That Was the Year That Was

It's been an ... interesting year so far, to say the least.  This week is the one year anniversary of my emergency brain surgery and subsequent recovery process.  If I had to assign a percentage to my wellness, I'd say I'm at about 85% of normal.  Not too shabby, considering the doctors, nurses and everyone else didn't hold out hope for my survival at one point.  Outrageous, huh?

I lost nearly all the hearing in my right ear either as a result of the megadoses of antibiotics I was given, or possibly from scar tissue related to the surgery.  It's a bummer, but if that and being a bit off-kilter balance-wise and having a few short-term memory issues are all I have as souvenirs, then call me happy.  I'll have to be on anti-seizure drugs for a few more years, and they wipe me out, but I wasn't exactly a Type A personality to begin with.  I just take more naps than I used to.  So things are good.

To celebrate my recovery (or, to be perfectly honest, just because I wanted to), I've gotten a couple of new Disney tattoos.  The first is the Peter Pan gang that I was planning on just before all my health wackiness ensued (see the outline of the image a couple posts down).  I finally went ahead and got it in May, and it's lovely.  (Pics of that one coming soon.)

The latest is an Alice in Wonderland piece that I did in two sessions and just finished a few days ago. I wanted to incorporate Disneyland, not just the Alice characters, and I think my artist, the fantabulous Josh Green of the Hemlock Collective, right here in Sacramento, did one heck of a good job.  Five hours of ink time total, spread out over two sessions, and worth every ouchy moment.

 

Curiouser and curiouser, that I sat for the whole damn thing.

It's larger than I originally intended to get, but when I saw Josh's amazing artwork, I couldn't bring myself to change a thing.  Go big or go home, right?  At least, that became my mantra while lying in the tattoo chair, gritting my teeth.

Just planning to add Tinker Bell and some pixie dust, and I'm gonna call it done with tats for a long while.  They, you know, hurt.  Like, a lot.  I really don't enjoy the process of getting them at all.  But I do like having them.  And I can't wait to hit Disneyland and show them off.  I have this fantasy that I'll get front-of-line privileges on the Alice ride because they'll find my tattoo so totally fab.  (Note: This is completely and utterly unlikely to happen, but I dream about it the same way I like to plan how to spend my lottery millions every time I buy a ticket.  Custom tiki bar with Jungle Julep on tap, I'm talkin' 'bout YOU.)

I'll post some photos of the Peter Pan portion of the whole shebang (all the Disney pieces are on my lower right leg) once I finish the Tink stuff.

I plan to resume regular blog updates now that I'm doing so much better physically and my life is getting more normal again.  One heck of a year, for sure.  But it's been an amazing journey.