Just Another Cottage in Blogville

Oranges and Pancakes

Soooo I may have fitness-walked for an hour yesterday, which did not seem like a big deal at the time, especially since I'd been stretching. However, I woke up this morning, rolled over, and felt a throbbing lump in my left gastroc as I stretched. Before I'd even gotten out of bed I was boiling with anger; it is the most annoying injury I have ever had. The doctor was right.

My mother took half a day off work to spend time with my sister and me. I wasn't up to much today, and asked her if we could relax on the back porch in the sun and read. After all, I needed to finish "The Naked Roommate: And 107 Other Issues You Might Run Into in College," continue plugging through "The Voyage of the 'Dawn Treader'," re-read "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," and alternate reading "My Antonia," "Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, A Political Marriage," and "First Ladies" by Betty Boyd Caroli. Finally I finished "The Naked Roommate," and I'm progressing more with "First Ladies," which is tempting me to pick up another Jackie Kennedy biography. I love biographies on her - she is my all-time favorite First Lady. (Are you surprised?)

After I lounged in the bath for a while, I slipped in my hot pink sun dress I picked up in Cozumel and carried down six books, abandoning air conditioning for the summer sun. I read until dinner time, my face colored by bright sun rays and my hair completely dried. Pennsylvania has the lowest vitamin D rate in the US, so I like to spend as much time as possible soaking up the good stuff. My vanity is hoping my hair will lighten and I will tan slightly before college begins. While I don't plan to major in "Mrs.," as my "school dad" teacher Mr. B. calls it, I do want to look a little less like a small town little girl.

In case anyone was wondering about my handle, it was something that hit me last night for the first time in months. About five years ago I befriended a woman in her forties and became pen pals via email. Our correspondence coincided with the darkest time of my life, and her presence, albeit virtual, meant the world to me. We met about this time of year, and by November, she was having problems with pneumonia. She had given up smoking for a while, and the doctor told her she was doing well the day before she passed of respiratory complications. The loss was a total shock, a real blow, and the first close loss I've ever had in my life. About a month later, things turned around as I was diagnosed with manic-depression and received proper treatment. I did not find out until later that she, too, had bipolar disorder, which explained why she understood everything I was going through, and knew how to respond to any question or problem I had. As time has gone on, I have felt selfish for not getting to know her better, but I do keep in mind that I was extremely ill in a way that incapacitated me from understanding other people. She was off her lithium.

For whatever reason, I burst into tears last night. I would have said it was random, except I found a supportive note she'd sent me encouraging me to follow my dreams and that I would be successful one day. I was able to collect myself after about twenty minutes, but the tears caught me off guard. I have been legally in full remission for two and a half years, and no longer cry much, so it was the first time in a long while that I've had a surprise "attack" of tears.

Sara was actually a member of this site: VerySara . I have a link to the side of my blog that leads to her port if you are interested. At one point she was a Preferred Author with a yellow briefcase, but it did not change to a white briefcase after she passed because no legal death notice was presented to WDC.

Other than that, all has been well in Jackieville. I made "English Pancakes" this morning, which are more like dense crêpes than pancakes, but folded with some granulated sugar and wrapped around slices of orange wedges they are more delicious than any pancake I've ever tasted. Over the weekend I probably won't be on here much from work both Saturday and Sunday. That just means I'll have more stories when I come back.

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