Day 1308: Waiting

What are you waiting for?

Let’s do this post about waiting!

What am I waiting for? All these things:

1. My son Aaron to finally hear from the University of Edinburgh that they have kept their agreement with him and unconditionally admitted him to their school, since he received a good enough (actually perfect) score on his Math Advanced Placement Exam.
2. My open heart surgery at the Mayo Clinic.
3. My downstairs neighbor and we to decide on a mutually advantageous way for her to buy our upstairs unit.
4. Another Open Mic night at the Kickstand Cafe in Arlington Massachusetts so I can sing in front of an audience.
5. My son’s appearance in a local production of the musical Anything Goes.
6. The opportunity to see the amazing American comedian Louis C.K. with my son.
7. Another trip to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

There’s no waiting for me to share this information:  I expect five of those seven awaited events  to occur within the next two weeks.

If the first thing we’re waiting for does NOT happen soon, that will be the hardest part.

 

There’s no waiting for me to share that I often think of that Tom Petty song when I’m waiting.

Are you waiting to see the photos I couldn’t wait to take yesterday?

 

I’ll be okay, especially if there’s little or no waiting for me to get some comments about this post about waiting.

Thanks to Tom Petty for The Waiting and thanks to you for waiting until the end of this post!

 

Day 1307: Are you nervous?

As more people are finding out about my open heart surgery scheduled for September 21, they are asking me some variation of today’s title question:

Are you nervous?

It’s a good question. I’m not sure how to answer.

If I don’t know how to answer, it makes me less nervous to turn a question around. So I’ll ask you:

Are you nervous?

Are you nervous about

• what’s going on around you?
• what’s going on inside of you?
• politics?
• health care?
• yourself?
• other people?
• the present?
• the future?
• the past?
• your capabilities?
• technology?
• the environment?
• the weather?
• your possessions?
• obligations?
• money?
• staying in shape?
• aging?
• your family?
• pets?
• food?
• social interactions?
• being alone?
• travel?
• cars?
• public transportation?
• friends?
• strangers?
• feelings?
• thoughts?
• change?
• forgetting?
• remembering?
• judgment?
• your living situation?
• religion?
• how other people see you?
• pain?
• death?
• what happens after we die?
• being nervous?
• any of the pictures I took yesterday?

Are you nervous about the music I might choose for this post?

Based on my photos, I’ve nervously chosen two tunes (here and here on YouTube).

 

Are you nervous about leaving comments?

Are you nervous that I’m going to forget to thank those who helped me create this post or  you for reading it?

Day 1306: Stories

My story — and I’m sticking to it — is that everybody has the right to tell his-story or her-story.

Last night, people in my therapy group told many important and interesting stories.  As an exercise, I suggested that we each create and illustrate our own personal book  — building that story in just twenty minutes!

Here’s the story I created in group last night:

 

These other images were part of my story yesterday:

How would you tell your story in just twenty minutes? What might be the background music for your story?

This storied song was part of my story, yesterday:

I always end the story of each of these daily posts with gratitude for all who help me write my story and for those who read it — especially you!

Day 1305: All you need

As I went back to work yesterday —  after being away for weeks because of pneumonia and heart failure — it was obvious what I needed.

Do my photos from yesterday reveal what I needed?

 

All I need in the near future is love, work, and seeing my son Aaron in that Arlington Children’s Theater production of Anything Goes!

All this post needs  is some great music (here and here on Youtube):

What’s all you need, here and now?

Thanks to all who give me all I need to blog every day, including you!

Day 1304: Crystal Clear

Yesterday, one of my doctors — Dr. Laura Kogelman of Tufts Medical Center — said to me

Your lungs are crystal clear.

Dr. Kogelman  made it crystal clear during my appointment with her that

1. my pneumonia is gone,
2. my heart failure has resolved,
3. I am ready to go back to work today,
4. I am no more likely to contract pneumonia in the future than anybody else,
5. we are doing a good job preventing me from getting endocarditis (a dangerous inflammation of the heart which I’ve had three times before because of my leaky heart valve),
6. she misses seeing my wonderful dentist, Dr. Luis Del Castillo (who used to be her dentist too),
7. it’s okay for me to go to Edinburgh, Scotland in August with my son and my ex-in-laws,
8. she thinks it’s going to be “great” when I get a new mechanical valve for my heart in September, and
9. she liked the idea of my transforming my future open-heart-surgery scar with a tattoo.

I made it crystal clear to Dr. Kogelman that I did NOT like her idea of turning that scar into the medical symbol of a snake climbing a rod.  I told her, “I have plenty of medical symbols on my body already” and informed her that if I do decorate that  new scar after I get it in September, I’ll probably add some flowers and leaves.

What is crystal clear to you, here and now?

Are all of my photos from yesterday crystal clear?

Is it crystal clear to you that I made that t-shirt and that I especially like to wear it to medical appointments?

Yesterday, somebody named Jeanyne, who works at Tatte Bakery in Boston  (not pictured), made three things crystal clear to me:

1. she loved my t-shirt,
2. she wanted to own a t-shirt like that, and
3. her mother,  Diane, who recently retired, is just now starting a new business marketing cool new wearable items.

