Today I am thankful for...

Chewy oatmeal raisin cookies with an extra dash of salt.

Water served at room temperature.

Man-scented deoderant.

The bougainvillea outside my window.

Roasted cauliflower.

My dad's visit to Phoenix over the weekend.

Lessons learned from sugery, part 2.

Today I washed my hair in the bath tub. With one arm glued to my side (more out of fear of intense pain, than due to actual intense pain) and a red keg cup in my free hand, I struggled with my innate clutziness. It was frustrating. I fought down my instinct to let the right hand assist the left. I dropped cupful after cupful of water on my matted hair until it was wet enough to add shampoo, then awkwardly lathered, one-handed. We were nearly out of conditioner, and extracting a quarter-sized blob into my hand felt pretty close to a miracle. That's when it struck me: I was kinda enjoying myself.

Lessons learned from surgery.

Shoulder, three days post-op

On Friday I had surgery. My first. I had no idea what to expect. Well, I expected pain. And that I would probably wish for my mom to be by my side (even though I'd reassured her countless times that I would be fine. Really, fine). The procedure would stitch up a cartiledge tear in my shoulder, hopefully giving me back a relatively pain-free yoga practice. It has been so long.

I did not expect to learn so much from this surgery, especially in a groggy, pain pill-filled somnambulant state.

Pulling off the gauze and pressure wraps from my surgery I was overwhelmed with nausea, light-headedness, chills. I was sore, sensitive, raw. My husband gently, gently unwound the bandages. Carefully he helped ease me into a warm bath and sponged the iodine and adhesive off of my aching shoulder. He clumsily tied my hair back and passed a warm washcloth across my face, easing the sleep out of my eyes. I sat, slumped, swollen, and weary while he took care of me. And he did the same all weekend--making me exotic varieties of smoothie when I didn't feel like eating real food, helping me carry the same four pillows back up and down the hallway as I grew restless sitting in one place, and never once complaining.

I did miss my mom this weekend. She is the most nurturing person I have ever met, and I am always happy to have her near. But this weekend I fully realized that marriage has made me a part of a new family. A family of two. With much love and much respect in our hearts, we will take care of each other through the painful times and the sweet times. And occasionally be surprised when they are one in the same.

Together at Last

This is my bike. She's a real champion. A friend.

She is strangely unnamed.

She's just joined me in the desert along with the rest of the belongings that we'd left languishing in storage until we had the time to drive them cross-country.

We finally moved into an apartment that is reasonably sized for two full grown human beings and has more than one closet.

I am ecstatic.

There are still boxes strewn about, but it already feels like home.

Zen Desk

Image via http://youaremyfave.tumblr.com/

This afternoon after fighting the procrastination and non-productivity beasts for a few hours, I cleaned off my desk at work. My inspiration came from this post by Gretchen Rubin, the happiness guru.

And you know what? She was right. I feel more calm and ready to tackle tomorrow's work day already.

Now on to unpacking that suitcase that I've been neglecting....

Beautiful Mind

Over the holidays, Kim Peek, the inspiration for the movie 'Rain Man,' passed away. His obituary in the New York Times has been popping up in my mind ever since. They said that Mr. Peek had "an astonishing skill that allowed him to read facing pages of a book at once — one with each eye — he read as many as 12,000 volumes. Even more remarkable, he could remember what he had read."

His story is a reminder that there is so much that we still don't know about the miracles and mysteries of life. And so much that we shouldn't judge.

And just like that...

Photo found here.

My blogging hiatus has come to an end.

Think I got a bit overwhelmed by the combination of travel, holidays, work, and the Best of 2009 list.

Very, very excited about 2010 and the goals I've set for myself. Maybe more on that to come...

One of my resolutions involves dusting off the beautiful sewing machine my parents gave me for Christmas last year and re-learning how to sew. Marisa's project over at New Dress a Day has been seriously inspiring. My obsession with thrift stores can be justified if I can remedy ill-fitting pieces.