Can You Hear Me Now?

I knew it would happen eventually. I finally found the NA who sucks at her job and annoys the hell outta me. The staff here is, overall, pretty amazing and so nice, patient, understanding. But for the past few days I have dealt with the exception. Yesterday she almost pulled my right arm out of its socket when helping me up from the toilet (she’s 62 and been doing this forever, she should know better). She wanted to give me a shower yesterday, and although I don’t want to refuse a shower in this place, my day IS Thursday, and having one yesterday would mean I’d go 8 days before my next one. Plus, my mom and Andrea were coming, and I had a hair appointment. So she whined the whole afternoon about how I’m ruining her day because she had time to give me a shower, but would be busy the next day. My scheduled day. Not my problem, lady. She also doesn’t know how to put on my AFO (she’s 62 and been doing this forever, she should know better). Today, my shower day, she whined that she would have to do it over my breakfast, because she “has no other time, I had time YESTERDAY, but you didn’t WANT one..” Oh, shut up. And she bitched and “oh, lordy”‘d the entire time because it was so much work. “oh, lordy, you’re so big. Oh, lordy, this is hard.” I had home care help me shower/dress daily forever, and NO ONE ever whined that it was so hard because of my size. I told the PT Asst. about that today and she was appalled. “She is supposed to use a transfer belt to help you up, she should know how to put on an AFO, and she should NEVER have made comments about your size. Yeah, Betsy is not one of my favourites.” She has fallen to the bottom of my list, too.

There was a new year’s party in the coliseum this afternoon from 1:30 to 3:00. We rang in the new year at 2:00 with blow horns and live music from a guy and a guitar. He wasn’t very good, but the people here seemed to love him. I’ve been spoiled by my friends, and Rob Szabo he ain’t. We didn’t get any champagne (no surprise) or even juice. I figured out later after not even water was available, that there are many different needs in this place and not everyone is allowed/able to drink and it’s too much for the staff and volunteers to know what’s what. Next time I will know better and bring my own. There was a girl sitting next to me with a big tray on her wheelchair, and a sign that read “please do not give any treats”. Of course I’m reminded of the “please don’t feed the animals” signs at the zoo. So sad.

I saw the old lady I spoke of the other day sitting right up front with her son, so I wheeled up to say hello, just as she left. Her son was still there though, so I knew she’d be back. I figured I’d just sit up there and wait. Then I saw, out of the corner of my eye, the old man who hit on me yesterday. I knew he was coming for me! He wheeled right up beside me, and asked me if I had a boyfriend. Why-oh-why didn’t I just say “yes”? Coach K. would have covered for me. But I said “no”, and uncomfortably tried to avoid the next question. “Can I hold your hand?” As he asked I could smell the linger of cigarettes in his mouth. He must have just been outside for one. Since my right hand was in my brace and my left hand was busy tapping my thigh to the music, I mumbled something along the lines of “no”. He told me he had lived here for a year and really wants a girlfriend, and “you sure look nice, what would be wrong with that?” Oh, shit. I told him I wasn’t looking for that, and by that time Judy (the old lady) had returned so I focused my attention on her and her son, Rob. The old man (I’ll call him Frank, because I’m pretty sure I will see him again. This is a fairly big place, but small. SO SMALL). Frank wheeled away heart broken. I hate rejecting people, but come ON. You’re probably 30 years older than me and reek of cigarettes. Is it horrible of me to say that if I knew for sure he was mentally challenged in some way I would have given him the thrill of holding my hand and let the crush continue, but he seems to have his wits about him so I didn’t want it to carry on? Because yes, Donna, it is SO MUCH BETTER to lead someone on with a developmental disability. Instead I talked to Judy and found out where Rob’s room is, and she promised he would talk to me once he got used to me and I promised I would visit him.

Oops, I just remembered that the permanent residents in Frank’s unit are aged 18-65. So he can’t be older than 65. But still, too old for me, and smelly.

I hate my hair.

Tonight at dinner I found out that Tom is 80 and Nick is 42. I honestly thought Nick was younger than me! So I think I am officially the youngest person in this unit. Go, me. Also, if Nick had been downstairs for the party, I would have made him pose as my boyfriend when Frank came around. But I think Nick is too cool to hang out in the coliseum with that gang. Every time I’ve been by his room the door is closed. Once I heard music blaring. I bet he’s a brooding loner, into heavy metal and technology. He’s a good looking fella, I bet he would have been a lady killer if he wasn’t confined to a wheelchair with severe cerebral palsy. I am determined to get to know him, however, and figure out what makes him tick. We are the closest in age in this place, I have made him laugh more than once, and there is potential for a good friendship there.

