Plus and Minus February
Oh, goodness. What a whacked out couple of weeks it’s been around here. My goal is to not focus on the negative so I’ve had a hard time coming up with a post when all I want to do is post about the way our life here in sunny and warm Ohio has turned into General Hospital.
How about some +/- list action instead of my whining?
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- The cold. Need we say more? Brrr.
- Chris’ dad went to the ER a couple of weeks ago, we all thought to die. He’s in the end stages of cirrhosis (genetic, non-alcoholic).
- He’s a difficult, needy and unhappy man when he’s healthy.
- The dying process has provided no epiphanies as of yet and we don’t much expect any.
- The hospital stabilized him and sent him home.
+ Hospice is now involved and are helping with arrangements—at first a hospital bed and potty in their living room.
- Chris’ mom fell down in the grocery store just before Christmas and tore the muscle away from her shoulder.
+ A surgeon repaired it (not sure on range of motion for a while, surgery was Wed.)
- She can’t use that arm at all for at least a month so Dad went to a nursing home.
+ Dad’s in a good facility with full-time nursing care and seems to be stable and mostly coherent.
- Dad’s coherent enough that he calls Mom several times a day to bitch her out about getting him the hell out of there and back home.
- The very thought of that sends Mom into tears and shuts her down when she needs to be strong and focused on resting and caring for herself so her shoulder heals.
+/- I’m the designated sponge bath administrator.
+ We live right next door now (man, did we see this coming in the spring) so popping by with food and to help with the things she can’t manage is so much easier than making that half hour drive.
+ Ty is in NY with his dad.
+ The doctor said the lump he found is a cyst and nothing to be concerned about.
+ I have a lovely freelance gig writing web content for my good friend’s yarn store.
- Between work, 6 weeks of constant illness and the insanity with the in-laws I’ve not focused on it the way I should and want to.
- Chris and most of his brothers got a terrible stomach flu (maybe Norwalk Virus) and lost days of work and are on the verge of losing a big customer because of non-delivery.
+ I get my crown (tooth, not royal) made today!
+ I’m reading The Success Principles by Jack Canfield and while it’s all stuff I’ve heard before, it now makes perfect sense and feels possible.
+ In an effort to get some energy flowing more smoothly around the old homestead, I finished unpacking and putting away all of the suitcases of clothes that Chris didn’t seem to care about and so we no longer have to trip around them in the bedroom.
+ Clearing that space out made visible the built-in writing desk next to the big window and window seat. While I worked Lila played with her dolls and kitchen set in her bedroom, singing happily for over an hour. I’ll be setting up the laptop (sans internet) at the desk so I have a peaceful spot to write that doesn’t take over the entire dining room.
+/- A cupcake bakery opened in the town I work in. I haven’t been there yet. The plus is because, duh, yum! Cupcakes! And also because hey! Maybe I won’t have to do it! The minus is competition and much better location—though that’s a silly thought considering I won’t be making any real plans for several years yet. So, yum! Cupcakes! (it’s a couple from NY city—the cupcake capital of the world–who opened it).
+ I rode my bike on the wind machine in the basement yesterday for the first time—20 minutes with no resistance and my Maude, the toxin flow in my bloodstream nearly made me barf. I’ll need to ease into it slooowly.
+ I didn’t cough!
+ My work is getting busier and busier, with more and more responsibility. I’m getting pretty good feedback for some of it.
- A lot of the work gets sent into a black hole of non-communication.
+ My performance review is sometime in the next few weeks so I’ll get an opportunity to address that formally.
- I think that a lot of the communication issues make it look like I’m not getting some of the work done at the level I should—be it fast enough or on target.
+ I have a job.
- We haven’t had any interest in the old house.
+ I have a job.
- I have to go to work all week.
+ They pay me a decent wage to do so.
Speaking of which, it’s time to get showered and dressed. But hey, I think I’m doing a pretty good job of focusing on the positive.
"In summer we live out of doors, and have only impulses and feelings, which are all for action, and must wait commonly for the stillness and longer nights of autumn and winter before any thought will subside; we are sensible that behind the rustling leaves, and the stacks of grain, and the bare clusters of the grape, there is the field of a wholly new life, which no man has lived; that even this earth was made for more mysterious and nobler inhabitants than men and women. In the hues of October sunsets, we see the portals to other mansions than those which we occupy."
~Henry David Thoreau
February 12th, 2007 at 7:31 am
That writing desk sounds lovely. Hugs to you and everyone getting through the negatives.
February 12th, 2007 at 11:07 am
Absolutely fabulous! Especially considering the tough challenges you’ve all been through. You deserve…a cupcake! Glad Chris’s dad is getting good care. With luck he’ll come o appreciate it. May the road get easier now.
February 13th, 2007 at 11:22 am
“Chris’ mom fell down in the grocery store just before Christmas and tore the muscle away from her shoulder.”
I think I passed out after this line. I hope things pick up a bit for you. =)
February 14th, 2007 at 12:31 pm
That’s a hell of a lot going on for you to deal with. Make lots more of these lists and you will get through it all.
There’s a lot of stressful stuff going on for you right now. Aside from all the hospital/hospice/surgery stuff, trying to sell a house is so hard. Especially when it takes a long time!
Hang in there. Drink beer. Or soothing tea if you feel like being wholesome.
February 16th, 2007 at 9:27 pm
You know, somehow I missed this post. I’m so sorry things were/are so challenging. I had no idea. I agree with Eve — that writing desk does sound lovely.