Positive Thought of the Day: Expect nothing and appreciate everything.
Positive Affirmation: I am strong!
Three Action Steps:
1. Drink my protein.
2. Meditate today.
3. Mop the floors to strengthen upper body.
Those goals I set a couple of weeks ago? I am still working toward those. I opened my Etsy store yesterday, but there isn't anything in it yet. Probably two more days, and I'll have my first items for sell. I am so loving using my creativity again.
Yesterday, Janie and I took Kayden to the park, and I hung off the monkey bars and did sit ups upside down. Yep. I did that. I'm pretty proud of myself for being strong enough to make that happen. My abs are a little sore today, which I love. I have, however, been slacking on eating well and getting enough sleep. Time to work on that.
Exciting news on the flat and fabulous front. I have my consultation with my plastic surgeon on March 30th. I'm so excited! Once again, I lucked out. I got an amazing plastic surgeon, and even though he practices in Glendale, he will be doing all of my work in Bakersfield through the cancer treatment center. Yay! Getting new boobies!
Updates are done now, so here's the next chapter of New Worlds.
New Worlds Chapter 9
I had nearly forgotten that there was a world where people fought and hated. For a short time, I had left that world behind. But, one night that dark world entered the sunny brown stucco house on First Street. I had just gone to bed with Nelson's The Maid of Perth when I heard a light knock on the front door. I quickly turned off the little end table lamp so that I wouldn't be caught up after bedtime, but I stayed awake listening.
First, Aunt Tootie's bare feet shuffling to the door in the living room. Then, her strangled voice saying, "Oh my, God! What has he done to you?"
Uncle Bob's heavier foot steps and a woman's voice muffled as if she had a mouth full of cotton. I peeked out of the darkened doorway of the bedroom and saw Inez sitting on the big couch. One eye was shut as if obscenely winking. There was blood smeared across her cheek, and she was crying. "The children," she said. "They're still asleep in the car."
"They'll be OK for a little while," Aunt Tootie said. "I'll make us some nice hot tea."
Uncle Bob was slipping on his jacket over his pajamas as he grabbed his car keys. He gave Aunt Tootie a kiss on her forehead then walked out of the door -- Sir Galahad riding off on his white steed to avenge the fair maiden.
I listened for Uncle Bob to come back even after Inez and her children were softly snoring in the living room. I heard his keys jangling in the door not long after all the lights had gone out in the house. I heard him telling Aunt Tootie that Chuck would probably by laying low for a few days.
"What did you do?" I heard her ask. She didn't seem upset or worried, just curious.
"Nothing to be concerned about," Uncle Bob said and then the bed springs creaked and within minutes, I heard Uncle Bob's whiffling snore.
Inez slept there on the couch with her children surrounding her on blankets laid out on the floor just that one night. The next morning she went back, but Uncle Bob was wrong about Chuck. Vicky and I saw him the next day on our way to Mary's Book World. He was walking past Delaney's hardware store, and he sported a black eye twice as swollen and twice as discolored as the one he had given Inez.
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It was the end of July and I was beginning to think about going home. I was at once dreading it and anxiously awaiting it. I didn't want to leave Aunt Tootie's, but I missed my Dad's rumbling laughter, my Mom's chatter and gossip about all of our friends and neighbors, all of the people I knew. I even missed my sister and brother. I was reading Shakespeare's "Macbeth" from Aunt Tootie's The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. I loved the complexity of the story and the characters. They all seemed so lifelike. And what a relief to know in the end, the bad guy gets his just desserts.
It was during this time that Inez showed up on the front doorstep once again. There were no tears in her eyes when she told Aunt Tootie, "Chuck's dead. He had a heart attack."
Aunt Tootie drew Inez in and said, "I do not want to see you shed one tear. Do you hear me? You've shed enough tears over that sorry excuse for a human being already. I know what we'll do. We'll throw a big party: a going away party for Chuck."
Aunt Tootie asked me to bring a pencil and paper from the kitchen drawer. I took notes as the two women planned Chuck's going away party. We walked to the post office that afternoon to mail the invitations.