Catty Fantastic

Stolen from @wanderingweatherwax because books!

book you’ve reread the most times? I think Busman's Honeymoon, by Dorothy L. Sayers. But I'm sure there are others.

top 5 books of all time? Without thinking too hard about it: Busman's Honeymoon, Circe, Demon Copperhead, Good Night, Irene, The Care and Management of Lies, The God of the Woods

what is your favourite genre? Mysteries

what sections of a bookstore do you browse? Fiction/Literature, Mysteries, Popular Fiction (whatever that means), with a dip into SciFi

where do you buy books? Independent books stores, chain bookstores and on my Kindle.

what books have you read in the last month? Books 2-5 in the A Court of Thorns and Roses series, A thriller/romance by Nora Roberts - The Target (?), The Correspondent, On Beauty, Saving Myles, and the latest 2 or 3 in the Bunburry cozy mysteries series.

is there a series/book that got you into reading? Besides the Dr. Seuss for Beginners books when I was little? The Sweet Dreams books -- they were Harlequin romances aimed at teens.

what is the first book you remember reading yourself? I think a Nancy Drew or a Hardy Boys.

when do you tend to read most? When I'm awake. Seriously -- any spare time? Will fill with reading.

do you have a guilty fav? I don't subscribe to the idea of a "guilty" pleasure read. I read high and low and anything in between and don't fee guilty about any of them.

what non-fiction books do you like if any? I've liked a few but I have a hard time with most, especially memoir. Some that I've enjoyed: Empire of Pain, My Life in France, Radical: My Journey Out of Islamist Extremism

did you enjoy any compulsory high school readings? Several!

do you have a goodreads? Nope. Too much work.

do you ever mark/dog ear books you own? Yup.

recommend and review a book. I highly recommend my top 5; and see the answer to goodreads as to why the second part is not forthcoming.

how many books have you read this year? Erm ... a lot?

top 5 children’s books? The Nancy Drew series; The Hardy Boys series; The Fantastic Five series; Where the Red Fern Grows; can't think of a fifth one

do you like historical books? which time period? Sure! From ancient Greece, Rome or Britain to recent history (Good Night, Irene, and The Care and Management of Lies are two amazing novels about the two world wars)

most disliked popular books? Could not get through first 1/3 of Twilight and I will never read anything by Colleen Hoover ever again. *shudder of horror*

Welp. Got an alert from America Airlines that my flight out of Maine was delayed for maintenance. This we would have given me 30 minutes to make my connection in Philly and that’s with everything else going perfectly.

Instead of a guaranteed overnight stay in Philly, I’m now on a later flight that connects through Dallas. Will be getting home about 3 hours later but I’d rather that than be stuck in an airport.

And, since delay was airline’s fault, no change fees and the service agent was super friendly and helpful.

Stephen King is from Maine. A friend and colleague who is also a native Mainer always likes to say that Stephen King writes nonfiction.

Heading back home tomorrow and leaving mom in good hands. My aunt is getting the knack of the sling and I’ve written out the routine. Sleeping at night is still the roughest part of the day — well, night — but mom can get in and out of bed on her own so not having someone sleeping in the same room no longer necessary.

I cannot wait to be home. Two weeks is too long. Also, this wasn’t a vacation. I’m happy to be able to be here for my mom but I’m also exhausted. From worry, from caretaking, from sleeping on an inflatable bed, from being outside of my usual routines. It’s a lot.

Also? I’m having the “I’ve been gone from work for two weeks” scaries. Vague sense of unease that’s probably just my brain creating drama. Because I’m on FML, I cannot read or respond to work emails. Of course, I dipped in a bit — we got notice about raises and union bargaining. And I was accidentally included in a work text. Ah, well. Monday will arrive soon enough.

Good news : HOA finally pulled their collective thumbs outta their asses and have approved the fix to our window. Pretty sure my photos and threat to consult attorney over negligence goosed their resolve. Bad news: we’re having a plumbing issue that’s affecting the unit below is. The issue is whatever. But these are the people we had to send a cease & desist letter to years ago. They refuse to take responsibility for anything, especially if it might cost them money. So there’s that.

My aunt arrives today. Next two days are going to be getting her acclimated to the routine. So glad she’s coming but already feeling apprehensive about leaving. I have eldest daughter of eldest daughter syndrome: passing the baton to another who’s not quite on that level makes my stomach squelch.

The improvement in mom in just 8 days is significant. She’s starting to figure out what she can do by herself while confined to the sling.

I managed to go to the Y three times since I’ve been here. Not bad! The classes i took were challenging — I kept up and it’s good to test your fitness in new ways.

Time flies when you have to manage yourself and another person. Like, if mom wants to shower, I can’t be in another room doing something else. We do about 1/2 of planned chores in a day.

Mom had a really good day. Hardly any pain meds and we went for an easy walk and ran a few errands.

Ah, but typical of healing, tonight has been rough. Got her to bed around 11 pm but she’s been uncomfortable and unable to sleep. Finally woke me up at 2 am for ibuprofen and to readjust her sling.

Having a big ass thunderstorm! Big boom just shook the house. Wheeeee!

Was taking mom for an easy summer stroll, looked at the sky and turned us right around.

Happy Father’s Day to all the dads! Video-chatted with mine and texted FIL, BIL and stepdad.

My mom’s sister is going to travel here on Wednesday, instead of coming in mid-July. We’ll have 2 & 1/2 days of overlap so I can get her up to speed on mom’s sling and the rest. So I won’t be leaving my mom alone and unable to do for herself. She’ll be here for 30 days, which means mom will be over the worst part of recovery and should be at point where she can manage her sling by herself and with only a week(ish) left in it. HUGE RELIEF!

Of course, my aunt can be … a lot. My mom is very active and when she sees something that needs doing she wants it done. My aunt moves at a much slower pace. It’s going to be bumpy but we don’t have much of a choice. Told mom she’s just gonna have to take lots of deep breaths and deal.

Made an excellent batch of wonton — well, Trader Joe’s veggie gyoza — soup yesterday. Lots of ginger and garlic with carrots, onion, mushrooms, cabbage and scallions and used bone broth. Delicious and healing.

Maine is gorgeous.

Mom is doing well but achey (too be expected) and nervous about fucking up the repair (also to be expected).

I made a delicious late lunch/early dinner for us but in the process set off all 4 fire alarms in her place. So a bit of an adrenaline rush that neither of us needed.

Caretaking is hard. On both of us. Mom hates to have to rely on others and to feel like a burden. I’m tired from going up and down stairs, keeping track of meds, keeping her comfortable and not giving into my sense of guilt that I’m not going to be here for as long as she needs.