Back when I had a respectable camera, I traveled through many, many cities in Europe. Some of my favorites are now posted on the studio in their new format. Most of the pictures I took in Berlin, Heidelberg, Munich, Luxembourg and Brussels all had construction cranes in nearly every landscape shot, due to the fact that these cities were so heavily hit and destroyed in WWII. The other half of the photos from these cities include a lot of drunk people, so... Enjoy.

Let the Decorating Begin!

Andrew... you have been hung!

On the wall, that is. :)

Good, long and creative day. I was able to get some photographs from my new series (posted on the art studio) printed out and matted. Soon enough I will be decorating my new apartment. Also did some drawing, a tad bit o' writing, and now back to reading.

I think those who know me would be slightly amazed that I didn't watch a single episode of LOST.

YET.

And that is a big, fat YET because this day is not over and I'm starting to feel the slight twing of withdrawl. I missed the last half of the third season and what I missed out on became extremely obvious, and annoying, as I watched the fourth season. This is not a show you can just skip one week, nevermind an entire half of the season, and expect to understand what is going on in the next week.

What I haven't done, and vow NOT to do, is get involved in all the websites and blogs that discuss the show. I want to figure it all out for myself.

The subject of LOST came up as I was getting all the needles and iv put in my arms last Thursday and one of the nurses asked what I thought. In my half-dazed state of mind, I replied, "It's one big psychological experiment on the human soul." Yes, many chuckles followed. I'm not obsessed, I tell you. I'm not. Or at least not as obsessed, YET, as I was with Alias.

Now, with all this writing about the show, I feel a serious need to go finish watching the third season.

I can see that my lovely Red is marathon commenting, so I thought I'd say "HI ALLISON".
Thank you for coming over to visit me last night. It's always good to see your face. :)

By the way, a post-op diet of all squishy-liquidy-clear substances does have some benefit on the scale.

A Request for my Readers

Any suggestions out there for some good reading while I'm laid up?

I've posted two new series of photography and art work to the studio. Enjoy!

http://www.michellerose-art.blogspot.com/

home, sweet, home. hospital beds suck. having nothing but broth, jello and italian ice cream, water and apple juice, also starts to suck after a two meals.

Nevertheless, the wonderful Dr. Patil successfully removed my thyroid and all of the surrounding unknown mass tissue without any complications.

The only question is whether or not he kept my thyroid... has it in a jar somewhere. Hmm...

I do have a picture of the scar, but it doesn't quite fit the style of the photography on this blog. If popular demand requests it, I suppose I'll consider it.

Today was my last day of work for the rest of the summer and, of course, everyone wanted something before I left. I swear, I really think employees of GE think they own the world.

Surgery is at noon tomorrow.

I have less than 2 hours to eat what ever I please.

Despite it being nearly unbearably humid outside today, we managed to spend a good deal of the evening outdoors. The rest of the week will not be so pleasant, according to those who make a six-figure salary just to be wrong most of the time.

Some views from our apartment.

I have to admit something. This may come as a surprise to some. I usually handle these types of situations with ease.

But, I'm just a bit, just slightly, nervous about my upcoming surgery. Strange, I know. I've already had a tumor removed from my brain, watched (literally) my rotator cuff be repaired. I never once felt nervous about those operations.

But, this time, they are cutting into a sensitive area of the body. Given that my thyroid is in the wrong place, and located oh so closely to the nerves that control the motor function as well as the voice, I'm a bit scared this time. And never before have I been told I need to sign off an order that specifies whether or not I'd like to be necessitated or not before. I wish they had never asked such a question. Perhaps then I wouldn't be scared. People have their thyroids removed ALL of the time. But not from the location of my thyroid. I've given myself the worst stress migraine in my life. I've had to take class II drugs just to break the migraine so that I won't go into surgery with a headache. Especially since the surgeon will make determinations on my well being based on a set of post-op symptoms, one of which is a headache.

Anyway, given my nature to express my internal struggles via writing, I figured that I should make these fears known. And since I'm also an artist, I think I'll play around with the CT scan image of my thyroid as well. For arts sake right?


In the next couple of days prior to the surgery, I will also be eating anything that I might miss while recovering, given that my post-op diet will consists of liquids, ice cream, jello, and anything else that won't hurt going down. I smell a steak...

Sorry for the blog name change. I have issues with titles, and am constantly changing my mind.


It's no wonder I could not come to a final decision on the title of my first novel...

A Night on the Levee

View of the Cincinnati skyline as seen from the Newport Levee.

Only seven more days before I get my throat sliced open by a surgeon who is only 7 years older than me.

And, for the better I'm sure, in seven more days I'll be cigarette free. (The surgeon mentioned this whole thing about the extremely negative effects of inhaling nicotine into an open wound... etc, etc, etc....) It's slightly saddening right now, but in the greater scheme of things it might improve my running.

Added bonus - I won't be suffering from any early withdrawl nic-fitting bitchiness. I'll be on a morphine drip. :O

The Return to Charcoal

A warm and happy "Congrats" out to Scott and Angie on their marriage.

Some "fun" work added to the art studio.

We had a cook-out at Matt's family's house today in a belated 4th of July celebration. Italian sausage, some hamburgers (though expensive today as only so much beef is available thanks to some bad-beef breakout in the area), brots, and Montgomery Inn marinated chicken. YUMMY. Matt's parents and sister refused to have thier pictures taken. Our 12 year old rather tall and skinny, future model-material, neice however didn't mind so much.

It continued to rain all the way up to the lake, and fortunately stopped upon our arrival. The sky opened up a little, just enough for some sun light.

Today was my grandmother's 84th birthday also. So Matt, my mom and I took her out to the lake and enjoyed an afternoon with the ducks, neither of whom we named Carl.

We did see a few fireworks going off on the drive home, however I dared not to take pictures while driving. Upon returning to Cincinnati, it was again, raining.