CELEBRATING CHRISTMAS YEAR ROUND: ABBRACADABBRA! SHE'S BACK!

Friday, October 15, 2010

ABBRACADABBRA! SHE'S BACK!

Just when you thought you were RID of me for awhile, here I am again! AND, I might add, in a much better frame of mind! WHEW! Instead of going into huge detail about what was happening, I'll abbreviate it: HORRIBLE Lupus flare - worse I've ever had - coupled by an oncologist (the one that originally treated me moved to NY 8 months ago) who has given me every KIND of mixed signal & 2 VERY oddball biopsies, and I STILL have no idea if the Hodgkins is back. That's enough to exhaust ANYONE! Trust me! So, I decided to ~~murder him with my pudgy bare hands~~ uhhhh - take things into my own hands, call my former oncologist (who had given me his new number just in case) and get HIS advice. The not knowing PLUS the Lupus flare were depleting me. Thanks to some good advice, names/numbers of 2 doctors HE suggested, and a beginning to the end of the Lupus flare, I am on my way to being myself again. Still very tired, but way better! Because of all that, I thought I'd post a LOT of various odds &
ends. Yesterday I had some errands and one was Barnes & Noble. I needed to buy a book by Montel Williams for my dear friend MaryBear Kicks the Dog's youngest daughter,Sha-we. She was recently diagnosed with MS & is taking it pretty hard. MB had to go out of town on a job-related training trip (as she does yearly) and Sha is staying here for 2 weeks. I wanted her to read the book & see how HE handles MS so she can feel more encouraged. Besides, BOTH of us love bookstores. And coffee. LOTS of coffee. I mean, a good couple of cappuccinos can't hurt, right? We got to B&N at 9 A.M. and look what we saw first thing.

Do you see anything strange here?

YEP! CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS! For goodness sake! The entire HUGE shopping area was decorated! Since when do we put up Christmas decorations 2 weeks BEFORE HALLOWEEN? I love Christmas! EVERYONE knows that. Still - OCTOBER? I mean, REALLY? The next pictures are totally unrelated but I am wondering if anyone can help me out with two things. Number One: the plant in the photo below. Can anyone identify it? I LOVE it and every time I GO to B&N I mean to take a picture & forget. Finally did it. There's TONS of it all around the area.

Number Two: My next door neighbor and cousin to my sweet lil' landlady has a massive backyard garden with so many veggies - primarily Asian ones. She brought these two huge things over & said, "These are good with chicken. Healthy. Cook them." Hmmmm. I THINK she called them a type of melon but my Chinese is as weak as her English. We both speak a bit of each other's languages, but ...! So, does anyone recognize these? HELP!

Finally, on an ENTIRELY different note - creating! I finished a new crown. This one will be for Barbara, one of the 4 B&N coffee ladies I've come to know over the past one and a half years. Her 80th birthday is November 5th & she loves flowers, birds, and very feminine things. Whatcha' think? Is it okay? Yeah, I KNOW! It's a 'bit' over-the-top, huh? Of course, consider the source. I am over-the-top! LOL! Here it is from the front & the inside.

And with these last photos, I guess I'll call it a night! Thanks for being patient with this tired old critter! LOVE YOU ALL!

8 comments:

Cherie said...: YAY! I am so happy you got a hold of your doctor, the good one, and got some recommends and suggestions from him. I know that made you feel better! My very best wishes to Sha. I hope she finds Montel's book full of insight and comfort to help her understand more about MS.
I have no idea what the plant is but the melon looks like Dong Gua. Not sure but maybe. :)
And, I LOVE the crown!
Happy you're back!; October 15, 2010 at 7:49 PM
Susan Ramey Cleveland said...: I'm so glad to hear you're feeling better. I was exceedingly worried about you, my dear friend. It's so good to hear you sounding more chipper. Love you, praying for you. BTW, that crown is super!
P.S. Tell you friend I have very close friend who has MS; she is getting on with her life quite nicely.; October 15, 2010 at 8:06 PM
Judi W. said...: Good to see you feeling better! Have no idea about the plant or the melon - not surprising, I suppose. Your friend will love the crown - she can be Queen of the Coffee Klatsch!; October 16, 2010 at 11:17 AM
anita said...: It's SO good to have you back!; October 16, 2010 at 12:28 PM
Ele at abitofpinkheaven said...: There you are! I haven't visited blogs in awhile, so I've spent the day touring blogland. Hope you are feeling better. Yes, the Christmas decor is out. I hope it gives you hope and a little joy. Take care of yourself and good to see you are still crafting. Your creation is over the top...as it should be. Wonderful!; October 17, 2010 at 4:23 PM
CraftyRia said...: I'm so glad you are feeling better!

