still here

Perhaps it's bad form to write about a medical emergency and then have radio silence for 13 days. Not to worry - I'm alive and well. Almost well. I still can't lift heavy objects, or speed-walk (which I realized going to the bus stop this morning for my first commute to work since surgery).

The real reason for not posting is that I've been with family for the last week for Christmas. For me, time stops when I'm on vacation. My phone is usually off or completely unattended to. I don't check email. Days of the week lose all meaning. This year, my family's Christmas was a wonderful cacophony of hazardous roads, crackling fireplaces, giggling babies, fragile aunts, 6 varieties of cookie, the zoo, sledding, and Rock Band.

I think my favorite part was when Dad announced that we would hold our own Christmas devotional the Sunday before Christmas because our congregation's meeting was canceled due to inclement weather. He taped a list of our assignments, neatly written on a yellow sheet of notepad paper, to the television in the living room. We all followed through, which is probably something our parents could only dream of us doing 15 years ago.



This photo is for all you sissies in SE Michigan who thought last week was cold and snowy. Welcome to Green Bay. We didn't see the sun for 8 days. My sister-in-law Rachel is in the background, cruising the neighborhood. Sarah is conveniently placed to show you how tall the snow piles are. Notice how in the far background, the snow drifts are up to the windowsills of the houses.

and now for something ... completely different

Last Friday, while I was writing about Bunny Bells, I didn't think I would be spending the evening at the ER. But I suppose most ER visits are unanticipated.

I actually have a "no bodily fluids" rule on my blog, so I will spare you details about what happened in the ER, my overnight stay, and operation the next day. The final diagnosis was an ovarian cyst that basically took care of itself. But it took 3 incisions in my belly for the doctors to figure out that it wasn't anything more harmful. They weren't incompentent - they had good reasons to believe it could have been worse, and we're just thankful it wasn't. The long and short of it is that I have been spending the last few days (and a few days more, I think) recovering from their prodding and prognostications.

When coming out of the sedation from surgery on Saturday, the first thing I remember was looking at the nurses and saying, "I think I need to renew my library books." And then I requested more morphine because everything hurt.

bunny bells

Abe told me about this Flash game that everyone in his department at school is playing during finals week. I think it's their last-ditch effort to maintain sanity. At any given time in the computer lab, a handful of sleepless students fall into a comatose of bunny bell-clicking to a variation on Pachelbel's Cannon.


Play the Bunny Game Now!

Personally, I don't see the appeal. My bunny keeps falling, and I get more frazzled trying to play. I think I need the Junior version, a bunny with a little more float, perhaps.

I prefer the chocolate game we found last May in celebration of National Chocolate Chip Day.

Only at the University of Michigan...

...would I, while walking through the main quad of campus, be accosted by 4 girls dressed head to toe as tampons, offering me individually wrapped chocolates.

I was so confused.

In other news, we got our Christmas decorations up. Check out our tree "skirt". Look familiar, Velma?



I also got my first Apple product a few weeks ago.


Me trying to figure out how to get my ipod nano out of its packaging.

The ipod came free when I opened a checking account with my bank. I have charged the ipod, but haven't actually loaded anything onto it. Just biding my time.

Remember Thanksgiving?

So most of us have been listening to Christmas music and enjoying tree lights and sugar cookies shaped like stars for almost a week now, but I've still got one foot in turkey-ville. First, I haven't re-lived the day on the blog yet, and second, I re-cooked half of Thanksgiving dinner tonight because I was really craving it (it meaning incredible stuffin' muffins, recipe courtesy of my sister).

(Full disclosure: we did put up our Christmas tree on Thanksgiving night, too.)

So, the tale of our Thanksgiving. I spent the entire morning procrastinating cooking. I began making pies at 1:00pm with a desperate call to my parents, who were just greeting their own guests for a noon-o'clock dinner. Yes, Dad, I think the early meal is sort of an old person tradition. It's okay. My dad makes the best pies in the world. I won't eat anyone's pies but his - or, at least, I won't enjoy them. So I called for some last minute advice, which included his caution that "any departure from Libby's 100% pure pumpkin & recipe is a disaster". Imagine my relief when I glanced down and saw that somehow in my Thanksgiving grocery shopping frenzy I made the judicious choice to spring for Libby's instead of the off-brand. Thanksgiving was saved!

The pies actually turned out quite scrumptious. But all of our guests had to say that because I prefaced dessert by telling them that my dad makes the best pies in the world and I was trying to be his protege.

Speaking of guests, we had 4 friends over: Chris & Megan, who brought the yummiest yams, Ruth, and Rong. Ruth is from Taiwan and Rong is from China, so it was fun to introduce them to our Thanksgiving traditions. Except that Ruth actually knew more about the reason we celebrate Thanksgiving than any of us. Go figure.

Well, that's the Hollywood version. It was actually a really lovely dinner with wonderful friends and a whole lot to be thankful for.

btw, no pictures because our camera batteries died.

Hounded by abandon

I didn't want it to happen, but a full week has passed since my last post. Tut, tut.

More on Thanksgiving later.

For now another thought from the bus. I've had a lot of these lately. The bus is sometimes the only time I sit down and have a good, hard think. Translation for me = have a good, hard time to zone out and notice whatever is moving out the window.

Which, today, was a hound (or something that looked a lot like Greyhound's logo). I looked out the window just as its owner released it from its leash to the expanse of a snow-driven field. It dashed off and raced across with reckless abandon. The bus moved on before I saw any more. It got me thinking that I'd like a little more of that in my life - reckless abandon.

Maybe I'll post this without proofreading first.

... Hm ... nope. Didn't work. Well, small steps, right?