A lot has happened in the past
couple of weeks; I’ve had some time off from work, my apartment flooded, and I
got in some good quality time in with the family. My week off from work has
flown by as if it was only one day, and I suppose that’s to be expected. It’s
been nice not working and I’m not happy about going back, but I feel like I’m
doing things to help my situation and that helps me not feel hopeless. I’ve
even got some new year’s resolutions that I’m going to get to in a minute.
My
apartment flooded Saturday night; the carpets were soaked and even had little
puddles here and there and there were about three inches in the kitchen.
Luckily, my clothes closet, bathroom, and the closet where I keep my litter boxes
were spared (I don’t even want to think about soaked litter boxes!). At first,
it was just too overwhelming. When I got home that evening there were already
maintenance men in my apartment trying to suck out the water with various hoses.
My cats were frightened and stranded on the windowsills and each step I took in
my apartment just made disgusting sucking noises. I was grateful I had chosen
to wear boots, especially when I waded through the kitchen to check out the
situation.
I text-ed pretty much everyone that I knew (this isn’t the kind of thing that
happens every day) and was just about to order a pizza - cooking in a kitchen
full of water did not seem like a good idea – when my dad texts me back saying
they have an extra litter box with fresh litter and that I should go there. So
I packed up my cats and headed out.
My cats
are super-pals but they’re very different from one another. I have an
ultra-friendly, the-world-is-my-oyster grey tomcat (Ditto) and a there-was-a-small-noise-the-apocalypse-is-happening-now!
moody little tortie queen (Cleopatra). Guess who was yelping in a high-pitched
voice the whole way to my parent’s house? No, that was Ditto. Because when it
comes to car rides, he’s a sissy. Seriously, I think his voice went up a whole
octave. Cleopatra was uncharacteristically quiet, perhaps thinking, “dude, not
even I’m that much of a diva.”
Once I
got to my parent’s house Ditto gave Cleopatra her diva-status back, and greeted
everyone with enthusiasm while his friend hid under the bed for the next four
days. The trip has made me consider that maybe Ditto needs a house with at
least five people and two stories because he was so excited to see everyone and
spent all his time wandering around, exploring every little thing he could get
into.
So I
spent Christmas with a little more family time then I’m used to. The first
couple days were fine, and Christmas was really nice. It really is something
special that my family gets together every year to open presents and be
together even though things are kind of crazy with my grandfather in a nursing
home in the next state over. My mom was so busy going back and forth to take
care of him that she didn’t have time or energy to do any Christmas decorating
or preparation. But, my dad and sister took care of the cooking and my sister,
brother and I did the decorating. We even had some family friends come by and
give my mom a fully-decorated Christmas tree for the porch! I feel lucky that
my parents have such great friends.
After
our little family gift exchange, we traveled to my cousin’s house for lunch
and then on to my grandfather’s nursing home for a visit. My mom had to stay
there to help out so my dad and I cooked a small dinner at my grandmother’s
place. It was odd since that’s the usual site of our large family holiday
dinners and grandpa is usually the one to do most of the cooking. It was really
strange to see him unable to remember what happened in the last hour and unable
to stand up or walk on his own. He was still telling his bad jokes, though;
whenever he did speak it was in puns.
We had
to stay an extra day to help get grandpa to cancer care and help grandma fight
the nurse who kept refusing to give grandma the help she asked for. Most of the
nurses were very caring, but this was an obstinate one. My mom was able to
contact a superior and I think she may have gotten the nurse in trouble, but I
heard the way that nurse talked to my grandma and she deserved to get in
trouble!
Things
went downhill mood wise for me on the way back to my parent’s house. Somehow I
missed taking my meds for two days, probably because of the change in routine.
When I was able to visit my apartment, I was super-thrilled (read angry) to
find that it smelled like death and the carpet was filthy. The maintenance man
had promised me that they would clean the carpets by Wednesday at the latest;
which I thought was odd since that was Christmas, but he still said Wednesday!
By Friday it still wasn’t done and I was seriously livid. My parents were
getting on my last nerve and my apartment was still a crazy wreck. I had to
throw so many things out because they were soaked and smelly. I still need new
bookcases, but I think for now I can live with the old ones as long as I don’t
sniff them. I lost a lot of books, too, and a ton of cat toys. One of the
scratching posts was actually broken in half (how the F did that happen??).
But anyway, if I talk too much
about that I’ll get too angry again. Fast-forward a few days and my carpets are
clean (I didn’t have to yell too much), and my furniture is in the proper
places. Laundry’s still not done, but I can only do so much. And, I’m looking
forward to a new year with plenty of optimism and a new master list of hopes
and changes to make.
Hopes and Changes
- Bring back Spa Saturday: Every Saturday morning
I will pamper myself with any lotions, body scrubs, deep hair conditioners and
soaks that I own.
- Paint nails once a week
- Get new glasses
- Get a haircut
- Make sure to blow-dry my hair after showering
because it looks 100% better
- Shower at least every other day
- Start weight watchers
- Re-start yoga 28-day challenge and do cardio
every third day
- Make a zazzle store with my photography
- Start crafting on etsy
- Be more regular with blogger posts
- Continue to work on getting away from the tv and
doing other things that I like
- Develop my hobbies and interests
- Set up a savings account for graduate school
- Interview teachers, social workers and
psychologists to see if I would like to do their job
- Commit to keeping the kitchen clean
- Look at other apartment complexes, especially
with second-floor apartments
- Work on making my apartment a home that makes me
feel more comfortable
- Work on preparing for things ahead of time so I
can be on time and prepared in general and when I go out
- Set up my new therapy light and
sunrise/sunset-simulating alarm clock (Christmas gifts to myself)
- Spend more time playing with my cats, it helps
all of us be happier
So, I hope all
of you out there had a lovely holiday. And even if it wasn’t perfect or even
that good at all, I hope there were good moments that you can concentrate on.
As Lizzy Bennet would say, “In such cases as these, a good memory is
unpardonable. “ (Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice)
