A "lost" day

I woke up this morning feeling achy all over and just generally out of sorts. Both Marty and I lingered in bed till quite late, eleven thirty or so. I wasn't hungry and all I wanted was a cup of tea, although an hour or so later I had a bowl of pasta and butter too.

I've been in bed all day, reading a little, napping a little, watching several old movies on TV, having no energy or inclination to get out of bed at all except for a few bathroom trips. I called hospice, and eventually Lauren called me back, and after talking to me decided to come check me out. She said that, except for the fact that I wasn't running a fever it sounded like I was coming down with a cold or flu or something, so we decided just to keep an eye on things, and I am to check in with her tomorrow morning.

Marty has been working on getting the invitations out and I think they have finally all been sent. I will post a copy here as soon as I figure out how to do it. We've already started getting RSVPs back, which is exciting, as it makes it feel much more real.

Yesterday was a more energetic day. Marty was working on the invitations, and I had visits from Lauren in the morning, and then from Tim in the afternoon. I was sitting on my chair in the living room and feeling pretty comfortable, although it has gotten hot and muggy and we had to turn the air conditioner on. While Tim was here, I got another visitor, Joe, who has been active in the psychiatric survivor movement in the Boston area for many years.

Marty and I were planning to leave the house at four thirty, so we could go for dinner and then to the performance by the Palestinian group, the Al-Rowwad Theatre Troupe, at seven. Both were in Central Square (in Cambridge, about twenty minutes away), so Marty spent some time on line researching nearby restaurants, as he wanted to park and put the scooter together only once. At first, we picked a Tibetan restaurant, but it turned out it didn't open until five thirty, which we thought was cutting it a little close since the show started at seven, so we then decided on a Chinese restaurant that Marty had never been to but is one of my favorites. The only thing I wasn't sure of was wheelchair access, but he called and they told him there was a ramp.

I was tired even before we left, and I said to Marty that I didn't know how I was going to make it out to the car, but he assured me that I could lean on him and everything would be fine. It was muggy out, and when we got to the car I stood outside, leaning on it, until Marty got the motor started and the air conditioning going, as I knew how hard it would be to breathe in a hot car.

By this time it was nearly five, and when we got to the restaurant and had just gotten seated at a table, Marty suddenly realized he had forgotten his camera and definitely wanted to take pictures of the kids performing, so he left me to order some food while he went all the way back (this is just one more manifestation of how everything has been going wrong recently; another is that I had forgotten to bring my cellphone). By the time he got back he was too keyed up to eat anything, so we had the food packed up to go and walked/scootered several blocks to the theater. Almost every time we go out with the scooter I put my bears, Pinkypine, Bo-Bo, and Elbee, into the scooter basket, which they think is a great treat (especially when I go fast).

The theater was fully accessible (we had been there once before, before I had the scooter, and I was pretty sure I remembered that it was, but I called to check), and I enjoyed this performance much more than the one we saw last week. In this show, called "Blame the Wolf," the kids very imaginatively portrayed a combination of fairy stories (including "Little Red Riding Hood," "The Three Little Pigs," and others) to show that every story has many sides, and every person sees things from his or her own viewpoint. But I was feeling very tired, and since after the intermission they were going to do excerpts of the show we had already seen, we decided to leave. When we got home I was exhausted, which I guess has been reflected in how I have felt all day today.