I've Never Been So Thankful To Have The Flu!

I know that may sound strange to say I was actually Thankful & even Grateful to have the Flu this week, but let me explain, by starting at the beginning; back in July I started breaking out in Hives. I kept thinking they would go away & they kept not going away. I would wake up every morning covered in Hives. Large red welts, that would hurt & itch. When even my face started swelling & it got difficult to breath I decided to go to the Doctor. (Also my health Insurance from my new job kicked in!) He put me on high doses of Steroids to knock out the hives & sent me to an Allergist.

I underwent two rounds of skin tests for allergies & thankfully I'm not allergic to any foods! I can keep eating whatever I want to! Yay me! :) Actually the only thing the skin tests did show was a mild to moderate reaction to some molds. At this point the Dr. thought it could be Auto Immune. One of my biggest fears in life was about to come to the forefront. He asked me if there was any Lupus in my family. And yes, my Sister had Lupus. She passed away, from Cancer, not from Lupus, but I watched her struggle with it my whole life. Back when I was pregnant with my Twin Daughters (who are now 15) I had a Blood test called an A.N.A. which was positive. I was told then, that it didn't necessarily mean that I had Lupus, but everyone who does have Lupus is positive, And that it should be something I should keep an eye on throughout my life.

Now I have always loved my Sister Dearly! And there are many ways I have wanted to be like her, but this was not one of them. And like I said it's been one of my biggest fears in my life, that I would have Lupus. It had been there in the back of my mind & when I started having Hives I googled everything from bed bugs to shingles, to allergic reactions, to try to figure out what it could be. The one thing I knew I was avoiding looking up, was Lupus. Finally I gave in & looked it up & it talked about rash & hives. I began to worry. Then when my Dr. wanted to test me for it, I knew this was it. My fears were coming true. I got the Blood test & waited & worried. I told only my family that I was being tested. And I know they prayed. I was trying to come to terms what my life would be like from this point on.

Two days before my appointment to find out my test results, I woke up really dizzy & nauseous & for the first time in my last 4 jobs, except for family emergencies, I called in sick. It was not pretty. For two days, I couldn't lift my head off the pillow without nearly falling over. I could remember my sister dealing with dizziness & nausea. I remember John coming into the room to check on me & found me crying. When he asked me why, I said, "What if this is the rest of my life? Me, too sick to work, or be involved in the kids' lives?" He kind of laughed, & said, "You're not going to be sick for the rest of your life, you just have the Flu!" I said "The Flu is throwing up, not being dizzy!" He said "It's been all over the news, this year it's been effecting people with dizziness really bad!" I tell you, I've never been so happy to have the flu! Thank you God!

Then on the 3rd day, I was still tired & weak, but I could at least get up. John went with me to my Dr.'s appointment. And my test for Lupus is NEGATIVE! I am so relieved! Again, Thank You God! The Dr. still doesn't know just what's causing my hives, the Blood test for allergies were all negative. He's upping my Antihistamines to try & knock it out, and wants me to try to go all fragrance free! Me, who worked at Bath & Body Works, & uses all it's fragranced soaps, body washes, lotions, creams, hand sanitizers, candles, room fresheners, car fresheners, well you get the picture! My husband actually LOL'd when the Dr. asked if I used fragranced body care! Ouch! But, I'll try anything at this point. So we bought fragrance free laundry detergent, & shower gel. Hope I survive this! :) On the way home I texted all my brothers, sister in laws & my kids to let them know I didn't have Lupus, & my Hubby said "Tell, them, now they really have to start praying, since you can't use your Bath & Body Works!" :)

Reading Lolita In Tehran

I've just finished reading Reading Lolita In Tehran A Memoir In Books By: Azar Nafisi. And I can't tell you just how good this book is! There are no words. This has now become one of my all time favorite Books I've ever read! I highly recommend it. A Book I feel every woman should read! Especially those, like me, who love Books!

It is Non Fiction, about an Iranian College professor of English Literature, who was expelled from teaching at the University of Tehran for refusing to wear the veil. And starts a secret class in her home where young girls can come together, feel safe enough to remove their veils they are forced to wear in public & read forbidden western classics, like those of Jane Austen, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry James & Vladimir Nabokov. (Every time I read his name I would hear in my mind that song Don't Stand So Close To Me by The Police with the line "Just like the old man in that Book by Nabokov") :)

I've told a couple of my friends who I know love to read (that would be you Tandra & Dana!) that they have to read this Book, because I need to talk about it with someone! :) I have so much underlined & tabbed in this book, (a habit, since my Book Club days) I thought I'd share some of my favorite passages with you . . .

