Red Dress (Susan Werner)

I seem to have gone MIA for the last 11 days.  Everything's fine (better than fine, actually); no mullygrubs here.  I just lost my concentration!  Recap, then moving forward... 😍

I placed a Publix Liquors Instacart order last week, mainly for a bottle of Kahlua that my husband splashes into his coffee every morning.  Hey, he's retired.  Anyway, the minimum for free shipping is $35.00 and I needed another $10.00 to qualify.  Looked around on the website and ended up choosing a bottle of Long Island Iced Tea, which was so random until I remembered that my mother's birthday was September 9 (a few days away) and that was the drink of tradition whenever she and her Besties went out to dinner.  I told Sarah about it, and she and I will get together soon, whereupon we will toast Connie/Mom/Mimi.  Hard to believe that this past July 19, it will be 11 years since her passing, and this would have been her 90th birthday.

Watched The Dedicated Concert, a livestreaming Dar Williams event last Thursday.  It was so beautiful, with all the sweet dedications from her fans to friends, partners, etc., some delivered live, some via Dar, and others written in the comments and/or scrolled across the bottom of the screen.  Lovely!

Finished cleaning out Reba's apartment, and showed up Friday (with my coffee, peanut butter and banana sandwich, and phone)  to wait for the donations pick-up, with a 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. window of opportunity.  Fortunately they showed up at 11:00 a.m., so now everything is out of there, the cleaning lady can come, and R can then turn it back over to the leasing office.

This past Saturday was my last visit to the chiropractor, the end of my one-month/12-week/three-times-a-week treatment plan.  My sciatica, as well as my neck, has improved substantially since I first started going mid-August (according to x-rays and thermal scans at the beginning and again at the end), and the doctor recommended I continue, and they offered me a follow-up once-a-week, three-month plan, but it's hard to justify the money.  I brought them a basket of wonderful vegan goodies with an effusive thank you card (under different circumstances, there would have been hugs)... and from here on out, I have committed to keep up with everything on my own:  stretches, massage, cervical fulcrum, cordless massager (no, not a Rabbit... ;-), walking, Arnica/CBD cream or salve, better posture, hold phone up at eye level rather than looking down, etc.  I can do this!

Lots of rain this past weekend (a precursor to what is now Hurricane Sally), and met up with Sarah and Colin at TreeTops Park for a puddle-jumping adventure (all of us wearing our galoshes), and Colin took it to mean total immersion.  He was so waterlogged that Sarah had to strip him down completely to put him in the carseat... :-)

Tonight at 6:00 p.m. I am virtually attending a Grassroots Fundraiser with Kamala Harris, Hillary Clinton, Amy Poehler and Maya Rudolph.  Go here for more info; registration is required.

P.S.  You really must try the vegan oatmeal-raisin cookies from Whole Foods, and here's the recipe!  So. Much. Cinnamon... 💓

NR:  Death in Her Hands by Ottessa Moshfegh (I am about a third of the way through, and the proverbial jury's still out).

SONG:  Red Dress by Susan Werner

BOOK:  Danger in a Red Dress by Christina Dodd

POEM:  The Cure by Ginger Andrews

Lying around all day
with some strange new deep blue
weekend funk, I'm not really asleep
when my sister calls
to say she's just hung up
from talking with Aunt Bertha
who is 89 and ill but managing
to take care of Uncle Frank
who is completely bed ridden.
Aunt Bert says
it's snowing there in Arkansas,
on Catfish Lane, and she hasn't been
able to walk out to their mailbox.
She's been suffering
from a bad case of the mulleygrubs.
The cure for the mulleygrubs,
she tells my sister,
is to get up and bake a cake.
If that doesn't do it, put on a red dress.

QUOTE:  "Gossip is just news running ahead of itself in a red satin dress." ~ Liz Smith

Back in the High Life Again (Steve Winwood)

Sciatica, which is also known as sciatic neuralgia, is a condition that causes pain in the low back, down the back of the leg and into the foot. It can make sitting and standing for long periods of time difficult and can lead to weakness, tingling and numbness in the leg and foot. It will often come and go throughout a person's lifetime, causing periods of varying degrees of pain and discomfort. If left unchecked, sciatic pain will generally grow worse and the nerve can become permanently injured.

