Feliz Navidad

I believe displaced homemaker is the official term, but it usually means that you get to spend part of the holidays alone.

Because my son was with his dad and I wasn't in the rotation with my daughter and son-in-law, Christmas day was all mine. My friend, who is a third time widow, and I decided to tackle the day together. First on the list was church.

Beautiful. Simple. Peaceful. There were no ushers, no acolytes, no choir, no passed offering, no gigantic flower arrangements. Just the rector and a handful of people who wanted to share the realness of the day. Hark the Herald Angels Sing started the service. A great start to the day. He ended the service with Feliz Navidad, which made me smile BIG.

Then we decided to go to the cemetery to visit all of my friend's deceased husbands. They were buried in the same cemetery, but in different places. We straightened the wreaths she had hung on their grave stones and she told me stories about each one of them while we straightened. Strength is the word that comes to mind.

At this point, we're hungry and we tried to forage for Christmas lunch in a town where IHOP is the only place that's open. The line there was around the building and it was about 30 degrees outside. So, no. My friend, being a very clever survivor, says The hospital. It has to be open. We sacheted into the cafeteria in our Christmas finest and had a very styrofoam lunch. But it filled us up with kind-of-gummy food and lots and lots of laughs.

The next stop was the movie. Of course she, being a very savy southern woman, took her silver flask filled with bourbon into the theater and had some Christmas cheer during the movie. The movie was It's Complicated. So funny. But VERY close to home.

That was it. And the day was finally over. Spent with an incredible woman of immeasurable strength. Merry Christmas y Feliz Navidad!

Coulda Shoulda Woulda

Debi thought my comment on her post was funny, so she changed that post and wrote a new one, linking me again. So......

When I finished my dive in the chamber yesterday, I grabbed my wadded up clothes and was going to the bathroom to change. I had my hand on the door handle when the guy said Hey you dropped something. I was so hoping it would be a sock. But no, of course it was my underwear. A little pair of purple lace panties. Right there, in the middle of the floor, in a room filled only with men. I thought I was going to die right there on the spot.

There were so many things I coulda shoulda woulda done.

My eighty-four year old, really-still-hot friend woulda smiled and said, ever so sweetly, Hell fire, Daaaaarlin'! Those aren't mine. I only wear thongs.

I shoulda said something funny like Liar, liar pants on fire! Or I coulda sung that old song that goes something like... I see London; I see France. I see someone's underpants.

I wish I woulda slung them around my head a few times and shot them in the air.

Instead, I said nothing. Nothing at all.

My eyes got huge, my mouth was open wide, but nothing came out. I just slinked over there and picked them up, with the whole room watching. I was just grateful that they weren't big old granny panties.

When I was leaving, I heard him yell out Mrs. L, have a grreeeeaaaaat weekend!

Colorful Mess

Aghhh! Mi Corizon is a mess today. Playing with

color and not enough time to finish...

That's actually a pretty accurate description of me today, as well.

Milagro

Yes, today was see the doctor day. And I did. And my leg has healed 2 cm in one week. And I couldn't believe it. And the word miraculous was used. And I wasn't the one who used it.

Diving

Well, now that I'm a regular at the wound care center, I know the lingo. The people who work there call it diving. That sounds so much better than THE CHAMBER, which is what I've been calling it. They know all about my family and I know everything their kids are getting for Christmas. I've decided to revisit some of my old fav movies, while I'm diving every day for 2 hours. So far, I've seen Devil Wears Prada, Under the Tuscan Sun, Notting Hill, Chocolat, the always entertaining Ya Yas. Today was Sense & Sensibility.

Tomorrow is see the doctor day. And, I'm excited. I know it's working. A friend hadn't seen me in 2 weeks and he couldn't believe the difference in my whole everything. That's how I feel. Aside from the physical healing, a lot of emotional healing is going on, too. There's lots to think about every day while I'm making that 33' dive.

An explosion of Christmas is what I'm calling it.

For sure. No doubt about it. Never in my life have I EVER put so much stuff around my front door. Last year, I thought I was branching out when I put three cream colored wreaths with brown and cream ribbons on them on my doors. Well, I don't know what happened this year. I got carried away and it just kept on carrying me away. It's gaudy and sparkly and bedazzled and everything I'm not. But, oh well.....

Santa will certainly know where to find me.

I See the Moon and the Moon Sees Me

Last night, I was on my way home from a Christmas party and we rounded the corner to see this. A beautiful moon. It's not a great picture, but it was the best I could do out in the middle of the dark street, in the freezing cold. It was a little smushed on the top and had the most peaceful, yellow glow. It looked like it was just looking down on us, kind of protecting us. So amazing! Kind of like an early Christmas gift. The real kind.

Michael and Me

So much for Confucious.

Where to begin? Let me see...

During the first surgery in June when the doctor cut me open, he was shocked to find lots and lots of rice bodies. Hmmmmm. Really??? Rice bodies??? Interesting.

After that surgery, I was left with a "protrusion" on my leg. It continued to grow to be the size of a golf ball, until the doctor finally said OMG it's about to explode. Yep. Another surgery. A "simple" surgery. When he cut me open, once again he was shocked. He only found few rice bodies, but found lots and lots of crisco. Hmmmmm. Really???? Now my body is making fried rice. Pretty amazing.

The doctor stitched me up and covered my leg with gauze I was good as new. Except that it's now been a month and I still have gauze on my leg. He removed the stitches and then my leg got HUGE. Once again, the doctor looked at the incision and saw crisco dripping out of it. So, now I get to have 2 new doctors - wound care and infectious disease- at the wound care clinic. People in there are missing appendages and limbs and many have come from nursing homes, etc. I only have a hole in my leg, but I do get to go into a room with a door versus a room with a wide open curtain. The doctor comes in and I kiddingly tell her that my friends think I'm going to be like Michael Jackson. They think I'm going to be in a hyperbaric chamber. She just smiles....

After digging around in the hole in my leg, she says OMG!!! What is this??? Unwisely, I sit up to see what the excitement is all about, only to see her holding a rice body in her precious tweezers. After calling in another person to witness the extraction, she very carefully places it in a special bag to go to a special place to be cultured. Then with that same smile, she says Well, hello Michael! Yep. For real. I'm going to be in the hyperbaric chamber for 2 hours every day for I don't know how long. It looks like a clear tube with a pillow in it. Are you claustrophobic? she says.

Merry Christmas to me. My friends say it's supposed to be like the Fountain of Youth. You'll be so rested and rejuvenated they all say. You'll get to watch movies or sleep or do whatever you want for 2 hours every day, like going to a very tiny little spa. I just hope I don't come out looking like Michael Jackson!