cornerofmadness

Mostly wrote and then had a surprise writers zoom meeting because I forgot we weren't doing them thursdays any more due to conflicts in half our schedules. I didn't do well but mostly because some fool lost the link to the big bad Pennsylvanian cryptid she wanted to use. Sigh. I could NOT find it again. I found the others I wanted to use as red herrings.

Still having blood sugar issues. Today's breakfast sent it almost to 400. By lunch I hit a critical low and then I knocked my damn monitor off again.

two hours later the monitor covers arrived from Amazon. In ONE day. I'm so not used to that (even Prime will not guarantee 1-2 shipping in my area).

Also in there was a book I ordered on Italian healing herbal meds and folklore/paganism. I've been testing herbs from other people's culture and looking so long at UK/Viking paganism because all I could find on Italy was Raven Grimassi who I did not like. I'm excited for this.


Let's share our music! It's music monday. I'm still doing the alphabet challenge and I'm up to J. I'm only doing the last 5 years but you can share whatever. This was not a good letter so I'm not even cutting it because there are so few. Also YT was on fire with recs today. Lately it's been doing nothing but AI music which is a no (even if it's fan tracks. I'll listen to it if the fan wrote the lyrics but otherwise not so much) I have several new bands to follow.

Because I'm too ill to do anything witty. My sugar went up 325 after breakfast (just eggs and bacon no carbs) by 4 pm it was down to 70 and I was shaking/sweating so I had to take sugar. After dinner my sugar was too high to register on my glucose monitor so it was over 500. I should have gone to the hospital. Now it's back under 400. There aren't words to describe how awful this feels. I'm so tired of this. Might be time to go to a research endocrinologist if I can find one. (and I'm worried about Mom her sugar is also that high thanks to meds and woke up to her dead brother holding out his hand to her. That is not the kind of dream that is going to make me sleep easy tonight)

So here's May's readings. How is it June tomorrow? Speaking of which here's the reminder that the write every day posting is going to start after midnight.


Bodies and Battlements mystery

Trouble the Water horror

Snow & Ink, Vol. 1 manga fantasy

The Flip Side: A Graphic Novel horror graphic novel

We Can Never Leave YA horror

Under This Red Rock YA horror/mystery

Last Dance Before Dawn

Of Manners and Murder historical mystery

The micro for nursing test went well. The dean's end of year lunch as fine. My coworkers are getting a pass but barely. The state is making us do updates to A&P. I'm in charge of this and the other female prof has been there doesn't much care, just tell her what to do. the two men aren't into being told what they HAVE to include. I'm calling a meeting. I tell them today won't work as I'll be out. I get to work and see the two men going we're meeting at 3 today.

No, we are NOT. What part of I can't be there...so I get a 'well can't you be there at 4 I'm busy.' Like I'm not? No I'm going to be in the hospital for hours. We're meeting on thursday at 330 after ALL finals are over. Neither man has replied to me. Well suck it up buttercup because I'm in charge. I'm the one who has to go to all these extra meetings about this stuff and I have seniority over everyone but my fellow lady prof.

As for the appointment...it didn't go well. Worse than I expected. Actually my sugar isn't that bad. we looked at a 3 month glucose monitor readout and doc asks, look here, from 930 your sugar sky rockets and stays high until after 4 pm. What are you doing then? I look at her and she's like palm slap to the head. 'You're at work.' YES 'Well obviously your body doesn't like being there. Are you eating lunch?' Yes. Take another 10 units of insulin with breakfast, babe. sigh.

However my insurance is paying for montjaro (that is not how that's spelled...) which is like Ozempic but has a different med mixed in. Say a prayer for me because Ozempic/Trulicity/Byetta/others in this class, always make me sick. I have gastric paresis and a bad gallbladder and this can make it worse but my sugar is STILL around 200 all day in spite of three other diabetic meds and two insulins.