I think the veggies are green bowling pins. Ha!; October 17, 2010 at 6:26 PM
angiesraggedypatch said...: Ahhh my sweet Kai!
I am so sorry you have delt with so much! Just not fair for someone so wonderful! I pray for you every day and hope that you and the docs get this all settled.
I am sorry to hear about your friends daughter... MS is such a scary disease and really kinda kept quiet I think. Montel has done a lot to get the name out there and to be a light for others. One of the glas down at the lodge suffers from it. Her philosophy is to put her party pants on ever day and make the most of it. She has 3 beautiful kids under 12 and is one of the fun moms. She'll die her hair pink or start dancing on a table, or just hug everyone in sight. She is going to live life to its fulliest as long as she can. I hope MB's daughter can find a way to see that she still has a loooooong life ahead of her and it CAN be a great one. Thankfully she has you... and coffee!

I loved the crown :0)

wish I could help you with the other pics, but my green thumb jumped off at birth I think and ran screaming for its life!

Have fun with those veggies... or fruits...
love you!!!
ang; October 20, 2010 at 7:35 AM
Bead and Needle said...: HI! Found your blog through Hopewell Creek - been skipping around, reading, and I KNOW WHAT YOUR PLANT IS! I live in Las Vegas, and have quite a few of those of my own. It is called a Foxtail Fern. Happy Monday - back to read some more. Tanya; January 31, 2011 at 12:48 AM

