As I settle back in at home, I’m slowly shaking off the fear of germs that enveloped me at the hospital. It means getting to pet Lemonade again, who cuddles her way into my heart more deeply every day. It’s interesting to see what it does to me, our wordless relationship.

As Anja and I planned another Paris trip to use my unused train tickets, we got into a little argument about whether or not to take the dog. Anja says this is what we signed up for. I say a real vacation is when I don’t have three walks around which to plan my days. But then again, with a face like this, will I ever need a vacation?

Yesterday, I took one of the last opportunities I had and changed the date of my inbound train ticket from Paris to Amsterdam, scheduled to leave tomorrow. This ticket was part of the original plan in which Anja, Lemonade, and I would go to Paris for three weeks to housesit for our cousin Anto. We’re excited to visit Paris again in May, but since I had already modified the outbound trip, Eurostar would only let me make further adjustments on the phone.

Lucky for me, the queue for Dutch customer service was so long that I was offered a shortcut to the English department. And what a delight it was indeed! James from Eurostar helped me rescheduled two tickets without any trouble whatsoever, in the span of only a few minutes, and at no additional charge. The whole thing made me wonder why I ever log onto the Internet to do anything by myself.

Based on my one conversation with James, I now have a new theory that I’m eager to put to the test:

The easier it is to complete a task in private on a website, the friendlier customer service phone operators will be in completing it for me

I made it home after seven nights at the hospital! Staying there between Christmas and New Year’s really wasn’t as horrible as you’d imagine. I figured: if anything happens, I’m already at the hospital, anyway.

Still, I should confess that I was excited to be released from the presence of my hospital neighbor, a dentureless …

I’ve finally fallen in love with drawing on my iPad. During my stay at the hospital, I had so little to do that I eventually began doodling, exploring brushes, and mixing methods.

I’m surprised by how easy it is to learn how colors work, at least on a digital canvas. Below is an overview of four images of fjords I made. It’s …

Dutch is the sky I see from my living room window. After seven nights in Acute Care at OLVG West, including one successful surgery and a rigorous antibiotics protocol, I made it home right in time for New Year’s. Here’s to a year of health, movement, happiness, discovery.

Early Christmas morning at the hospital. Health-wise, I feel good. Temperature-wise, I feel like I’m in a botanical garden.

And so it is