So there are things that happen to me.

And there are things that simply don’t. And I’m fine with that.

Except one big thing that doesn’t ever happen to me actually happened.

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Dear Friends,

It was an honor to represent you this morning in Swim Across America’s 1.5 mile swim from Greenwich to Stamford. Your generosity made me one of the top 5 “earners” for this event. We raised more than $6,500 for cancer gene therapy research, or more than 2% of the total of $300,000 in contributions yielded by the swim. I can’t thank you enough!

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The water was like glass, merging with the gentle fog over Long Island Sound at 7 am. As I struggled to put on my new wetsuit, I said hellos and traded swim stories with new friends. We were together in preparation for next Saturday’s Swim Across America event, and we were all anxious to make sure we remembered how to sight-swim outside the confines of our normal habitat (lane line, lane marker, lane line).

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Let’s turn the wayback machine to 1999, when selling some of our priceline.com friends & family stock gave us the capital we needed to score this house of ours. As I’ve mentioned before, the kitchen was nothing short of a minor disaster.

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Non-staged, messy reality. Although I did move the muddy boots from this afternoon’s walk out of the picture.

Alpha kitty on the couch. Doodle on the floor (odd) next to her dad (everyone say HI, Paul!). Beta kitty off-camera to the right. Children elsewhere, playing a new video game. Snow man ignoring me since I’ve cruelly placed him so close to the fire. Dirty wool sock in the foreground. Christmas detritus everywhere. Curtains? Yeah. New. After 10 years of naked windows, I’ve been on a tear.

This downtime stuff? It’s kind of nice.

I’m off to eat a slice of pizza and find a bottle of wine that pairs perfectly with contentment.

Texting while my husband was running errands earlier:

teh crazeez is here.

One curtain done. Badass.

No, ME. Just got your last present.

But I’m so done with presents, I’m MAKING

CURTAINS on Xmas eve. Total badass.

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The stockings were hung by the chimney with care. Parts of Christmas dinner are burbling on the stove. And I’m waiting for my husband to come to help me hang my badass curtains.

Merry Christmas, dear friends. Love to you all.

The same floor. The same chair. Shift change.

I know the rhythms of this ICU. Twenty minutes until the nurses will let me in. Twenty minutes. Until.

It’s just a building. Just a building, a floor, a unit where my mother drew her last labored breath.

This time, I am here with joy in my heart.

My sister’s tumor is gone. History. Dead tissue in a lab somewhere, long gone from her body. Divorced from her brain.

She’s talking. Asking for the dog that’s brought new life to our home since the two of them arrived Saturday night. Moving her arms, legs, fingers, toes.

Healing.

Rumor has it her neurosurgeon is going to write a case study about her. Because my sisters and I, we are strong like you read about in medical journals.

And it ain’t rocket science. But it sure was brain surgery.

Healthy children.

Healthy, happy children.

The means to care for an ailing dog.

A job. With benefits. Interesting work.

A computer.

A wam cat next to me, hunkering close and losing his shit (like the rest of the pack) because their canine leader is hospitalized.

New underwear!

A sport I love. An obsession (weight lifting) that’s actually healthy.

Swimming. At all. Regardless of speed.

Perspective. Hard earned.

A stolen 3 day weekend on the beach.

Love. Deeper now than I ever thought it could be when I met him 17 years and 1 day ago.

Steak. Nom, nom.

The hurricane left angry seas in its wake, making today the first day we swam in the ocean. But it’s aallllllll goooood. Except for the broken sunroof. And the dog who was certain the skunk was an innocent little kitty who was dying to say HI!

republished with pictures that didn’t stick in the WordPress iPhone app

He is a CPA.

And I have an MBA, having earned an A- in statistics only by the grace of the bell curve. I didn’t fare quite so well in Finance. But I thought I could count. And I was sure he could.

Neither of us has had coffee yet. We’ve finished the warmup. It’s 6:12 am.

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