No Strings Attached

Posted By Kathleen David on November 10, 2021

I have a rare two days in a row off before I work nine days in a row.

I plan to figure out what is going on with my knee this time.

I know that I had another baker cyst behind my right knee and that seem to resolve when I had a bit of a fall and hit my kneecap and my knee on a metal bar on the way down. 

On top of that I have been having the worst shin splints I have ever had. I get those honestly since I have very flat feet and they come and go.

This is making it hard to walk on my right leg. Left one is fine and I am very grateful for that.

I am getting around OK. Occasionally I do have to take a couple minutes to let everything sort out.

Work has been very accommodating. 

I am frustrated that I cannot get the speed I usual have because of the knee.

It was not a good time for this to happen as we are changing the store into a Winter Wonderland with something for the holiday seasons.

I have the best management team I have ever worked for in my retail career. They work as hard if not harder than the rest of us and appreciate what we bring to the store.

I have become the resident yarn expert as I have been given the yarn section to maintain. I have learned a lot from our customers along the way which helps in assisting customers to find the yarn they need for their project.

My fellow workers have discovered that my broad knowledge is very useful in helping customers make their projects.

On Halloween I walked someone through a quick and easy way to make a Loki helm. One of a couple of cosplayers working with me was very impressed with my knowledge. He’s in his early 20s. I pointed out that I have been around a bit longer and have a theater background. We had a very happy customer.

I am glad I can do that and help people solve their crafty problems.

The job is keeping my mind nimble.

Caroline is loving college. She finished the first shoot on her first short film. Now she is editing and adding sound in post. She is taking to film making like a duck to water.

She still wants to go into animation however I think film making will give her tools many animators don’t have.

Right now, my shin is throbbing. I am using all the techniques I have learned to keep the pain at bay. It is still making me sweat. I hate pain sweats.

I am hoping as the day goes on, it goes back to a dull roar.

I try not to use pain killers until it goes to a level that makes me unable to finish simple tasks. 

I have a set of tasks I need to do today. I must mail something to Caroline, who turns nineteen in less than a month, household chores, a toilet to fix, and I would like to get something creative done before end of day. Also, I have a broken bookshelf to fix.

I am grateful for things that make my right leg feel better.

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Posted By Kathleen David on November 1, 2021

It was at the Ziegfeld with Caroline and Laura Antonio.

I watched as Doctor Strange unspooled across the screen with the same thought on repeat as Peter had in his head when he saw John Carter of Mars for the first time, “Don’t suck.”

And it did not.

It was a visual feast for the eyes and, if you are a Doctor Strange affectionate, there were plenty of call backs and easter eggs to see.

The first official photo I saw was this one in Entertainment Weekly when it was still weekly.

(For the VI: This is Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange. He is throwing yellow mystical energy wearing red cape and blue shirt with a medallion around his neck that is glowing.)

I thought it looked good and he looked like Doctor Strange.

I am not getting into the Ancient One morass except to say that Tilda Swinton gave an Oscar worthy performance like she does with great frequency. 

Benedict Wong was born to play Wong. I had seen him in a couple of things, and I thought he did a great job of being the librarian and info dumper.

Chiwetel Ejiofor as Mordo was another strong performance from a very strong actor. He was the other info dumper but made it sound he was a teacher like Wong was the librarian.

My surprise of the film was an inanimate object brought to life by special effects which was the cloak of levitation. It was another actor in the film and the rest of the Marvel films took their cue from this film when it comes to the Cloakey as it has become known.

Since then, Doctor Strange had solidly become part of the MCU bringing magic to the table and all the characters that he brought along have as well.

And I have been a happy watcher of all of it and looking forward to the next film in 2022.

I am grateful for the MCU interpretation of Doctor Strange.

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Posted By Kathleen David on October 30, 2021

Before I get to that, I wanted to say that I am fine, Peter is fine, Caroline is loving the college lifestyle and the cats are okay too.

I have been busy with work and a couple of other projects.

Today I have a day off that I plan to use to get ready for Halloween and clean up the living room. 

Tomorrow I work and hand out Halloween treats.

Monday, I have another day off so I can get other things done around here.

Now onto if you had told me.

This comes from a discussion at work when I had some personal knowledge about what we were talking about. 

Afterwards a fellow employee asked me, “How interesting is your life?”

I replied with a smile, “Very.”

And that got me thinking about all that I have done and the people I can call friend, I would have never believed it if you had told me back in the day what was to come.

For example, if you had told me back in October of 1978 after watching the Muppet Show with guest star Alice Cooper and that in August of 2019, I would be having lunch with Alice Cooper and Steve Whitmire and we would have a lot of things in common, I would not have believed you.