Also you can't do SOLID sugar rescues like peanut butter with this med if you have a low. You need juice or pop. 'I'll drink maple syrup (like my brother's diabetic cat)' She eyes me. 'What? I don't drink pop. Juice is expensive and I don't want it to go bad waiting on me needing it. BUT I do occasionally eat pancakes and maple syrup (yes I know, bad Dana) so if I go low I'll drink the syrup. But she opened the day with I DID NOT KNOW ABOUT YOUR THYROID. In spite of me begging them to tell her. Why did your ob/gyn order a thyroid scan? She didn't. My PCP did but Holzer sent it to my ob/gyn by mistake. My endo stares at me and says HOW? Come on, you work here. You know it's pathetic. Then she looked at the scan with me and it turns out the pathetic report I had WAS the only one. There's no info on if its hypoechoic or hyperechoic (which would tells us if it's a cyst or a solid) It doesn't say WHERE the three nodules are in my right thyroid lobe, just that they're there and they're ALL over the size that should have been biopsied but the radiologist didn't say that so the other doc looking at this doesn't know that. And of course I'm leaving so I can't go get it redone (and she said yes our radiology department is the pits)

I swear to fuck if this is cancer I'm looking into suing this place because they never sent the report to the right people and didn't even DO it right to begin with. It is compressive so she said there's almost no chance my thyroid is staying in my neck to the end of the year. The right lobe will have to go, cancer or not. I'll need to be on thyroid meds. We almost started them now but again I'm starting two new meds this week.

She's also concerned about the fact that I still have a serious microcytic hypochromic anemia (i.e. tiny red blood cells that don't hold much hemoglobin) I can't exercise hard enough to lose weight because I have so little functioning red blood cells my nails are warped, my gums are pale, I'm so tired.

Yeah I'm so tired, yinz. I just can't with this any more.

But still I go on because I need to. I don't quit easily.

I managed to get out and go to the Book Fest at my local library but this is what it's like around here

Whatever fixes my current landlords put in have helped the flooding around my place but if it keeps raining (and it is) that won't last (speaking of landlords saw my old one at Kroger today)

I got D.M. Guay's second book (glad to see her as she's surviving stage 4 kidney cancer) and a mothman book from a former student of my university and I'm the one who hooked her up with contacts at this library (she lives in Point Pleasant) and Mindy McGinnis who is on the NY bestseller list is the biggest draw. Also saw the local author I often share a coffee house table with (but she does royal historical romances, not really my thing. I did get one last year at this but didn't finish it)

I had a bad night last night, dangerously low sugar and AGAIN the dexcom didn't alert. I need to look at why. Was up over an hour 2:30-4 AM

Tonight was good. Abney Park had another concert, a cyberpunk themed one. It was enjoyable.

and you've been waiting for it so here it is my sabbatical presentation

And my whole life but mostly the DexCom. I was so happy last night. I was going to bed early. I had time to read and edit and all that which I haven't in weeks. I brushed my teeth and got into my nightgown and in five minutes the bed was spinning. WTF. I get up and get the dexcom read out.

Critical Low. It's below 50. OMFG. I was sitting right next to this thing and it didn't alert like it's supposed to. It bings like mad if I'm high but low is even more dangerous. I had to spend the next hour eating. I lost track of the sugar pills I ate and I polished off about a half jar of peanut butter (when I woke back up at 5:00 AM my sugar was still only 110 after all that) So much for going to bed early and getting stuff done. I moved the alarm up to 70 because I don't know what it was waiting on.

The neurologist's office calls me in class (naturally) and they can't get me in until April 8th and I'm like look I have appts in your clinic on April 15th. can you get me in then so I don't have to cancel two days of classes. They did that. So I have 3 appointments at once but it also works because the afternoon appts are with the vascular surgeon so if this is a vascular problem...


I come home to a phone message from Village MD. I have no idea who this is but I have a suspicion it's the other Dana in Texas. I call, give them my name and b-day and they pull me right up and start telling me about needing to make an appointment with my GP. I'm like who are you and where are you? El Paso TX. Yep, it's the other Dana. I said did you not realize this is not an El Paso area code? I explain how this chick keeps bumping on my insurance (not my new one) please don't call me.

