Winter...Pre-Surgery, Pre-Recital

There is a Northern Climate fantasy about the lazy days of winter.  It involves the lingering sunrises and slow magnificent sunsets like this one.  Would you like to go to sleep early?  Would you like to sleep in late?  Permission GRANTED!

I'm here to tell you that this was true for me at some point...several years ago...in fact so many years ago now that it was a dream...a distant hazy dream...

The Greear Family has now officially moved into the part of child rearing where we drive to town a couple times a day for different events.  This cuts into all writing and blogging and correspondence time.

This week we prepare for two huge family events.  Wednesday is Marina's surgery.  She has been waiting anxiously for the time to pass.  She can barely stand it.  Each night nightmares.  Each day a countdown of minutes and hours.  We have a pile of special surgery care items:  a new soft pillow shaped like a dolphin, a terrific care package from Grandpa and Grandma, a journal.  We are trying to focus on the surgery without having to focus to intently on it, but this is impossible.  

At the same time Falcom is gearing up for his big show.  The arts council created a wonderful flyer and we have been seeing it hung around town.  This makes Marina give a resigned sigh.  "Ug!" She says,  "It's always about Fal!"  Even when she is going in for surgery.   

I was telling Lance and Jerami at the salon about Marina's problem sharing the world with Falcom. They understood.  The next time I went to the shop I found this in the window.  I laughed so hard I thought I'd cry.  These two men MADE MY DAY! (I wanted that to be like a shout.) I showed Marina this picture and she got embarrassed from the publicity, but made me drive by it so that she could see it for herself.



In between things, Grandpa Tom sent us 2 large boxes of apples from his tree in Ohio and so I made 12 quarts of apple butter.  I am officially out of Balinese spices to use in it.  Guess we will have to head back to Bali before next fall!

I took the kids out of school early so that I could take them to Soldotna for Marina's pre-surgical blood work.  This just shows how cheap I can be.  I decided that since we were driving up to do to the blood work I should also schedule a mammogram, an ultrasound, and an eye doctors appointment on the same day.  Vince was unimpressed with my scurry to make all these appointments at the last minute.  "You've known about this for a month..."  One out of three ain't bad?  Right...

Marina got her blood drawn.  She was the best patient they've ever had. 

When that was finished I went to get my mammogram.  For those of you that were unaware, hospitals now have special "Women's Imaging Lobbies" where you can sit in privacy.  There is a tea and coffee bar.  There is nicer furniture than in my own house.  There is a flat screen TV showing tranquil images.  I took this picture with my lap top, trying hard to capture the ambiance.  Notice how even the lighting is a tranquil shade of green.

As I sat there, thinking about all of this I became aware of the music playing overhead.  Enrique Inglesias. I thought, "I like this song, he is sexy."  Then the next singer, "I like this song, he is sexy..."  by like the fourth song I realized that the lounge had a special play list to help get patients in the mood for their upcoming nudity.

I've mentioned this before and in case you forgot, http://greears.blogspot.com/2009/03/my-first-mammogram.html,  getting a mammogram is not a big deal.  Yea, you are half naked and yea someone is manipulating your breast into a position which will give you a brief moment of discomfort.  Why would anyone not partake in this simple act of health care for any reason other than the fact that they can not afford it?  I had a woman tell me, "It doesn't run in my family so I don't do it."  What?  Are you kidding?  I'm pretty sure there were not mountains of free plastic radicals floating around in your relatives systems when you took that formal study, were there?  I didn't say that.  What I did say was, "I have a friend that thought she had a zit on her breast or an infected hair.  A double mastectomy later..."  What I also didn't say was, "I lost my friend because she put it off this year..."  That hits too close to home.

My favorite "Mammogram Moment" was when my first breast was being placed in the squisher and I reached up underneath the squishing tablet to pull my skin down.  The technician told me, "Good, thank you for smoothing out your fat roll.  Those interfere with the x-ray." Nice! Good thing I was all limbered up from my time in the the lobby with Enrique, I was able to appreciate what she was saying in the inoffensive way that she meant it.







I worked at Razdolna on Friday and when I got home I was informed that I had caused Marina to miss both the creation of the solar system in her class room as well as the all important Family Math and Science night.  I am helping the surgery to ruin her life. Never mind that I saved out family hundreds of dollars that I can now apply to Christmas, and birthdays, and food for a vocal recital and surgery care packages! She may be smart, but she is only 7 and can not fathom my practicality.  (Well, that or she is like Vince.) Not only did I get scolded right when she got home, but I got scolded in her weekly school letter to her family. 



Snow sliding off the roof at Razdolna School

Winter fantasy number two is that it snow and gets cold and stays that way.  False.  It heats up enough to cause the snow to become impossible to walk in and a hazard to walk under.  The surreal moment of the week came from taking a picture of this snow load curling under the eave outside the classroom at Razdolna School.  If this were any other state this school would be deemed too dangerous for children to be attending.  In Alaska, the principal leans out the screen less window once all the kids are in from recess and knocks the curl down with a broom.

Ah!Alaska, Family, Community...And somehow this morning I have managed to envelope Alaskan Fantasy number one.  It is now nearly noon and I've watched a sunrise, wrote my blog, and enjoyed the silence...  I guess all that wasn't a completely distant memory...