2 Things @ Once

A Blech No Energy Kinda Day

Hello all.

I have a million post-worthy things to put up on the blog--five books waiting to review, not to mention post-surgery status updates, some photos and this-that-and-the-other-thing--but I just don't have it in me. I've been fighting a cold all week and while I had the upper hand earlier, today it seems to have sucked all the energy out of me.

I'd like to blame it on the weather (low pressure system?) coming our way; more t-storms are set to roll into town this afternoon, but whatever it is, I don't even have the energy to sit in front of the computer for thirty minutes and compose a half-way decent entry. I'm just happy this didn't happen yesterday, when I had tickets for one of CSO's amazing Beethoven concerts. (Fidelio overture, Symphony's 8 and 5.) An incredible night.

Strangely, this is the first time in my entire month-plus of recovery that I've been physically, dog tired. And all from a common cold. Figures.

Have a wonderful weekend all! I hope to be back and blogging strong soon.

Back on the Boat

Wilson Avenue water intake station, Lake Michigan

Yesterday was my first day back on the boat, almost exactly one month to the day after my surgery and I'm pretty pleased with that. I played the part of a North Shore lady of leisure on board since I couldn't do anything other than fold a sail cover and wrap a few lines at the end of the day. Everything on a sailboat involves some sort of pulling, twisting, lifting, and stretching, so I just sat there and drank a beer, enjoying the sun, the water and the Chicago skyline.

Actually, I wasn't such a slacker. I did skipper the boat for the second half of our sail, which when conditions are right, is far easier than driving a car. Out and back to the Wilson crib a few times (about two miles off shore) we only tacked a handful of times and then all I had to do was turn the wheel while everyone else did the hard work. My kind of sailing. :-)

Later, friends came over for dinner; nothing fancy, brats on the grill and side dishes from our favorite deli, Piatto Pronto. By the time they went home, I was pooped. My day had started early, at the farmers market. Today will be spent resting up. I have a 450-page book about Sir Richard Burton's adventures to keep me occupied, cramming for next week's book club.

I hope you're all enjoying your holiday weekend!

Sometimes My Computer Makes Me Want to Hurl (It Through a Window)

For some unknown reason, the book and calendar projects that I had in my iPhoto program (created last December) have disappeared. A slight amount of panic was followed by a sick feeling as I discovered that the Time Machine backup program has not backed up iPhoto as I thought it was. This means the books I created about JD for her 3rd birthday are gone gone gone and I'm p-i-s-s-e-d. Folks wanted to order copies of them and now what little $$$ I would have made off this labor of love will be completely eaten up by my having to recreate these projects.

Like I have time for this now.

And after all that, it still doesn't explain how they went missing in the first place. I'm just sick about it. If my attempt to retrieve them from the cloud doesn't work, I'll make a last ditch call to Apple to find out if they can be of any help. But I'm not holding my breath.

And none of this is what I intended to blog about in the first place. I meant to say hello, I'm back, safe and sound from our sailing adventure. We had a fantastic time challenged by stronger-than-usual winds and lots of waves. The weather altered our itinerary a bit but the nice thing about sailing down there is you can be flexible and find another beautiful spot to drop anchor no matter where the wind takes you.

I took about 800 photos that I'll get to in who knows when and I shot a lot more video than last time, so that will be fun to play with in the coming months. All in all, it was a relaxing and wonderful time, filled with wind, sun, the call of laughing gulls, the splash of pelicans diving for fish, the gentle (and not so gentle) roll of the tide, and gorgeous sunsets painting tall clouds as they floated by from east to west over the ocean.

These are images that will carry me through the coming weeks and months.

You Know It's Not A Good Sign When Your Doctor Calls While He's On Vacation

So, a few weeks ago, as I was taking a walk along the lake while JD was in school, I absentmindedly answered a call on my cell phone and everything changed in an instant. Sounds trite, but that's what it felt like. On the morning of March 15th, I got out of the car one person and thirty minutes later, I got back in as someone with cancer.

Yep, I got the call no one wants to get. I knew instantly when I heard my doctor's voice on the other end of the line, and knowing that he was on vacation that week, I knew this couldn't be good news. It wasn't. The biopsy performed three days earlier had come back positive. I had breast cancer.

This was the first of a series of phone calls I would take in the next two weeks, each progressively grimmer as I got one piece of news after another, results that were simultaneously shocking and yet not. After all, I come from a family with a three-generation history of breast cancer so a tiny bit of me has always felt it was just a matter of time.

Now, before I go any further, let me stop my tale to say I'm going to be fine. Just fine. The cancer has been caught early, very early and it doesn't appear to be a particularly aggressive variety. I feel fine now and had no indication that anything was wrong. I went in for a routine annual mammogram (the shiny new digital variety) and after a follow-up mammogram to examine a suspicious area, a stereotactic biopsy was ordered which resulted in the diagnosis.

Daylight Savings Has Brought Out an Early Bloomer

Happy New 2010!

Just an excuse to post another photo from my quick trip by Lake Michigan yesterday. Even on a cold, overcast winter's day, the colors by the lake were gorgeous. And in winter, especially when there's snow on the ground, you can't beat the stark contrast of the dark tree silhouettes. I love it.

Do you see the two dark specks in the snow between the two large trees? Those are squirrels caught in a game of chase across the snow. They were having a grand old time on the last day of the year, racing into the next. I hope everyone is enjoying their first day of 2010.

Happy New Year!

