Coffee Break: Angie Wave Pump

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1. I tried clicking on all those links (looking for a picture of these shoes actually on feet; I think they might end up looking a little weird) and it just took me to planethowl dot com.

   1. Same. Weird, man.

   2. AGL’s own s=te has pictures with them on a model. https://www.agl.com/us_en/angie-wave-d169006pcmoonn0000.html

      1. Thanks! Not as odd looking as I would have thought.

         1. Yeah, not too bad. But I like unusual shoes.

   3. Sorry about that, guys – links are fixed now! Thank you for reading.

   4. They look like Chloe knockoffs

2. This morning in therapy I realized I am extremely anxious about the US presidential election on Tuesday. My therapist said one of her clients had come up with a plan to take a yoga class Tuesday evening to avoid just watching election returns on TV and stressing out, knowing that there’s not much to be gained by that as the election probably won’t be decided quickly. I probably can’t do a yoga class but wanted to see if anyone else has ideas for election day evening coping mechanisms/plans.

   1. I’m with you. Plan is to put my phone like, in the guest room, and do things like watch an old movie on the DVD player, play a board game, read a physical book, etc.

   2. I’m stressed but I think it would stress me out more to try to pretend it isn’t happening. Me and my THC/wine combo will be watching. And the next day is WFH. I’m leaning into my freakout.

   3. A few ideas:

      *Get outside for a walk (in a well lit area if it is dark!), perhaps with friends. Away from TVs. Silence the phones.
      *Go somewhere TV-free for a distracting dinner. Maybe something like hibachi.
      *Cook a complicated dinner at home, sans electronics. Something that requires a lot of focus and time. Maybe fill it out with a robust and fun tablescape, etc.
      *Read a new book at the library.
      *Get together with friends or family for a game night. Ticket to Ride, Wingspan, Uno (and Uno Flip), and the all-card version of Monopoly are big hits in our household. Limit the alcohol, as sometimes that can aggravate underlying anxiety.
      *Get together with friends or family for a movie marathon. The HP movies would be my pick. Same rules as with game night.

   4. Our TV is upstairs. Since 2016 I just sit downstairs and knit. I can’t handle it.

      1. I suppose I am a tricoteuse of sorts.

         1. Thanks to you, I learned a new word and realized it perfectly describes me.

            Given the context, that’s a huge whomp-whomp.

         2. oh! Duolingo recently taught me the word tricoter (to knit) but I was unfamiliar with tricoteuse until just now. Like Madame Defarge in Tale of Two Cities, and I am shocked my 10th grade English teacher did not teach it to us. love it, and thanks for the memories.

         3. Wow I now realize what “tricot” means in terms of clothing! Mind blown!

      2. My knitting group meets that night.

   5. My parents rented a cabin without internet and are going up to the mountains Monday-Thursday! Kind of the extreme option, but my dad keeps talking about how excited he is to chop wood.

      1. I like your dad. He has the right idea.

   6. Does knowing that it most likely won’t be decided on Tuesday night help?

      1. I think the outcome will likely be clear, even if the election isn’t formally called. It was clear in both 2016 and 2020 what was happening by midnight on election night.

         1. Not in 2020 – there weren’t enough ballots counted in certain swing states to know who’d won until a day or two after.

            1. Not with certainty, so they didn’t call it, but it was clear Biden was going to win.

            2. And then there was waiting to see what would happen on Jan 6 and how that would play out!

            3. Yup. I remember I was at (outdoor!) brunch on the Saturday after the election when it was called in 2020. Since it’s Philly and that’s where the mail ballot count was going down, felt like the entire population came outside with flags.

            4. Actually Fox called it that night. Took the rest of the media outlets a few days to follow suit.

   7. I feel you. I don’t think to myself “Oh I’m so anxious about the election” and I’ve been surprisingly sleeping ok, but I’ve noticed in the last couple weeks I can’t focus on work or even reading novels. Really the only thing I have the attention span for is TV. I watched the entire Lincoln Lawyer series on Netflix in like four days.

