And The Left Leg Too

If you know me, you know I love beautifully done tattoos. I love the artistry behind them, and I love the way they are a piece of a person’s life story, embedded in flesh.

Don’t get me wrong. I know a lot of people who’ve gotten tattoos that were inspired by nothing more than a whim, a desire to get any old tattoo, or simply because they want a piece of art from a specific artist. Those are part of that person’s story too.

In the middle of 2015, I went in for two sittings with Stephanie Flannery (then at Golden Rule) and came out with a gorgeous magpie and fox on the front/outside of my left shin.

 

It is so lovely, I immediately knew I wanted to have her continue on and wrap the rest of my lower leg… it just took me this long to get there.

On Saturday, I took the short drive North to see Stephanie again (now at Black Castle Art Co) and she lined and shaded the rest of my leg. And I couldn’t be happier.

I realized part of the way through the lining, that my dad would hate the subject matter of this tattoo (if he liked tattoos at all). I don’t know how he feels about bluebells, but the fox glove making its way up the side of my knee is basically a weed back home (maybe I’ll find a place for Himalayan blackberries next) and the feather on the back… well, let’s just say blue jays are like the feral cat of the skies on the farm.

I’ve since joked that I may get a skunk cabbage on my knee. I’m only mostly sarcastic.

Next month: Color!

Today, they chop off my arm.

Kidding.

Mostly.

This morning, at 10am, I get to go see my plastic surgeon. Let me tell you. The fact that I have a plastic surgeon tickles me.

She’s not going to chop off my arm.* It’s a quick, 20 minute procedure to remove a lipoma (basically a fat tumor**) from my right forearm. I could have ignored it, and I have for the last…8? years. The problem is, it’s in that annoying spot where it rakes across the edge of my desk when I’m working. And that, friends, is a painful annoyance I could do without.

So this morning, I’ll be headed to the Mayo Clinic to sit down, have my arm numbed up, and watch*** as my surgeon cuts a tiny slice in my arm, avoiding the vein this thing sits right underneath, and pulls the thing out. 4 stitches and I’ll be outta there. I’ve even been told I could drive myself away from the procedure. I’m not going to, but it’s nice to know I’ll be lucid enough to operate heavy machinery.

*Unless something goes terribly wrong.

**It’s benign and hereditary; mom had one in pretty much the exact same spot.

*** Who am I kidding? I don’t even like watching the needle hit me for the first 5 minutes of getting tattooed; I’m not going to watch a scalpel slice me open!

Update: surgery went fine. Pulled three little nuggets out and sent them to pathology. 3 hours later and I'm just now starting to feel a hint of soreness.

"Live" Blogging My Day

At about 10 last night, the bathroom ceiling started leaking. This was not as great a concern as the great ceiling leak of a few months ago.... this leaking stopped as soon as our air conditioning kicked on - so I'm at home this morning waiting until the apartment office opens up and I can get maintenance to deal with the problem.

And, because I'm home all day, I figured I'd blog about it. (This post will be updated through out the day)

6:30am - Wake up, check emails & blogs while eating breakfast and steeping tea.
Maybe it's because I'm not going to work today.... but I actually woke up on time (well, mostly on time - I count any alarm before 7 as "on time"). It's IWSG day over on my ABK blog, so I visited a few people on the blog hop and looked at some other blogs I follow, as well as going through my emails - does anyone else wake up to a lot of junk each morning?

7:00am - get dressed, make the bed, start the dryer.
Remember that tea I started a half hour ago? It's still steeping. I'm pulling on real clothes and putting the bed together while the dog... dogs my footsteps. I start the dryer to fluff the towels I've needed to put away since sunday, and pull the tea bag out of my tea and add sugar and lemon.

7:30am - Take the dog out for her morning walk
This is when I usually leave for work. Instead, I'm tripping down the stairs with my ewok and headed for the park so she can have her morning grass sniffing. The landscapers are out, blowing the leaves from the rock beds, running their giant riding lawn mowers, and generally stirring up a lot of dust. On the way back in to the building, I check the office hours (I'm usually more concerned about when they close.)

7:50am - start this blog post
I'm at my desk - finally drinking my tea - and typing this up.

