In San Francisco, of all places, I finally got into plant care. I started with succulents, which felt appropriate for the area. I had a Graptoveria Debbie, which was my absolute favorite, it’s so gorgeous. Then we had some “Black Rose” succulents, some Lithops, and I think a fourth one that I cannot recall. They all did pretty well! Except I couldn’t find anyone to take them from me when I left! So they ended up in a common area of the hotel we stayed at before our flight. Hopefully someone took them home instead of just tossing them… I tried, no one would actually come pick them up from me :((

Last year in Chicago we had a catmint plant and some sedum medley. Sedum is another succulent, but it’s hard to pin down this variety, I think it’s just a bunch of different sedums together which is weird. It survived the winter and it’s thriving now that I’ve finally repotted it lol. It’s really leggy, which isn’t super desirable for most people? But I think I like it! It’s messy, like me. The new pot I put it in is adorable. It’s a white, wide, low pot with a bunch of red flowers painted on it. Short legs of the sedum are reaching up and the long legs are spilling over. It looks great on our balcony table or on the shelving in our living room. I’m so in love with it!

The catmint did not survive, but I also did not try to save it :\ I still have a cutting of it hanging in the hallway outside my bedroom.

This year we decided to lean even harder into plants! We got two railing planters and a bunch of pots, seeds, plants, and plant accessories. So far we have the following plants:

• lavender
• basil
• rosemary
• mint
  • an established store-bought plant
  • and a seedling from seed that I’m trying hard to grow bigger, but it just hasn’t budged in weeks
    • none of the other seeds sprouted at all :(
• catnip
  • trying to grow these from seeds, but they’re just kinda stuck at the small seedling stage??? for weeks?
• the sedum medley from last year! 😊
• oat grass for the cats
  • started from seeds, thriving
• little cactus in my room
• little air plant in my room
• petunias
• cosmos
• marigold
• spider plant
  • I overwatered this one and nearly killed it. i’m bringing it back slowly and it’s looking a lot healthier now
• string of pearls
  • also overwatered this one and nearly killed it. i’m trying to bring it back, and it’s hanging in there, it wants to live, but I just don’t know
• some flat little heart-shaped succulent

sleep

I’m also trying to work on my sleep habits, as a form of personal growth. I have always always always stayed up late late late. Either to reclaim time I lost during the day or to just enjoy spending time on my own when everyone else is asleep. Spent thirty-some years operating this way and it’s going to be very difficult changing this habit. A big help though has been taking my nighttime meds, especially my progesterone and hydroxyzine, much earlier. I normally took them just before climbing into bed, so anywhere from 11pm to 2am 😳 Now I’m taking them between 830pm and 930pm, which is helping a ton because the two aforementioned meds have drowsiness as a side effect.

The next thing I gotta work on is staying asleep. I wake constantly throughout the night, either due to bladder issues or just, I don’t know. I used to be an incredibly sound sleeper, I slept through fire alarms in college, I slept through loud thunderstorms as an adult. But ever since getting covid-19 and longcovid, I just can’t sleep anymore. I should probably talk to a doctor about trazadone or something.