I'm Lucky

I've been feeling sorry for myself lately. How dare I?

My complaint	My luck
My recovery is too slow. I can't walk yet.	I will recover. I will walk again.
My job doesn't allow me to make a difference in kids' lives.	I have a job - which makes a difference in my own kids' lives.
I work all the time.	I am lucky to be working at all.
More moles need to be removed.	Each removed mole decreases my chance of melanoma.
The IRS wants big chunks of the kids' college accounts.	The kids have college accounts.
My medical bills are astronomical.	They'd be way worse if I didn't have insurance.
I miss my mommy.	I had a mommy for 47 years.
Kristin is on Hospice.	In so many ways, she will never die. She IS love.
Will winter never end?	Spring will be all the more beautiful!
No one reads my blog.	I have a small but faithful following. :-)

Happy St. Patrick's Day to you and yours!

I can't think of a decent name for this post

I was supposed to go to the dermatologist on January 6th for a follow-up appointment to my two mole removal appointments, but had to cancel that appointment because I was just slightly preoccupied with other things.  When I rescheduled for March 16th, I totally assumed that I'd walk briskly into the doctor's office, be checked and given the all-clear, and walk briskly out again. 

None of those things happened today.

With Peter's help, I hobbled out of the house, got in the car, and drove to Carillon Point in Kirkland, where my doctor's office is located.  I love going there because there are always great photo opportunities on the shores of Lake Washington, and I hoped today would be no different.  I parked in handicapped parking and since I was early (because I can't gauge how long anything will take me anymore!), I braved a few steps down to small waterside park and shot these:

I love this rock sculpture called "The Family."

What a typical winter Seattle sky.

 

Can you imagine living in that waterfront apartment?  I lived directly on the beach when I went to college at University of California, Santa Barbara in 1979 -- for $150 a month!  I have a feeling these guys pay a bit more than that.

Unfortunately I didn't get an "all clear" from my dermatologist.  Nope -- this doesn't seem to be my year for great health.  I'll have three more moles removed on April 14th!  My doctor joked that, before she's finished with me, I'll just be one big mole-removal pock.  But I WON'T have skin cancer, and I'm just fine with that! 

On the way home, I was much more concerned with getting a good shot of Seattle across the water than I was with my troubled moles because really, I think about dumb medical stuff way too much as it is these days!  It's not a great shot, but since I made a bit of a fool of myself parking my car every which way in some hoity-toity neighborhood, I'm gonna post it anyway. (I'm sure the residents thought I was too lazy to get out of my car... I should have put up my handicapped placard!) 

A therapeutic peek into my photo folders

I've been hit this weekend with a fairly pronounced and quite disconcerting case of melancholy.  It's March 15th, more that eleven weeks since my injury, and I'm still nowhere close to walking again.  It's been a slow realization but I'm coming to accept the fact that the recovery from a severely broken ankle is long.  Really long.  My new friends on the healbrokenbone.com blog (thank goodness for them!) even have a name for the one year anniversary date of one's injury, because the injury still tends to be an issue on that date -- they call it one's "ankleversary."

I must get back on both feet soon -- I simply must -- because I spoke this morning to my dear friend Kristin, who is now on hospice, and... and... well, I simply must go to her soon, and that means getting on a plane.  

Sigh.

In an effort to escape on this lazy Sunday, I took a little self-guided (and alphabetical) tour through the "Events and Excursions" folder on my portable hard drive and found one picture in each folder that made me smile:

From "30th HS Reunion, 2005" here's a picture of my high school sweetheart, Mark, and me: 

From "Ashland Howard Prairie Reunion, 2007," here's Dad and Lou after he presented her with a commitment ring and promised to love her and be her POSLQ (person of opposite sex sharing living quarters) forever: 

From "Ashland with Kat, 2005," here's Kat on a river rafting trip we took together: 

From "Berkeley, March 2007," I absolutely must post two pictures.  This is a picture of my three brothers and me: 

...and this is Kristin and me, best friends since I was 12 and she was 19, a Cal student living with my family, and the closest I ever came to a sister.  God, I love her.

No wait -- here's another! Kristin with my niece, Isabel: 

Sigh.

From "Berkeley, March 2008," a trip to attend the memorial service for a long-time family friend, someone who immigrated to America with my parents in the early 50's and was like an aunt to me as I grew up.  I miss her. This is the view from her house: 

From "Blake Island, Tillicum Village, 2005," two photos.  One of the view from the boat...