Well, I hope to be asleep at the stroke of midnight when the rest of you are ringing in the new decade. Have a good one, I’ll talk to you in Oh-Ten!

Today at lunch Amy (sweet old Japanese lady) wouldn’t let me leave. “Stay, you make me smile! Stay here and make us happy.” LOL She’s so sweet. I got a lot of her life story out of her tonight. She moved to Canada from Japan when she was a teenager in 1932; arranged marriage; he died a few years ago, she NEVER loved him; 10 kids; 25 grandkids and some great-grandchildren (she didn’t think she had any, but I met one the other day who is 19, so I figure she has a few), she worked at a canning factory, her husband for CP Rail so she has a nice pension and free travel for life (not that she’ll be going anywhere now!) and she thinks our government is great. Free health care, good educations for her kids (they’re all engineers and doctors). Sarah Palin should meet people like Amy before they come up to Canada and shoot their mouths off about how our health care should be more like the US. SHUT UP. God, I hate that woman.

Sorry, got off track for a second there. Anyway, Amy is a sweetheart. I really like my meal companions, her, Nick, and Tom. I think they like me, too. Nick is a hard one to read, though. Speaking of meals, one thing I’ve noticed that has changed in these facilities since the last time I was in one, is that when they serve pasta, it’s whole wheat. When they serve rice, it’s whole grain. Which is pretty cool. And when they serve butter tarts for dessert, like they did tonight, you can tell they’re made from scratch and they’re DELICIOUS.

This afternoon my mom and Bob came to visit, and so did our friend Andrea! She brought me a big bag of Dutchies, baked fresh by the Hutterites. They are in the communal freezer with my name on them, where hopefully they will be safe until I can get to them. I still have many other goodies to go through, first! I hope Andrea comes by often. She makes me laugh and laugh. We sat in the cafeteria and had a coffee, and a dutchie. And laughed.

Before they arrived, I got my hair cut. I waited out in the hall until they were ready for me; the salon is quite crowded when a few wheelchairs get in there! An older gentleman came wheeling up to me, asking me if I was new here (oh, that ‘ol line). I said yes, he told me his name, what unit he lives in and wheeled closer to shake my hand. I told him my name is Donna, and he said “I’ll forget the name, but I’ll never forget that pretty face!” Men never stop flirting, no matter how old they get. Maybe he can be my Happy Hour Booze Friend.

Oh, that reminds me. I’m rarely going on Twitter since I’ve been here (it was much easier and faster when I could use my iPod Touch app) but I did manage to catch one guy I follow, a writer for The Office, send out this tweet: “Pleased to announce new service: New Years Resolution Advising. Shoot me a tweet, I’ll give you something to work on in 2010.” So I told him where I was and asked for a goal for 2010. He wrote back “DATE AROUND LIKE CRAZY!” Hehe. Oh, I love The Office and I’m enjoying watching my Season 5 DVDs here since I can’t watch the new ones. They’ve been pre-empted for holiday specials anyway, but when they come back my PVR will be recording them for me to watch when I make home/kitty/work visits. I have 2 weeks of my soap to catch up on…

The hair salon is really overpriced. Considering the lady who cut my hair previously worked at a fast food place and not a high end salon, and most people in here are on a low government disability fixed income, their prices should be half of what they are. If I simply want my hair washed (which I would, considering we only get showered ONCE A WEEK DID I MENTION?), with no styling or drying involved, it will cost me $8.00!! I do think the cut worked out - it’s hard to tell until you have lived with it for a few days - but STILL. The lady that came to MY apartment to cut my hair and did a great job, didn’t charge as much. I will have to call her to come see me here, if they’d even allow it. I need to call my pedicure lady too, I’m overdue. I wonder if she would take cookies in payment?

