Five More Days Until My Birthday

Me at home after cataract surgery

Good afternoon – It’s about a week and a half after my surgery. The vision in my right eye was pretty instantaneous and then they taped it closed. So yes, clear distant was immediate; the close up vision is still working itself out. I have found I can read if I put the screen or book at arm’s length; otherwise, my left eye is doing most of the reading work. I’m thankful the left eye can still see well with glasses because there were a few things no one mentioned until the final pre-op visit. 1) I can no longer drive at night. The surgeon appeared a little hesitant at the pre-op – I don’t want to tell you you are my youngest, but yeah you’re my youngest patient. This was followed by, You can’t drive at night anymore. I laughed, Well since I don’t drive at all that would probably be a good idea. Needless to say this relieved the surgeon because most of his patients have already stopped driving at night and he wasn’t looking forward to telling a 47 year old she can’t drive at night.

The second thing I found out at that visit was I could not bend over for a week. Hello, I have CP and do not have the balance to bend at the knees. I spent an entire week not being able to do anything. I’m still not allowed to do any strenuous activities, which again with CP is very restrictive because I use more energy to do things. I did empty and reload the dishwasher the other day. When Shawn came home he yelled at me; I was like I can bend over now and emptying and reloading a dishwasher isn’t that taxing. I am still not lugging around the vacuum, mop and bucket, or laundry baskets. And yes I’m going a little stir crazy just sitting around the house. Imagine if all these restrictions carried on for a month if I scheduled my left eye two weeks after my right. Since my 48th birthday is after the two week mark of my surgery, I also wanted to be able to celebrate it.

One thing I have been able to do is sit and write haiku so at least I’m not twiddling my thumbs all day.

Do not bend over
Eye needs enough time to heal
Sit and write haiku

Start new fashion trend
Extend usefulness of glasses
Right lens taken out

It’s okay to cry
But be careful not to sneeze
After surgery

Could see right away
But it was not long enough
Eye taped to go home

Stuck on couch all day
Housework falls by the wayside
While I recover

No strenuous work
Leaves almost nothing to do
Boredom rules the day

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#NaPoWriMo Day Seven

Poet vs Housewife

April

wars between writing verse or cleaning house.

Poet crafting lines, meter and rhyme tops her list while housework falls short

NaPoWriMo Prompt – And now for our (optional) prompt. In our interview, Kyle Dargan suggests writing out a list of all of your different layers of identity. For example, you might be a wife, a grandmother, a Philadelphian, a dental assistant, a rabid Phillies fan, a seamstress, retiree, agnostic, cancer survivor, etc.. These are all ways you could be described or lenses you could be viewed through. Now divide all of those things into lists of what makes you feel powerful and what makes you feel vulnerable. Now write a poem in which one of the identities from the first list contends or talks with an identity from the second list. This might turn out to be kind of a “heavy” exercise, emotionally, but I hope you will find the results enlightening.

Good morning and welcome to day seven of #NaPoWriMo. I had a small problem with my list of identities; I couldn’t really divide them. Am I the only one who waivers from feeling powerful to feeling vulnerable? The two identities I picked – poet and housewife, depending on the day each can make me feel great but then each can make me feel overwhelmed. Also I’ve written poems on my different identities before so for today I decided to experiment with a one-bun. I read my first one-bun yesterday over at Ken’s blog. He explains it – One-bun, a form created by Jim Kacian, is a short-form haibun with one line of prose (including title) and a (one-line) haiku.

When I think one line haiku I think American sentence especially since I write poetry in English. I’m not sure the one-bun form really works with this prompt, but I couldn’t quite create a “pep talk” between my identities since they don’t really separate into two distinct groups. The two identities should be fleshed out more than what is possible in this form. I’ll see if anything more develops through the day. Monday I start my remote reading assignment, so daily posts may have to wait for afternoons here. But I worked and wrote thirty poems last year; I think it’ll be fine this year, too.

 

NaPoWriMo Day Sixteen – Lies I Tell

Spin
Dishes clean
Floors and toilets scrubbed
Poetry comes after chores
Lies

Fibs
Poetry is piece of cake
Laundry completed
House is clean
Yarn

 

NaPoWriMo Prompt – And now for today’s prompt (optional, as always). After yesterday’s form-based prompt, today’s will hopefully be somewhat easier to get into. This prompt is from Daisy Fried, and the basic idea is to write a ten-line poem in which each line is a lie. Your lies could be silly, complicated, tricky, or obvious. Happy Writing!

Here is a little yarn I spun, maybe. 😉 Anyone interested in cleaning a house? I can promise zero compensation.