WHAT I'M READING

MOLOKA'I BY ALAN BRENNERT - Rachel is only seven years old when she's torn from her family and isolated in an area of Hawaii reserved for people with Leprosy. This is a very sad, yet very beautifully written account, spanning the years from the late 1800s to the mid 1900s. While the story is a novel, it's based on truth, and as I read, I paused and researched some of what I was reading. I learned so much about Leprosy and how what MOST of the characters in this book actually had compared to the Biblical depiction of the condition. Reaffirmed through not only Rachel's history, but the history and stories of those condemned to live separate from their families and ostracized from mainstream society, was one constant: people learn to live with what they are given. Some retreat, some thrive, some give up. But regardless of circumstances, like Rachel, the fabulously real focal character of Brennert's book, they endure. Moloka'i is 388 pages of wonder. Parts of it will forever haunt me. Parts will bring me to tears years from now. But I will NOT forget it.
THE BUDDHA IN THE ATTIC - At a scant 129 pages, this compact book holds so much intense emotion I could not read it as quickly as I wanted. I had to stop, chew, swallow, and wait for each nuance of each chapter to digest. Narrated by a single (unknown) woman of Japanese heritage, THE BUDDHA IN THE ATTIC is the story of Japanese women pre-WWII, who came to America as promised wives to Japanese men. They arrived with hopes and dreams, fear and excitement, memories and momentos. Each woman carried a different past into her new present. But all carried ONE thing in common - a photo of her husband-to-be. Suffice it to say, all were NOT what the pictures OR the letters promised. This story is a quick moving account of what happened once the women arrived until which time they found themselves in the middle of the second world war and all the fear and prejudice and change it brought. Though the reader never learns the name of the narrator or gets to focus on any one woman, somehow the overview of ALL the women is sufficient to move the story along easily and interestingly. I loved it. I really, really LOVED it!
Noah's Wife 5500 BCE by T.K. Thorne - I've read a lot of novels based on the Bible's Noah. This book is VERY differnt in that it centers almost solely around the woman who was Noah's partner. In this version she is Na'amah, a girl with Asperger's Syndrome, a branch of Autism. I am not quite finished reading this but I had to add it here in hopes that some of you will also read it. Beautifully written, VERY interesting take on the familiar story, and - regardless of the fact that I KNOW how it ends, I am enthralled with this writer's clever portrayal of one who was, in previous versions, all but ignored. BEAUTIFUL, BEAUTIFUL BOOK!
Scars by Cheryl Rainfield - OMG! I read this straight through, shivering, crying, remembering ...! The main character, Khendra, is in therapy for sexual abuse which began at age 2. The problem is - her mind is supressing the identity of her abuser. A WORSE problem? Her abuser is trailing her; leaving threats and insidious messages. Khendra also cuts herself. This relieves the pain inside yet leaves physical scars meant to soothe the emotional ones. This book is one you will read until you gasp for air and realize you haven't been breathing! PLEASE, if you want to understand the methods of a predator and the agony of a person being abused, read this book. It isn't pretty. It isn't happy. But it's REAL. And it MAY just help YOU help someone else one day.
Watersmeet by Ellen Jensen Abbott - This book is well over 300 pages and I read it all, but STILL don't know how I feel about it. Let's just say I wish I had been the editor because her premise was awesome. Her execution? Well ...! The story is about a young woman who lives in a society where she and many others are outcasts because of a ruler's mandate. She ends up finding her father, a leader in another realm, and comes to terms with her anger, prejudices, etc. Am I making it sound compelling? NO? Good, because most of it isn't. The author has some really good segments through the book, but there's so much convoluted yakking & silliness in places, it distracts a reader from the good parts. I would not buy this one if I were you! Just my opinion.
Impossible by Nancy Werlin - (Young Adult) If you like to delve into the realm of faeries (and I DO) and want a bit of mystery, puzzle solving, and 'real life' tossed in, along with amazingly good writing, this is the right book. I own several by the author, but so far have read only IMPOSSIBLE. Despite my strong aversion to ANYTHING that even smells of romance novels, I loved this story. The 'romance' was a focal point in the story, but NOT, by any means THE story. This writer knows her stuff! THUMBS UP!
Reckless by Cornelia Funke - the author of the Inkheart trilogy wrote this very strange novel. It's meant to be a take on the Snow White mirror thing, but it jumps around WAY too much and not necessarily in a good way. Her IDEA is magnificent. Her execution left me cold.
The Poison Diaries by Maryrose Wood, Duchess of Northumberland - I picked up this book about the daughter of a man who heals with plants, the man himself, and a very mysterious young man who's called Weed. Read straight through it because I absolutely COULD NOT put it down!
Folly by Marthe Jocelyn - a rather down-in-the-mouth YA book that seems to focus more on building UP to a 'surprise' ending than on anything else. Didn't HATE it. Also didn't LOVE it.
Dark Song by Gale Giles - a girl finds out her family has been living a lie and the lie changes everything, including who she becomes. I couldn't put it down!
Plain Kate by Erin Bow - a young girl who has learned to carve from her father suddenly finds herself an orphan, accused of using a 'witch-blade' by the superstitious town folks. A good story with so many twists!
Stolen by Lucy Christopher - young adult but not just for kids! Very intense story of a young girl who is kidnapped right out from under her parents' noses at an airport. Extremely suspenseful! Very good!
The Shepherd, the Angel, and Walter, the Christmas Miracle Dog by Dave Barry - for those of you familiar with the author, three words: TYPICAL DAVE BARRY! For those unfamilar, three words: FUNNY, FUNNY, FUNNY! A VERY quick read!
Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman - There is NO doubt in my mind why this was a HUGE bestseller! I LOVED IT!
The Weight of Silence by Heather Gudenhauf - a mystery as well as a beautiful story
The Sisters from Hardscrabble Bay by Beverly Jensen - Heartbreakingly wonderful
Knitting by Anne Bartlett - set in Australia, this follows two women and a homeless man's personal journeys - a comforting book!
The Outside Boy by Jeanine Cummins - About Irish 'Travellers' or Gypsies - SOOOOOO GOOD!