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Saturday, May 01, 2004

Scenes with Linda

Lilacs

Thursday, driving back from Kirksville, I noticed a lilac bush just before the last turn into Rusk. Technically it is on the grounds of the cancer hospital, but it might as well be in our back yard. Linda loves lilacs (and the sentiment has rubbed off on me) so yesterday we wheeled over to smell the flowers which are in bloom right now.

The first thing I can share is that it is very hard to roll a wheelchair on grass. Really hard. Luckily I only had about 12 feet of it. We just went backward. I brought her as close as we could get without rolling in the mulch and then I bent down the boughs for her. She said, "It's like smelling Ellie."

Since I am a very literal person, I responded with, "Do you mean that Ellie smells like lilacs, or that it is nice like smelling Ellie?"

"It is nice."

One of the grounds keepers drove by on a motorized carts and snapped off a flower for us, so our sink has the scent of lilacs right now. We commented on it at lunch, and one of the therapists is a huge lilac fan as well. She said her family has a wonderfully fragrant indigenous lilac. She is going to bring us some cuttings the next time she is home so we can have one of our own. Is that cool or what?


Prison

I've been thinking about Linda's desire to go home since our fight, and since mentioning it to Dr. Joe, the psychologist. When we were leaving Rusk to go to the coffee shop this morning, I mentioned that Rusk must feel a bit like a prison. You have to sign out, but you can't really stay out. You have to be back for medications and therapies, and you have a 9pm curfew.

Linda said, "Not being able to talk is more of a prison."


Love Actually

The movie Love Actually just came out on video, and we have been waiting for it (since seeing the movie in the theater). Today I grabbed a copy, propped the bed up tall, and we watched it on a mini-DVD player.

The very first frames in the movie show people kissing at the airport. Linda cried. She's vulnerable to that kind of stuff now because of the whole labile emotion thing. I recognized it right away, and asked her if she wanted me to pause the movie. She didn't, so we kept playing and she kept crying--until we started laughing.

So, I am laughing, and Linda is crying and laughing. I asked her, "How am I going to take you to Harry Potter?" The next movie comes out in June.

She laughed, "I don't know!" We decided that we'll just have to sit in the back of the theater.

Actually, she's just balances me out now. I tend to laugh at non-funny points of movies--and way too loud. I suppose we'll just be in the theater next to each other with her crying and me laughing.