Gratitude

I went to the oncologist today. I'm now on an annual appointment schedule, instead of semi-annual, and that feels like a very big deal to me. I think after five years I was officially considered cured (I'm at six-and-a-half now), but this is still a milestone, if only in my mind.

When you go to the oncologist and you're not very sick, you become very aware of the other patients in the waiting room, people who are very sick. I went first to the Breast Center, where I overheard staff members on the phone with patients who are deep in the middle of treatment, explaining the procedure for starting radiation therapy and scheduling appointments for consults with the surgeon and transferring calls to the chemo room. All that was before I went in for my quick breast exam, during which the oncologist and I chatted about the economy and our New Years resolutions. Then I went upstairs to the general oncology office to have my routine lab work done. As I got on the elevator, a woman approached and I held the door for her. She was obviously very sick and feeling terrible, shuffling slowly toward the elevator. I didn't have to ask what floor. I knew which office she was going to — the same one as me, only I walked easily to it and knew the "worst" thing that was going to happen to me in there was one little stick when they drew my blood.

Grateful. Grateful, grateful, grateful! And aware, all day, of how very, very fortunate I am.

Really, the jokes alone will be worth it

Yu Darvish. Texas Rangers. $60 million. Sixty. million. dollars. If they have to make that up through our ticket purchases, at $9 a pop (we really only go on promotional half-price-ticket nights), it's going to be a long, long haul.

But, really, the jokes about his name—all the many, many little puns and word plays—will be worth it.

The Rangers want Yu.
Yu did it!
Wash looks to Yu to pitch the seventh.
Who's on first? Yu. What…?

(And maybe a Whirling Darvish or two, just for variety.)

That's right. We're going to have our own version of Who's On First.

I'm not sure it's worth that kind of money, but I am looking forward to it.

I love that Mark Fistric! (Yeah, it's a hockey post.)

Mike Heika, with the Dallas Morning News, blogged today:

Mark Fistric will be a villain tonight. That's just how they do it here in Nashville.

The Predators like to call the town Smashville, Jordin Tootoo is one of the most popular players here, and the fans are generally very aggressive toward the opposition with chants and jeers. When Tootoo was suspended five games in 2007 for hitting Stephane Robidas in the face, Mike Modano took the brunt of anger from the fans.

Modano was knocked down hard on a clean hit by Tootoo in that game, Robidas rushed to his defense and was sucker-punched by Tootoo, and Modano slashed Tootoo from behind in response. Still, Tootoo was the only one who was suspended.

Here's the video from that game.

Nashville fans were irate that Modano was not suspended for his slash (and for not fighting his own fights), and they let him know it for the next five or six games, booing every time he touched the puck.

When Fistric was told the story, he replied, "They'll have to boo quick, because I don't touch the puck that much."

For those of you who don't follow hockey, or Dallas Stars hockey, Fistric is a 25-year-old defenseman, led (with his wife) the Stars' Movember effort (to raise money for research on, mostly, prostate cancer), jokes with his team mates about not needing anyone to make a bobble head of him because he's his own bobble head (apparently they feel his head is on the large size), has a shy smile and comes across as a really nice guy.

And sometimes he's kinda funny with the press, too.

I love that Fistric guy!

Hey, look! We got the candle up!

It's in our front yard, secured to one of the larger pine trees (you might be able to just make out the trees in the background). It's 25 feet tall, and people driving down the street tend to slow down. I didn't do that great a job arranging the lights in the flame this year. They're threaded through some 1/2" hardware cloth on a frame, and I think next year I'm going to set aside an entire afternoon to getting them the way I want them, then fasten down each and every little light, once and for all.

But it's done. And it's up. That, plus wreaths on two doors and a little 3' tree. We're decorated!

I am the queen of geography!

In the spirit of use it or lose it, I like to do different things to keep my mind challenged. Challenged, that is, in a way that's different from trying to remember why I came into this room, or just where it was I decided would be the perfect place to store the vacuum cleaner bags. That kind of challenge is exactly the reason why I keep at the other kind of challenge: I need to try and slow down the aging of my brain. That relentless decay. The inescapable slide into mental chaos and oblivion. And, as a result of those, having to go buy more vacuum cleaner bags every single time I need one. That would be good to avoid.

I've read many, many places that to keep the mind "young," you need to keep it creating new neural paths. That means learning new things. A new language is good, and that's on my To Do list. Doing familiar things in a new way is good. Math is very good. But the thing that really gets me going is geography. And by that I really just mean knowing where places are.

I know where places are. Almost all of them.*

I can name, off the top of my head, 185 countries. (It does take a few minutes, but still.) I can do all the Sporcle and Jetpunk geography quizzes that have to do with which countries are where, or what the name of those outlines on the map are. I can fill in the map tests at worldatlas.com. I've taken the time to learn it because it fascinates me.

I am fully aware that this particular body of knowledge doesn't really do much for me in real life, though I sure did know what directions the refugees were streaming when they were leaving Libya for Tunisia. And I knew the general area where the Kenyans were setting up camps to house Somalian refugees without checking a globe. And if my fantasies start coming true and someone suddenly asks me to identify all the countries in eastern Europe, I'm so ready.

In addition to the (I hope) brain benefits, I also have to think of this as kind of a hobby. I say have to because it takes up more time than you would think. The fact is, my brain and I aren't as young as we used to be, and if I don't keep reinforcing this information, it seems to somehow leak out or something. So I periodically go over all the maps, making sure I remember what's where and how to spell Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan and whether Oman and Yemen are in alphabetical order or reverse alphabetical order (just so you know, it's reverse).