Lake Michigan on the last day of 2009

A belated happy holidays and wishes for good health and happiness to all in the new year!

While blogging has been scarce around these parts lately, I hope to get back in the groove soon. Lord knows (at least for the immediate future) I'll have the time for it. Let me take this opportunity, as we launch into the 20-teens, to thank those of you who visit this blog. Your readership and comradeship in the ether is very much appreciated.

Now, I'm off to the kitchen to whip up an onion pie and break out the champagne glasses. I have friends coming over soon and I'm eager to get started on 2010.

Cheers all!

Where the Hell Have I Been?

I think it's smart marketing to put advertising on your blog that garners you noticeable revenue (we're talking real pennies here people!) right about the time you slow down stop posting to your blog every day, thereby drastically lowering your daily hit rate. Timing is everything.

Speaking of timing, life has recently thrown me a curve ball (more on that in a minute) in addition to which I'm already up to my eyeballs in projects I'm trying to complete before Christmas the end of the year. Catching a cold, not once but twice, did nothing for my productivity. Stress, in addition to the bitter cold and darkness that falls around three every afternoon, is wearying and by the time ten o'clock rolls around some nights, I can barely keep my eyes open. Blogging has fallen by the wayside. And it's official, my holiday cards are now New Year's greetings. It's a big relief knowing I don't have to deal with compiling writing my annual Book Recommendation List until next year.

So, back to that curve ball. I don't blog about work, it's not worth it and it's not interesting (unless it has to do with the antics of a certain soon-to-be-three-year-old.) But things "at the office" have taken a turn worth mentioning and life is about to get a lot crappier more interesting so it's worth mentioning here. Plus it saves me the hassle of telling people on an individual basis.

Some of you who read this blog know I've been with the same company since oh my God! 1994. A lifetime ago. I was the very first employee and now I'm one of the last. At the end of this year, my company will crawl up to the finish line, reach its anemic finger across the line, and die turn off the lights for good. The final death knell didn't exactly come as a surprise; the writing has been on the wall for some time now, but this most recent incarnation of the job gave me the flexibility (and the health insurance) to be a part-time nanny.

I have the office gig completely to thank for my past two years with JD and for that I'm amazingly grateful. I mourned the loss of the company a long while back when we down-sized considerably. With this ultimate down-size, purging files and packing up the few remaining boxes hasn't taken long and shredding paperwork is amazingly cathartic. I'm definitely ready to move on and I'm naive enough to think optimistic that I'll find new challenges and opportunities that will interest me as well as pay the bills. While I don't know what the heck I'm going to do next new direction I'm headed in, I do know whatever it is, I'll want to make it work around my time with JD. I'm determined to keep up with that little tyke as long as her family is willing and I'm able. Say, when she heads off to college.

My first hurdle and top priority is to find affordable individual health insurance, a process I began today. After years of dreading the prospect of getting individual coverage, I met with a broker this morning and the news wasn't that bad. So far. Fingers are crossed as I await the underwriter review. This is huge no small thing for me and if once I jump through this hoop, a lot of the stress of this new situation will be lifted.

So, I'm living the economic headlines. 2010. A new decade, a new direction.

Tea Time

NaBloPoMo, Day the Last

While JD was at preschool today, I popped home for a pot of tea. This cold is really hanging on and I'm fighting back with a tsunami of hot tea.

Goodbye November and hello December and so ends my third successful NaBloPoMo. I'll probably take a break tomorrow, to break the chain and prevent myself from continuing on. It's nearly time to compile my annual "Best Of" book list for 2009 and I'm way behind in writing reviews so there will be a flurry of book thoughts coming along soon. Not to mention a backlog of photos to process that could stun an ox.

But now, to bed.

Sick Day Sunday

NaBloPoMo, Day 29

Just a quick post here to say I'm back safe and nearly sound after a wonderful Thanksgiving spent in San Diego. Unfortunately, most of our group, both locals and visitors, was felled by one sort sickness or another at some point during the week. It didn't manage to dampen our spirits or our appetites, as we pretty much ate our way through the five days I was there.

It was great to finally be "home" to gather with the family and relax among familiar surroundings. It's been four-and-a-half years since our last visit (before Jen's cancer/treatment) so we were long overdue. The weather could not have been more ideal--sunny and 70s nearly every day, until the last when San Diego finally had its first measurable amount of rain in over 150 days! I knew we were going to bring a little of the wet stuff with us from soggy Chicago.

It was extremely low key. The home I grew up in has a great view of downtown San Diego, the bay and the mountains behind so it was treat enough to spend as much time as we could outside, soaking up the sun, reading and chatting on the front porch.

And we drank tea. Lots and lots of tea. Lucky for us, we knew a good tea shop in town and could stock up on fresh, fragrant and healthy tea. I've never drunk so much tea in my life but I could think of no better way to flush the cold out of my system than with peppermint, red bush, chai, and relaxing calm teas.

Today, I laid low, taking it easy, trying to thwart my cold from turning into a hacking cough and storing up as much energy as I can for the coming week. (Four days with wee JD this week!) I read more of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (which finally became truly engaging around page 300), while sipping yet more tea (and cough syrup.)

I also began the healing treatment of Thai hot & sour soup. I can't remember the last time I had a cold hold on for this long, and I firmly believe it's because I haven't taken a course of what I call "the healing soup" -- until now. I fully expect to turn the corner tomorrow, after a few meals of soup, chock full of ginger, lemon grass, bamboo, and peppers.