We have our contentious work meeting but it ended up okay. I go to make dinner, pull forward my cannisters with the kosher salt etc. Remember the possible mouse situation? Yeah well I found where he was shitting. My entire counter behind the cannisters was shit. Fucking gross. Luckily I still have nitrile gloves (I have to clean in gloves and a mask normally because of my dust allergies) I had to scrub everything. I throw out any spice jar that was on that counter. I loathe mice in the house (outside I think they're cute) I think Rocket ate it. I haven't heard anything in a while. Shudders. I wanted to clean it with fire.

I was sad to see Michelle Trachenberg passed today.

I'm watching Death by Fame and the guy is a Podiatrist in FL and I'm not sure what is worse in this, that his wife is trying to turn their infant daughter into a model (to make up for her aborted career) or that he has the ability to buy her tens of thousands worth of stuff in one go. I'm a podiatrist, my friends are podiatrists. None of us are this well off so it's like man, where did we go wrong?

What I Just Finished Reading:

The Princess and the Grilled Cheese Sandwich, a fantasy sapphic rom-com. Too cheesy for me, all the wrong tropes
.
What I am Currently Reading:


Disco Witches of Fire Island -taking me forever

Silent are the Dead - mystery if I hadn't bought this and if it didn't fulfill a reading challenge prompt I'd have DNFed it. I figured out what I don't like. Once again, the woman can't have her job and be happy. No she has to give it all up and come home (though I will admit, yes she'll lose some of her native culture off the reservation but it's like why couldn't she have used her job to help her people. why does it need to be this. Also solving 2 unrelated murders in 48 hours (book 1 being 24 hours and book 2 being the same) seems ridiculous.



What I Plan to Read Next: probably something from the popsugar line up plus the dozen arcs I have.

I think I mentioned my uncle had come home for a while but they took him back to the home today. He's lost the use of his entire left side and the right is quickly following. For his sake I hope it's not much longer.

I'm worried about ME too. I went to the laundromat after an incident here last week (Big mistake, I didn't realize how much they upped the prices. the wash isn't too bad but the dry is now 50 cents for 10 minutes.) Anyhow I was at the coffee shop writing and waiting on the dryers. It was time to go get my stuff. By the time I packed up my computer and walked to the car the laundromat slipped my mind. I went grocery shopping and drove home. Went to get the laundry and was horrified to realize I NEVER went back for my clothes. I had to go back. 15 miles...30 miles round trip because in the space of 3 minutes I forgot entirely.

I could blame the fact that I haven't used the laundromat since 2021 and it was out of my routine. I could blame the depression. I could blame the fact my blood sugar was nearly 400 and my brain wasn't working. I could blame the fact I didn't sleep more than 4 hours last night (whirling brain, nothing bad, whirling about my speech, about stories) But I am WORRIED. I don't like this. I'm scared by this.

In less terrifying mode, I finished my Wedding Horror story and I doubled the word count so it's in the range.

And let's have the fannish 50: fic rec mode.

I wrote something very silly for the allbingo prompt high profile stunt perverts and combined it with lyricaltitles.


Title: Sweet Surrender, What a Night

Fandom: Hazbin Hotel

Character/Pairing: Angel Dust/Husk


Summary: All Angel wanted was to take advantage of having a lover with beautiful wings, just imagine the possibilities. What he got was not the night of high flying aerial sex he envisioned.

Rating: explicit

Author Note - Written for the spikesgirl58’s six word challenge. The six words were Delivery, Treatment, Race, Joy, Competition, & Basic. Also written for fleethare in comment_fic for the Hazbin Hotel, Husk/Angel Dust, sticking the landing and for the lyrical titles duet challenge 2025 for the prompt A song and its parody using December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night) by Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons (this is the actual song). Also written for the allbingo prompt of highly trained stunt perverts.

