Recuperation: Complete

I'm declaring te recuperation period after my surgery officially over. In other words, it's time to get off my butt and start getting things done. I have stacks of papers on my desk that need tending to, I have food to freeze and food in the freezer to cook, I have an attic and a basement to tend to.

Since my surgery, I've been doing things that don't require a whole lot of physical activity, or, let's face it, mental acuity. Yesterday, I had lunch with my kids and mentioned something about needing to clean out the attic (which is small, but also sloped, so hard to get in and out of) before I can do the basement, since I need the attic to store certain things in, and Robin said it sounded like a procrastinating tactic to her. Hmmm. Too true. So tomorrow morning I take a look at the attic and see what I can do. Step one.

As for the mental acuity, it's mostly that I don't remember everything I should remember because if I haven't accessed the file, so to speak, in a long time, it's just hard to get back. For example, who were my next-door neighbors growing up? Margie was my friend, and her brother and sister were David and ... damn, I had that one before. Elaine. Okay, and their parents were .... it took me about six hours to remember Yetta, but I still have no idea what the dad's name was. I want to say Steve, but then I remember that Steve was the dad next-door neighbor when we lived in the apartment, when I was about seven. Okay, so Steve, wife Ruth, son Stanley -- hated him -- and their daughter, my adorable sweet little blonde playmate was ... damn.

Most of our snow is finally gone, but there's another storm coming tomorrow, although not a big one. So they say.

I was aware all day yesterday that it was the anniversary of my father's death, eight years. But when I talked to Katie this morning, she put it in different terms. She said that at one point in the day yesterday, she happened to glance at a calendar and see the date, and she suddenly thought "Oh! I haven't seen Grandpa in eight years!" Even now, I'm choking up; I certainly did when she told me about it. I've been dreaming about him a lot lately, just ordinary dreams. Sometimes he tells me, okay, I can take his car out, or no, I still can't get a dog. I guess I'm dreaming of him when I was teenager. Sometimes I dream about my mother too, but not always the n the same dream.

Speaking of which, I think I'm still dreaming about the high school and/or library every night. (Sometimes my parents are there.) I definitely could use some kind of dream analysis. Anyway, at dinner tonight, the thought hit me for the very first time that maybe I'm ready to go back. For a visit, I mean. Maybe that's what I need to exorcise the whole thing, eh? No idea what I would claim for the excuse for the visit, although my library aide's birthday is next Saturday, so I guess I could drop in Friday morning for a birthday surprise. This whole thing will require some serious thought, or perhaps, some focused dreaming.

The Firsts

As Mary suggested for herself, maybe this will help me get back in the groove a bit:

First Job Other than babysitting, or getting paid a comic book to put stamps on the mail in my father's office on a Saturday morning, my first real paying job was in a fabric store in the business area at the edge of my neighborhood. I think I worked there for most of my junior year of high school, after school two days a week, Friday night, and all day Saturday. I learned a lot because I was into sewing then.

First Favorite Politician I remember watching JFK's inauguration on TV about a week after my 7th birthday. The first politician I had stickers and buttons for was Eugene McCarthy in 1968, and then Hubert Humphrey, same year.

First Car The first car I got to use as my own was the 62 Oldsmobile Super 88. I used it for two or three months until that year's insurance on it ran out, and then my father sold it. It was powder blue, had nice fabric seats, and seatbelts had been installed in it in 1963, so our first car with seatbelts. I could drive six or seven kids home from school in it -- it was my junior year, I think -- including several big, hulking guys. But every so often the car would refuse to start unless my father's hand was on the key. It loved him.

First Record/CD I had two or three kiddie record, including a story of Pinocchio, which I would act out as it played. My first 45 was Running Bear. My first real album was Meet the Beatles, for which my mother had waited on line at the nearby department store all morning and then brought me home as a surprise.

First Sport Played I played kickball -- good at it -- and dodgeball -- not so much -- in school, and then whatever else we did in gym over the years. The only sports I've attempted outside of school were tennis -- very not good at it -- and racquetball. I could play racquetball, but I never won a game, even when my opponent was someone I had taught to play that very day.

First Concert I saw Little Stevie Wonder in Central Park when I was about 12, maybe 13.

First Foreign Country Visited My uncle took us all on a day visit to Tijuana when I was 7. Skeevy is the word that comes to mind. I went to Canada with a camp group when I was 15. I went to Europe when I was 21, landing in Brussels and spending two weeks in England and Wales.

