I have never actually watched an episode of Extreme Makeover where some guy and his crew go into a house and completely restore it, or knock it down and rebuilt it or … or …or … but I feel as if I’ve got my own personal one going on at the moment — not with my house, with my body!

First there was the cataract surgery which, by the way, is the greatest gift I’ve ever had in my life. I cannot begin to tell you how much more colorful the world is than the world I’d been living in for, lo, these many years.

And yesterday there was The Wisdom Teeth Extraction.

Not all of them, thank God. Just two. But two was enough. The other two left about 20 years or more ago. These faithfully hung on. They were doing their job, they didn’t need to be sent off wherever the tooth fairy takes extraneous (is that the word I want? Not sure. Not sure of much. Painkillers are a distinct vocabulary suppresant) teeth. Anyway, the dentist thought (has been thinking for a good dozen years or so) that these ought to go that way, too. Finally, I decided to agree.

So I called. Wednesday. The day before yesterday.

If you recall “now” to an eye doctor means two months from now. “Now” to a dentist obviously means something entirely different. “Come in for an x-ray,” they said. So I went. I got the xray. With their next breath they said they’d set up an appointmet for me with the oral surgeon. With the breath after that they told me he just happened to have an opening– the next day. Yesterday. Late afternoon. Did I want it?

Oh, hell, why not? Why stop and think about it for two months?

Yesterday it sleeted. It rained. It snowed. Sometimes it did all of the above at once. Imagine my surprise (not) when the oral surgeon’s office called in the morning and said they’d had a cancellation and could I be there in 45 minutes?

Did I mention I can walk to the oral surgeon’s office from where I live? So I went.

An hour later I had two less teeth, five less roots (“Did you know you had three roots on that tooth?” the oral surgeon asked with the enthusiasm that only oral surgeons can muster for such items of discussion. Answer: no) and a prescription for painkillers and antibiotics.

Now, a day later, I can tell you they work. The painkillers worked so well I slept sixteen hours. I don’t think I sleep sixteen hours some entire weeks! But I did last night and this morning and into this afternoon. And now that my eyes are uncrossed and I’ve stopped drooling, I am trying to do revisions on Theo again. Through painkillers. Probably not the best idea I’ve had this week (that would be having the wisdom teeth out).

Next week I get to see the eye doc again so he can tell me the cataract surgery was a great success (which I already know and am capable of getting VERY enthusiastic about). I wonder if he’ll want to do the other eye.

I’m living in hope.

I had cataract surgery on Wednesday. I didn’t really think I needed it much. I’d been living with this theoretical cataract on my left eye for quite a few years. I could still see. I could drive. I could read. I could do everything I needed to do.

But when I was working on Theo’s book (now being revised) I spent LONG hours at the computer in January and the eye that didn’t have the cataract (well, not much of one) took a beating. It got cloudy, foggy, irritable from staring all those hours at the screen (getting very little help from its colleague, the left eye). So I said to the doc, I think now’s the time.

Of course now is NEVER the time in the medical world. Two months later is now as far as they are concerned. Well, in the ensuing two months, I had lots of re-thinking time. And once I stopped spending hours and hours staring at the computer screen trying to get Theo and his lady to a happy ending, the right eye felt much better. I was ‘cured.’ Well, not really. But I began to think I was jumping the gun getting the cataract removed.

Still, by this time I had invested time (and money) in a new eye exam and refraction. I’d listened to nurses tell me about what to expect. They promise you dire things, really, these days, all in the interest of not being sued because they didn’t tell you that you could die. I think they should just make it a given — you could die — and then get on with it. So anyway, I thought, oh well, what the hell, I’ve spent this much time getting ready for it — and I’m going to have to do it someday. And even if Theo and his lady are not completely revised, they’re well on their way (I killed off granny the other day at my editor’s request. Who’d have thought she was so blood-thirsty? But I digress.).

So Wednesday afternoon, I duly marched off to the cataract removing doctor (whose son #4 was best friends with my son #3 and we compare notes on offspring frequently and I’m probably the only person who brought wedding pictures to her eye exam this year). But that’s beside the point. The point is — I had the cataract removed.

The eye was blurry. Very very blurry. That day. The next morning. I had serious ‘um, maybe I made a mistake’ thoughts when I woke up and couldn’t see the ceiling fan over my head. But I went to the doc (no, I didn’t drive. The prof drove me) and the doc said, “It’s fine. Doing great. You’ll be amazed.”

