haiku – barbs & praise ~ 8/21/23

the tongue a sharp quill

make wise choices when you speak

praise can change a day

HERE are the rules and ping back.

#SLS ~ 8/20/23

Prompt is the Nashville sound. Thanks Jim for hosting. HERE are the rules and ping back. I went with The Three Bells lyrics within. Reminds me of my parents. May the rest in peace.

As always more to come.

8/20/23

Hi 👋

Sunday Reflections: A Week in Review ~ 8/20/23

I’m in a hotel with crappy Wi-Fi on my phone no less. No links to the posts last week. Only a high level check in. Life goes on. Lulu is past the worst. Healing ❤️‍🩹 slowly but surely. It’s one thing to make a life choice but quite another when the choice is made for you. My sweet little girl. She’s a trooper though. Better alive & childless than the alternative. My mother-in-law, who we knew would be confused, keeps asking if the doctor is sure. Yes! We’ve repeated.

B and I are in Arlington to see Metallica tonight. We booked this trip way back in December 2022. Hard to believe it’s finally here. It’ll be 110 degrees today which means it’s too hot for much of anything outdoors pre-concert.

The pool though is indoor/outdoor and I’ve become a tadpole. I’d quit swimming when I started coloring my hair. The whole special swimming shampoo or trying to keep my hair dry was never worth the effort. Now I’m gray and saggy and at peace. I’ve also found that I’m pain free in the pool … which I had all to myself for about two hours! Ah now that’s the stuff.

The not so little mermaid 🧜‍♀️

As always more to come.

#SoCS ~ 8/19/23

I’m going shorthand with the prompt: random page of nearest book first three words of the first full sentence. Ready, set, go!

If only I

could turn back time.

Alrighty, B and I are road tripping it to Arlington. We were going to WA afterwards but that’s canceled due to Lulu’s surgery. She made it through okay but had we not cancelled, who knows what tragedy might befall her. Very superstitious I know. I’m just glad we’re still getting away (long over due & so necessary) but also sticking close to home just in case.

As always more to come.

HERE are the rules and ping back.

Friday Feels ~ 8/18/23

Yesterday B took off work to stay with Lulu. Our conversation went like this …

Me: Thanks, for staying with her. I’d do it but I made an appointment for tomorrow that’s impossible to reschedule.

B: You don’t have to thank me, she’s my daughter too.

🤔 is she? Lol. 😂 Yes, she is his daughter. My rational mind knows fathers can be as good of parents as mothers but as hard as he might try, he’s not the momma!

He took her to breakfast. He fixed their squeaky ceiling fan. He took her car to get the oil changed. He stayed until her partner got home.

He’s makes us better than the momma aka me ever could. He’s a doer. He doesn’t overthink a damn thing and just does what needs to be done when it needs to be done! That’s key … when it needs to be done. He never procrastinates; such a hard worker.

The following picture came up in my memories from 8/16/13. First day of sophomore year. Hard to believe ten years have passed ❤️‍🩹. Looking at her picture makes me weepy. We never could’ve predicted what life had in store for her right now.

August 16, 2013

Boy am I lucky 🍀. So very grateful 🥹. I wouldn’t change my life for anything.

As always more to come.

Thursday Thoughts ~ 8/17/23

I’m gonna try not to think about me right now. When you can’t un-hear the announcement “all available help to room 3” from your seat in the waiting room of the Methodist Ambulatory Surgical Center, you make stuff up. It’s over and Lulu wasn’t even the patient in room 3, thank goodness. But someone else’s loved one was & that is sad.

I observed a lot yesterday & listened more closely with heightened attention. I didn’t think about what I’d write in the story I knew I had to tell. Now as I sit here the day after, I think to myself maybe I don’t have to tell it.

Except for WP, I’ve been on a anti-share campaign. Here I can write my genuine thoughts for my own reason and people are kind. FB & Instagram are full of irl people who are silent. I care way too deeply about responses. My feelings are hurt on the regular. Almost always because I make stuff up. But wait! Didn’t I say this is not about me.

Few things to remember… people with the wristbands were patients. People with PHI approved smiley face stickers were loved ones who could get health info on the patient. That’s a story of its own with feuding divorced parents whose daughter had her tonsils removed. And of course the parents had their parents there. Grandma loudly states “my son gets to hear too about his own child, MY granddaughter”. The poor kid was scared as it was without the 3 on 3 contest with her as the basketball.

On that note, despite what we were told, you could bring more than one person. I found it comforting when one patient had her boyfriend, her aunties, her grandmother, and her sister with her. She had no mama but her mama’s sisters and grandma stood up. I know this because they cried wishing her mama could be there. Only sister was PHI approved & went back while the remaining women formed a wall of unity. Maybe that was the rule, only one person in the back but anyone who wanted to wait could tag along.

There was 3 back rooms plus several operating rooms like the infamous room 3. # 1 is pre-op prep, #2 is recovery nurse only, #3 is next phase recovery/discharge. I got into #1 (after prep but still waiting) and #3 as Lulu’s PHI person.

Landing the plane. Cheers to a successful surgery. Doc has every confidence the pathology will be good.

Lulu did fantastic. She’s a brave little soldier. Refused anti anxiety meds. Said she wasn’t scared. Almost refused Tylenol saying the pain was manageable. Feels like a good workout with too many crunches she said. This from the girl who like her mama has rarely done a crunch. How would we know?!?? 😂

Until next time. Be well.

As always more to come.

#1linerWeds. 8/16/23

Today is the day. My sweet Lulu Belle’s surgery. We didn’t sleep well either since we had to be here at 6:30 AM. Hurry up & wait. Two hour prior arrival mostly for administrative paperwork. Ugh 😑 The only one line that comes to mind.

This too shall pass

HERE are the rules and ping back.

Share Your World 🌎 ~ 8/15/23

Thanks Di for hosting. I’m adding my two cents. HERE are the rules and ping back if you’d like to join in.

1. Do you use a feather duster for cleaning? Yes I love my feather duster.

2. Do you use a washing liquid, ‘ball’ thingie or washing powder? Washing liquid, HE for high efficiency. The washing machine recommends it. My mom would not approve. She always used washing powder.

3. Do you own anything that has to be hand washed? I do & thankfully my machine has a hand wash cycle that I use then I lay flat to dry.

4. Do you use, or have you ever used, a laundry service? No but my grandma, aunt, & mom were a laundry service back in the day. They charged by the piece. Mom taught me & I love doing laundry 🧺. I’m a weirdo but I like folding & putting clothes away. I taught my kids to do their own from the time they were tall enough to reach into the machine. I’ve passed on the compulsion. 😂

Gratitude: Smile and the world smiles with you……… or wonders what you’ve been up to.

This is true. Try it sometime. Make eye contact & smile 😃 as you walk by & most people will smile back. Some may say it’s dangerous to engage strangers and maybe that’s true but I go out & about grinning ear to ear anyway.

As always more to come.

haiku – arrow & fling ~ 8/14/23

The prompt words make me thing of Shakespeare. You know “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune”. I’m forever thankful for my Catholic school experiences. Literature & poetry with Sr. Teresa was the best!

Arrow to the heart ♥️

Flying with a precision

Fling off Teflon shield 🛡️

HERE are the rules and ping back