"It takes two to create a relationship, and when you make half of the population invisible, the other half suffers as well."

"These students, like the rest of their generation, were different from mine in one fundamental aspect. My Generation complained of a loss, the void in our lives that was created when our past was stolen from us, making us exiles in our own country. Yet we had a past to compare with the present: we had memories and images of what had been taken away. But my girls spoke constantly of stolen kisses, films they had never seen and the wind they had never felt on their skin. This generation had no past. Their memory was of a half-articulated desire, something they had never had. It was this lack, their sense of longing for the ordinary, taken-for-granted aspects of life, that gave their words a certain luminous quality akin to poetry."

"The best fiction always forced us to question what we took for granted. It questioned traditions and expectations when they seemed too immutable. I told my students I wanted them in their reading to consider in what ways these works unsettled them, made them a little uneasy, made then look around and consider the world, like Alice in Wonderland, through different eyes."

"It takes courage to die for a cause, but also to live for one."

"I always had a hankering for the security of impossible dreams."

"Love was forbidden, banished from the public sphere. How could it be experienced if its expression was illegal?"

"It's frightening to be free, to have to take responsibility for your decisions."

"The offer of a better life for their children---even if it is an illusion---is so attractive to most parents."

"It's rather superficial, isn't it, to think that the only kind of fear is your kind."

"None of us can avoid being contaminated by the world's evil: it's all a matter of what attitude you take towards them."

"Remember what Cary Grant said in that fabulous film; a word, like a lost opportunity, cannot be taken back once it has been uttered."

"I said to him that I wanted to write a book in which I would thank the Islamic Republic for all the things it had taught me---to love Austen and James and ice cream and freedom. He said, you will not be able to write about Austen with out writing about us . . . The Austin you know is so irretrievably linked to this place . . . a place where the film censor is nearly blind and where they hang people in the streets and put a curtain across the sea to segregate men and women. I said, when I write all that, perhaps I will become more generous, less angry."

"I have come to believe that genuine democracy cannot exist without the freedom to imagine . . . To have a whole life, one must have the possibility of publicly shaping and expressing private worlds, dreams, thoughts and desires . . . How else do we know that we have existed, felt, desired, hated, feared?"

"To me it seemed as if we had not really existed, or only half existed, because we could not imaginatively realize ourselves and communicate to the world, because we had used works of imagination to serve as handmaidens to some political ploy."

The Top Tweets of 2012!

I decided to go through all the Tweets on Twitter that I have "Favorited" throughout the year. I've picked out my Favorite ones to share with you. Hopefully it makes you smile & you find some new people you want to follow on Twitter!

Are you stuck in your story? 
Do you live today based on your story from 20 years ago? 

Your Story is Now. Start a New Story. 
Tweeted by: Hallie Thompson

Live out of your Imagination, not your History. 

(Stephen Covey) Greatest Quotes

You Only Live Once; You Might As Well Be Amusing.

 (Coco Chanel) Tweeted by; Me! :)

Common Sense is so rare these days, 

it should be classified as a Super Power! Funny One Liners

And you know how I Love my Books & to Read . . .

Home is where the Books are. The Book Maven

Born to Read, Forced to Work. 

Again, Tweeted by Myself!

Reading makes Immigrants of us all,

It takes us away from home, 

but more important, it finds homes for us everywhere. 

(Jean Rhys) The Book Maven

Think and Wonder, Wonder and Think.

(Dr. Seuss) Greatest Quotes

 2012 has been an extremely hard year for us, and some of these Tweets helped me through.

Smile, even if it's fake. 

Laugh, even if you hurt. 

Don't let anyone get to you. 

You're Beautiful regardless of what anyone says to you.

Women of History

The Hardest Day at Work

is still easier than ANY day raising a Teenager! 

(From Blue Bloods) Tweeted by Yours Truly! 

Preserve your Memories, Keep them well;

What you forget, you can never Retell. 

(The Mother Daughter Book Club By: Heather Vogel Frederick)

Tweeted by: You guessed it,  Star4Laughs

Yes, I Favorite my own Tweets! What of it?! :) And one Tweeted by my own Beautiful Daughter:

What if Tomorrow all you woke up to

was what you Thanked God for Today?

Erica7Starr

Happy Tweeting, and Happy New Year! 

May 2013 be a year full of Happiness & Blessing for us all!