The reason why the pain travels so far, seems to radiate up and down the legs, and back is because it is caused by the compression of the sciatic nerve, the longest nerve in the body. This nerve originates in the lumbar spine extends into the buttocks before traveling down the leg to the ankle and foot. When the vertebrae in the low back are compressed, the roots of the sciatic nerve can become pinched and irritated, which is what causes the pain and injury.


Most of you know that, after a two-year hiatus, my sciatica resurfaced in January 2020, and I was actually managing it very well.  Even when the pandemic hit in mid-March 2020, I was walking, stretching, and doing yoga.  Of course, at that time, we all (or at least I) thought we were in for just a few months of self-isolation/inconvenience... and here we are, five months later, with no sign of re-normalizing in sight... of our social calendars, much less our daily lives.  I confess to having lapsed with many of my self-care routines and my daughter Sarah, being a pro-active organizer and tired of watching me attempt to curb my moaning and limping and grimacing (oh, my!), called me on Monday and told me that I had an appointment with a chiropractor on Tuesday afternoon.  

I am sighing in contentment now, finally turning my sciatica issue over to professionals.  After my chiropractor visit yesterday afternoon - thermal imaging (my spinal column was completely green/normal, without a hit of yellow, orange, or red/severe, no deterioration or degeneration!); X-rays (slight misalignment); some stretching; some manipulation with instruments; an adjustment of my back and neck; and some laser therapy - I almost called an Uber to drive me home.  I was that relaxed!  Of course, many hours later, I felt pretty beat up, so I did some stretches, drew a very hot bath with liberal amounts of Epsom salts, used the massager my sons gave me for my birthday, slathered on some CBD salve, and then divebombed into bed. 

Today I had a massage for the first time since February (I cancelled my mid-March session) with my healing hands guru Karen (amazing!), and I am considering all this a re-set.  I am tired of living with pain.  I can see it in my eyes when I look in the mirror.  Then don't look in the mirror, Susan... right?

I go back to the chiropractor tomorrow morning for a more comprehensive review of my scans and X-rays, at which point we will develop a plan for future treatment (or not).  Either way, I am vowing to stretch every two hours on a daily basis, and alternate yoga with walking, even leisurely.  Life's too short to experience intermittent electric shocks down the back of one's legs... 😌

P.S.  I just opened a new container of HOPE hummus, and the inner seal said, "Self-Care Ain't Selfish".  Synchronicity!

NR:  This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar, Max Gladstone


SONG:  Back in the High Life Again by Steve Winwood

BOOK:  Sciatica Exercises & Home Treatment: Simple, Effective Care For Sciatica and Piriformis Syndrome by Dr. George F. Best D.C.

POEM:  Sciatica by Cliff Burns

You can never call Pain friend.
It is quarrelsome, insistent,
practically inescapable
like a boorish relative one must
endure at weddings
and family functions
or a childhood pal,
now out-grown,
who always overstays their welcome.

QUOTE:  "Fall down seven, stand up eight." ~ Japanese Proverb

Be Yourself (Graham Nash)

[Sorry the photo is blurry.  My excuse/reason is that it was late at night and I was tired! If you can't tell, it says:  "The purpose of life is to know yourself and love yourself and trust yourself and be yourself."...  💖 ]

Today is all about Radical Self-Care.  Then again, when isn't it?  Started out on my walk this morning, and had to turn around because of the lower back/piriformis/hip pain.  Found a wonderful yoga video for sciatica (yo, Adriene...  ;-), and did it twice!

Ordered a weighted heating pad as well as a portable massager (I miss you, Karen!) from Amazon, then took a super-hot and extra-long epsom salt bath, then made myself a large cup of hot tea, then started a new book.

