I've been studying so much I am literally dreaming of teeth, but it all paying off as I have aced my first two tests!! I have not taken an exam in over 30 years, it has been quite alot of adjustment and dedication for me to get into the groove of this. I guess not all the brain cells have yet vanished!

The weather has been absolutely incredible since saturday afternoon, it is so nice to throw windows open wide, to hear birdsong and smell spring!! I feel everything a new leaf for me right now, I am so invigorated!

Got a call this morning my sister, Cathy, was in the emergency room. Turns out it was a kidney stone - thank goodness. Although do not think she has uttered those words yet, the pain still too fresh on her mind. Too scary - but this is exactly why I am back living here, getting those type calls when you are too far away to do anything but sit by the phone and wait so stressful, and I never seemed to get the full story at the time precisely because I was so many miles and states away and there was nothing I could do anyway, or so they would say. At least this way I can jump in the car, be there in a matter of minutes so as to be able to assess the situation, ask doctors questions, etc. And offer comfort and distraction - the main job of a sister in this exact situation. Amen, because then on the way home I decided I was going to stop at this fish place I'd just gotten a flyer in the mail about as I hadn't yet eaten today, turns out the guy who owns it graduated the same year as I (why do all us "almost 50's" feel the need to talk about our age this year so much??!) and went to school with alot of people I knew from catholic elementary school, and one of his best friends was my now-deceased sister's boyfriend of many years. Which made me just shake once I was in the car and heading home from there as all those memories and this-day-could-have-been-much-much-worse thoughts started flooding my mind. Thank you, God.

ahhhh, spring!

technically, we've made it!

I've definitely got spring fever!

Back to school?!*!! I began the dental assistant program saturday. Wow, a lifestyle change from the one I've been living, I will no longer be a "lady of leisure" as I've been this last year, but one where I will be studying my butt off! It will be good for me to stimulate brain cells I question at times I even possess any longer these days, I certainly have alot to learn and absorb. All round, a good thing - I am happy with having made this decision, it's a step in the right direction as to getting my life in order. It's sure taken awhile but I feel everything led to this point, that I had to experience it all - good, bad, and ugly - to get to where I'm at and where I'm now headed.

...and so it goes, guess we are returning to "normality". Except I can't see my mailbox for the snow banks anymore, the mailman couldn't even make it up the street so just left anyway, and I somehow managed to bash my ankle which hurt like heck. You never know where you are going to find that silver lining however, as putting on my well-constructed snow boots for two+ hours while I went outside, shoveled and heaved the snow seemed just the thing for the ankle, although still ugly and bruised no longer swollen and hurts very little! There ya go.

I still remember my mom dressing us all in this get-up and telling us we were to go out and stay out for an hour - fresh air was good for us. (And her sanity?!) Invariably someone always had to go to the bathroom before she'd even finished getting everyone ready. Once out there I'd go and lay down, make snow angels, and watch the clouds in the sky. Although I do remember once standing with my nose on the back door begging to come back in. I've never liked winter much.

enough already!

More like slapping one silly because, it's official - we are having another blizzard. Yesterday was downright weird - rain, thunder and lightning, sleet and snow and then today, high winds and a continuous snow that has been blowing so much there have been times I can't even see across the street. My class which was to start tomorrow cancelled until next week now, and again ~

h o u s e b o u n d. I've had enough.