Haunted by an almond

I began the week with a strange lunch experience. I was eating one of my leftover homemade veggie burgers, which had almonds in them. As I was eating, I noticed that one of the almonds had an unusual appearance. It tasted and felt just fine, but the way it looked was very weird. Something about it made me immensely uneasy. I don't know why. Maybe it's because it looked like an exoskeleton of an insect or a spider. It was perfectly harmless, but I just had great anxiety while I was eating lunch because of it. It was very strange.

Also this week, my parents ordered some tents for their new truck, which came in a big Amazon box. And Jimmy has taken to sleeping in it, which I find adorable.

Last week, I told you that the vet diagnosed him with diabetes, since he has been drinking a lot of water and his blood sugar was high. But I hoped maybe he didn't have diabetes, since cats' blood sugar spikes when they are stressed, and visiting the vet is stressful. But that didn't explain why he was drinking so much. Well, this week I found the receipt from when we visited in March because he hurt his leg. That receipt said the shot they gave him could increase his thirst! So is that the explanation? Did we take him to the vet for nothing? Does he or does he not have diabetes? I'm so confused!

My family went to see Woods Cross High School's production of The Addams Family because my niece is on stage crew. (I don't think I would have opted to see it otherwise; it's not my favorite, and this was my fourth time seeing it.) But to assist with social distancing, they had cardboard cutouts of celebrities to put at the end of your group so you're not sitting directly next to strangers. As I walked in, I saw someone was using a Skipper cutout. And then I was happy to see that Ginger was available, so of course I had to use that one, since it's my favorite TV show.

Speaking of TV, on Monday evenings I have been getting to bed early to watch Spring Baking Championship. This week was the finale, and now my Mondays will be so boring, since I have to wait more than four months for Halloween Baking Championship.

Friday was Arbor Day, and I like to do something with trees on that day, so I ran up Mueller Park, since it would be less snowy than North Canyon. But it was still pretty snowy near the top. There were plenty of glacier lilies and some arrowleaf balsamroot out.

Then on Saturday, I was invited to attend the recording of the worldwide devotional with Elder Gary E. Stevenson, which will air tonight. It was filmed at This Is the Place's new pioneer center, and I was invited to attend since I'm an employee, even though I'm no longer a young adult. But it was good they prerecorded it. He once said "Russell M. Nelson" when he meant "M. Russell Ballard," so that was rerecorded. And at the end, he waved, and apparently his waving wasn't good enough, so they had to rerecord that. While he was waiting to record again, he was joking about ways he might wave, and he said, "Someone up front is telling me I should do 'live long and prosper.' We've got a Trekkie here in the front row." Recorded talks are great, but I especially love seeing general authorities' informal, unscripted personalities.

This week will be a big one. I have four papers to submit. Two of them are almost done, one is mostly done, and I haven't started the last one. On Thursday I get my second COVID-19 vaccine. And then on Friday, I will start working again at This Is the Place. Even though I will be working, I am very much looking forward to a break from school. Grad school has been just as hard as college was, if not harder.

But I'm happy it's May now, a truly wonderful month.