Tuesday, January 18, 2011

New year, new thoughts

So we are about halfway through January and I'm feeling like I am making progress. I did not call my cousin up on Sunday when she turned 60, I waited until last night to call and ask her how it felt after 24 hours. She laughed. Probably that or cry-there is NOTHING we can do about aging physically, but we are definitely keeping young mentally. I think I'm settling in at about the 30s, those were happy and fun years for me.

Friday I have to take Lou to the doctor's in the morning, then I am spending the day playing with my sewing machine. I want to finish up my trees block and get it into the mail, and I want to play with fabric creation for the 15 minutes to play bee. I get such a positive punch looking at all the creative things people are doing with fabric and yarn, and the use of color and texture-it's a great time to be a hand-crafter!

The girls are back at their respective schools and the house seems empty without bodies all snuggled on the sofa with laptops all working on different things-Lill, Jack, Sarah O, Sara B can really find some crazy stuff to show us. It amazes me to think how connected these kids are and how natural it is for them to deal with all their stuff: the ipads, iphones, itouches, ipods, laptops, netbooks, kindle, etc. The fact that I just got off a chat with Sarah using the webcam-and yes, Lillian, I did set it up okay-she could see and hear me!-and that Sarah is getting ready for bed in London still kind of knocks me for a loop. When I was back in college (and yes, I went to a state school) I called home once a week, using the collect call signal and then my parents called me back. And we could only talk on Sunday afternoons because that was the cheapest time. Now, we've got national plans, family plans, unlimited texting and mobile to mobile. I wonder if it ever seems too much. When the girls were young, I used to worry if I forgot my phone in case the school needed to contact me. Now, it's almost a pleasure not to have it, but I still can't get over the feeling that I need it in case some disaster strikes. I guess it depends on the definition of disaster.

I think I need to brew a cup of tea and settle down with my book. It's tough doing two days' worth of work in one.....


Friday, January 14, 2011

A week later

Well, we had another interesting little trip and stay at the hospital this week-Lou had a flare up of pancreatitis. He is officially the winner of the My Disease contest, and I hope has decided to withdraw from further competitions by staying healthy.

I have been busy at work trying to catch up on two weeks away at month end/quarter end/year end, one of the busiest times for a financial department. I still have some housekeeping things to get done involving moving files, but everything else is pretty caught up.

I keep looking out the window at the beautiful sunshine and expecting it to be warm when I go out there, then I notice the little bit of snow still on the ground remember it's only in the 20s. Maryland is below the Mason-Dixon Line, it's supposed to be part of the South, and to me that means warm..... and for those interested, when you are traveling south along I70 there is a sign marking the location of the Mason-Dixon Line, tastefully done in white letters on a light brown background. There is no sign when you are traveling north.

I have been better about following my to-do list this week. It's either because I kept it really short, or didn't have a lot of ambition to list things that need to be done. I am hoping this positive trend continues through the weekend!

I think I am finally going to admit that I need to have my hearing tested again and to prepare myself for the news that I have shifted out of the gray area into the definitely need area of hearing aids. Lately my ears have been ringing more than usual, and I get these periods where sounds seem to move close and far away like they are revolving around. It's hard to explain, but it's definitely not normal. I know, I'm usually not normal, but this is tough because I'm not hearing everything.

Speaking of random things, I renewed my driver's license yesterday and realized how weak my right eye has become. Seems like I'll be getting to the eye doctor soon for a check up and maybe new prescription. I also renewed the tags for the car at the kiosk, and just got the new year tag instead of having to get those new MD War of 1812 plates. I really didn't want them, I think 4cts75 fits Miss Lucy very well. And she is realy a happy little car as I have started parking inside the garage again at work. The cost difference to the outdoor lot isn't that much, and this way she is out of the daily elements and all the salt sprayed at the lot. I think they even offer car washes once a week. I'll need to find out how much that costs.

Next month is Dental Month at the vet's so I will be making an appointment for Violet to get her teeth cleaned. Not one of her favorite things, so she will probably be mad at me fr a few days.

Well, I can just squeeze in a power nap before I get dinner started.

Happy Friday to all.


Friday, January 7, 2011

It's been a long time comin'

The Sarahs have been introducing me to Glee in marathon sessions. I admit, I am a convert: I usually don't like new series, but I love the music on this one, and it brings back memories because I too taught in a small Ohio town. It was southeast of Cleveland, not western Ohio. As I coached basketball (one year) and track (six years) I have memories of many things the characters are showing involving an extra curricular activity sorely underfunded. My tenure was back in the late 70s just as Title 9 was coming into effect. And being a naive new teacher, I let the administration run circles around me.

It has been an interesting holiday season. Lou, Sarah and I went into Cleveland to celebrate his father's 87th birthday, the day after Christmas. It's a good thing we had the dinner on Friday night; during the day Saturday, Lou was extremely tired and later had trouble breathing. The short story is: a call to 911, a week in ICU, a few nights on the medical floor, a follow-up test on Monday as results were inconclusive the first time, and we finally drove back to MD on Tuesday. It seems once again he is surging ahead in the "My Disease" contest; along with everything else, he has been diagnosed with a rare genetic disease affecting the blood vessels. It seems they leak-as in ooze blood, as in making him severely anemic and low blood volume, as in starting a chain reaction that sent him into shock while he was in the emergency room. Mildly put, it's been a hell of a week and a half.

But, I put on my new rose colored glasses, bought for my Janis Joplin channeling (see Dec 11 post), and am starting this new year with a few goals. I hope to be able to put away the stress over things I cannot change. I have been stressing so much over things I have no control over, and I have to stop. I cannot change it, period, so why let it consume me? I hope to get myself back in shape so that my body vaguely resembles my mindset. As my cousin said to me this morning, "It's a bitch looking in the mirror and seeing that old lady-who is she?" And lastly, I want to actively remind the people who are important to me of their importance. There are many times I could easily have said something that I didn't take the few minutes to say. That will stop, I'm going to tell people what and how I think.

Anyway, the kids are here and we are getting ready to go to REI and play. Enjoy your day and evening!