Let's see. The last time I posted anything I had insulted a journal with some bad art and had promised to continue doing so for the month of March. Well, I didn't.
Instead I procrastinated cleaned my studio space. That took two weeks. Partly because it was a huge job since I'd never organized it in the first place and partly because I was home alone with five children and they expected to be fed periodically. They can be real sticklers about the whole 'parenting' thing. As much as I like the idea of 'Foraging Fridays' and 'Serve Yourself Saturdays' they haven't really caught on.
When we moved in here I took over one corner of the family room, boxed myself in with bookshelves and had an old kitchen table as a work surface. Over the years I've slowly spread out and now occupy half the room. It wasn't a planned expansion it happened organically and so the result was more like a mess of bindweed than a trellised climbing rose. This is the 'after' picture. I'm not showing the before pictures. Just imagine most of that stuff in piles and boxes on the floor and you'll have a pretty good idea of the mess. It's now organized chaos and that works for me.
I finished this just before Dennis came home for two weeks leave.
I picked him up at the airport on Thursday and on Friday evening he had to take me to the ER. Honestly, I felt fine except for the heart palpitations and the inability to take a deep breath. Two months prior I had had a physical and was perfectly fine. Seriously, my blood pressure has never been more than 110/70 and my cholesterol is in the 170's. I knew there wasn't anything wrong with my heart but you never know. So the lovely people at the local hospital hooked me up to an EKG and sure enough my heart is fine. They sent me for a chest X-ray.
Dennis and I are standing in the hallway as the x-ray technician looks over my paperwork. He looks up and says, "Oh, your pregnant." Years ago we officially, and permanently retired from the baby making business so it's no surprise that at that moment all the color drained out of my husband's face and my jaw hit the floor. We both turned on the guy and said, "WHAT?" I swear to you, he took a step back and nice and slow said "Are you pregnant?" You know, it didn't sound like a question the first time he said it. Jeese, these guys ought to speak up. It's not nice to scare people like that.
Turns out I had bronchitis. I had no idea you could just get bronchitis. The only other time I've had it was the result of a nasty cold that moved into my chest. This time I went from healthy to sick in no time and it takes weeks to recover. It's kind of scary.
I spent the next two weeks coughing and getting reacquainted with my husband. On April 5th I drove him back to the airport at four in the morning. That was really hard to do. He flew back to Kansas and two days later he and the rest of his component of Task Force Phoenix left the U.S. for Afghanistan, because, as Dennis says, "Insurgencies don't counter themselves."
Hi -
I'm happy to read that despite bronchitis, parenting five children solo, a too short leave with your husband and his now being in Afghanistan - that all is well. I had checked in periodically and was concerned.
Enjoy your newly ordered creative space!
My best to you, your family and special thanks to Dennis for his service.
;o)
- Lee
Posted by: Lee | July 05, 2008 at 12:41 AM