I had to update my blog if for no other reason than to tell you that I saw this woman, whom I’ve thought of often over the past 5+ years, tonight. We (dad and I) went to the laundry room to put my clothes in the dryer. There was an old lady in there, taking things out of the dryer and putting them on hangers. She was sitting on her walker, and looked like a resident here. My dad asked her what floor she lives on, and she said “oh, I don’t live here, my son does. I’m 90 years old and I’m doing his laundry!” I gasped and started babbling. “Has your son been here for over 35 years? Is he here because of a messed up brain surgery? I met you years ago in an Access taxi. I have repeated that story many times.” My dad helped her hang up the laundry and carried it back to her son’s room for her. This time I got her name, her son’s name, and what unit he lives in. I’ll have to go looking for him one day. Funny how I ended up living (for the time being, anyway) in the same place as her son. Funny or sad, depending on how you look at it.

I went home again for a few hours yesterday. I got the work finished I needed to before the end of the month, and of course cuddled kitties. Pita is none to happy, now that she seems to get what is going on. She was super excited to see me and both cats took turns hitting up my lap. But when it was time to go, Pita let out the whines and cries. She knows I don’t go out for “just a few hours” anymore. It’s like she was crying, “what are you doing? Where are you taking her? She just got here!” Sniff. I didn’t cry this time, though. I’m not even crying while writing about them here, this time. I’m toughening up.

Okay so several people have suggested that living here permanently (on the first floor where they have permanent long term care residents, many with MS) wouldn’t be such a bad idea. Let me make something clear: I NEED TO SHOWER MORE THAN ONCE A WEEK. That’s all they can manage here. Aside from the fact I can’t have my cats here, I NEED TO SHOWER MORE THAN ONCE A WEEK. Ideally, I’d like my own bathroom with a tub so I can set it up like at home, then all I need is someone to lift my leg over the side of the tub when I sit down, so I can shower myself. EVERY FREAKIN’ DAY. Tomorrow I have an appointment for a hair cut (and wash) and then on Thursday I get my SHOWER so at least I have some freshness to look forward to. I can’t wait!

I’ve been using my TENS/EMS machine the past few days. I still need a proper lesson on where to put the pads, but I can already tell it’s helping a little. Today at dinner I moved a finger on my right hand. Not much, but more than I’ve seen in awhile! I also lifted my own legs on to the bed tonight, which I’m not sure was because the bed was lower than usual, or EMS. I won’t get too excited until I can lift my foot to walk again, though! Today when I did my little walk with my AFO on, I noticed a big problem is I don’t (can’t) bend my right knee when I walk. My left leg goes normally and I “swing” my right leg around. That would explain my bad hips; my gait has been f*cked for years, slowly getting to this worst point. Hopefully when physio gets back into their regular routine after the holidays they will work with me on that! I used the MOTOmed for 10 minutes today, during which I told the PT Asst. that I miss the stretches home care gave me 4X/week, that my arm/hand hasn’t been stretched out since I got here. So the dear stretched out my arm and hand while I pedaled, and said she would do that every day now. Yay!

I met with the Recreational Therapist today. I told her I had seen the rec. calendar for all the Carewest facilities in the city, hanging up downstairs. Lots of outings and activities. She told me those were all for the permanent long term care residents, not for us. Boo! This unit is considered short term care, for rehab/recovery (like when I broke bones and stayed in this kind of place) and then to send you back to where you came from. Although, it has become longer term care for many, like me, who will be living here until there is an opening in a long term situation. So we deserve outings, too. The first floor even has Friday “happy hour” in the cafeteria where they serve BOOZE really cheap. We are not welcome. However, it is open to first floor residents and their families and VISITING FRIENDS, so I shall make friends with someone down there. I also found out who books the entertainment in the coliseum, so I will be talking to her about getting the Polyjesters in here. They will be a big hit with the coherant crowd!

Well, I’m off to get my beauty sleep before my haircut tomorrow. My mom is also visiting. I told my dad he is NOT allowed to come tomorrow, he needs to take a day off!!

The good: The staff are really nice and helpful (most of the time).

The bad: 97% of the residents in my “pod” of the unit are totally incoherant.

The good: I really like my dining companions, makes meals more enjoyable.

The bad: I really miss my kitty companions.

The good: The food, 90% of the time, is really good. We get three meals a day, yummy desserts after lunch and dinner, and evening snacks.

The bad: The food, 90% of the time, is really good. We get three meals a day, yummy desserts after lunch and dinner, and evening snacks. I will never lose weight here!

The good: I have my power chair here now and can boot around the entire building.

The bad: Everything is closed over the holidays.

