"Emily of New Moon" Anime Series!

I was excited to find this:  an anime adaptation of "Emily of New Moon" was released this month in Japan!  I can only hope and wait for a US DVD release.  I hope to watch it with some close friends (Ceido, wink, wink ;) ), and even Julio wants to see it.

"Emily of New Moon" Anime home page

Spoke Too Soon

Last night was a bit rough.  I felt awful all day, getting worse until, when Julio got home, I asked him to take me to the ER.  I called my surgeon's office to talk to a nurse and see if I could get a new medication, because the pain medicine they gave me wasn't helping.  The surgeon is on vacation, and the nurse told me that she couldn't prescribe me anything else.  "That's what he prescribed you and that's what you should take." she said.  Unbelievable!  I was in all this pain and she was not helpful at all.  I had so much pain in my sinuses, and having the nasal junk dripping down my nose into my stomach was making me very nauseous.  I went to the ER and was there for a few hours.  They gave me two new medicines which have helped a lot.  When we got home, I threw up, but that helped me feel better.

I'd like to thank everyone who expressed their thoughts and concerns here and on Julio's site.  I really appreciated that.  Hopefully I'll be getting better in the next week or so.

On The Mend

Last Tuesday, I had sinus surgery.  It was in my best interest to have this done but no one told me it would still hurt a week later.  Once I told people I was having it done, just about everyone knew of someone who had it done recently.  They said, "She was up and moving after a day of rest." or "She felt better immediately."  So I know I wouldn't have the same recovery but when I woke from the anesthesia, my doctor informed me that he had done a lot of work and didn't know how I ever breathed through my right nostril.  It doesn't look bad, but if Arnold Schwarzenegger ever punched me in the nose, I know what it would feel like. If you heard me, you would think I just had a bad cold because of how stuffy I am.  But, it was nice to lay around for a week and rest.  In the recovery room after the surgery, the nurse said I was a model patient.  I said I feel like I'm in a day spa.  Don't have to worry about the house, kids and what I was making for dinner.  Moms are not used to "just lying around" so it was a foreign but welcome short-lived change.  I felt blessed I had my in-laws and husband to pick up my slack.  I'm just suprised I'm still leaking discharge and coughing up blood tinged mucus. Yum! I'm currently reading a book on voice over acting which had said sinus problems could dramatically change your performance.  So if there's a positive to this, I hope my voice will improve.  Once I'm off my pain meds, I hope to write something "intelligent" and "witty" so check back soon.
 

I thought I'd never say this...

but bring on the cold weather!  I love summer as much as the next girl but a problem arises when all my clothes from last fall are too tight for the spring.  Too many cookies and too many matching velor suits have me stuck in hibernation mode.  Ok, so I have bought two pairs of pants the next size up but a whole new wardrobe in that size?  No way.  So spring has been delayed in the Northeast which allows me to attempt to cut my calories and excercise before the inevitable happens...bathing suit weather! :shock:

An Unspoken Code

Experts say that children with autism lack social graces that are inborn in us.  They might speak their mind matter-of-factly even if it hurts someone's feelings and then lack the ability to sympathize.  I want to know what is the excuse if you aren't autistic.  If you confide in someone your deepest feelings and fears, what gives a friend the right to tell the exact person you're worried about everything you said.  I tend to take common sense for granted.  I take for granted that the average human being will internalize a friend's confidences that would then create a bond of closeness.  There is an unspoken code that the brain utlilizes in dealing with fellow humans.  If a person confides in you something it should not be a goal to tell another person (especially the person you're worried about) what someone has said in order to spare their feelings.  Now if bodily harm or kidnapping might result, it would be wise to tell said person of such. 

Now I have someone I love very dearly worried and insulted all because someone didn't know when to keep their mouth shut.  Since such a person might read my blog I can't go into details.  Hopefully they have the sense to know it's them.  But for the general reader, don't take social graces for granted.  And don't think just because you have common sense, the person you're confiding in does too, even if (especially if) they are a family member.  Next time I'll interview the next candidate I talk to.

The Only Advantage to Being Alone...

My daughter started preschool this week.  I have been raving to my friends how great this alone time will be.  Afterall, I spent all of my 20s pregnant, nursing or caring for an offspring in one way or another.  She's the last one out of the nest.  I should feel esctatic!  Dropping her off at preschool, I felt happy for her.  She's not a sit at home kind of girl.  She knew the moment was bittersweet as well.  One minute she's pushing me to my car, the next she says she loves me and kisses me goodbye.  Aloneness.  Freedom.  I felt for a minute like a crazy reckless teenager.  I could go anywhere, do anything.  But that quickly passed, and I felt sad to be alone.  I remembered the one thing I couldn't do with my kids that I love:  belting out sad Broadway songs.  My kids hate that.  Nothing makes me feel more alive than singing those songs.  The first time I discovered this was going to get in the way of my children enjoying their homelife with me, was when my son was two.  I thought I was alone doing dishes one night.  I was listening to the soundtrack of Ragtime  when Audra McDonald sings "Your Daddy's Son." One of my favorite songs of all time, but very depressing.  I open my eyes at the end of the chours to see my son looking terrified of me, like he didn't know who I was.   I calmed him down but realized I would be limited in my song choice from now on.  So I have discovered the one advantage to being by myself for those hours:  Broadway's most heart-wrenching soundtrack filling my house.  Now I just have to worry about complaints from the neighbors.

Review of <em>Emily of New Moon</em> and <em>Emily Climbs</em>

I started late in life as a fan of Lucy Maud Montgomery.  At the ripe old age of 17, a friend showed me the Anne of Green Gables movie and I was obsessed.  No matter that most girls start adoring the books by 12.  I have come to see that it is a misconception to believe that only "young adults" can appreciate the books this author has written.  Yes, the Anne books might have started when Anne was 12.  But, the last in the series Rilla of Ingleside finishes when she is in her 50's.  There are many nuances and exposures of hidden sociological guilty pleasures of her time that are very applicable today that a 12 year old could not understand.  But I digress...

Emily of New Moon and Emily Climbs are the first two books in a trilogy.  I had never read anything by Montgomery except the Anne books so it took a little bit of time for me to care about Emily and this new cast of characters on Prince Edward Island.  I held on and in time I saw she was not just writing about another young girl with no parents. As I researched the book, I came to learn she was roundaboutly writing about herself.  That made the series all the more interesting.  There was a definite "sass" to this series that the Anne books lacked.  She had no qualms telling the reader Emily innermost thoughts (which might have been thought scandalous at the time) as long as she reminded you she was only the storyteller, not Emily's judge.  So, there was a definite freeness of speech that Montgomery showed as she seemed to tell every bit of Emily's story with care and reflection.  For anyone who knows Anne, Emily is worth getting to know.