Lit blog

[Angeline]

Hubby left today, said he would be "right back." I have heard that before. Yesterday, he gave me his debit card and told me to get myself something for my birthday. we don't usually exchange birthday gifts, so it really wasn't a big deal. I didnt see anything I really wanted, so I didn't buy anything.

Okay, right back. That's what he said. He was gone almost 2 hours. he comes in and tells me I need to clean out the car.

Okay.... now?

yes, now.

I went out there, wondering what he was up to and found a new lap top in the back seat, along with a printer/fax, a router and a bunch of other computer related "stuff."

He really does surprise me sometimes.

That is awfully sweet, sis, as Ms. Merry (Hallo SweetMerry) said. And you deserve it, too. I know you work very hard.

We just got back from shopping, first a trip to buy garlands and tree ornaments. Mr. Ex has three boxes of ornaments I collected through the years (my kids are half-Jewish and they love Christmas and, well, so do I lol), but God knows if and when I'll ever see them again. He won't use them; he has refused to put a tree up since I left (so everyone can suffer; isn't that sweet of him?), but we got some really cute ones today. The last few years we've had this little craft erm postmoderney sorta tree I made, but this year we're getting a little real one. I can't wait--it'll smell so good.Then we went and bought all the cookie baking stuff, plus the fixins for ee's youngest's birthday dessert (a turtle cheesecake). Oh and tins for cookies for my landlady and the maintainance guy, my therapist, etc., etc. The next few weeks are going to be busy, but fun. I love baking and I love the way it makes my house smell. Pine tree and cinnamon and nutmeg and peppermint. Mmmmmm.

And when we got home we had about twenty bags of stuff to schlep up the steep flight of steps to our little apartment. eagleyez wouldn't let me carry any of it, just myself and my cup of coffee. So I swilled coffee and unpacked and sorted and put away while he went up and down and up and down the stairs. What a sweetheart that man is!

 

[Tzara]

So I'm on the 18th floor of a downtown San Francisco hotel. Nice hotel, on the edge of Chinatown. I checked in fairly early on Tuesday and they gave me a handicapped-accessible room (or whatever the current terminology is), probably because that was all that was available at the time. I have to stoop down in the shower and the hangers are really low in the closet, but otherwise it's not much different than any other room.

Oh, there is one other thing. The door opens outward, into the hallway. I keep trying to open it into the room. I'll probably get that down about the time I check out.

Anyway, here's the weird thing. Why is the handicapped room located as far away from the elevator as you can get? The building has one straight central corridor, with elevators at the front of the building. This room is in the rear of the building at the very end of the hallway.

Now it's close to the fire stairs, but there are stairs next to the elevators as well, and how could someone confined to a wheelchair get down eighteen floors of stairs in any case? For that matter, why is this room so high up in the hotel?

Just curious.

Nice weather here, by the way. I like San Francisco.

 

[Angeline]

We went out yesterday and bought our little tree. We really hadn't planned on doing it this soon, but we saw some that were just the right size for our apartment--3 and 1/2 to 4 feet tall. So we bought one and spent the afternoon setting it up and decorating it. We didn't say much while we decorated, but felt so close. When we were done, we sat down together in the dark with the tree lit up. We just sat together, watching it. We both got a little teary-eyed and I knew we were each thinking of other times when our respective children were small and with us. He was thinking of his mother, I know, and I was thinking of my father and my sister. I said "your heart is full" and he just smiled at me. It felt very bittersweet, but good. We hugged and I thought about how much each of us has been through and how much I love this life we've built together.

 

[champagne1982]

I felt sorry for the 81 year old mother who'd been sleeping on a stretcher in the day ward for 2 nights in a row. I wondered what was going to happen to me post-operatively, no way were they going to leave me on a stretcher! It was fine, I was wheeled into a private room and didn't have to share my sedation induced ramblings with anyone but family.

Then, yesterday morning, before the feeling had returned 100% to my legs, the surgeon came in, showed me photos of the torn bits of knee I'd been living with for a year and a baby pic of my newborn ACL, bone to bone graft with absorbable screws. "Oh, by the way, you can go once you're through your antibiotics."

<< doesn't adequately express what I was feeling... I'd been told to plan on a 2 maybe 3 full days' stay, post op, it hadn't even been 20 hours yet. Then, I overheard the explanation, "There are 3 patients in the day ward who don't have beds..."

So, I'm home. Likely taking more meds than I'd be having if I were still admitted, but way happier than if I'd had to stay in there. Why does every hospital share the same horrific design and colour scheme... 80's geometrics paired with pindots and stripes in dusty rose, antique gold and powder blue?

