What's going on over here

Okay, so you may have noticed a serious lack of blogging going on over here.  I have noticed it as well.  There is a reason for this.  Actually, there are several reasons for this.  And I initially didn't want to come here and say "Oh poor me, here's this thing happening in my life.  Let's all feel bad for me".  But then the second thing happended.  And then the third.  And it has been like walking around waiting for the other shoe to drop around here.  I have seriously had the thought "wtf??  Why is all this happening at the same fucking time??"

But I have bucked up and chosen to see the good in each issue rather than focusing on the oh poor pitiful me, why does this have to happen to meeeeeeee?

Because truthfully, why NOT me?  Why not?  I am just as random and deserving of a few pieces of bad luck and timing as anyone else.

You know the saying about if you were given the opportunity to put all your troubles in a pile with everyone else's and then choose which ones you were taking, you would most likely take the ones you came with?  Well, that particular bit of wisdom has been running through my head a lot lately.

I don't want to give you the wrong idea about all this.  Nobody in my family has been diagnosed with leprosy, none of us have moved to the Poor Farm, nothing like that.

And yet I just kept thinking that if I came here and talked (typed) about these things they would be more real, more of a pain in the ass to deal with.  So I am just going to share with you a few things that have happened lately.

First up, we had soooo much stuff plannned for the summer, it was unbelievable!  Seriously, one of us (and by that I mostly mean me) had a trip planned at least every other week from April through July.  It was kind of scary to look at the calendar and realize how many trips were on the books.  Then while I was traveling on the 3rd of many trips I noticed one of my teeth felt odd.  Kind of sensitive to pressure.  So I got home and made an appointment with my dentist.  The Readers Digest condensed version of this many part saga is that I have to cancel a bunch of the summer trips and spend lots of quality time and quality money with my dentist this summer.  Nice.

I hate to be a big fat wussie about things, but you know the whole laying back in the chair with your head really lower than your ass thing? I hate it.  It's a very vulnerable position.  And you know the horrible metal pokey pointy things that make the horrible sounds on your teeth?  O.M.G. That is one of the things I hate worse than anything.  Worse than nails on a chalkboard.  Worse than clowns.  And even worse than balloons.

But let me tell you what I did.  I went to my aromatherapy textbooks and looked up essential oils for mouth infections, anxiety and calming.  Then I made a blend of them and applied this mixture of oils to my pulse points, my third eye and temples and went to my first appointment.  And it was not too bad.  I have been using the oils each day since to help with the dull achey feeling in my mouth and jaws.  I will be going back for many visits so I may need to just mix up a quantity of this and bottle it to take with me.

My husband, Mr. Big Ed, has a boss whose son is terribly ill.  He has a cancer that has been extremely aggressive and it has been a year from hell for this poor family.  This precious boy was 9 when diagnosed last July and he has now turned 10 but the prognosis is not good.  So his mama is taking a leave of absence to be with him and Mr. Big Ed is taking some of her work responsibilities.  This is a tragic situation and my heart breaks for their family.  It also means that Mr. Big Ed will be doing some of his own business travel and also making a few trips on her behalf.  So he will not be attending many of the scheduled family things this summer either.  If you are the praying sort, please add little Nicolas to your list.  His family has had more than they should have to bear this past year.

Last week I was on my 4th trip (by myself since Mr. Big Ed has new work commitments) heading to a nephew's wedding.  It was a great trip and I made good time.  (I have this thing where I like to see if I can beat my best time to each destination.  And it's much easier to do when I don't have anyone with me who wants to stop and pee in every fucking Dairy Queen we come to.)  So as I was pulling into town and off the highway, I turned off my cruise control and all the sudden my car wasn't shifting from first gear up to second.  It was scary as hell as I was trying to take off from a stop at a traffic light and nothing was happening.  I kept thinking I was going to be rear-ended.

I limped on over to my aunt's house and called AAA.  (Another long story that need to be Readers Digest condensed here.)  I ended up having my car towed to the Honda dealership and waiting for hours to find out that my transmission was shot.  At 6 p.m. on a Friday.  On a Friday of Memorial Day weekend.  A 3-day holiday weekend.  Which meant nothing was going to happen to fix my car till after TUESDAY!

I was devastated for a few minutes and then decided that if this had to happen at least it was the best way possible it could have happened.  No one was hurt or killed.  Praise the Lord for that!  I am headed back down that way next week for another graduation trip, so I would have been going back there anyway.  Only now I am driving a rental car and taking it back home again and picking up my car (which I love) with a brand new transmission which should last it another 100,000 miles.

None of the issues that have happened around here are tragic, they are inconvenient and expensive.  But that is a small hiccup in the grand scheme of things, now isn't it?

I need to get my camera over here and show you some pictures of some of the fun things I have been able to attend.  And I need to quit whining about the trips I won't be able to make.

I hope all is well with you and yours.  Any great summer plans at your end?