Tuesday, November 27, 2007

We Say Thanks

What a wonderful week we've had! M was home for the Holiday week, and we tried to make the most of her presence. We may be mother-daughter but we have fun together like best friends! For our girls' night out, we headed to a class at Whole Foods and wound up at our favorite "bonding" place...Macaroni Grill. We cooked Thanksgiving Dinner for three days, and then enjoyed it in less than an hour on Thursday. And, then, for our After Turkey Day treat, we dragged Mr. T. to see the new Disney movie "Enchanted," and afterwards tried out one of our newest restaurants, The Japanese Bistro (where they cook your dinner on the grill in front of you). It was certainly a sad moment on Sunday when we had to bid M and Charley Dog goodbye. As Mr. T. said, "it sure didn't seem like a week, did it?" No, it did not.

Of course, our Holiday was made even more special by the fact that Mom is on the road to recovery following her recent illness. She's still not 100%, but she's certainly feeling much better than she did!

Between her hospitalization and the fact that we didn't have to travel for the Holiday, I've been able to complete several projects lately. One, pictured here, is my 2007 Christmas Wrap that I've talked about before. Recall that I used a 5-row Paton Scarf pattern stitch, paired with simple 4-row garter stitch, worked over 277 stitches cast on to US13 needles. I started with a gorgeous hand-dyed yarn from Hand Painted Knitting Yarns, called "Pretty Mix, Tannheuser," in my favorite colors: purples, teal, greens, and blues. I added 5 more yarns, picked for their colors and textures. I even used an alpaca yarn held with a sparkly thread. Then, I found just the right shawl pin which I ordered from The Loopy Ewe: a sterling silver Ram (sheepie!) by Romi. [Of course, I also bought two beautiful sock yarns, too, but I digress...] I'm looking forward to wearing my new wrap and shawl pin to a few upcoming functions in December...like, maybe our book club Christmas luncheon, the Nutcracker Ballet, and "Wicked." Just trying it on makes me feel all sparkly!

I've also completed a wool-blend scarf in beige (for myself), as well as a couple pairs of socks (for Christmas gifts...shhhh!). I love knitting at this time of the year, I guess because it "feels" right...since it "feels" cold outside. I turn the fireplace on (gas logs...fabulous invention!), make myself a cup of tea with sugar and lemon (ummmmmm, tasty...), and either put a Poirot or Midsomer Murder mystery or a Christmas DVD in or turn on a basketball game. Which reminds me...

The (Memphis) Tigers are rated Number 3 in the ESPN Men's College Basketball rankings...and Number 1 in one of the other rankings!! (Yeah, I know...everyone else in this area is excited that the Missouri Tigers are rated Number 1 in college football...but I'm only mildly enthused about that one.) Woo-hoo!!

It looks like The Boys (Thomas with Elmo and Gus, on the Lounge Luge, left) are ready for some hoops!

Go Tigers Go! [Click for the Fight Song!!]

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Never Give Up Hope

When we enlarged our deck three years ago, we included two lattice pergolas...on opposite sides, to give a little definition and interest. The larger of the two has a swing and gives us shade from the hot summer afternoon sun. Last year, I planted Moon Flowers (a cousin of Morning Glory) there...and the vines and fragrant white flowers soon covered the entire pergola.

On the smaller of the two...dubbed the Mini-Me, we planted Queen Elizabeth climbing roses, one bush on either side. At least, that's what the package said they were. One of the bushes has been a wonderful climber and bloomer, producing worlds of the largest, prettiest, longest-lasting pale pink roses you could ever imagine. The other bush, however, has been a different story. Oh, don't get me wrong...it has been a prolific climber, sending thorny branches all over the lattice. The problem was...it has never produced a single bloom in the three years since we planted it. Until now, that is. I noticed this bud yesterday (photo, left) and grabbed the camera to document it...seeing is believing! And, to think how very close we came to giving up on this rose...whacking it down, digging it up, replacing it with another one.

The rose bud on the previously-non-producing rose bush reminds me to never give up hope...there's always some chance, given the right circumstances. And, I've needed to be reminded of that, after this past week. Whew. What a week it has been, too.