One thing's sure, I wanted nothing more than to get out of there! So, I was released, as was the little, old grandmother, lung infection still keeping her fingertips and lip line blue. to go and finish being ill at her daughter's house.

 

[LeBroz]

I felt sorry for the 81 year old mother who'd been sleeping on a stretcher in the day ward for 2 nights in a row. I wondered what was going to happen to me post-operatively, no way were they going to leave me on a stretcher! It was fine, I was wheeled into a private room and didn't have to share my sedation induced ramblings with anyone but family.

Then, yesterday morning, before the feeling had returned 100% to my legs, the surgeon came in, showed me photos of the torn bits of knee I'd been living with for a year and a baby pic of my newborn ACL, bone to bone graft with absorbable screws. "Oh, by the way, you can go once you're through your antibiotics."

<< doesn't adequately express what I was feeling... I'd been told to plan on a 2 maybe 3 full days' stay, post op, it hadn't even been 20 hours yet. Then, I overheard the explanation, "There are 3 patients in the day ward who don't have beds..."

So, I'm home. Likely taking more meds than I'd be having if I were still admitted, but way happier than if I'd had to stay in there. Why does every hospital share the same horrific design and colour scheme... 80's geometrics paired with pindots and stripes in dusty rose, antique gold and powder blue?

One thing's sure, I wanted nothing more than to get out of there! So, I was released, as was the little, old grandmother, lung infection still keeping her fingertips and lip line blue. to go and finish being ill at her daughter's house.

Now don't you go and turn druggie on us. But absolutely thrilled to hear you've been able to go home early and that the operation went through without a hitch. Just take your time and focus on the joy of the season {that's almost better than any drug there is}!



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[GuiltyPleasure]

Hey Carrie! It is indeed great news that you are home once more with the new knee. Don't be tempted to do stuff too soon just because the hospital staff are not around to fence you in.

 

[Tzara]

The bedstand in my hotel room has several of those "welcome to our city--now go spend money" books in it, and one of those ultra-glossy magazines filled with advertisements for Rolex and Tiffany and Hugo Boss and many other chic companies I know nothing about. I was kind of bored and started thumbing through the magazine looking for anything that might resemble a real article, when I came across a Louis Vuitton ad. It was kind of odd looking, as it was a picture of an older man in the back seat of an automobile, looking kind of lost and out of place, with one of those vinyl LV bags sitting next to him. Kind of like a cross between Willy Loman and some wiseguy bagman who was wrapping up a cocaine run, bringing wads of cash back from the Hamptons. It took me a minute to place the face. Mikhail Gorbachev.

The former General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union is now hawking overpriced hydrocarbon purses.

Ain't America wonderful?



Welcome back, Champie.

 

[Senna Jawa]

Welcome back, Carrie

Hey, long time no see! Good to have you back. Take a good care of yourself,

 

[Tathagata]

I felt sorry for the 81 year old mother who'd been sleeping on a stretcher in the day ward for 2 nights in a row. I wondered what was going to happen to me post-operatively, no way were they going to leave me on a stretcher! It was fine, I was wheeled into a private room and didn't have to share my sedation induced ramblings with anyone but family.

Then, yesterday morning, before the feeling had returned 100% to my legs, the surgeon came in, showed me photos of the torn bits of knee I'd been living with for a year and a baby pic of my newborn ACL, bone to bone graft with absorbable screws. "Oh, by the way, you can go once you're through your antibiotics."

<< doesn't adequately express what I was feeling... I'd been told to plan on a 2 maybe 3 full days' stay, post op, it hadn't even been 20 hours yet. Then, I overheard the explanation, "There are 3 patients in the day ward who don't have beds..."

So, I'm home. Likely taking more meds than I'd be having if I were still admitted, but way happier than if I'd had to stay in there. Why does every hospital share the same horrific design and colour scheme... 80's geometrics paired with pindots and stripes in dusty rose, antique gold and powder blue?

One thing's sure, I wanted nothing more than to get out of there! So, I was released, as was the little, old grandmother, lung infection still keeping her fingertips and lip line blue. to go and finish being ill at her daughter's house.

glad you are home and able to take Elvis drugs in a familiar setting

rest and get well

 

[Angeline]

Yay Champers! Glad to see you back where you belong.

Welcome home from me and the cowboy.

You sound amazingly lucid for someone who has to be on serious pain meds. I'd be drooling and babbling.

