When Life Gives You Lemons, Count Yourself Lucky

My kingdom for a lemon!  I love lemons, pretty much in any way, shape, or form.

But as you have likely guessed, I'm not writing a post about lemons.  Rather, explaining where I have been and what has happened since my last post at the end of August. 

Just as a quick recap - all is well.  But life is life, and things happen.

Work got crazy in September and October, since a new system was introduced and of course we had received no training and only a week's notice that it was coming.  Was I freaked out?  Yes, but as with most things, I realized that I could only move forward with it because I had no choice.  However, my co-workers are among the most dramatic people on the planet, and the angst and hand-wringing and whining made every day a challenge.  Especially since we are currently all in one too-small office together, with absolutely no personal space.

The first week of October, I was diagnosed with pneumonia, which explained the horrific way I'd been feeling for weeks.  Fortunately, once I had rest and proper meds, I recovered without incident.  We had October 8 off work for Columbus Day, and I had big plans, since was feeling better.  So I took the dog for a walk before getting started.  And I fell, breaking two front teeth and my right wrist.  I had surgery to repair it (with a plate and pins inserted) on October 12, and the next couple of weeks were a haze of pain and painkillers.  I am now on my fourth cast, though this one is more of a splint, and occupational therapy begins this coming Monday.  My orthopedic surgeon informed me that it could easily be a year until I am back to normal.

As you can imagine, all of this has put a real block into my life and holiday plans.  As far as knitting goes, I had already finished the primary things I wanted to make for people for birthday and Christmas gifts, because I cannot knit at all.  The thing is, can't do much else, either.  No baking.  No pulling out the decorations. 

BUT - here is what I am hoping:  that my occupational therapy will show progress so that I can do the small amount that is my contribution to Thanksgiving dinner (The Tim is responsible for the bulk of the cooking, his choice), and that by Christmastime, I'll be able to do even more, including decorations.  Because for me, that is part of the fun!

Of course, I may be too optimistic.  And I'll survive if that is the case.  I'll do what I can, and hope that by this time next year, this will just be a blip of memory - a case of life giving me more lemons than I really need right now.  :-)

Have a lovely weekend!

The New World Order Is Making Me Stabby

Well, things have certainly gotten off to a depressing start this year, no?  Between The Orange One and his ilk trying to shut down the Constitution, and me gimping around on crutches, it's been hard to be Little Mary Sunshine.  Not that I ever am Little Mary Sunshine, but it must be really hard for those who are.

I am proud as can be of my family, they all participated in the Women's March, and those in Baltimore attended the marches this weekend in support of allowing refugees into the country.  We are a committed group, I have to say, and that makes me both happy and proud.  We are also a loud group, so I'm glad we can use our loudness for good.

I don't understand why refugees are the enemy.  From what I know, those who would do us harm are seldom interested in entering the country legally, and our vetting process for immigrants is already very intensive.  And frankly, some of the scariest people in the world to me are white Americans, and they always have been.  And I say that as a white American!  I mean, look at the Sandy Hook shootings if you need an example.  And yes, I know he was mentally ill, etc., but nonetheless he was a white American with access to guns.  Ugh.

Wow, Bridget, tell us how you really feel ...

Anyway, as mentioned above, I am gimping around on crutches these days, going into my third week.  I have a broken ankle, and frankly it sucks, though I am grateful I can get around at all, and that it wasn't worse.  As I was walking home from work a few weeks ago, one of the construction workers at the site of the 534th Comcast Center bumped into me, and I turned my ankle.  At the time I didn't think it was a big deal.  But the next morning it was really swollen and extremely sore, so I stopped at Urgent Care and x-rays showed it was broken.  I have never ever broken a bone in my life, so this is all terra incognita to me.  I remember in elementary school, there were a few kids who always seemed to have broken arms or legs, but maybe because I spent most of my time reading instead of running around or skiiing or whatever, I missed that childhood experience.  I daresay it's probably easier to deal with when you are a kid.  Oh well.

Fortunately, The Tim is willing to do the cooking, laundry, etc.  Though I do wish he did not feel the need to bleach everything, but that's nothing new.  I know he's not thrilled about it, but to his credit, he hasn't been whining.  However, I know that when you are used to a certain routine - particularly on mornings when you need to get to work on time - having that changed in a major way is disconcerting at best.

I am knitting, reading, and anything else I can do to both keep myself busy and also keep myself sane.  We have some movies and TV shows recorded to watch, so when we are both at home, that is a good distraction as well.  This past weekend, I managed to make it to get my hair cut, which improved my mood immensely (not to mention my appearance!), and also meant that this morning, I didn't have to spend valuable minutes getting ready for work trying to get it to look at least OK.

So, as you can see, things are pretty quiet in everyday life around here.  But I'm watching, and have no plans to sit back and say nothing whether I'm on crutches, or once I can get around on my own.