More tomorrow

In the meantime, Gulan thinks you should read this.

Yiayia on relationships

Athenos has this new advert series about the stereotypical, old country Greek grandmother. It's really, really stereotypical....but also funny as hell.



Click through and watch them all (there's only three). Hilarious, especially if you have a little judgmental yiayia from the old country (which I do not, but I've known many).

It does make me miss my yiayia a little bit. She was nothing like this...which is probably why I miss her so much...

Easter

What a great day.

Met with my trainer first thing this morning. The gym was so empty! We had a great session, and he even let me throw things at him at the end (always a good day). Was gross and sweaty, but went to coffee anyway. Today was mostly just the Village, which was sort of nice. Had a skinny caramel latte to celebrate the beautiful Spring day. Had a really good time with my friends. Stayed a little too long.

Ran home and showered, made it to Shady Pines before the priest from the local Greek Orthodox church came to do a shut-in visit for my parents. It was actually quite a lovely visit. I hadn't met him before, but he was a really nice man. We sang Christos Anesti, prayed a little, and then he gave them communion, and me too - I told him I felt weird about it - I'm no exactly a shut-in - but he said some very kind and convincing things.

Afterwards we went to the Easter brunch at SP. We sat with two of the friends my parents sit with for dinner most nights. They're adorable. They've been married for 68 years. Sixty-eight! It's amazing, really. I can't even get my head around how you meet someone at 17 and know they're the one you're going to be old with, have kids and a life and cancer with. And they're just totally cute as anything. We should all be half as lucky. She's dealing with breast cancer now, too, and is a few months ahead of my mom in terms of the schedule of things. She's doing so well. She's a great influence for my mom, I think. A good support and a great role model.

After lunch I brought Maggie home and then - for the first time in like six weeks - I went out on the bike. It went pretty well. The ride was beautiful, down by the lake and out in the country. I got a little lost, and ended up at the hospital. I can get home from there in my sleep (and probably have), but it required me to ride on a couple of big roads. Funny, they weren't as scary as I was anticipating. Especially after I'd found myself in a couple of 55 mph zones out in the country. I did a pretty good job, mechanically speaking, too. I only stalled the bike out twice, had one ugly turn and one sketchy downshift. I've got to start getting out on the bike regularly again. After all, there's only one way I'm going to get good at this.

The rest of my day was less exciting - cleaned the kitchen, did the dishes, made lunch salads for the week, etc. But on the whole, it was a very lovely Sunday. And a good Easter.

Goodness

So I saw Olga today. She has the breathing tube out and is doing great. She looks awesome. We spent like two hours catching up and chatting - she's definitely back to her old self. Which is just so great.

She reminded me that only 0.3% of adults who go on ECMO (the lung bypass she was on) ever get off. It's incredible. She's still got a long road ahead of her - adjusting to the amputation, and her other foot might need a skin graft - but she's just like, okay, so this is what I have to do.

I'm just so grateful she survived this.

We talked about her son, about coming back to work, about rebuilding the house. She's so forward thinking. Speaking as someone who gets caught up in the drama of the moment so often, it was nice to hear her talking about the future and having goals, etc.

It was such a nice visit. And it was something I needed so badly.

A clear sign...

I just wrote this in an email...

I think we all struggle with getting to know who we are, finding out what really validates us, understanding the ways we relate to people and what brings us down or lifts us up. We get mired in patterns that are comfortable and familiar but unhealthy or unhelpful, and I think one of the functions of real maturity is being able to step back and observe that and adjust our course accordingly. Turning that rudder, unfortunately, can be really hard work, but it also shows us so much.

 

Blah, blah, blah. 

 

This is a clear indication that I need to be blogging more. Otherwise I start writing crap like this in random emails. I obviously need an outlet for my blathering on...

Love this

Click here.

This is good for hours of fun...

Nurse Maggie

Sick day

I woke up this morning with some sort of GI awfulness. Fortunately, Peng was able to cover my patients at work ('cuz she's cool like that). I stayed home slept and drank fluids and ate popsicles and watched a day-long marathon of Law and Order.

I'm a little better. Hopefully, tomorrow will be okay, because I've been off both of the last two Wednesdays and haven't seen my Wednesday patients in three weeks.

Bleh.

(Aren't you glad I started blogging again?)

Yeah, I don't know....

....why I haven't been blogging lately.

Partly, it's just that I've been tired at the end of the night and falling asleep pretty early.

One of my friends pointed out today, though, that I've been fairly absent from Facebook as well. And coffee, while we're at it.

Maybe I have been a little withdrawn.

Not really sure why...

I'll try to do better.