 

[LeBroz]

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Awoke this morning to a most beautiful sight of everything being covered in a coating of snow and a heavy fall of large flakes. It must be that electical discharge from those large flakes that always wakens me when this type of snow event happens. It sticks to every surface, looking like confectioners sugar has been poured, with the sugar sticking to everything. It lasted just long enough to cover everything with about an inch of snow. It's all that cold air sent this way from Canada passing over the warmer surface of Lake Ontario. Only lasted a tad over an hour and now it's done; just enough for an adult to enjoy its beauty but to frustrate the kids since it's far too little in which to play.

That's a fun snow; the nasty one is still in the Midwest. It'll get here tonight around midnight (in about 14 hours or so), with its load of snow then sleet and freezing rain, later changing over to rain then back to snow. It'll look more like snow slop; won't even be fun to play in and it'll be heavy to shovel before it all later refreezes. Isn't winter wonderful...

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[DeepAsleep]

The sky is barfing margarita mix. Yay, ice storm. While I wait to go pick my girlfriend up from work, I'll be uploading photos from the Great Plains Poetry Pile-Up Pre-Party.

www.flickr.com/photos/ipeekatyouintheshower

take a look-see.

 

[normal jean]

CArrie!

I didnt know you were out for surgery, but I am glad you are doing well.

oh yeah, and I am here in Florida, thanking God I dont have to wake up to that gosh awful cold wet stuff, regardless how "pretty" it is...


ya'll be careful out there

 

[unpredictablebijou]

Hail Santa.


At 8:30 last night was still at the shop answering the phone, getting reports of more donations for the raffle, giving directions to the bar. I retyped and reprinted the raffle list four times and still had to handwrite more things once we got to the bar.

By 9, we had half the tables at the bar moved around and covered with stuff. The cashbox and bags of gold coins for the wenches. Box after box of raffle donations - salon gift certificates, three dozen shirts, vouchers for motel rooms, sets of dishes, framed art, wineglasses, clocks, jewelry boxes, coupons from restaurants. It was an insane amount of stuff. Another set of tables was crowded with food. Clan Chaos was under orders to bring lots of food, and the Tribe was all about recruiting wenches. We had a complete feast of both.

By ten the bar was a pirate-filled madhouse. Binky showed up in a kilt, a black shirt which he'd mostly forgotten to button, hiking boots and an eyepatch. K had gotten a tailored black velvet pirate coat finished just in time for the party. It seemed like every woman there was laced into some sort of corset. I managed to dance to some bumpin' tunes despite the fact that my wench dress made it impossible to take a deep breath. Coins were selling like hotcakes and immediately disappearing into the cleavage of the wenches. Every time Laura sold a bag of coins, she'd shout "THIS MAN HAS COINS!" and the women would fly toward him and stick like glue until he was penniless.

The next four hours were a complete blur. We had to do the raffle in three stages because there were so many things to give away. The DJ stuck me on the mic and I'd patter while the runners brought the items up and the DJ drew ticket after ticket after ticket. "Oh, kids, look at this gorgeous set of champagne flutes from Prairie Home, do we love them? Let's see who wins this... ah, Wes Johnson! Come on up here, darlin', and lemme see what we got next... A beautiful necklace and bracelet set from Adorned. We're drawing now, and let me just say again how grateful we all are that y'all are here tonight... and Kim J, that's Kim J, you win the necklace! Is Kim still here? Oh there you are, sweetie, here ya go. Beautiful... and let's see what we have now..."

The food table was like a mosh pit. There's a grocery store across the street from the bar so we kept sending Russ across for more smoked oysters and cheese and sausage... Joe, one of the clan members, brought two cheesecakes he'd made himself. He was carrying them carefully packed into an industrial paint bucket. How cheesecake becomes manly.

Marilyn, a dark horse in the wench contest, was amazed that she actually won. That was primarily because the owner of the hotel next to the bar, a gentle middle eastern man who didn't want to be recognized, quietly wrote a $500 check and donated the coins the money would have purchased to Marilyn's total. She didn't know it until the contest ended and she discovered that she had a thousand more coins than the next closest competitor. All the pictures will feature her holding a huge basket full of stuff, wearing a tiara and looking utterly flabbergasted.

At the end of the night, as the bartender had to recruit two other guys to help him clear the party out into the parking lot, people were still handing me their leftover cash. The DJ was thanking us, over and over, even though he's the one who donated the gig, so we could charge a $2 cover. Reports from the door people were that almost no one gave them JUST the two dollars. Once they heard what was going on, most of them dropped at least a five, just to get in.

