Get in shape, girl

Hi again.

Pathology came back from Surgery #2 yesterday, and finally it was good news. Not a single bit of cancer crawling around in there! I have to go back for the ovarian cancer blood test every three months for the next couple of years, but hopefully that will be smooth sailing. I would even settle for just smooth-ISH sailing.

Our household had acquired some kind of snot-nosed plague which, coupled with the fact that one of us is actively sprouting teeth, means that everyone tosses around coughing instead of sleeping. I am not at my most patient when it comes to open-ended kiddie ailments. I like to have some kind of idea about when my life is likely to improve. To that end, I am an unabashed advocate of my twin friends: Infant Ibuprofin and Children's Benadryl. When I am without a fresh bottle of one or the other, I get a little twitchy.

For myself, I've been tossing back glassfuls of vile EmergenC, wrapping up my throat at bedtime, washing my hands and whining.

My birthday was this past Sunday, and for a gift I requested a copy of the "30-Day Shred" DVD. This year has kicked the shit out of my body, and between Newt's birth, two abdominal surgeries, and the 6-week no-exercise policy that followed each one, I'm ending the year looking just about as pregnant as I did at the start of it. I feel heavy and frumpy and haggard. Technically I have another month before I'm supposed to do any abdominal exercises, but I've heard such great things about this workout that I can't wait to start.

Yesterday at work, I was trying to help a patron figure out how to transfer songs from a CD onto her weird off-brand MP3 player. Nothing we tried seemed to work; her device kept crashing our computers and I was ready to tell her it was a no-go, and then the patron saw our new reference librarian -- a peppy 26-year-old -- come in to the building to start her shift. The patron exclaimed, "Hey, have that young one come over and help me -- she'll know how to do it!"

Nothing says "Woman! Get back in shape and buy some new clothes and maybe wash your hair once in awhile!" like being a 34-year-old who is lumped together with the techno-challenged, embroidered-Santa-sweater-wearing, 60-and-over masses that surround her.