THANKFUL FRIDAY

Last night

10 Likes, 0 Comments - Cindy Maddera (@elephant_soap) on Instagram: "Last night"

I came home to a giant stack of mail and a house that needs to be cleaned. Christmas cards need to be addressed and sent out. There are a few gifts that need to go into the mail. I have one actual present to buy and candy to go in stockings. There are also a bunch of presents that need to be wrapped. We forgot about our advent calendar and are seven days behind. I have two pairs of clean underwear left in the drawer and the inside of our refrigerator looks like it was raided by apocalyptic marauders. I have a lot of things to do at home and at work. If anything, recovery from DC should be at the top of my to-do list. This DC trip sort of wrecked havoc on my body.

There were many late nights followed with really early mornings. There was a time change and it seemed that most mornings I was waking up at 4:30 AM their time which is 3:30 AM my time. The last night there, I went to bed around 1:00 AM and then woke up at 4:30 in the morning. And I was AWAKE. I could not go back to sleep, so I just watched bad TV until the sun came up. Then there’s this weird rash that kind of looks like poison ivy that just showed up on my back. It itches like crazy. I don’t know if this is also part of that rash, but random bumps that resemble bug bites have started to show up on my legs and arms. The other night, I put lotion on my hands before crawling into bed. My hands were so dry and cracked that they started to itch and burn from the lotion. This plus the rash and bug-like bumps made my whole body itchy. Micheal came in to say goodnight and I was laying in bed, clawing at my skin like a meth head.

Side note: It was just like that time my mom gave me a prescription pain med when I had my wisdom teeth removed. She came in the middle of the night to check on me and I was writhing and scratching. I wildly yelled at her “MY SKIN IS CRAWLING!” and Mom said “Oh no” and then threw out the rest of that pain medication.

When I’m not scratching my skin off, I’m losing things. My car wouldn’t start when I got home Tuesday night and security had to come jump start my car. I finally made it home, started taking off all of my jewelry and realized that one of my silver rings from Tiffany’s was missing. Actually, it was the first ring Michael ever bought me and I got real panicky. I searched pockets and mittens and had decided that it had just fallen off of my finger somewhere. I felt a little sick to my stomach over the loss and I was pretty convinced it was gone forever. Then I opened my suitcase and started to unpack and I found my ring under my toiletry bag. Wednesday morning, I left the house for work and somewhere between locking the front door and getting into my car, I lost a t-shirt I had nabbed for a co-worker from a company booth. I later found that t-shirt in the back seat of my car.

So here’s what I am thankful for this week. I am thankful for finding the things I thought I had lost. This includes people I hadn’t seen in over twenty years.

Next week will be easier.

THANKFUL FRIDAY

First day of Fall

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Early this week I was out with a virus that Michael had brought home last week (probably Zika). Then Wednesday night I went to bed at my usual time only to lay there with my eyes open thinking about bills and accumulating debt and how I was going to fix that. My skin was itchy because every time I go outside I come back in with five new giant welts from mosquitoes (probably Zika). My face itches because I started using a new face wash that made my face break out in a rash. My head itches because a few nights ago I dreamed that the Cabbage had head lice (she doesn't have head lice). While I scratched, I fretted about things I couldn't do anything about in that moment. I tried doing sixty one points of relaxation. I tried doing rounds of alternate nostril breathing. Finally, I got up around eleven and took a Benadryl, which didn't really stop all the itching, but did make me sleep.

I woke up the next morning, slightly foggy from anti-histamine blockers, but aware enough to realize what really was going on. Wednesday was the last day of summer and as I fell asleep it became officially the first day of Fall. There are parts of the human brain that still hold on to the old primitive man ways. Instead of panicking about not having enough food to get us through winter, I panicked about things I didn't get done or have yet to get done. Fall is a small snowball that becomes an avalanche that explodes into the New Year. As it rolls downhill it just gets bigger and faster. It's not even October yet and I already have most of the month booked up with plans. Fall is a reminder that we've maybe been overly ambitious in writing our to-do lists for the year. I used to chide Chris the Great List Maker all the time about how much stuff he would put on his daily to-do lists. Now, I am chiding myself. 

As we officially say goodbye to summer, I am taking a moment to be thankful for the things I did this summer. Actually, I'm thankful for the things that we've done this summer. The best part of some of those things is that they weren't even on a list of any kind. They were spontaneous moments that we planned at the last minute. Today I am being thankful for being in the moment and for savoring those moments. I am thankful for tossing the so called to-do list to the wayside and forgetting about it all together. 

Today is Amy's birthday. I bought her a card based on the picture on the outside without thinking about it being a blank on the inside. I rambled on and on in the inside of the card before coming up with a vision of us at 80. That vision includes a group of us all living in a retirement village together. I am thankful for Amy for more reasons than I can say here in this space. I am thankful for roasted tomatoes and jalapeno soup. I am thankful for Calamine lotion. I am thankful for you. Here's to a weekend that should be filled with equal parts relaxing and work (the garage is filthy) and here's to a wonderful Thankful Friday!