Entries from May 2010 ↓

I have to share.

Home Ec has had over 1 million unique visits according to Google Analytics. Sure it’s been bumpy, but the general trend looks good to me. I’m hanging on.

4 chapters to go.

I’m on the downhill run, but this one chapter has me stumped and frustrated. It’s a concept that is hard to explain to the general, disposable world public.

Heidi knows I’ve been struggling and sent me this TED talk by Elizabeth Gilbert. Different tiers, but the same concept. Tonight I’m going to bed early and tomorrow. I’ll show up.

Today is day 14 post op and everything is back to normal.

Crazy, but normal.

I’ll start back to the gym on Monday with walking and light weights and re-start the Couch to 5k program the next week.

Flashback to the summer of 1994, I went to pick up the schedule for my senior year only to discover the front office had it mis-filed. It wasn’t really their fault, I had skipped my junior year and with thousands of kids in a school, how high should our expectations be? After a stressful couple of hours everything was straightened out and I was placed in the right homeroom and given appropriate senior privileges.

Ever since then, before every major milestone I am plagued with dreams of having to go back and retake my senior year.

The end of the book is in sight, just a few more chapters and I’ll be working on rewrites and edits. Naturally I am spending my nights trying to find my locker, trying to make the kids behave as I take notes, and wondering why we look so old.

When I was a little girl, I used to think that becoming an adult meant the voice in my head would change. I must have read too many coming of age novels, where the phenomenon was stark, always a before and an after. I assumed the essence would change.

Sure the voice is a little wiser, can grok bigger concepts, and has a little more patience and courage, but the old one lurks just underneath.

Well, I told myself I wasn’t going to whine too much. I lied.

There have been things in life people have told me would hurt and they did, but it was never as much as anyone said. Childbirth, yeah that sucked but not quite to the level people talked it up. The after pains post Ellie were miserable, but even then. . .

The tonsillectomy?

Crap.

Great big painful buckets of crap.

The doctor told Tim that my tonsils were a lot bigger than they appeared during the first examination. When I’m brave enough to open my mouth and look in the mirror it’s gross and scary.

But.

I can breathe through my nose better than I’ve been able to in years and I kind of hope after I’m all healed up that maybe I won’t snore (as much).

I haven’t had food since last Thursday night. I miss food. I think fondly of food, I daydream about cooking and eating.

But.

Would I even think of taking a single bite of anything today, even six days later? Not on your life.

I’m managing to drink Ensure, but that’s as thick as I can handle and I’m sick of chicken and I’m sick of sweet. I don’t understand why I’m daydreaming about stuffing, but I am.

And grouchy? I’ve been taking crabby to new levels.

On the upside, today is the first day that the pain medicine does more than take the edge off. I have made progress on the book, not as much as I hoped, but progress is progress and as of today or tomorrow I should be done with the last of the drier subjects. There is a reason not many comedians make their living on dry wall repair.

I kind of have this fantasy that tonight, I’ll be able to actually lie down and sleep. I’ve spent the last few nights dozing through episodes of Bones. Why? Because it takes my mind off of dreading the next swallow.

The telling thing? I’d go through it again if it will prevent damage to my joints. Here’s to no more strep and to no more over-reactions to strep.

The past eight days have been amazing. Last Friday I had the incredible experience of flying to New Orleans, courtesy of Zatarains and Weber Shandwick. I had the most amazing time attending Jazz Fest and getting to experience some amazing New Orleans restaurants.

You can see the photos from my trip over on my Flickr stream, but here are a few anyhow. I know the white balance is off on the last, but you get the gist.

We had such an amazing time and I wish I could focus enough to give the experience the write up it deserves.

Tuesday I flew to NYC and back. I got to see the Gramercy Park Hotel, which if memory serves (and it probably doesn’t) was the setting for at least one story in Stephen King’s Everything’s Eventual. While waiting for the meeting I amused myself by working on the basic plumbing chapter of the book in their incredibly posh lobby. There’s something wonderfully ironic about sitting on a velvet couch, in front of a giant fireplace and Boterro painting and writing about plunging a toilet.

Maybe I’m just weird.

I also kicked myself repeatedly for not bringing my camera.

Is it silly to be proud of myself for learning how to hail a taxi? It’s never been a part of my world. Next time, I’ll try out the subway. I know, I’m sheltered.

I concluded my week of wonder by having my tonsils yanked out yesterday. It’s all about balance.

I’m hoping tomorrow I can back off the medicine enough to get back on track with the book. I’m more than halfway done and as soon as I can knock out these last few chapters on basic home repair I can start on my favorite topic, food.