I spent today "going over" it. Today. As in all day. As in I got up at a reasonable hour, made coffee, then sat my fat ass down at the computer and played geography trivia quizzes and filled in maps all. day. long.

So…I think I'll go take a shower now. Brush my teeth. I'm a little ambivalent about the whole makeup thing, seeing as it's five o'clock. PM. [sigh] Tomorrow will be more productive, I'm sure, now that my brain is all tuned up. Right.


*I kind of stink at Oceania and the Caribbean. I know everywhere else, though.**

**Yes, everywhere.

Good grief!

I didn't realize how long it had been since I posted anything. I look at my blog every single day, checking to see if the people I follow (look left) have made new entries, but somehow it doesn't really register just how long it's been since I've posted. I even kind of made a secret semi-resolution to update this blog more often. Huh. Starting today. Really.

We're going to the Dallas Stars game tonight. Nothing unusual about that, except it might possibly cross my mind that I could be at home, snuggled up with my dogs and cats (instead of Lydia cuddling on the couch with them, though they'd probably just as soon that it be her) rather than schlepping through the cold rain to AAC.

At least it might cross my mind except for the fact that tonight is our last Dallas Stars game for four weeks and two days! Between an extended road trip (them) and various holiday commitments (us), it just doesn't work out again until January. This is one of the more difficult aspects of being a sports fan. They don't play hockey in summer. They don't play baseball in winter. (Fortunately, though, if you're a hockey and baseball fan, you're set.) A drought like this in the middle of the season just doesn't seem right. Someone hand me the remote!

So after tonight it's all about getting ready for Christmas, which means knitting and cooking. The knitting goes on and on. I've been considering giving the Noro entrelac scarf I've been knitting to my mother-in-law, because she really admired it when she saw me working on it. I hesitate, though, because she's a little tiny woman (barely five feet tall) and it's kind of a gigantic scarf, 10" wide and 4' long so far, and I've still got most of the third skein left! I'm cooking for Christmas, too, trying a couple of unusual recipes to be gifts for my niece who asked for "crazy interesting foods or ingredients." We'll see how that goes. Between the scarf of enormous proportions and making recipes I've never tried before, I actually have a lot of potential for ending up at Walgreen's at 10pm Christmas Eve, looking for replacement gifts.

Speaking of cooking, and while I've got you, I'm thinking about adding a recipe/cooking section here. It would be handy to have my recipes online where I can get to them when I'm standing in the grocery store wondering if I'm actually remembering all the ingredients or not. What do you think? Would you care? Would you look at it? (It'll make a big difference in how much time I spend on making it look good if I'm the only one who'll see it.)

Well, anyway, there you go. That's an update. I'll try to make it more interesting next time, and see if I can also get in the habit of not waiting weeks in between.

Off to brave the cold and rain now. We've really got to have toilet paper before the freeze hits on Monday!

Randomness, or Holiday Brain

Actually, the Unclutterer blog (look at that reading list to the left) calls it vacation brain, but I think 'Holiday Brain' gives more of a hint as to all the preparation involved.

Yes, it's that time of year again, when the childless couple starts making their rounds. Never having had babies means that we never had an excuse to not travel during the holidays, so none of the kinfolk ever got in the habit of coming to our house instead of us going to theirs. So that's what we do. Every year. Forever and ever, amen. Holidays, for us, mean being somewhere else. (Except the 4th of July, which is firmly centered in Southlake.) I used to decorate the house, putting up wreaths and Christmas trees and candles and tablecloths with centerpieces, the whole shebang. But then I realized at some point that Rich genuinely doesn't give even half a flip, so I'm only doing it for myself. And since I'm the one who has to do all the work to get it done, then undo it afterwards…well, apparently there are limits to how much trouble I'm willing to cause myself.

Anyway…yes, getting ready to leave town for a few days, which means that the fabulous Lydia (and her significant other) are moving in. This is the best arrangement anyone has ever had, petsitting-wise. We don't have to worry about the animals, we don't have to worry about the house. I (absolutely not Rich) just have to make sure the house isn't so gross that they refuse to ever come back.

So I'm cleaning today, as well as getting ready to pack, and making sure I love on all our animals since I won't see them for a week. And making little decisions. Should I take my laptop (a bit of an ordeal, since it's attached to a backup drive, external speakers and a separate monitor), or just rely on my iPad (which doesn't allow me to do absolutely everything I might want to do)? What knitting shall I take (this is an important decision, which non-knitting muggles might not fully appreciate)? What's the weather going to be like (okay, that one I can get an answer to pretty easily)? Shall I spend time today finishing that one job (time I could spend cleaning and whatnot) or leave it 'til we get back (and worry about it the whole week)?

And what about the Stars?

We have a game tonight, which is actually the reason we're leaving tomorrow instead of today. They haven't been playing very well lately (!), but we already paid for the tickets….Okay, that sounded a lot more discouraged than I actually feel. They're in a slump, but they'll bounce back. And they have a new owner, which is a huge step forward. And, besides, I love going to games, the whole fan experience, so much that pretty much any game is going to be fun. (And this year there are bobble heads!)

And "bobble heads" leads us right back to what kind of a day I'm having. I'm pretty much a bobble head today. A Holiday Brain bobble head. It'll get better, but for right now, it's looking like one heck of a random day.

So, before I forget, let me just say, "Happy Thanksgiving." Have a great turkey day, in case we don't talk again before then, spend wisely on Black Friday, and I wish you luck keeping your own Holiday Brain in check.