Making it big

Time marches on. My baby has been out of college for several months now - sort of looking for a job while taking care of her mom while my arm was keeping me from doing lots of household tasks and driving. But its time to move on.....

We are giving Christina the opportunity to try to "make it" in her chosen field - entertainment, in particular screenwriting for TV or TV promotion/marketing. She and everyone she's contacted tell us she has to actually live in LA in order to be considered so she's making the big step with us subsidizing four months of it.... then she's really on her own. In a scary way, it reminds me of all the stories of kids who wanted to be actresses or actors and ended up waitressing, washing dishes or parking cars. At this point I'm just hoping she can land one of those jobs if she can't get anything good.... But at least the weather is nice....

We so hope she'll have the energy and motivation to find a good job despite the odds, despite the economy. We hope she listens to all our advice, tries to follow it and then ends up not needing it by landing a great job the first week..... if so it will be thanks to Seth who ran the "Making the Cut" TV promo contest for the CW network in which Christina was one of the winners....

So, its with mixed emotions I let my baby go to California to try this all on her own. At least her sister lives there although she's busy 6-7 days a week in medical school. We'll be going out to visit for Thanksgiving and a few days later, leaving here there....

Halloween

There were no smashed pumpkins in our neighborhood. And almost no trick-or-treaters either.  I imagine they've all gone the way of community parties and other events to keep kids from walking the streets.  It seems to be something that has gone the way of most childhood activities - sports, after school fun, just being a kid - supervised and planned by adults and run on a schedule, a very busy schedule.  I find it sad that kids have so little time and parents are run ragged getting them to and from those activities.  We used to spend hours out trick-or-treating. We played baseball - in our yards or a nearby open field where we had to bring our own bases. We thought up and ran a neighborhood newspaper, we played games in the neighborhood at night, we rode bicycles for hours, watched the clouds go by, days, weeks, years seemed endless (they weren't though)..... slow down, kids (and parents), childhood goes fast enough....

Houston - Hot and Humid

Trip to Houston was mostly because I normally love just relaxing in hotel rooms while Bill is at a conference or even working out of town. Plus he will be gone for 4 weeks after this on a trip for work to China.  And this trip did come with benefits - a lovely reception that I got to attend put on by Microsoft - 24th floor of the Westin Galleria with great view, excellent food and a nice jazz band. Didn't even have to listen to talk of "business" all night. I know some of the people in the Microsoft users group from other conferences so it was fun.  And a night out at a restaurant with select users group people - also paid for by Microsoft.... only bad thing was the for the first three days, the muscle spasms I've been having since trying to heal my frozen shoulder after breaking my arm were pretty painful. Last two days have been much much better. Funny thing but after watching the Vikings and thinking of how these guys come back from injuries, I decided to fight it with more exercise. Instead of doing my physical therapy exercises once a day, I started doing some/most of them several times a day - especially when the muscle spasms got bad - so far that seems to have made a huge difference. Hoping that after PT on Monday, it doesn't relapse.... each time she forces my arm to go further than it wants to....hopefully we're almost there!

Life at the Lake

Ok, its not quite a perfect life - my arm is STILL hurting me from when I broke it - muscle spasms in my back and soreness in the muscles in the upper arm as I try to regain strength. Talked to my brother about it since he broke his arm many years ago (in his 20's) in the same place. Not helpful to hear that he doesn't remember it hurting, only that darn old Dad wouldn't let him go waterskiing until it was completely healed. And when your dad is a radiologist he can just go take another xray to prove its not quite there.... Was it just that much easier (less painful) to heal at that age or does memory fade? I hope its both.... gives me an excuse and I really want this memory to fade.

It doesn't always hurt though and we've had a beautiful time at the lake. Nothing to DO so that's easy at least. I do my exercises for the arm, go for long walks with the dog, read, practice photography, go out to eat every night, and just relax. Do I want to go home? Not so much.

Long walks - we found some paths through the woods that went for miles.

Watched Notre Dame beat Purdue in a last minute win....

One morning it looked like bad weather - windy and clouds coming up with the wind bringing moisture right up over the water.

 

But in an hour or so it was back to gorgeous - the only rain came at night.

But all good things have to end and we will go back either Monday night or Tuesday.

Just a Perfect Day

Woke to a foggy morning sunrise, with the maybe 15% of leaves that have changed to fall colors brightly catching the warm rays of the sun through the bluish fog.  Out on the docks a heron surveyed its domain until I got too close...

Time to walk the dog - up the small hill behind the condo where I took a lot of pictures for a previous post this summer. Everything is quieter now - Riley did not run out to greet Gandalf, no other dogs barked at our passing by, few cars around to tell us others were up here enjoying the first days of fall

I went to do the dirty laundry we brought along - up here its almost fun to do.  Walking back from the laundry I saw the one other car in sight at our condo building drive by. I waved but I'm not sure who they are, so many people have changed, but I remember well who used to own that condo for many years.  As they drove by I realized that in my mind they were seeing me as the young person I was when I spent the whole summer up here, I could imagine I was walking back from the mailboxes where I checked several times a day for letters from friends - there were no cell phones, or blogs, and no email or texting to keep in touch. I realized that sometimes up here I still feel like I could be that young person so I will put off the promised thoughts on being 59 years old for another, less perfect day.

The sunshine is absolute, no clouds, clean slightly crisp air, bright blue sky, just a slight breeze and a touch of fall colors - a day suspended between very warm, busy summer and fall's glorious color and chill which will move us towards winter. So few people are around now it seems like the day is all mine. Except that I shared it with you.

Pelican Lake, here we come

One more week at the lake this summer! Thank you 3M for forcing Bill to reduce his banked vacation and actually take time off! Just did my physical therapy, packed us and the dog and we're off :)
Hopefully some pictures will be showing up here soon! Maybe some reflections on turning 59 on last Sunday and being married 36 years as of today....

-- Post From My iPhone

the arm

Who knew a broken arm could hurt so much - its more the attempt to get the arm moving again that hurts actually.  Physical therapy twice a week for three weeks and I can actually lift that arm high enough to quickly touch my nose before it gets too heavy to hold up.... right now I am working on range of motion exercises with the goal of getting my arm to go straight up with the therapist holding it up or using a pulley - not using my own muscles even and that seems like weeks away still. In two weeks I get to start building strength - right now I can not life any weight with that arm other than its own weight....

Ouch. Ouch. Ouch