RECOVERY

Since my cholecystectomy (gall bladder removal) on Monday, I've been out of the house twice. Yesterday, I rode along while my husband drove my mother home and today I loaded up with painkillers and walked up the street to get some fresh air.

All this lying around and letting people do things for me is driving me batty. I'm used to being busy and active -- rushing to get to work, rushing to meet my deadlines, rushing to get home and feed the kids dinner and play with them and put them to sleep and clean up the kitchen after they go to bed...

So I don't know what to do with myself. I've caught up on my Entourage and Weeds episodes. Now I'm buried in a mountain of old magazines I've been meaning to read for months...everything from Time and Newsweek to Vogue and Real Simple. Today I read the terrible story behind the Haditha massacre and learned how to better organize my kitchen.

Oh yeah...and I got some tips on how to find a pair of skinny jeans that would flatter my figure. I even considered buying a pair, going so far as to put them in my online shopping cart before shaking out of it and admitting I'm a bootcut girl.

I'm happy to catch up on my reading, but what I really want to do is go for a run, organize the playroom, catch up on the laundry, and vacuum the air vents.

And what I would have loved to do yesterday, on my daugter's first birthday, would have been to spend the day with her and get her birthday portrait taken, just as I did when my son turned one. That was the toughest part of my week.

Of course, next week, when I'll be feeling well enough to do all that, I won't have the time.

V.