Is today’s featured music crystal clear to you ?

 

Crystal clear thanks to all those who helped me create today’s post and to you — of course! — for all your crystal clear reactions.

Day 1303: Long May You Run

Yesterday, I bid a fond farewell to my beloved Mazda3, which I am donating to  Make-a-Wish, a non-profit foundation granting wishes to children with life-threatening illnesses.  Long may my Mazda and Make-a-Wish run.

That’s Mark, one of the many trusted and trusty mechanics from P & M Service Center. Long may he and his business run!  Mark eased the pain of my goodbye yesterday by running by me several amusing and amazing stories of other people having trouble letting go and saying goodbye to their cars.  For example, he told me about a relative who had decided to donate a car to a charity and then at the last minute said to Mark, “I love this car!  I can’t let it go!  I want to keep this car and donate my new car — which I hate — instead!”  Mark said to her, “Sorry, that’s not going to happen.”

I told Mark yesterday how  I planned to run this Neil Young  song in today’s blog.

Long may Wikipedia run, which tells us that “Long May You Run” was

 an elegy for Neil Young’s first car (which he nicknamed “Mort”), a 1948 Buick Roadmaster hearse that died in 1965 when its transmission blew in Blind River, Ontario.

Long may all those I love — mechanical, human, feline, etc. — run.

Long may my iPhone run, so I can take more photos like these:

Long may inspiration run for me and anybody else who needs it, here and now.

Long may you — all my wonderful readers — run!

Day 1302: The purpose of life is ….?

The purpose of this post is to ask you to complete the title sentence:

The purpose of life is ……..

The purpose of the Yogi Tea company is to

1. make great tea and
2. have pithy sayings on its tea bags.

The purpose of this post is NOT product placement but to join in with Yogi Tea to invite you to enjoy every moment.

What is the purpose of these photos?

 

 

 

The purpose of the  music on Hot Fudge Sundae Day is to (1) give this post life and (2) share how a greeting card in the supermarket  invited me to unleash my inner party animal.

Shake shake shake your booty, please, for the purpose of leaving a comment below.

A purpose of my life is to express gratitude to those who help me create these blog posts and to you — of course! — for visiting, here and now.

Day 1301: Who do you think you are?

Who do you think you are, reading this blog today?  Who do I think I am, posing such a question?

Who do you think saw this yesterday?

Who do you think took a picture of it?

Who do you think you are?  Are you somebody who’s heard that question from other people?   Who do they think they are, asking you “Who do you think you are?”

Who do I think I am? I think I’m somebody who

• thinks,
• feels,
• deserves respect,
• is mortal,
• does her best,
• respects others,
• blogs every day,
• is human,
• makes mistakes,
• learns,
• gets discouraged sometimes,
• is mostly hopeful,
• is glad to be alive, and
• took these other pictures yesterday:

 

Who does that tea bag company think it is, telling us to sing from our hearts?

Who do you think you are, trying to figure out all those other photos?

Who do I think I am to include two different tunes today (here and here on YouTube)?

Who do I think I am, expecting you to have some reactions to this post? Who do you think you are to consider leaving a comment?

Who do you think I want to thank today?  Everybody  who helped me create this who-do-you-think-you-are post and you — of course! — for reading it.

Day 1300: Title

Why have I titled my post “Title” today?

Is it because:

• the title of today’s post has an impressive number?
• yesterday I went looking for the title of a car I want to donate to a charity with the title “Make a Wish Foundation” and I couldn’t find that title anywhere, even though I KNOW I saw that title a month ago?
• I used to title myself “stupid” or “loser” when I misplaced important things?
• how we title ourselves has a huge effect on how we behave and feel about ourselves?
• I choose the title “Ms.” when I fill out forms?
• I prefer the title “healthy” to “sick”?
• I saw a movie yesterday — “Ghostbusters” — with the same title of another movie I’ve watched many times?
• I believe every human being is as worthy as the next, no matter what each person’s title?
• many of the photos I took yesterday could be titled “Title”?

If you were going to choose a different title for today’s post, what would it be?  If you were going to choose some music for today’s post, what would the title of that song be?

Thanks to all who helped me create this titled post and to you for visiting today, no matter what your title is!

 

Day 1299: Looks

As I look around, I notice how much looks matter to people.  Personally, I look at a lot more than just looks when I look at somebody.

But look at me!  Yesterday, looks mattered so much to me that I requested that people look at this photo AND I asked them “HOW DO I LOOK?”

Look, I’m like anybody else. I want to look good.  But I especially wanted to people to look at how I looked yesterday so they could see how I look a short week after  diagnoses of pneumonia and heart failure .

And even though I asked others “HOW DO I LOOK?”  I look at it this way:  What’s most important is how I thought I looked. If somebody else had looked at that photo critically and judgmentally, their looks would not have mattered to me, at all.

Are you ready to look at other images I looked at yesterday?

Did any of those photos get a second look from you?

It’s time to look at some music!

I’ll take a look later to see if I get any comments for this post about looks.

Look!  It’s me thanking you for looking at my blog, here and now.