(8am Tea - Fresh and Easy White Pomegranate)

8:00am - Do a half hour apartment cleaning session.
Whether or not maintenance cares about the state of the apartment, I do. Life gets it messy, and so I'm leaving you now to turn on Pandora and do a half hour quick-clean-up.

8:34am - Get set up to get my writing done for the day.
I've got a pile of inputs and edits to get done, but for the next half hour, I'm going to try to get my full day's writing down. It's just 715-words, so hopefully it isn't too rough.

8:58am - Writing done and then on to revisions
I used write or die and got 722-words of the next Flynn novella done. Now,I'm going to go make myself another cup of tea and dig into my revisions. Lu is passed out in her bed - which is always better than sitting at the window barking at passing cars.

(9am Tea - The Republic of Tea "Hi-Caf Teas" Toasted Coconut black tea)

10:10am - Editing break, Call the office
Two chapters input (after a false start with the red pen) and It's time to make a call down to get maintenance up here. They didn't answer the phone prompting me to walk down there instead. I got the request put in and came back upstairs. They should be here before noon.

10:50am - Back to work (This is the reason it is difficult for me to work from home)
I took a small break - getting the last of the dishes done (putting away the run washer, refilling it and doing the handwashes) and the very final bit of laundry. So now I'm diving back into chapter 10. We'll see how much I can get done before it's time to take a lunch break.

10:56 - Note!
Marty Robbins' "El Paso" just came on Pandora.... It reminds me of my childhood and is a perfect  soundtrack for the part of this book I'm working on.

(11:00am Tea - Lipton Green Tea - Orange, Passion Fruit, and Jasmine)

11:23 - Internet drops out
Not a big deal - just requires a restart (this is happening quite often anymore, I really need to buy a new computer.

11:46am - Input #1 done
I'm through all the pages I've already got edited in this book. I've got four chapters input and an extra 625 words into book 3 of the Flynn universe.
That means it's time to switch back to the red pen and tear apart the pages that are waiting to be revised. ... but instead, I think I'm going to go back to write or die and get in the 528 words I was short from yesterday's count.

12:04pm - Writing done
I put in another 552 words with Write or Die. Now for a lunch break, I'll likely start editing while I eat my pasta salad.

(12:00 pm Tea - Fresh and Easy Lemon Herbal Tea)

12:33pm - Lunch break over
I ate my pasta salad (penne, feta, cucumber, grape tomatoes and pesto) while talking about cucumbers with a beta reader, dried the hand wash dishes and am now going to dive back into edits. Oh, and I'm still waiting on the maintenance guys who were supposed to show up between 10:30 and Noon.....

2:24pm - Two Chapters Down, and a Break.
I took a break after getting through two more chapters of redlines - and starting the defrost for dinner - to call the office to see why I still hadn't seen hide nor tail of a maintenance person. After a brief hold, I was informed I'm next on the list, so I'm going to go make another cup of tea and wait for Lu to go crazy because someone's knocking on the door. It's just a toss up whether it will be maintenance of FedEx first.

(2:30pm Tea - Oolong [I don't know the brand, we get it at the Chinese cultural center - so I can't read it - but it comes in a fancy tin])

2:40pm - Maintenance shows up!
Apparently an emergency came up, so it's all good. He came in and dealt with the Aircon issue (the drain pipe from the compressor was completely clogged) the kitchen faucet (tightened it up so it doesn't leak anymore), the slowly filling fridge (removed the sheet of ice beneath the freezer's "floor") and replaced the air filter. Little editing was achieved because Lu does not make for a great armrest - she is wiggly!

3:55pm - That's over with
Now that he's gone, I can throw out the tea that I started steeping... and never quite stopped. And get back to things.

4:40pm - Run the dog out, etc
Took Lu out for an afternoon visit to ye old grass area. Stopped int at the office and picked up my two packages (after a brief mix up the second one was found!) grabbed the mail and came back up stairs. unboxed all the goodies. 

5:00pm - Start making Dinner
Shrimp cooked in coconut oil with stir fried mushrooms and snap peas... I'm pushing for a viewing of "The Phantom" (Gotta love Billy Zane in purple spandex) with dinner, but we shall see.

7:32pm - Begin prep for tomorrow/end of the week.
Watched the Phantom. Love all the awfulness mixed in with an actually entertaining film. Now to premake breakfasts and get ready for the next few days.