Taking it easy

I don't have a lot of energy today, but I've been able to be out of bed a bit, and I'm feeling comfortable. It's nice having Ted here--last night, the three of us went out to dinner, and today Ted and I are planning to do some cooking. When I woke up this morning I didn't come fully awake right away the way I usually do; instead, I just kind of drifted in and out for awhile, until I got a phone call from Florence and realized it was after nine. I was scheduled to be on a phone conference with Bill Anthony from the Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation (http://www.bu.edu/cpr/), the second half of the Webcast we have been recording on the history and philosophy of the psychiatric survivor movement.

I made myself some tea and toast, and then Joan called from the Center (she's been doing all the logistics), and said that Bill wanted to change the time to noon, which was good because I didn't feel so rushed. Ann arrived mid-morning, and did some laundry and other odds and ends, and Kathy arrived for her usual Friday visit, to check me out medically. She was pleased to hear that I was feeling better, and once again reminded me that hospice staff is on call whenever I feel I need someone.

Bill and I had a good phone conversation (although I had to keep stopping to cough), and I'll be interested to see how they put the whole thing together and how many people will access it. Once again, I'm reminded of the power of the Web to disseminate information and link people together.

Yesterday I had an e-mail from the Boston Globe reporter, who sent me the edited version of the profile which is going to run in this Sunday's Living Section. She said I should ask as many people as possible to access it on the Web (http://boston.com/) and e-mail it to other people, as being high on the "most e-mailed" list of articles leads to even more readership, so I'm hoping readers of this blog will be part of this effort. The article is pretty good, although it's always hard to get across why terminology is so important (I had suggested a correction of her use of "people with mental illness" to "people diagnosed with mental illness," which she said her editor had changed back because she saw it as just a superfluous word, rather than a way of challenging the illness model. Still, I'm looking forward to seeing it in the paper on Sunday and getting feedback.

Marty was very pleased to hear last evening that I wanted to go out to dinner, and we told Ted we would take him to one of our favorite restaurants right here in Arlington, a Brazilian barbecue. It was a big disappointment when we drove up and discovered that the place has closed down (I guess just one more manifestation of economic hard times). So we drove to a similar restaurant in Cambridge, and all three of us pigged out. It's a fun kind of meal--there's a big buffet of hot and cold side dishes, plus waiters come around with long skewers of various kinds of grilled meats, and slice off as much as you want. Once again, it was nice to be out, and to feel how much milder the weather is getting (although Ted, having come from Berkeley, thought it was cold).

I'm hoping Marty, Ted, and I can get out over the weekend to do some fun things.