So I moved out of my mom’s place on Saturday. The home I’d been living in, minus some time away at college, for 28 years. I was lucky enough to be able to take my cat with me, but as I get closer and closer to getting all my shit unpacked and put away, the realization that I’m well outside my comfort zone has sunk in. 

And the stupid cat scratching thing did it. My baby sniffed it and was so thrilled to see it again that it just hit me that she’s the only living thing that I took with me when I moved. This is my first foray into the realm of independence, and you know the only thing that popped into my mind when the tears stopped?

Fuck”

There are days, like today, when the fact that I have anxiety and depression is a little more obvious to myself (still getting used to ACKNOWLEDGING that I’m not 100% fine).

I get scared a lot. I get nervous a lot. Prior to my diagnosis, I thought “everyone does, that’s normal” (hell, I still think that and am having issues validating what I’m talking about right now).

I don’t know what makes my fear or anxiety different than what other people feel, or if it actually is….but I dunno…

I don’t even know where I’m going with this so I’m gonna sleep now and go to work tomorrow and remember that the world’s not ending yet and I’ll survive.

*shrug* mood of the day is apathy I think.

Today was overall a good day, but I feel like I should open up about some stuff and why I occasionally react in a way you wouldn’t normally expect, and differently on different days.

I was diagnosed with depression, general anxiety, and social anxiety a few weeks ago, and am not on medication for it (I see a therapist, not a psychiatrist, therefore am not prescribed medications).

This basically means that on a normal day (and by normal, I mean a day that has its ups and downs but is overall okay, neither bad nor good), my moods range from calm to happy to sad to angry, depending on various triggers during the course of the day. Most days I have alternate between calm and happy with some mild anger (frustration mostly) mixed in.

On bad days, there’s no calm or happy. There is just sad and angry and various levels of each. The “sad” can range from barely sad to “oh god, where are the tissues WHY ARE WE OUT OF TISSUES”, and the angry can range from “you are mildly annoying” to downright screaming rages (these rages, however, are few and far between). Mostly it’s just overwhelming frustration that leads back into the sad phase which leads into the angry phase and it’s just a vicious circle of suck.

Good days can have all emotions, but anger and sadness are fleeting and easily dealt with. If it’s a really good day, I am happy throughout, and these usually happen on days like my CBEST test date when I went exploring and felt like the world was meant for me (granted, that was a stressful morning, but was awesome after that). On regular good days, I’ll be quiet and kinda observing everything that’s going on and just be happy with what I’ve got. Those days are about 89% calm and 11% happy.

Keep in mind, both good and bad days can have other emotions mixed in, but they aren’t enough to change my overall outlook.

I also qualify emotions as “red” or “green”. Red emotions are called such because they make me feel too hot or too much like my skin doesn’t fit me. These make up the majority of my bad days. Green emotions are called such because to me, green is a color of serenity, which is how those emotions make me feel.

Like I said, today was overall a good day. So yeah, now you guys will know what I mean when I say “good day” or “bad day”.

I might have gone on an adventure today.

So, first, I woke up hella early to get on the road so I could get to my exam on time, mostly because there was a fire on the freeway last night, so I didn’t want to get caught in anything to do with the repairs.

I got to my exam at 9:20am…my scheduled exam time was 11:15 am. Traffic was a lot better than expected, okay? But they let me take it early, so I was done at 11:18 am. So I thought, you know what, that’s great. I’m gonna snag some lunch and head home.

Well, at the I-15/I-215 junction, I realized that I really, really like driving that car (it’s my dad’s Chevrolet Prism), even if it’s a bit banged up. I also realized that I hadn’t done anything really interesting lately, and I kinda wanted to send loveddearle some awesome pictures. 

So, I went a bit out of my way (read: a fuck ton out of my way) to go up to Crestline and take a picture of the city from the summit. So I hopped onto the 138 and made my way up the mountains. 

Here’s what I learned today:

  • Curvy roads are FUN
  • The car can take a 10 mph (16 kph) turn at 35 mph (56 kph). Whoops.
  • When I’m really focused on navigating difficult roads, my anxiety disappears
  • I feel like an indycar driver going up the 138
  • I missed the forest enough that I was in tears at the summit (a motorcyclist asked if I was okay, and I just said ‘it’s just breathtaking’, and she spent 10 minutes hanging out with me enjoying the view)
  • A 7% downhill grade is a lot more interesting on hairpin turns
  • Pine needles do fly up into the car from the left front tire
  • Driving with the window down through the forest is a spiritual experience
  • Cops apparently can hear maniacal laughter around an S-curve if your window is down (I explained that it was my first time driving up by myself and he just shook his head. I was going 15 in a 30 zone, but my laughter had him concerned)
  • Said maniacal laughter carries in a forest
  • People around here love dips as much as I do
  • There are some big ass ponderosa pines in the San Bernadino Nat’l Forest.
  • I want to spend a day up there basking in nature
  • Having to drive a bunch of S-curves for over an hour leads to very sore shoulder muscles
  • I should have been terrified of some of those turns without guardrails, but I simply viewed them as another learning experience
  • Despite the car being banged up and 16 years old, she’s still got some life left in her
  • The cars brake pads need changing

So yeah, it was an adventure that I was so pleased to have embarked upon. I think it was a celebration of freedom and success in my book.