Note: You’ve probably noticed different designs and colors appearing in my blog header. I have been experimenting with varoius ideas and just like to pop them up on the blog for a few days to see how I like them. I haven’t yet found a final design, but just didn’t want you to be surprised if you continue to see me trying out new ideas.
So yesterday was both beautiful and unbeautiful.
Here is the unbeautiful.
The infusion (for Rheumatoid Arthritis) was preceded by x-rays of my chest, feet, hands as well as an injection into a swollen, painful knuckle.
I usually don’t cry during the injections but yesterday broke that record. When a knuckle is already sensitive and then someone inserts a (seemingly) 9-foot needle into the hurting place, a few tears are bound to escape. Fortunately I have a compassionate doctor who is not at all taken aback by weeping females in his office.
The beautiful side of the visit was that I happened to look up how much my monthly infusions cost and found out they come to a grand total of $46,000 a year. What’s beautiful about that is the blessing of insurance. It’s expensive insurance for sure, but still better than paying that much money out of pocket. I am grateful for the beauty of good medical care.
After all the various needles had all been stuck into various body parts, I took myself off to a few post-appointment shopping spots. I have been looking for a new watch since my old one broke a few months ago but haven’t been able to find anything I loved in my narrow price range.
I went into my favorite Greenville thrift store (My Sister’s Closet) and one of the first things I saw was a watch from Chicos, one of the brands I always look for in thrift stores. (I don’t usually shop in the actual store unless I have a gift card.)
The watch fit like a dream, looked like it had never been worn, and was only $10! As you can imagine, I was a happy gal.
On the way home, I stopped to enjoy another beautiful part of the day.
When I got home, there were two more beautiful things waiting for me.
Sarah had made a delicious dinner featuring these sausage, egg and cheese muffins. (Breakfast as dinner is one of my favorite ways to eat.)
[yumprint-recipe id=’15’]I also had waiting a surprise letter from my childhood friend, Lorrie, who I’ve known since I was 13. She had sent me a couple of pair of earrings she couldn’t use and enclosed a letter along with them.
After Lorrie and I moved away from each other 40 years ago, we would write lengthy handwritten missives to each other–often 6 or 8 pages at a time.
E-mail pretty much put an end to all of that but sometimes that familiar script will pop up in my mailbox and take me back a few decades.
I have seen the phrase, “Love, Lorrie” hundreds of times in my life and am grateful for the beauty behind those words and the beauty of a lifelong friendship.
What about you? What was beautiful about your day today? Or maybe it would be therapeutic for you to share an unbeautiful part of your day. Both are gladly welcomed.
And also: Are you a watch-wearer or a non-watch wearer?
I sometimes think it’s a generational thing. Nathan says he never wears a watch; he just looks at his phone to find out the time. I’ve nticed a lot of other young adults who do that, as well. I have always worn a watch and feel like there’s something missing when I don’t have one on.
OMG, your knuckle looks soooo painful. I hope the infusions are helping.
I haven’t worn a watch for years. I have nice jewelry, but the only time I wear it is if I am going out. I find that jewelry just gets in the way when I am doing things. I don’t even wear my wedding rings after several incidences where something caught on the underside of the band and felt like my finger would be ripped off!
Kari,
The injection on that particular finger helped immensely. So thankful for good medicine.
I guess if I had ever get something caught in my ring, I would be a little hesitant about wearing one, too. That’s scary!
We are visiting our son and daughter-in-law in Oregon. Yesterday we were going to the beach and even though very windy and cool had prayed for a sunny day. It was! Today it has rained ALL day. In looking at the picture of your finger, I hurt. Can only imagine how painful the session must have been. Have worn watches for years and I have several, trying to match them with what I’m wearing. And they have to have bling!! ?
Sharyn,
A sunnday day at the beach is a wonderful thing.
And thank you for “feeling” the pain of my finger along with me. How wonderful to have empathetic readers.
Handwritten letters. One day I was in a Christian bookstore and stumbled upon some little $1.00 cards &, decided, in that moment, that I needed to buy a bunch to send, randomly, to one of my best friends. I started this in.. 2014? Just every now and then I send one off. When I visited her in July of 2015 I asked her if she ever got them, since she hadn’t said anything, and she reached into the cabinet and pulled out every one of them. I was glad to find another bookstore with the same cards when I moved here to Corvallis. Every now and then I’ll get a text saying “that came just on the right day.” It brightens my day when I send them and it brightens her day when she gets them.
