Welcome to May

quick update:

The trip to France - April 17 - April 26 - was wonderful. No problems with luggage, good flights except for one rough landing back in Boston, I love AirFrance, we did more in 8 days than I can write about here (from Cannes and Nice, to Monaco, and on to Ventimilia in Italy, and back in one day, for example), and I took over 1700 pictures. We had great accommodations, good food and mild weather, only one day with some drizzle, so we were lucky. So far I've picked through about 1/3 of the photos, and I'll start uploading a day at a time in the near future. I've become the scarf queen, and I have a new appreciation for good, fashionable, comfortable shoes (it took a week for my poor swollen, blistered feet to recover!). The perfumes and perfumed soaps I purchased make good aromatherapy, and the Florian candies that I kept (some of both soaps and foodstuffs were souvenirs) are sweet reminders of the factory we visited just outside Nice. I have no photos from the top of the Eiffel Tower because I didn't go up there, but I did see it from the ground and many of the other notable sights in Paris. Leaving France, customs took from me a set of three flower-flavored jams that supposedly were packed for travel, so I've learned to pack such things differently for next time. I brought back coins for souvenirs for students, and many took them. As I sort through my photos, I'm reminded of the many good experiences I had, and I'm glad I took the trip.

In the second batch of email that came in almost as soon as I arrived home and logged in, I found news that my mother is losing her grip on reality. Sis2 thought it was due to the blood pressure meds that list hallucinations as a side effect, so I took Mom to her PCP on Wednesday, requesting a change in medication for that reason. She'll be taking something else starting next week, but she has to wean off the current one for 7 days; however, I'm not sure the situation will wait that long. She's begun failing rapidly, believing that there are things happening around her that just aren't happening. Sis2 and our brother are in contact to try to manage the situation, but as the one living closest to Mom, I'll likely need to be the one to respond to and address her problems immediately as they happen until we can get this sorted out....if we can with any success.

With the good comes the bad. There is balance in life.