indy

i'm sitting in panera bread, downtown indianapolis, just steps away from the state house and the complex of buildings where my dad used to work. alex and the kids are back at the hilton (thank you hotwire) having a swim and i am taking a few minutes to myself to breathe in the good indiana air.

actually, the weber grill restaurant (?) is next door, so all i smell is barbecue, which, upon reflection, is probably what this state always smells like.

we're getting a really late start today, having forgotten yet again about another time change last night. the kids didn't go to sleep until midnight, and we had to wake them at 9:30 this morning. we promised them pool time and we're still going to the kids museum, so we're thinking that today will be our first drive-into-the-night kinda day. if we can make it.

i'm really frickin' tired. i need a massage. i need something else for breakfast other than an apple.

anyway, on our way out of indianapolis later today, chances are we'll drive by the hospital where they opened my back up in 1984, and eight hours later i was wired for sound and straight as an arrow.

sort of.

having that kind of badassss surgery when you are 12 years old does something to a girl. i forget sometimes that i made it through that, you know. i forget sometimes that i have a steel rod implanted by my spine. i forget.

but being here, right in the place where it happened--its hard to forget. being here is a reminder that it was all real.

so. in honor of that scoliosis surgery, april 4th, 1984--today i wear my sexy striped shirt with the cut-open back and no bra. that's right, indiana. can you take it? can you take this amount of almost-40-year-old hotness?

ask me--go ahead--ask me about my scar today.