, but I had not yet trusted him enough to do anything other than play games and go for medium-long walks. On Monday I was anticipating two hours of dice games because of the weather, but thankfully it stopped raining eventually and we could go for a short walk.

Then on Tuesday, he told one of my most trusted staff that he’d love to work with clay with me. On Monday, the way he’d suggested we work with clay, it sounded as though he was just rattling off my activity list and I don’t do clay with staff I don’t trust to show at least some interest in it. I mean, they don’t need to know anything about polymer clay or even crafts in general, but if they’re the type to just sit around playing on their phone, a complex activity like polymer clay isn’t for them and me to work on together.

So on Wednesday, I decided to take the plunge and make a unicorn with him. At first, I used Cernit, which was way too soft, so I eventually gave up and chose Fimo. He asked to take the finished unicorn home with him to show his children, which I was happy to allow him to after I’d taken a picture, since I have many unicorns anyway.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you I started tapering one of my medications yesterday. It’s not the medication I originally wanted to taper, which was my antipsychotic, aripiprazole (Abilify). Instead, the intellectual disability physician suggested I discontinue my morning dose of topiramate (Topamax), which was supposed to help against nightmares and flashbacks. So far, I’m not noticing any difference good or bad, but it’s still early days of course.

If we were having coffee, lastly I’d tell you all to come to my home tomorrow. No, not really, but we will have a barbecue here. The parents of one of my fellow clients organize it, so I decided to buy them some chocolate as a thank-you gift.