For Crying Out Loud

In which Stephanie learns to laugh

at herself . . .

again.

I woke up at 7 this morning. Plenty of time to get to book club by 9, right? Wrong. I was in no rush. I had my tea, my pear, my cereal, my prune juice with Miralax, read the paper plus the Friday night entertainment rag. Oops! It was 7:45. Got to get going. Yeah, okay, bad pun.

By the time I take care of that, Daddy is already in bed and I am trying to find my clothes in the dark. I grab, throw on, run out the door. I arrive at book club, 17 minutes late, huffing and puffing, explaining and apologizing. (Not because I am short of breath. I'm not. I was just rushing.) Everyone is very kind, but then Cindy comments that I have my shirt on inside out. Yipee. I just put my head down on the table. Krista, so kind and thoughtful, says, "Oh, come on. There must be a way to change it without having to go to the ladies' room."

I whip out my deep purple paisley pashmina from Mara and hold it up. They think I am going to wrap it around my shirt so the inside-outness will be concealed. No, I hand one end to Krista on one side and the other to Anna Marie on the other. They finally catch on that they are to hold it to shield me from "prying eyes." (We were the only customers in that part of the store and the guy at the coffee stand was busy cleaning up.) So I scrunch and wiggle and contort and come up with my shirt on right side out. I smile, feeling a bit smug that I managed to pull the stunt off.

Then Cindy observes that I now have it on backwards. I mean, really what are friends for, anyway? If she had not told me, I would have gone into lead the Women to Work workshop with my shirt on inside out! The scarf goes back up and I re-contort and swing my shirt around to the front. This was a way easier task.

Anyway, we all laughed and laughed. As Ruth said, its a memory we will all cherish. She started to say, "We will ask, hey remember the time Stephanie . . ." and trailed off realizing that she was talking about me as if I was gone. She changed her sentence, but I was reminded, once again. A bit of a bittersweet moment.

Posted by Maman at 10:43 PM | Permalink

I'm in love with the most wonderful guy!

"See? I can sit up all by myself!"

"Boy, are grandparents exhausting or what? I just can't keep my eyes open anymore!"

Pictures are worth thousands of words! Isn't he wonderful? I had the hardest time dragging myself away.

Posted by Maman at 9:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

I promised, myself mostly, that I would post this weekend. A bit of this and that:
I saw my onc on Tuesday, and once again, I am doing fine. I still have some pain, but he doesn't seem to think it is the cancer advancing. So, what am I dealing with? Could be adhesions, so I just keep on doing the best I can and try not to worry.

I've been busy at work, well, that sort of goes without saying, but I'm saying it anyway. Why? Well, I am supposed to be cutting back on my hours and now I have overtime. Oops! Next week, I'll take time off. One good thing, for those of you who are familiar, I have finally finished proofing the Guide. 'Nuff said!

Knitting: I should be posting some photos. So I will.

This is a pair of socks I knit for a friend of mine in Columbus. She also has pancreatic cancer and is still undergoing chemotherapy. She commented that the chemo makes her cold and that she wears her husband's wool socks to keep her feet warm. I thought she might like a pair of purrty socks of her own to keep her feet warm, so I knit them out of some lovely purple Trekking XXL. I like them so much that I am knitting a pair for myself. Slightly different yarn, but same pattern.

And this is my "knitting jewelery". Isn't it beautiful? Kristen made them for me. (For you non-knitters, they are place markers. You slip them on the needle to mark either the beginning, the middle or whatever you want to keep track of.) I just loved them against the really great yarn. They make me want to knit only in purple!

Books: Since my surgery gave me time to sit and read, well, I did. And now that I am back to work, I am still. Daddy goes to work at around 9:30 and I go to bed and read for about half an hour. (So don't call after 9:30. I'll be in bed and I don't want to get up.) Well, I'd like to tell you about some of the books I have read lately. I read The History of Love by Nichole Kraus. Very good, if a bit confusing at first. It was so good that I wanted to start back at the beginning, but I refrained because I wanted the book club to read it with me. We will be discussing it Oct 20th. Last month we read (at my suggestion) Three Bags Full - a murder mystery solved by sheep. Sound quirky? Yes, that is how I am coming to be known in the book club -- suggester of quirky books. And there is one more, The Face of a Naked Lady. Again, quirky. And very good. It is a family memoir, though very different from another one I also read - A Family Romance. Interesting, but not nearly as good a The Face of a Naked Lady. I also read Final Exam by Pauline Chen. Very interesting. (Jude, you must read this one!)

On to movies. Uncle Claude gave me a subscription to Netflix to recover with. I suppose I'm not fully recovered because I haven't given up my subscription. I have gotten hooked on quirky (yes, it rears it's ugly head again!) Australian movies. It started with The Dish, a story about the space race. Funny, touching and unexpected. Then I watched Muriel's Wedding. Okay, but it had gotten some aclaim in the US, so not such a discovery. Then Daddy and I watched Strictly Ballroom. Funny, touching and wonderful. Maybe I should find out who the directors are (or are they all by the same guy?) and see if I can find more.

Anyway, that is all for this week. I expect to be in Columbus next weekend visiting my little Li-Lu. Oh, and his parents. No, really, we are going to go visit the whole family. I've missed my little Liam the Lima bean! So if you don't hear from me for a week or two, that's okay.

A bientot.

Posted by Maman at 7:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)