AW:Morning Pgs 2025: Day 28

Hello everyone. I'm sorry that I haven't posted in months. Life has been challenging and my brain has not been cooperative. Since June, I've been having a lot of problems with my anxiety. I realized that part of the problem was the fact that I was reading the news. I have spent the last week abstaining from reading the news and my anxiety has improved somewhat. I am not sure how to feel about that.

I know that it is important to keep an eye on what the government is doing. I can feel the weight of that on me as both a student of history and the person who was groomed to be the family historian. It is a headache to try to reconcile those things with my mental health issues. Some days, literally. But in the face of everything, I have been stalled out in all of my writing efforts. I feel guilty about that.

I don't know if it is because I'm in my late 40s and my brain isn't quite as quick as it was when I was younger or if it is because I've reached the stress level that my brain won't function properly. I'm in therapy. I'm taking my medications. I'm doing what I can for my physical health. I guess I'm doing about 80% of the things I should be doing right. But the brain just doesn't want to cooperate with cranking out fiction, fact, or random rants. 

I have been given a few ideas to work with. Hopefully they'll lead to my coming back to my blogs with more work soon. I am so desperate for something to work and help me get my mojo back. I know I'm not depressed. I'm damn tired because of medication side effects and anxious as hell, which has been kicking the hornet's nest known as my C-PTSD. Hence my not reading the news for the last week. I'll figure something, please don't give up on me. I'm trying really hard, it's just not working yet.

AW:Morning Pages 2025: Day 27?

I don't know about all y'all but my life has been bananas. First there was the business of going to the doctor back in May and finding out that my heart rate had jumped to near 130. So, he put me on a beta-blocker which has had me feeling exhausted, spaced out, and struggling to concentrate. Writing has become a major challenge/accomplishment(?). 

Then there was the matter of challenging my disability claim's denial. I had a ton of paperwork to fill out and my anxiety was all over the map on that one. The fine folks at LawNY are helping me out. I'm nervous about all this stuff but my anxiety over this isn't half as bad as my anxiety over getting paperwork done for the kids to get them on Medicaid so they can work with OPWDD.

And on top of all of this, my eldest child, my Cuddle Bear graduated high school. He has been in vacation mode for the last month. It's driving me batty. He talks about wanting to get his learner's permit but has made no move in that direction. He talks about wanting to start a business mowing lawns or getting a job with a landscaping company, but, again, has made no movement in that direction. If you're curious about what Cuddle Bear looks like, here's a pic:

And yes, all that curl in the previously straight hair is natural. I had curly hair when I was a little kid, then it straightened out. In his case, the opposite happened. Who knows if Snuggle Bug inherited the curly hair gene or not.

AW: Morning Pgs. 2025: Day 26

For the first time in ages, I'm actually organized enough to get this written. Things are getting hectic as we approach June and Cuddle Bear's upcoming graduation. There's only six tickets that can be used to get in to see him graduate in the auditorium. That means that there's going to be some pissed off relatives. I don't really care about that. I'm just glad that he decided he wanted to go through with walking across the stage and receiving his diploma that way instead of through the mail.

Driver's education classes are looking like they're not going to happen this year. We simply have run out of time to get him his learner's permit. Cuddle Bear will not want to cuddle after hearing that news. I am just tired of running to make things happen for the kids. So, I'm not going to feel guilt over this because I was doing most of the work for him to make it happen. Beloved made a great point, Cuddle Bear has to decide if he is going to be an adult about this and make it happen.

Snuggle Bug has made no noises about learning to drive yet. He's mentioned some cars that he wants to have because he thinks they look cool. I can get behind this. I have cars that I think look really nifty. But he isn't interested in driving yet. So, before any conversations about owning a vehicle happens, he has to learn how to operate one safely. Cuddle Bear knows exactly what vehicle he wants, his late grandfather's truck. Getting him to do the legwork for this driver's ed. class has been like pulling hen's teeth. This is why there's been zero discussion about the truck. 

AW: Morning (somewhere) pgs. 2025: Day 25?

 I did not drop off the face of the earth. My doctor put me on a beta blocker with some side effects that mimic the symptoms of depression for me. It's been hard for me to find energy to write, do housework, or even just read a book. My ability to focus is pretty much shot. I just sit and stare trying to remember what I was supposed to be doing.

