I Am Not Dead Yet

as they sing in Spamalot. I am not dead yet. I just have a massive case of writer's block. You know, you skip a day, you have more to write, you skip eleven days, it kind of gets overwhelming. I did start entries several times last week, mostly at work, but then I got busy and never got back to them. I've been on vacation this week, and here it is, Friday night around 6:30, so I guess that vacation is officially over. I had a wonderful week, very relaxing, although I don't think I had five minutes of down time. I never took a nap, and I sleep better when I don't have to get up to an alarm.

Looks like that may become full time for me. After going over all the numbers recently, I decided that I could retire in three years instead of four. Now it appears that our governor, whom K refers to as Il Duce, would like 30,000 older teachers to retire this year, and he's proposing changes to the pension system to encourage this to happen. So I am very much in a state of not knowing what will happen with all that, whether September will see me back in school, or retired on less pension than I'd planned on. If that's the case, I suppose I can get a part-time job of some sort, if necessary. It all remains to be seen. Ironic, of course, that I'm enjoying school this year more than I have for a long time.

I haven't been completely absent from the interwebs; I've been reading everyone faithfully, although leaving comments only sporadically. It's nice to be able to go underground and not lose all your friends, in a manner of speaking.

My health issues continue and multiply, although a combination of the warmer weather, better drugs, and massage therapy have really helped the pain a lot. I've officially lost 10% of what my weight was when I started all this in December. Even so, I didn't spend the whole vacation going to doctors, as I often do; I actually did a lot of shopping/returning, and cooking. Yes, cooking! How else could I lose the weight?

I've settled on the third dress, the knee-length one with the short jacket. It looked the best on me. I've ordered the matching bag, and I got shoes, so bring on the wedding.

Do I sound depressed? I think I do, but I am not, I am very, very not. I'm actually in a kind of advanced state of contentment these days, despite all the craziness in the governor's office and whatnot. If anything, I suppose it's that I'm concerned for many people, both on the interwebs and in 3D over here.

I'm going to a workshop tomorrow at Ellis Island, which should be very, very nice except for the rain and the ferry, and on Sunday, R is hosting a gathering of her bridal party and is including the moms. I'm hoping for a little better weather on Sunday because ... drumroll ... not only am I cooking, I bought a skirt! I actually bought two skirts -- keeping both, both denim -- that I'd like to wear, if I can. If not, I'll wear one to school the next nice day. No one will recognize me.

Oh, I forgot. I took a picture of myself last week while I was having my hair colored. I looked in the mirror and started to laugh, so I had to take a picture of it for all of you to see. Don't be scared.


So you can see why I laughed. I didn't get a good picture when I got home (when my hair still looked really good), but here's the real me the next day:


Somewhat less frightening, I would hope. I have never quite figured out how to make my smile look un-paralyzed in pictures.

Feels good to be back.