Day 175: on a friday that capped off a wild week

I'm glad I made it to today.

I had to remind myself that I didn't need to make any phone calls this morning. Instead, I was able to focus on Tea and Morning Pages, then Dear Abby and the funnies over breakfast. Then I took a shower and geared myself up to go with Himself to his vascular study appointment this afternoon. He was hoping for a little extra support, and as I was simply along for the ride, no problem.

The vascular study was, as I had suspected, an ultrasound. I didn't see any blood clots in Himself's veins, and neither did the technician. I'm a bit surprised that she shared that with us, as they usually don't want to say anything before the "actual" doctor reads the results. At any rate, this narrows Himself's mystery pain down to two things: either something about his skin (not likely, as there's no rash or other discoloration on where he says it hurts), or his nerves (way more likely). His next pain clinic appointment is in April, and he has a Neurology appointment in May. Between the two of them, something might get figured out.

Before we went to the VA Medical Center, we took a moment to celebrate the Queen Mother's birthday. She "opened" her bestie's present (it was all in a bag), and pulled out: two kitchen towels with owls on them, a small scented hand sanitizer, a box of M&M's, a box of Reese's Pieces, some LED light bulbs for the dining room (which will come in handy when the ones we have now start to go out), and a stuffed bunny doll. The Queen Mother and her bestie have exchanged birthday presents for years and years, just fun little things, and kitchen towels because they're relatively cheap. Mom was happy.

Thanks to a bit of Himself's magic, and some timely Travel Pay, we were able to fulfill the Queen Mother's birthday wish - fried chicken breast. We didn't get it to her in time for dinner, but she will be able to enjoy it over the weekend. ("Travel Pay" is what the VA pays himself as a mileage reimbursement, one way, between the various VA offices and our home.)

We went to the synagogue afterwards for Shabbat services, which we were going to do last week, but plans changed. We will be attending, and most likely helping out with, Passover services next month. We're blocking this out now in our calendars.

If I feel anything tomorrow like I do today, I don't know if I'm going to be any good for any sort of Doing. I can safely say I feel mentally fried, and am really not wanting to do anything except sleep, thanks to the arrival of my Moonflow. I just might go ahead and let my body take the lead, and worry about all the things later. I don't have any immediate fires to put out this weekend.

With that, I'm going to sign off for the evening. We'll see if I feel any better tomorrow. At least it's supposed to warm up and feel very nice. 

Day 92: on ringing in the new

Himself and I have just returned from a friend's birthday party. It was lovely seeing folks we knew, and making friends with folks we didn't know. After we got home, though, I found that some ants had snuck into the house, and were crawling all over my teakettle, and were setting up to crawl all over Himself's coffee maker! So I had to tend to them quickly before coming in and blogging.

I had arranged to Skype with a friend earlier today, and then I was going to do some online work. It turned out I did the online work before talking with my friend, and I may have finally found a solution to the Queen Mother's ongoing Med-Cal challenge, with a potential bonus to boot! I need to make a phone call or two to check things out, but I'm feeling hopeful for the first time in a long while.

I got the dishes in the dishwasher and started it up before we left for the party. Our friend's house turned out to be closer than I had thought, which was a good thing. It was starting to rain when we left for the party, and was coming down at a pretty good clip when we returned home.

One of my intentions this year is to be More Sociable. I have been isolated, more or less, for a few years now, so to see and to be seen, and to have conversations with other reasonably functional adults, is like water to a very thirsty plant. My roots are drinking up all of the water and beginning to bring vital moisture to wilted leaves. I rejuvenate, gratefully.

Tomorrow will be a quieter day, perfect to do some more in-depth planning. Tonight, ants notwithstanding, I am content.

Day 22: on attempting to salvage the zen

Himself and I managed to accomplish our mission pretty well, actually...

We got ourselves up reasonably early and enjoyed some breakfast. After I attended to some business on a conference call, we went to the beach. We're VERY blessed to live about half an hour away from the ocean; additionally, Himself has a veteran's pass that allows us to visit state beaches for free, and we have taken full advantage of that.

We spent two lovely hours at the beach, enjoying some of the last of the truly warm weather and taking turns walking in the cool Pacific water. I find that I can ground very nicely if I take the opportunity to "stick my feet" into the ocean, and the negative ions from the salty air clear my energy. I call it getting a much needed dose of Vitamin Sea. A pair of rocks accompanied us home: one a striking red and tan two-tone rock I had not seen before, the other a pale rock with pink flecks in it. I'll see if I can post a picture of them in the near future.

It's a good thing we were able to enjoy our time at the beach, because we came home to the horrible news of the shooting at the Pittsburgh synagogue. Himself is Jewish, and he became rather freaked out at the news. (As his Pagan wife, I completely get it.) Per our original plans, I went with him to his meeting after I had a snack and got dinner ready for the Queen Mother. We stopped at a Dollar Tree and purchased a pair of white novena (pillar) candles to serve as memorial candles. He doesn't think one candle alone will burn the entire seven days, but I think it will. I'll let y'all know who is right. (BTW, there will be a community service Monday evening that we will be attending.)

After Himself's meeting, a small group of us went to the "meeting after the meeting" at our favorite Greek restaurant. I had my Birthday dinner of spanikopita, with rice and carrots, and with my birthday coupon, got some baklava to take home. Granted, my birthday was 10 days or so ago, but in this case, better late than never!

Tomorrow will feature a welcome visit with our support group, wherein I'm sure there will be much commiseration. Until tomorrow, it might not be a bad idea to pray for PEACE. 

 

Day 11: on being a year older

My original plan for this blog was to begin on this day, the 16th, since it was my birthday, and document everything that unfolded over the course of the year to come. It became my "odyssey" after I came up with this blog's title as a hashtag on Twitter, and it began ten days earlier instead. Fun fact: the doctors originally set my date of birth on 10/6; my mother, who was actually carrying me, disagreed, saying I would be born 10/17. Guess who was more accurate? ;)

I don't feel any older, and I haven't really felt "older" at any point along the way in my life. What does that mean anyway, to "feel older"? I do feel wiser, though, and I hope to continue growing in Wisdom.

Here's an interesting observation: as horrid as I felt yesterday, today I felt pretty good. As disjointed as yesterday felt, today I felt In Sync and On Point. I was back in the Flow, and some sychronicities popped up to add Sweetness. I also went to Trader Joe's and got some of their Queso (semi-spicy) cheese dip, a small birthday treat for myself.

This leads to my other interesting observation: I'm at the point where I really don't need a big party attended by a ton of friends, eating decadent food, and receiving a huge pile of presents. Some quiet time where I can do a birthday reading for myself, and grab a few birthday treats, while being honored by my loved ones, is more than enough. While it's true that I had some more elaborate birthday plans earlier this year, and that I went through some Resistance when I realized I had to let go of those plans, today - now - I am Content. Besides, Himself promised to spoil me rotten in the near future. ;) Nevertheless, I'm still content. 

Today I have completed another orbit around the sun and began my next orbit. We shall see what this year has in store for me...