For the last several years, I haven't even tried to stop myself from being that overly enthusiastic Christmas celebrator you probably try to ignore until December. My husband was a little wary when I announced a few Sundays ago that seeing as Halloween had passed, the holiday season had officially begun. "It's November 1," he … Continue reading Early Christmasing for Fun and Sanity
I was supposed to travel to Ottawa this weekend to attend an event that I'd been looking forward to for months. While acknowledging that there's basically no chance that you don't see where I'm headed with this, I'll nonetheless take the liberty of allowing myself a dramatic, bold-and-italics-style reveal. No Ottawa for me. I'll admit … Continue reading Not in Ottawa/Obnoxiously Festive
Well, it's been an interesting year. I knew that 2017 wouldn't be devoid of challenges: it started, after all, with scheduled neurosurgery that had been looming over me for much of 2016. I didn't anticipate, though—I couldn't have anticipated—how many twists and turns I'd navigate from January (intracranial grids implanted, almost the entire month spent … Continue reading 2017 in Review: Looking Back, Looking Forward, Looking at the VNS Scar on My Neck Every Time I Look in the Mirror
I started playing the piano when I was a little girl and kept at it throughout my childhood. True to my personality, I (usually) took my lessons seriously, and I got better and better, as is typically the case when one practises—turns out that all those motivational posters are right. By the time I began … Continue reading Keys
This has been a challenging week on several fronts. I'm only going to elaborate on the one that's directly health-related, though, since it's affecting my ability to process what else has happened and since I like to maintain a sliver of separation between my personal life and my blog existence, believe it or not. Last … Continue reading ’Tis the Season! (Christmas and Concussions)
When I was a kid, "The Christmas Angel" would stop by every four or five days beginning on December 1 and ending on Christmas Eve. Said Angel left small gifts on the kitchen table, often a piece of candy, sometimes a little toy worth a dollar or two, and her visits were eagerly anticipated and … Continue reading The Christmas Angel
You might, but probably don't, recall that in the summer, at the urging of my occupational therapist at the neuro-rehab program that I was attending—and to which I'll return for a second block of treatment in January—I was making an effort to get "back" to the kitchen. In short, my OT was super excited about … Continue reading Back to “Back” to the Kitchen: Cookie Edition
I'm back in Toronto after a few mostly nice weeks in BC with my parents. For suspension-building purposes, I'll start with the good. The trip was pleasant in that it was, on the whole, relaxing, a great opportunity to see friends and family and to take care of myself while recovering from my recent concussion. … Continue reading Christmas CheER and Another Surgery Countdown
Something weird happened between the time I started composing this blog entry and the time I'm getting around to posting it. I'll start with what I meant to finish writing a few days ago but, for lack of a better excuse, didn't, probably because I was too busy eating Tim Horton's chicken noodle soup and … Continue reading That Christmas Feeling
I keep forgetting that it’s almost Christmas, likely because I recently got back from the vacation I can’t shut up about and have been preoccupied with other stuff that my mind is conflating to seem much more important than it probably is. This Christmas apathy is both a problem, since I haven’t done any shopping … Continue reading Christmas “Spirit”