Now is not the time for that sort of thing. My eldest son has things coming up to get ready for graduation. We also have to get him his learner's permit so that he can take the driver's education class this summer. I have a ton of paperwork to do for myself and the kids to get things sorted out for supports that they need. When I should be working on all of this stuff, I am sleeping on the couch or sitting infront of the computer spaced out. I am, to say the least, frustrated with the situation.

I don't fully understand why my resting heart rate is now high enough to require this. It could be stress or anxiety. I have more than my share of that. I am making dietary changes to make my diet more heart friendly. Because the requirements for a heart healthy diet are not too different from a diabetic healthy diet, it is not requiring too many changes. But all of this is fairly vexing and I just don't have time for one more chronic condition to get in my way. I have too much to do.

AW: Morning Pgs. 2025: Day 24

I desperately hope I can brain up something decent to write. I feel uninspired and rather hopeless. Looking at the situation my country is in and the course it is moving along, I can't help but feel like there's nothing I can do. It's a train wreck and I can't look away. I just don't know, folks, what any of us can do right now with these insane people in charge right now. I see people taking to the streets and protesting. I know there are letter writing campaigns going on. I know that people are lighting up the switchboard at Congress with their calls. But nothing is changing. We're still going along at full bore into hell.

I honestly believe that war is going to break out. The question is will it be civil war or will it be war with another nation. Either one is a possibility. I am apprehensive about the SAVE act. As a married woman, my right to vote is going to be stripped away because I took my husband's last name. They're claiming that it is to protect the country from voting fraud but that's not really the motivation here. The power players behind this bill believe that women should be in the home, barefoot and pregnant. They're working to strip away the rights that their grandmothers fought for. I don't think they even realize what they're doing.

I don't know. I really don't know anymore. I kept telling myself for years that this day was going to come even when people called me crazy for it. All that worrying, however, didn't yield much of a plan. Planting a garden and canning food is all I've got for ideas on how to handle this. Hunkering down and basically trying to weather the storm with old time skills and such. Because I think that's the only thing that's going to carry us through what's coming.

AW: Morning Pgs. 2025: Day 23

I haven't been well over the last few days. My arthritis has been acting up and I had a migraine yesterday. Throw on top of it all how the gloomy weather has made my depression act up and it's just been hard to have the motivation to do much of anything. The biggest problem, honestly, was the arthritis. My neck was hurting so badly I could barely turn my head. Sleep was challenging as a result.

I think the surreal nightmares that I had last night (for example, of filling out a job application) were due to a combination of the migraine medication wearing off, stress, and my body generally hating me. Every time I woke up, I was utterly confused as to why the dream was so terrifying. I mean, I am not the world's biggest fan of paperwork but a job application was evoking absolute terror in that dream. I don't think there's a deeper meaning to it. It'd be one thing if this was a recurring theme. It was just a strange night.

I forgot to use my CPAP last night. That may have contributed to the problem. I find the thing uncomfortable to wear. I truly dislike it. But when I don't use it, I have problems with my sleep. Apparently, when the sleep study was done last year, I stopped breathing 11 times per minute. Not as bad as some other people, but you're not supposed to stop breathing when you're sleeping at all. Breathing is supposed to continue, kinda like your heartbeat.

AW: Morning pgs. 2025: Day 22

 I have given up all hope of getting these pages done every morning. I will do the best I can but life keeps kicking me in the teeth. Theoretically, today I will have time to do some 'serious' writing. I am going to hope that I can manage it but I feel doubtful. My home is a mess. I have been trying to get cleaning done but as much as I finish, the kids come along and leave a mess. The sink is full of dishes that my eldest insists needs to soak before he can wash them. This includes all of the silverware except for about four spoons. If I don't wash it, it won't get done.

My youngest has been supposed to clean his room for a half hour every day. He takes the timer in there and shuts the door. To me there is no change in the state of chaos in there but he insists that it is cleaner when he comes out. I suspect he's in there reading comic books. Not that I was a child who would spend most of their assigned cleaning time reading. ;)

I am so worn out and I have no idea why. The grey weather hasn't done my mood any favors. I keep hoping for sunshine and warmth but it's not here yet. My brain functions better when the weather is fair and warm. 

