A letter from my Grandma

Yesterday I got a letter from my grandma, and it was the highlight of my day. I haven't heard from her in nearly a year, and just out of the blue, she sent a postcard asking how I'm doing and what I've been up to; and what sizes we're all wearing these days. (My grandma likes to buy us clothes for Christmas.)

It wasn't a long note, but it had a huge effect on me. It brought back years' worth of nostalgic memories of getting the random card or letter from her. She always wrote in red ink (typical of someone who taught her entire life) and signed everything "Love, Grandma Huber". She still does. The card made me remember many Thansgivings we spent together, how excited I used to be when we'd go to see her. I missed her, even though I never saw her very often.

So, typical verbose scrawler that I am, I wrote her a letter. It started out to be a couple of handwritten paragraphs, and soon enough it was two and a half typewritten pages, complete with photographs. It felt great. I hope she enjoys it.

Taekwondo on Tuesday turned out to be a good workout, and for the first time in nearly three weeks, I bounced through my palgwe chun pubs. I figure since my feet never left the ground, I wasn't technically 'jumping' against my therapist's wishes.

Speaking of my therapist, she bid me farewell today. I seem to have been healing particularly quickly under her strict ministrations, and she doesn't feel the need to see me again, unless I want to come in. I still have a pile of exercises and stretches to do every day, and I'm supposed to keep in mind that it takes about 3 months altogether for something like this to heal.

Speaking of healing, Forest and I both have the plague, and if anyone would like to come and lay hands to cure us, I'd be forever in their debt. We both have this cold-thing, that starts in one's ears and oozes its way down to one's tummy and up to one's sinuses. Our throats are really sore, and while he's been dealing with difficulty swallowing, I've been having trouble walking straight for the first several hours of the day while my middle ear sorts itself out. It's awful; I'm dizzy and nauseous. Mine has also settled into my neck, and made it stiff and painful. I hate colds that involve stiff necks.

At any rate, we've been bombarding ourselves with Vitamin C, and hoping it will go away soon. It's been a while since we've both been well at the same time; between my knee, our colds, his athsma, his sprained butt (err, hip adductor) and about 5 different colds, we've had about two months of misery. I must admit, though, that this is typical for the first marking period of school. Kirstin, Allyn, and their classmates are prime vectors for lovely contagion.

On the financial front, things took a slight turn for the better yesterday when we discovered that fixing the various cars will cost $150 less than we thought. That's $150 that we can happily turn around and plunk onto our bills, or Christmas. Forest and I are both feeling pretty badly about the car situation, though. We had promised some friends they could use the Geo, and it turns out that we're going to need it instead. It's really a bummer. I think, though, that we may be able to work out the ability to loan a car to them a few days at a time, when we can carpool. I hope.

The first of my Christmas gifts (for other people) arrived yesterday, and is hidden away under the bed. Forest is forbidden to peek, and Kirstin won't, since she'd grossed out by sticking her face into dark, dusty places. Eilonwy is dying with curiosity and trying every way she can to get into the packages, but I think in the end the 3M corporation and my devious application of their products will win out. Yes, that's a gleeful cackle in the background.

I stopped by Karen's house the other day, and I am jealous to say that she and Jim are going ahead with the remodeling of their kitchen. It will be really nice; new cupboards and countertops, and the range hood I've always wanted; with the built-in microwave. I just can't afford to do that right now; even more than I thought, actually. Karen's kitchen is far smaller than mine, and the price per foot of buying cabinetry is absolutely outrageous. Ahh, well. If I had a million dollars, this would come right after the roof and the porch.

I am really enjoying the books I'm reading. I am now on the 8th (I think) in a series of 11 books by Katherine Kerr, all about a fantastical realm called Deverry. A whole bunch of it has to do with Kaballistic ideas, rulers and peasants and wars; but I really enjoy the characters, so I'm tearing my way through the stories at an alarming rate. At this point I can't wait to get home, plunk onto the couch under a nice warm blanket, and disappear into another world. Forest has Judo class tonight, and other than time with him, there aren't many things in the world that appeal to me more than the good old blanket-wrapped reading session.