RAMBLING THOUGHTS FROM A SICK WOMAN

Don't you just hate being sick?  I've had bronchitis for over a week.  Since I have asthma, I'm kind of prone to the lung things.  I figured if I treated it with my inhalers and other asthma meds it would go away...like it's suppose to.  I finally called my allergist last week (he had just seen me 10 days earlier for my 6 month check up) and he prescribed the usual Zpack /Prednisone routine which always works....always, except this time.  Actually I did feel better for 2-3 days and then yesterday it was like someone unzipped me and let all the air out.  I could not find a breath of air anywhere.  I used all my faithful inhalers, many times.  I knew I was in trouble when walking to the kitchen put me out of breath.  You see I was walking to the kitchen because I was hungry, and I was hungry because of that pesky Prednisone, which always makes my breathing easier, and my joints feel like they are in their early forties.  I love the last two things about it, but that hunger thing is a real PITA, because I don't want just a little snack, I want a meal, which on a sedentary sick person never turns out looking well.
By this morning I was wheezing just trying to get out of bed.  The nurse in me said..."Hmmm, pay attention, Harriet!"  So off to the doctor I went.......I have pneumonia.  So now here I am, in my bed, with my own personal pharmacy within arms reach.  I have an extra strength antibiotic, Singular, Zyrtec, Musinex, 3 inhalers, and my hate it/love it Prednisone.
I can't sleep because of the coughing and they want me to cough so no cough med sits in my little store.  There are only two things I am grateful for at this time.  Haagan Daaz chocolate ice cream and my computer.  How in the world would I entertain myself without this sweet little piece of heaven sent technology?  I may have read every beadmaker in the world's blogs by morning.

ANOTHER BIRTHDAY

Wasn't I just speaking about time?  Today,well Feb 22, I am 69, as in SIXTY NINE!!  (I think this blog publishes in west coast time, because I wrote it after midnight in east coast time) However, I digress. How can that be that I am that old.?  Oh, my body feels at least 69 many days.  It's creaky and slow to unbend.  My hands and arms no longer look like they belong to me.  In fact I am sure they are my mother's.  There's this strange bit of extra skin under my chin.  I know that it belongs to my grandmother.  All the sudden one day I looked in the mirror and there it was.  I liked it on my grandmother, who was part English, and had the softest skin  It looked right, there, on her face.  In my memory she always had it. I wonder if there was a time in her life when she looked in the mirror and first noticed it.

My body sends me little messages  in many different ways that things are not working as they once did.  Pizza is not to be eaten right before bed because my aging digestive system sends out a shrieking alarm of heartburn which can last long into the night.  My knees protest when I get down on them to retrieve an object that had the nerve to roll under some piece of furniture.  I use this long stick, with pincher's on the end, to reel in objects that have risen above my shrinking stature.

My ears ring..... constantly.  It was very annoying when I first became aware of that incessant buzzing.  Now I hardly notice it.  I forget things ..like where did I put my phone, or what is my husband's name....just kidding about the second one!  I can remember many things from the past, but remembering what I had for lunch yesterday just isn't worth using up those dwindling brain cells.

I wouldn't want to be any other age than the one I am right now.  No way I want to go back and live through some of those years again.  However, I do miss my younger body.  The one that could run down the beach, flying like the wind, beating my dad who was a state champion sprinter.  The body that could carry two kids, one on each hip, up and down the stairs, no aching knees, no shortness of breath.  The girl who did handstands off the high diving board and cartwheels over and over.  I look in the mirror and I still see her, it's the body I don't recognize. My grandmother (see previous post) was right you know, time, which we all take for granted, it goes in the blink of an eye.

TIME...WHERE DOES IT GO?

Our second grandson turned 6 today.  Seems impossible that he should be six already.  Wasn't it just last September when his Daddy turned 6?  When I was in my 20's I remember asking my maternal grandmother if she thought her life went fast.  She was in her 80's by then and I expected her to say "No, 80+ years is a long time."  Instead she answered "In the blink of an eye."  At the time I wondered how that could be...silly girl.  It does go by, so fast.  When you're young you never think you will feel that way.  When you age you think of it almost every day.

Here's Caleb on his first birthday.  I guess it isn't necessary to say that the cake was his favorite part :)  

Here he is this past summer.  He's such a sweet boy!

                                         

A LITTLE HEART

I love hearts, so Valentine's day is always my favorite holiday.  I love to collect hearts.  I have a friend who must have 10-15 rocks that are all heart shaped.  Some are thin and very smooth and others are very textural.  Lots of my hearts are glass.  Someday I'll take a picture of some of them.  For today here is a picture of a heart I made out of glass.  It's in my Etsy shop.  http://www.etsy.com/shop/kybeadmaker I used tiny little stringers of glass to make the flowers.  I developed a technique several years ago that makes the flowers look like miniature watercolor paintings.  It's my favorite process to use in beadmaking.

 
I wish I liked the color red because red hearts with flowers on them would probably be pretty, but I just can't make myself like the color .  When I make beads I am driven entirely by color.  Sometimes it almost seems like the beads tell me what colors they want to be.  If you talk to other beadmakers they will tell you the same thing.  We sit down at the torch thinking we know what we want to make but somewhere along the way the bead changes from our original concept and becomes something entirely different than our original plan....sometimes better, and unfortunately sometimes much worse :(.. I'll show you some pictures of those some day too.