Day and Night

 As you've probably figured out, Fiorella, a technological idiot, forgot to publish yesterday's blog till now, so you're going to be getting an overload today. 

It's three o'clock in the morning right now, and yes, your girl is wide awake and working on her salon/studio/arts-and-crafts room. It's easier for her to picture her ultimate goal when she's alone in a silent world, and tonight, she's hit jack pot, arranging and rearranging until she finally got everything just the way she wanted it and when, just now, she tested her arrangement against the large painting that she wants to showcase--the one of her in a long dress with a bear rug under her feet and a rose in her hand--everything came together!

AND FIO SAYS AGAIN: she is in desperate need of a handyman. Your girl can move furniture around and paint pictures, but she does not have the skills or equipment to remodel her clothes closet, shave her bedroom woodwork, or add protective edges to the black chests on both sides of her bed. Any takers?

Fiorella's ripped her way through all the universal remote selections on TV, or at least all the ones she's even halfway interested in, so she's going to have to dig up some other form of non-athletic entertainment. Maybe some of those old romances she's dug up can do the trick.

Hip, hip, hooray! The nice lady who worked out all of Fio's physical check-ups is now working on finding her an appropriate counselor.

 

 

 

 Another busy day...and Fiorella likes busy days. The highlight was when Son L drove your girl over to HEB and released her to find her way around the grocery store by herself--heleocoptering no longer necessary.

Hurling herself headlong into her arts-and-crafts room, which was overflowing with...well...everything, Fio not only managed to clear enough to be able to see the floor again, but to nudge a fair number of items toward their future resting places.

Fiorella still hasn't been able to make any new friends or meet up with any of her old ones yet, partially, she thinks, because she isn't driving yet and partially because we're all still shell-shocked from the pandemic.

It's growing closer and closer to the time when your girl is going to have to strike out on her own and find a handyman who can help her with her bedroom clothes closet and her studio display work. Son can handle the latter to some degree, but he has his own responsibilities too.

God is good! Just got a message from Friend Suzy in England and we're going to be a twosome again. May God bless her and keep her 💗 💗 💗

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back in the Saddle Again!

 Your girl woke up in the middle of the night determined to make this day a better day than yesterday. No more distress, no more sorrow, no more weeping. Move ahead, Fiorella--after all, you are the matriarch of the family, the only one who has been strong enough to survive.

But what does "move ahead" mean? Fio grabbed her bedside tablet and started scribbling down notes. First, she had to stand up for herself and set new goals. Along the way, she needed to replace her scotch-taped eye-glasses and buy some new clothes that fit her weight loss, and, down the line, she had to start driving again, at least in her immediate vicinity.

Easier said than done, you say, but this is Fiorella's manifesto, and she's sticking to it. This morning, she dressed like someone who cared, held her head high when she walked outside with the trash she'd been accumulating, picked up an old Linda Howard romance she'd found in a box she was cleaning out and started reading it--whew, hot stuff--and Fio can write like that  that too. Then she reset a Ghandi sign that she'd been commissioned to make many years ago and hung it on her display wall. Right now, she's recording her activities as a pat herself on her back....and to remind herself of what she's done so far when her confidence begins to fade.

Ellen would be proud of her.

Backlash?

 One of the worst things about looking back is that you realize that most of the things that went bad for you were your own stupid fault. Yep, Fio could have won that school board race hands down if she'd hired a pro to run her campaign instead trying to run it all by herself. And when she got her degree, she should have taken the generous offer of her professors and to help her write a book on her dissertation topic instead of striking out alone and in another direction.

As you can guess, this is not your girl's best day. She's exhausted and depressed. After spending more than a year packing up her old house, she's spent  more than three months unpacking for her new house--and the job not finished yet. Then comes the guillotine: what Fiorella values in a home is not necessarily what Son L and his wife, who are her housemates, value. 

Another depressing situation is that, while Fio does have some longtime friends in the area, she can't meet up with them because she isn't driving at this time. And also, because she's been devoting all her energy to unpacking and putting away, she hasn't had time to make friends in her new neighborhood. 

Your girl found about thirty of Husband's favorite paperbacks--Oz, Vince Flynn, Laurie King--in one of the boxes she unpacked today. They're all from ten or twenty years ago, but Fio refuses to toss them into the trash bin. Will try to get someone to drop them of at Goodwill instead. 

Maybe Fiorella is experiencing some kind of shiva backlash, but she's been quite morose today.

 

 

 

 

Tears of Joy and Sadness

I can dance, I can sing, I can do most anything! 

Yes, Son L drove Fio into the hospital this morning where Dr. Michel gave her a shot in her left knee that IMMEDIATELY cured whatever havoc she had wrought when she tried to break a branch over it last Christmastide. She'll have to get another shot in three months. but that's just fine with her. Thank you, God, for modern medicine! 

She came out with tears of joy.

Fiorella's knee problem had always seemed like a minor problem to her--an annoying inconvenience she  had to work around, but once today's shot took effect, it was like she had been released from jail and should go conquer the world. Chocolate seemed more chocolately, world seemed happier, and she was bubbling over with thiansnision.   

Reenter the human race. Energy. Doesn't have to watch her every step.  

Okay, Fiorella is crying now. She was shelving books and came across The Book of Cowboys,  a chaming book etcHusband's favorite book as a chold.favoritechild. Cried because of him and because of the                                 sweet simplicity of the book.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

DAY SEVEN

 In the midst of life, we are in death. This is day seven, the supposed last day of Fiorella's sitting shiva for Ellen, but there will always be a part of her that sorrows for her friend, just as her heart still sorrows for all her friends and family who have gone before.

There are still about two months to go before the move-in to the new house is complete. Right now, Fio is trying to figure out how to handle her overloaded studio--especially since there's yet another U-Haul truck due.

Your girl will be in an orthopedist's office Austin bright and early tomorrow morning to see if that left knee of hers can be fixed. Fio thinks it's a tendon, but she's not a specialist.

Do you remember that Fiorella used to get a kick out of giving you the figures on how many readers she had and what countries they were from? Well, apparently that service got cut (as well as  the use of common poetic forms) when whoever owns the blog changed systems. BOOOOOOO!

Fio's still looking for a handyman to help her with her clothes closet problem.

Day Six

The portents are saying that it's going to be a good day--yep, FIORELLA GOT ALL FOUR OF THE NEWSPAPER ANAGRAMS AT FIRST GLANCE!

Why does Fio read romances? Because life is hard, and she likes happy endings. And, by the way, two of her own are still available under another name. Just two, you say? Well, circumstances have kept Fiorella from publishing more, but she's hoping that within a few months, she'll be back in the saddle again.

Dang! Your girl got caught in the jungle of her half-unloaded studio and ended up on the floor, with the small steak she had just bought disappearing somewhere into the rest of the mess. No doubt it will be discovered again when the aroma of decaying beef perfumes the room.

 The time has come, the Walrus said

To mount a painting above my bed

A portrait of me when I was young

My future bright, my song unsung

Yes, Ellen, my heart still weeps for you and always will 💗