This is the Best Week Ever!!!

I am having a very Spongebob week.

Each time I think my week can't get any more surreal, something new happens that makes it just that much more strange and not ordinary. It all started on Saturday when the old adage that a good deed never goes unpunished was proven to be true when I cut my thumb trying to open a box while I was volunteering at the concession stand at the IU game. It was a pretty bad cut, and I thought it needed a butterfly, but the kitchen only had a first aide kit so I put a band aid on it and went back to work, but an hour later after having had to change the band aid twice I finally found the First Aid station in the stadium and the nurse there put a butterfly on it and that was exactly what it needed.

Then by Sunday when I took the gauze off it looked as though it was pretty bruised, and by Tuesday the bruise looked even bigger and I just felt wrong. It turns out that I have a pretty bad infection in the cut. Had the kitchen just sent me to the First Aid station in the first place I probably would have avoided the whole trauma and drama of the infection and antibiotics and all that mess.

Then on Tuesday we found out that my daughter lost her new cell phone. She swears that it has to be somewhere in the house, but she can't remember if it was in the pocket of her coat when we were shopping on Saturday. So we have to deal with that.

In the rush to get to school after spending all the time looking for her phone I forgot to bring a package with me to Indianapolis that I was intending to deliver to my supervisor to save on mailing it. It turns out that she was even at lunch that day and I could have hand delivered it to her. Each day since then I have forgotten to mail it too, so I still have that to do this week before I forget.

Then Tuesday in the middle of the night the same daughter got sick and woke up Wednesday with a sore throat which with all the H1N1 panic, meant she had to stay home from school and she was terrified that it meant that she might have to miss a week or more of school. She was really upset, and I couldn't console her because I didn't know the extent of her illness, because at the time she was just sick, but no fever which was a good thing. Still no fever, and a bit of a cough but I doubt since she has no fever that she has anything approaching H1N1. She doesn't even have the sore throat anymore, so I am thinking if she wants to go back to school tomorrow I will let her since she feels so much better today.

Then on Wednesday, while I was getting ready for my presentation for the RCIA in Terre Haute, the strap of my favorite purse broke. So now I have to go shopping, which is about my least favorite thing to do, so I can replace that purse because the ones I have in the closet are way too big for my needs anymore.

And my dear loving husband only gets to come home for the weekend before he has to fly back out for another meeting in Maryland, so I get to see him for less than 48 hours before he will be gone again. the last two times he has traveled this has happened and he was supposed to be traveling less now.

Oh well, the phone will either be found or we will replace the sym card and she will use her brother's old phone. I am tolerating the mega dose antibiotic pretty well without too awful side effects, and I will get to see my hubby for the weekend, so as the balance sheets go I am doing pretty well.

As my pal Spongebob says: This is the best week ever!.

Pax

On the Road Again

I just got back from a quick trip . My sister and I spent that last two days driving to the Quad Cities for the funeral of our aunt Gina.



I really dislike the fact that the only time I have gotten to see my cousins is at this funeral, but that can't be helped. In fact my cousin Marc (the last time I had seen him was at his wedding over 3o years ago) said that us getting to see each other and reconnect was the blessing that came from his mom's death.

I am hoping that I can convince my cousin Chuck, who is the patriarch of our family clan now (hint hint) , to do what he can to try to keep us in contact with each other, but I am guessing that the next time I will see any of them will be at my mom's funeral or at her memorial when we transport her ashes back to the Quad Cities to be interred with my dad who is buried there.

Maybe we will get lucky and one of our generation's kids will get married and some of us can get together for the wedding, that would at least be a happier occasion to reconnect.

Oh well, so goes family dynamics in this society.

That is one of the things I like about Facebook. I have gotten connected to nearly every one of my cousin's in my dad's brother's family through Facebook. I can keep up a bit with what is going on in their lives and at least wish them holiday and birthday greetings.



Maybe after this trip I will be able to do that with mom's brother's family as well. That would be way cool.



The other nice thing about this trip is that I got to road test my Christmas present from mrangelmeg (by the way hon, I absolutely love it). He got me (well I went to the store and picked it out) a Garmin .