AW: Morning Pgs. 2025: Day 21

 Well, I've set my timer into motion and I have music playing but no inspiration. My thoughts are jumbled up. I have some anxiety going on about political stuff. Well, some is a huge understatement but it's there. I also have my mind clicking away at the question of how to prepare for my next depressive episode so that it doesn't knock me down as badly as the last one did. And I am trying to figure out what I need to do so that I can make sure that all the supports I need for the kids are in place for next year. That IEP meeting last week was helpful but there needs to be more.

Aside from worrying about these things, I have a measure of dread regarding a phone call happening this afternoon. I will be talking with an attorney about challenging the denial of my social security claim. Last year and the months of being so out of it that I couldn't function tells me that I couldn't even handle a part time job. It makes me feel like the part of my brain that insists I am lazy is wrong. I have evidence that I can't shake a stick at which proves that I am disabled. It is a big pile of evidence but last year's depressive episode really hammered it home.

I want to be productive. I want to work. But I have to recognize my limits. If I push myself too hard, I'll slide right back into that pit of despair and be useless to anyone. The bare minimum just isn't enough. It is part of the reason why I wasn't cooking daily which lead to my kids losing weight. It made the doctors concerned and they literally ordered that the kids get desserts and snacks whenever they want them. The kids' friends are jealous. I'm just trying to figure out how to make it all work so that the kids have what they need the next time my brain goes haywire.

I'm not half so clever as to have a better plan than using my planner religiously and attempting to be more stubborn than the depression. I'm trying to come up with a better plan than that but I'm not having much success. My mood is stable and ok. Even in the face of the wild anxiety going on. I just have to have a plan for when things go sideways because the guys are depending on me. That includes Beloved, who is super busy between work chaos and helping take care of his elderly mother.

I just don't know what is a good plan. It makes me nervous, to be honest.

AW: Morning Pgs. 2025: Day 20

 My week has been just bananas. A ton of appointments and work eating up my writing time. On the plus side, however, my eldest is making good progress at taking care of his braces and was taught a new technique for getting between tight teeth. He goes back in two weeks to get his wire put on again. In that time, I'm sure he will master the skill.

Housework has been exasperating. I am not sure which pile will topple over and bury me. There is another huge pile of dishes and there is a huge pile of laundry. Of the two, the laundry is taller and more worrisome. At least we managed to get some of the clothes that no longer fit out to the car to be transported to the thrift store and donated. I've been trying to convince the kids to go through their laundry and they have been staunchly resisting me. In some cases, going so far as to put clothes on their stuffed animals to say that they don't have to get rid of it because it fits the bear. This is not going to be an easy battle.

More birds are singing outside. The cardinals still sound like squeaky toys. The goldfinches still bicker over the sunflower chips. And the downy woodpecker still big foots it around and chases the other birds off from the sunflower feeder. We now have a thistle sock to hang up and suet blocks. Those will be going up this weekend. I think that the goldfinches will be mobbing the thistle sock as soon as they figure out it is up and that the woodpecker will be terrifying the squirrels that try to steal from the suet block. Either way, it will be amusing and noisy outside.

It's not warm enough to garden yet but planning is happening. Once the danger of frost is past, there's going to be a lot of work done at my mother-in-law's place and over here. The neighbors in the apartment across the hall are talking about putting in a vegetable garden. I told them where the last tenant in that apartment had their garden and their solution to deer trying to raid young plants. Apparently deer do not appreciate ghost chilies.

AW: Morning Pgs. 2025: Day 19

I really have to get back to working on that critical analysis of The Artist's Way. That means re-reading the book with a notebook on hand to look at things like how the book is put together physically, how easy it is to read on the basis of the type font used, and dissecting the language of the book. It is going to be a big task but I am not planning on getting it done in a week. I have to review what I have already posted about it and see how far I have gotten into the book.

It is a good book for ideas and inspiration. Some of the techniques that the author shares are pretty useful. At the same time, it has problematic elements that need to be addressed. I want to be as fair and balanced in how I address the book as I can be. I have found it to be helpful and I regularly reference it when I get stuck in my artistic efforts. At the same time, I can't ignore the problems and just blithely say it will work for anyone.

I did that in my initial post about it and I feel badly about that. I have to acknowledge that post was made in a rush of enthusiasm for how it was helpful for me overcoming my writer's block. It has more to it than what I gushed about. This critical analysis is going to dissect the book into it's parts and put things into context. My hope is that with that analysis I can make the book more accessible to others and (if something wild happens) influence a future edition of the book to address the problematic elements in it. Because I truly believe that Ms. Cameron wanted to help her readers and wanted this book to be accessible to as many people as possible.