I can't say enough. People are beautiful. People are basically good. People are amazing. And K called my cel, at 2:45, just as we were turning onto our own country road, almost home, to report that we managed to raise a total of $1,532. In about four and a half manic hours.

The fierce hangover is so very much worth it.

And this too: Ange. TZ. You are part of this. My gratitude extends from coast to coast today.

 

[normal jean]

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[normal jean]

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[Senna Jawa]

[...] a bald eagle!

It dove for a fish, [...] It didnt return today, it must have known I had my camera and was waiting...

and I will be, till the job is over

I look at your (cat) avatar, and I believe you.

 

[Angeline]

I look at your (cat) avatar, and I believe you.

I think her cat looks like it has just imbibed something.

I see a lot of hawks here and have seen eagles in the sky a few times. There is a woods about a hundred yards from where our lawn ends. I've seen wild turkeys strut across the lawn and once, for a few weeks, I saw a red fox and her kits every morning. Sometimes we hear coyotes. I didn't know they're in Maine, but they are. I have yet to see a moose though. Actually, I rather hope I never do.

 

[LeBroz]

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The trees this morning stand in silent stark witness to our first semi-serious snow of the season — a covering of about a ½' of fine granular snow. And now they're promising that when the system moves off the coast of New England and strengthens, it'll trigger the real snow making machine — lake effect snow — with amounts of anywhere from 2 to 9 inches, depending on location and wind direction.

But between now and then we're told to expect freezing rain and then just rain. Shoveling that mess will be brutal as the snow left on the ground will be really weighted down. Where's that global warming fantasy when it's needed?

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[LeBroz]

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Another message I got from the first significant snow of the season was the difference in response here in contrast to what would happen in Atlanta.

In Atlanta, if there's a warning of bad winter weather {snow or, more usually, sleet} there's a rush to the grocery stores to stock up on everything. You'd think folks expected to be socked in for a week or two from the way the stories were presented on the TV news. Must be a Southern thing.

Here in Buffalo, all the stories aren't about grocery shopping. They're about the rush to have snow tires installed and of wait times of up to 6 hours due to the crush of customers.

Here's a myth that ought to be debunked — Buffalo drivers are better able to drive in the snow then folks in less snowy regions. When snows first start to fall, and before the plows hit the roads, Buffalo drivers appear to be just as inept as folks in less snowy regions. The only reason Buffalo drivers manage so well is that there are plows quickly hitting the roads, not only plowing the snow, but also dispensing tons of salt. All that salt not only quickly melts snow and ice and speeds the drying of roads, but there's another dark secret — it's very corrosive to the undercarriage of cars. This summer my mother had to have both transmission fluid and brake fluid lines replaced. You might not want to buy a used car from Buffalo before having the undercarriage checked.

Is it Spring yet?

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[normal jean]

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[normal jean]

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[Angeline]

sis, when we worked at the power plant at the dam, a couple of years ago, we saw a coyote out there. They have made it to SC as well.

and back in '88 when we came to Maine to work, we saw 2 moose, one live, one was roadkill, would have hated to hit that big fella, poor thing.

We actually went to Moosehead Lake near Mount Katahdin for a weekend last year because you're supposed to be able see moose there a lot. It was summer and pretty warm though so they probably weren't coming out of the woods. This time of year is bad because food is getting scare for them and they're more likely to be on or near the roads.

Oh well. At least I got to see Stephen King.

 

[DeepAsleep]

The ice storm has since ceased, but the wind is blowing groundsnow all over the place. I am less than enthusiastic about moving in this weather. Less than enthusiastic, in fact, is probably the best thing I can say about my outlook, today, in general.

 

[Angeline]

The ice storm has since ceased, but the wind is blowing groundsnow all over the place. I am less than enthusiastic about moving in this weather. Less than enthusiastic, in fact, is probably the best thing I can say about my outlook, today, in general.

We're in the holding pattern here. Snow supposed to start around 3AM and continue through Monday until about noon on Tuesday. Our first Nor'easter of the season. I have holiday baking to do and everything I need to do it and nowhere else to be. That sounds heavenly to me. I'm living in LL Bean flannel and listening to music. If we really need to go out, there's a convenience store a mile away and the road will be plowed--though getting the car to the road is often problematic. My feeling is I can make it a mile and back in even the worst weather, just take it slow and steady. And one of the great things about Maine is I could just throw my winter coat over my pjs, put on my snow boots and go. What an image, huh? Up here it's sexy to be warm. And there will probably be someone else there in pjs and boots and coat, too. This is one laid back town.