( story under here or at the link )

Undercover Blues FAKE

Mayhem Murder She Wrote/Allstate Insurance "Mayhem" Commercials

Operation Rift Repair Torchwood/NCIS: New Orleans

Slice Me Up and Dick Me Down Hazbin Hotel

Self-Care Murder She Wrote

pass with the winter (come in like the storm) Supernatural

rip me to pieces (rock me to sleep) 时光代理人 | Link Click

There’s A Husband In My Bed Shameless (US)

Mellow Fruitfulness Torchwood

Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood
Murder She Wrote/ Captain America (Chris Evans Movies)/ The Avengers (Marvel Movies)

Along Comes a Woman Murder She Wrote/ due South

Family Decision Making Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling

Healing hands and resting arms Call of Duty (Video Games)

Sugar and Cream 9-1-1


Agree to Disagree Hazbin Hotel

Insubordination The Terror (TV 2018)

The Bookmark Stargate Atlantis

Aftermath Teen Wolf

Love vs. Loyalty The Owl House

Human In Hell Hazbin Hotel

Untitled Star Trek TNG

There's a saying around here (and points south) God Willing and the creek don't rise (I'll be there if those things happened) The creek rose but before that let's look at this day.

It wasn't supposed to rain. It's raining like 24 hours of it. Naturally I have to go to Best Buy to return the new monitor with it's small dead pixels before the 15 day grace period is over (yes I know BB sucks but they had this computer on sale 300$ cheaper than Amazon and Costco which were my preference) technically that was yesterday but I was taking my chances

But at work I got an email from payroll saying our payroll company needs me to send them the routing number because it was changed but they got it straightened out with my bank this time. No link to click but I'm like is this real?

I call my bank. They're like NO we did not change the routing number. I look up our actual payroll person (I don't know I have no reason to know) It WAS from her. It's real. Are you sure it's not been changed? My BANK is but to be fair I don't have my routing number on me and the bank will only do so much over the phone so I have to go up to the bank tomorrow and I'm wondering if I'm getting my pay check tomorrow...

Annoyed by this I head to Huntington to hit Best Buy. It's raining. I get to Hillbilly Hotdog (because if my health is gonna suck anyhow, might as well play into it). I hit the comic book store (hoping I didn't buy some of these before) And find out there's a new The Crow comic by o'Barr (need to tell JK) sadly they only have issue 3 so I have them trying to get me 1 and 2.

I hit up Michael's and find a few things I needed and spent my coupon.

I go to Best Buy and the kid is like you have protection on this. I know. I told the call center. He rolled his eyes. They're always wrong. I had two YEARS on this monitor. I didn't have to race down after work in the fucking rain. They replaced it with another Samsung (and if this gets dead pixels, that's it for them).

I go to Home Goods and they have TONS of Italian goodies on clearance and I bought so much of it. Lemon concentrate for Amalfi, alpine honey, a shit ton of Himalayan pink salt, kumquats in cognac, artichokes, hazelnuts in honey, truffles. But what made me laugh is I found a red dutch oven in the shape of a heart and text JK I found Angel Dust's cookery but then when I was checking out, I found out the amount left on my holiday gift card was 6.66 and the cost of my haul was 69.69. Yep Angel was in that store. Ha.

Macy's had nothing I wanted but found a new manga at BaM and after spilling my Box of Chocolates latte (salted caramel/chocolate/hazelnut latte with red velvet drizzle) on me and the car seat (thankfully not much of it and I'm wearing scrubs so it'll be okay) I stop at Sheetz to pee (because BaM's bathroom is closed again) and the warning comes on.

All the rain melted all 8-12 inches of snow (and it was almost 60 today) it's unfreezed the Ohio River and of course the rain, the creeks are rising. The river is flooding. The rocks are sliding. Mud is coming over the road. I'm like am I getting home? (on the phone tonight evil little dog is like wait isn't that the mall next to the cliff? yes yes it is) I made it home, got blinded by a train again.

And my phone call ended with ELD when my calf muscles decided to charley horse. OUCH.

Speaking of ouch I'm not sure I can continue with the Dexcom. My skin doesn't react well with glue. It simultaneously won't stick in some places and burns/won't come unglued in other (I know this from other treatments like kinesiotape) Also this thing has been itchy (glue) and burning like fuck (the wire sensor) so last time I accidentally knocked it off but this time I couldn't get this off to save my soul. I had to alcohol soak part of it. It still tore some of the skin (not enough to bleed) and the sensor was covered in blood and there's a bruised hole where it was). I'm giving it the night off. I like that I don't have to stick myself several times a day and it gives a lot of good info but this is not ideal

Now on to the fannish 50 part of the day

Here's a big thank you to suzume_seta for the Fullmetal Alchemist New Year's card. Loved the art, my friend.