AW: Morning pgs. 2025: day 18

 It irks me that the date of the post doesn't match the calendar date. It is something that just grates on the perfectionist in me. I am attempting to not let it annoy me too much, but it's there. I am more annoyed with myself over the fact that the kitchen is a disaster and I forgot to water the plants last week than anything else, to be honest. I am finding myself having a hard time remembering things. I know that it is stress doing it. Hormones may be part of it, but I know that when my stress levels hit a certain threshold, my brain gets wonky.

It would be easier if my antianxiety medicine didn't put me to sleep. It is ok to take a nap once in a while, but doing that on a daily basis makes it hard to get things done. A part of me says that if I avoid the news that I would be doing better. I can't do that, however, because there's too much at stake. They're literally stripping away vast swaths of the protections that people have on a daily basis. I need to know if my family is safe or not.

I hate the government right now. Hate is a pretty strong word. But that's what I'm feeling. I also feel betrayed by Congress because they're enabling Trump. No one has stepped up and even told him to knock it off. I suspect that we're not going to have four years of this garbage but longer because there are toadies in the halls of the legislature already batting around the idea of a 3rd term for him.

AW: Morning pgs. 2025: Day 17

 One of the most amazing things I have seen was a professional baseball player catch a fast ball thrown to them bare handed, with their off hand, and seen out of the corner of their eye as they were giving an interview. If the guy hadn't caught the ball, it would have smacked right into the reporter's head. But there he was, catching it and then tossing it away to the next player like it was no big deal. It was really cool. All I could think was his hand must have stung after catching that ball. I know mine would have.

Life is full of odd little things like that. I kinda wish that more people would notice these minor wonders and celebrate them. I think the world would be a happier place then. I know that the people we appreciate for doing these things would respond like my Beloved does when I thank him for doing something: what? I'm just a dude doing a thing. You're welcome?

My sons are shaping up to have the same attitude as their father. I thank them for doing stuff or going out of their way to help out. Most of the time they say 'don't mention it' in an abashed tone. I know that they're great guys. I try to make a point of expressing my appreciation for all that they do. But all three of them tend to be confused when I do it and at times get a little annoyed with me for it. It's a silly little dynamic in my household, but I love them for it. Even if they get annoyed with me.

AW: Morning pgs.: Day 16

 It might be noon in my time zone, but I was busy with phone calls when I wanted to be writing. Therefore, I say this still counts as my morning pages entry. I'm currently brewing coffee. The apartment smells pretty delicious. I took a walk this morning to pick up a few things from the corner store. As I was out walking, I noticed that the red bud trees all have their buds out. I also heard a larger variety of birds singing than I did last week. It was a chilly walk but the sun was out to make it a little better.

I am stalled on projects because life keeps getting in the way. I would get so much done if I could do things with my mind. Need to wash the dishes? Mind powers to work as I am folding a ton of laundry. Alas, things don't go that way. But, it would be seriously convenient if they did. Multi tasking is not easy. Not when it requires you to bilocate.

I hope to get my planning for entries like the craft of writing stuff done today. It depends on if my kids are going to do their chores today. Both basins in the kitchen are full of dishes to be washed. There's a pile of laundry sitting in the middle of the living room. I'm not sure if this is going to be resolved by the end of the day. The challenge with teenagers is motivating them to do the boring work. Money was working but now they're just loafing around. Kids, they can be an utter headache at times. LOL

AW: Morning pgs. 2025: Day 15

 My original goal doing these pages was to write in here daily. Then life got in the way a couple days. It is frustrating but I am attempting to be understanding with myself. The way I see it, if I hit most days of the week I am doing really well. I am looking at past entries in this blog with a fine toothed comb. I have some ideas for how to approach continuing the serial stories. I found material to put up for the features dealing with the setting of my fantasy series. (Looking through old notebooks can be enlightening.)

I am going to restart writing recipes for the food of the world. I really like the concept of a cookbook for a fantasy setting that can be applied to our world. I have some experience cooking over a fire. If I had to, I could make an ok meal. It's just been a really long time since I've done it. Since my family doesn't go camping, I don't have an opportunity to rebuild those skills. I do, however, have a cookbook that includes directions for how to convert a recipe from one that requires a fireplace to cook it to one that uses an oven. I will be relying on that heavily as I experiment with recipes. 

