Catching Up and Waking Up

I have a tendency to procrastinate and thus, have not posted anything about what has been going on in my life for the last few weeks. Here is a recap to bring you up to date. These are in no particular order, so don’t go psychoanalyzing why I wrote about one item before another. I don’t have these written down. They are just coming off the top of my head:

1. My insomnia- it is somewhat better but, I am still having issues, just not every night. I see my neurologist later this week and I am pretty sure that the medication he gave me is the cause of it.

2. I went through six hours of testing last week to get a better idea of what can be done for my brain in terms of occupational therapy. I got to the Hurley Rehabilitation building at the corner of Longway Boulevard and Dort Highway and I was promptly told that someone had climbed onto their roof and stolen the copper piping out of the air conditioning units.  They wanted to get me out as soon as possible before the building got too warm.

Yes, these are the “come-back economic times” we live in. Flint, Michigan isn’t catching up as quickly to other areas of the country economically. The theft of copper pipes, wires, manhole covers, aluminum siding is a chronic problem in this area and it isn’t limited to empty abandoned buildings. The upward turn in housing and jobs hasn’t been seen here much at all. Flint is in the news because of the State takeover of the local government due to major financial difficulties.

Oh, and it will be at least two weeks before they have the results of my tests back. I have no idea how I did. I do know that I seemed to do better on the tests that I saw in front of me. The tests that I had to listen only were more difficult to do.  I am a perfectionist and seeing pages and pages that could be completed and weren’t drove me nuts! I know that it wasn’t even possible for most people to complete all of those pages, but my competitive nature felt defeated when I didn’t complete them all. I came away not feeling great about how well I did. 

I have a tendency to obsess about not doing something perfectly. This has been a life long struggle for me. I have never been perfect; however, I beat myself up over that issue more than I should. I am much better about this than I used to be. I know that no one is perfect except God. I work on this every day. So, now I wait for results and of course my neurologist appointment is this week which means he will have nothing for me and I will be paying a $15 copay to hear that. He will probably adjust that medication though, so all is not lost.

3. It was my birthday yesterday. I am 58 years old!! I do not feel that old. I don’t want to be that old and I, especially, do not want to be treated that old. I think it is part of being a “boomer”. In spite of my health problems, I still feel like I am 35, no older. I will wear jeans and t-shirts for the rest of my life. I will not start wearing polyester stretch pants, Easy Spirits and getting my hair done weekly. I will not become my mother. I love her but I am not going to start dressing and acting like her. I don’t want to be thought of as the old generation. Warning-don’t treat me that way. I probably won’t handle it gracefully. 


I am not ready to join shuffle board clubs, go to seminars on health and aging, tour senior housing. I will go kicking and screaming into that stuff. I will be polite to you, because that is what I am was brought up to be. I will even wish you well if those are activities that you enjoy or want to be a part of. However, I will be kicking and screaming on the inside at the very least. I can talk to anyone, young or old but I relate to people that are in a younger demographic. I also don't mean to offend any of my older friends. You are my friends and I respect and love you. I am not trying to pass judgment on anyone. I just know what feels right for me, and I am not ready to feel old. I guess that this is also part of being a baby boomer. We don’t react to aging in the same way that previous generations have. I may be unhealthy right now but, that doesn't make me old. I think I can kick your butt, metaphorically speaking, when I am healthy. And I will become healthy again, soon.

Birthday celebration- my family took me out to dinner. I was to pick the place. It could have been anyplace at all. I would have loved to go to PF Changs or Salvatore Scaloppini’s but, I have three grandsons under the age of six. I wanted to eat someplace where they would be comfortable, where we wouldn’t have staff and customers complain if we were too loud and a place that wouldn’t take forever to be served. The boys prefer to eat peanut butter and jelly, toasted cheese, macaroni and cheese and pizza. So, I picked Luigi’s. It is a great pizza place on Davison Road in Flint that has been around forever. The boys were a mixed bag. Two were fine, one wasn’t. One ate well. Two didn’t. They all fell asleep on the way back to Elizabeth’s house so birthday cake wasn’t an issue. All in all, things went pretty well.

