Monday, October 3, 2011

Grateful Gertie


Doesn't Gertie sound like the name of someone who could be your favorite aunt? I need to invite her over more often. At least the Grateful part.

Thank you for your support, it really does get me through. I tried to respond to each of you, but some of you don't leave behind an email trail...just know I'm extremely grateful to each of you for your words of encouragement.

So we've established that lately I've gotten especially good at laying around, directing affairs from from the couch/bed, and generally being a lump. In fact if one could get paid for this, I'm sure I'd be somewhere in the six figures range...I'm that good.

In the beginning, I was able to go shopping and plan menus in my head... at least in the morning. Then dinner time would roll around and the not taking of pain management materials (in order to be able to be mom-ly ish) would catch up to me. I was spent, my focus lost, and emergency calls were made to Mr. O and take-out was brought in.

The poor children. Poor Mr. O. Perfectly good fixings were in the fridge and yet I think I managed only one cooked meal per week these past 2 months (and that's being generous); some of those even came out of bags in the freezer or boxes in the pantry (yes, Kraft dinner) but! they were made at home so that sort of counts, right? Right?! But mostly the meat and veggies purchased with Monday Morning's Optimism were left to become Sunday's Stash of Stench and Stank.

I felt so guilty about it (the complete waste and stinking mess) that I would stealthily freeze the rotten meat so we wouldn't completely offend our neighbors and then put them in the garbage under cover of darkness for Monday's pick-up. Wash. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

I suck. I know. The first step is acceptance. Right? Also, I've stopped grocery shopping altogether. As far as I know, cold cereal and frozen pizza never killed anyone.

Just a handful of some of the things it takes to keep me somewhat functioning. Those yellow pills are what is keeping me from chucking myself in the green garbage bins for a Monday morning pick-up myself. The doctor has now doubled my dose in an effort to calm the nerve to my middle ear the freak down. Cross your fingers that it works.

I did manage to make two birthday cakes of freaking awesome: See also Zucchini Chocolate Cake.

AND! My sister and a friend were my designated drivers for two days of redecorating madness.

We sold the green beast to a sorority girl who was so cute and tiny I want to adopt her or at least keep her in my pocket. We also sold the tapestry clam-shell chairs and started with a clean slate. Want to know the secret for selling on ksl.com or craigslist? List the price as $0 and say make me an offer. We sold everything for the price we originally had in mind, but didn't get a single call until we listed the price as "make me an offer".


I am in love. This room feels comfortable even though it is a complete switch for me. I am not a person who likes blue. At all. So I guess I've been converted. I have never made decorating decisions so quickly, but it helps to have someone along with an eye for potential. The only thing left is to figure out is the ottoman. Could I maybe tackle recovering the existing beat-up ottoman? What do I have to lose?
Things seem to be getting better in the pain department, but it is hard to know if we are covering up a problem or solving it. I'll keep you posted. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to rip out the rest of the garden with this week's batch of Monday Morning's Optimism.