To add to the general feeling of malaise was the weather, very typical Chicago late-fall: cold, gray, and rainy.

My family went out for their usual round of Saturday errands and fun while I stayed home and began absent-mindedly channel surfing. Lo and behold, I dial-up The Hallmark Channel and find just beginning a full-day's showing of the entire mega-miniseries, The Thorn Birds with all its bad regional accents, terrible special effects and makeup, and yet, its utterly sexy, if at times, corny, storyline of the "forbidden love" of Meggy and Father Ralph. That dopey show from years ago freakin' MADE my DAY! I nibbled on some yummy tv-time snacks, and squealed with delight at each turn of the (predictable) plot.

Then, toward the more "boring" part of the story (once all the sex scenes are over since Meggie and Ralph are senior citizens) I got a phone call from a woman in my parish who is part of the "Elizabeth Ministry" there. It is a group of women who share their stories and offer support to ther women who are dealing with infertility, pregnancy, motherhood, or even situations like mine - perinatal loss. This woman was "matched up" with me because she also lost a baby at 25 1/2 weeks. It was a really nice surprise and we ended up talking for over an hour. She also promised to pray for me and to call me again this week. I explained my current conflict over my efforts to focus on MY grief and worries and let the Philly crew deal with my sister's situation. She was supportive to me and noted that she couldn't imagine having to deal with all of these things at once. I also confided that my mood had perked up in large part to my day of vegging out with Richard Chamberlain and Rachel Ward...and she replied, "Oooooh The Thorn Birds! That's a good one!"

I guess that storyline must be extra-intriguing for us Catholic gals! ;)

Today I woke up feeling GREAT. I was refreshed from a good night's sleep, I got myself and my daughter ready in time to make it to the earlier (and more "fun" for kids) 9:30 am Mass, and then treated us to a mom-daughter-post-church Pumpkin Spice Latte at Starbucks (she got a decaf frappuccino!) I also did a 20 min cardio workout and my 45 min yogilates DVD. My back began to hurt again tonight but I'm hoping that it'd been achy due to the damp and cold weather. I am supposed to see my midwife tomorrow for a checkup and I might ask for a small supply of muscle relaxants for the bulging disc issue, if come wintertime it gets really bad. I might need to look into stockpiling dvd's of other tv movies/miniseries for the long winter ahead.