On their way

So my cats and husband are going to be here tomorrow evening! I'm excited, stressed, and nervous, all in one, but I think that's a good thing! It's like two worlds are coming together - my California family and my Texas family, which was been hard to do!!!

In other news, I'm still reading a lot. "The Russian Concubine" was a fabulous book - I highly recommend it. I'm currently reading a Jude Deveraux trade book, "Return to Summerhouse", and next up might be "The Photograph."

The next few days will be a bit busy, so I will try to post again when I have some free time.

The latest update

Again, sorry for the lack of posts lately. I've been away from the computer a bit while I brush up on my physical therapy and wii fit exercise, and of course plenty of books and movies. I've been reading a LOT of Rosamund Pilcher - her books are just to easy and relaxing. The complexity level of her plots are just the right amount - no major twists or sudden new characters, or mysterious murders. Just what I need right now! I also finished "How to be Cool" (good book) and another recent one from Anne Rivers Siddons, I forget the actual title. It was decent.

We saw the Duchess last weekend - that was a good film! I have yet too see Slumdog due to the subject nature, but we might see The Changeling this week.

Hasan is currently in the process of getting the cats to Houston, once he sends his car off. The exact date of his arrival at this point is unknown, but it might just be tomorrow, if all goes as planned!

I'm back with a recommendation for some of you

Hi all! I'm back, sorry for the time between posts. I actually wrote up a review of the "Story of India" BBC series about a week ago, but the website ate it. After that I was hesitant to write another one again.

I have been looking on the web for interesting sites, and found the following:

http://workingwithchronicillness.com/
http://www.findingeq.com/

The first contains tips on working with a chronic illness. The second is by a professional blogger who is recently out of school - I really like her writing style. She writes about various aspects of living and working with a chronic disease, in her case the illnesses are IBS and sleep apnea.

The issue of working with this illness has been on my mind a lot lately, and I know that others of you might find some helpful information in her blog. Chronic illness, particularly the auto-immune variety, requires a lot of stress monitoring and management.

This blogger also has links to some other interesting sites. I believe that I found her through Brazen Careerist.

In other news, I've been keeping busy with books, working out, movies, and visiting friends.
Basically, nothing too new to report. Hasan gets in to town next week with the cats, so we will soon be busy unpacking and reorganizing the stuff from our California apartment. That should be fun! I'm planning to finally get rid of a LOT of stuff. Can't wait!

What are you all up to? I haven't heard from you in a while, drop a note or comment when you get a chance. Or better yet, send me an email!

Love ya,
Amy

Happy Groundhog Day!

Here's wishing everyone a Happy Groundhog Day!

Nothing new to report, except that I am feeling so much better lately, and want to apologize for my whininess and complainy-bird attitude over the past 2 months! I'm taking the honorable and truthful way out and revealing my secret...it was the medicines that I was on! I'm not normally so down, but I realize that one particular medicine that I'm on has been particularly crazy-making. I'm hoping to reduce it this week pending the doctor's authorization - one woman that we met on the cruise warned me about this medicine and said that she ended up in a mental institution as a result of it. I was overruled by my medical team when I asked to go on something else, but whatever.

I just finished a great book - 'The Day the Rain Came" by Rosamunde Pilcher. It's a great comfort read. The other book that I would recommend for you historical mystery buffs is "A Poisoned Season" by Tasha Alexander. Both are absolutely fantastic!

Other than that, same old stuff. I've been industrious with the wii fit and physical therapy, and get stronger every day, knock on wood!

Please keep your comments coming - it lets me known that someone besides my mom reads this thing!

Bye,
Amy

Life is good - my update

I just got back from physical therapy and eye doctor appointments, and I feel really great about the results! As far as I can tell, I'm in fairly good shape, and I'm hopeful to make a full recovery of all numbness in my fingers. My eyes checked out perfectly - there's been no issues due to the disease, and every piece of information that I uncover makes me feel that much better! I think I've been worrying a lot needlessly, and I apologize to those of you that have been worrying along with me, but who can know without actual physical results? Everything that I have read about this disease has put the fear or god in me, and I'm finally now getting over it.

Now that things are better, I'm even considering driving again for short distances - let's see if my doctor approves it next week.

In terms of activities, I've just been reading, wii fitting, and watching Lost! now that the new episodes are on tv. The new episodes are very exciting, for you Lost! fans out there. Watch it again - it's gotten more adventurous, but they are preserving some of the debt. Things seem to also be getting a bit more scientific.

In terms of books, I finished a great book - 'The Diplomat's Daughter'. It was fabulous, very interesting for those of you that follow current events and are interested in world politics. I read the whole book in a day, and it's huge!

We need to get a few more books from the library. I will keep you posted if I find any other good ones!

TTFN,
A

Some interesting articles on recovering from setbacks

I just read a very interesting article on tough experiences and what we can gain from them. If you're interested in that kind of thing, defintely check it out!

http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=45978089203&h=2dASr&u=AP8HP&ref=nf

Here's another article that I found interesting on a site that I check every day. It's great for career advice, and they have fantastic blogs every day by 20 and 30 something professionals.
Read this if you think you are having a bad year:

http://www.brazencareerist.com/2009/01/24/what-i-learned-about-life-through-disasters

Enjoy!

Amy

Reviews of my latest reads

My latest book read is "First Darling of the Morning" by Thrity Umrigar. I seem to have a knack lately for picking up dark books that strangely have similarities to my life. Not that my life is or has been dark, per se, but you know where you read something about a character andd think "Wow, that's me!" That - it's happening to me. A Lot. Very eerie, strange, and a bit perturbing, when you're trying to think about positive things and cheery little butterflies, but then, what fun is that anyway? The dark side is where the good stuff is, according to all the books.

So I just finished the Umrigar book, which is dark but good, and am almost done with 'The Palace Of Illusions' by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. Now this is one Fantastic book, but it is Very Dark. It is basically a retelling of essential stories from the Mahabharata, the great Indian epic, from the vantage point of the main female character, Draupadi. I had to actually put the book down at times, as those of you that are familiar with the Mahabharata are aware of how dark the story gets at points. Multiply that by 100 - the author really puts you in Draupadi's skin and makes you feel an approximation of what she might have felt at each of the major instances in her life. This book is really amazing - Divakaruni should win a literary prize for it.

The last book, which I ended up returning to the library without finishing, was a book about Elizabeth. The author is Allison Weitland (sp?), and the book is really amazing, but it got too dark for me, with all the talk of the Tower and death, so I just let it go. I believe that this is the book that the last Elizabeth movie was based on, and I highly recommend it for any history enthusiasts that enjoy the stories of Elizabeth and Henry VIIIth. I've read a lot of historical fiction about these two subjects, and this one did the best job of making sense of various events in history. The lives of both of these historical figures make so much more sense to me now! If the subject interests you, definitely grab this book!

Tonight - dinner at CPK with the parents, sister, and her father-in-law. The finale for SaReGaMaPa was very long, but decent, and Rush Hour 3 is a good movie! The next books on the list are: 'A Golden Age' by Tahmima Anam, 'The Diplomat's Daughter' by Tom Kinsolving, 'The Harafish' by Nagub Mahfouz, and 'Secrets and Mysteries of the World' by Sylvia Browne.

Later,
A