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Friday, June 27, 2014

Wow. Been so long since I posted one of my "Links I Like" sites is gone!

Gee whiz.  Things have changed.

When I started this blog it was mainly to support my Etsy shop.  Well, my poor Etsy shop is in a sad state these days, having had no new inventory added for over a year.

Because that's when Phil got sick.  On February 27 of 2013, Phil had a cardiac arrest, which has resulted in an anoxic brain injury.  Or, as the experts want it referred to, a Hypoxic-Ischemic Brain Injury.  For those interested, here's the article:  http://www.internationalbrain.org/articles/hypoxicischemic-brain-injury/

One year and almost four months later, Phil is in a rehab facility near Kingston, New York and I have become his Legal Guardian.

So, yeah.  Big changes.  Phil is making progress, albeit excruciatingly slow, which is, I've come to understand, how recovery from a brain injury goes.  Verrrrrrryyyy S-L-O-W-L-Y.  I'll never forget the young nurse in the ICU, on Phil's second night there, who told me that "Recovery from a brain injury is a marathon, not a sprint".  Although I have now heard that phrase so many times I hate it, the night she said it gave me great comfort and some relief from the fear and panic that had completely engulfed me.

The reason I feel I want to start up this blog again is because I AM GRATEFUL TO BE ALIVE, and I AM SO GRATEFUL PHIL IS ALIVE, and I think until this horrible thing happened, I was not sufficiently either appreciative of, in awe of, or grateful for this thing we take for granted called Life.

Today, for instance.  It's almost 5:30 p.m. here in New York City.  I got my hair cut in a style  that I saw on a blog last night that I enjoy reading.  Link here, for the blog and the hairstyle:  http://www.onelittlemomma.com/2012/08/loose-curls-for-short-hair-tutorial.html

Then I went to Michael's, the craft store, to pick up more decorative storage boxes because (1) they're 50% off, and (2) the house is a mess.  I'M SORRY, PHIL!!  But you know I'm a terrible housekeeper  :-(

So with my new haircut and two large environmentally-friendly reusable shopping bags filled with Decorative Boxes (that began to weigh a ton after carrying them more than a few city blocks) I hauled myself and my bags onto the M11 bus down Columbus Avenue to go home.  Two blocks from my stop, what did I see but a moving truck with GIGANTIMO cardboard boxes in it, precisely the ones I'd been thinking of since sitting in the hairdresser's chair.

You see, to say I am not a good housekeeper is really quite the understatement because I'm afraid that, for at least a year after Phil got sick?  I literally just threw everything on the floor.  I mean, Everything.

And since I've asked my friend David to check in on the guinea pigs for me (Phil's and my furbabies) while I'm up visiting Phil for July 4th, I can NOT have David see what a state of total and complete disrepair i.e. a WRECK the apartment is in.

So this is where that moving truck with the Big Box comes in:  my GOAL is to literally haul everything up off the floor and into that big cardboard box.  For which I'd hopped off the M11 bus -- well, "hopped" isn't exactly the word since I had so much crap in tow -- but I got off the bus, walked three blocks carrying all that shit and begged the mover guy to let me have a box.

"I'll pay you five bucks!"  I offered him.

"These are good boxes," he said.  "The company sells them for $10."

All right then.  So, minus ten dollars later, me and my two big reusable shopping bags and the Gigantimo Cardboard Box and I trundled our way home and I thought "Hey, I could write about that" because so far?  It has been A Perfect Day:

-  Got my hair cut in a style new to me that I really like
-  Got a great deal on Decorative Storage Boxes at Michael's
-  Got the Big Cardboard Box so I can now clear off the floor in the apartment!  YAY!

So success, all around.  And I feel grateful to have experienced all those things, today.

I used to never wear a watch, and I've taken to doing so recently, for several reasons, and I'm happy to now be able to see what time it is without getting the cell phone out of my bag.  But -- what I have become terribly aware of is the second hand, ticking away.  And looking at that hand go tick tick tick around the watch dial makes me feel very cognizant of how precious life is, how lucky we all are to be in it, and I hope I stay grateful for it.

1 comment:

  1. Blogger says I posted this at 3:20 p.m. But it's 6:22 p.m. now! Sigh. Another thing to figure out here!

    ReplyDelete