65.

Today would have been my dad's 65th birthday. He died in Dec. 2004 from colon cancer. I still miss him but I know that he accepted his diagnosis and was only "sick" for a couple of weeks. Mostly, I remember him healthy and happy and just being himself. It took awhile. The first six months all I could remember was his last days.. his last minutes, but that doesn't clog my head so much anymore. Grieving is letting go and rejoicing and celebrating the connections and gifts you shared with the people in your life.

Happy New Year - 9 Days Late

Okay. So I haven't been on the ball with all the writing stuff. I thought I would be so much better with all of this stuff. HA. I guess shame on me for not focusing. I need to push myself into things and then I need to keep myself moving forward.

I am looking for a job. There hasn't been too much that has interested me - even less do I qualify for. UGH. Why can't I be one of those fabulous people who just knows everyone and can just call someone up and get a job? That would be too easy, right?

Not that I'm hating being unemployed. I just don't want to wait forever to get another job.

Anyway, our anniversary (Dec. 31) was great. After dinner, we got a phone call saying that our friends the W. Family were visiting their best friends not 10 minutes away so we spent the countdown to the new year with them. Lots of fun and I know T. was happy to see them again. Who knows when they'll be down from Washington again? It might not have been how we planned to spend our anniversary but it certainly was a lot of fun.

My sister M finished her chemo regimen (yeah) and is now scheduling the next round of testing to make sure all the cancer was killed off. We'll hopefully know the results by the end of February (more waiting).

Mom is still recovering from her fall down the stairs. Her orthopedic surgeon is concerned because one of leg screws is lose but he has cleared her to get back to work (it's been over 2 months). She's going a little stir crazy so I'm sure she'll be better once she gets back to some sort of normal routine. His only concern is that if the screw breaks the skin she's to call him immediately. One would hope - that Mom being a nurse - would not have needed that instruction; on the other hand, from my own experience, nurses are probably some of the worst patients you could possibly deal with (I mean other than doctors themselves) HA.

So good news has finally started arriving. It's a good way to start this year. Let's keep it moving.

Christmas Round Up

Crazy thing holidays. You start out thinking you have all the time in the world and then - wham - it's all gone and the holidays are almost over. Where did it all go? I can't believe it's been so long since I wrote anything on here. I guess I must make some NY resolutions to write an entry at least so many times a week. Every day will be stretching it, but on the other hand - writing is good for me and the more I write the better I'll be so maybe I'll try writing everyday and see how it goes.

Anyway, my last entry promised a summary of my trip back east to see family.


I had a wonderful time. For me, I don't think it would be - could be - the holidays if I didn't go home and see my family. I don't know if it will seem the same when we have kids and it costs too much for us to go out. I don't think about that part too much.

For me, the season is all about smells, sights and being together. My sister did loads of baking while I was home. It seemed like every time we went to Mom's house she ended up in the kitchen baking some sort of cookies. Peanut butter were my favorite this time. I think my all time favorite were the lemon bars Mom use to make.

We went a couple of places - to M's local community center for swimming, to the new Please Touch Museum Philadelphia's Fairmont Park, to Hershey Park's Candy Lane and Drive-thru Light Display.
At the Please Touch Museum, I couldn't believe the stuff ("exhibits" I guess is the correct word) available for the kids to play with. My favorite was the water room complete with a duck stream with plastic smocks for the kids and plenty of ducks and rubber floor mats. I won't lie. I thought it was expensive, but Maddie had a wonderful time and that's what counts.


Hershey Park was fun. I've never been there for their Christmas Candy Land before. Mom said they started it up after we were "older". Yeah, I think it celebrated it's 25th anniversary this year.... or maybe 20th. Anyway, that made me feel old. UGH.

Mostly, I just spent time with Mom, M and Maddie. I saw J a couple of times and A even less - they were both working loads. Mom wasn't up for too much - she was still in a cast during my visit. Her leg is now in a boot but one of her screws started coming lose so the doctor has restricted her activities since I was home. Hopefully, she'll have better news next week when she goes back.

Coming home is always wonderful too. I flew through Denver both times and I can't believe the difference in only a week. From Sunny to snow. Luckily, I beat the big storms and didn't have much to worry about delay-wise. I got into SFO around 3 p.m. and took BART home. A first for me. T has always picked me up at the airport from other trips but starting a new job means no vacation/personal days - so I had to suffer alone. Ah well.

We spent Christmas Eve at T's parents. We had a lovely dinner soup, breads and desserts. Yum. The next morning we had breads, cinnamon rolls and other delicious snacks. Then we opened presents and dinner (another yummy meal) before heading back home. I know the cat missed us.

It was a wonderful holiday. T had the rest of the week off so we did some shopping and just relaxed. He's at work now. He only has NYD off but he'll probably leave early on the NYE because it's our anniversary - 3 years go us.

It's been a while.

I don't remember when I wrote last so let's rehash.

Mom had an accident last week and broke her leg. She is at home being taken care of by Grandma and is doing as well as we can hope.

T. got a new job and after many frustrating apartment viewings we found a great place. We're going to be moving soon. I'm not looking forward to that but it'll be fine once we're in. I'm really excited about our new place.

Not too much else. I'm suppose to be writing for National Novel Writing Month but I haven't done very well this year. I'll try harder this weekend. It's difficult when we were always away looking at apartments or I was freaking out about mom... hard to concentrate but I'm going to try really hard to work on that.

That's all I can think of. I'm going to go read and then go to bed. T's parents are out tomorrow for his birthday.

Long weekend.

Mom is back at the house recovering. Grandma came down from NJ to spend the next week to 10 days helping out. When Mom goes to the Doctor's again, we'll see what he says and what her prognosis is.

T. got the job so we spent all weekend looking for places we'd want to live and are running out of time. Very frustrating. I just wish we were done and moving to the next set of problems.

Waiting.

I'm waiting again.

It's something I'm not good at. I hate it. I start fixating on how much I hate waiting and it only makes everything seem slower and take longer. Ugh. My lack of patience is probably my worst fault.

Anyway, my mom fell down the stairs Monday morning and had to go the hospital. I got a text as I was arriving at work that morning. That night, Mom told me she was waiting to have it set the next day at her orthopedic surgeon's office. Yeah, she already had one. She's broken her leg/ankle a couple of times that I remember and she had her knee repaired. At least, Dr. Mazur is good and she already knew him.

He told her she needed surgery so that's this afternoon sometime EST. I'm here waiting in California to hear her recovery, etc.

That all comes on top of the waiting for the company T. interviewed with last week and the week before to come back with a counter offer. They offered him 10% more than he makes now, but it's more expensive down in San Jose so he asked for more. They underpay their engineers I guess because he got an email yesterday saying they were still debating the issue.

Fun, fun fun.

Oh yeah, Happy Birthday, Amy! What a way to spend your birthday, at the hospital waiting for Mom.

Rainy day.

Welcome Monday!

It rained off and on all weekend. It's raining again now. Sort of a middling rain... not too hard but not misty soft either. It's still a little to know that it's raining again and to hear the tires driving through it over and over again. But we need the rain. It's been a dry year. Not good.

The first two days of National Novel Writing Month went well. I tallied 6,000+ words over the weekend. I wasn't pushing myself too hard. I'm trying to enjoy the process and let the writing move me on. So far, it seems to be working. I was planning on doing grocery shopping after work this afternoon but I think I'll just go home. I hate carrying grocery bags in the rain. I'm sure we have something to eat.

On other news, Mom fell this morning and broke her leg. She's at home now but I'm waiting for updates since I can't just rush over. Sometimes I hate being 3,000 miles from home.