First Favorite TV Show TV was the background of my life as far back as I can remember. My true firsts were The Mickey Mouse Club and Howdy Doody. For a little later on, I'll go with The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

First Favorite Actor In keeping with the previous question, the first "actor" I wanted to grow up and marry was Cubby O'Brien from the Micky Mouse Club. After that, I always had a crush on someone: David McCallum, Paul McCartney ... you know. I think the first actor I appreciated for his work was Spencer Tracy.

First Favorite Actress The first actress whose work impressed me was, not surprisingly, Katherine Hepburn.

First Girlfriend/Boyfriend After Robert Chewsky in secnd grade, I was single until my first kiss, which came from Mark Weiss on our way home from a school trip, so, on a bus. I wasn't with Mark long, because after a month or two, my true crush asked me out. That was Bob; we were a couple for about a year and a half. So he was my first real boyfriend.

First Encounter with a Famous Person I think that when I was a kid and we were in the city for a show or something, my father and grandfather would say hello to any famous people they happened to see walking on the street. The governor of New Jersey once passed our car in his limo on the New Jersey Turnpike, and my father rolled down the window and said hello. When I was in DC on a class project, I spoke to the Speaker of the House (Mike McCormack), and ran into Adam Clayton Powell on the elevator. A few years later, I met Alan Alda buying ties in Bloomingdales.

First Brush with Death They say I was close to death at two weeks old, with a very high fever, and was saved by this new drug that had recently been made available to the general public, penicillin. The first real brush with death that I'm aware of must have been the brain surgery, though.

First House Owned It's the one we still live in. We moved here in November, 1985.

First Film Seen The first one I specifically remember is my father taking me to see Old Yeller. I may have been three or four. Around that same time, my parents let my sister take me to the movies on a Saturday afternoon. I remember seeing, among others, Sink the Bismarck! and Operation Petticoat.

First Favorite Recording Artist The Beatles, man!

First Favorite Radio Station There were two big top 40 stations out of New York City. We first listed to WMGM (Wee Willie and the Morning Show!), which then became, I think, WABC. We (my sister and I) listed to that one forever, until the format changed, which was maybe when I was in college.

First Book I Read I had Little Golden Books, and have recently (I think) told the story of how my father taught me to read with one. The first book I took out of the library was The Five Chinese Brothers.

First Meme I Answered on My Blog Possibly a Friday Five; I did those a lot. But more likely it was something I saw on someone else's site.

How I Spent the Snowpocalypse

So far, retirement turned out to be a good idea because

1. It gave me time to prepare for my kid's wedding,
2. I didn't have to take time off from work to have surgery and recuperate from it, and
3. I don't have to go out in the snow if I don't want to, which generally I don't, and as you probably know, we've had plenty of snow (and probably so have you, wherever you are.)

So there. Between the snow and the sharing a single car with the Hubs, I'm spending quite some time here at home, where I am not yet cleared for -- or interested in -- heavy work, like basement and/or attic cleaning. Here's what I've been doing:

Reading

I just finished a sort of series by Connie Willis about time-traveling historians, and I LOVED it and I was totally caught up in it and driven to finish them all, which I had the time to do because of the above referenced weather from hell (so to speak.)

DVDing

Long story short, I'm converting DVDs that I've recorded from TV back into files that can be read by iTunes, or QuickTime or something so that I can watch movies on the iPad, which has no DVD drive. I probably have 150 or so of these, and I'm maybe 20% done. I do other things while the computer is running the conversion, so it's something I tend to every couple of hours or so.

Baking

Yes, boys and girls, I do know where the oven is. I've been making various kinds of cookies, for one, and bread for another, although that's not necessarily an oven project. I brought the old bread machine up from the basement, where I had carefully wrapped it, all clean, some years ago, and when I unwrapped it, it was basically disgusting, so I figured hey, a hobby is a hobby, and during Saturday's respite from snow I went out and got a new breadmaker. Years back -- 15, 16, 17? -- I was very big into the breadmaker, made at least one loaf a day, and now, I have time to do it again. Yesterday I made Italian bread on the dough cycle and baked it in long loaves in the oven, but otherwise, it bakes in the machine. Although I think tomorrow I will try some pizza dough in the machine.

Crafting?

Okay, not so much into this yet, but I did just get the fabric I want to use to make a quilt for my great-nephew, who will be making his world debut in May. I cannot wait to meet this little guy! His father rode home from the hospital in my arms, when people still did that and carseats for newborns weren't so common.

Lottery

No, I did not win the lottery. But you knew that.