Barefoot Bohemian

I am so done with being jerked around by airlines, and I no longer want to get my hopes up about ANYTHING, but... one of our professors from college who often goes to Israel/Palestine and is familiar with the airline might have found us a way to get a refund. He was on the phone for several hours after my friend contacted him for tips in dealing with this situation (since he's had airlines fuck up his flights before), and he totally went above and beyond trying to work this out for us. It still has to go through the travel agent, but there's a form on the website specifically for the Tel Aviv issue, and apparently our flight falls within the date range to make a refund viable. How the hell the travel agent missed this is another issue, and one reason I doubt I'll be using one again. I want to believe that he got the run around from the airline just as much as we did, but I don't know what to think. At the moment, I'm just cautiously almost-optimistic. I don't want to jinx anything by giving the universe ways to mess this up, though, so I'll be quiet with my pessimism.

Work's been decent, especially since I know I won't be there next week. I'm still trying to set up an appointment for my psychiatrist to talk about anti-anxiety meds, because even if the anxiety is situational, I'm in a really stressful job, so I get over-anxious a LOT. I always feel like I'm riding just a level below an anxiety attack.

Exercise is kicking my butt. Still on track with the squats, and continuing with the ab exercises, but I'm pretty sure my lack of ab muscles means that I'm putting too much strain on my lower back during said exercises. Who knows, my back muscles may need it, but my abs definitely need it more. The biggest burden of exercising alone is learning how to exercise the right way.

So, we've figured out that one of my conditions comes with an allergy to sulfates? Especially those in shampoos, apparently, because I have these bad breakouts along my hairline. Wonderful, yet another thing to look out for.

I've gotten a third of the way through The Hobbit, so I've gotten up to Beorn. This is not my first time reading it, but I'm having trouble finishing this time. I don't know why. I'm enjoying it while reading, but I don't have the push to pick it up and continue the next day. I hope it's just because I don't want to get to the end, not because I'm going into a slump or anything...