Anyhow. Watches. I’m of the generation that wore them, then got rid of them when the phone came around. About 9 months ago I bought a watch. I was tired of being tied to my phone all the time. Now I feel odd w/o my watch and it’s nice to be able to put it down.
Brooke,
Isn’t it just the best feeling to drop a card in the mail and know what a happy surprise it will be provide on the other end of its journey–especially in this age of texting and email. Good for you for being so intentional in brightening up your friends’ life.
I agree. I don’t like having to pull out my phone every time I want to know the time. Having a watch back on my wrist is fabulous!
The beautiful part of my day is that yesterday I found out that my niece was the only freshman invited to audition for the honors recital in November. Out of 16 invited, she was one of 8 chosen to participate. She will be playing Schubert’s OP 90, no 4. I will be taking a day’s PTO to make the nearly 4 hour one way drive to see that. Additionally, I’m going up tomorrow to see her and take her to lunch.
I am a watch wearer. I only have one that I wear with everything, unlike some people who have multiple ones. I had stopped wearing one for a little over a year when I had a FitBit that I wore on my wrist. I’ve since switched to one that I don’t have to wear on it.
Phyllis,
What a beautiful addition to your day yesterday. I know you are SO proud of that neice of yours! Enjoy the trip and the opportuity to get to hear her use her wonderful gift on the piano.
Becky, hope you are feeling better. I wore a watch all the time growing up. About mid 30’s I quit. Just became too stressful always trying to be on time. Might say an obsession so I quit. Fortunately my current job has no set schedule. Those muffins Sarah made look scrumptious. Would she share the recipe? I enjoy breakfast any time of the day. Hubby is in the ag industry, spring & fall make for long days and I’m always looking for multi purpose easy recipes. Thank you. The “unbeautiful” here is my fav bargain shop is closing the end of the month. The beautiful is the weather, predicted to be the last warm day before the next “rainy spell” as the ancestors would say.
Note to Steve: A friend’s daughter-in-law is from Korea and Spam is often given with a bottle of wine as a gift.
Karen,
Sarah said she would be glad to share the recipe! I’ll add it to the post in the next day or two once she sends it to me.
I feel your pain concerning your favorite bargain shop closing down. I know you have spent many happy hours there.
I can assure you that Steve will not be visiting Korea anytime soon if there is any danger of him being presented with a can of Spam in the guise of a gift! 🙂 Too funny.
I used to wear a watch growing up and well into my 40’s but when I got a cell phone, I guess that is when I stopped wearing one, my kids don’t wear one, relying on their cell phones as well but my husband still wears one.
You are lucky you have insurance to cover your infusions. I have psoriatic arthritis and have been on Humira shots since January, but we pay our own insurance and had to switch to a new policy and the shots are not covered anymore,they are 2200.00 per shot, and I take one once a week, with insurance, we only had to pay 5.00 so I am just relying on Ibuprofin for the time being!
Dale,
Yes, I DO feel very fortunate to have insurance to cover my RA treatment.
After reading your comment, I had to look up psoriatic arthritis; I’d heard of it but had no idea what it was. I’m so sorry that your new policy doesn’t cover your shots; I know you must be so disappointed.
Insurance is such a muddle and mystery–it covers one thing and not another and it’s so crazy expensive. But we’d sure be in a pickle without it!
I used to wear a watch all the time. I have a couple dozen different watches. Then I got a Fitbit activity tracker and it took the place of my watch. Now, after 2-1/2 years, I don’t miss it at all and I, like Nathan, just look at my phone for the time.
As I was driving to work this morning, the sun was on the horizon and there were some wispy clouds in front of it which made for the most gorgeous deep orange and yellow sunrise!! What a beautiful way to start the day. The non-beautiful part is that my youngest grandson is sick with croup and an ear infection. Thank goodness for steroids and antibiotics. Poor little guy. 🙁
Your finger looks extremely painful. I’d cry too! I hope it improves with the injection and infusion. Have a really great weekend! 🙂
LeeAnne,
The best part about the sunset yesterday morning was that you took the time to notice it and appreciate it. It seems sad to me that so many millions of sunsets become just visual background noise and people don’t take the time to stop and really see the.
I’m sorry your grandson is sick. Getting those meds on board usually makes a quick difference. I’ very thankful for good medicine whether it is for RA or croup!
It was a beautiful part of my day yesterday that my son came home for the weekend. I always love when he comes home. As for a watch, always!! Mine is my fitbit but before I started wearing that, I always wore a watch. I agree, most younger people use their phones.
Julie,
Hooray for sons coming home! One of the best ways to make a day truly beautiful.