      On election day I have to take the kids to sports practices and won’t get home until 9 or 9:30 pm. I’ll probably check the news once and then try to go to bed.

      1. Lincoln Lawyer was a blessing.

      2. Yeah I really didn’t think it was bothering me that much; I had just been feeling like my life was out of control for a few weeks and couldn’t quite identify why. I have been a bit busier than usual, but with pretty normal stuff. When she asked me about the election I just started tearing up and realized, ooooh.

         We have a 12-year old and probably wouldn’t just watch the news for hours with him around under any circumstance, but I kind of like the idea of having A Plan and/or doing something especially restorative or comforting.

   8. Movie theatre and leave your phone in the car?

   9. Bourbon. Not gonna lie. I will make myself a nest on the sofa with all the news coverage.

      1. Me too. My stress and I will be in the sofa glued to the news on tv and online. I prefer white wine but this calls for something that I don’t routinely drink for pleasure. I also can’t over do it because I have court the next morning. Court is located in solid Trump world so matter what it’s going to be unpleasant.

   10. I am going to a bridge class. The instructor gave us the option of canceling and making the class up later, but we unanimously voted to have it to at least get a 2-hour period of respite!

   11. I’m UK based (but an American citizen) so there’s no point in staying up. I’m going to plug my phone in downstairs to avoid stealth checks and take a sleeping pill. I’ve got to do a talk at 8 the next morning, so I’ll be up by 6:30, and my plan is not to check my phone til I get on the bus. My concern is that I’m talking about (political topic) but everyone will hear my unsoftened even after 13 years Californian accent and want to talk about the election.

       1. I was in Singapore in the middle of a Power Point presentation on the pending Trans Pacific Partnership when the 2016 election was called. I knew, because the audience immediately abandoned any pretense of politely paying me any attention and focused on their wildly vibrating mobile phones. I rushed to wrap things up and then also checked my phone for the update. Happy hour was early that day in order to cope with the various reactions of the traveling group of presenters, gleeful or depressed. (The Trump administration later withdrew from the TPP.)

   12. My husband is the opposite of a MAGA nut but just as intense. I’ve lost him to treating MSNBC like it’s his job and texting me things off threads at all hours. I’m dem as well, but I can’t take the ranting and raving and pacing these days. I’m sort of tempted to go to the gym and swim or maybe go the movie theater route. I travel constantly for work and am bummed this isn’t one of my work trip weeks. I even debated inventing a fake conference and staying at a nearby hotel. He is stressing me out so badly.

       1. i just heard the phrase “blue MAGA” to describe these kinds of people and realize i tend to follow a lot of them. lots of conspiracy theories. sarah kendzior, mueller she wrote, i’m trying to remember others. i don’t feel like msnbc people count (maddow and hayes at least) but for my mental health i can’t listen to too much msnbc.

          1. It’s not conspiracy theories (thank heavens) but he refers to and quotes the anchors and frequent guests as if they are his closest friends. He tapes and rewatches things and gets himself more worked up. Again, it’s weird because I agree on our politics. It’s the amount this has taken over his life and become the only thing he wants to talk about. I’ve just hit a point where I can’t stand it anymore. A lot of the rally content repeats but he watches each one. I try to remind myself that at least we agree on views. And this certainly isn’t as sad as folks whose family members are believing in Q or some other craziness. But, man oh man, I just want some normalcy again. I’m a cancer survivor. I remember someone telling me about different coping methods. Some folks will research their disease ad nauseam to feel in more control. I suspect it’s that sort of thing…?

   13. for the last election, I read a romance book series with 6 books, so it was absorbing and didn’t end too soon. that’s my plan for this year. last election i did the annika martin billionaire books (really funny); this one i think i’ll try the christina laurens billionaire series with 18 books.

       1. oh also i’m into gardening with a list a mile long of seeds and plants i want so i may spend some time researching those on the internet

          1. I initially read this as the metaphorical gardening and thought “well there’s a plan for distracting yourselves….”

             1. Me too! Especially in combo with the mention of romance books!

   14. The day after the 2016 election my boss who has high EQ gave everyone the day off/flex to recover and honestly he seemed to need it too.
       This year I do plan on grabbing some drinks and watching at home but I don’t expect a final result.

