September recap & Good News!

September is ending in a very up note. After 2 and a half monts, my friend Norbert has been given an "all clear" from his neurosurgeon. It is quite amazing that he has recovered so completely from a brain injury that had him in a coma for a couple of weeks. He's of course very happy and ready to catch up with things that had been left on hold all this time. Interestingly, as soon as they got back from the doctor, his sister went back to Las Vegas. They just didn't get along at all, and it will be better for both of them to be apart from each other, it just surprised me that she left so quickly!

Other happenings in September...Lizzie was here the first weekend of September and we enjoyed eating in a new Restaurant. My sister Mia celebrated her 60th birthday and even though I was not able to fly to Sweden, I enjoyed her videos and pictures of the event. September 11 is a special date for me, not just for the terrible happenings in New York City, but because is also Catalunya's National Day (diada) and it was celebrated with a huge display of Catalans making a huge V with Catalan flags.

On the 24th Marvin and I celebrated out 50th meetniversary (Lizzie's word), September 24th is the day of La Merced, who is ther Patron Saint of Barcelona, is a holiday and there's all kind of festivities,going on that day. And that's how we met, right in Plaza Catalunya. 50 years later we went to Black Angus for lunch :)

Here's a list of the movies I watched in September:

Life of Crime (2013)

My Life in Ruins (2009)

Slightly Single in LA (2013)

Family Tour (2013) Catalan/Spanish

Carmina y amen (2014) Spanish

And So It Goes (2014)

Fading Gigolo (2014) Woody Allen


And the books I read:


Susan Wiggs -The Beekeeper's Ball

Karen Wheeler - Tout Sweet

Mary Higgins Clark - Where are you now?

Emily Giffin - Where We Belong

Barbarella Fokos - Diary of a Diva

Beth Harbison - Driving with the Top Down

Ferenc Mate - The Hills of Tuscany

Fall weather

It feels like maybe we may be getting a little cooler weather. It's been really hot this month, and when it's so hot I don't feel like doing much of anything. A lot of my plants and flowers were getting droopy from the heat too. Lulu has been very lazy too, doesn't even want to go outside or go for a walk, she gets too tired :)

This month we have had quite a few doctor's appointments. I went to my regular doctor to have a spot checked on my arm, he said it was nothing, just a dry spot, but he gave me a pneumonia booster so my visit was not in vain. Then I had a podiatrist appointment. My feet feel like velvet after he finishes with them, and my toenails have never looked so good. My next appointment is with my eye doctor.

Marvin has an appointment with his regular doctor tomorrow, just a check up, then on Wednesday he has his podiatry appointment. This past Wednesday he went to the wound nurse. I learned a few things, and we may get to try some other ostomy supplies ( made in Sweden, so they must be good ;)

I just finished having a long phone talk with Norbert. His siter fell down today, but didn't hit her head, just got her knees skinned. He seems more like himself, and he remembers things well, and at least he's not angry and abusive of her sister, but still wishes she would go home. Tuesday they have an appointment with the neurosurgeon, see what they have to say.

I hope everybody is doing well, just remeber to take a little time to smell the roses. So to speak. Besos.

Minor Preferences

I am reading "Diary of a Diva" by Barbarella Fokos. Lizzie let me borrow it after she read it. I am enjoying it very much. I have met most of her family and one of her sisters is Lizzie's good friend, so is fun reading about them in the book too.

I just finished a diary entry called Minor Preferences. Is the term she uses to write about her "mild" case of OCD. I started thinking about my also "mild" case of OCD.
I think I started realizing I had a peculiar or quirky way about me when I was in my early teens. For example, our apartment in Barcelona had a long hallway, from the living room to my bedroom. Every night when I got to the end of the hallway I would quickly get on my knees for about a second and go to my room. I was careful to be by myself , sometimes when there was people around, like my sister or my mom, I would wait till everybody was sleep, then get up and do it.

Another thing I did (and to some extent I still do), is touching 3 different surfaces that they were close together but had different textures. Another thing was a need for symmetry, like setting the table, the silverware had to be perfectly straight and in line, not just mine, but everybody's at the table. I always volunteered to set the table especially when we had family over.

My family noticed some of my quirkines (the term OCD had not been invented yet), but mostly they ignored or made fun of it, so I was very careful to do it in a very unobstrusive way.

I think I was about 14, when I was walking with my mother on our way to catch the bus, I was holding a scarf sand I had to let it touch the ground 3 times everytime we crossed the street, this coupled with my having to touch 3 different surfaces made my mother snap. She decided there was something wrong with me and made an appointment with a psychiatrist. I remember going and taking a bunch of tests, both oral and written, having my eyes checked and my cranium measured, etc. The final report was that I was highly intelligent :) and that there was not a thing wrong with me. I am sure the diagnosis might have been different now.

I still have minor preferences that I do every day. Before I leave my room to go outside I have to look at 3 pictures in my room, in the right order. Same thing at night before I go to bed. When we go out to eat, I need to be the last person eating or drinking, even if it's only a crumb. My family knows about it and now I have to be super careful. Tristan found out about it and he made sure he was the last one to eat or drink, to the point that sometimes I had to go back to the table after everybody left so I could go and have a sip of water or something.

I think I am getting better and not doing it so much (ha). I still touch 3 surfaces randomly, but I don't have a set pattern. I also had to touch the windows glass with my nose, leaving tiny nose prints all over, I don't do it as much anymore.

