Manic Monday

I got my fill of football yesterday – what a great day it was. And both my teams won – Arizona Cardinals (I love Kurt Warner), and the Pittsburgh Steelers. Now to wait til Feb. 1^st for the Superbowl. That will be a good day, too.

I've had a good day today. Just another Manic Monday. (Manic – "extremely excited or energetic; frenzied").

Interested in just about anything and excited about everything – snow, food, quilting, shopping (is this me talking?), and ironing. Yes, ironing. I absolutely LOVE to iron. My mom gave me a new T-FAL iron for Christmas; she's a beauty. This morning I found some things to iron. Man, can that thing press. Called up the OT Director to see if she had any of her husband's shirts for me to press. I used to iron for that family in the old days. All she could conjure up was a tablecloth and two shirts. I had this manic thought that perhaps I could take in ironing, like people used to do in days of old – charge $1.00 a shirt or something. Doug begs to differ, and made me look up the kilowatt per hour use for operating an iron. He said it would cost $4.00/hour to run the iron. I told him that I could net $8.00 per hour, and that's better than nothing! He said he didn't want the house filling up with loads of people's laundry that I could never get to. He's such a realist, but I think it would work.

Cleaned out the fridge this morning, too, as Doug read in my cancer booklet that I shouldn't eat food older than three days. I think that would hold true for any person, would it not?

The OT Director picked me up and we went to the oncology ward for my weekly PICC line flushing treatment. Karen doctored me up today, and Charline assisted with comments. I had a good time. Never thought I would say that. Is this me talking? It was just one week ago that I didn't think I could enter the chemo unit, and now I'm joking and laughing? Go figure. I guess I am more courageous and more soulful. They didn't have a lot of business today because of the snowstorm. I offered to give Karen a Clementine for payment, but she already had one. I'm getting low on clementines. I had 7 or 8 yesterday, PLUS a Florida orange that Doug's mom gave me. I'm addicted to clementines right now. I told Natalie in November that she should be thankful this thing happened to me in the winter because clementines are not so readily available in the summertime.

We went from there to one of my favorite stores – Zellers in the Brookside Mall. I needed to find some slippers for Doug, a couple of short-sleeved shirts for me (PICC line friendly), a sled for Suzy, skates for Bobby, and a picture book for Nellie, yellow, blue and red. (Do you know what song that's from?). Met one of my students and her mother. We went to school together. She said she has a picture of me on a horse. I asked her to send it to me, and that is another thing I want to accomplish – horsewomanship (is that a word?). I told you I was manic. Yesterday, I decided I would go back and get my business degree and teach accounting. Last week, I decided to be a mathematics professor, because the majority of the time, you come up with answers. Be interesting to see what tomorrow's career of the day will be. Back to the horsemanship – Cousin Els told me that when I get better that she will train me to ride and groom a horse. Something to look forward to. I'm holding you to it, Els.

Headed over to my other favorite store – Nashwaaksis Superstore for groceries. It was like a grocery ghost town today, and it was so relaxing to be there. Saw a couple of friends there and spent way too much money to fill up my clean fridge (must have been the massive amount of chicken I purchased). I guess I really do need to take in ironing, Doug – I forgot to tell you just HOW much I spent on groceries today. Mostly healthy stuff other than a new chef's knife (or could one call a knife 'healthy?'). Picked up what I thought was a spaghetti squash, and considering I was planning on having donated spaghetti sauce for dinner, thought I would try out this new culinary delight, even though it looked like something out of Veggie Tales. Well, after considerable time putting the groceries away and researching just how to cook a spaghetti squash (even though I think I knew how instinctively), I discovered that the Veggie Tale squash did not have spaghetti straps after all, but mush – it was a BUTTERNUT squash, similar to a buttercup squash. If you know anything about me, you know that I love squash. So does my daughter, although I think she is more obsessed with it than I am.

By this time it is 6:30 pm. What to do? Will the dinner preparations ever end? I throw a pot of water on the stove to boil some rice pasta. I wait for the water to boil by filling out a survey I received in the mail on what type of products you use etc. Again, another example of how much my life has slowed down. I would NEVER have filled one of these things out in my previous life. I'm hoping I'll win a prize or two or get a lifetime supply of shampoo or something. I'll need it for all the new curls I'm going to grow.

The pot boils and boils over and boils down over the cupboard as I try to drain it into the colander. Cuz C. comes over with my present for the day – pink M & M's for our trip to Saint John tomorrow. She finds me on the floor mopping up the pasta juice, as it streams down the front of the cupboard doors. "You look more like yourself today, Deb." "Thanks. I feel like I'm manic today, though, but having a great day." C. points out that Janet White #2 put Christmas lights back on her outside tree for me to enjoy. Thanks, Janet! Now I can see Willard's lighted wreath, Janet's outside tree, my outside tree and my indoor Christmas tree. Lights all around (yes, my tree is STILL up). I LOVE these neighbors! They are so supportive. We're one big happy family here in the corner of Claremont. Our across the street neighbour, Sid, who is 91, calls every week to see how I'm doing. He likes to come over in the summertime and sit on our lawn with us, under the breeze of the cool pine trees. I make him coffee or tea and serve him apricot shortbreads. Sometimes when I play the guitar on the verandah, Sid comes over and we sing together. He's got a brilliant memory. Sid is from England originally and came over when he was 16 – he is a British Home child and his story is told in the book Middlemore Memories: Tales of the British Home Children by M. Staples, a Fredericton author. A sad thing that I meant to report on a couple of weeks ago: C.'s cat, Patty Rufus, who I call Fat Cat, is not doing so well. She has breast cancer, believe it or not. My grandson, Jack, absolutely LOVES Fat Cat. C. says she doesn't have much longer. Well, I think that I need to start praying for Patty Rufus Fat Cat, and if you're the praying type, could you start too? This cat is part of C & W's life and part of my life now. Well, we can pray about anything, can't we? And a couple of years ago, I prayed for Crow, a student's cat – right during a lesson. Crow was on his last legs, so to speak. And guess what? Crow got better and is still living, probably chasing crows. Natalie also has an affinity for cats, so I'm sure she'll be praying. I'll have to ask Jack to pray. Jack loves Fat Cat.

I finally ate dinner at 7:30 and watched the Obama coverage. It is an exciting day for America, for Canada, and I think the whole world. Tomorrow is history in the making. I wish I had a portable TV to take with me to the hospital. This would be about the time one would want an IPod Touch, so one could watch live internet coverage of tomorrow's events. Perhaps my son-in-law will buy me an IPod Touch.

Well, I believe that I've rambled on just about enough for one day. I must go clean up the kitchen and wash the walls while I'm at it. I hope I can sleep tonight.

Tomorrow we go to Saint John to meet with the radiation oncologist. My appointment is for 8:45 a.m., so Doug, the travel director says we need to leave by 6:45 a.m.! Why, I'll have to go to bed now in order to get up 5:30 in order to get myself put together. It takes a lot of time and preparation to put me together these days.

Here's the quote of the day from a calendar the Flick Flack Girls gave me: Our duty is not to see through one another, but to see one another through. "Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ" (Gal 6:2). Thanks everyone, for seeing me through. You really ARE helping to carry my burden. Love to all…