       1. In 2016 my boss ordered us pizza and we all sat around feeling sad together. Zero work was done and he was fine with it.

   15. I’ve got a good plan! I stress-bake, so I’ve chosen a fussy but delicious-looking new cake recipe to work on while we listen to the news on election night. It will either be a consolation cake or a celebration cake. I’ve got some election bingo cards printed out, and the champagne is already chilling for Wed morning mimosas because I am choosing to be optimistic!! We are almost there!

3. It’s Halloween. A great day for witch shoes.

   1. Oh. Good idea. I wasn’t thinking about this until this post, but now I am. I just confirmed my local.theatre has a 10:30 show I wouldn’t mind seeing.

4. I am super frustrated right now. We are in crunch time for MANY deadlines before a big-deal event, and I’m the person keeping the train on the tracks, in addition to doing significant pieces of work. I am going in so many different directions and feel completely overloaded. I keep making really dumb, careless mistakes that I wouldn’t be making under normal circumstances. What do I do?
   1. My boss can’t help take anything off my plate. We do not have the same skill sets. About the best she can do is to pause new things that come in (although that is proving to be near-impossible).
   2. I’ve delegated the obvious things but I still have too much.

   I will get through it, but man, I seriously hate this time of year.

   1. when the moment clears maybe think about making a checklist or spreadsheet that puts some of what’s in your head onto paper so you can guide Future You?

   2. Remember the project management triangle- time, money, quality. When there’s a higher volume of work and tight deadlines, and you can’t delegate more or hire help, then quality is going to go down. It’ll be ok. Go easy on yourself. Light touch on what you can. Skip other things. Does your boss have your back?

   3. I hate this, too. This period before January 1 is always so hard and when budgets are due. I try to support myself with checklists, breaking down big deadlines into components, proofreading more carefully (or even grab a second set of eyes when I can), and try to sleep as well as I can. If you can put some time between finish and proofread, I usually catch more. I also try to put my deepest work at times of day when I’m most “there.” For me, that’s late afternoon–but I know that’s the opposite of most people.

   4. What kind of dumb careless mistakes? If you’re project managing in addition to doing significant work, you’re doing 2 jobs and that’s entirely on your boss.

      Is it the sort of thing where a whiteboard and daily meetings would be helpful?
      Would having someone else handle your phone and email inbox help?
      Would asking your boss to project manage (i.e. setting up a kanban board or a gantt/task tracking system) help?
      Are they the sort where a proof reader (if not a SME) would be useful? Could you have a copy editor assigned for compliance/copy editing?

5. PSA to those diagnosed with plantar fasciitis – I posted earlier this year about having surgery for plantar fasciitis. I ended up having surgery on both feet (separate times) in the late winter/spring of this year. However, the pain continued afterward, months later than what was considered a normal timeframe for healing from the surgeries. My podiatrist/surgeon was stumped and questioned whether I had plantar fasciitis at all or if it was something else. I ended up going to a sports medicine doctor, desperate for answers. He ordered a nerve study, which I had today. Turns out, I have major nerve damage to my distal tibial nerves, which branch out into three branches within the feet. I have tarsal tunnel, which can cause PF-like symptoms and can often be confused with PF. So, I basically went through two PF surgeries for nothing, complete with the 6-8 week healing process on both sides. I guess this is just a PSA to anyone dealing with PF or considering PF surgery. I encourage you to seek out a doctor who will order a nerve conduction study/EMG before agreeing to surgery.

   1. I had surgery for an entrapped nerve with PF symptoms. Totally fixed it for me. I hope you get relief soon. In other flares, PT was enough. And once, I was on the verge of surgery after months of PT. Switched doctors and she recommended a walking boot to give the foot rest for a while–totally fixed it. I’m super careful now about arch support and try not to overdue it on long days of walking on hard surfaces. But it just showed me how truly all of it seems like no one right fix.