Yesterday was a boring day, I told my dad to take the day off and NOT visit me or do anything related to my needs. The man needs to take breaks, but then again I don’t think he knows what to do with himself if he doesn’t have his kids to distract him from his own life. So of COURSE he called me from the store while picking up the slippers I casually mentioned I could use (since I’m always in a wheelchair and I hate wearing shoes. Which are tight, with the way my feet have puffed up). So he bought me slippers, but I would not let him drop them off to me last night!

Today the plan was to get me home for a few hours, but I got into an email conversation with Coach K. last night about my NMES/TENS machine and he said he would drop by to help me and my dad figure it out. As a body builder-type, he has one and knows where to place the electrode pads. So he brought the lattes and my dad brought the sandwiches, and we spent a couple of hours hooking me up to electrodes and watching my muscles pump and my hand jerk around. I was like a puppet and Coach K. was the puppet master. It was very cool. Later on my dad and I did my right calf. I sure hope I can use this daily!

At the moment, these are the people out in the sitting room:

1) a very old Chinese lady who doesn’t speak or understand a word of English. She is belted into her wheelchair, but always undoes it and tries to stand up. There is an alarm that goes off when she does that, so she’s always beeping.

2) an old man in one of those bed type wheelchairs who cannot communicate or move himself. Once in awhile he spasms and kicks his shoes off.

3) an old lady who lives in her own little world, babbling non stop about nothing anyone understands and yelling out her daughter’s name every other sentence.

4) another old lady who cannot communicate, so they place her in front of the TV and put the brakes on her chair.Not knowing how to undo the brakes, she somehow manages to slowly move herself back and forth, around the room a bit, with her legs. She seems so determined to go somewhere, but just can’t go far. That’s the story of everyone here, I think.

I’m not making any friends yet…

I hope everyone had a nice Christmas, if you celebrate it. My mom, dad and Stepdad all arrived around 11:00 am and we met in the cafeteria downstairs. My dad brought me a gingerbread latte My brother is quite sick so him and his girlfriend didn’t make it. Even if he could drag himself here, they don’t want sick people visiting for obvious reasons. So my three parents and I had a big turkey-and-all-the-trimmings lunch and a little gift exchange and ate too much. I got some nice tops, a good thermos so I can fill it with hot water and sip throiughout the day as Deepak Chopra always recommends, DVDs and some iTunes gift cards! Now, the problem is, I have not been able to synch the iTunes on this netbook with my iPod no matter what, so I’m afraid to purchase anything for fear I will never be able to get it off here and onto my iPod.

After lunch we all came up to my room. My roommate was gone for the day so we had the room to ourselves. Bob proceeded to drop what was left of the cookies Shawna made onto the floor, so that’s one less pack ‘o snacks I have to worry about eating. My feet and ankles are SUPER PUFFY due to lack of walking so we took my too-tight (and now smelly because I hate wearing socks and they won’t let you function here without shoes on) shoes off and my dad gave me a lower leg/foot massage to get some circulation going. It hurt like hell, but in a good way. I wish I could get that done several times a day!

My dad left for awhile and Bob went down to take a snooze in the van, so mom and I hung out. At one point Icalled an NA in here to help me onto the bed, and she said to my mom (in jest) “this one, here? She’s a bad one” and my mom said without skipping a beat, “I know. I raised her!” haha

Mom left around 4:00 and I sat in bed and surfed the ‘net until my dad called to meet me downstairs around 5:30 with Chinese food. I had begged him to pick up supper because the choices here were either veal (I just can’t get myself to eat baby cows) or a salmon salad sandwich (YUCK) and I didn’t want to just sit in my room and eat cookies by myself for Christmas dinner! So we had greasy, deep fried ginger chicken instead. Then it was back up to my room to play with my NMES machine (which we can’t figure out, I sure hope physio helps me with it next week) and another calf massage. Oh, my puffy feet and aching legs.

Oh! One more thing. While I was waiting for my parents this morning, the staff came around and gave everyone an edible Christmas ornament/cookie (just what I need! Another cookie!) The writing was done with food colouring, so the whole thing is edible. It’s so cute, I had my dad take a picture of it with his cell phone:

Now you can figure out where I am, but I’m quite certain only good, decent people read this blog, so I’m not going to worry.

