Wow, it’s been about a month since I wrote. I guess I’ve been busy. I’m feeling so much better that I’ve been able to do a lot more. Not going somewhere, but around my house catching up on stuff I’ve let go for way too long because of the ordeal with my back, hip, and leg that I’ve spent months getting through. But I’m happy to report that even though I am not back to normal, I can get around my house unassisted, and feel better every day. My pain levels are way down. I really only have pain first thing in the morning when everything has tightened up, and in the evening, when I’ve been on and off my feet all day. But from about 8 AM to 4 PM I am almost pain free. I still get very tired, probably from doing a little too much in the day. I mean, I’m sleeping 8-9 hours at night, and sometimes taking a nap in the afternoon. It’s crazy but hell, I’ll take tired over pain any day!

One thing I did last month was get inspired by the Nanowrimo challenge. That stands for National Novel Writing Month. My good friend from here, JoAnne, said she was doing it, and I thought, “I’d like to try that.” She is a wonderful writer. Check out her blog at https://joannaoftheforest.wordpress.com/ This challenge is to write 50,000 words during the month of November. That seemed like an overwhelminly huge amount of words. I didn’t find out about it until November was here, so I officially sign up for it. I just wanted to see if I could come up with an idea and see how much I could accomplish.

Trouble was, I couldn’t figure out what to write. I had no idea for what I could write about. I ginally came up with the idea of using my small group of women who come to my house every Wednesday, just to get together, to feel normal these days. I call them Wednesday’s Girls to differentiate them from my actual writers group, Hypatia, that meets once a month. I thought I could make an adventure that the group goes on. Still, I needed their help. So, when they came over in early November I told them about the project, and asked for ideas for the adventure.

Boy oh boy, did I get ideas! These women are so creative. Pretty soon the ideas were coming like a storm, just pouring out of them, which in turn was giving me inspiration. I’m not going to tell you what the ideas were. Instead, I will publish it here, in segments, when I am done. But I have written almost 16,000 words, so you can maybe understand why I’ve not been posting here. When I’ve been writing, it’s been for this project. Each of the women went home that day planning to write out their ideas, or outline them, and then read it to the group the next week. I did the same. But when we met again, their stories were so good, I decided I could take something from each one of them, and incorporate it into my Nanowrimo project. Obviously, I did not finish it in November, but we were having so much fun with it, I am just continuing until it’s finished!

That’s how I’ve been spending a lot of my free time. I still have physical therapy twice a week, and a plethora of doctor’s appointments, and regular house work. Dan and I spend a few days a week together too, and we get into cooking together now that I can actually function in the kitchen. The other night he brought over crab cakes, and then we made a new mac and cheese recipe together. It turned out to be the best mac and cheese ever! Plus, I bought some watercolor pencils, sketching pencils, and watercolor paper, because it just seems like something I might be able to do! After you sketch the picture out, you dip the pencils in water, a, nd voila! You are painting, but more easily, I think! We’ll see anyway.

I’ve also been reading, and have 3 books I’m reading, one for any mood I’m in! Lately it’s been a Tom Robbins book, “Tibetan Peach Pie”. I was introduced to him through an old kind-of boyfriend, who loaned me Jitterbug Perfume. He is so quirky and funny. It makes for light-hearted reading. I just finished City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert, which was a wonderful book, as all of hers are.

Anyway, it’s fun for me to have so much to do, when for so long I couldn’t do anything but sit on the couch. Walking from the couch to the kitchen was an ordeal, but now! It’s easy and normal, and has brought me a semblance of normalcy. I used to walk less than 200 steps a day. (As recorded by my iPhone) This week I’ve been walking at least a half mile, sometimes a mile, in short bursts. (also per my iPhone, but I also just got a Fitbit watch which I think is more accurate) I look forward to some day returning to my walking a mile and a half through the park, but for now, I am happy being able to put the steps in around the house, to be able to change my sheets, to be able to clean my kitchen floor. I’m back to being a happy person!

I hope you all are happy too. And safe and well. This pandemic gets to me emotionally, when I see 225,000 new cases in a day and having a governor who is a Trumper who doesn’t see the need to lead this state at all. So that’s all I’ll say about it now, I don’t want to get into a rant, doesn’t do any good anyway!

Love, light and good health to you all.