kat's Studio Apartment - Apartment Life

I am not sure how I manage but almost everything I plan to do I eventually do. After many years of starting and stopping......Atkins, low carbs, keto & finally, ketovore. Ketovore is a cross between the carnivore food plan and keto. Mainly meats but some other keto friendly foods as well. Now I am definitely on it and stick to it at least 90%. I figure that is good enough for me. I do feel better on it and that is the main reason I eat this way. The other reason is that it is so good! Easy to shop for, easy to cook and easy to clean up after. What more could you want? After years of cooking for others this is a relief for me. Especially since I cannot stand in one place (at the sink or the stove) for very long. My doctor said don't stand longer than five minutes in one place. I try not to.

Cat Collection in curio cabinet

Another thing I have been doing over a bit of time is getting rid of all my excess things that I do not need. There is free table downstairs in my apartment building and I try to set something on it every week. If I see someone picked that item up I put another one down. Kind of interesting to do. Because I figure if I don't use it I may as well give it to someone who will. I don't know if I will ever get brave enough to start putting my ceramic cat collection on the table. Maybe not. Maybe I will wait till I am in my nineties to do that. The same with my dolls that I have had since I was a child. I don't know if "uncluttering" or downsizing as it is sometimes called is an aging thing or not. I see a lot of videos with young people doing it too. Maybe it is trending that we bought too much stuff and now need to get rid of it. I tell myself if I ever have to live in an RV or a van I could never do it with all the stuff I own. 

The best I could do for now.

Since I am following the "ketovore" food plan I have found a lot of gadgets I own for food preparation I no longer need. Basically everything I have out on my counter I use often. I have too many other items that are just taking up room. I am thinking of getting rid of those items. It is funny how someone said on one of the "decluttering" videos that the more you get rid of the more you want to get rid of. Yes, that is definitely true for me. I am seeing that in myself every time I see something I put on the free table is gone. Makes it so much easier to clean or find what you are looking for. I removed as much as I could from my counter so it would not look so cluttered. It also gives me plenty of room to prepare my meals. 

Oma Lisa, my childhood doll

As I get older I find I don't really need so much stuff. If I can use it for other purposes than what it was meant for then I do that. I would always rather use that than purchasing anything new. When I write down my lists of what I need to do or what I want to eliminate from my life I can analyze it further. The key is to get started. Experts are always telling us to find our why. My why is to make life easier now. Not work around it until the day I die. If it is not serving any purpose now is the time to rid myself of it. As I said before there are some items I will never part with. One being my childhood dolls. They still bring me pleasure and I just cannot part with them. At least not yet. 

Copyright © 2025 Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2025 Kathleen G. Lupole

Bathmophobia Fear of Stairs Is Real

3 Story Apartment Building for Seniors & Disabled

 The past couple of weeks I have been living in my apartment on the second floor with a faulty elevator. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't. I knew this would happen eventually.  I really do understand why this happens. Elevators are a man made machine and they break down. Like a car or a computer. Nothing lasts forever. Even knowing and understanding that it is difficult for me to be without it. I have gotten used to it. Comfortable. Time to examine my options and get out of my comfort zone. Moving from here is not an option I want. For one thing a year ago I moved my son upstairs in my building so I could help him. The other thing is that I really love my apartment. I do not want to give it up. Nor do I want to move to first floor apartment. It is noisy down there. Too much activity for me. This is my home. So what to do?

Again???

The only option I really have is to increase my mobility. Maybe I have made it worst by never using the stairs since I moved here in 2018. They are steep and I admit I have a fear of them. So maybe the reason I cannot go down them is not my mobility issues but my fear of stairs in general. There is actually a name for this fear. Bathmophobia. Fear of stairs! Even as a child I was afraid of them but I would still use them. Just very carefully. I have been researching how to rid myself of this fear and how to use stairs when you have bad knees. I have two that are bad but normally one is worse then the other. In other countries elevators are not commonly installed in apartment buildings. Those people are able to live without ever having an elevator (or lifts as they call them). 

Walking laps around my hall

Little steps is essential for me to change anything. My first step has been to start walking laps around my hall. This is an easy step as I have done this in the past. I am walking two laps presently with my walker. I still need to use that for any walking I do. There are times when I need it constantly in my apartment  then other days not at all or not as much. The second step is using my Vibration Plate. I am still in the testing mode with this piece of equipment. It is supposed to work for many different health issues and one being for people with Lymphedema. So that is why I bought one. 

