Whatever did happen to...

January 2nd?

Um. Well. Let's see. There was breakfast. There was lunch--ham and bean soup. And there was some sort of supper. The day, for the most part, was taken up with recuperating from a rough night on not NYE but Jolly January 1st. We had a sleep deprivation hangover.

Since back surgery I have been graced with a particularly attractive functional back brace. At least a foot of hard plastic covers my back from bum to mid-lumbar which narrows in the front. All this hard plastic is held together with fashionable functional gray canvas and velcro. Lots of velcro. I can not possibly bust my buttons but, if able, I could rip the velcro with great force and nails down the chalkboard sound. All of this hardware is to protect the titanium enforced disc replacement I received.

All of this hardware is apparently interfering with another popular function around here. Breathing. I had joked with a friend that I was fairly certain the brace was restoring my ribs to pre-pregnancy curves. I'm no longer joking. The deep breathing has not been deep. Join lack of deep breathing to asthma, throw in the sprinkling of lung junk that builds up normally, multiplied by a hindered ability in coughing and SOB is not a curse word, but it does describe the great shortness of breath I've been experiencing the last two weeks.

Short of hanging me upside down to get the junk out of my lungs--and we're considering that tactic next--we have engaged both the science and the quackery to enable breathing.

Air. It is necessary for life.

For whatever reason, Saturday night was one of much coughing, little productive effect, several asthma attacks and very, very little sleep.

So January 2nd was quiet and restful. No one went anywhere for the larger part of the day but many naps were taken to recoup. It was an object lesson for the year. January 1st was full of productivity and transformation. January 2nd was full of the nothingness of rest.

And so 2011 ticks on.