SPRING HAS SPRUNG

At last it's here! Mother's Day is over and it's time to plant. I only have a small area in my tiny backyard to utilize but use it I will. Want a little lilac bush and some teeny tiny alyssum. The lilac probably won't render it's aroma until next year as I can smell the delights of other people's bushes already in full bloom. However, the sweet smell of alyssum should be good to go until fall. That is unless the local deer don't decide to make a meal of it. According to my neighbors, plastic is the way to go around here. I'm stubborn though and want to give these treats to my nosebuds a good try.

Spring is not the only thing that has sprung around here. My orifices have sprang as well. I must keep a kleenex in hand at all times. Eyes are running, nose is dripping and my lungs are liquifying on a regular basis. I know that I should keep my windows closed and all that, but again my stubborn nature rules and I want to experience Mother Nature's rebirth with every sense of my being. A little inconvenience like kleenex is a small price to pay. Besides they're made by P & G so I'm helping my local economy as well.

I don't think that I'm the only MSer with an overabundance of mucus. It seems to me that many people have this kind of reaction to certain stimuli. It's pollen in the spring, air conditioning in the summer, dust in the fall, and chemical deodorizers all year round. Why do people think that a plug in device filled with chemical scents is cleaning the air? I don't even think they smell particularly good either! Some of them can run me out of a building because my lungs start to fill with liquid and I start losing my ability to absorb enough oxygen to function.

Some foods can do this to me also. Mixing wheat and milk seems to open up the flood gates to my inner aquifer of sputum, but I love my morning cereal. Frosted mini wheats are better than corn flakes. I don't care what Tony the Tiger says! And Raisin Bran tastes great and helps keep me regular. Who could enjoy life without Macaroni and Cheese. Alas, perhaps one day I shall become so annoyed at being phlegmish that I shall exert more control over my food choices than I already do. I remember my Dad telling me that as he hit the big 50, all the foods he loved suddenly started to not love him. Bananas, peanut butter, chocolate and milk! Chocolate can never be banished from my life. I am a woman and chocolate is essential to my well being! I did learn to drink 2% and 1 % milk with some great effort. It was kind of like quitting smoking! Now when I am subjected to whole milk, I find it somewhat greasy, like potato chips. Epiphany! Maybe if I go back to whole milk, I'll weed the scumdrum out of me. After all, I am the granddaughter of a dairy farmer, so I think I will give it a try. I have a half gallon of 2% to get through first. If the weather warms up a little more though I could start on some ice cream. Hmmm, pralines and cream, jamoca almond fudge, maple walnut. Come on sunshine!

Diary of a Dairy Princess - to be continued....,

SHE WALKS THE WALK

Last Saturday morning I woke up at my usual early time, plus one hour. On a weekday my alarm goes off at 6:00 am. This allows me one hour in front of the telly watching the local news while drinking my most deliciously addictive two cups of coffee. Then I have the time and inclination to eat a good breakfast, take a shower, get dressed, tend to Spider the cat, and mosey on down the very pleasant trail to my workplace.

I am a masochist, so I set the alarm on the weekends also. Same time, same place. Perhaps it is not so very torturous, as once it goes off ,I turn it off, roll over and enjoy the best hours worth of sleep known to mankind! After one hour of the deepest, dreamiest sleep, I wake up, ready to face a lackadaisacal Saturday. That might not be the right word because it implies that I lack spirit. Not true, I just lack the desire to leap about. In fact, it is the great day I go to my beloved Tai Chi class and learn how to move at the speed of a turtle:)

Once settled into my very own lazy-girl chair, sized just right for little people such as myself, with my coffee in one hand and the remote in the other, I engage my mind with the local news. I find out that this is the day of the MS Walk and I think that I should go and do it! So I start to leap about in a very unSaturday morning like fashion. Stuff my face with a bowl of Raisin Bran, jump in and out of the shower, pile on some comfortable clothing and venture forth to a part of Cincinnati that I have never been to before. Sawyer Point is right beside the stadium where multitudes of people gather in ritualistic fashion to peer and cheer for their local teams. I have never been near it, unless zooming by on one of the Interstates on the way to and from the airport could be considered a close proximity. I manage to get there, albeit late, without getting on the freeway. What's free about them anyway? With map in hand I start my walk. A couple of blocks or so into it, I start to wonder why hoards of people are coming my way, some returning my smiles and hellos, some in a world of their own that does not include me:( I make a more detailed inspection of my map, and discover that I'm am going the wrong way. I do many things backwards so this is in keeping with my MO. So I turn around and get back to 'start here' and head on out once more. Some ways along the correct route, I come upon a sign. It states 1/4 mile. Already my head is a bit woozy, it has been well over a year since I have done any real walking (grocery stores and malls don't count) and I wonder what was I thinking, I will never manage to do 3 miles. Then I think about how ten years back I would walk around Lake Perris every Saturday morning with my dearly departed hubby. I plough ahead, picking up my pace with a determination that I will do this! My second wind came on strong and I actually enjoyed trekking through downtown. It is a city much like any other city and I happily finished Walking the Walk.

One day, when they discover why this demylineation happens to those of us who have this disorder, they will find a way to reverse it's course. Sometimes I feel like they are spending more time concentrating on finding ways, expensive methods, just to slow it down. I walk the walk in hope that some one, some group, is actually trying to find out why!