Will make a chickpea meatloaf (I hear some of you saying yum, and others yuck), with brussels sprouts, corn, and wild rice for dinner tonight.  The plan is to get in the bed early, and see what tomorrow brings.  Every Day Is Day One, right?


SONG:  Be Yourself by Graham Nash

BOOK:  Your Aching Back: A Doctor's Guide to Relief by Augustus A. White III, MD [For my 60th birthday party, August 2014, I asked people to give me a copy of their favorite book, inscribed to me, explaining why they loved it.  This was from my brother...  :-) ]

POEM:   Caretake This Moment by Epictetus

Caretake this moment.
Immerse yourself in its particulars.
Respond to this person, this challenge, this deed.

Quit the evasions.
Stop giving yourself needless trouble.
It is time to really live; to fully inhabit the situation you happen to be in now.
You are not some disinterested bystander.
Exert yourself.

Respect your partnership with providence.
Ask yourself often, How may I perform this particular deed
such that it would be consistent with and acceptable to the divine will?
Heed the answer and get to work.

When your doors are shut and your room is dark you are not alone.
The will of nature is within you as your natural genius is within.
Listen to its importunings.
Follow its directives.

As concerns the art of living, the material is your own life.
No great thing is created suddenly.
There must be time.

Give your best and always be kind.

QUOTE:  “Gratitude is the fairest blossom which springs from the soul.” ~ Henry Ward Beecher

Love Potion No. 9 (The Searchers)

My friend Raina Rose is a wonderful singer-songwriter, which is how I knew her first.  She played my Labyrinth Cafe concert series in April 2012, a co-bill with Rebecca Loebe, and it was such a great night, as they are also best friends!  Not sure how many years ago Raina developed what she called her "side hustle", aptly named Folk Potions.  I am all about Radical Self-Care, and highly recommend the products I have bought, which I have also sent as gifts.  The Magic Face Oil is an integral part of my morning skincare routine:

All natural, organic, small batch dreamy creams, salves and herbal-infused oils for daily + ritual use. Hand crafted in Austin, Texas by folksinger and mother of two, Raina Rose. Thoughtfully balanced and prepared with the whole family in mind. 

So, I posted before that I stopped taking Aleve for my sciatica, and was incorporating other, more natural, ways to relieve the pain.  Had an epiphany moment this past Saturday morning while out on my walk, and couldn't wait to come home and order Raina's CBD & Arnica Pain Relief Salve (I actually bought the 2-oz. tin).  There are lots of CBD products out there, but I know and trust Raina.  I reiterate:  this was mid-day Saturday.  It arrived today (Monday!), and she had included a bottle of ingestible CBD tincture, too...  :-)

Well, I of course had to use them both immediately, applying the salve to my lower back, and putting a droplet of the tincture in my turmeric/ginger/lemon/pepper wellness shot.  I honestly can't think of the last time I felt such relaxation of my sciatica pain, even when I was taking the Aleve (which I haven't for a week now).  I am not feeling the tightness in my hamstrings nor the electric shock down the backs of my legs right now.  Her healing potions are a true gamechanger!

SONG:  Love Potion No. 9 by The Searchers

BOOK:  Wellness Witch: Healing Potions, Soothing Spells, and Empowering Rituals for Magical Self-Care by Nikki Van De Car, Anisa Makhoul (Illustrator)

POEM:  What potion should I give the night so she’ll always wonder? by Abraham Sutzkever (translated by Zackary Sholem Berger)

What potion should I give the night so she’ll always wonder?
Her pounding heart’s a rider galloping from the burning wood.

Maybe my pharmacist is awake the next street over?
In a crucible of  bone, snake tears mixed with herbs.

Should I hurry? Call the doctor? A heart like hers is rare.
And to tell the truth, if it shattered, what would I do?

QUOTE:  "My husband perpetually makes fun of me about my creams and my jars and potions and lotions, but its simpler than anyone makes it: clean, tone, keep yourself moisturized. The rest is internal: Protect yourself from the sun and drink water." ~ Brooke Shields