We’re now catsitting a rolypoly half-manx kitty that loves snuggles. She’s been keeping John cozy all evening. Lucky us! Now the part-manxies* in the house outnumber (and perhaps outweigh) the part-japanese** members of the family. Mwahahahaah!
Quocunque Jeceris Stabit, my friends….
*My Mom’s family is Manx
**John’s Mom’s family is Japanese
If you just opened an email from your doctor and he wrote that the MRI you had last week–the one of the surgical site on your leg–that it is perfectly normal and showed no signs of residual infection, you will shed a few tears as you forward that message to your husband, ignoring the fact that you are sitting in a fantsy-pantsy (and completely quiet) archival library.
Well, because if this is you, you don’t care what the people around you are thinking as you get the best news that you’ve heard in a very long time.
We have these awesome friends that John literally met on a nearby street corner one day–I believe it was when they were all waiting at a crosswalk for the light to turn green.
These friends are smart and musically-talented and the wife was even raised a Quaker.
Life sure can be random that way…but I’m not complaining! :)
PS: Spent time with said friends tonite–you know you’re in good company when you hit a charades topic like “famous programmers,” there’s consensus that Amelie is a most perfect film, and nearly everyone joins in the Spanish Inquisition Monty Python sketch re-enactment (of which GameBoy was the star)…
:)
I had some ancient tooth sealants (with decay lurking underneath) sandblasted off of my back teeth today. What a novel experience that was. Also had an MRI of my leg that took twice as long as it should’ve because they couldn’t find a vein to shoot the dye into (people, do you have any advice on how to get veins? Would weightlifting do the trick? I am getting desperate here). And (can you believe how many medical offices I visited today?), I had some way-overdue adjustments to my prosthetic limb. I am not joking when I tell you that the socket was hanging together with duct tape.
I am so grateful for health insurance. Mostly because without the funds to pay for such medical necessities I would’ve left this earth long ago.
I wish everyone had this same luxury.
PS: My cold/flu is nearly gone now and both kids’ fevers broke yesterday. Praise cheeses.
PPS: I am so thinking of getting a hand crank wheat mill just in case a hurricane ever hits SoCal. :)
This is great, folks:
“It’s so simple. Most people who can’t afford health insurance also are too poor to owe taxes. But if you give them a deduction from the taxes they don’t owe, they can use the money they’re not getting back from what they haven’t given to buy the health care they can’t afford.”
~Stephen Colbert on McCain’s health insurance plan.
Or maybe you’re like me, where in just a few months I’d use up the health insurance tax break (if I even qualified for it) simply because I have a cancer history. Gah. Here’s a related article from the NYTimes. Also, an interesting analysis of the candidates’ stance on disability issues.
Dear Nose:
I miss being able to breathe through you. This mouth breathing stuff, it’s for the birds.
Best,
Jana
My Daybook, an idea from the Simple Woman via the High Desert:
I am wearing a soft faded tank, undies and nothing else just yet (I’ll pull a skirt on momentarily, I suppose).
I am reading several books right now, but all went on hold over the weekend as I finished grading a slew of summer school term papers. Grading now completed, I will be returning to my books!
I am hearing construction noises–there are 1500 new apartments being built across the street (sigh). Also, a cricket that’s determinedly chirping in the front hall closet and has so far eluded the bug-eating kitties in our home.
Learning all the time about how to balance my work with that of the other members of the household, even as I support friends and am gentle with my body during my continued healing. It’s a lot to do!
I am thankful that I received an ever-so-kind reply from my query to Friendly Crossways about staying there during part of my time in Massachusetts (a Quaker farm–what could be a better spot for me?). Also, thankful for the many Boston-based friends that I’ll soon be seeing (yay!!)
I am hoping that all will go well this afternoon when I see my doctor about my leg. Keeping fingers crossed that she will agree that I am improving. Also, hoping that CatGirl’s fever will break soon.
From the kitchen this morning came steel-cut oats a la John (yum) with milk and a squirt of agave nectar, they are a perfect morning treat. (There are also fruit flies coming from the kitchen, but we won’t talk ’bout that…)
I am creating peace by breathing deeply and facing fear. That, and also parenting the two most amazing teenagers on the planet. Seriously. I am so pleased that I am not going at this alone–my kids have fab role models and teachers to mentor them along their way.
Bringing beauty to my home with the two vases of cut roses on my kitchen table. My “Mon Cheri” rose is favoring me with the most gorgeous pink-to-red blossoms and “Vavoom” is a peachy ruffled delight. Because I’m fighting this cold/flu, my kids cut the roses for me when they watered the garden this weekend. My family is always so willing to “bring the garden to me” when I am too weary to go there myself.
Around the house, we are reeling just a bit from the back-to-school schedule. It’s going to take awhile for the new rhythms to settle in.
Outside my window it looks like it will be a brighter day than the weekend, when it was mostly overcast (oh, my garden has been so confused by this weird August/September weather). The spiders have nearly taken over my back porch in the past few weeks. Perhaps today (or later this week) I will clean out some of the cobwebs. {I am hoping that no one besides the spiders is outside my window is looking in, given my current state of disrobedness)
I am thinking about my Quaker community. I missed Meeting yesterday due to the flu that CatGirl and I are enduring. I’m currently sitting on several committees and not always finding time to be proactive in my efforts as the Clerk of the Peace & Social Concerns committee. Hoping to do better with that in the future.
