Soothing Slumbering Sunday: Catching up on my sleep …, October 09, 2016 Gratiana Lovelace (Post #980)

Catching up on my sleep after a hectic university Homecoming week where I coordinated our annual alumni speakers panel of four alumni for an all day Friday itinerary of events around campus, culminating in their presentations and Q & A—followed by another reception and then dinner out.  Whew!

It was great to see our alums again and they shared wonderful insights with the audience of students, faculty, and staff!  And everyone who helped me out with arrangements were great also!  Thanks!

But with my arthritis and herniated spinal discs  not playing nicely with me these days, Friday was a marathon day of exertion and pain for me.  So when I finally returned home after 14 hours, all I could do was to kerplop on the sofa for two hours with my ice pack at the base of my spine.  This nice guy and exquisitely talented British actor named Richard Armitage  at right (the image is thanks to Cyn) illustrates how I felt.  And then my going to bed to sleep for the night two hours later.

Well!  I slept for 10 hours, waking up quite late on Saturday morning—around 8:42am, when sleeping in until 7:00am is late for me.  Ha!   On work days, I’m up at 6am sharp!

Though my Saturday morning timeframe was running extremely late to see our university’s Homecoming Football Parade (right), I did my morning shower and hair & makeup primp routine, and breakfast in record time.  I do not have youth and beauty on my side, so I am not a gal who schleps out of my house unless I’m presentable.  Ha!

And then I hied myself back to campus to catch the remnants of our Homecoming parade with my family who had driven in from out of town—and I distributed the Homecoming t-shirts that I had bought for my nieces and nephew.

And the really serendipitous part of my Saturday morning heading to the parade was that I barely managed to get into the one block away from campus parking deck by hopefully flashing my handicap tag at the parking attendant who kindly let me in—though the electronic sign said that the parking deck was full.  Then I actually found a parking spot.  Such a nice parking deck attendant guy!  Not everyone is as understanding when you have mobility challenges, so I really appreciate those who do.  Blessings to him and his family!

And then, I retrieved my smaller and lighter weight transport wheelchair (right) from my car trunk and used it like a walker–the seat holding my bags of eight Homecoming t-shirts for my family.  Seriously, this 19 pound portable and collapsible wheelchair was the best $99 that I spent in my life.  My transport wheelchair is not super heavy duty–like the wheelchair that I use daily at my office building on campus, in which I can sit and propel myself with my arms up and down the hallway (like a wonder woman, ha!)–but my lighter weight wheelchair is great in a pinch, like Saturday!

Then I slowly hoofed my way through the parking deck, through the hotel skywalk, through the interior of the block long lovely hotel, and then I headed out a ramp door to street level at the North end of the hotel, that put me only half a block from my family.  Then I removed and distributed the t-shirts I brought, and I gratefully sat in my wheelchair to chat and watch the end of the parade with my family.  Snap!

Oh and then later, I met my hubby for lunch Saturday after his morning shift—away from campus, since every restaurant nearby was packed with Homecoming revelers.  And after finally coming home again around 2pm Saturday afternoon, I napped a little Saturday afternoon.  But not nearly enough to catch me up from Friday’s marathon.  Ha!

So Sunday, I’m not moving a muscle—nor anything else—as I go into full snooze mode, at least until 9am.  Then I will happily write and read and social media a bit.  I also have a little work that I brought home from the office.  And yes, I will sit and work on preparing the next chapter of my original Historical Fiction Regency romance “Encouragement” for Monday serialization.

And while movement and strength requiring household chores are needing to be done, eventually, they will have to wait until next weekend, after I begin to recover from having more spinal injections into my herniated spinal discs (L3 and L4) outpatient surgery this week—to hopefully reduce their swelling on my spinal nerves.  So wish me luck, and I hope that your Sunday is a pleasant one.

P.S. And blessings and prayers to everyone facing Hurricane Matthew and its aftermath!  My heart goes out to those who have lost or injured loved ones. And I have made a modest donation to the Red Cross on their behalf.    Hugs!