{Yes, I'm still here}

Yes I'm still here!
Dealing with a few complications from the surgery.. it's yucky.

But on a brighter note, I quit my job at the pie shop and got hired at my dream job.. Replay Vintage!

The field across the street.

1950's dress: Replay

Morning Glories at work.

The wall behind my bed.

{Grey}

Taking it easy today..

Phantom gallbladder issues.. ugh.

It's time for me to continue on in my nursing studies.

I signed up for classes that begin in summer.

May is the Galveston Bathing Beauties Revue and Rammstein.

June is going home (and taking my significant other with me) for my best friend's wedding.

July is tons of birthdays and hopefully visiting my grandparents in Oklahoma.

Lots of stuff to look forward to!

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{Life Lately}

This has been a difficult past couple of weeks for many reasons.

I've been slowly recovering from my surgery.

I've lost some weight, putting me at 140 lbs.

Not bad for being 5'10"!

Needless to say I am pleased.

Can't eat fried food, fatty food or anything with carbs.

Or anything containing too much sugar or flour.

I can't lift heavy things but I can sit up on my own in bed now.

 

I received a letter from the Texas Board of Nursing today and there is significant progress in transferring my CNA license to Texas. 

Hooray!

1950's dress I got on sale for $17 at Replay,

My dad sent me flowers after my surgery. Yellow roses and Alstroemeria.

Making applesauce.

Wisteria at work

Sunflowers at work

Mason jars at work.

{Hmm}

Last week when we saw W.E.!

While wearing my 1940's Vicky Vaughn frock..

I spotted something suspicious in the ladies room!

{Post-op}

Well I had surgery 2 days ago and my gallbladder was removed.

I was able to come home yesterday afternoon.

The surgery was successful.. the surgeon removed my gallbladder and it did contain 2 stones.

I'm glad this happened.. if I hadn't decided to go in to the E.R. at 03.20 yesterday morning I wouldn't have known that I had gall stones at all.

I'd actually been having "gall attacks" for the past year, I just didn't know that was happening to me.

I thought I had GERD or was developing a food allergy or something.

It was always the same.. I'd wake up late at night or in the wee hours of the morning with severe upper abdominal pain.

Taking a hot bath would help but it would always return when I got out.

Sometimes it would make me vomit.

Well 2 nights ago around 12am I was awake with severe upper abdominal pain and couldn't stop vomiting.

Couldn't even keep water down, so I had Travis drive me to the hospital-ER 5 minutes down the road.

Arriving at 03.20am, it took about 2 1/2 hours for me to be seen.

Had to wait another 2 hours for the results of blood work and then have an abdominal ultrasound.

I got to see my inflamed gallbladder and the stones on the screen.

I was then taken to a room upstairs, put to bed and had to wait another 4 hours before talking with a surgeon about choliectomy (surgical removal of the gall bladder).

My surgery was scheduled for 16.00.

I was nervous.. but there really isn't any alternative.

It was weird being put to sleep.

I guess I developed hypothermia during the surgery.. I vaguely remember convulsing and shaking and chattering and being so cold upon waking up and the nurses wrapped me up in heaps of warmed blankets.

I've got 4 incisions in my belly.

They're mighty sore but I'll be okay!

We stopped at Whole Foods on the way home for canned soup, protein drinks and ice cream.

Travis has been cooking, cleaning, picking things up for me..

Really, who could ask for more?

{Some memories}

I'm excited to go back into nursing.

My favorite field has been and will always be geriatrics (old people).

In addition to the fact that I enjoy taking care of ill people and making others comfortable, they tell the best stories and offer a look into what life was like "back then".

A couple of weeks ago it was really slow at work and I talked with an elderly couple (in their 80's) for a good hour and a half.

They were both born in 1926 in Mississipi.

The wife (I can't recall her name) told me that:

 

"I had a very strong immune system and didn't contract any childhood diseases.

I even went to visit a friend with chicken pox to be exposed just to get it over with.. and didn't get chicken pox at all.

However, I did develop a case of mumps in the late 1920's."

"Growing up during the depression", she told me, "was difficult."

"It was a different world and a different time.

Middle class families didn't have enough money anymore.

People didn't have enough to eat.

I had one friend whose family only had oatmeal to eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Families couldn't spent money on their children.

That's a vast difference from today!"

"At the time, it cost 11 cents to go see a movie.

I remember when Gone with the Wind first came to movie theaters, in 1939.

It cost 39 cents to go.

I wanted to go so bad but we didn't have any extra money for me to go see a movie.

My mother knew that a badly wanted to go.

She was part of a bridge club and would get together with other ladies and play for money.

She was an excellent player and won $1 and gave it to me so I could go see Gone with the Wind!"

"In the summer of 1936 I was 10 years old.

I was to go visit some relatives in Alabama.

I traveled 500 miles all by myself on a Greyhound bus.

It was safe back then.. things wouldn't happen to girls like they do now a days.

Strangers were helpful.

There was a 2 hour layover.

While waiting I went to a movie theater and saw Tarzan!

My mother sure was upset when I told her that upon returning home!"

I asked how they met and they told me:

"We met at a junior/senior picnic in high school.

Then we got married when we were 20 years old."

The wife told me that the secret to living to old age is lots of exercise and the fact that it's okay to have dessert!

"I'm in my 80's and I still play tennis!"

The husband told me that his mother was a teacher in 1910 and had to drive a horse and buggy to the school 25 miles away from her home.

{Date Night}

Last night we went out and saw W.E.

I thoroughly enjoyed it!

We even snuck wine and chocolate into the theater with us via my big purse!

Although I have to say, I did tear up a bit during the film..

Certain scenes brought me back to dark places I've been, being married to my abusive ex-husband, the divorce and the "scandal" of seeing Travis before the divorce was ah.. even filed.

It still shocks people when they learn that I'm divorced because I'm "so young" or "so nice" or this or that.

 I say that no one has a right to judge unless they've been in a similar situation themselves.

Ah well, I wouldn't re-do anything or change anything that I did.

I did what I had to to make myself happy and safe.

Besides, it takes a real man to see a chick flick like this with his girlfriend, so I'm really lucky!

 

Oh and I got a new sewing machine!

A 1970's era Viking Husqvarna.

I got it for $3 at the thrift store back home in Ramona, CA while I was there in December.

It didn't quite work so it was in a sewing shop there for some time, being repaired and then it was finally done and got sent to me here!

I've already ordered a terrific 1940's dress pattern off of Etsy and a 1930's one will be next.