One of my favorite things is that John is back to focusing on finishing his Master’s thesis. I love his topic and know that he will do a fine job with it.
A few plans for the rest of the week…I have numerous medical appointments this week (everything from an MRI to dental work to alterations on my prosthesis). Also, I’ll be continuing my commute to the Huntington on three of the weekdays. I am excited for what’s ahead on the calendar and am just hoping hoping hoping that I can move through the days with confidence and strength.
I would love to take a peek at your daybook. Drop a link in the comments if you play along!
I attributed my fatigue from the past few days to having returned to my ‘work’ and arising earlier to get the kids off to school and for my Pasadena commute (ay, and we were rear-ended on Thursday, not an auspicious beginning to this new schoolyear–and I am feeling so so grateful that the neck pain I felt afterwards subsided quickly). Anyways, it turns out that both CatGirl and I have come down with some kind of cold/flu. As seems to always happen when my daughter gets ill, her fever is climbing.
Here is a repost from March 16 , in honor of the girl who’s been curled up in my arms this morning, feeling a bit too miserable to sleep:
Been spending most of today with CatGirl nesting on the couch with pillows and cozy blankies. She’s been intermittently running a high fever (102-104) for the past 24 hours.
With her head leaning on my shoulder and her lanky body curled into mine, I remember her baby days when she rarely wanted to lose touch. She was my little monkey, arms wrapped tightly around my neck. When I sat in a chair she would stand behind me, running her fingers through my hair (when she got a bit older she loved to give me ‘pretty hairdos’ with her rainbow-colored barrettes).
Now, with the flush of fever showing red on her cheeks and lips, my instinct is to hold her tight, to absorb the heat. Remembering a time when our bodies were joined–mine feeding hers, nurturing the small ball of tissue that would eventually grow into my bright and graceful girl.
Today I ache to add my strength to hers again. Because she feels so small and fragile in my arms.
I snapped the photo of the zinnia above while an adventure with Sara in Concord, Mass. last year. We had a nearly perfect, even ‘transcendent,’ day as we adventured all ’round the historical sites. Well, I’ve made my plans and I’m going back again in two weeks(!)*
But let me tell you a story before I spend a few moments reveling in the magic that will be my cross-country trip…
One of the joys of being a History PhD student is that I am now spending many of my days thumbing through the aged papers of fascinating people from long ago. My latest research subject is a woman who lived in Andover, MA in the 1860s-1880s. Today, as I read through her journals, I came across this entry (and can I just add that everyone around me in the rather stuffy reading room at the Huntington Library undoubtedly thought I was having far too much fun when I was grinning ear-to-ear as I happened upon this entry):
3 July 1875
“The day was lovely and Miss Carter and I took our long-talked-of trip to Concord. We were favored in finding a barge starting from the Concord station directed by a Mrs. Brooks, who had guided people about C. for a long time. We went to the library saw fine busts of Miss Alcott and Hawthorne, then drove out to points of historic and literary interest. We saw the spot where a peaceful purchase secured the site of the town from the Indians in 1636, the bullet-stricken houses and the battle-field, and the wonderful minute-men, with one hand on the plough and the other grasping a gun a perfectly life-like figure. We clambered about the hill back of Hawthorne’s and Alcott’s houses; there seemed just space cut out of the old woods for a comfortable breathing for two houses, and paths under the deep shade. We could only go into the Hawthorne where we climbed to his high study and stood at his standing desk: we climbed through the woods to his look-out but found the ladder so out of repair that we could not go up the tree. We saw the Old Manse and Emerson’s house, but could not go to them. I was much impressed by a street of houses over 200 years old: the thrifty farmers had kept them all along in such good repair that they did not look old. We were left to pass some extra hours in Sleepy Hollow we ate lunch. The rose-quartz on Emerson’s grave and the graves of Hawthorne and the Alcotts’ we reverently saw and the restfulness of the scene was a refreshment to us. We reached home about 7 after a successful day.”
BTW, I definitely want to meet you Bostonian blogfolk while I’m in town. Do drop me a line (phddillyATyahooDOTcom) if you’re game. Also, can anyone suggest a groovy cafe near a T stop for a meetup?
*The woman whose papers I am studying, when she’s being sarcastic, she adds an exclamation point in parentheses at the end of her sentences. Unbelievable. I thought only weirdo bloggers(!) like me did that.
John and me, having fun with the camera…
(see the original here)
PS: John not only looks like Keanu, but I think he does a fine Dustin Hoffman, too.
From a fellow Friend:
“We’ll put an end to those ugly rumors that Obama is a Muslim, and start some ugly rumors that he is a Quaker.”
John just reminded me of this picture and I’d forgotten how much a love it! My kids are standing in a famous museum–does anyone know which one?
I love that you can see a Harry Potter book under GameBoy’s arm and a sketchpad in CatGirl’s. That speaks volumes about their personalities.
:)