Color me amazed. The blur cleared. There was color. Such color as I have never seen (ever — I’ve worn glasses since I was 2 1/2 years old). Edges — there were edges to things. They didn’t just blur from one thing to another. Blue. I’ve always loved blue. But when it’s really blue and not muddied with a sort of brown-paper bag lens over it it’s INCREDIBLE. Wow. I can’t stop looking at things. I like staring at my computer just because things are outlined in blue and the blue is so bright, so vivid, so amazing. The sky is blue, too. And my neighbor’s roof is gray, and my dog Gunnar is actually blue-black (he’s a flatcoat retriever) and extremely impressive. As I said, wow.

The downside? Well, if there is one, it’s that I just discovered there is way more dust on my wooden blinds than I ever saw before. I’ve just dusted everything to within an inch of its life. Things are looking better. And better.

But I have to stop looking now and go do something where I give the eye a rest so I can actually work on Theo for a while this afternoon. But I’m so impressed that I think I’m going to have the other eye done sooner rather than later. If I close the left eye, the world becomes muddy — and this is with the eye that was the better of the two (cataract wise).

I’ve always been more of an auditory person than a visual one (because I couldn’t see? Possibly). But I’m thinking of becoming much more visual. I might actually start describing things in my books now that I can see them.

Wow. And wow again.

This ‘getting tagged’ makes writing blog entries much simpler. And this time I have Kate Walker to thank. She did it a few days ago and I’ve been up to my eyeballs in revisions of The Book (yes, it’s ba-a-a-a-ack) so I haven’t had time.

But now . . . here we go.

current clothing: wool sweater, faded formerly red t-shirt, tan cords, wool socks (It’s COLD here!), walking-the-dogs-in-mud-snow-and-ice boots.
current hair: needs cutting, brown, floppy, desperately needs conditioner at this time of year so it doesn’t look like I stand around all day sticking my finger in a light socket (or power point, if that’s what you call them where you live).
current refreshment: cuppa tea. What else?
current avoidance: revisions, putting clean sheets on the guest room bed (if I do it too soon they will be covered with dog hair before the guest has a chance to arrive, let alone lie down).
current smell: Pacifica soap from New Zealand, which always reminds me of sand and surf. Love it.
current thing you ought to be doing: revisions, putting clean sheets on the guest room bed (see above. The dogs are prowling, waiting . . . shedding)
current thing or things on your wall: bookshelves. They hang from the wall — I hate to think what the tonnage must be. Worrisome, actually. On the bookshelves — pics of kids, grandkids, dogs and a cowboy I know and love. Behind me, two honest-to-goodness paintings that became the covers of my two earliest Presents books done by the wonderful Ray Oliviere, who actually gave them to me (bless his heart).
person you’re currently talking to: anyone who can help me avoid revisions. I talk to the dogs during the day. They don’t answer back (much), but they don’t interrupt, either.
current jewellery: wedding ring on left hand. Narrow silver band with a tiny bit of turquoise on my right.
current book: Reading: Jill Mansell’s Making Your Mind Up. Writing – Bloody Theo. Well, that’s not what it’s called, but that’s what I’m calling it at the moment. Who knows what they will call it, but it better not have the word tycoon in it! (Though I don’t mind Greek because he is — ancestrally)
current worry: that I won’t get my revisions done before next Wednesday.
current favorite celebrity: I just got done watching the Shakespeare Retold version of Much Ado About Nothing for probably the seventh time, so right now it is Damian Lewis.
current obsession: Obviously the Shakespeare Retold version of Much Ado About Nothing. If you watch something seven times, you have to be a bit obsessed. It isn’t just Damian — the script is great, too. Yea, David Nicholls, who wrote it.
current love: The Professor (husband)
current longing: to be done with revisions. Or at least to have them continue to go well (when they are going, which presently they are not because I’m writing this instead).
current disappointment: that revisions don’t miraculously write themselves as I think of them, but that they need every bit as much concentration to get right as getting the book not-quite-right did the first time through.
current lyric in your head: Help Yourself (Tom Jones) — it’s the opening of Much Ado About Nothing. I told you I was obsessed.
current music: see above — but only in my head. Nothing competing on the stereo.
current favorite book: Bloody Theo. Also Most Hated at the moment. Last really memorable book I read: Jane Porter’s The Frog Prince.
current favorite movie: Do you have to ask? I also adored Dear Frankie. And Bon Voyage. And I love Nobody’s Fool.
current wish: something to do with revisions. Can’t remember what.
current undergarments: yes.
current desktop picture: the kids, the grandkids, the cowboy, the dogs and Bob Fuller who played Jess Harper on Laramie, who was the inspiration for quite a few of my cowboy heroes, and who proved not long ago in reality that I had excellent taste in men when I was 13 years old.
current plans for tonight/weekend: Tonight – revisions. Weekend — the houseguest (we’re watching Much Ado About Nothing, of course!)

What about you? Now you’re it!