Greetings all. Hope everyone is enjoying the weekend. It's been one of the strangest winters I can recall here in New England. We started off bitterly cold and with well above average snowfall through mid-January, followed by nearly a month of above-average temperatures.
Then, in the past week, we've twice gone from several days close to 80 F (26.6 C) to snow - in the first case, eight inches (20 cm) of snow the same night(!), all of which was gone barely 36 hours later. Even by New England standards, that is strange.
Just thought I'd post about a few unrelated items. Follow along below the fold for all of the details. :c)
Hi all, and a Happy 2018. Apologies for the radio silence the past few months, especially to those of you who have kindly reached out to check in. It's much appreciated.
Everything is OK, I'm happy to say. I've been back at work since mid-November. My energy level isn't where it usually is, unsurprisingly, given that I'm not quite five months post-surgery. I saw my doctor last week for an exam, who told me I'm recovering nicely, other than some swelling and soreness.
That's likely due to a less-than-comfortable chair at work; I've found I can basically sit for 45-50 minutes at most before having to get up and go for a brief walk. Another factor: I'm still staying with my sister, which, while wonderful, means that I've been sleeping on a futon mattress, which is quite firm and very uncomfortable.
Because there's only has one bathroom, I get up at 4:30 every morning for my first round of dilating, to ensure that I'm finished before she gets up. I work from 6:30 to 3:30, then head home for round 2, followed by the usual weeknight activities (dinner, getting ready for the next day, etc.).
As the week progresses, the fatigue sets in; by Friday evening I'm wiped out, as my friend A can attest from watching the bags under my eyes grow during our Skype chats during the week. I wish I had enough time to exercise the way I usually do, which would help enormously, but between my schedule, the winter weather, and my annual holiday bout with the flu it simply isn't in the cards at the moment. I'm just walking as much as possible, as time, weather, and my energy on a particular day permit.
I have no complaints about any of this, of course; it is all totally worth it. On occasion, I will step out of the shower, catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror, and be reminded: "You did it, Cass."
It's a great feeling, as you can imagine, especially knowing how far I've come and how hard I'be worked the past six-plus years. I know that I earned every bit of this. And in the weeks and months to come, as I continue to recover, and am able to resume my normal activities (and begin to have new experiences), I'll be doing so as myself, inside and out, at long last. I can't wait. :c)
I think that will do it for now. I'll do my best to write more, time and energy permitting. Ciao til then, everyone!
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By the way, that's my sister's dog in the photo at the top of the post, in case anyone is wondering. As you can probably tell, he isn't a fan of winter either (or mornings). :D
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As you may know, I'll use any excuse to include a track from Pearl Jam, one of my favorite bands. As soon as I started this post, I knew which song I should use. This is "In Hiding," from 1998's Yield album, at the final show of their Binaural tour in their hometown of Seattle, on November 6th, 2000 - a show I was lucky enough to attend. Enjoy!!!
Hello all, and apologies for going so long between posts. Hope those of you here in the States had a lovely Thanksgiving. :c)
I'm doing well, other than being quite tired. As I mentioned in my reply to Halle, Jenna, and Stace's comments in my previous post, time flies when you return to work, as I did on Monday the 13th, and are still in the three-times-a-day stage of recovery. Follow along below for details - and for information on the handsome gent keeping an eye on the donuts, above. ;-p)
Hi everyone. Hope you are all well. This is a very brief post to say thank you to everyone who has left comments and/or contacted me privately about my surgery in Montreal. Thank you all; it means a great deal. Big hugs to all of you! xoxoxo
I'll write more soon about my entire Montreal experience (hopefully tomorrow, in fact), but the headline is that I'm doing well overall. I'm back in the Boston area, slowly healing day by day. I have some minor discomfort, and get tired very easily. I've learned the hard way - repeatedly lol - not to push myself too far, too fast, and that has proved to be a wise decision. Again, I'll write more about it in my next post, but I'm playing it same and taking the long view.
I also want to mention how deeply saddened I was, and am, by the sudden death of Tom Petty on Monday. His music means a great deal to me; in fact, I read the excellent biography Warren Zanes wrote about him while I was in Montreal, specifically holding off on reading it for nearly a year so I could do so. I spent much of my time there, and this week, listening to his amazing catalogue and marveling at his consistency over a 40-year career.
Of all of his work - and he never made a bad album, or even a mediocre one, in his entire career - his 1981 album Hard Promises in particular means a great deal to me.
I was in high school when it came out, locked in an incredibly painful struggle with myself (even if I didn't fully understand its cause at the time), one that would take many years to resolve. I remember how comforting the entire album was, particularly the song "Insider."
He originally wrote it for Stevie Nicks when she requested a song for what became her debut album; when he played it for her, she told him she couldn't take it because it was clearly such an intensely personal song, but that she would be honored to sing it with him - which she did:
I've listened to "Insider" countless times over the years. It helped a lonely, confused, frightened 15-year-old realize that someone else understood how she felt and let her know that she, too, could crawl through the briars. That she, too, could persevere - that she could also be an Insider. Thank you for that, Tom. RIP.
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