4/19/2014 Poetry, Friendly Encounters and Remembrance

A good day! 

I slept in, got up feeling pretty good! 

Got out of the house to see a wonderful poetry reading of Evan Myquest's poems - wonderful poet, read by three also- wonderful poets!  the other featured poet and the open mics were great. i am always so happy to see the work of the poets brought in to the Poetry enter. Always great to see my friends in the poetry community, too. I didn't bring anything to read at Open Mic today - just too deep into getting solid on the material for A New Brain right now. I kind iof feel the next couple of poems in my Hips series coming into shape, so I hope I'll have some more material to read at the next one. 

Talking about having my first feature sometime this summer, too! I look forward to it - very exciting! 

Many people remarked on my mobility - last time most of them saw me, I was on a walker. It was nice to be off-cane and getting about comfortably!

After the reading, I went over the the Gluten Free bakery, Pushkin's for a lovely treat. They have a Chocolate Banana Peanut Butter cupcake. I sat at their newly-built lovely patio table and really enjoyed that cupcake in the lovely afternoon! the perfect thing is, in  the afternoon, the tables are in the leeward side of the building from the sun, so they re shaded - perfect for our hot Sacramento summers! I look forward to strolling the 3 blocks from my place , stopping next door at Temple coffee for a to-go and enjoying my treat on the sidewalk and relaxing, watching the world go by for a bit!

Speaking Temple, that was my next stop. a nice coffee, bought a bag of beans, sat on the patio. It really WAS a lovely day! Suddenly it became, "Everyone Martha knows comes for a coffee" day! My lovely friend Sarah works there, then one of the poets from the reading was there with her partner, and right next to her was a young fellow whom I'd met through my friend Craig who lives and teaches here in Sacramento, but who also knows my friend Jt from a completely different circle! 

Then in strolled my dear friend Ric Murphy - a respected and wonderful actor and director! We had a quick 5-minutes chat - he was thrilled for me and my new hips, too! We have acted together a time or two, and he was familiar with my old rolling (trying to hide the painful limp) gait. 

Then off to the Safeway for groceries - quite a comfortable and extensive shopping trip, and I didn't hesitate to cross the store to get an item I'd missed on my first sweep through. And - ran into my friend Samia! More hugs and smiles - it was just a wonderful day for that! So cheerful! 

Then I accidentally discovered that I have BBC America on my cable plan suddenly - and that was my night in(I'd wanted to go to another reading in Davis, but not quite up to it). 

And I'm up far too late once again... off to bed! And early-ish morning for our annual Easter gathering - really just for a Spring gathering with a lovely group of people. I met them all through my dear Deborah. Yesterday was her birthday - the first since she died - and tomorrow will be the first Easter gathering since she died. Last year she was unable to go, already on hospice care at home and bed-ridden, and the year before, she came with her husband Sam, but she and I stayed at the house while the rest made the annual "scavenger hunt" stroll around the hostesses' beautiful neighborhood. Sam took photos all along the way so Deb could enjoy it, too. 

You know, Deb had three brain surgeries and two major radiations over twenty years before her tumors finally turned cancerous, fast-growing and untreatable. She also broke both hips - the first needed pins and the second, she snapped the head off her femur in a fall, so total replacement. The brain cancer drugs make one's bones brittle. Also, her gall bladder was removed about two years ago, too. 

She was afraid of brain surgery, because it was terribly painful, so intrusive on your BRAIN and every function and thought process you have, and she never knew how it was going to come out - she had to learn how to walk again all three times, and talking was a challenge... so much pain and headache and just feeling so foggy and stupid. 

Her hips and gall bladder were surgeries, but not as terrible in comparison, I think(though the second hip was very very badly handled by Kaiser). 

But it was still terrifying when I went in for my first hip. Fortunately, the anterior version made such a difference, and getting up and walking (with the walker) is a must. So, in the long run, even though it is taking me longer than standard to recover (due to my extreme case), and this damned divot in my shin from that blast fall just has one little deep spot that doesn't want to heal, I'm doing pretty well, all things considered. 

Sorry - my sleepiness sometimes renders the end of these posts a little surreal and slightly wonky :} 

Good night and Happy Easter-or-whatever-you-celebrate-tomorrow.