Fall 2015 Update

Dear Friends,

It is now autumn here in Mundotish, Texas. Halloween, Thanksgiving, and the December holidays are right around the corner. I’m about to unpack my fall and winter clothes and putting away the summer sun-dresses and shorts. But first, I want to send out a quick hello.

I feel bad that so much time has gone by since my last newsletter/Tishnote. I was going through a lot of readjustment and recovery over the summer months. I’m happy to report that since my May newsletter, my health has improved. I have a few new scars to welcome my sixtieth birthday coming up in December, but I am otherwise not doing bad!

I suppose no one loves discovering new lines and wrinkles in the mirror, however, the alternative, and I don’t mean plastic surgery (!), I mean, like meeting the grim reaper, sounds like far less fun. As I mentioned in my last note, when I had my medical emergency last March, I came pretty close to finding out what “The End” felt and looked like. I learned a few things in that experience: One is that, even if things aren’t going great in one’s life, when something suddenly threatens to pull the life rug out from under you, you try like hell to stay here. Two, I now understand that if it really your time to go, beautiful angels and peace surround you. I learned a third lesson too: There is more left to do here in my world.

I’m satisfied looking ahead at the rest of my life. Sixty doesn’t look sad or scary. Sixty looks adventurous, rewarding, and fulfilling. I am also grateful for my older brother and sisters who have taught me that seventy and even eighty will look pretty good!

Like everyone, I have some challenges, even struggles in my work and in my personal life going on at this time. It’s probably strange to use a word like “fight” here, but in a way, I think that when inescapable negative things are going on in our life, we sometimes have to fight to hold that negative side down in order to let the positive, the good, and happiness, stay on top. Ok, there’s my sermon for the fall!

On to the present! I am excited for my west coast tour coming up in November! If you are on the west coast, or have friends and family out there, please check the tour dates on my website and pass on the word. I’ll really appreciate seeing everyone who can come out. It will be lots of fun. I’ll be playing solo. The nice thing about solo concerts is that they encourage more one on one and spontaneous fun with the audience. I like that! I hope you will join me!

Another thing is that my website CD store (Tiendita Tish), is now located at Mundotish Headquarters in Austin. This means that when you order CDs, you can include who you want the CD dedicated to, if you would like that, and I can personally autograph it and it will be sent promptly. Nice idea for upcoming Christmas gifts. So please do visit the website store soon! And by the way, I may possibly have copies of the out of print CDs: “Homeland”, “Destiny’s Gate”, and “Dreaming From The Labyrinth”. I occasionally acquire original vinyl copies of  “Homeland” too! We will add these to the menu at the website store so you can check there for availability.

Well, I’ve gotta go for now. I promise to be in touch at holiday time to send  greetings and to give update of projects I have begun working on and hope to complete in 2016. I hope you are having a colorful autumn wherever you are!

Abrazos,

Tish

May Update

Hi Friends,

I have quite a story to share from a hospital bed in Austin, Texas. I’ve had a rough, but enlightening past couple of months.

In early March, I went into the hospital for a routine procedure that is performed on cases of persistent, chronic acid reflux, something I had developed while going through some difficult personal struggles the last couple of years. I didn’t know much about this procedure called Nissen Fundoplication except that my Gastrointerologist doctor had recommended it. I read and heard many positive reports. I was so very ready to make this a good New Year, beginning with a happy digestive system!

Well, long story short (…maybe, we’ll see). My Nissen Fundoplication didn’t turn out the way it says in the textbooks. Mine found me pretty close to being a gonner from undetected internal bleeding. With the luck of some possibly heavenly intervention, someone found me struggling to breathe, and crisis mode erupted in the quiet recovery ward. Enter emergency surgery, blood transfusion, a life saving respirator, and ICU. My life was saved. I made it! But my dear spleen, having put up a noble fight, paid the ultimate price for me.  

Waking up in Intensive Care Unit of a hospital on a ventilator with tubes going in and out of one-self is a very strange experience. Waking up in ICU with a memory of witnessing angels with massive wings in full regalia in the recovery room of a hospital is a yet stranger feeling. I grew up attending Catholic school and going to Catholic Church. My siblings and I were raised by parents who were respectful, but not fanatic Catholics. I always thought “Angels” were symbolic, more of a metaphor for hope and companionship through hard times. I never imagined that these magnificent yet comfortingly humble and warm creatures might show up in MY crisis! This certainly has given me a whole lot to think about.  

My journey through this medical dilemma is not over. I have had several set backs and complications from both the NF and from the big surgery. Hence, I write this during my fourth trip back to the hospital.  There are still physical and personal challenges on the road ahead for me. For those of you who know about my situation already, thanks so much for the many good thoughts and well wishes. For those of you who are just now reading it, I just want you to be informed. For those of you who know members of my wonderful family and extended family, please give them a big hug and high five for being the hardest working, most caring, and highly entertaining nursing team I could ever want.

I have had to put some upcoming exciting music plans on hold for a while. However, I am very happy that I had begun building a new website with the help of super photographer and social media wizard, Natalie Rhea-Riggs. We still have a few more things to complete, which were interrupted by my health situation. I hope you like the new look of the website AND the new hair cut! There will be more fun surprises as soon as I get better.

Thanks for checking in.

Angel Wing Hugs,

Tish