Faux Pas of All Faux Pas

I know how it happened. I was in a hurry to pick up the girls from school early enough to make the dental appointment. On the way out, I took a cooler with E's afternoon meds, and my current read, Amazing Grace by Megan Shull.

I left with the book. I swear I did. But when we arrived at the dentist's office, I couldn't find it.

I checked under the front seat. I searched the floor beneath E's electric scooter. Nothing. For a time I convinced myself I was wrong. Maybe I'd only thought about leaving the house with the book. Maybe I'd left it on the little oak table near the front door.

A family came into the office, stomping the rain out of their hair and clothes. Rain? When did it start raining? And then I remembered.

So not good. Sacrilege. The faux pas of all faux pas.

Before running back into the house to retrieve a forgotten magazine, I'd left the book--a brand-spanking-new chicklit selection from the local library--on the front porch ledge alongside the mini cooler. And it was still sitting there.

Getting wet.

I should have fawned over my girls' dazzling smiles and new toothbrushes. I should have ooohed and ahhed over news of their great check-ups. Instead, all I could think about was racing home to rescue the book.

Thirty minutes later we pulled into the drive. And my heart flip-flopped. I'd done it. I'd really done it. There was the book, water beading up on the plastic cover, water dripping over its sides. I shook the rain from it, shoved it beneath my coat, helped E and S into the house, and assessed the damage.

By a turn of luck, most of the inside pages had escaped the rain. The small area that did get wet, dripped water when squeezed. The damage didn't look permanent. I stacked a huge pile of textbooks on top of the book, hoping the pages would dry flat overnight. Sigh of relief. They did.

Appetite for reading: Even soggy, Amazing Grace is an enjoyable chicklit read.

Wow. He Wasn't Joking

Dr. B's assistant called early yesterday evening with amazing news. She had in hand an email sent by the other Dr. B., the surgeon who'd done the actual aneurism clipping. Seems he'd had time to study the results of E's post-operative angiogram, the brain mapping done the day after the surgery to check placement of both aneurism clips.

His findings and recommendation: The angiogram looks very good. I see no reason why E can't wait five years before a follow-up.

Five years? Wow. I guess he wasn't joking when he found P and I in the waiting room after surgery, and said with a smile that he'd given E another 100,000 miles.

Appetite for writing: ravenous.

It Must Be Spring

Hi all. Please bear with me while I experiment with a new look, and attempt to figure out why my profile info, links, and recent posts moved to the bottom of the main page during spring cleaning. Advice encouraged from other writer/bloggers who've dealt with this issue.

Edited to add: Yes! Fixed it.

Processing...Processing...Writing When Life Conspires

You know the hourglass icon on the computer--the one that blinks and processes and blinks some more if you give your computer too much to do at once? Something a fellow Vermont College graduate said in a recent email helped me realize my hourglass has blinked constantly--or damn near it--the last six months while dealing with E's health issues.

As my friend so wisely put it, most all of the underground-CPU-work that should have been spent working on revisions, creative, and character was spent coordinating with various doctor's offices, conducting physician visits, keeping level-headed around the kids, and worrying.

No wonder I feel more focused these days. When I refill E's weekly med box, I no longer worry if it'll be the last time I do it. When I order ahead school lunches, I no longer wonder if we'll be at E's bedside when it's time to eat. When I tuck E in bed, I no longer fear what the next day will bring.

Appetite for writing: Bring on the feast.

E report

E and I met with E's neurosurgeon late last week for a brief follow-up visit. Dr. B was thrilled with E's recovery.

After removing E's stitches, Dr. B sent us home with notes excusing E from gym for the rest of the year, and clearing her to return to physical therapy twice weekly at Easter Seals. Doctor also prescribed an antibiotic for E because a small area of the incision looked a bit red. Dr. B wasn't overly concerned. But as she put it, given E's bronchitis type cough at the time of the visit, and the fact that she's recovering from major surgery, a conservative route made sense.

The meds made a big difference. Overnight, the redness in the incision went down. Two days later, E's cough was much improved, and her fever had broken.

To borrow a phrase from one of my hubby's favorite posters from our college days: Better living through chemistry.

Fun Quiz: Which Literature Classic Are You?

Gakked from Book Moot who gakked it from So Many Books:
Which Literature Classic Are You?, a quiz from Quizalla.

Here's my result: J.R.R. Tolkein's Lord of the Rings trilogy. Quelle surprise.

Appetite for writing: Finishing up second breakfast.

Presenting...The Carnival of Children's Literature

Check out the Carnival of Children's Literature for a refreshing variety of voices, musings, insights, and opinions on all things kid lit. A don't-miss carnival of links for fans of children's literature. By the way, you'll want to bookmark the site. A new carnival pulls into the fairgrounds on Monday, March 6th.