2002
It began with us having to come to Colorado in December of last year. Ok, I figured hey, we'll give it a chance, can't be but so bad right? We arrived a few days before Christmas, which actually is one of my less favourite holidays anyhow. We spent that day in our place on base lodging (similar to a hotel) after having busted our dog Reilly out of the kennel. No pets allowed in lodging. Or so the sign on the back of the door stated. Well it was costing a small fortune to have him kenneled until we found a place to live and simply, we couldn't bear the thought of him spending Christmas in "jail". So we continued to sneak him in and out of lodging in a clothes hamper until we moved a week later.
It was at this time we were living in an empty apartment and awaiting our belongings to be delivered to us, and having to go out to eat constantly as we had no means of cooking. We go out on 30th December to Outback Steakhouse, it was a Sunday afternoon, and my comment as we basically ice skated into the parking area, "They really need to clear out this carpark and sidewalk! It is multiple sheets of ice!!" Upon exiting after the meal, I take 2 steps into the carpark and fall, flat down... thankfully Greg was carrying Clare. A few spectators decided to yell to see if I was ok, rather than risk falling themselves to come over and see closeup. It was such a hard fall my arm and shoulder had gone numb at first, then the pain that eminated was unbearable. But for Clare's sake I managed to say "Oh sure I'm fine!". But whispered to Greg, "take me to the ER!!" Where we find that my arm and shoulder are indeed broken in 3 spots. New Year's Eve was spent with us sleeping on an air mattress, still awaiting shipment of our things, asleep by 9pm...me mostly off the pain medication I was given. This should have been an indication of what the upcoming year was to bring.
Then a few weeks later we find out we had to attend the funeral of my grand aunt in Tennessee (my grandmother's sister)....so that involved us driving nonstop all night and day to get there on time. Or should I say Greg drove, I couldn't drive for months till my arm got a bit better.
We returned that next weekend to only turn around, pack our things and move since we were told housing at the Air Force Academy had a few houses available. In the snow we moved into a nice secluded much-bigger-house-than-we now-have. We managed to live there all of what, 9 days? Before our attached neighbour next door decided to smoke and throw her cigarette into some cooking oil she had moronically thrown into her driveway. So we spent the coldest night this year (or so it seemed) watching our house burn down and firefighters chuck our belongings out the window.
Then we get stuck in this house, smaller, cramped, in a very scary and filthy neighbourhood...my worst nightmare pretty much. Of course everyone, everywhere knew us as the "fire victims".
Things seemed to be on the up and up for about a month, then I underwent another bone marrow biopsy and since April I have been to all kinds of specialists and endured numerous types of tests to see why my bone marrow is disappearing. Even worse news: I cannot work or send Clare to school for fear any germs will make me extremely sick. Living your life staying away from every coughing/sneezing shopper you encounter in public is hard to do unless you have an invisible barrier around your body that prevents any foreign germs from invading your already failing immune system. Maybe I need an astronaut suit, complete with glass domed helmet. Hmm....anyhow, of course I have always been the one to cover my hand with my sleeve to open public doors, touch buttons in the lift, etc,etc so that part is nothing new. But I think the doctors would be most happy if I had no public contact at all. Now that would get old very quickly.
But I sure miss working.
Aside from trying to live off of one income now, which is horrible, here are the happy joyous holidays sneaking up behind us. I am just not in the spirit this time. Especially considering I will most likely be enduring surgery really really soon.
The news of Donald's death last week was definitely the final straw for me. I am ready to crawl into bed and ignore the rest of this miserable year in hopes that January will bring much brighter happier news. But I can't exactly clean house and live life from under the covers right?
I guess there have been a few good things: we got to go to Virginia in June for mine and Clare's birthdays and got to see everyone again which was nice. We got another Jack Russell to add to our collection. Clare can tie bows now and is doing first grade math. At least one of my health problems will be solved with a surgery, which will only make me feel miserable before better.... until healing from it afterwards of course. My mother came out twice to visit us, and my friend Colm came all the way from Ireland for a holiday too. And recently, Casey asked me to be Addison's Godmother so I am elated about that of course. But all in all I'd say the bad things nearly outweigh the good.
One of my best friends told me years ago, when you hit 27 and everything in your life becomes normal, no more bad luck, then you are a reincarnated Hindu. Well nothing changed when I turned 27, nor 28, nor 29 or especially 30, so Anna, I guess I am not a Hindu afterall. Which isn't such a bad thing.
postnotes:
1. My arm has STILL not healed properly. I never went to physical therapy cos of the house fire so suddenly I was consummed with moving, cleaning ick off of our things, etc.
2. There are loads of tiny bad luck type of things that went on all year too, not even worth mentioning as my hand would fall off from the copious amounts of typing.
3. My jeep has an evergrowing crack across the windshield, mysteriously showed up overnight, as does everyone else driving around Colorado Springs. Anyone know a cheap place that would replace windows??! :)
4. Did I mention that housefire smoke is far harder to remove from your items such as coats and clothing than any other substance? Oh, besides tar, the things covered in tar all had to be chucked in the dumpster.
On one of the happier moments of 2002, here we are outside KABUTO Japanese restaurant in Richmond, VA. Taken in June, on my 30th Birthday! (after a gruelling nonstop drive from Colorado to Virginia...36 hours!)
