I apologize profusely for not posting for days and days. I have been in quite a funk. Initially, I was frantically reading for the Margaret A. Edwards Award committee meetings at ALA in DC, working on the booktalks for tomorrow's workshop here in Lexington, and reading for reviews. I was barely keeping my nose above the water with all that and teaching summer school, but I was doing okay. Then the hammer hit in the form of vertigo. Almost 2 weeks of this now. After falling on my face in the closet, with the room spinning and my vision jittering back and forth, and then hitting my nose on the faucet just trying to wash my face Steve came home from work and took me to the doctor's. Diagnosis was the kind of vertigo where things spin around you. Thank goodness I don't have the kind that I feel like I am spinning. I would hate to be the Tasmanian Devil! Moving my head too quickly or leaning back or forward really send things spinning and my eyes jittering. The doctor put me on a motion sickness medication and it works, but it slows me down and makes me tired. I don't have time to be sick! Tomorrow could prove to be interesting as I will be presenting from up on a stage.

When it rains, it pours. I went in to get my teeth cleaned on Tuesday and the x-rays were not good. The dentist doesn't even want to deal with one of the teeth that an island dentist botched a filling on until I have the wisdom tooth next to it taken out as it is resting on the root and the nerve. So, in preparation for another root canal, I had an oral surgeon consultation yesterday. All three of my wisdom teeth are right up against the nerve and may well be making the vertigo symptoms worse. At 7:15 Monday morning all 3 will be removed. I sure hope the swelling and pain are down before I leave for ALA in DC on Thursday. But, since I am only home for a couple of days after I get back from ALA before we drive up to Green Bay for a family gathering on Saturday at Mary's and then flying out for a week in Cozumel on Monday. No time in between to recuperate and most important is that I am feeling well enough to enjoy our vacation. Can't wait to wander the small ruins there. Steve is in second heaven as the resort we are staying at has no greens fees. I was looking at the spa options and saw a reflexology foot massage - that's for me!

Father's Day on Sunday. Steve received some really cute pictures of Michael and Kegan from Mary. Can't wait to see Kegan - the only grandchild I didn't see within a short period after birth. I feel like I am missing out on some of the best time with Kegan. But, I was not about to go up to Green Bay to visit with Mary and Scott remodeling their bathroom. Scott is doing the tile work himself and I know Mary is as persnickety about things being "perfect" as I am. Poor Scott! I didn't want to get in the middle of that. No way!! Can't wait to see it. Mary has also been doing a lot of yard work.

Anne sent me pictures of their house in Finland with the lilacs in full bloom. The house looks like many of the ones I grew up around in Upper Michigan. She also sent me a picture of rhubarb, but she didn't call it that. She wondered if I knew what it was. Boy do I! I love rhubarb. When I was a kid we used to dip the stalks in sugar and chew on them raw, but they work best cut up and mixed with strawberries in a pie. Yum! I had red rhubarb growing in front of the house in Alaska and it grew very well with the long days of summer. Steve wrinkles his nose over rhubarb like I do over lima beans so I guess I won't be making anything with rhubarb in it soon.

Nothing really to write about other than my frustration with the vertigo and wishing it would just go away so I could go back to being a "Speedy Gonzales" Type A. I wanted to scream when the doctor told me I just had to learn to slow down. Yeah - right! My inner response was, "Like that is going to happen!" But, the dizziness and fatigue have certainly slowed me down. I am so tired at the end of the day that I haven't even read in bed. Our Mama/kitty reading time in the a.m. recently has been spent with The White Tyger by Paul Park, but I am not impressed. I am sure it is because I have not read the first two books in the series. I feel lost a good portion of the time as I am lacking foundation knowledge about the characters and what is going on. It is very well written - a bit of a head-trip book - which I think I would enjoy if I had read the other two in the series first. Some series just need to be read as a whole since the books don't stand alone. I normally love alternate history novels but this one isn't as intriguing as Blackman's Naughts and Crosses. I need to get a copy of Knife Edge, the sequel in which Sephy is a singer and raising her mixed race daughter alone. When Callie, Callum's daughter, is fourteen she finds out how and why her father died. So many books, so little time! Please excuse my errors - the medication makes me a bit dopey along with being tired.