Maranda Russell's Blog, page 19

Altered Photo – Purple Mountain’s Majesty

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Ok, so it isn’t exactly a mountain, but I loved the way this color altered landscape photo taken at Fort Ancient in Washington Township, Ohio turned out. I’ve been really into photography lately, and especially editing and altering photos to look different. This is one of my faves so far.

Poetry – Beset by Satan

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Daily,

I am

beset by Satan

in all his

diverse forms –

but the most

persistent of all

is the government.

Covid Results, Migraines, Friends

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First off, I got my covid results back yesterday. No coronavirus detected! That was certainly a big relief! Now I don’t have to worry about staying quarantined for weeks!

On the sucky side of things, I did have a full-blown migraine last night. I’m not sure if it was caused by my anxiety about the test results the past few days, or something else, but it was miserable. When I get migraines like that my neck kills me too (you can actually feel the tension and swelling in the back of the neck). Like most migraine sufferers, I can’t stand sound or light, and I get nauseated and dizzy as well. I went to bed early and slept about 9-10 hours, but still feel the aftereffects of it today and fear it coming back in full force.

I’m also a little sad because while I was unsure of my covid status, some friends of mine got together for the first time in forever, and of course didn’t invite me (I don’t blame them, they knew about the covid possibility), but it still bummed me out that I missed the chance to see them.

Covid? Update

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Well, I did get the test done yesterday at a drive-thru testing center. I was so glad it was drive-thru, because the last thing I wanted to do was be around a bunch of other potentially covid-infected people when I wasn’t sure if I have it yet or not. My doctor decided to go ahead and test my husband too. (By the way, the test wasn’t that bad, I’ve had MUCH worse medical tests!)

We won’t know the results for about a week probably. I’m not sure what to do in the meantime? Do we go ahead and quarantine ourselves in the house since we don’t know? If we do that and we are infected, we will end up being quarantined for about 3 weeks at least.

I don’t know how that will work when someone has to go get milk, prescriptions, and other essentials and it is just the two of us living here. I guess we just minimize going out as much as possible? We definitely won’t be visiting anyone, going out to eat, or shopping for unnecessary items.

Any of you had to self-quarantine at home? Any tips?

Covid?

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Man, I feel bad. About 4-5 days ago at least, I started having issues with a sore throat and stuffy nose. I figured maybe it was a little cold, or even allergies. I started having worsening asthma symptoms and chest pain too, but figured that was the heat (it always triggers my asthma some).

Today, I woke up feeling like I couldn’t move or get out of bed. The body aches and fatigue are unreal. Worse even than some of my CFS flareups. Everything seems slowed down, and my brain is super foggy. I’ve also had headache, itching all over (and what looks like it might be hives), nausea, and a fever off and on.

I’m not sure if it is covid, but man I feel bad. I am in contact with my doctor about it and will probably end up getting tested. Our county is a hotspot here in Ohio, so it easily could be Covid.

Now, I’m going back to bed (even though I slept more than 12 hours). Goodnight.

I Joined a Photography Contest Site – Lots of Fun!

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Recently I joined a site called Photocrowd. Lately I’ve been more into artistic photography and Photocrowd is a site where you can post your photos and enter a bunch of contests on all kinds of photography subjects.

You can start posting and entering contests for free, but if you like the site, you might want to buy a subscription so you get unlimited contest entries. I recently did this upgrade and it was under $40 for a year, so not that bad really. Some of the contests offer prizes and some don’t, but it is the fun of entering and giving it a try that appeals most to me.

Several of the contest themes have even inspired me to go take photos I probably wouldn’t have thought of taking otherwise. I love seeing how others interpret the subject matter in their own photos as well.

So far, my photos aren’t doing great in placing at the top of the contests, but I’m not sure if that is because I’m new and don’t have much clout on the site yet, or if I need to step up my photography game lol. I’m hoping it is the former, but I am always working on improving myself and my art too.

