It's been a hugely busy month with medical and dental appointments as I make the rounds, but it's mostly done except for the endoscopy on Oct. 21st. I'm getting my flu and Covid shots tomorrow, then I can relax a bit.

I've tried not to add too many unnecessary things to my apartment, but since the stress has been mounting and days get shorter, I'm learning from last year and adding light to my apartment. I now have 3 small grow lights to try and revive my plants (so far so good), an electric candle on my work desk, and the fairy lights still on my railing from last year. I've learned that little things that make me smile when I look at them are a very good way to break out of any doom spirals I have.

One of the best random purchases I made last year was the clock from The Nightmare Before Christmas where the clock face is a stylized spider web and there are blocks you can use to count down to Halloween, then switch it to count down to Christmas. It's not the fancy light up one from Disney, it's the Spirit Halloween knock-off, but I love it just the same.

It's a balance; yes I could purchase more, but I don't want to clutter my space. At the same time I also want to buy things that will cheer me up longer term, or things that I will use up over time so it's not a permanent addition to the apartment.

And of course once I set up my little Christmas tree after Thanksgiving, that sucker is staying up until AT LEAST February :D! I'm recovering, slowly but surely.

I finally got down to visit my dad post-knee replacement, plus now that the first couple of weeks have elapsed he's more mobile and in less pain. While I was there, of course I reflected on life when I was living there too vs. now that I have my own apartment, and one of the odd things I've noticed.

My mom hates to clean and used to hire someone to come in once a month, but that stopped in the pandemic and she hasn't found anyone new. So that leaves my dad who cleans but doesn't deep clean, my mom who will do it begrudgingly, and my sister who won't clean until actively forced.

One of the things I always used as an outlet of something I could control was cleaning, so despite the fact that my apartment is about 60 years old, I do a full clean on the holidays like today. That works out to about 5-6 times a year where I'm scrubbing floors, cleaning baseboards and the steps, and dusting out of the way areas, so even though my parents have a 20 year old house, mine is likely cleaner than theirs.

However, when I was living there I would purposely not clean as often, since if I did it, that meant my sister would never do it. I would vacuum and clean the bathrooms, scrub the floors maybe every 3 months, but not nearly as frequently as I do living alone.

Was it petty? Yes. Living with my parents worked fairly well minus them yelling at each other. Living with my sister brings out all of my bad habits I picked up when I was growing up overshadowed by her drama and laziness. Old habits never die, but you can grow out of them. I just have to grow out of it while around her lol.