I want to do a better job of  posting writing advice every week. That requires my effort to review all the topics I have covered before I start drafting out new material. It's going to be slow going on that project. In the midst of all of this, I am hoping to write a couple fantasy books this year and do major revisions on one that I published already in a different genre. I have a list of things I want to accomplish and I am trying not to put a ton of pressure on myself to get it all done as soon as possible. The world is stressing me out and I tend to default to pressuring myself to do all the things 'before it's too late.'

Bad habits and all that.

AW: Morning Pgs. 2025: Day 14

 It is 1131 and therefore still technically morning. I may try to skate by on technicalities at times, but I don't make it a habit. I just deleted a sentence because it looked ugly. That sounds funny and like a pretty goofball way of thinking. To be honest, however, a sentence that is well crafted flows well in spoken word and looks better on the page. I may have spent too much time staring at blank pages and considered taking up my sketch book in exchange for doing my writing this morning. 

I have a sore back because I'm all tense from everything going on in the government right now. I'm pretty sure you can stick a fork in the USA as a republic because I think we're done. With the president making rules by fiat, ignoring the courts, and having the majority of the legislature kissing up to him, we're just done. It is not with any joy that I say that. I fear for the future, honestly.

I figure it's a matter of time until I get blogs banned in my own country. Heck, I may not even be able to blog with the way things are going. I don't think that Trump is going to turn off the internet. He's too interested in the easy fix for good feels to do that. I deleted quite a few sentences. I really need to break the habit of editing as I type. This is frustrating.

AW: Morning pgs. 2025: Day 13

 I am up stupidly early again. Well, not too early but it feels that way. I woke up at 0430 and it is now 0550. It's pretty close to when I usually wake up on weekdays. I have been attempting to curb my habit of editing as I write when I do these morning pages. I have not been successful. As such, I think that I shave a few minutes of writing time off in doing so. Not that much you'd think, but it counts when you are writing for ten minutes.

I have this sand timer that I love. It runs for exactly ten minutes. The best part about it is the fact that it is the only sand timer that I have found with pink sand in it. Pink is one of my favorite colors. To say the least, when I saw it in the home decor department of a store that I was shopping in, I grabbed it. It was supposed to just be a cute little thing that collects dust on your shelf, but then I timed it and discovered it was actually useful. That was where the idea of writing for ten minutes was born.

Setting a time limit on my writing is not a bad thing, in my opinion. It forces me to stay on task and keeps me from getting sucked into my work and forgetting all the other things I have to do in a given day. That said, I only use the time limit on these morning pages. My other posts are longer because I spend more time on them.

I keep trying not to correct my spelling and grammar as I am working here and it is such an ingrained habit that I keep doing it. Ugh. I have managed through chat programs to break myself of the habit of constant capitalization of sentences and such. One may wonder why this is and it's just a part of me wants to be contrary. So, if you're ever in a chat session with me, you are going to find that I type in all lowercase letters except for proper names. It isn't that I don't care as much as it is I am trying to force myself to have more mental flexibility. Breaking rules of writing is difficult and forces me to think about what I am doing.

AW: Morning Pgs. 2025: Day 12

 I'm waiting for my coffee to finish brewing. I am not looking forward to the weather today because it's going to make my bones ache. It already has my back sore. I've been up since 4 am. I spent most of my time writing in my prayer journals. I honestly think that if I was keeping a running word count, it would be well over a million for the year based on what gets written in those notebooks.

Life has been challenging for me on a number of levels. I think the biggest challenge I face right now is making sense of the pile of paperwork that I have sitting here for the kids stuff. I don't know why there are so many forms but it would be easier if I had a printer, possibly. I wouldn't have had to have the forms mailed to me. Actually, it would have been easier if Adobe actually let me edit a .pdf file but I can't seem to get it to cooperate with me. I should probably ask Beloved to show me how it actually works at some point this week.

I am listening to rock and roll right now but it's just serving as background noise. I enjoy ZZ Top and their song 'Sharp Dressed Man' is one of my favorites, but I'm not feeling it right now. I'm distracted by worry over the future. The president is an idiot. He just tries to bluster his way through everything and expect his opinion to be more important because he has money. I really do think that the man is repulsive and an example of everything that is wrong with the US.

