The Rose of the Wind

Hope everybody had good holidays. I spent Christmas Eve at my cousin’s house, sat up late binging The World According to Jeff Goldblum and drinking a cocktail, crashed on their couch, ate way too much, opened presents. I think they didn’t want me to be alone, my first Christmas without either parent. It really was great. Got that insurance thing straight on mom’s hospitalization—called the hospital, talked to a lovely lady who looked up the info I gave her and immediately sai

Quick hello and update before I head for the mountains. Not much going on; the most excitement I’ve had is getting a haircut. LOL. I’m starting to get my things together to head for the Smokies. When I go to the mountains, I don’t really spend a lot of money. The place I stay is very reasonable, and I believe I shared about their awesome free breakfast (you do recall I’m cheap, right? :D) Since the rooms have microwave & fridge, I will likely repeat my previous noshing of lef

Actually, I survived to get to the pen show. Aunt Peggy didn’t have a fever with her bout of illness, which was the main reason we concluded it was food poisoning. But while I was writing that blog post last Thursday talking such a good game about that, I was feeling progressively sicker and sicker, nauseous and with ominous rumblings in my lower segment. I barely got it posted before I had to run to the bathroom. Don’t worry, I’m not going TMI; just suffice it to say if the

So, like the song says, nothing ever goes as planned. I’ve been looking forward to the weekend run to Atlanta for the pen show, but a couple of days ago, I was pretty sure it was going to have to be cancelled. Aunt Peggy got food poisoning. We weren’t sure at first that was what was going on; it could have been a stomach virus, but in the long run, food poisoning was probably the better option. Not contagious, and all that. Her kids both have a ton on their plates, and she wa

For not having blogged in a while, I mean; something other than 'knitting ate my brain' or 'I was binge reading fanfic'. Last week, my laptop informed me it had updates to install. I set it to do so, as I usually do, and after that, its usual cranky nature went batcrap crazy. It restarted itself at least a dozen times, and ultimately locked me out altogether. A couple of times in the past, it’s acted a fool after updating, and I ended up having to just go in and uninstall the

Drive-by to update. Things are going as well as can be expected. I ran around like a nut the rest of the week after mom passed, and on into last week, cleaning her room out, hanging with her care staff. I took them donuts and a card, and let them know how much the family appreciated their love and care for mom. They even wanted to see the photos I took at the funeral home, and those seemed to ease their hearts to see her peaceful and resting (with Spooky—they all knew how muc

Hello y’all. Things are—well, I hesitate to say improving, but sometimes, just having knowledge is an improvement over not having it. The MRI showed that mom had a stroke. It was one of the first things I thought about when I was first notified about her sudden decline, and when I got to the ER that day after New Year’s, I did a quick and dirty bedside screening. It didn’t show the obvious indicators I was looking for, but the thing is, not all strokes present that way. The a

Making stuff! I love making stuff, as you know. This time of year, I’m gearing up to make ALL THE THINGS. With gifting holidays approaching, plus secret pal swaps, and cool damp weather making me want to curl up with yarn or whatever. Add to that the resurrection of my writing muse, and of course the fact that I have my life back now, and my creative juices are flowing like maple sap! I’m discovering new ways to craft, or rediscovering old ways I hadn’t pursued in a while. Th

So I lied. LOL. I said Dragon Con stories this time. Maaaaybe not though. The joy of being able to leave the house when I want to never gets old. Last week Pelikan Pens, one of the premier fountain pen makers, scheduled their Hubs all over the world. A Hub is a yearly fountain pen meetup, basically. Pelikan sends swag, goodies for everybody who signs up and shows up. People bring pens and ink, everybody eats and drinks and has a great time. Nashville is fortunate that we have

I was going to update a couple of days ago, but last time I didn’t mention that my right hand was giving me some grief. The night before I came back from Atlanta, the thumb and forefinger started to ache, sometimes get numb, and sometimes actually feel colder than the rest of the hand! I took some Aleve, but that only helped a little. My wrist and the pad of my thumb started to throb like a toothache. It was so irritating, I started laying it off to one side when I was on the