Birthdays at my house, growing up, meant dinner with the immediate family at my parent's house, cake and ice cream, and then presents. It also meant birthday cards that arrived in the mail, some with a dollar or five dollars from Aunt Frances, a card from Grandma McIntosh, a card from Aunt Drusilla. Sometimes there would be other cards, but I could always count on a birthday card from them.  Well, time has slipped by. My parents, my Grandma, Aunt Frances and now this past year, my Aunt Drusilla passed away. This was the first year that I didn’t get a card from that generation of my family. They are all gone. But, my Facebook friends sent me birthday wishes throughout the last few days and I felt remembered and loved.

My birthday cake wish list was and has been the same every year since I was little: Buttercream frosting, pink, cherry chip cake. Paul was in charge, he says he can bake a cake, although I have never seen it take place in my lifetime. I knew that I wasn’t going to get a cherry chip cake from a bakery. So, I gave him a list, prioritized: No negotiating on this one-Buttercream frosting must be pink; in order of preference-Cherry Chip cake, Banana cake, White cake. I know that if I left it to Paul, I would have gotten a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. That is his favorite flavor.

Tasty Layers, where family friend, Stephanie works, was able at the last minute to decorate a cake that came as close to what I asked for as they could: a two-layered Banana Cake, covered in Pale Pink Butter Cream frosting, with delicate pink and white flowers cascading off one side and another, and with strawberry filling in between the layers. It was beautiful and delicious! Thank you Stephanie! Take a look at their website. They make beautiful cakes.

Birthday presents: I received a gift card to Barnes and Nobles from Jon, Ree Drummond’s new cookbook, The Pioneer Woman Cooks. Check out her blog and her cooking show on Saturday mornings on The Food Network. I also am getting an upgraded Direct TV box installed in the bedroom with HD and DVR capabilities. It gets installed either Friday afternoon or Saturday.

4. The Hunger Games- Oh. My. Gosh! I went and saw the movie with Elizabeth, Amanda and Andrea. When I see a movie, it is usually with Amanda, Andrea and Elizabeth. Occasionally, Hubby Dearest, Alan and the boys will join us, but those movies are normally Disney Flicks or in Hubby’s case, a comedy.  Paul is into the dark adventure, or romantic movie.  This movie was wonderful.  If you haven’t read The Hunger Games, then do so. The producers stayed very close to the book (very important to me). The integrity of the story was maintained throughout.

If you are one of the few people on the planet that has not heard of this series, let me bring you up to speed.  This is a cross between Brave New World, Animal Farm, and 1984. Of course, this is telling my age.  These three books were mandatory reading when I was in high school. Many of you probably have never even heard of them. They were all set in the future and gave a glimpse of what life was expected to be like for North America, if not the entire world if we didn’t change our ways. They were cautionary tales.

 That is the way I read The Hunger Games. In fact, I didn’t realize that the series was written as a young adult series until after I saw the movie. This is also a cautionary tale for our country. Some critics have said it is just about children killing children.  It is much larger than that. The “haves” and the “have-nots” have grown wider apart in the story than we already are in this country. Adults among the “haves” have created a punishment for the “have-nots” that forces their own children to kill their own children. It is viewed by the “haves” as high entertainment. Just think back to Rome and the Coliseum, the Gladiators, and the slaves, the captured, the Christians, whoever was out of favor. They considered it sport and high entertainment too.

   

It is not a movie for your precocious ten year old. There are few feel good moments. There are however, lessons to learn, to be reminded of, if we as individuals, as a nation, as a planet are to be responsible for others that have less, compassionate, merciful and loving. I have told you before, that I cry over everything but this movie, other than one scene, was a movie that sent me beyond crying. I made me mad, sad, made me think, made me start to wake up.

5. So, this is where I was going to start writing my post for today. I want to share with you what I have been learning about over the last few weeks with my New Covenant family. When I look back at what I started talking about today, it all seems unimportant compared with what The Hunger Games reminded me of. I have set you up to hear, but I have run out of space. I will continue this tomorrow.