Three Weeks In

Three weeks ago today I was still in the hospital for my hysterectomy, in Recovery. I am halfway through my leave, and trucking along towards healing.

The first two weeks were filled with family visits -- first my dad, then my mother in law, and while it was lovely and we received a LOT of very appreciated help, it has been lovely also to have the week where the day is mine and I can accept visitors if I'm feeling up to it or I can spend the whole day alone on the couch if not.

I have been spending a lot of time on the couch.

Which is good, because I learned real quick that if I overdid it, my body would tell me LOUDLY that that was unacceptable and pretty much render me a weeping puddle of void-pain. So I have been listening more and embracing my couch potato status.

Saturday in particular was a tied-to-the-couch day -- Bryce made sure I had any tea, water, breakfast, coffee, lunch, what have you delivered to me on the couch and I lay there in pajamas under a throw blanket with a book all damn day. I felt pretty fantastic after that.

Speaking of books, my list is now:

Week One
- Truth & Beauty by Ann Patchett
- You'll Grow Out of It by Jessi Klein
- Do Not Become Alarmed by Maile Meloy
- The Last Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine

Week Two
- Tess of the Road by Rachel Hartman
- The Country Diary of An Edwardian Lady by Edith Holden
- The Power by Naomi Alderman

Week Three 
- Sorry to Disrupt the Peace by Patti Yumi Cottrell
- Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig
- Maeve in American: Essays by a Girl from Somewhere Else by Maeve Higgins
- A Charm of Goldfinches and Other Wild Gatherings: Quirky Collective Nouns of the Animal Kingdom by Matt Sewell
- Man-eaters Vol 1 by Chelsea Cain +

I am not watching a lot of TV, clearly. My favorites so far are Truth & Beauty, Do Not Become Alarmed, Tess of the Road, The Power, and Maeve in America. 

The weirdest is probably Man-eaters, a highly entertaining serial graphic novel about a mutation called Taxoplasmosis X that turns adolescent girls into vicious man-eating panthers upon their first period. it's very creative, funny, kind of scary (from a socio-political aspect, not the panthers), and went well with The Power and Tess of the Road, which were very different but also in the feminist literature vein. Tess of the Road was one of Bryce's Christmas book picks for me, and it was so good. Tess is such a great character, and I loved the commentary on cultural norms for women, expectations, sexual freedom, and how some organized religion can serve to oppress groups. (Note: there is baby loss.)

The one I enjoyed the least is Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I read that one because it's been on the shelf forever and Bryce has his copy from the 1980s and it's been on all these lists of must-read books, and I caved. I didn't hate it, I didn't love it...I felt like it was work. It was super stream-of-consciousness, with multiple narratives happening at once, and had me feeling a lot of "wow, this is a window into 1970s cultural norms and some of this makes me uncomfortable" -- like attitudes towards women and minorities in particular. But it was fascinating and I'm not sad I read it, I just had to treat it more of a project than an enjoyment.

The most beautiful, literally, are The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady and A Charm of Goldfinches. The Country Diary has been on my shelf forever, I bought it used because I remembered looking at my mom's copy growing up and it's pretty, but I never really read it. I got a puzzle (that I am STILL working on, it is neverending and a prime example of why I don't typically do 1000 piece puzzles, and I'm pretty sure I'm missing a couple pieces) that was Spring from the book, and it inspired me to look at it again, and to actually read it. I was like, "HOLY CROW, this is the original Pinterest-y bullet journal!" It inspired me to start mine back up again. And I got a coloring book based on the same illustrations for Easter.  A Charm of Goldfinches is an adorable book of collective nouns for creatures of land, air, and sea, illustrated with Matt Sewell's quirky watercolors and full of interesting origins for the terms. I now know that bluejays are in the the corvidae family, same as crows and ravens, and that a group of seals is called a harem. I picked it up because I adored another book he wrote, Owls: Our Most Charming Bird, and I wasn't sorry.

Maeve in America was a top favorite. I love reading essays, and I was so hopeful that You'll Grow Out of It would be super enjoyable and it was until that horrible final essay on infertility, so I was a little nervous going into this one. I shouldn't have been. Maeve is funny, insightful, and never made
me want to throw her book. In fact, she made me want to go get a drink with her. It made me laugh out loud ("Swimming Against Dolphins" is a particular favorite) and it was heartwrenching and politically apropos ("Wildflowers" specifically). Her writing is a thing of beauty. She might be my new pretend best friend, and she is definitely going to The Dinner Party (an imaginary get together where Bryce and I pick famous people we think would make a good guest list).

All in all, I am really enjoying this concentrated reading time and the opportunity to plow through my books-to-read shelf(ves) and perhaps some new books I couldn't resist snagging.

An older picture of Abner in the old house... RIP sweet old boy

I will leave you with close up photos of my cat, Lucky. I don't think I mentioned here that we lost our old boy, Abner, the week before my surgery. It was very sad and such a difficult decision, and poor Lucky is out of sorts without his buddy, even though he was sort of a glorified furry pillow in the end. I guess it's been good that I've been home so much all the time to keep Lucky company, as he does seem lonely and in need of extra snuggles. Every day I'm feeling better, and (surprise surprise) the more I relegate myself to pajamas and couch, the better I feel. It's crazy to think that I am halfway through my time before going back to school -- I am feeling way better than 3 weeks ago, but I can't imagine making it through a whole school day yet. I guess that's why I have 3 more weeks to go!

My buddy