Is it Friday yet?

There's a little Peanuts comic strip that I clipped and kept around for years (mostly when I worked in corporate). It was just one frame. Charlie Brown is in his pajamas, sitting on the side of his bed. The caption reads: "As soon as I get up in the morning, I feel like I'm in over my head."

That's kinda how my life has felt the past few days.

On Friday, I had most of a new post written when I had to stop to take care of something else, so I saved it, meaning to finish it up that evening or first thing Saturday. A little while later, I noticed my throat felt very sore and raw all of a sudden, and as the evening went on, it got worse and my nose started to get all stuffy. By Saturday morning when I woke up, my throat felt as if I'd walked through the Sahara with a dry canteen. Ouch. My nose was all stuffed up, I had post-nasal drip, and my eyes were itchy and watery. Allergies, I'm guessing, since the trees really started blooming at the end of last week, plus the landscaping crew was blowing mulch out of big high-pressure hoses all around the neighborhood. Not wanting to give in to how I felt, though, I did manage to spend most of Saturday out with John shopping for some motorcycle gear (I scored a nice light riding jacket for summer and a leather vest ... which I'll model in a future post when the bike is back from the shop). On Sunday, though, I spent most of the day in bed, barely managing enough energy to do a couple of loads of laundry.

Yesterday, John's car was in for some maintenance, so I dropped him at work, since I had made plans to meet my parents for lunch. After I picked him up in the afternoon, we approached an intersection where we usually make a left turn onto a major roadway. At that intersection, the left lane has to turn left, but the right-hand lane can also turn left, or go straight. I was making the left-hand turn from the right-hand lane so that I could get on the on-ramp to the highway right after. Just as I was starting to make my left turn, though, I saw a car to my left out of the corner of my eye that, instead of turning left as he was supposed to, was going straight through the intersection at a very fast speed. I swerved right to avoid him, and he just sped by me at breakneck speed, never even slowing down.

Uncertain whether he had hit me or not, since it all happened so fast, I made my turn to get out of the intersection and pulled over to the side. There's not much of a shoulder, though, and John (who was on the phone at the time) was pretty sure he hadn't hit me, so we decided to just drive home. When we got home, we found that he actually had made contact, because the side of my front bumper is all black and scraped (my car is light beige). Argh! Hopefully it will buff out or clean off with some type of solvent. The silver lining is, as John pointed out later, if this had happened just one second later, when I would have been well into my left turn, he would have hit me square on the driver-side door. I hate to think of how that would have felt, especially at the speed he was going.

So, between the way I've been feeling from the allergies and other craziness the past few days (there was more screwy stuff yesterday that I won't bore you with here), I've been feeling a bit like poor old Charlie Brown. Hopefully the planets are moving into a different configuration now.

Today, when I finally got back to what I wrote last Friday, most of it seemed ancient in blogging terms, so I did a major edit, but here are a few things that survived the cut:

• I want to wish Happy Birthday again to my handsome, cool and talented son, Ryan, who turned 19 on April 9. This was the first year that I haven't seen Ryan on his birthday, since he is up at school in Boston. Despite the fact that mom wasn't around, though, he still managed to have himself a great time :-). His roommates threw him a party, and two of his friends from this area drove up for the weekend. The best part? I didn't have to go up and post bail for anyone (just kidding Ryan!).

• I had an ultrasound last Wednesday after a doctor's visit the previous week to see about the lumps I found in my breast two weeks ago (... yes, I know I only mentioned one, but there are actually two ... I just didn't want to alarm everybody). The ultrasound tech says they're both 'just' fluid-filled cysts, which are not uncommon, apparently (and not solid masses, which are the worrisome things). They may go away on their own, she said, or if they get bigger or become uncomfortable, my doctor can go in with a needle and 'aspirate' them (drain them). Doesn't sound like too much fun to me, so I am doing whatever I can on my own to promote their departure. That includes giving up caffeine, eating better, walking/exercising, and taking supplements (vitamin E, evening primrose oil, and CoQ10 enzyme, among others).  Keep your fingers crossed. In the meantime, I want to send healing thoughts to Kat, who was having surgery this past Friday to have Lumpy (as she called it) removed. Feel better soon Kat.

• We've been having just glorious weather for a while, so I've been walking about 3 miles nearly every day (except the past few days when I've been feeling too lousy). It's been great. As I loop back towards home, I usually swing by the supermarket in the neighborhood and pick up fixins' at the salad bar. Combining the walk with the stop for a fresh meal means I don't have any excuses to not eat healthy (... such as, 'but I'm too busy to wash the lettuce,' or 'the stuff in a bag isn't fresh enough. Waahh!'). And, if I can time it just right and don't have client calls that conflict in the morning, I can get there just when everything's been laid out and looks and smells really fresh. It's the little things that can make my day.
  
  Last Sunday, I set out for my walk and was just heading up the monster hill, beating myself up for not bringing along a bottle of water, when lo and behold, three cute girls were just setting up their lemonade stand on the corner. Not soon enough did my mouth start watering than I remembered that, on this day, I didn't have any cash on me since I hadn't planned to stop at the store. Not even a dime. When they ran over to ask if I wanted some lemonade (which was only a quarter), and I told them I hadn't brought any money on my walk, they all shouted, 'Oh, that's okay! It's free! It's always free for the first customer!!' God does smile down upon me, as you can see. I had a refreshing cup of yummy lemonade, played with their little dog Poco, and giggled with the three girls before setting off again. One of them was even handing out brochures and business cards for her father's new business. Now that's what I call an entrepreneur in the making.

• I mailed my taxes last Monday (when I went by the post office on my walk ... hey, with gas at $2.29 a gallon, every little bit helps). I actually had my taxes done last month by my wonderful accountant, David, but held them because I knew I owed $425. Or so I thought. Turns out when I actually went to send them out and took a closer look at my accountant's cover letter, I discovered that I actually owed $2,125 (including estimated quarterly taxes for the first quarter of '05). Ouch, okay, that put a little damper on my day. I was beating myself up for not reading the return and cover letter more carefully when I first got them ... but then realized that if I had, I just would have had 4 more weeks of misery, dreading the payment I would have to make come April 15, so actually, sometimes ignorance is bliss, or at least it was in this case. Nonetheless, if you need a life coach or freelance writer, call me right away :-)

Oh, and we won $3 in last week's Mega Millions drawing ... enough to buy a gallon of gas. Tonight's jackpot was $168M last time I checked. Our numbers are 11 12 20 35 41 and 24 (mega). Here's hoping ... for us or someone else reading this. Believe, baby.

Comments

[kat]

thanks for the healing thoughts maria!!

i'm glad to hear that your lumps are cysts, although it's scary to have anything foreign going on in there, so i understand how stressful that can be. *sending healing vibes to your lumps* i hope they go away on their own.

[Marilyn]

Just getting caught up on the last week's worth of blogs. Sorry to hear you've been having a rough time. Belated Happy Birthday to Ryan. I'm with Kat...holding good thoughts that the lumps will dissipate gently on their own. Sorry about your taxes...although that "ignorance is bliss" philosophy certainly takes the sting out of it. :)