I survived! Yes, I made it to Dragon Con and back in one piece. Didn’t have to break out my taser even once. Mom was good the whole time (even though Place K did call me at 3 AM the morning after I got home, to let me know she had had a nosebleed. Thank heavens for that timing!). I can’t begin to say what a great time was had. It still surprises me, somehow, to know I can come and go as I please, eat what I want when I want it, set out with one plan in mind and then change on

Time for a quick update before I start packing for the con! Things are going well overall, with no major excitement. Mom is doing fine. About once a week, the nurses call to tell me she’s gotten irritated and isn’t getting enough attention so puts herself in the floor. Sometimes, if they have just watched her do it, they are actually laughing when they call. It is pretty funny to watch, I admit. They have to call me because technically, it is a fall, even though it isn’t. I’m

Once again, I’m late in updating. I guess I could say that is partly because there’s not much going on, which sounds totally counterintuitive, doesn’t it? For the past couple of weeks, I haven’t gotten out much. A lot of activities involve spending money, and I’m trying not to do that more than I have to. Also, I’m more of a homebody than people know. it’s ironic, isn’t it, that now that I can go anywhere I want to anytime I want to, I want to do things at home? I think it’s

Nothing really exciting to write about this go-round; I just thought I should toss up a brief post to say hi. I am rediscovering something I had almost forgotten the feeling of…boredom! Okay, I’m not really bored. It’s more like, every now and then, I find myself stopping and going ‘all right, everything on my to-do list is done’ and I have to think about, what shall I do now? Not as if I’m actually short on things to do! When the list of ‘this has to be done right NOW’ gets

Happy Friday the 13th! I’m about to say something that makes people either hate me, or feel my forehead for fever. I love Friday the 13th. Seriously. I always seem to have good luck. Now, I don’t mean the day just moseys along relatively quietly, though that is fine and good too. I mean, I almost always have some piece of exceptionally good fortune on that day! I’m not a big believer in ‘luck’ anyhow, but it amuses me that this occurrence has become so consistent that I actua

It’s been a good while since I actually had a holiday. As in, a day off, spent in enjoyable activities with family and/or friends. For the past two years, of course, I haven’t really been able to leave the house much, with mom or without. The last time I tried to do a family holiday, we drove to my cousins in Hendersonville for Thanksgiving. It was in 2016, I think. By the time we got there (it’s about an hour’s drive, all told) mom was tired and cranky. I rushed into the hou

I got a couple of job nibbles this week. Filling out applications online can be such a pain, though! I spent an hour one day trying to get past page 4 of this one. Finally I had to call the business and ask for help. They said they would email me. Which they haven’t. argh. The other one called just as I was about to run out the door to go ride with mom to her follow-up appointment with the foot doctor. They said they would call me back. Which, guess what, they haven’t. Double

Mom’s first care plan meeting went well. I walked in and the first person I saw was the dietitian I worked with almost daily when I worked at Place K! It was actually funny once the meeting started, because she was asking me questions about mom’s diet needs and swallowing and such, almost as though mom were a patient of mine. To be honest, sometimes I do find myself having to detach from daughter-mode and go into something like therapist-mode, to have any kind of objectivity.

Last night made two years since the first time mom didn’t recognize me. Roughly, anyway. I don’t remember the exact date, but it was Saturday night before Father’s Day. If somebody had told me a few minutes before that event what the next couple of years would be like…then what? I couldn’t really have done anything differently. It’s not like I have numerous siblings to share the load. It’s not like I could have run out the door and not looked back. Maybe at least I could have

On Mother’s Day, I did go see mom. She…sort of knew who I was? I wore her favorite Winnie the Pooh shirt, and she recognized that; but then she kept asking how old I was. I wanted to take her some silk flowers and the blueberry bread from the corner grocery that she likes, but New Psych doesn’t allow such, so I just took her a card. I kept up a conversation for half an hour or so, before she started to get fidgety and want me to roll her around so she could show me where she