ANNA MONICA

Someone to watch over me As I sit here with an ache in my knee, guess what I’m going to write about. Yes, I will write about me and my aching knee. Actually, it doesn’t ache very much now. In fact, it never did ache much at all, but it could have as most knees do after surgery. Aching after a surgery has never been my problem. It’s having the surgery and the restrictions after which bothers the heck out of me. So, I’ve been athletic for a long time; now I’m paying a price for it. Well, it happens. The greatest disappointment is my knee was much worse than the MRI indicated or the doctor expected. I had this arthroscopy thing and come to find out I could have used a whole knee replacement instead. Well, soon. Anyhow, there we were again, or I should say, a bunch of my family was, sitting in the surgical waiting room as I was having this knee job n right knee that is. They have sat in a surgical waiting room for me so many times in the past five years, I don’t believe anyone has to tell them where it is anymore. I never asked them but they should be quite at home there by now. In fact, they have probably read all the magazines. B-I-L O’Neil, Phyllis, Cookie and Maria all insisted on being there, as always, but besides wanting to be there for me, they really don’t want to miss eating out afterward as usual. Habits are habits. I am very fortunate because they are always there for me. They bring me stuff to eat, or threaten to whether I want it or not; they wake me early in the morning to see how I am feeling although I haven’t been awake yet to know; and each and every one of the siblings, in-laws and mother call during the day whether I want to nap or not. I tell you, families like mine are hard to find! Seriously, if you have to be sick or have surgery, a family like mine is the best kind to have. You would be lucky! Even 6-month-old Samuel III came to see me because I was a little down since my tennis career is threatened and then I felt immediately better. He came at the same time as the watermelon Phyllis and O’Neil brought. When you can barely do anything else, if you’re like me, you just pull out a whole pile of papers to sort for filing or tossing – and that’s when you company comes. Also, you have never seen such lousy movies on television but you have to choose something. So, I watched a movie where the lady was dying and then saw a special on nature’s most devastating acts of destruction. Uplifting, really! And, do you know what they say the worst of all is? Hurricanes! Leaving you with that, I will attempt to get up from this computer and slowly make my way to the fridge for an ice pack before I hobble over to the sofa for another exciting evening. ANNA MONICA, a resident of Garyville, writes this column every Wednesday for L’Observateur.