And here's a chapter for a new story but not ready to post it to AO3. Written for Spikesgirl58's six word challenge and the six words were Stink, Spill, Vague, Spectacular, Enlighten & Induce


( Story under here )

And this week's fandom recs

May The Best Man Win FAKE

A Slight Case of Charity Stargate Atlantis

Galactic Adventurers Torchwood

Very Lucky Guardian-RPF Chinese Actor RPF

watch all night Olympus Has Fallen

(i could stay lost) in this moment forever
9-1-1: Lone Star

Hoodie Husband Shameless

Not The Best Idea Torchwood

My Head is in the Clouds Right Now (Just Pray I Come Around) Hazbin Hotel

I Am the Creator The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

Awful Lot of Fun Doctor Who

Vices and Virtues Hazbin Hotel


Another Four Years Stargate Atlantis

My Boyfriend Turned Into the Moon Avatar: The Last Airbender

Ukiyo The Owl House

You Never Forget The Owl House

Love's a gamble, and baby I'm all in. Hazbin Hotel

O Canada. Olympus Has Fallen

i have you strung in my web (a candle burning slowly by the bed) 时光代理人 | Link Click

Comfort is you Call of Duty

It Takes a Village Teen Wolf

I did the sharing some of his wisdom as usual and as for the other thing happening today, all I want to say is I stepped outside and hell had frozen over, probably in response to Americans relecting the cruel orange idiot. Other than that I paid him no mind because he wants attention so he got none from me.

I got up at 7 Am to the screaming of a certain furry bastard deciding I need to eat now. I looked at my phone and the sheriff in Jackson county had put us on a don't travel unless necessary alert. I look outside and said there's like no new snow but maybe north of me (where I'd be going) was bad so I had to wait until 8 to cancel today.

I did keep my endocrinology appointment only to be there three hours because of the weirdness of the new patient there before me. Sigh. She showed me how to change the alarms on my dexcom unit. It is not going to alarm until it goes to 290 so it quits pestering the shit out of me. I asked for new meds like ozempic (which I can't tolerate) but everything isn't covered by my insurance. Everything is 900-1000 a month. I can't afford that. sigh.

Let's continue with the Music Monday and we're sharing songs that contain a certain color. Since we finished the rainbow, let's pick up colors not on the rainbow. Today we're doing grey and mostly only because of the Grateful Dead. I need to think of a new theme to take over from this. feel free to suggest one. Feel free to chime in with your favorite song(s) that follow the weekly letter. Hit me with your favs. I love hearing new music or revisiting older pieces.

( grayed out )

I don't have a costco within nearly 100 miles of me so I went today. I got my tires there. I'm now much poorer. I also took a peek at Best Buy to get an idea about a computer. I want/need a new desktop.

From there I got some big lace for my new hat. I have too many steampunk hats so now I'm making more. Makes sense I'm sure.

Dad did get his brother into the home but not until nearly 6 pm tonight. I'll go tomorrow before i leave because it'll probably be the last time I'll see him.

I leave for home on Thursday so I can get there just before the new band of snow storms (with my luck that's when the power goes out)

In today's idiocy I was trying to desnarl my hair and condition it and the knot slice my finger like a knife a quarter inch long and equally deep. At least I only bled all over the shower.

I can't figure out my diabetes which is another reason I want that dexcom to track patterns. Yesterday I ate bad, pizza for lunch, potatoes and sweet BBQ sauce and very sweet baked apples for dinner, even some candy and cookies and mini quiches later in the evening. My sugar the next day after 2 weeks of 200+, it was down to 150 when it should have been 300. OMFG WHY?

