Sylvia's Journal

What was I thinking when I assumed that my first full day at home would be a normal workday? With a 12 hour jet leg I was hardly able to concentrate and do work-work (as opposed to self-care work). I wandered out of Abi’s massage studio with massage brain as Axel calls it, rather unfocused. Finding Axel in the coffee shop next door was a significant victory.

By then it was nearly lunch hour and going out for lunch seemed the right thing to do. We drove slowly through a picture perfect winter wonderland and under bright blue skies to Ipswich, congratulating ourselves on living in such a beautiful place. I traded in the noodle soups of the last few weeks for a steaming bowl of chowder but I am still drinking buckets of tea.

Lunch made us forget that Axel had an early afternoon appointment with the brain injury specialist in Boston. Forgetting things is, apparently, quite common for people who have been whacked on the head. He called, apologized and was rescheduled. We are, once again, grateful that Axel is only forgetting things, nothing worse (like some of the patients he sits with in the waiting room).

After lunch it was naptime – something I am not all that good at usually but this time it was easy. I had planned to go for a long walk on the beautiful and balmy winter day but the waking up from my two-hour nap time took too long and then it was dark again.

Sita gave me a ukulele for Christmas. The instrument was waiting for me when I got home, all tuned and ready to play. And so the most strenuous thing I did yesterday was to practice A, C and F chords. I can now strum ‘This old man,’ ‘Amazing Grace,’ and a few other tunes. All I need is a campfire and some people to sing along. I can’t wait for it to be summer.