Thank goodenss for Thanksgiving

If anyone has read any of my recent blog posts you could probably figure out that I was wallowing in a bit of self-pity. Silly me. I have so much to be grateful for, but it took a day set aside for giving thanks before I realize it.

Yup, I had surgery and it hurt like a muthah (as they say here in Boston) yet it was elective and I had the means to torture myself. Now I'm feeling better...but last Sat night, I fell on a perfectly flat Toronto sidewalk and sprained my thumb on one hand plus my other wrist and two fingers on that hand. Waaaa. Still, it could have been way worse. I could have broken something and been trying to type with a cast on! I'm grateful I can do my final line edits by Dec 3rd, when their due.

And yes, we were lucky enough to go to Toronto for the Everything about Sex Show where I signed my Ellora's cave books. I'm grateful that I have such a wonderful marriage that my hubby was able to wander around the show while I was signing for an hour each day, and I could totally trust him not to do anything I wouldn't do. LOL. Okay, so there's not much you can do in a public forum, but you know what I mean, right?

I'm grateful my beautiful, intelligent daughter is healthy and her relationship is nine-years strong.

Today I'll be spending the day with my in-laws and a single mother they invited because she and her kids had nowhere to go. I'm grateful I still have a place to go and people to be with on Holidays.

They may not be the family I grew up with...(Deep breath) but they're wonderful people and I'm lucky to have them. No flying turkeys across the dinner table because someone had too much to drink. No insults traded over long-past hurts. Just a calm, safe place to spend a lovely afternoon, eat way too much and enjoy the company.

I wish all of you the best holiday you've ever had.

Ash

le sigh

The Internet is a wonderful place, until...
your blog gets spammed and you have to begin moderating comments...
then your books get pirated so frequently that the offender is forced to take it down one day and it goes back up the next.

Right now I'm typing with one hand. I fell on a Toronto sidewalk Sat. night and sprained my wrist, two fingers and a thumb. Maybe the universe is telling me something.

Maybe it's saying, "Give up."

Ash

Oops, I over did it.

Have you ever started to feel a little better after an illness or injury and decided, "Oh, it's no big deal to do the shopping, laundry, dishes..." or whatever you feel guilty for not doing? Then you try to go back to business as usual and relapse?

That's what I did yesterday. I went grocery shopping so my poor hubby wouldn't have to do it after a long day at work.

First, I borrowed his truck because its seats are higher and less painful to get in and out of than my convertible's low seats. Only to forget he has no power steering. So I fight with the truck on each turn. Then I got one of those shopping carts...you know the one. Its wheels are stuck in one position and you have to wrestle it around corners. Just like having no power steering!

Then I just had to pick up a 20 pound frozen turkey because they were on sale for $0.40 per pound! Then, when I'm almost finished and ready to go home and collapse, who do I run into? My mother-in-law. So, I had to stand in the isle chatting for another half hour.

By the time I got home, I knew something was very wrong. My right side felt swollen and ached like I'd run a marathon. Oops. I guess my doctor meant it when she said, "NO exercise." So, today I'm back to relying on my hubby to drive me to my two-week post surgery follow-up appointment. Damn.

I'm scheduled to go to Toronto a week from this Friday for a three-day book signing.
I'd better lay low for a while. I don't want to miss that!

Hubby of the year!

I enjoy public speaking. Am I weird? No, don't answer that!
When I realized this speaking engagement, set up a few weeks ago, was right on top of me, my first thought wasn't, "Oh, no. How the hell am I going to be comfortable in the car all the way to RI? Maybe I should cancel." or "How am I going to sit on my sore tuccas all day? Maybe I should cancel." It was, "Oh, no! I hope I can go, because I don't want to miss the fun!"

Many of us have wonderful husband's but mine deserves some kind of award. Not only for putting up with me (embarrassed grin) but also for supporting my hopes and dreams any way he can. Mr. Ash drove me all the way to RI, and hung out at the library, reading the latest Dan Brown novel on his Kindle. The lovely ladies of RI welcomed him to join us for lunch, and he did.

Not "classically handsome" but wildly attractive to me--even after all these years, I'm proud to "show him off" any time my friends meet him. How did I get so lucky? And even though he never said word one about my figure, I wanted him to feel about me the same way I feel about him whenever I look his way and he's unaware. I can honestly say we're living our HEA.

So, yup, I'm still bruised and healing, but feeling better and happy about my decision to improve myself, albeit taking the drastic route.

Ash

Time to talk about something different

I was blogging about my surgery and hoping I didn't sound like Aunt Martha talking about her gallstones. As it turns out, maybe I've exhausted that subject.

Yesterday I emailed my daughter about my progress since she had asked and I (mistakenly) thought she really wanted to know! I told her about the blackraspberry-like bruise, the bleeding that had stopped and started again, the pain, and well, she emailed me back and said, "Mom, I was eating as I read that." LOL. I guess that'll teach her to be honest next time.

Anyway, moving on to more pertinent things. I've passed the half-way point in my second novel in the Strange Neighbor series. As it turns out, I'm able to write despite my "delicate condition." In fact, it's a nice distraction.

So, my editor wanted me to come up with alternative titles for this new book over the weekend. Now, keep in mind it's about a werewolf and I was on pain medication. I started off with "normal" sounding stuff, but as she encouraged me to keep going, the ideas degenerated from the sublime to the silly, to the ridiculous. My last title was "Well, At Least He's Monogamous."

LOL! Come to think of it, since I write comedy, that might just fly!

3 days out

The continued adventures of Ash--2nd in the 'Lipo Sucks' episodes
It took three days before I stopped feeling like hell had chewed me up and spit me out. I'm a baby when it comes to pain. Yes, I know I have a big, honkin' tattoo, but it took three separate sittings and my artist sent me home each time a began to cry. (Not good for business apparently.)

I knew it would hurt (a little) but if you're a baby like me, you'd better think carefully before you sign up for this. A little pain to some people is a lot to me. I can't even stub my toe without wanting to send the chair that attacked me hurtling through a window.

So, that said, I'm feelin somewhat better today. Okay, I'm still on Percocet, which is probably the only reason I'm able to sit here and type. This is the first day I didn't want to yelp each time my hubby changed my dressings. It's a good thing I love him and vice versa. I even washed my hair. Now I feel...well, not like a million bucks, but maybe a fifty and change.

Oh, yeah. I caught a glimpse of one of my bruises today. You know what a blackberry looks like? (Not the electronic kind.) Well I have one growing above the pad that covers the bandage on my abdomen.

I can't wait for the second step in this process...supposedly in a week, I'll be ready to graduate to the suit that I can pull up by myself instead of something my hubby has to hook and zipper me into. My drains will be taken out...by the way, I'm not bleeding out anymore. That's always a good sign. Maybe I'll even be able to wear jeans again instead of scrubs!

Woo Hoo! Can't wait.

Ash