They are minor things that don't interfere with my daily life, or hurt anybody. Why do I do it? I just have to. I don't feel right if I don't. Is it quirkines? are they peculiarities? or is it OCD? I will call them, as Barbarella does, minor preferences.

HOT!!!

I don't have a lot to write about, mainly because lately it has been so hot that I don't feel like doing anything, it was 102 today!. The weekend was nice with Lizzie, we tried a new Restaurant and we enjoyed it, other than that we just rested and read and enjoyed the A?C. Even Lulu is hating to go outside, she takes a second to do her business and then runs back in. Can't blame her.

Last night I couldn't sleep, I turned the computer off by 2AM, my usual time, and went to bed but I keep turning and trying to get comfortable, then I heard a cricket and I had to get up and look for it and couldn't find it so I went back to try to sleep, but no luck! I got up again and went to the bathroom and there was a cricket there! Then I went to the kitchen to get some water, and I saw a bunch of very small ants on top of a little piece of butter that had been left on the counter. The ants have been around all weekend, just one or two at a time but they were pesky. I had cleaned the kitchen counter but for the side next to the refrigerator, and that's where I found them. So I took everything out, and cleaned it, and sprayed, and cleaned again, and went back to bed. It was 4:57AM
it took me a while but finally I went to sleep.

This morning I woke up by 9 and took Lulu out and had some breakfast and went back to bed, but we had to go to dialysis. When I got back, I slept for 2 hours, and it was good.

Tomorrow I am going to see my doctor in Huntington Beach. I have a pink spot on my left arm, above the elbow, that I think is a basal cell carcinoma. I had one a few years ago in my thigh, and this one looks about the same, so he'll probably send me to a dermatologist to get a biopsy and if it is what I think, they'll scrape it out.

After the doctor I'll go by Norbert's to see how he's doing. I talk to him a few times a week, and he has his ups and downs. I think not being able to drive is upsetting him the most. And of course, what to do wit Crista, and his sister.

Sorry this has been a boring post :)

Jobs

I read Sandy's blog about thinking of someday changing jobs or starting a business or doing something else altogether.

I thought about all the jobs I've had and was going to write about it, but then I remember I wrote something about it already, and looking back at the beginning of my blog (2007), there it was, a list of some of the jobs I had (mainly when I lived in Barcelona, and many of them short lived because I was also going to school so they were part time).

The longest jobs I've had was working in a Travel Agency in Barcelona, 2 different ones, Viajes Fram and Viajes Conde, and. giving city tours (those were FUN times!). Then in the US, working at The Milk Farm in Dixon (not my favorite job), and then working as an aide in Burley, Idaho, and ultimately, being a teacher in Burley (7th grade and Kindergarten) and my longest being a Kindergarten teacher for 26 years in SFS, CA.

All in all I enjoyed all of them, because of my slight ADD I don't think i would have lasted on a 9-5 job, all the jobs I had were very flexible, so they were a good match for me.

Some good news (and a sad one)

N went to the neurosurgeon today. I called him tonight and spoke to his sister for a while, she told me they are going to do a CT scan monthly, that he needs to walk for 15 minutes twice a day, cannot lift thing or bent or twist his body, and NO DRIVING. I was dreading talking to him because I thought he might be more depressed or upset...but I was so happily surprised! At least for today (and hopefully from now on) he was the old Norbert. He made sense, he told me about the doctor's visit and what he told them. He said the doctor showed him his head xray and said that was a deadly fall and he's lucky to be alive. I think that jolted him! He was kidding, and laughing, and just talking like he did before the fall, he even was talking seriously and making a lot of sense about his future with Crista. He realizes that it may not be the dream he had, but he will keep on working to bring her here so she can have a better life, he was making a lot of good sense. He also said he had a nice dinner Eva made for him- with no mention of poison or dog food- and he said he needs to be patient and hope for the best. I was very encouraged, and I hope he stays this way :)

The sad news is the death of Joan Rivers. I really liked her, I liked her humor and the way she made fun of herself. I read all the books she wrote and found her to be a very smart caring funny woman. I watched her TV shows, and never missed "Fashion Police". She said the way to deal with tragedy, or pain, or bad luck, is just to make fun of it, to laugh at it, as a way of coping. To find humor in life, to always see the bright side of things. May she rest in peace and make them laugh in heaven.

September 1

We had a nice Labor Day Weekend. The weather has been lovely, warm days and cool nights. We haven't done much but had nice grilled steaks and garlic all i oli both days, and I presonally drank a whole botthe of Cava. YUM. I only missed a good dessert but Marv baked some chocolate chip cookies and it helped :)

I called N yesterday and he was resting so I didn't talk to him, but I talked to his sister, she said he got a steak finally (whoohoo!). Something interesting... I've been dreaming of spiders lately, I always sream a lot and most of myt dreams are fun. The one about spiders was OK, but not my favorite. I checked a website about the meaning of dreams and that's what it said about dreaming of spiders..."To see a spider in your dreams indicates that you are feeling like an outsider in some situation." Isn't that interesting? That's exactly how I feel.

Changing the subject, I enjoyed reading about Jeff's interview in the San Diego troubador. I'd like to get a copy sometime Lizzie :)

And just finished reading Sandy's blog. WOW new furniture and a 65" TV. I wish I could decide things like that, been thingking of getting new living room furniture and then I change my mind, I want to but just thinking of all the work entailed just tires me, besides I don't really know what we want. Our main goal is comfort. We'll see.

I hope everybody has a wonderful September!