Overcoming my fear of steep stairs

The third step of my plan is something I going to try today for the first time. Walk up 3 steps and down 3 steps on the stairs at the end of my hall. I believe there are only 8 steps down to the landing. Trouble is I cannot carry my walker with me. So using a cane even though I have not come up with a solution for sitting down at the bottom of the stairs. Going up with the good leg and down with the bad one. Maybe increase it after it becomes easier. The biggest problem for me is that these stairs are very steep. At least it seems so to me. Going to try to keep focused on the stair in front of me and not the whole thing at once. Doing it daily is also part of my plan. Not giving up.

Eggs are a good protein source

I have been increasing my protein while following a low carb/keto food plan that is heavy on the protein sources. Twenty carbs or less along with an eating window from 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM (Intermittent Fasting). I feel this is the most healthful food plan to follow. I can stick to it with no problems. In fact eating this way makes you calm and more peaceful. It helps people sleep at night though I have never had that problem. Processed foods, grains, starches and sugar affect me in negative ways. Eliminating them is one little step that is essential for me! 

 

Copyright © 2025 Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2025 Kathleen G. Lupole

A Crazy World We Live In - Apartment Life

Home!

The world has gone crazy. I honestly believe it has. This is not meant to be a political or religious post. It is just that the more people cry and whine about things such as race, gender, religion, age, etc. the worse our society becomes. I agree some changes are good. Not the majority of them though. They go too far. Crying "discrimination" for every little thing. Yet those same ones crying about it are the ones discriminating against others. Bullying people for not understanding what they are telling them. Or judging people who are disabled and cannot read or comprehend simple instructions. I see it almost daily in the apartment building I live in. Because they make the most noise about certain issues they are the ones who get what they want. Often the whiners are not even participating in the event or activity that they were complaining about! 

Coffee Time!

A man in my building yelled "discrimination" about a group of women who want to have coffee together to talk about our feelings or problems with no men present. Yet they had no plans to be at it. Just to complain about it to the management company. So they can say, "I fixed you girls!" I believe since the management company is saying they are correct it is discrimination, then isn't the whole apartment building discriminating against people who are not elderly, disabled or low income? After all you have to meet that criteria to live here. Men and women are different. Regardless of your sexual preference. It goes beyond the physical body. That is why when women are gathering together they talk different than when men are present. The men joke and talk about politics, sports or news. We talk about our menopause, children, our feelings, relationships, our past lives, etc. It is a whole different conversation when the men are not there. 

My hall

It is one of the problems of living in a building such as this. Supposedly we are living independently in our private apartments. In such a close environment it is important to at least try to get along with each other. Easier said than done. One negative person can spoil the whole feeling of our building. Though we have had more than one since I moved in. As I wrote about previously on this blog, we had an "elderly abuse" situation in the past. That was started with a manager and a small group of tenants who banded together to bully others. The ones left over from that group will at times try to bully other tenants. I find the best way to live with people like that is to ignore them. Social media is good in that way that you can put someone on ignore or delete as a friend. Too bad you can't do that in real life. I do not add to their conversation and get away from them as soon as I can. Best to stay off their radar!

Our Backyard

My idea for a "Girl Talk" coffee hour was not meant to do anything secret. Nothing against the men who live here at all. Just the women in my building getting to know each other better. There have been some that I don't know very well and would like to know better. It is good to have a women support group if you have an emergency or problem. Or just to have others you can talk to or turn to if you have that need. People become so concerned with being politically correct that it overtakes common sense. There are many organizations that separate people by gender, color, religion, age or interests. Are they bad? Not at all. Many of these groups get together to discuss their problems or how to help others. Many communities depend on these organizations to improve the lives of others in need. Which is what I thought I would be doing in my building. The men in our building group together outside almost daily smoking and talking. It is not like they are being kept from any social interactions. In fact, us women were in the process of planning activities for the whole building. Like movie nights, game nights and potluck suppers. Without us planning them they don't happen. 

My neighborhood!

For now we are having our coffee hour in someone's apartment. At least they cannot control what we are doing as a group of women in our own apartments...........yet. It is hard if you lose your rights to get them back again. Even in an apartment building. Once they tell you no it can even show up on your lease. The lease, if you read the whole thing, which I do, only protects the landlord, not the tenant. It only favors them and what they want. That is why I always say someday I might end up living in a camper somewhere. I especially love this particular apartment. If I had to leave it I would have to find another place and I don't think it would be another apartment. It is hard to conform to so many rules after you lived with barely any. At times I miss that. 

My Office

If it was just about me and not the others in my building I could live easily with no personal interactions at all. I am on my computer from morning to night. I would not even get off it at night when I do if it wasn't for my pet rabbit. He likes me to turn it off and go sit in the recliner to watch videos. He really does. I can find a million things to do on the computer. I have many online friends to talk to. No matter the time I can always find someone to talk to. Don't say I don't really know them since I do not know them in person. I believe I know them better through our written conversations than small talk in person. The computer creates an environment where you can live easily alone. Which it has for me. But I do have some friends in my building that I have grown close to. Even if it is just to share a cup of coffee and know others care. Making connections helps each other.  

