All Pinked Out

Little things, not big things make us happy. Don’t try and tell that to Senor when he is gazing deep into his new french door, tall boy fridge! All the food/kibble right there at eye level.

When did we stop being children and cease doing the things we enjoyed? For some it may be jumping on a trampoline, others loved dancing, but for me it has always been doodling or colouring. I was able to get away with the doodling in boring meetings, but the colouring during extended meetings was a bit difficult, even when your employer is the Provincial Psychiatric Facility. For a while I was into scrap booking, but that seemed to take up a lot of time, space and money. We did not eat in the dining room for months. I had boxes, carts, paper cutters, scrapbooks, pencils, briefcases. You get the picture.

Last week I went to Chapters with the anticipation that it would be difficult, but I was sure that I could find some sort of doodle art or colouring books for “older” children. I had already been looking at downloads of Mandelas to print from the internet. My goodness, what a surprise was “in store” for me. I walk into a huge display of adult colouring books. Who would have thought that an old lady being treated for cancer could be so cutting edge when she was only looking for a little stress therapy? Oh wait, I think that it called trending.Out of the top twenty books on Amazon four happen to be adult colouring books. There are books for everyone, and my puppy and I came up with some ideas for a few more. Some naughty, but other ideas that we had were somewhat practical. Who recalls the Thanksgiving when I photocopied the head of a co-worker onto a turkey and the whole family coloured those handouts ? Senor and I (being the hosts) got to select the winner from the gallery we assembled in the hall. And there were prizes, and everyone got to keep their box of crayons!

Colouring is a conscious choice to feel good. It is a form of therapy and meditation. You sit down, UNPLUG, and focus on a creative act.  I am so happy to be back.

I enjoy the smell that assails you when you open a new box of crayons. Colouring within the lines (remember that I was raised a Catholic!) and sharpening pencil crayons to a perfect point with my Boston electric pencil sharpener.

I had a terrible week. I failed my heart scan on Tuesday(54), and was told to report to the CC on Wed where it was explained to Senor and I that you need a 55 for chemo. I had another scan on Thursday and achieved a score of 56 so I did have my chemo on Friday. I did not feel very good about it. My scans were 70 when I was pretested prior to starting chemo last summer. The heart of an athlete they told me. Stop laughing please. We were told that I will recover a bit, but I will never see 70 again. I will now be hooked up with a cardiac specialist. More doctors !  To celebrate not having the big one during chemo I went directly to the gas station when I had my first slurpee in a year. GRAPE!!! It was divine. Now I am going to go downstairs and do some more colouring. I am happy. I am also OCD.