(10/18)...streaming

Today is the first day of the St. Jude Novena -- surely you have a hopeless cause. Don't we all? I love this Pray More Novenas website -- just enter your email address and they send you a reminder with the novena prayers every day. All you have to do is pray.

Even I can do that.

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I think I am beginning to sound like an old lady with a daily update on my ailments, but it is an ever-changing saga! I am still recovering from surgery. I went to the doctor the other day to make sure my "cold" wasn't strep throat (it wasn't) and he "took a look at my leg" and noticed a hard knot in the vein that the surgeon closed. He didn't really say too much, but his concern alarmed me and got me wondering as to whether it was normal and I called the surgeon's nurse. It's apparently not terrifically abnormal, but they wouldn't say it was normal either. To help resolve it, I have to peel the compression hose off four times a day and sit with a wet, hot washcloth on the spot for 15 minutes. Sure, that's doable, right? At least I have to sit down for 15 minutes four times a day.

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Speaking of compression hose, have you ever worn them? They.are.so.awful. Fortunately I only have to wear them until I see the surgeon for follow-up next week. Prior to my surgery I had to have a short physical to make certain my body was sound for surgery. I went to the hospital and saw a doctor who does only pre-surgery physicals. I think he must be frustrated by his position because he questioned my surgeon's decision to operate on my leg a number of times. He asked me if I had already tried compression hose as an alternative to surgery. I politely replied that I had, but I really wanted to say, "Look pal, did you ever put on compression hose? I'm 49 years old and I don't want to wear compression hose for the rest of my life." Frankly, if I had one year to live I wouldn't wear compression hose for the rest of my life. They are awful, uncomfortable, hot, and binding. My poor grandma is 95 and wears them because she had bypass surgery twenty-plus years ago. Hers are so tight that she has to put them on with rubber gloves. Really looking forward to that day...

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I can't wait until Halloween is over, or as my husband calls it "the culture of death" holiday. I remember Halloween fondly from when I was a kid, but I don't remember all this death and darkness. It was fun when I was younger, dressing up in fun costumes and trick-or-treating, and I feel badly for all the little kids growing up in this culture. This culture that embraces CSI and other graphic "death" media, and that, of course, encompasses abortion -- a woman's-choice-for-death-culture. This love of all that is Halloween in our culture is either a result of abortion acceptance or abortion acceptance is a result of the culture, I can't decide which. Death is just no big deal any more. We see it all around. 

My little trick-or-treater is going to be a fairy this year -- a sweet pink-and-green-dancing-with-wings fairy. We're embracing sweet and cute and innocent.

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This weekend is my frosh's Homecoming Dance. He says he is going, but as is typical in today's culture -- I am told, he has not actually spoken to his date, asked her in a message on FB and has only messaged her or texted her with my phone since. I tried to force him to call her -- on the phone -- but Doug backed me off saying "it's the way they do things today." I still disagree with it being right. Noah (the frosh) informed me last night that he and his "date" might be riding with another boy and his date in a limo. Doug and I agree that a limo to freshman year Homecoming is way over the top, but I have been told that girls today spend as much on a Homecoming dress as I did on my wedding dress. And considering that my wedding was the first time I rode in a limo (for fun and not a funeral) I guess that is how much life has changed. "Over the top" is my motto here. I truly don't want to know what young people do for the wedding these days. I am planning to call the date's mother and the limo's mother -- I do think I have a right and responsibility there. Right?

(Apparently in my effort to be sarcastic, I was just confusing. I plan to call the mother of my son's date, and the mother of his friend who hired the limo driver. I did not hire the limo driver.)