Moving forward on four roads

Sometimes we just live from day to day, taking things as they come along. And sometimes we know we're moving forward. This is one of those times.

First, I'm excited to say that, on Tuesday, I passed my Professional Standards Evaluation in my mediation practicum. Now I move forward to co-mediate 12 sessions and attend several in-services, on the road to becoming a certified mediator in the state of Washington. This will be a volunteer activity, mostly, and I have both the skill and the passion to undertake it. I'm grateful to have found a meaningful way to be useful in my community. I have a feeling I'll use mediation in other areas of my life, too.

My husband Art is having knee replacement surgery a week from today. I've gone with him to the class at the hospital and the pre-surgical consultation with the surgeon. Art has done the dental checkup thing, the physical checkup thing, the order-the-walker thing. We've made arrangement for my sister Alyx to fly down from Anchorage and be Art's "coach" (no longer "caregiver") for the first week after surgery. She's a second-year nursing student with a great sense of humor and a solid, trusting relationship with both of us.  Art isn't a particularly compliant patient, and I'm not a particularly accepting wife around noncompliance, so having Alyx here for the first week will be easier on everyone - except maybe Alyx! Art isn't supposed to drive for six weeks after the surgery, so I'm keeping my summer schedule as open as possible. I can take an exercise class any three of four days a week, depending on what's going on. Art and I are fairly independent as a rule, but this summer it will shift. We've done this several times before, after a surgery, so I'm anticipating some bumps but an overall recovery afterwards - and a schooner cruise off the coast of Maine in late summer to reward us for our work.

While we walk this presurgical road, we're still on the eating plan, heading into our third week on mostly fruits, vegetables, beans and nuts. Art has lost 11 pounds. I haven't weighed myself since last weekend, but there's a looseness around my waistband and a bit less of a muffin above it. Today I had a treat for lunch - Chinese food at a local restaurant with broccoli (legitimate on the eating plan) and shrimp (not). An occasional treat makes the process easier. I'm encouraged. The toughest part of this road is behind us, I think.

The most fun road, though, is that I've finally gotten the publisher of our book to ask Amazon and Barnes&Noble to correct the title on their websites. Some places it's "Viet Nam" and others it's "Vietnam". Art says it only matters to me. I say, well, if you're looking for all the versions of the book so you can choose which one you want to buy, they don't all sort together if the titles are different. After a couple of months of fruitless emails to the publisher, I called yesterday and connected with Daisy in customer service. And she has expedited the issue. She also assured me that the updated version of the book is the one that's out there, including the ebook version. I downloaded it today onto my Kindle and she is right. Finally! Now I'll begin to contact the library, and bookstores, and local radio stations. I didn't want to do that until the latest version of the book was available. In the meantime, Art and I each carry a few copies of it around with us. And we'll be continuing our deliveries to the Vet Centers - it will be the ones in Washington and Oregon this summer.

These four roads - mediation, surgery, weight loss, and the book - are the ones I'm on for the summer. You know in the winter we'll be on the ones that take us to Arizona or some other sunny place!