Month in new town review

review of past month in new town: 

Restaurants:

• Repeat: Frescos for breakfast with Jen, Chris, Nana, Nora & Jon 
  
• Repeat: Love Bird fried chicken with Jen, Chris, Nsna, Nora & Jon 
  
• Repeat: Peach House with Kim & Stephan
  
• New: The Corner Bar (in Tampa) with Peter for Curiosity Club meeting
• New: Tropical Smoothie (chain)
• Repeat: Swan Brewing for OctoberFest with Sean and Nora

New places visited:

• Florida Southern College for tour of Frank Lloyd Wright buildings 
• Tampa Theater to see Young Frankenstein 

New friends: 

• Melissa! Plus further bonding with local board gamers. 
  

New achievements: 

• Survived extended tax season 
  
• Decorated for Halloween 
  
• NYC solo trip
  
• Posted a “geek bat signal” in a local Lakeland group and finding 20ish other smart, silly, geeky, quirky, liberal people who also wanted new friends 
• Learned the Spanish word for geeks is Friquis (pronounced freakys) — what I now call this new tribe of friends 
• New weight loss number I haven’t seen in 14 years 

starting to work on goals for 2027:

I’m starting to work on goals for 2027:

1. Read Lord of the Rings (2026’s goal was Count of Monte Cristo and I did it!)

2. Explore as many of Polk County’s 133 county parks as possible. 

3. Update a bathroom with walk in shower 

4. Finish unpacking from when we moved in Dec 2025 

5. Get Peter to graduation finish line 

6. Attend small sci fi cons in Florida 

workshopping a post for the Lakeland FB page:

Seeking people who

• know what DiscWorld or Dungeon Crawler Carl is
  
• have more than one favorite board game
  
• have traveled out of Florida
  
• believe in science
• enjoy homemade cookies
  
• do crafts even if they’re not good at them
  
• think watching the sunset with a drink and charcuterie would be a perfect evening
  
• would want to explore 133 Polk county parks more than theme parks
• like the movies Fifth Element, Princess Bride, Young Frankenstein and/or Tropic Thunder
• miss Stephen Colbert

If at least 7 of those fit you, maybe we should meet up!

Blog ideas — Lakeland

Bike trails — print this map 

Parks — city, county, state

Public art 

My friendship test:

• Granny Weatherwax or Nanny Ogg or both? Explain why. 
  
• What’s your favorite trick taking game?
  
• What is an adventure for you?
  
• Last museum you went to:
  
• Favorite female singer-songwriter?
• Vaccines?
• Favorite cheese?
• Favorite homemade cookie:
• Thoughts on the city of Washington DC:
• What would you ask as the tenth question?

What made you happy this week

1. the Broadway musical Two Strangers 
   
2. Roy Lichtenstein’s cat and Rouen Cathedrals
   
3. The weather in NYC
   
4. Biking from 58th St to 149th St in Manhattan 
   
5. Seeing Peter excited about movies and just happy
   
6. Purple tips in my hair 
   
7. St John the Divine and its inclusiveness and its evolving building and the Keith Haring triptych and Christa sculpture 
   
8. Meeting smart interesting people like Jon on the plane and Ralph Cooper the comedian  and the nice genetics lady from Minnesota 
   
9. My cat comforting me 
10. 7-8 hours of sleep several times 

Protecting my energy and strength when dealing with Peter

Epiphany: When I was explaining to Hailey about how I hadn’t invited Peter to therapy yet, because he’s got all these other doctor appointments… it wasn’t about accommodating him. It’s about accommodating ME. I only have so much time and energy. It takes a lot of time and juggling to get his cardiac care moved — he’s got a stress test and a follow up in December… before that I have to make a dozen phone calls to get his old records.

And he’s possibly got hematomachrosis like Sean, — the follow up on his bloodwork is next week. 

He’s supposed to do a follow up with a dermatologist but I just let that one slide. Cause it’s nothing critical. 

His current glasses are bent and he’s dealing with them. He hasn’t asked for new glasses but I ought to get him new glasses — which is at least two appointments. 

And he needs a dental cleaning.

And he’s doing weekly physical therapy for the car accident. He had an MRI just yesterday. 

Good lord. Anyway, once the hematology appt is done and I’ve got the cardiac paperwork in hand… I can think about adding therapy. 

I started this therapy without him so that I learn how to deal with his responses in a way that doesn’t stress me out as much. So I have perfectly good reasons for not jumping in right away with Peter. 

Accommodating him and his therapy aversion is also about accommodating my energy since I’ll get the brunt of any emotional fall out. 

I need to say all this to Hailey too. I like her but I think she’s made some assumptions. Yes, we accommodate Peter too much on emotional bullshit and we are working on that. Got some good tools today. But a lot is also for my own sake. And I’m a little resentful that she jumped right to assuming my objections were only about coddling Peter’s feelings.