Is it Time to Reinvent Me, Again?

Today I made the decision to cancel my upcoming writing classes for this summer. After much soul-searching, I realized that all my time lately is spent at physical therapy, water exercises and other methods of improving my health. For the time being, I must give myself the attention I need. 

Making commitments while dealing with chronic pain and fatigue is difficult. I can still write from home when I feel like it and I can attend a few events when it is convenient, but I don't want others depending on me to be at my best when they pay for classes if I can't be sure I will be at my best.

So, this will free me up for the summer. Mary Mike and I want to go on a genealogy research trip or two when my PT is done. I also plan to spend a week at my sister's in Roswell, GA. I call her house my "town house" and she says my house is her "mountain house." It is fun to visit the city for a few days where I get to eat at some of my favorite restaurants and shop at some stores I enjoy.

Also, when I am away from this house, I don't worry about what needs to be done here. I am even thinking about what it might be like to move to a 55+ community where someone else takes care of the maintenance. I am not sure what is available in my area. But, I am thinking of checking it out.

I am still not able to move things back into my storage room which was flooded recently. When I have time at home, I try to go through boxes I took out of that room. That is quite a job, but I make such neat discoveries. You know how it is, you find things you forgot you had or that you thought had been lost. 

My dear friend, Tipper, put me in contact with her lovely daughter who is between jobs right now and the smart, strong young woman came over one afternoon to help me. She was my legs, up and down the stairs, in and out to the garage, and in just two hours we accomplished so much! 

I have known Tipper's twins since they were little kids and I love seeing how they have matured and become charming young women. My spirits lifted and even the pain faded while working with this Pressley Girl. The twins sing and play instruments and are very popular throughout western NC and north Georgia. I needed someone who could work flexible hours and that is just what Corie wants -- flexible hours. Next week, she will come over again. I look forward to seeing her. 

I have reinvented myself several times over the years, and I feel I am on the verge of a new invention of Me.  How about you? Have you reinvented yourself at different times in your life?

A Woman Needs A Vacation

Emerald Lake in the Canadian Rockies

A rutting bull elk held us captive in our cabin at Patricia Lake in western Canada.


Our family never took vacations when I was a kid. Daddy could not leave the farm, or so he thought. Mother seldom left our neighborhood except to visit relatives. My father didn’t care for planes or car travel. Traffic made him nervous. Too many people and much too close quarters.
My sister and I, while still in high school, planned to travel and see the world once we finished college. She traveled, but without me. I chose to marry the year she graduated. She moved to San Francisco, worked with Western Airlines and flew to places like Hawaii and Mexico City, as well as to most of the interesting sites of the western U.S.A.
Each summer I planned a vacation even though we had little money to spend on such things. Folly Beach, South Carolina, and Boone, North Carolina were two of our favorite spots. I had fallen in love with the western NC mountains even then.
Once we were invited to go skiing at Snowmass, Colorado. We ended up driving through a blizzard for many miles after our flight was cancelled in Denver due to bad weather. Only dumb luck kept us from driving off the road and disappearing in a drift where we might not have been found until spring.
In the days before the airlines charged for even a glass of water, we enjoyed a champagne flight across the country. A couple of glasses of the free champage, and I was soaring on my own with my eyes closed listening to classical music loud enough to drown the sound of the plane.

We toured the coast of California for a couple of days before boarding The Love Boat in San Francisco for an Alaskan Cruise. We were likely the youngest people on board, but we enjoyed every minute.
Now that we are retired, we plan at least two trips each year – one in the fall and one in the spring. In winter or very early spring, I like to escape the cold gray days at home and head for Florida. That’s the time of year I enjoy the beach; when I need a jacket, but the sun is shining and warm enough to dissipate the clouds cob-webbing my mind.

Every few years we take, what we call, a BIG vacation. These vacations involve airports, lots of hassle and fatigue, to go someplace we have never been. One of my favorites was our trip to the Canadian Rockies a few years ago. We were awed by the glorious mountains, lakes like painted glass, and we saw every kind of wild animal you can imagine, from mountain goats grazing along the road, eagles over head and several black bear. A rutting bull elk kept us captive in our lakeside cabin for a couple of hours until a ranger came and frightened him off.

My husband takes no hand in planning a vacation. He says we live in vacation land, and he doesn’t see any reason to leave. But he fails to understand the difference between a vacation for a woman, and a vacation for a man. His life has been one continuous vacation since he retired. He sits on our deck high up in the dogwoods, gazing at the blue waters of Lake Chatuge and beyond at Brasstown Bald. He smokes his pipe, content and happy.

Most women know why I need a vacation. Besides the chance to visit and learn about a place I’ve never been, while I’m there I don’t worry about cooking, laundry, paying bills, cleaning or taking care of pets. Why worry? I’m miles away.
Instead of cleaning the kitchen right now, I think I’ll get busy planning my next trip. Now what did I do with those brochures?