If you happen to be on Photocrowd too, check out my profile and show my pictures some love if you want to

(BTW, I have NO business affiliation with Photocrowd, I just genuinely have been enjoying the site!)

Wordless Wednesday – Native American Protest Art

[image error] Graffiti found on the map for the Fort Ancient Native American sacred site

Covid Masks – What’s Your Experience?

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The whole covid mask thing has been a struggle for me. Probably for several reasons:

#1 – I have bad asthma, especially in hot weather and wearing a mask makes it much worse. Sometimes to the point that I have to escape a store or building immediately so I can breathe again before I have a full-out asthma attack (masks are required in buildings in our county).

#2 – I’m autistic. I have sensory issues galore and masks drive me crazy. I don’t like the feel of them and for me, I never really adjust. Of all the kinds of masks I’ve tried, the only ones I can even kind of stand are the surgeon ones, but even those bug me, and I can only bear them for a short time.

#3 – I have a little piggy nose, so I can’t keep a mask up, it is always slipping below my nose. It has gotten to the point that sometimes I quit pulling it up because it will just slip down again in 2 seconds, and it is easier to breathe with my nose uncovered anyway.

#4 – Anxiety. I think this plays into the asthma and the sensory issues thing. The more my asthma and sensory issues worsen, the more my anxiety kicks in, till the point where I’m not even sure if I’m having trouble breathing because of the mask and asthma, or because of the anxiety.

At this point, I pretty much just try to do outdoor activities or if I do have to go to a store or something, I get in and out as quickly as possible. Thank God I don’t have to work at a business. I don’t know how I would survive.

So what has your experience with masks been? Do they bother you? Did you adjust and get used to them? Are they required where you live? Do you have any of the same issues I have with them?

Weird Dream – My Husband the Shapeshifter

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You guys seem to enjoy my weird dream stories, so here is a new one for you. This dream was actually super long and convoluted, so I’m not going to tell the whole thing, but know that it involved a home invasion, sitting forever in a social service office to report said invasion (maybe they defunded the police?), my husband ultimately dying (very sad part), and my mom driving me crazy (like normal).

The best part of the dream though was while we were hanging out at the office, waiting to report the home invasion, my husband and I were given the task of sorting some paper bits by color (no idea why). My husband was a little sharp with me (smartass), asking if I was going to help, so I got pissed and refused to help.

In return my husband first started just collapsing and making me carry him around…but then he went on to shapeshifting! What did he shapeshift into? A wolf? No. A bat? No. Bigfoot? No.

He shapeshifted into a burger and fries. Then I was told that this must mean he was hungry, so I needed to feed his fries to himself (the way I was told to do this was to take three fries, line them up with one in the middle and the outside two fries would eat the inside fry).

Next, he shapeshifted into Obama (no clue why). And then from there he shifted back to his regular self and ended up hospitalized and ultimately died (very sad). Maybe I didn’t feed him enough fries…

Visit from the Dead?

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Ok, I had a weird experience this morning. I woke up to a loud, male voice urgently calling out my childhood nickname (Mandy). At first, I thought it was my husband, so I got up to see if he was ok, but quickly saw he wasn’t here and his car was gone. I texted him to make sure he was ok because I felt kind of weirded out, then went back to bed.

Right before I fell back to sleep, I had an image flash before me (with my eyes closed) of some children’s alphabet blocks spelling out the word “Dad”. I found that weird too, but went back to sleep.

When my husband got home, he had to have me unlock the door, because somehow the lock that can only be unlocked from inside was locked. I hadn’t touched the door all morning, and my husband couldn’t have possibly locked it from the outside.

When I sat down to breakfast, I decided to use the GhostRadar app (similar to the spirit box they use on ghosthunting shows) on my phone to ask if my dad (who passed away when I was 12) had been here. The first three words I got were “house”, “visit”, and “parent”. I was a bit blown away by that.

So what do you guys think?