My blog’s been quiet because I’m withdrawing from another asthma medication.  Blessing and curse!  They make my life sustainable, but have significant side effects for me.  Crap.  My current version of hell started two weeks ago.  I can hardly sit still to write, or read, or read email, and except when in conversation, my attention span’s shorter than a bee’s moving from flower to flower. 

Doc and I are working on this, but it’ll probably take another month.  I wrote four draft in the past two weeks, but can’t decide if they’re worth reading or belong in your spam file.  One’s about Easter and the truth of resurrection, both in the future and the present (an important antidote to my pretzel post).  Another describes the exquisite beauty of Carrizo Plain National Monument two hours north of Los Angeles where Mark and I hiked on the day after Easter.  A fantastaic place.  http://www.blm.gov/ca/st/en/fo/bakersfield/Programs/carrizo.html.

Even with crappy medical stuff, life is good.  Since I can’t focus on writing or reading, I use my lack of focus to get ready for our son’s wedding.  It’s great fun. I’m entering territory with mucho shopping, exploring parts of my personality and the world I haven’t had time for in the past, and stretching my imagination on how to create great events on a tiny budget.  Here’s a taste of what I’m been doing instead of writing:

E-bay:  I signed on for the first time and found great patio furniture at a fantastic price only five minutes from home—another life skill!  More computer skills! Then I practiced my patio decorating skills and transformed our outdoor living space.  Yea, hooray.

I want color in our backyard for our wedding party, but our dogs run figure-8’s over our flower beds—one loop goes around the lavender and any flowers in front of it, the other end takes them over the Shasta daisies and around the orange tree.  So, I’ve put new flowers, flowering shrubs and roses in pots around the garden and patio, with wood chips in the garden.  I’m learning the techniques of designing beautiful container gardens.  I started this process a couple of months ago and can already see improvement in my skill level.  Yea, hooray, again!

I’m experimenting with professional spay tans so I have a warm glow to my skin for the wedding, instead of having flashbulbs bounce off my white skin.  Thank goodness I started my experiment early!  The first attempt was a disaster and I would’ve had to watch the wedding on You-tube.  The studio owner’s offered to try again for free on Thursday.  The wedding’s not for another five weeks, so I’m still hopeful I can figure this out.

Mark and I began dance classes, another great skill to have under our belts. We had so much fun in our first class that we even smiled.  Yesterday I bought a fun dancing dress at Ross just to add an extra kick to the experience.  Stay tuned!

Learning:  Take the danged curve ball and hit it out of the park.  You can do it.