Also I had a night of weird dreams. I woke at 3, went to the bathroom and got in bed again. I thought it was just a few minutes but I had fallen asleep some because someone got into bed with me. It was mom. I'm like mom why are you here? She didn't answer me. I wanted to roll over and turn on the light but sleep paralysis had other ideas. I hate that (and yes it's sleep paralysis NOT demons, fucking Zak Bagans.)

Then I dreamt mom had me washing dishes and I managed to cut straight the tendon in my right index finger with a chef knife. Well thanks for nothing brain.

Fannish 50 Tuesday - I don't have much rolling around in my head right now so let's talk first fandoms. I'll show you mine and you show me yours. Star Trek and Star Wars but it was the latter I saw in the theater for my 10th birthday and immediately came home and wrote terrible mary sue self insert Han Solo fic. What do you want? I'm 10. Now I did by the time I was 13 belong to the ST/SW fan clubs and they did occasionally showcase fan work but I was far too young and far too bad for that.

My real first fandom as we'd consider it today was Elfquest. By 1982 I was involved in the fandom. Back then fan art and fan fic went hand in hand and I miss that SO much. You belonged to a Holt, a small group and every story was farmed out to an artist for at least one if not more pieces of art before it was all pasted into a paper zine and mailed to everyone. Yep, that's right, you got everyone's mailing address. (At least we were a little less hateful in those days) EQ did NOT allow you to use the actual characters so everyone had their own original elves. I was in dozens of holts (and oh did I mention the art, yeah it wasn't just for the stories, artists got their own showcases).

What it taught me was community. I learned to write with others because you were using someone else's creation to interact with your own original characters. It was what we call shared world writing these days and it was fun for the most part. Occasionally, it wasn't because yes of course there were cliques and big name fans and you were on the outside. That was disappointing ranging to hurtful depending on the who and when and which holt. But for the most part it was some of the best times I've ever had in fandom. It lasted until the late 90s when the internet happened and EQ was nearly 20 years old.

So what was your first?

Also speaking of hateful I wish people were less hateful So far no one has bothered me for liking Hazbin/Helluva but I do want to know how social media and the anonymous nature of it has gotten to the point where people feel comfortable with suggesting creators be killed because they don't like what they're putting out. I would love to be that creator some day with a fandom falling me (which okay unlikely at this point but still, it's the dream) and I would hate to know people are out there wishing me dead.

So Medical Mutual lied to my pharmacy about my deductible not being met and they wouldn't fill my jardiance. Had to call them today. Basically they said well you only get three pharmacy fills on that drug and then you have to use our mail order or pay the full 750$. Okay WHERE did it say that? Basically I got a letter saying that last month. eye roll.

So after a nearly 2 hour call I put Jardiance on their mail order BUT you can only do 90 days (do you know how big this bottle is? I pointed this out to the lady who goes you have so many pills. Yes, where do you think I'm storing this) So I have to call my doctor to get it put on 90 days. the lady tries to help by putting me on with their pharmacist to see if they can get me an emergency supply.

He's like no, I'm just here to tell you all the things that will happen to you if you don't take your jardiance. Dude, I'm a diabetic wound care doctor (in my former career) He's like oh...you don't need me. No I do not.

so let's see if I get these pills or if I end up in the hospital. Ah America's dystopian nightmare of a healthcare system.

If nothing else, the rest of the day was a good writing day and I got my cards in the mail. And TCM ran 70s sci-fi all day so I'm happy.




Advent Joy

Day 16 - watch a sunrise/sunset. Sunset it is. I'm not one for mornings. it was pretty much a wash in the rain.

Day 16 tea - Jane Austen's tea, another literary tea, also one I have, black tea, peppermint and lavender with vanilla which luckily isn't strong. I don't like a lot of fake vanilla. This is a good one (But I'm beginning to think I have way too much tea)


Let's continue with the Music Monday and we're sharing songs that contain a certain color, starting with the rainbow and picking up a few of the other biggies down the road. Feel free to chime in with your favorite song(s) that follow the weekly letter. Hit me with your favs. I love hearing new music or revisiting older pieces. Well we're at the end of the rainbow with violent but I'm allowing all shades of purple

( purple is one of my favorite colors )