If you had told me back in 1977 that I would be working on the literary side of Star Wars in 1998, I would have thought you were kidding. I met a lot of people while working on that who are now lifelong friends.

If you had told me in 1992 that I would meet Peter David over a puppet and we would become friends then romantically involved, married, and have a child together, I would have laughed for so many reasons.

If you had told me back in 1984 that I would be good friends with both the writer and the artist of Issue 18 of New Mutants, I think I would have done a spit take. Chris Clairmont was one of my favorite writers for Marvel Comics.  His X-Men was amazing. I had been enjoying New Mutants but issue 18, the start of the Demon Bear story, rocked my world with the amazing art of Bill Sienkiewicz. Both men have been friends for years now and I appreciate my time with them.

If you had told me back in 1978 that I would have a tattoo on my arm of Cutter, the leader of the wolf riders, drawing by Wendy Pini the artist of Elfquest while her husband Richard Pini took photos and kibitzed while it was being done, I would not have believed you. Wendy and Richard are among our mutual friends between Peter and me. We have three sets of friends that we are now both friends with. There were his friends, my friends, and the people we both knew before we got together aka our mutual friends. 

If you had told me how much traveling around the world I have done since college, it would have been hard to believe.

There is a lot I have done that younger me would have been amazed to know.

And I am grateful for every one.

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Posted By Kathleen David on October 18, 2021

And that did a lot for my mental health. 

She is happy and bubbly. Rather than dwelling on the past, she is looking towards her future. She has a million things going on in a good way.

We worked on a couple of things. 

We picked pumpkins in the same patch she has been going to for nineteen years. Got some good ones too.

(For the VI: This is Caroline holding an orange pumpkin. She has on a blue shirt and her brown hair is pulled back. She is smiling.)

Traditions can be good or bad, but they are part of our lives.

They can be very comforting.

I have passed onto Caroline some of the traditions I grew up with and we have created our own.

Then there are the in-jokes that come from being a family. Many of those are ‘you had to be there to get it’ but they have meaning to us. “What for did you lock me in the cold cold kitchen?” “Sutter Fusty” “In every generation…A Slayer is born” ‘A chorus of yums ran ‘round the table.” “Life, don’t take to me about life” 

Our personal history is just that personal. No one else has lived this life nor will anyone live it again.

That individual experience makes us who we are.

I could play woulda, shoulda, coulda but it doesn’t get me anywhere.

If my life hadn’t played out the way it did, I would not be where I am now with all the adventures I have had over the years.

Are there opportunities and things I could have done? Sure but each of those would have put me on a different path. Most of them would not have led to Caroline.

I tell people that there are many things I could say about my personal history. Boring is not one of them. I hope when people look back on my life after I am gone, they will say that I had a life well worth lived.

I got my review for being at my job for a year. They like me. They really like me.  I have a few things still to learn but overall, they are very pleased with my performance. I feel very comfortable there. Unlike Borders where the managers always seemed to be in a panic and we seem to go from crises to crises, all the managers are approachable and do take problems or issues seriously. It is a good fit for both the company and me.

And that makes me feel better.

I am repairing some puppets for a show. It is nice to be able to sort out quickly how they need to repair and improved on to make the puppets more solid. This comes from almost forty years of repairing puppets. I can look and figure out several solutions then discard them until I have my best option.

In some ways I feel that my brain is waking up and moving faster again. I have been in neutral for a while. I find this frustrating. I also know that if I push, things don’t go as well. If I have to, then I will but I am not as happy with the results.

I am enjoying my brain right now. It is working at a good speed and I am not spending time worrying about things.

I am grateful for a working brain.

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Posted By Kathleen David on October 17, 2021

And it has been very nice.

We have a plan for today. Now to execute it.

I made her pancakes this morning for breakfast. It is one of her favorites.

This evening it will be steak and bake potato, another favorite.

I have noticed that we go through milk a lot quicker when she is around.

I really don’t care.

She is thriving at FIT. She is working hard on her classes. 

She made friends and keeps in touch with her friends here at home.

She is having adventures that I had no part in creating.

She loves her apartment, her roommate, and the doggies.

She also enjoys coming home and being taken care of a bit by her mommy.

It’s nice to reconnect with her and hear about her life in the city.

She realizes that she has the good luck to living in New York City and go to the Fashion School of Technology. It’s her dream school and the dreams are living up to her expectations.

I feel good that I gave her the tools over the years that she can survive in the big city. In some ways, to me, it justifies my abilities as a mother.

We do talk by phone and Facetime but having her here where I can hug her is so nice.

I am grateful for the young adult my daughter has grown into.

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