This one is a bit nicer than the one my friends had in Chicago a while back when I fell in love with it. On mine,-- I have dubbed her Beyotce (like the singer) because when she tries to send me on a road I don't intend to take I say "Beyotce what? not going that way!"-- actually tells you the name of the street you are supposed to turn onto as well as how soon you are supposed to turn. It also tells you how fast you are going and the speed limit of the road you are traveling on, as well as the estimated time of arrival at your destination; all good things to know.

We didn't get lost once the entire trip, and we even used it to find an IHop for breakfast and the closest one was across the river in Illinois.

Anyway, I am glad to be back home, and I hope I don't have to take any long trips for a while, but at least with Beyotce along I won't get lost.

Pax

This is The Best Day Ever!

Today's Mass readings were all about being a shining example to the world of the One to whom we belong so the world will know Him and want to be His.

I think I might not be the best shining example today . . . I keep taking two steps forward and one step backward and have done that all day long.

I got up early enough to make it to morning mass, which was good. But was so late that I barely made it to my place in the chapel before Fr. walked in to begin Mass (no prayers to prepare myself before Mass this morning).

I went to visit with my mother-in-law which was a really nice thing, but somehow I forgot the time and missed my physical therapy appointment because I thought I was supposed to be there at a different time and I got there twenty minutes later than I was supposed to, so they had to reschedule me for next week which was the earliest they could get me in again.

I found a receipt I have been looking for for something of my mother's and in my excitement I tore it up. Lucky for me it wasn't into little bits and I could still read it enough so that I could call her nursing home and get the matter of it straightened out.

I'm not sure, but I think my new medication is causing me some really strange side effects, and ones I don't know if I can live with even though the pain in my hip is a lot less severe since I have been wearing it.

It is cold and wet again today. Cold wet weather is the worst.

Oh well, I have to remember that the gospel says that we are supposed to be perfected -- a process of getting better, not a state of being without fault. This is one of those days where God is working on me.

I can really feel it.

Pax

When Life Just Doesn't Make Sense

Today I attended the Funeral Mass of a 20 year old young man who died of an accidental overdose. He had been at a party with "friends". He had probably partied with these friends before, he had probably taken this drug before, who knows. Unfortunately, this time his young heart couldn't handle the load and he went into distress.

Unfortunately for him though, because of fear, no one at the party was willing to call 911 or drive him the few blocks to the emergency room that might have saved his life. He died on Mother's day because of fear or insecurity or whatever.

His poor mother and father are left to try to figure out how and why this horrible tragedy befell their handsome son. The church was packed with young people. He never met a stranger, and had the kind of personality that drew others to him.

I was so impressed by the forcefulness by which Fr. spoke of not letting this young man's life go meaningless. Fr. said that we could honor his life by making sure that no one else came to the same sad fate. We must be our brother's keeper, we must make sure that none of our friends are living on the edge. We must be willing to stand up and say STOP THE MADNESS! We must be willing to do what is right.

It is too late for this young man. But maybe, just maybe it won't be too late for all the other young men and women in that church today. Maybe that is the legacy that his short life will leave.

Pax

GO Training Tuesday

So I registered for my personal trainer last week and I have yet to hear back from anyone at the YMCA where they happily took my money and had me fill out scads of paperwork. I am sure they are trying to decide if I am worth the potential risk of a lawsuit should anything happen to me during my training even though I had to sign something saying that I would not hold them accountable if I died trying to get fit.

I guess if I don't hear something by Thursday of this week I will give them a call and see what is holding up the process. I want to get started and am terrified that I will do more harm than good if I try to do it on my own.

I am trying to get better sleep and eat more protein and less junk. I don't know how successful I am being, but at least I am trying to do something while I wait. I am planning to go to Mass tonight and then stop in at the visitation for a man from the parish who died (I knew his kids from my youth ministry days way back when). I will say an extra prayer for my intention of getting on track physically and maybe even go walk a mile after morning mass tomorrow.

Pax