Normal continues

This week I have worked on walking longer and faster.  Today, Thursday, I walked 40 minutes.  The last 10 minutes seemed like an hour.  But I did it.  And I walked faster, thus further than all week.  One way I keep my pace up is listening to good music on Pandora.  Some of the best music for me to walk fast: Areosmith, Abba, Def Leppard , Classic Rock, and Queen. 

I have cooked a little, but mostly I let Marty cook, and I wash dishes. I do make my own breakfast and lunch. But Marty is the Chef.  He is doing a great job integrating the Cardiac, Diabetic, and Warfarin diets.  So far so good.  I am losing weight, a good thing, and I don't feel too deprived.  The food is tasty.  I do miss cheese, sauces,  and Bourbon.  I plan to find some cheese that is low fat low sodium.  But there is no substitute for Bourbon. Sauces probably can be adapted.  We will see.

I did some light housekeeping, very light.  I make the bed each morning. This weekend I am planning to tackle laundry.  The hard part is going up and down the 26 steps so many times.  That scares me.  I was going to try it today.  But we decided to wait until Marty is home in case I have problems. 

Next week the plan is to go back to the Marriage Factory Monday and to school on Tuesday.  We will see just how strong I am. 

Doing Normal Things

This week end I did several normal things.  It felt good to go somewhere other than Kaiser. It also was very tiring. 

Since I was hospitalized my goal was to make it to the A Team event.  For newbies the A Team is a group of us who were neighbors and liked to cook and dine together.  We all became very close, at time as if we were family.  Because we no longer all live in the same city, getting together is hard to arrange.  We had the date and the menu.  Now I had to be well enough to go.

Saturday I started making my Chipotle Shrimp appetizer.  I don't remember it being that tiring to cook shrimp, and chop up herbs and veggies.  It took me forever to get it made.  And then I had to go rest.  The plan was to get there at 6:00, I would eat what I could, and drink water. Marty could eat all the wonderful food and drink some wine.   Then we would go home around 9:00.  I didn't  think I could last longer than that. 

We were meeting at one of the couples' loft in San Francisco.  This meant we would drive across the new span of the Bay Bridge for our first time.  This bridge is beautiful and with the low sides (which scare me more than a little) the views are spectacular.  I took pictures with my IPhone and with Marty's.  The pictures are a little blurry because we were moving around 45 MPH. 

 

It is late afternoon and I was shooting directly into that huge white light, the sun.  I had no idea if I was getting good or bad pictures, I was blinded by the sun.  This is just as we started onto the bridge.

 

Here you can see into the Marin Headlands and the Bay.  Stunning views.  And see what I mean by low sides?  I feel as if we will topple over.

 

 

The old bridge to the left.  It will take a couple of years for it to be torn down.  In front of you is the tower that holds all the suspension cables. 

 

Past the tower and headed for the tunnel on Yerba Buena. 

 



We go into the city and spend a lovely evening with our friends.  I had such a good time and we didn't leave at 9:00 as planned.  It was so normal to sit and talk and I loved it.

 

 

This is us (well you can't see me) having a great time.  Starting on the left and going counter clockwise: Nancy, Hank, Thom, Marty, and Lew.  I love the shadows on the floors.  And behind Thom is a window reflecting one of their wonderful pieces of Art.  Yes, their pictures are Art with a capital A. 

 

We laughed and there was a little crying maybe.  We do get emotional sometimes.  Fabulous time with the A Team.  We did not get home until after midnight.  Big normal night for me.

 

 

If you thought the bridge was pretty in the daytime, take a trip across at night with the funky lights.

 

 

Just look at this, gorgeous!

 

 

With the 18 wheeler you can see how huge the cables are.  I think this is my favorite night picture.

 

I got to  bed at 12:30 and was up at 6:30.  This time we are off to church and then to Kaiser for a blood draw. Marty took me to lunch (boy is it hard to order healthy in a sports' bar), and then home.  I was exhausted from all the fun of the Saturday and Sunday.  So a two hour nap was taken. 

 

Normal is very tiring, but normal helps me on the road to recovery.  Normal makes me really happy. Today's normal was not fun, but I felt very saintly for doing this normal.  I dusted our apartment. 

 

Then I sent Marty a text to tell him how wonderful I am.  He agrees with me.