Copyright © 2024 Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2024  Kathleen G. Lupole

 

Two Holidays Down, One More To Go!

Christmas

Two holidays down and one more to go. New Years Day is the easiest of them all in my opinion. Though the other two are no big deal to me anymore. Funny about that. Holidays always caused me more stress than anything else through out the whole year. I can pinpoint it starting the first year I was with my first husband. He was Jewish and having never grown up with Christmas as part of his life he embraced all the holiday routines. Decorations, holiday foods, meals, Christmas parties and the gifts! Oh yes, he loved the buying of the gifts more than anything else. He would buy gifts for everyone. Even his business clients. My family would come to my house on Christmas Day and it looked like a dream. In reality it was not for me. Buying presents for others stressed me out. Not from the financial aspect but the actual going to the crowded stores and finding something that person would like. I had no trouble buying for my son but everyone else presented a problem to me. When my mother's health became bad she would mail me a check and tell me to buy everyone presents from her and my father. Oh boy, just what I wanted to do! 

Surprising Mom with a colored television!

Truthfully the best Christmases I remember were the ones before I grew up. Or the time my parents and brother came to my apartment for Christmas Eve. After my parents left to drive home my brother and my son and I went in his car to my parents' house to beat them there. When they arrived home, we were quietly sitting in their house in the dark. My mother turned on the lights and there we were. Also there was a big color television sitting there in place of their small black and white one! My brother had found it for sale used at a good price and we got it for their Christmas present. They loved it.! On the drive there my brother kept pointing to the sky and saying he saw Santa in his sleight. My son was soon saying he saw them too. He was so excited. It was one of my fondest memories. 

My brother, Mickey in his wild west show in Harpursville, NY

When we were children our Christmas gifts were usually a few toys, a book or two and some clothing. Usually pajamas. We always got the same number of presents. Yet almost every year, I would get the biggest present because it was doll and one year a doll house. My brother would just grab that big one and open it himself before my parents could stop him. Every year I got a new doll. My brother who is two and half years older than me always got things related to cowboys, guns and race cars. He is still into cowboys and guns to this day. He builds black powder guns and makes buckskin clothing for himself. He has a wild west show with a group of others who put on shows at a variety of places during the summer and fall.  So those interests have always stayed with him. I will add that he is a very unique brother and has always been so (even though he always opened my dolls!).

Decorated my door with mostly Christmas Cards I received.

My Christmas has changed in the last few years to being a really quiet day and not doing much of anything except decorating my door and giving out cards to the people who live in my building. I am quite happy with it this way because it not a stressful time for me now. No spending money on presents that nobody wants. Remember those gift boxes of talcum powder or bubble bath? Those were the gifts you got when someone had to give you a gift and didn't know what to give you. I can picture them in the store now. I do not know if they still sell stuff like that now or not. I buy myself whatever I want all year long so I don't need to get any presents. Nor do I cook a Christmas meal. This year I had Keto Chow salted caramel ice cream that I added pumpkin spice to. Later in the day I had a large rib-eye steak. Perfect for Christmas Day! No big clean up job. No stress of whether someone liked a present I bought them. My son lives upstairs and he came down a few times but he is not into Christmas either. 

Rabbit

The thing about living alone and being alone on a holiday is that it really is no big deal........unless YOU make it a big deal. Fretting about it months in advance causes you to dread the day so much. Becoming depressed because you are alone. It is just a day like any other day. If you have a pet you aren't alone. I know I still have to care for my pet like I do every day. Pets don't know it is Christmas or that you are going to buy them a bunch of presents. But you can if you choose to do so. I think they like it better if you stay home whether you get them presents or not. I buy this little boy so much stuff all the time so he doesn't have to wait for Christmas to get any gifts. In fact, he slept most of the day........

Copyright © 2024 Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2024  Kathleen G. Lupole

A Lifetime of Living

kat in 1976 at 24 years of age

There comes a time in your life as you grow older when you realize life does not last forever. In the past, like when you are thirty, you think retirement is a long time off. When you reach that age though and are not going to a job every day, at first it is a transition period. Can be fun because now you have time to do whatever it is you choose to do. After being retired for a period of ten years or more though, you start feeling like maybe your life is going to be ending soon. Maybe you won't live to see certain things or how things turn out. It is a scary thought but is also true. I have always been a positive person. Thinking that way has always helped me to get through the bad times of my life. And there has been many. 