      1. That’s what I have now – entrapped nerves. But I was misdiagnosed with PF and had the PF surgery, not the nerve surgery.

         1. I was told PF inflammation was what entrapped the nerve if I recall, but it also was like 10 years ago. Sucks to have to do more than one surgery. I remember feeling annoyed with all the PT and I also had done a series of these injections with your own blood and a steroid injection. Absolutely killed. Hopefully this does the trick now for you as well. Seriously is life altering to have so much pain like that.

   2. Ugh, I’m so sorry, that is awful, but thank you for the PSA.

   3. My husband had tendon lengthening surgery, which is in the back of the calf. It worked though it took longer than they told him it would.

   4. Wow – this is really unusual. To have bilateral tarsal tunnel at the same time….

      Did your nerve study also look at your arms/hands to see if this is a more widespread problem? I would push your doctor as to why you were prone to this.

   5. Also a PSA to be sure to get second opinions from medical doctors who are not affiliated with the initial doctor who recommends surgery. Not a waste of time. OP, so sorry this happened to you!

6. Perimenopausal ladies, please tell me about your experience starting progesterone only (with the idea to start estrogen in around 4 years). I’m waiting for labs to see what my levels are, but my provider (who specializes in this) suggested that I start with a low to mid dose of progesterone to get a handle on my anxiety, rage and insomnia. She doesn’t think estrogen is warranted yet as my periods are very regular (but she is confirming with labs). I do remember being a lot less anxious during pregnancy in my early 40s as progesterone can have a calming effect.
   (I’m 45, have tried an SSRI for the anxiety and it worked pretty well but I had to go off it for other reasons. May try a different one if the progesterone doesn’t work.)

   1. I assume she means actual progesterone and not a progestin that is more likely to worsen those symptoms. If so, I’d be enthusiastic to try that since progesterone is great for insomnia and feeling agitated for me.

   2. Interesting. I did not know progesterone treats those symptoms. I was prescribed the minipill for birth control years ago, but never took it bc I am afraid it will cause skin issues for me and my doctor was refusing to give me an alternative due to my age. (Maybe 44 at the time? 51 now). I have not discussed perimenopause with anyone, but perhaps those polls I stashed could be useful. Are those common peri symptoms?

      1. Oh, never mind. I am seeing now from the post before mine that the mini pill is not the same.

      2. she said usually anxiety, irritability and insomnia are the first symptoms of perimenopause, with irregular periods typically following a few years later.

   3. Anyone recommending testing hormone levels is not following the standard of care for treating perimenopause. Because hormone levels fluctuate throughout the cycle it will not help inform a medical decision. Recommend finding a better doctor that follows modern recommendations. For peri, it is often recommended that you go on BC to help even out the hormonal fluctuations. Highly recommend checking out the Vagenda Diaries (substack) for evidence based reviews of treatments. I believe there may also be a list of recommend providers since this is an area where many providers fall short. Good luck! Many of my friends have been through this with poor providers only to have much improved symptoms once they find a good provider.

      1. So true. That whole “ checking levels” is a crock. They fluctuate constantly.

      2. Evidence based treatment will fall short here because no one bothers to do the research. BC can even out fluctuations by making the anxiety, irritability, and insomnia bad all of the time instead of some of the time. There are a lot of providers out there who don’t know what to do if BC makes things worse. Completely agree about good vs. bad providers though.

   4. My periods are regular and I’m on estrogen and progesterone. I went to an online menopause provider because my gynecologist was useless. Insomnia was my main concern and the 100 mg of progesterone has likely made that better. Also on vaginal and patch estrogen though.

   5. I don’t know anything about peri regimens, but I know that in my regular cycle the progesterone heavy days are the days where I hate myself and my body. You couldn’t pay me to artificially increase my progesterone.

      1. Progesterone makes me horrifically miserable.

      2. Interesting. For me before I got treatment it was the progesterone withdrawal days (PMDD). They really need to research all this more!

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