I realize it is May…6th, to be exact; many of you may have already forgotten what you received for Christmas last year. I have not. Christmas was the last fun, wonderful, and sane part of my life. I had plans…I mean, I had PLANS! I knew I was going to bust out in 2016 and start a business. I knew I could do it, had parties scheduled, was psyched & ready to go. We came home from winter break on January 3rd. I felt myself getting sick the entire drive home. I just kept eating vitamin C & cough drops like they were candy. Well, we made it.
For the next two weeks I was sick as all hell. There was a day when my temperature was up to 105.? & I could not go pick Bekah up from school. She had to stay with her teacher, (& my friend), simply because I could not get out of bed. I went to the doctor and was tested for everything. Nope, just have the junk. I wonder if that truly is a medical term, because my doctor (among others) utilizes “junk” as a diagnosis. My daughter went without a birthday party, once again. Many times in the past it has been because of weather; number 11 was all my fault.
The third week of January I lost my voice. I was unable to find it for six more weeks. During those six weeks I was ill, and other days I felt okay, then I was ill, etc. I remember the first day I had my voice back I couldn’t stop talking! At that point, about five weeks in, for a talker like me? Yeah, it felt like torture. Of course, using my voice all that day led to another week without it. That was February. A silent month.
About this time a nuclear bomb went off within my small family. I still cannot talk, or apparently type, about it without sobbing. My daughter disclosed some information that started a whirlwind of response. I am not sure I want to discuss that here right now, just know that the bottom dropped from my world & I still have not found it. As soon as I got my voice back my MacBookPro died. Five years of wonderful service and it just went all green/pink lines on me. I tried everything possible to avoid going to a Genius Bar, the closest being 90 miles away in Indianapolis.
After a visit with the local iMechanic (whom I am very thankful for), I learned that it was the logic board and the older models needed to be replaced. That meant I had to go to an Apple store and a Genius Bar. I was looking forward to a convention that I attend every two years in Louisville, in the second week of April. Louisville has an Apple store! I thought I’d be all cool, make my appointment, discover the problem & deal. The very nice lady that was helping me backed up my Mac & said it had to be sent off. “Well, I live a few hours from here. Is there any way it can be shipped back to my house in Illinois?,” I said. The amazing reply… “Of course we can, I’m sure.” I walked away from one of my most valuable worldly possessions and felt a little queasy.
By this time we had gone through an emotional roller coaster with my daughter. She was given medicine, it was the wrong medicine. It took six weeks to discover this. Honestly, it took about a week, but I just wanted to make sure she wasn’t one of those that needed the full six weeks. I was at the conference during the first week of transition to a new medication. I will never be able to pay Amanda back for everything she has done for us. The Lord has surely blessed me with angels in my life.
The next week I received a phone call from Apple saying that my device was ready for pickup. I explained that I was assured it could be sent to me. This young man ASSURED me that I had to come in person to pick up my laptop. Fun. In downtown Louisville, at the Louisville Slugger Museum, they have created an Iron Man & Captain America out of car parts. They are life size and amazing! I wanted to show Bekah. I thought it would be a good day to just be girls together. I turned out to be right, for once.
At a certain point after about an hour of driving, Siri kindly told me about traffic and road construction ahead. She said she could save me 8 minutes in driving time.
An hour and a half later… we were in some tiny Indiana town. This was after driving through windy, beautiful, goat-filled, scenery. It was beautiful, but it was not 8 minutes. Bekah actually fell asleep for a bit. When we finally found that town (that I cannot remember the name of right now) we stopped at a Walgreens. #REDNOSEDAY is so fun, and we decided to finally take out Red Nose pix, after having them for over a week. Up to that point we had already enjoyed a wonderful trip, and the red noses made it better. We got goofy and Bek got back in the front seat.
The rest of the drive to Louisville was pretty uneventful on the outside of Gloryah (my Jeep), but on the inside it was fun and full of conversation. I think we were at a record, a few hours in a small space together, without fighting, yelling, or melting down. We went straight to Oxmore Shopping Center, (a mall I could barely afford a super-sale item at any of the high-brow stores). Everything was wonderful with my Mac and just to be nice they tried to help Bek with the iPad. See, Mum forgot the latest passcode and Bek tried so many times she disabled the device. That was not possible, however we did completely erase it and rebooted it as a brand new device. There was a great guy, Zach, who stayed for about a half hour after his shift was over for us. I’ve been praying for him, he suffers through insomnia.
This, I believe, was meant to be. My Most Favourite Aunt Vicki had replaced the cracked and broken screen over winter break. Now, the device was erased, nothing of mine remained. I told her, “It’s like a brand new iPad, just for you. It will be all yours, nothing of mine.” That stopped her from moping about having games deleted.
Earlier Bek had spilled something all over her shirt. I mean, ALL over. She couldn’t have done a better job if she aimed. There was a shirt in Gloryah, but it was too small. She didn’t care, but I did. She needed a new shirt. We gathered our things and stepped out into the mall I could not afford. We discovered H&M was having a sale. I discovered that H&M does not clothe obese women. I found one shirt that fit. Bek found a cute shirt as well. Why did I get one too? Because we had decided before going into the mall that we would pretend for a couple hours that we had money…er, extra money.
Lucky for us they were having an awesome sale. We had fun in their super-star fitting rooms and generally enjoyed ourselves. Bek felt like Italian for probably the first time, ever, and a wonderful restaurant was recommended. When we arrived the line outside the door was so long, I just looked & laughed. Just a little way down we found Joe’s. It’s basically Qdoba (but they had Ray Charles, Michael Jackson, Elvis, and Bob Marley, among others, framed art all around.) We were satisfied. It was probably cheaper too. There was a Coldstone Creamery a few stores down. Bek had never been, so to dessert we went.
I cannot speak of the drive home right now, except to say we did not realize we picked the day that Thunder over Louisville was going on. So, only about 10,000+ extra people in downtown. Needless to say, we did not get to see Iron Man & the Captain. We were in stopped traffic for about 45 minutes… that sucked.
Okay, so if you have read all of this, I commend you. It has been such a long time since I have been able to update and I have so many things to share, it is difficult to stop typing. Let me just say that I believe that God was obviously telling me something, shouting something at me, during the first two months of this year. I believe I did not wait for Him. It is so easy to do things in our own power and in our own time. We live in a world of instant gratification. I jumped the gun on my personal business. I made mistakes, and He shushed me. (You cannot sell without a voice). I am now in fervent prayer in order to understand what He wants me to do and when. Your prayers are appreciated for my mess as well as what is happening with my kiddo.
I hope & pray all is well with you. I always pray for you and hope that the Lord rains blessings down upon you. I’ve missed you.
~Cecelia
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