January: Although I was living in Florida, I spent the holidays in Las Vegas, to be with my family. January saw me taking my first trip of the year from Las Vegas to New Orleans. Our ultimate destination was a 4.5 hour drive away.
January 2010 will be different. I'm now living in Las Vegas again, and will have spent the holidays with one daughter while the other one has been living in New Orleans since before Thanksgiving. Hoping to be able to visit her in the not too distant future.
Las Vegas AirportFebruary: Back in Florida, I was fascinated by the always changing sea. But it was a tough month for me, as I fought against obstacles in trying to complete a project that was of enormous importance to my family. It would not be completed until August, with literally only 1 hour before a deadline that was, for all intents and purposes, final.
Being hamstrung by the lack of productivity from others, I sometimes saw the many different faces of the tides as a metaphor for what I was experiencing. I named this photo Blah but, as you can see, it was actually a little choppy. That's how I felt for most of February.
Being hamstrung by the lack of productivity from others, I sometimes saw the many different faces of the tides as a metaphor for what I was experiencing. I named this photo Blah but, as you can see, it was actually a little choppy. That's how I felt for most of February.
March: I opened a Twitter account. I still can't decide if the good I get from it is worth the time suck that it is for me. I'm doing fine without Facebook, and I may even be able to do away with having a blog. But I think I need some kind of online presence, and Twitter can maybe function as the bare minimum.
April: This little baby has been a dream come true for me. Internet access from almost anyfreakingwhere. I know it's been possible for years now, using a cell phone. But it wasn't worth it to me to fool with the wires and not have access to my phone while I was online. I was even a little late coming to the party with this particular technology, but it hadn't quite gotten to where I wanted it.Truthfully, I was even disappointed with it when I got it because it still wasn't the superfast, always available signal I was hoping to get. But it's serving me well. Still, I've recently come to the conclusion that what I really want is a built in SIM on a netbook. Hopefully in 2010.
ATT USB Mercury Data CardYes, I view every place I visit as a potential place to live...at least for a while.
Firkin & FoxI did drive through the University section once, which is where we used to live, to take my mother to a doctor's appointment, and everything looked pretty much the same as I remembered it. And nothing's different near the airport, either. But it' probably been a good decade since I've been down to the Quarter, and I think I'd like to go back and explore it a bit more in depth. So, naturally, I'm kicking myself for not doing it while I had the time and opportunity. It would've been so much cheaper. Soon, I hope.
July: The 6 year old came to visit us in Florida over the summer. Kinda like a family version of camp. I found she had changed, grown up a bit, in just the several weeks she was with us. I looked at photos from right before she came to us and those from right before she went home and there's a definite difference. Also, between the one below and the one way below from this Christmas seems like a huge difference. Who would have thought that there were such major changes between being 6 and turning 7?
I've lived with this child at a couple of different points in her life, and spent much of the summer with her. We are very close and I really miss her. Probably because we can't Skype the way we did when I was in Florida and she was here. She's waiting on Internet repairs to get broadband. Sigh.
August: The photo below is of Hurricane Claudette closing in on the beach near where I lived in Florida. It was a weak hurricane and it didn't hit us directly, so it was more fascinating than frightening at the time. Looking back, though, it seems like a huge, hovering omen.
Within days of this shot, we were on our way out of Florida. The plan was that I'd drop off my mother at my brother's house near Baton Rouge, where she'd stay for several weeks and have cataract surgery. But before we could leave, we'd have to spend 24 hours at a local hospital because it looked like my mother might be having a stroke. Turned out to be a false alarm but, by the time we reached my brother's home, she'd had a real one and its effects began rolling out slowly. So slowly that it was days before she was correctly diagnosed.
So my road trip was postponed, as I spent more than 2 weeks in the hospital with her. She seemed to always be in fairly good condition, considering. The stroke was pronounced a mild one and her prognosis was very good. She'd walk and talk again. But when she got aspiration pneumonia and began weakening rapidly, I had to wonder if I'd be going to a funeral before moving back to Nevada. But she's a fighter, and she came back strong.
At the time, we all said that we'd be thrilled if she could just get to the point where she could go out to eat and see a movie. Because that was her favorite thing to do and it would greatly add to the quality of her life. We reached that point a few weeks ago. Now our hope is that she'll be able to manage alone while my sister's at work, because she'll be moving up there in less than 2 weeks, and she really doesn't want to have a stranger babysitting her. We'll find out soon.
September: My birthday month, and I got to do one of my favorite things. ROAD TRIP!!! And all alone! I hadn't done that since my early twenties. The highlight was stopping in San Antonio. I'd driven straight through it several times, in a hurry to get back across the country in one direction or the other. But, all of a sudden, I wanted to see the Alamo. And I was more impressed by it than I expected to be. Even more unexpected was the beauty of the architecture downtown, and the gorgeous Riverwalk below. As I mentioned before, I just love outdoor dining areas. Big bonus points for outdoor dining on water. (Jackpot when it's a beach)
October: Two pieces of technology that have changed my life. No more carrying pound of books around. Ordering new reading material in the middle of the night? Didn't take long for me to make that dream come true. I waited too long to buy it, and the same is true of the phone. When AT&T came out with the second version of its TILT, the phone had everything I wanted. I think that was maybe 2007. I have no idea why I didn't jump on both of these. But I'm thrilled down to my toes to have'em now.
November: Looks pretty good for an 86 year old woman who's had a stroke, don't you think? I flew her over here on October 25. It was a nightmare, because she could not move on her own at all. Almost exactly a month later, on Thanksgiving Day, she left the rehab center for the 1st time, to spend the day with my sister's family. She got in and out of the car with very little assistance. Since then, I've taken her out all by myself several times - to eat out, or to eat out and see a movie and soon to doctor's appointments. If anyone ever tells you that rehab can seem to work miracles, you can believe them.
We went to a movie the day after Christmas and, while my sister was getting the snacks, I brought my mother into the theater. There was no special handicapped row, we'd have to sit in the 1st row. I asked my mother if she'd been practicing climbing up and down the step in the therapy room and she said yes, so I gave her the choice of craning her neck or trying to climb the wide shallow steps in the theater. She chose to climb and, while the going was slow, it was not very difficult. That was a major milestone, and probably the best gift of the whole holiday season for our family.
December: This month has been a lot about the special kids in our family. I'm living with the toddler and the almost 7 year old is halfway across the country. The two of them have made me realize just how easy I had it, raising two calm children, even though I was a single parent from the time my youngest was a year old. These two are waaaaaaayyyyyy more energetic, and are soooooooo much more cranky than either of my two EVER were. But I love'em anyway. They're both very entertaining, which helps.
2009 had some very difficult challenges for me, and for many in my family. But I know of others who have had it much, much worse. Also, our family seems to have come through just fine and we are extremely grateful for that. Net positive, I'll take it.
I am looking forward very much to 2010. There are signs that it may be the year I finally get to do some things I've been working toward for over 5 years, and that my daughters may be finally getting to achieve goals of their own that have been a long time in the making.
I'm not naive enough to believe that it will be all smooth sailing, life always has its ups and downs. But if we end the next year no worse off than this one, with everyone healthy enough and provided for well enough, then I will be more than satisfied. For all of us, and all of you, I wish 2010 be filled with peace and joy.
Happy New Year.
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