#Update

Good Morning & An Update

/ Marcia Meara / 34 Comments


(For Mae)

Happy Freya’s Day, Everyone! (Okay, Friday is actually named for the Norse goddess Frigg, but Freya and Frigg are considered by most to be the same goddess. That being the case, I’m going with Freya, because, you know. It sounds nicer. 😉

At any rate, I hope your day is a good, productive one with plenty of smiles. 

As you may have noticed, I don’t have things back on my preferred schedule quite yet, and I apologize for that. The truth is, I’m still not feeling 100% after my fall of two weeks ago. I’m vastly improved, for sure, but I’m still suffering some recurrent dizziness and fatigue. This isn’t uncommon when you’ve received a concussion and can continue for several weeks before finally disappearing. And while the ER doctor said he didn’t THINK I had a concussion, he also told me to watch for the signs of one. (Along with the signs of brain bleeds and swelling, and various other things. I spent a lot of time watching, believe me.) Bottom line is, concussions are often missed, and based on the types of symptoms I have going on right now, it appears I’m still recovering from one. Frankly, I’m just grateful I’m not still recovering from a fractured skull. 

And all of this is by way of telling you that, as you’ve no doubt noticed, #FirstLineFriday has been put off for another week, due to a couple of bad days Tuesday and Wednesday that pushed me even farther behind on my overall work schedule. But NOT to fear! I am much better than I was, and I know I’ll be catching up soon. I’m just trying to do what my  doctor suggests and not push too hard, though it’s against my nature to be idle very long. So, I work a bit, and then I rest a bit, and by and by, I expect the time spent working to increase until life is once again as normal as it gets around here.

Thanks so much for your patience and your well wishes, and all the kind things everyone has sent me. I appreciate each and every one of you more than you can imagine! Will be resuming my usual blog features, etc, one at a time until all is running smoothly again, which I hope won’t be too much longer.

And now we’ve come full circle: Happy Freya’s Day, Everyone! 😀 ❤

Update: Laughing at What Ails Ye – It’s Good for Body and Soul!

/ Marcia Meara / 19 Comments

It’s been my lifelong belief that you can handle anything thrown your way once you reach the point where you can laugh about it. Laughter is a saving grace we have all been blessed with, but the importance of which is often forgotten. I honestly do not know how anyone who can’t laugh at themselves, and at life in general, can survive, though I see plenty of evidence today that many people have lost the ability.  My heart goes out to them, for they apparently lack one of the greatest survival tools of all.

😀 😀 😀

Granted, as I was lying on the floor Tuesday, in blinding pain and with the mounting fear that I had fractured my skull in the worst fall I’ve ever taken, I was not laughing. Nope. Way too soon. Nor did I laugh while struggling to get to my feet and into some clothing,  so I wouldn’t have to go to the ER in my nightgown. Still too soon. I did start making a few feeble jokes with the good folks in the ER. Maybe not too soon for a dark chuckle or two, but definitely too early for anything resembling clever humor. 

And so it went for three days, as I reflected on how lucky I was to still be alive and possessed of functioning brain cells, though a few of those may have abandoned ship in the great tumble. But actual humor was still a struggle. It kept being drowned out by the mother of all headaches, some pretty extreme fatigue, and  a lot of overall shakiness. But guess what? It’s baaaa-aaaaack!

😀 😀 😀

Yes, my sense of humor–weird and slightly twisted as it often is–has returned! I’m laughing again this morning! And after a conversation with my very good friend and cover designer, Nicki Forde-Ficocelli (who says she is going to paint a flowered helmet for me), I realized I’m laughing all over the place. It was the vision of me wearing said helmet while riding around on a tiny tricycle a la Arte Johnson from the old Laugh-In show that did me in, and is still making me giggle. (Hey, I never said all my jokes  were genius quality!)

The upshot of this is, I’m feeling much more stable on my feet, much more certain that my life will return to something resembling normal, and pretty darn sure that no matter what’s going on, if I can find something about it to make me laugh, I can survive!

My sense of humor has stood me in good stead for 75 years, and hopefully, I’ll get a bit more mileage out of it, yet. And my hope for you is that no matter what life throws your way (or where life decides to throw YOU), you’ll be able to find the humor in the situation at some point. Laughing will save your sanity, and it has the added bonus of making everyone around you wonder what the heck you’re up to. Try it. I heartily recommend it. 

😀 😀 😀

Our regularly scheduled programming will resume on Monday! Have a great weekend!

I’m BACK! (I think.)

/ Marcia Meara / 22 Comments

At the risk of jinxing myself, just want to let everyone know my computer is up and running again. So far. It seems the cable company was doing some work/upgrading in the neighborhood yesterday, which is probably a good thing. (It could have been a “perfectly fine” thing, had I known and been prepared for it, but that’s another story.)

At any rate, everything is working well this morning and hopefully will continue to do so throughout the day. Week. Month. Year. For all time! 😀 I am having to do a fairly large email dump, as I can’t hope to catch up with everything that came in, but I’ll try to snag the critical stuff. And please forgive me if I miss responding to some comments here and there on the blog. 

Overall, though, this day is starting out much better than yesterday, and I’d like to think it will continue to go relatively smoothly. (I tend to hyperventilate and tear at my hair when computer issues crop up. If it happens again any time soon, I could end up blue in the face and bald! 😉 )

Thanks for your patience and understanding. Things happen. Life goes on. 

Update#2 on My Family – #HurricaneFlorence

/ Marcia Meara / 23 Comments

Now THIS is the way to ride out a hurricane! First you find a place where the beaches are calm and sunny, and you can stay in a condo with a gorgeous pool. Of course, it must be well out of the dreaded Cone of Uncertainty predicted for any hurricane that happens to be threatening a given area.

Then you take your boogie board to the beach in the morning, before the temperatures reach brain-baking levels, and later, head back to your air-conditioned quarters until it cools off enough for a lazy afternoon dip in the pool.

When the all clear sounds, you return to your home with your fingers crossed that your neighbor (who chose not to leave) has been truthful when she said there are no ugly surprises awaiting you.

Yep. The evacuation orders for Charleston have been lifted, and as far as we know, all is well with my daughter’s house. This isn’t the way they prefer to plan a vacation, but they made the best of it, enjoyed the infamous Emerald Coast of the Florida panhandle for a few days, and will soon be home again.

I can now breathe easy knowing I have fulfilled my sacred duty as a mom to issue hour-by-hour updates and warnings throughout the entire ordeal. 😀

On a serious note, as rivers continue to rise, especially throughout a wide swath of North Carolina (where many people no longer have homes to return to), the danger of record-breaking floods is still a huge problem. Please keep those good folks in your thoughts and prayers. And thank you from the bottom of my heart for all your thoughts and prayers for Erin, Myres, Kaelen, and Reya. It meant a great deal to me to know so many people were thinking of them throughout this ordeal. THANKS! 🙂 ❤

Update on My Family in Destin, FL #HurricaneFlorence

/ Marcia Meara / 25 Comments

When you have no control over what might be coming your way, and you’ve done everything you can to be prepared, this is what you do: take your children somewhere safe and live in the moment with them. Be joyous for the time together. Be hopeful for the future. Trust that things will work out as they should. And send pictures like this to your worrywart mom.

Tomorrow will be here soon enough.