Senior housing

Now I am finding that not dwelling on how many years I have left is what I have to do. You cannot spend time thinking about dying or your own death. It will come soon enough without spoiling those years before. In fact, I believe you can hasten your death by thinking about it all the time. Every ache and pain does not mean I have something terrible and am going to die. For me running to a doctor all the time would make me feel that way. Doctors have a way of worrying you before they even know you have something to worry about. Instead I tell myself I am fine and get on with what I have to do today.

 

kat

This week I am having blood work done at my doctor's office. Not looking forward to that. I know it will mean that the doctor will be warning me about something. Worrying me about something in those blood test result numbers. I am only doing this so I can make plans to have my dental issues taken care of. Want to make sure I am okay to do that. Maybe I will be able to have the doctor give me an order to go back to my Lymphedema therapist. You can't do that without the order from the doctor. I really need to go back. Most doctors do not know much about that condition but my therapist is very knowledgeable about it. So I feel confident going to her when I have the need. 

Using a walker

My life has not been easy but easier than some. I had no real health issues until the year I turned fifty. That year is also the year I lost my mother. I was noticing pain in my knees then and it increased over time. Nothing worked for it. No supplements and I tried them all. I did not go to a doctor because I had no insurance. I do not blindly trust anyone just because they are certified or registered in some profession. Lives end and one day mine will also. I am not going to think about it now. I have no plans to have any surgery on my knees or to start taking prescription drugs. When I have the dental work done I will be taking prescriptions for that. Antibiotics and pain medication but for a short time. I will only take the pain medication when I really need it. After my mouth has healed I will not need them any longer. Looking forward to getting all that taken care of in the near future. 

Copyright © 2024 Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2024  Kathleen G. Lupole

My Coffee Corner

My Coffee Corner

Yesterday I was tempted to make a coffee bar in my small apartment. I looked at ideas on Pinterest on how to make one. They had a lot of cute ideas and tips. Amazon even had items I could purchase and use to make it even more unique. I really believe the ultimate goal of each and every website, such as Pinterest among others, is to trigger you to spend money. Even if you can't afford it and end up using a credit card. Suddenly I had a moment of brain power! Why would I need a coffee bar? Who do I drink coffee with? In fact, I already have a corner of my kitchen devoted to my two coffee makers and the electric teapot. So I set out with the idea of making that corner more attractive. And efficient. Yes, efficiency is what was needed. 

I actually have two coffeemakers. The big one can make a pot of coffee or just one cup. It does not use pods though. Must have ground coffee for that one. The other one uses pods or ground coffee but for single cups only. I have been using that one lately. It is a cheaper model pod coffee maker. Feels cheap but it works good so far. I bought it because I wasn't sure I was going to like using the pods. Well, I love them! Now my coffee always comes out perfect. Every cup is freshly brewed and hot! 

Tin for storing coffee pods!

I used to use tins for storage before I moved here. After moving into this apartment I started using the tins for other  purposes. This one particular tin I had stored my packages of electrolytes in. Until yesterday. I changed it to store my coffee pods in. Now instead of having to reach up into the cupboard for them they are right next to the coffee maker. Easy to get to! Especially if I am half asleep in the morning. It is not like I drink coffee all day long. Or many cups of coffee. I am a two cup coffee drinker! Occasionally I might have a third cup. That is rare though. 

Since my refrigerator is almost up against the end of the counter it makes that corner private. I have slide in shelves that go between the refrigerator and the counter. It just fits because my ex-maintenance man made it fit for me. The top of that slide in is where I keep the tin of coffee pods. So it is right on top and easy to get one out. I do not buy any sugar and have not for at least four years. Cream is all I use in my coffee. It is a pretty simple coffee bar with a spoon rest and spoon finishing it off. 

Then I have the larger Hamilton Beach coffee maker on the end of the counter back against the wall. Next to that is the smaller pod coffee maker. To use one I have to pull it out on the counter. Mainly because to fill either one with water I have to fill it from the back. I hate that design but I found most coffee makers are made like that. I had a really nice Ninja one that filled from the side but that one didn't even last a year. I put a straw place mat under them which helps if I want to use the bigger one. I just pull out the place mat with the coffee maker on it. Easier to do that. The smaller coffee maker is light so I can easily lift it and put it in place.

I have purchased a sign for the corner and will show that on this blog as soon as I have it in place. For me this is a pleasant spot to get my coffee. I now have a coffee bar designed especially for me. No extra cost really except for the small sign I purchased from eBay. There is a nice coffee shop around the corner from my apartment and many people go there. It is quite popular but that expense is not something I want to add to my small budget. I would rather buy the coffee pods and cream and make it at home. I like not having to leave home to get a decent cup of coffee. 

Copyright © 2024 Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2024  Kathleen G. Lupole