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Sunday, May 31, 2009

Feeling like a kid


Amazing what a $10 garage sale bike can do.
I haven't been on a bike since I sold my mountain bike eleven years ago.
I was a little nervous about it, mostly because I now have a titanium knee that I have only had since 2007. It wasn't a good surgery, and the swelling didn't go down for a year and a half.
I wouldn't do it again. But that's another story.
I was a little unsteady at first, but after a ride down to the river and along the bike trail, I remembered that old saying about how you can't forget how to ride a bicycle.
Well, it's true.
I haven't had this much fun in ages. I felt like a kid, flying down the road, with the wind in my face.
My husband inferred that I would be sore all over this morning, but I wasn't. Except for the part of me that was intimately connected with the concrete bicycle seat.
Ouch.
So today, I went to Kmart, the Super Store, and bought myself a nice, new seat, which my mother called a "saddle".........bigger and softer, it cost 2 and 1/2 times what I paid for the bicycle.
But one must have priorities.
And that sort of comfort is up there on the list.
I took today off from weaving. I know that sounds unlikely, untrue, and unbelievable, but it's true. I went to the stdio and fed the cats, planted a snowball bush, and some lamb's ears, and came home.
I made Oma's rhubarb cake, and don't tell my husband, but since I didn't have any sour cream, I used my new favorite, Fage' Greek yogurt. They make wonderful, unique yogurt.
And the cake was awesome!
Kitty update: I have seen the momma cat twice, sneaking around the back yard, but though we have searched, her hiding place, and her two kittens, are safe so far from prying eyes. I feel badly about it, but I guess I should be grateful that I caught three of them.
My big news is that I have finally retired from nursing. Yup, tis true.
I was holding on to that one day a week, per diem, at the county jail.
I had planned on giving it up in March, but I guess I was resisting. I wanted to let it go, but somehow I was afraid to.
Then last week, in an instant, I was ready. Just like that.
So I resigned.
I graduated nursing school 30 years ago this month. That is so incredible to me. It seems like it was not so long ago.
I worked for 5 years in a hospital, then I went to a maximum security prison where I worked for 20 years. I have been told many times that I should write a book about that experience, but for the most part, I really am just happy to forget about it.
During 18 of those 20 years, I worked part time in the local emergency room.
Then for the last five years, I have worked per diem at Urgent Care, and the county jail.
In a way, I guess it is a shame to let all the experience I have go to waste, but that is just what it is going to do.
No looking back.
Now I am retired from the world of working for other people, and instead I am working for myself at Crazy as a Loom Weaving Studio, weaving what I want, when I want.
My only real challenge will be to structure myself to actually have some balance in my life, to give myself permission to really take days off.
Sounds easy.
My body agrees, it knows how old I am, and how tired I get........
But then I go flying down the road on my "bicula"..........

4 comments:

  1. I can feel your euphoria right through cyber space! Good changes for you......

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  2. It's wonderful when you know a decision just sounds right. I can feel your smile. :)

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  3. I say, once a nurse, always a nurse. But what I mean is that you now take care of the world in a different way. By providing wonderful words to read that inspire us and soothing rugs for our floors! And mostly by show us that we can make our dreams come true!
    Jaimie

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  4. Hi Hilary...Now it is time for you to take care of you. I have been my husband's personal care attendant for the last 20 years, since he was hit by a car and became a quadriplegic. I know what you mean when you say you are T-I-R-E-D! You know, i never learned how to ride a bike. My balance is terrible! But i keep threatening to buy one of those big adult tricycles..My daughters are begging me not to! hahaha

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