rennes

After a day of reflecting I realized I wanted to expand on this. First I'll add that this post was cut short due to our desktop computer breaking. Luckily I live with a computer genius, and now all computer related activities can commence as usual.

Second, all the above pictures we took at the Crane Estate in Ipswich, MA. I don't know why I didn't mention this before, probably because I've taken and posted so many pictures from there that it seemed redundant. But, it's such a beautiful place that I can help returning there time and again. I've also been enjoying wearing my new sweater from Hetterson, thanks to another pretty awesome trade with Hannah - she even sent me a book on knitting machines - how cool is that? Now I don't have to email her every few days saying - "now wait, how do I do that?"

Third, I want to apologize for being vague lately. Lately I've adopted the motto "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say it at all," otherwise I know I'd be complaining left and right, so most of the time I try to be positive. A little over three years ago I was diagnosed with an extremely rare type of posterior Uveitis. Uveitis causes inflammation of the retna and choroid, and is believed to be caused by an auto immune disorder. Uveitis causes blurred vision, flashes of light, and punched out blind areas. These blind areas don't usually go away once they are there and damage is permanent. (If you go to Pub Med or Wikipedia or anything don't look at the pictures of inflamed eyes - I don't have anything like that - it's all internal.) Since there isn't a cure for Uveitis, patients are often treated with anti-inflammatory drugs and immune suppressants. I've been on both, with limited success. There are good days and there are bad days, but all and all it's a rather annoying thing to have, and I often become frustrated with myself. There are discussions going on about the risk vs. benefits of the medications I've been on, and at the end of the day I don't know what the right decisions are. Right now in many ways I'm lucky because I haven't had a flare up in my direct central vision, thought it's come close. I've also had some other medical things going on in the background that may or may not be related, so lately I've become quite the hypochondriac - but with good reason I think.

We've also spent the last few weeks thinking about my Mom's surgery. Luckily it went well (thank you so much to everyone for your good wishes on that front!) and she is home resting up and getting better. I'm glad that I was able to take the time off last week and be in the hospital. I'm a bit behind on things now, but hopefully will catch up this week. I'm really excited about a few things coming up in December, and can't wait to share those with you. The shop is closed for the time being, hopefully I'll open it again in a little bit.