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2001:
A World
Without Mirrors
IN MY OPINION
Books Read in 2007 "Fine
China" Flash
version here My Favorite Video Blogs Missbehavens (for others, see Links page)
24:Aqua Teen Hunger Force World of Witchcraft (Jeri should watch this) The Wilhelm Scream History of "The Wilhelm Scream" Introducing "The Book" Cat vs. Cow New on My
Support liberty and justice for all
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HOME AGAIN, HOME AGAIN 2 March 2007
I settled into the recliner to begin catching up on TV shows that were taped while I was gone and fell asleep quickly. I woke up around 2 a.m., under 25 lbs of fur. If Lizzie could purr, she would have been purring. Her nose was just barely touching one of my chins and she was breathing deeply and totally limp. She's never slept with me for more than a few minutes before this. At the same time, Sheila must have heard my eyelids opening because she put her front paws on the arm of the recliner, from behind, where she could rest her head on my shoulder. I petted her for a long time until she finally got down and went outside. Lizzie and I went back to sleep. I'm home. Following removal of my mother's cast and her first physical therapy appointment, we've decided that she really is ready to be alone. Peach and Bob will be there until tomorrow and then Friday will be her first night alone. (I told her I know her; she's going to spend the day getting her house back to the condition that she likes it!) She will be in a walking boot for a month, which she's not happy about, but she has done so incredibly well following instructions and doing whatever she can do get herself well. She is frustrated about how slow it is all going, but is not going to undermine her recovery. What she has coming up is physical therapy appointments, not often, but every couple of weeks or so, to check on her progress. She has a lot of friends in the area who have wanted to help out, so it's time for them to take their turn, and time for my mother to be spending less time with us "youngsters" and more time with her cronies. Life is picking up where it left off. I'm back in the chaos, the clutter, the dust bunnies, the dog hair, the barking and the jumping and all that goes with being in my own home. It was nice being in a nice neat, orderly home, but a bitch to try to keep it that way. It's nice to put a cloth down on top of the stove and know that nobody is going to be antsy because it's not hanging up neatly. We talked about our "chaos" awareness while I was there. My mother said she remembered when she would look at the bedroom my sister and I shared, Karen's half neat, my half not and she would grit her teeth and say "She is NOT going to be like Betsy (her sister)." But I am like Betsy in many ways. Betsy was the artistic one, who would rather paint than clean house. I don't paint, but I write and would rather write than clean house. My mother has come to accept that in me, about my own house, and she appreciated the effort I put forth trying to keep her house the way she likes it, but she sees clutter everywhere, and clutter disappears for me, especially when it's what she might consider clutter in her house, which would be "neat" in mine! The whole two months, if you could set aside the reason why we were all together, was a really wonderful opportunity on so many levels. My cousins and I got to spend so much time together that we've decided to start setting aside a "cousins day" or "cousins weekend" so that we don't let the revitalized relationships lag again....and maybe we'll be setting an example for our own children, to strengthen friendships in their own generation. As I said previously, my mother and I grew closer together and I just loved having so much time to spend with her. And an added bonus was getting to know her stepsons, something I have not done in all the years since she married their father. I spent an hour in the hospital with her stepson Fred, with whom I have much in common (computers), and spent several afternoons and/or evenings with Ed, a delightful man, I was pleased to discover. Unfortunately I never did cross paths with her stepdaughter, and that probably won't happen now. I was so happy when my mother remarried. Her 35 years with my father had been hell, especially the later years and when I discovered there was a man out there who loved her and whom she loved, I was so pleased for her. He treated her like a queen during their 18 years together and they loved each other very much. But the thing I was saddest about in the marriage was that the two families never mixed, despite the fact that her husband's kids and I are the same age and our kids were the same age. My sister was long dead and there was just me. I had hoped that I would now have "family" again, but that never happened, despite some effort on my part, for reasons I will never understand. It just seems that there was a real missed opportunity there to have a blended family. Ironic that it took a broken ankle many years after my mother's husband's death to bring us together, even if only briefly.
But I don't have to think about that now. I'm home and
all's right with the world again. (I found a better photo of the day for yesterday; you might want to see if you saw the right one!) |
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PHOTO OF THE DAY
Mother, on the table, gives advice to baby, on the chair
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This is entry #2528