His policies are impacting my family and that makes me angry. I am not looking forward to the rest of his term. I highly suspect that the Republicans are going to try to make him have a third term. I wish the guy would smell burnt toast and fall over dead. The country would possibly be better of then.

AW: Morning pgs. 2025: Day 11

 I have been looking through my journals and no inspiration hits me. My usual sources of inspiration are just not hitting me right now. It's frustrating because I want to write and make art but I am so absorbed in panic about what is happening here in the US that I am stuck. I really don't want to be stuck, but it's difficult to get unstuck. I am making progress getting supports lined up for my kids for over the summer and after my eldest is done with school. The boys both have a wicked case of ADHD and they're dealing with Autism. It puts them about 4 yrs behind the curve which has made school a challenge. At the same time, however, they're making progress and I want to see that progress continue forward. 

My eldest is due to graduate this year. My biggest concern for him is getting things lined up for him to learn valuable life skills. I've tried teaching him how to cook and such but to no avail. He seems to listen better to other people than me. I don't know if it is a case of familiarity breeding some level of contempt or what. I don't think contempt is the right word but I can't think of a better one. He is a good kid, they both are. Beloved and I have been doing everything we can think of to teach them life skills but it just doesn't seem to stick.

I kinda wonder if part of it is the fact that they're teenagers and they're just going through a phase of not listening. I am not sure. All I know is it is exasperating and worrisome. I look at their peers and see how they are ahead of them. It makes me worry about the future. I try not to worry but I do. It's part of having an anxiety disorder, I suppose, and part of having kids. I want the best for these boys and I'm afraid that I can't provide everything they need to succeed. So, I've been trying to get supports for them to help them carry on with their efforts to grow and make a place in the world.

AW: Morning pgs. 2025: Day 10

 This is my first chance to write, even though it is in the afternoon I'm still counting it as a 'morning' page. I am getting really angry with how things are unfolding here in the U.S. One of my state's senators has proven himself a coward and I suspect screwed us all. I wasn't really a fan of Schumer to begin with, but I am not pleased with his decision to support that damn budget bill. Hopefully the rest of the Democrats in the Senate will oppose the bill. I am honestly not sure about it and it is deeply worrying me.

There is, however, a ray of hope. A townhall meeting in North Carolina erupted into 'chaos' as constituents confronted their congress critter. Things got so 'rowdy' that the meeting was ended and the man was escorted off the premises to keep him safe from the people he is representing. I'm hoping that more of this happens. I am hoping that the people of the United States are going to stand up and kick Trump and his cronies in the teeth.

I still feel like my vote was wasted, to be honest. I still feel that Donald Trump should be sitting in prison right now and that Elon Musk should be right beside him for breaking the law. Because Musk doesn't have the legal right to fire people from their jobs in the government. The active dismemberment of the government agencies and departments is something that I don't know if the country is going to be able to recover from. I honestly have no idea.

All I know is that Canada is worried that we're about to invade them and I live a few hours (as the crow flies) from that country. I am afraid that the president is going to make some very bad decisions in his blustering way and screw all of us over. I am deeply concerned about the future. People told me that I was paranoid when I kept saying this stuff was going to happen. Believe me, I wish I was wrong. At the same time, I have no satisfaction in being right. All I know is that we're well and truly fucked right now.

AW: Morning Pgs. 2025: Day 9

 My goal of writing everyday here is not doing so hot. In my defense, there has been a lot going on. I am making good progress on housework despite the messes that the kids make behind me as I work. It is a bit easier since they have computers to spend their time on instead of toy cars all over the living room. Those caltrops with wheels are hazardous if you don't carefully watch where you are stepping.

I have found the desk, a good portion of the living room floor, and about a third of the kitchen table. Spring cleaning is a thing happening here. I haven't gone out and pulled weeds out of the garden but there are no weeds growing yet. I have been thinking about it, though. Once they start sprouting up, I am going to pull up all the tiny oregano plants that took over last year. I haven't decided what I am going to replace that with yet, but the oregano has to go. It's taken over the flower bed and started colonizing the lawn as of last fall.

I forgot that oregano is related to mint. Those plants spread fast and thick. The neighbors thought I was weird when I asked the landscaper to run his weedwacker over the oregano. Everything smelled like pizza for a bit but it wasn't everywhere. I think the real reason why they thought I was weird was the fact that I cheered with joy because the weedwacker was doing some of the work for me. The landscaper got a good laugh out of my antics that day.