Hi, I'm Torrey. Welcome to Left Field, where creativity runs amok and imagination is ALWAYS more important than knowledge. Shoes are not allowed but ties are optional. This is a repository of snippets from my life out here in Left Field. One never knows what shiny bits of creativity will be found here... cards, scrapbook layouts, photography, poetry, recipes, ponderings, rantings and musings. It could be anything! Life in Left Field is always changing, always real, always ...interesting.

August 22, 2010

My Achilles Heel

Well, I've been home from California for a week. It was a PERFECT trip. The temperature NEVER climbed above 70 degrees, the fog burned off every morning by 10:00, the monastery was lovely (as always). 

Now, I'm back in hot, humid Texas....where the LOW temp at night is somewhere in the mid 90s and the high is over 100, every day.

And, I caught something wicked. Don't know if my lovely sister (who has strep and I now call Typhoid Heidi) shared it with me, or if someone on the plane or at Disneyland flung their germs at me. Whatever the source, I'm sick as a dog. Chest on fire, lungs hurting like a mofo, asthma kicking, fever (up to 104), headache, no appetite, body aches, coughing up blood-streaked mucus that's fit for a zombie apocalypse movie.

Can you get the flu in the middle of summer? And here I was laughing at Walgreens for advertising that they are giving flu shots already. 

I'll drag my butt into the doc tomorrow. 
I'm not a good patient. I just wanna crawl into a cave and be left alone.

Troglodytes UNITE!

UPDATE: Turns out I've got pneumonia. *sigh*. Doc took one look at me and sent me to the hospital. Spent some time at the hospital and have been released to home on the contingency that I will immediately return to be admitted if things don't improve. But, with 3 different antibiotics on board (one IV, 2 oral), some IV steroids and a consistent line of nebulizer treatments and steroid inhalers--I think I'll be OK managing this by myself at home. Heck, the only reason they released me from the hospital is because I am, after all, a nurse--and as such, I PROMISED to do what I'm supposed to do...which mostly means be a couch potato and keep breathing.

This, too, shall pass. 


August 5, 2010

Headin' off to La La Land


Well, sorta...I'm actually off to Malibu for a week with my sister and mom. This has become an annual tradition. We go to a Franciscan Monastery for a spiritual, um, renewal week? Basically, it boils down to girl time in a beautiful place that overlooks the ocean on one side...and Mel Gibson's house on the other (and Dick Van Dyke's and Hugh Laurie's--the one-and-only Dr. House himself). Its name is Serra. Built by the Rindge family (who owned all of Malibu)...Serra was once a privately-owned, 50-room mansion home--built by a widow in tribute to her late husband--and never finished. She even started Malibu Potteries to make the exquisite hand-painted tiles that adorn every inch of the buildings, walkways, stairs, retaining walls and grounds. 


A year after her death, the mansion; its surrounding land (26 acres) and out buildings were sold to the Franciscan Friars for...get this...$50,000. They turned it into a retreat center that is unbelievably peaceful and beautiful with gardens, walking paths, amazing overlooks...and even a labyrinth. 


Serra welcomes hundreds of guests each year...and I'm lucky enough to be one of 'em.



So, don't hate me too much when I wake up to this every morning for a week.