Last Saturday (11/3/07) morning, I found Nana/Momma/Edith in her room in obvious distress. Unfortunately, she couldn’t respond to me…didn’t seem to recognize me…didn’t seem to know who she was or where she was. My fear was that she’d had a stroke in the night, so I called 911 for help. They transported her to our new hospital here, where she spent a long, long afternoon in the Emergency Room. After a head and an abdominal CT scan (no stroke was indicated), two X-rays, evaluation by a couple of physicians, and loads of blood and other tests (West Nile? Lyme Disease?), she was admitted to the ICU with suspected meningitis. Throughout the afternoon, her temperature continued to rise until it reached 105.8 late in the evening. When finally able to get an IV to “hold,” they began bombarding a suspected infection with all manner of antibiotics, and they placed her on a cooling blanket, dialed down to the 50’s. Still, she didn’t speak or respond in any appropriate manner, so she couldn’t participate in battling whatever had hold of her…but that didn’t stop her from “battling” all who were trying to help her. (“That’s one strong little lady there.”) For the next 36 hours, we found out what it wasn’t…but we couldn’t find out what it was. To put it mildly, it was both frightening and frustrating. Although she had a high fever, her blood work never supported the infection theory. That was when they began saying she had “viral encephalitis.” Trouble was…the way to confirm this diagnosis was in doing a lumbar puncture (“spinal tap”), which was quite risky given Mom’s previous back surgeries, etc. No matter…add an antiviral drug to the brew going into the IV…which, by now, had been inserted in her groin when the veins in her arms and hands could no longer be used.

Finally, on Monday, while I had stepped out of the room and one of the nurses was turning Mom, she opened her eyes…smiled at the nurse…and began speaking (appropriately) again. Just like that! She was tremendously weak…and the fever was still between 101-103…but she knew who she was…knew where she was…knew who we were…and appeared to be on her way back. Of course, about that same time, they found pneumonia. OK…add yet another antibiotic or two. I lost count of how many they were using, but something seemed to be getting the fever under control. Then, she had a terrible reaction to something in the “brew” of medications she’d received: rash from head-to-toe, difficulty breathing, swollen body parts. What next?

It was at this point that M. said “it sounds like Nana’s in an episode of ‘House!’”

Fortunately, this episode seems to be having a happy (if still mysterious) ending. Once her temperature returned to normal, she was able to get off many of the meds and get rid of the IV’s. They released her on Friday, and even though she was weak as a kitten, she was glad to be home…in her own bed. With a little help from the Home Health nurse (who is coming to monitor the pneumonia/difficulty in breathing), we hope that she will continue to improve as much as she has in the past few days.

It’s still hard to believe that all of this happened so quickly…and it’s still frustrating to have so few answers…but it’s certainly great to have her back with us again! Prayers are answered.

And, roses do sometimes bloom when you have given up on them entirely. Lesson learned.

Friday, November 2, 2007

Let the Writing Begin!

"It was a dark and stormy night..."

Thursday marked the beginning of November, as well as the first day of the National Novel Writing Month: NaNoWriMo. What is NaNoWriMo? Well, here is the scoop straight from their website:
  • National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.
  • Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.
  • Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It's all about quantity, not quality. The kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. To forgo the endless tweaking and editing and just create. To build without tearing down.
  • In 2006, we had over 79,000 participants. Nearly 13,000 of them crossed the 50k finish line by the midnight deadline, entering into the annals of NaNoWriMo superstardom forever. They started the month as auto mechanics, out-of-work actors, and middle school English teachers. They walked away novelists.
And, it's official...I'm participating this year. If you do the math, I have 30 days to write a 50K-word novel; that comes out to...let's see, 30 gozinta 50000...yikes! That's 1666.6666 words each and every day of the month of November. Or, look at it another way: 30 days to write a 175-page novel is "only" 5.83 pages each day. Since I have my Word document set to double-space, I guess I have to think 11.667 pages a day, huh?

So, how am I doing so far? Well, as of this evening (end of Day 2), my Word Count is (drum roll, please!): 3,054. That puts me within 279.33 words of goal! Whew.

And, you know what? I'm having fun with this! I've said for years that I wanted to write either a novel or a mystery or a biography...or possibly historical fiction. And, I'm one of those who can get bogged down in the "endless tweaking and editing" and forget to "just create." I need to be forced "to build without tearing down." So, here is a perfect opportunity for me to Just. Do. It.

Stay tuned...

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