... and one of Laura, our "German daughter" (AFS exchange student), whom we miss hugely, with Aleks and Kat: 

From "Germany, 2004," a trip in honor of my mother, who had died a few months previous, here's a photo of Aleks, Kat, Dad, and Leni, Mom's older sister, who is now living in an old person's home and is not her normal, happy self.  Sigh. 

From "Germany, 2007," I want to post so many photos, from my wonderful blogging friends, to Thomas and his family, to Laura and her family, to photos of the incredible places we visited!  You'll just have look here for those pictures, and settle here for this picture of a sunset in Garmish-Patenkirchen (Bavaria):   

From "Hawaii, 2002," a Lahaina sunset:

And from "Hawaii, 2006," the sunrise from atop Mt. Haleakala...

 

From "Pend Oreille, Idaho, 2005," Shasta's first water experience:

And from "Pend Oreille, Idaho, 2007," a photo from inside my sister-in-law's cabin.  I can totally relax there!   

From "Pullman, 2007," a typical Eastern Washington shot: 

From "Seattle, 2005." (I have so many shots from Seattle, but only one folder in the Events and Excursions file because Kat, Elisabeth and I stayed downtown for four days in the condo Kristin bought for the time she spent in Seattle participating in a pancreatic cancer medical trial...  Sigh.).  Here are Elisabeth and Kat flirting with the Pike Place fish guys: 

And the last stop on my self-guided tour of my Events and Excursions folder is a photo of my brothers and me taken at "Lake Tahoe, 2005": 

Creating my virtual, digital escape was interrupted by a 12-hour power outage last night, so I wasn't able to fully immerse myself before being jolted back into the reality of Monday morning.  But I hope at least you enjoyed the journey into my past journeys!

Another Kat Dance

When she was in junior high and starting high school, Kat was a very serious dancer on a full scholarship at a local dance academy, spending at least 12 hours a week in various dance classes, from jazz to tap to lyrical to ballet (pointe) to hip-hop.  She stopped dancing for the last two years of high school because she'd stopped loving it, but has recently taken a few classes in college, just for fun.  The director of the college's dance department asked her to join their dance company, which will have a big performance in May (which is when this piece will be performed in all its glory:). 

Last night, the college's dance classes put on a performance.  Here's Kat and friends dancing to "Die Another Day": 

I'm glad Kat's dancing again, and so glad that she's enjoying it again.  Between her photography (here, here, and here), her dance, and her painting (which she hasn't nurtured for years, but what talent!), she's definitely our artsy-fartsy kid!

Change has come to the White House!

Sorry, couldn't resist.

(With thanks to my dear friend at Kingfisher Cove!)

Bring back the wedge!

No, not that wedge! I mean the Dorothy Hammill wedge haircut. 

Yes, I know this dates me.  I know this screams of the 70's.  But really, is this not a cute haircut?

No, really.  Don't look at the blue ruffely, polka-dotted dress, and yeah, she's young, but is the style not cute?  Because really, I think it totally is!  (Elisabeth and Kat, I can sense it now... I can feel you rolling your eyes and shaking your heads...)

I mean, look at this movement:

Total rockin' SYLE!

I had a wedge cut for years in my early 20's.  It was a bit longer than Dorothy's...

It even flowed when I moved my head, just like Dorothy's!

Well, maybe not just like Dorothy's...

But the minute I can get a Dorothy Hammill wedge cut again without being laughed out of the salon, you better believe I'll do it!

This, my latest style, is as close as I can come now...

...but it doesn't even come close to the rockin' and awesome (er, I mean bitchin' and rad) wedge style of the 70's!

Anyone else with me on this?  Anyone?  Anyone at all?

(Helllllooooo?  Is this thing on?)

Sigh.

Boo can haz Cheezburger!

Come visit Boo's LOLcat page!

Just Call Me "Whimpy" (Whiney and Limpy)

TEN whole weeks after my fall, I'm still swollen and often purple, and I'm beginning to wonder if I'll ever wear a left shoe again. 

I'd like to say that I'm well on my way to walking again -- and I know that day will eventually come -- but I'm still not putting my full weight on my injured foot, even using both crutches. 

It was icy and snowy in Seattle today, just like it was on January 4th, making it seem as if very little progress has been made since my fall. 

I know that's not true, of course, and thinking back to that first week after the accident, I know that much progress has been made.  But I think it will take a warm spring day for me to really notice.