Well, it happened at 5:00 a.m., when I got out of bed and realized that I had 2 of my favorite Nia routines fully ready to dance in my brain. Got so excited that I got right out of bed and danced through both of them (the cats were irritated because they weren’t ready to be awake yet). It’s so amazing to realize how much memory resides in the physical body. And then to listen to the music and realize the entire dance is right there, ready to go! This business of having a body is really pretty awesome, when it comes right down to it!

The last time this happened, Jake was in grade school, or maybe earlier. I suppose getting some fresh air & exercise could theoretically benefit Dr S as well. Note well the snappy chapeau and sleek metropolitan hair-style!

Feel free to pre-submit Q’s today so Dr S can be maximally prepared to provide A’s at church.

We made it home, which turned out to be a pretty exhausting process of travelling across the country. It is kind of amazing that you can have brain surgery and then they let you fly, so quickly, afterwards. My beloved doctor has a nice little image of, when they do the surgery, they let some air into your brain, so your head is like a soda bottle with a bit of extra air that makes it go “poof” with the pressure changes. It’s weird, because I could actually feel the pressure changes, including it turns out that, just thinking about moving, standing up, anticipating doing something, the brain starts to do its magic and little changes in the pressure of the brain begin to happen. Those of you who know me can only imagine how fascinated I am by this entire process as it unfolds in my own brain – I may never need any form of television again, just my own weird brain doing its thing and watching it, in real time. It is such a strange window into something that is really a miracle – that our brains do this for us all the time, and we don’t even notice it.

On a practical note, the cats seem thrilled that I still remember that feeding them the moment I wake up is the most important job I have in my life. Our cat, Senor, seems pleased that I remember that giving him a little bit of turkey from the fridge is the most evolved human action my new “designer brain” could possibly display. I guess if your cats are satisfied with the work of the neurosurgery team, they’ve done a pretty good job of it.

And fortunately, one of the cats realized that her job, last night, was to just sit in my lap and purr, so they are holding up their end of the deal a bit – at least as much as cats are able to focus in on such things.

I tried to pose this earlier, but I think it must have been too complex for wordpress. I’m thinking about how complicated it is to get dressed. I remember when Leda was small, she would create these elaborate outfits to wear, which took a lot of time to even put on her body. What order do things go in? Why are there so many layers? And how complicated are leggings, anyway? Just sitting in front of my suitcase, deciding on what to wear gives me an appreciation for my poor brain being able to figure it out at all! It went better as I thought about how much fun Leda used to have with the process of getting dressed as a little kiddo, and then to go about it with that attitude. I think my priorities are different than hers were – I want to be warm, she wanted complex fashion, but the layering is similar!It sure makes me chuckle, as I think about how much time we spend in this complex world of dressing ourselves up.

Today we took a trip to the Great Meadows National Wildlife Preserve in Concord. Congress closed it of course. But the anti-authoritarian Zak gene kicked in and we hopped the chain. This is a place we used to go during our courtship, and baby Leda has been there in her baby-jogger <3. This is a sizable chunk of wetlands, with a flat trail around and across it. Kristine mentioned the blueness of the sky, the color a few fallen leaves — sort of noticing the natural beauty in a way Leda did at age 1, though not being in a stroller, Kristine was not able to kick her foot up and down with approval.

You can observe in the background that there is very little color foliage so far. So all leaf-peepers who cam to Boston don't have much to cheer about. There are also bugs and what I assume are little toads chirping, so Mother Nature is definitely nowhere near settling down for a winter nap. Wonder why that could be.

Being a holiday, there was a lot of good people-watching from our seats outside the downtown Peets .. swarms of teens milling around Bertucci's pizza and the like. There is a walking/running/biking trail which connects all these town centers on a retired rail bed … Nancy Mack enjoyed the Minuteman Trail during her time in Lexington, so it’s probably fair to say the Chipman Trail has New England roots.

This is the question of the evening, because I am trying to relean how the calendar works as well as convince myself that this matters! So I’ve spent a bit of time staring at the calendar trying to convince myself that it really matters because without, it, I don’t show up to do things on time, for example. Funny that I just can’t convince myself that it really matters. That part of my brain is fairly off line right now. I can’t seem to convince myself that it matters a lot. It is a weird experience of living the eternal now. don”t worry, I really am working on caring about this so or you may be in for the longest sermons ever. But it is interesting to see how much my brain is not wanting to remember the calendar and just live in this eternal now. So, i’m doing my best to care enough to learn how the calendar works again. I am now able to remember that it is 2013.

We went to our old church here, and I was able to remember some people that I haven’t seen for over 20 years. One of them was pregnant while first baby when I was pregnant with Leda and the church had a baby shower for all of us at the same time! My friend, Clifford decided that I need a bishop”s hat to wear when I’m back in Pullman, so he brought one by the MGH. So you see, our friends out here are taking excellent care of us. And I realize how much our friends here would like our Pullman friends!

We’re such a cute couple walking circuits around the ward, and my gal is such a snappy dresser! (If you’ve ever worn a johnnie, you get the joke). Dr Sunshine is enjoying this interlude in which he is not the one having to exert to keep up!

Tryig to write after brain surgery turns our to be very cofusing who wave known? Thanks for being part of my rehab process by reading this cofusing note! Dr sunshine is the best ever! Thaks for all the love!

Rev Zakarison shares some thoughts about governance with Congressional leadership. A distinct sea-change, just in time to help fix what’s broken. It has to come in short clips before she runs out of gas, but sometimes in DC simpler is best!