Wooooo busy day! I spent the morning installing/uninstalling/ installing/uninstalling/rebooting to try and get this external DVD drive going, to no avail. I finally gave up and shoved the damn thing in a drawer to battle with another day. Life is too damn short

Well, how ’bout that. My dad walked in last night after I typed that sentence and whisked my netbook away to a shop and I just got it back. Now the DVD drive works, all the updates that were making me go crazy are completed, and they removed a bunch of crap I don’t need so it processes a little faster. Yes, my name is Donna and I am a princess.

Yesterday I got a fabulous surprise when 4 ladies from my elementary/junior high school days (one of whom I’ve always been in touch with a bit, the others I reconnected with on Facebook) all showed up! It was soooooo nice. And WHAT did they bring me? Oh, cookies and chocolate. I think it’s safe to say I have ENOUGH now. At least for awhile. I know the visits will slow down and the foody gifts will stop so I’m going to savour them.

It was so great to see Nancy, Lisa, Carolyn and Michelle. Lisa organized the group visit, I was only expecting her to show up! We chatted it up until physio interrupted to take me to the MOTOmed. Lisa and Michelle came and watched while the other two left to get their kids and stuff. I love the MOTOmed and when I win that lottery, I shall buy myself one.

After all the gals left, my mom and Bob arrived. WITH my power chair! Woo hoo! I got wheels. Bob took off to shop while mom and I went for dinner. Pot roast and parsley potatoes. It’s much better when you get it yourself in the cafeteria downstairs. Fresh and hot and larger portions. And as a resident, I eat free, and my mom got a big plate of food and a salad for six bucks. Good deal. Come join me for supper one day!

Today after lunch my dad picked me up and took me HOOOOOME! That is really hard to do now so it’s greatly appreciated. I got to cuddle my kitties and I cried and cried. I don’t know why, I know I’m going to see them every week or so most likely, and I know I’m going to live wih them again someday, but it’s still so hard. They have beem my most constant source of companionship, especially this past year that I’ve been more home bound than usual. So I cried when I was alone with them (dad went to get the computer), I cried when I left my apartment, and I cried as we drove away. We have to go back on the weekend anyway because I wasn’t able to finish the work I have to do, so I don’t know why I’m blubbering so much. I just know it’s another night without Pita curled up on my side/belly while I sleep and Pepper purring on the pillow next to my head. And that is hard to take.

As we were heading back here, I realized it was past the supper time so we were going to grab Vietnamese food, but everything is closed on Christmas Eve! So we drove towards here, thinking we would stop at Peter’s Drive In for a good burger and shake, but that was closed too. The closest place open was A&W, so we went to the drive thru and had Teen burgers, onion rings and root beer for Christmas Eve supper. Works for me! When we got back here there was a lady in a wheelchair on the phone with her daughter, crying hysterically. I guess Access was so overbooked with Handi-bus trips they couldn’t accommodate everybody and this lady’s trip was cancelled, so she couldn’t get home for Christmas. So sad. My parents are coming here tomorrow for the turkey feast here at lunch, and then we’ll figure out what we’re doing. They may be taking me out somewhere, but I don’t know the plan yet!

Today was a very busy and emotional day.

First I met with a different PT, a wonderful lady whose husband has secondary progressive MS so she totally gets my issues. She also gave me hope when she told me there is another lady here with MS who arrived in July unable to stand, and is now ready to be discharged because she is walking! I was thrilled to hear that, mainly because that means the physio here believes SPMSers can and will improve, and want to work with you on that. The bad news is, this lady is 65 and is retiring on Dec. 31. Bah. But she swears the other PT believes the same thing and will work with me to walk again. She then took me to the the therapy room, where I stumble-walked between the parallel bars (with my AFO, of course) and used a machine I’ve never been on before, the totally awesome MOTOped. They strap your feet in and it automatically pedals them like a bike. You barely do any work yourself, but the range of motion is there. It also analyzes the balance of power in your legs, and when I started I was 64% left and 36% right. So I closed my eyes and visualized my right leg getting stronger, and brought the balance up to 50/50, which amazed the therapists. At one point my right leg went even higher so they told me to tone it down lol In the end I averaged a 50/50 balance, which they said had never been done by a first timer before. Later in the afternoon they brought me a walker to practice with (mine is staying at home, for lack of space. They have plenty of walkers here). They don’t have much physio staff and are closed weekends, so they said the NAs will walk a bit with me every day to make up for the lack of attention from the PT department.

