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Cat time
I’m currently looking after a couple of cats for a friend while they’re away. The cats have really warmed up to me in the past couple of weeks, so much so that they’re getting a little pushy about certain things! (Usually related to food 😛 ) Yesterday I had one of my best friends come over to visit the cats because she’s seen them for years from the neighbour’s yard, who’s another mutual friend. She was quite into the cats and had no problem helping me spoil them with treats and playtime! The two cats were surprisingly into meeting my…
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Today’s thought
Pretty much everyone ready this will frequently hear (and maybe use) the phrase, “practice makes perfect”. (If you haven’t heard if before, then that’s interesting.) Especially in the context of practising something or self-improvement. There could be a slight problem with that phrase, in that it may subtly shift one’s thinking to aim for perfection. Instead, the goal should be more realistic. Sure, this is mostly a figure of speech- an idiom, even. And it mostly doesn’t make that much of a difference. However, I would argue that these kinds of things may make more of a difference than we…
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Sometimes…
Typed but not read back or edited. I can see things so clearly, it’s hard to know if others are purposely (purposefully? idk) ignoring things that seem perfectly obvious. Perhaps they do see those things, but they just let those thoughts float by and focus on what’s more important to them. (Or just what’s seemingly important?) I’m probably over-analysing things compared to the most- everyone. 🙃 But then I look at myself and I see the things that should be super obvious to me; the ones that’ve been, looked past (aka ignored and repressed), deprioritized, or simply undiscovered and new.…
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Did today really happen?
Big things happened today. Big things happened. I probably shouldn’t write about them publicly at this point because they’re so fresh and all the information hasn’t been pulled together yet, but damn… life is always seemingly so extra around me and my family. (And I was just starting to feel comfortable and okay with where things are! …of course. 🫠) It’s partly why I’m scared when people get close these days. Not that I’m afraid to have people know about potentially embarrassing, messy things from my life and my past… but more that (in the past) some people were all…
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Feeling Restless
This post was written on August 21, 2023 but posted on October 20, 2023. I’ve been stuck in bed again this summer and I’m miffed about it. My Crohn’s decided that it’s been long enough since my last flare-up and I needed to have the extra layer of challenge. So after a short stay in the ER with a possible partial intestinal blockage (again…ugh), I was put onto a new round of meds to reset my immune system and hopefully get my tummy to calm down! Just because the rest of the world is going crazy, doesn’t mean that my…
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Thinking About Life Goals
In my last post, I talked about my desire to get to doing things. One of the reasons for that is to get past the “planning and preparation” stages that I so often eagerly jump into but just as often don’t progress beyond. Now, the reason for that is partly because I’m just that way and planning things is enough for me… I like to do that kind of thing! But the main reason why is because I get so caught up in my head, overthinking things or waiting until things or I myself am “the most ready” for whatever.…
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Matthew’s Restart Plan
My last post was two years ago (almost exactly). I’ve written a few draft posts in the intervening time, but haven’t completed any of them or felt comfortable what I ended up writing. So let’s ignore the time gap and jump back into things! Now that the COVID-19 pandemic is seemingly “over-ish”, you’re probably seeing a bunch of ‘restart plans’ out there as I have seen. They outline how we’ll all work together to get back to ‘normal’ or try to figure out how to do the things that we haven’t been able to do for the past two years.…
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Let’s lighten things up a bit!
I want to write about something serious and topical, but also, I don’t. Where’s the fun in that? I mean, a bunch of other more influential people are already talking about the things that need addressing—what will I add to the discussion? If I’m not meaningfully adding something with substance, then what’s the point? Woah. Hold on a moment there, Matthew. Where did this all come from? You wanted to write a post about something light and fluffy because things seem so dire everywhere and you’re feeling crushed under the weight of depression, anxiety, and the crushing power of social…
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Today…was a day.
This post was written after an intense Tuesday I had a few weeks ago. I didn’t finish writing it, but I decided to post it anyway. Oh, my goodness. What a wild day I had today. Care to hear the tale? 😬 Allow me to set the stage. There’s been a lot of dramatic changes in my life recently, and they’ve all sorta happened at the same time. Add to that the global COVID-19 pandemic and you have a jolly good recipe for a fun time!! (Sarcasm is obviously overflowing from these words…) Don’t get me wrong, many of the…
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It’s a new season!
Welcome to a brand-new season of life here in the after times! What a time, eh? I’m sitting here on the sofa; staring at the screen, considering what to write. There’s so much that I could write about, but where to start I don’t know. Much has changed in my life, yet much has stayed the same. How about we start with the big changes! Moving I moved to the Vancouver area a few years ago and at first I was living with my mother and sister. It was pretty great! After a few months of job searching I was…
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Thoughts on my current health situation.
