On March 25, 2011 Bob and I celebrated two years of wedded bliss and one year of crap. 2010 was awful, mainly because my depression really kind of sank our household for a while, but also because of Bob's surgery, my challenging first trip out of the U.S. and other...
It occurs to me that anyone who has just started reading my blog might wonder why I have chosen to stay child-free. The reasons appear in a post I wrote over five years ago, at the age of 39. Take a look. This post also contains the phrase "at the...
I've noticed a change in how people respond to my statement, "I don't have kids." When I was in my 20's and 30's, people took this comment in stride, maybe because I seemed young enough to still have children or maybe because they knew I wasn't married, so it seemed...
I am grateful to feel grateful at all. This has been a very hard year even though Bob and I weren't even dealing with a financial crisis or losing a home or anything like that. But obviously major surgery causes its own kind of stress. My depression depleted my...
I'm grateful for a husband who does stuff like this when he finds chalk outside that a kid left behind.
I'm grateful for the place my family has in my life.
I am grateful for my hard-won friends. It hasn't been easy to build such a strong network. Making friends gets harder as one gets older, plus many of us have had to figure out how to be a good friend through trial and error. I think my parents were part of a...
Images of Halloween invoke death, decay and the unknown. They're the taboo subjects that spooked us as over-imaginative children and that we'll fear again as we get close to our own physical collapse. But the reason Halloween is my second favorite celebration is that...
I've been saying it for years: You can't cure families; you can only prevent them.
1. I have GREAT FRIENDS who have really come through for me this week. One friend is getting the equipment I blogged about last time and another brought Bob home today so I wouldn't have to take another day off work or try to drive him home in rush hour traffic. I am...
Good news: it looks like Bob will be home Monday night. Bad news: when I called the in-patient rehab center a month ago and asked what items I should buy for Bob's convalescence, the admissions officer reassured me that the physical therapist would order those items...
Bob's in-patient rehab center, Glenview Terrace, is nice: far fewer interruptions, no construction going on, fewer loud announcements by speaker and Bob's on the first floor so he can walk outside more easily. Everyone there is much older than Bob and I think I'm the...
Bob's hip replacement surgery is scheduled for 3:00 p.m. today. Until then, no food, water or cigarettes. What are the symptoms of nicotine withdrawal for a person who usually smokes two packs a day? I'll have to research it.I feel terrible for him and am not even...
My husband loves animals and has always had them in his life. We would have a dog, except that he's not home enough to take care of one and we would have a cat except that I'm allergic to them. So instead he feeds the city wildlife. We moved into our current apartment...
Lately a couple of people have expressed an interest in how I managed to get married at the age of 41, after years of relationship failure. Before I write about my experience finding a husband, please understand – 1) When it comes to romantic love, I have no patience...