So, that was all well and good. But my other big meeting today was with the social worker. We talked about the fact that I won’t be going back home and need to look into my assisted living options. God, I’m starting to cry just thinking about it again. It’s all so overwhelming. I told her I can’t live anywhere that won’t take my cats. That obviously shortens the list, but it’s not impossible. And as she said, and my friend Gail told me, even if you don’t get sent to the “perfect” place at first, once you’re in the system you are IN and can be moved again more easily. Just make sure you voice what you want and let everyone know. So I may need to find a temporary home for my kitties until I get what I want. I’ll be meeting with the social worker, transition services, my home care nurse and my parents after the holidays to discuss everything. She said I can expect to be living here for 6 months or so before I get placed somewhere, so in the meantime I will continue to pay rent on my apartment because I don’t pay anything here until I am placed in a more permanent place. My kitties get the run of the apartment and we have time to sort through my STUFF, and I can go home with my family’s help once in awhile to see my cats and work. So I really don’t have it so bad, and once I’m in assisted living my life will actually be more full and lively, so I don’t know why I’m crying. It’s just so scary and overwhelming. And I don’t want to wait a year or more to live with my cats again!!

Okay. On to more cheerful stuff before I wet the keyboard.

My friends Kelsey and Joelle came to visit me tonight! They brought me a vanilla latte and one of those big brownies from Second Cup (which I put with my baking stash because I was so full from a very yummy dinner of orange ginger glazed chicken breast, mashed potatoes, broccoli, and baked apples for dessert) and a gift bag filled with… food. (And Oil of Olay facial wipes, Kelsey read my blog). More Christmas baking, Lindt truffles and a nuts & bolts mix Kelsey’s mom made (I LOVE THAT STUFF! Salty crunchy bites of heaven). So my chocolate and baking food stash drawers are full. And I won’t be losing any weight over the holidays.

We chatted it up for a good while and then they wheeled me down to the Coliseum to watch the Calgary Police Chorus sing Christmas carols. I was hoping for calendar caliber hot cops, of course. But those ones probably don’t sing.

My dad also came to see me and brought my Christmas present… an external DVD drive (this notebook doesn’t have a disc drive) that I have yet to get working. I don’t know if it’s (F*cking) Windows Vista or what, but I’ll give it another try tomorrow.For now, we sleep. Good night.

The Physiotherapist was off again today, so another day without taking even one step. Sigh. I have my NMES machine here too and I really hope she is willing to work with me on that. I sit here or lie here all bloody day and I sort of think stimulating my muscles with that would be a GOOD thing for me. It pisses me off that the PT’s I’ve talked to can’t be bothered. Le sigh.

Tom never made it to the dining room today. He was in bed not feeling well. Turns out he not only falls a lot, but he has cancer that is spreading. That’s lovely. I do have a new tablemate that arrived today, however. Now I’m not the only girl. She is 93 year old Amy, a cute Japanese woman who brings her own chopsticks to the table and eats everything with them, “except soup”. She has TEN kids. Also? For meds? She currently just takes Tylenol for her pain (from the fall that brought her here). So if you want to know the secret to making it to a coherant, still walking and talking 93, eat a lot of Japanese food, drink a lot of tea, and stay off the pharmaceauticals. The people I have met in these care centres over the years that are in the WORST health/shape are the ones who are given a handful of pills at each meal. The over-90 ones that are in pretty damn good health considering, take very few meds, if any. Hm. I really want to get off sleeping pills but I don’t know how to fall asleep WITHOUT THEM! Oprah, send me to rehab with all your prescription pill popping suburban moms, please.

Speaking of Oprah, my friend Shawna came to visit me today and gave me Oprah’s “Dream Big” book for Christmas! AND she brought me a ton of her yummy gluten-free Christmas baking. I just asked the NA to open the very tight tin for me. She had to take it out of the room and I heard her banging on it with a knife LOL Buried treasure. Man, is this ever good! And I still have the British chocolate Melanie brought me, too (minus one small Green & Black’s bar). Portion control.

My mom and Bob are bringing me my power wheelchair on Wednesday! I can’t wait! I’ll be able to boot around here and shop in the store, get my hair cut, visit the greenhouse, and all sorts of stuff. It’s almost impossible for me to get myself even to the dining room if I can’t push myself backwards. My left arm is SORE!

So, it’s time to rest it. See you tomorrow!

P.S. Good Lord do I ever miss my cats.