Oh this could be a long comment but here goes. I love the colors you have in your header right now because it reminds me of the ocean that you live on. 🙂
I used to wear a watch all the time and one day while I was in the shower, I started to take it off. It slipped out of my hands and went right down the shower drain and out to the septic system. Haven’t worn a watch since then. It was my 15 year watch from my employer at the time. I told my boss about it and we kind of laughed about it and she said that they had an extra one and that she would give it to me and then later that day, she turned around to flush the toilet at work and her watch (same kind as mine) unclasped and went down the toilet just as she was flushing. What are the chances of both of us losing our watches on the same day and in a similar manner.
My mom who is 79 and her sister-in-law who is around 90 still write each other letters. Aunt Mary just always has one on the go and jots things down as she thinks about them. The letter is sometimes written on a full piece of paper but more often than not, it is written on anything that is handy when something pops into Aunt Mary’s head that she wants to tell my mom about. Mom has received parts of the letter on the back of receipts from stores or a paper bag that must have been handy at the time. Mom received one letter and on the last page and the last line Aunt Mary had written “so anyway” and that is where the letter ended. We laughed about this for a long time and the next time we saw Aunt Mary, mom was telling her. Aunt Mary laughed and thought that it was one of the funniest things she had done yet but the next letter that my mom received from Aunt Mary started “as I was saying before I mailed that last letter…”. She has been doing very poorly this last year and a half or so but my mom sends her cards that she makes every week for her daughters to take to her. My mom is the baby of the family and Aunt Mary was married to my mom’s oldest brother so her and Aunt Mary have been family but more important is they are friends also for over 60 years at there was quite an age gap between my mom and uncle.
The most beautiful part of my day is that it is Friday, the weather forecast is great for this weekend and I am done at 2:30. Because of those things, anything unbeautiful that happens is not going to override the beautiful. 🙂
Have a great weekend.
Mel,
I’m glad you like the colors in the current header; I hadn’t thought of them being a reminder of the ocean since I sort of picked them to match what I was wearing in the profile picture. 🙂 I am going to keep experimenting but am glad to know I have landed (however briefly) on an “oceanic graphic.” 🙂
Two watches lost to the greedy grasp of plumbing within twelve hours? That’s probably not going to happen again anytime soon.
My mom is sometimes like your Aunt Mary in writing on various scraps and we also kid her about writing last minute thoughts in the margins of the page, going in all directions.
But your Aunt Mary saying, “So, anyway . . .” at the end of a letter takes the prize for funniest letter writing, especially with the way she started the next letter. Obviously a woman with a great sense of humor! 🙂
Sarah’s muffins look great!!!???
Ann,
They were delicious and it was so nice not have to come home and cook.
Like my watch. Usually after surgery the first thing a patient will ask for is the watch or time. My day yesterday was beautiful as I attended the retirement celebration for my former co-worker who took my position over 10 years ago when I retired. It was great seeing friends I had not seen in many years. One side effect of my Letrozole is RA symptoms after about 6 months. I was told to alert my doctor immediately when they start as the Med can be changed. One UNC oncologist told my friend that 80% of women have to change from Letrozole. It is an insurance requirement to try that first due to cost. Glad she advised me of what might happen. Have a great day. We are at Nash Day for Jim’s colonoscopy. Prayers for him and his brother who is having back surgery in SC this morning.
Ann,
I know you enjoyed going back to your old workplace and seeing old friends and colleagues. You’re blessed that you have a chance to reconnect a whole decade later.
Good thing you got the whole scoop on the Letrozole and know what to watch out for. Doesn’t sound like many people have good, long term luck with it!
Hey there,
I am a non-watch-wearer . However in my childhood I loved wearing watches . I remember one I had with a tiger (where the clock was) and the strap was rainbow colored. That was a very colorful indeed for a child and it was a gift from my Dad. I remember I was quite upset when it could no longer fit my wrist. I know that my Dad gave me another watch (but I have no memory of what it looked like) but again nothing was like my tiger-watch! My guess is that I have been around 10 or 11 when I had that watch. Before my teens I did stop wearing watches and I just use my phone 🙂 Now I cannot imagine wearing a watch since I do not like anything on my wrists . I do have 4 tattos (1Mockingjay – a bird on my wrist) ) and 3 butterflies on my wrist and some of my left arm so always something colorful 🙂
Wishing you a lovely weekend.
Trine,
Isn’t it amazing how things from our childhood stay in our memories so long? It sounds like that watch was truly special to you–not just the uniqueness and the color but the fact that it was a gift from your dad.
I’m glad you still have some color on your arms–color is such a wonderful addition to our world.