An Ordinary Day

I woke up, drank coffee while reading the paper, ate a bowl of cereal. Swallowed my morning handful of pills.

Got myself dressed. It is still difficult to reach my toes, so donning socks is problematic, but after some contortions, I managed. Wearing my clothes, I look pretty good at 152 lbs, but without my clothes I look alarmingly thin. I lost 45lbs in hospital.

Walked unaided down the stairs to get in the car. Ivonne drove me to the hospital (I'm not quite ready to drive myself: I need more muscle for the pedals). For the first time, I walked to the doctor's office instead of using the wheelchair and sat in the waiting room just like everybody else.

On the way home Ivonne and I stopped at our favorite noodle shop for bowls of ramen. The soup was especially good today. We sat at the table for quite some time talking about how far we've come since the day we met, and how happy we were now. It seemed like a date. There was a lot of laughter, which was painful for Ivonne because she had a wisdom tooth extracted last week (they had to saw into the bone to get the stubborn thing out). She no longer looks quite like a chipmunk.

At home again, I found my neighbor fixing my lawnmower. John has taken care of my grass since last spring when I could no longer do it myself. He wheels out the trash on trash day and sweeps (and scrapes) the sidewalks. I did not ask him to do any of these things. He will take nothing in return. He and his wife are angels. He is a survivor of another kind of cancer. We had a good talk about that last year.

I was sure I wouldn't be able to climb the stairs after all the walking I did today, but up I went. I'm getting stronger.

I checked my email for everything I haven't been able to read since August. So many of my friends, new and old, were worried about me! I'm sorry I wasn't able to respond back then. There are so many emails I can't respond even now except to say I think of you as my extended family and am ever so thankful for you.

Tomorrow I have to do my taxes (from 2009, may Uncle Sam forgive me) and find out what we need to do to put the children in school. Every day I take a whack at the paperwork that I've ignored since, well, since January, really. It was an impressive pile but I'm nearing the bottom. I think about doing consulting work next year — but will anyone hire me in these difficult times?

In other words, it was a perfectly ordinary day, more-or-less like that of everyone else. I dealt with ordinary things in an ordinary way. I am happy. I'm in love. My step-children make me laugh. The cat's fur needs brushing.

My eyes tear up a little. I never thought I would ever see another ordinary day like today. It's another miracle.