As you may or may not know, I have Crohn’s disease. This causes a lot of problems for my day-to-day activities and lifestyle, especially when the symptoms worsen like during a flare-up. Now I can’t control what my body does as far as my Crohn’s goes and I can’t always control how it affects my life; that’s something that just is. I can, however, control my treatment and choose to make the best of the situations in which I find myself. That’s not always easy. Especially during and after extended periods of turbulence. This past summer has been one of…
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**insert post title here**
When I can’t decide on a topic to write about, I’ll usually start writing whatever is on the forefront of my mind. The problem is that there are usually a multitude of topics being thunk through in my brain… so I’ll end up with a weird combo of subjects that don’t necessarily mesh very well. Regardless, I’m going to write something. Get ready. I smell (lol) something that is… vinegar-ish maybe? Almost like fermenting, though. Like apple cider vinegar, but alcoholic. I think? I don’t know what’s causing it, which is kinda annoying but there ya go. In unrelated news,…
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It’s been a long time…
…but not that long. I’m back now and that’s what counts. Besides, I’ve been unable to blog for various reasons. Sounds like it’s time for an update! What’s new with me I think that I told you about leaving my job a few months ago due to health problems relating to my Crohn’s. Well, that’s been an ongoing issue with a bunch of other problems that go along with it, like mental health. That’s been a major struggle. I have an app to track my mood and activities on a daily basis, which is really helpful for me. I can…
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The mysterious odour.
21812.15.7 I was at work one day as I often was at the time. Washing dishes, deep in thought. It was actually when I wrote these very words in my journal immediately after they popped into my head! I thought it was amazing. Now we’ll find out soon if it actually was. Or is. So there I was; spray wand in one hand, dirty dish in the other. Which hand was which, I don’t recall—and as I said before, I wrote this all down the moment after it happened. Either way, it was probably right and left respectively. But that’s…
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Four things to encourage a healthy mind.
I struggle with fatigue, pain, motivation, and bunch of other things on most days—a lot of which is related to my Crohn’s disease. Over the past couple of years I’ve discovered and developed different tools and methods to keep my mind in a good place. It’s not easy, but it is doable! One of those tools is to have a handful of things that I try to do every day, however good or bad I’m feeling. I once made a list of those things, but I kept adding to it until it became too much. Your everyday self care list…
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My first sunburn of the year!
OUCH!! Matthew’s brain I’m on a boat! To be precise, Steven and I are sitting on the ferry heading back home to Vancouver after a long, fun-filled day. Oh my goodness it’s been crazy! Why are we on the ferry? I haven’t been out of the city in so long. That’s mostly because I don’t have access to a (functioning) vehicle right now to get out easily. I could totally take the bus to a few amazing places with hiking, rivers, and whatnot, but it takes a little more planning and usually a lot more time to actually get to…
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Thoughts on imposter syndrome and my health.
In preparation for writing this post, I decided to take some random imposter syndrome tests I found online. It was a very spontaneous decision so I don’t know what to make of it yet. Note to self: You’re probably experiencing imposter syndrome about your imposter syndrome. Please try to remember that you don’t need to prove anything or need to manipulate the results. Wait! What is imposter syndrome? Let’s all get on the same page here. Imposter syndrome is a phenomenon (do do dododo) where your brain doesn’t believe that you have the abilities you claim or that you’re not…
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Why I find Messenger to be a pain.
This post brought to you in part by Starbucks. Free WiFi and not-free snacks available now at Starbuckses everywhere! For the past few weeks I’ve been mostly avoiding Facebook Messenger on my phone. I realize that I already do that fairly often without meaning to, but this time is slightly different. It started out as a passive non-decision–That is, I just ignored new messages when they arrived and told myself that I’d respond later or something. You know, the normal kinda thing that I do when I’m just not feeling socially able to deal with it right away. After a…
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This week in Matthew’s life…
All week I’ve been thinking about some really interesting posts to write here on the ol’ bloggy blog, and I started drafting one of them. However, I have yet to finish writing it, so I’m going to do a short update on some current goings on! Currently listening to Galavant Once we caught up on Game of Thrones, I introduced Steven to Galavant! It’s like The Princess Bride but funnier, Game of Thrones but fewer boobs and blood, and Ella Enchanted all rolled into one musical sitcom that’s simply delightful! (That’s right, it’s a musical. And if you don’t like…
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Where to start?
I sometimes have high expectations for myself. 🤨 Okay… very high expectations. 😑 Yes, yes. I often have unrealistically high expectations for myself. This blog is one of those things. Even though I don’t end up putting too much effort into what I write on here (most things end up being silly and totally great!), I do tend to let my high expectations prevent me from just writing. It’s annoying and I don’t like it. I find that it gets in the way of many things and leads to my low-key freaking out or nearly breaking down because I’m not…
Matthew‘s blog containing thoughts about the small things in life.
