Getting set to travel tomorrow

Today is a get-things-done details day.

Bags to pack for overnight in Charlottesville, one of which I will just leave there with clothes, toiletries and other stuff for Echo, Bill & I to have up there over the next 2 weeks of trips.

The ubiquitous dishes & laundry, paying bills, calling the insurance people, picking up the clutter.

Finish drywalling the other upstairs closet, finish painting the first one. Bill can sand my taping job and paint the last closet while I'm gone, or if he has his own list, I'll do it when I get back on Friday. (You wonder, "why is she worried about closets at a time like this?!?" It's because we were going to have the carpeting replaced upstairs in the loft where we now sleep--it was originally scheduled for installation tomorrow, but that went by the wayside pretty quickly. Now we're thinking we'll have it done when we're up in C'Ville getting surgerized, so that when we come home, we will have the bedroom downstairs next to the bathroom for recovery time, and the loft will be for visitors and/or caregivers).

Bill and I decided that I will go up alone tomorrow for the MRI and he will stay home with Echo and get things done too. There was an errant thought that he would go up to Illinois this week and help his Dad clean out the family house--he was slated to go up there the week I was diagnosed, then cancelled--but that just didn't happen. Ray and Joe have been visiting, looking at properties, checking Ray's house here in Rogersville, and generally keeping us laughing, talking old times and having some fun. It's been great having them here during this "waiting" week, and they are going home tomorrow to California.

I feel myself going into "organizer" mode. It feels good to be actually doing something to move us forward. The only way to get past this is to keep moving toward it and then through it.

I'm feeling very positive today, thanks entirely to a new friend I met with yesterday. We had coffee at the new Community Cup shop on Main St. and she shared her experience and strength with me, answered my questions and fears (the ones that only women who go through this can know and answer). She gave me practical advice on what to do and when to do it (things I never would have thought of, like getting my teeth cleaned before the surgery!) She gave me the positive energy to get going on fighting this monster, and showed me an example of how to do it with style and grace. I realized later that I must have worn her out--we talked non-stop for 2 1/2 hours--but she gave me a gift so valuable, I can only marvel at her generosity of spirit. Thank you, M, thank you.

So, off to start my busy day.