As per your request

I've been told I should update more frequently; something confirmed by the numbers of my readership/site hits trickling away. I haven't done writing on this journal for a few reasons: I've begun a paper journal; I'm under the influence of Kathleen Pequignot; I paint and collage the pages first, then write a bit about my day. It's interesting, and I like looking back at what I've done.*

Lately, my days have been full of my family, which makes me impatient for the end of this month, when I'll be catsitting in Minnesota for a week. I love my family, but recently everything I've done has been with them, and I need time to myself, time to get away and be my own person with my own plans. I've been working for Dad, filling out and balancing ledgers; I have two months left from last year that refuse to balance, even though I've used 50'+ printing calculator tape on them, and when these finally work out, I start filling out the ledger for the accounts this year.

I took Dad to his doctor's appointment yesterday; I liked the office. It was on the top floor, and the room was much wider and longer than usual. I studied the colour charts of the brain, and had the 2.5' tall model skeleton dancing to "I Could Have Danced All Night" until the doctor came in. The neurosurgeon listened to Dad for a few minutes, asked a few questions about Dad's symptoms, about the continually poor eyesight (he's still wearing the patch), about the ringing in his ears, about his dizzy spells, of which he still has 20+ episodes a day. The doctor said that he had hoped these symptoms would have corrected themselves by now, but since there's no change, he's referring Dad to a neurologist, who can give him exercises to combat his vertigo, etc. So after five minutes, we left the office, with an appointment 11 AM tomorrow. Hopefully we'll go to Borders afterwards; otherwise, I'll feel gypped, for there isn't anything else to compensate for the 1+ hour drive each way.

We've been trying to sell Dad's office and shop for over a year and a half now; the first realtor with whom we'd listed it did a rotten job, so we tried to sell it ourselves for a year, and then last week listed it with a different realtor. Tuesday morning they listed it online, and yesterday a man came to see the building -- not once, not twice, but THREE TIMES. We met him one of the times he came to the office, and he seems perfect for the building -- he's a photographer, his wife weaves, and a friend of theirs is a potter, and they want this building as their studio. He made the realtor an offer for just a few thousand less than we were asking, and believe me, we were ready to take it, but when Mom and Dad met with the realtor this morning, they were told that the man had stopped in late yesterday and changed his offer -- he's giving us the full asking price. Yeah!!!

I've been maintaining a wheat-free (and mostly corn-free) diet for almost a week now, and it's nearly impossible to describe how much better I feel. I have more energy, my skin is clearer and softer, I have better concentration, and I have no desire to eat wheat...but it is daunting at times, especially when I'm away from home for a meal and trying to find something I can eat that is preservative-free, wheat-free, and meat-free. Enter, stage-right: The ever-glorious Zone bars.

* The other reason is that the thoughts I've been journalling about are too much, too much inside my head and in my soul for me to write about here; they're locked safely away.