Friday, March 23, 2018

Five Things For Friday

1. Spring break vacation was officially over with a resounding thud that scared the crap out of me (only I used a different word in my alarm 😕) when on Monday morning as I was driving Sam to school I turned a corner in my neighborhood too soon and ran over a big rock that scraped up the underside of the car on the back left passenger side. 😲 I still can't believe that happened! I really am a good driver and things like that don't happen to me! But, it happened. My denial that it wasn't too serious was officially over by that evening when various digital warnings kept popping up on the dashboard and I knew for sure that it was no longer safe to drive. So it's been a hassle, especially with Peter out of town, but now it's in the shop for a few weeks(!!) getting fixed and I have a pretty nice loaner car from the dealership to drive in the meantime. Along with a soon-to-be higher insurance premium. 😢


2. Often in my life I've seen a pattern where a bunch of challenging things happen together at around the same time, about three or four times a year. This year started out that way, remember that? It's like a big shake-up and then everything goes back to normal. I guess I prefer it over hard things being sprinkled throughout regularly, like every few weeks or something, but it sure isn't fun no matter when it happens.

Recently I've been going through one of these clusters--in less than a month the following things have happened: the whole family got norovirus, I sprained one of my toes really bad and it hurt to wear shoes and I walked with a limp for over a week, the difficult decision about moving or not needed to be made, some issues in my personal life came to a head, and the bottom of my car collided with a rock. That has to be the end of it! Although...

I'm steeling myself for the next few weeks while also trying to be optimistic: over the next week or two, people will be coming in to fix up the house and paint rooms and steam clean the carpets and get it ready to go on the market, and I'll be doing unenjoyable things like that too, and our comfortable routines and schedules will be out of whack, and then comes the joy of having the house on the market and constantly trying to keep it clean and show-worthy and living life around showings and open houses, hoping someone will make an offer, but what if nobody does, etc. So there may be another "cluster" coming, but maybe things will go smoothly and it won't be so bad. (Right?!) 🤞

Having said all that, I'll take those challenges over the much more difficult things that I know other people are going through. Also, there have been good things at the same time as the hard things, like John's birthday, our spring break vacation, gratitude for a body that functions well and heals itself, and the peace that comes from having (finally) made the decision to move. 

But still! Rain, rain go away. (Even though I love rain...just not the figurative kind.)


3. That's enough of the heavy stuff, now on to lighter fare. Or actually darker in this case: This week I've been having a hard time getting up in the mornings because it's so dark out from Daylight Saving Time. This is our adjustment week to that since we were on a cruise in the Caribbean last week so it really made no difference then. So I've been pretty sleepy and tired this week. 😴 (Maybe that's why I ran over a rock?!)


4. This really is lighter fare: I saw this the other day and it's literally been making me LOL. 

😂😂😂

There were some other funny ones I saw too. I have to get this hilarious-looking Cat Shaming book!

5. I discovered a delicious new treat this week: Trader Joe's Chocolate-Filled Crepes. They're so good! I've been a little disappointed by some of their specialty dessert items in the past, but these definitely don't disappoint! They taste like the scrumptious chocolate crepes my friend and roommate Laura used to make in college. I used to crave those crepes, and now I can crave these ones. They're dee-lish!

Fun fact: today is the 18th anniversary of my first date with Peter! It happened at a nice little Italian restaurant in downtown Philadelphia called Ristorante San Carlo. We rode there in a taxi and he gave me a red rose and a white rose. I tried calamari for the first time and he agreed to read The Book of Mormon, and the rest is history! 
I think I'll "make" some crepes for us to celebrate. 😉