For reasons you shall soon discover, I was not able to blog about this week of catastrophes any sooner. It started May 4th.
Tuesday: On this particular day, I woke up feeling worse then I had the week before when I was out of work due to bronchitis. I awoke with what felt like someone was sitting on my chest. It was really too late to call in sick. Plus I felt bad for our receptionist having to find someone...again, to fill in for me last second. So, I went in thinking that I could get everything ready for a sub and give our receptionist time to find me a suitable sub for the week. I let her know my plan and asked her to find me a sub to come in as soon as possible and then I made a doctors appointment for 3pm. Time passed and the busiest time of the day was starting for me. No one had come yet. I notified the receptionist. She had forgotten about me. Small thing, but it was the start to the week....
I barely made it to my appointment on time. Got in to see the doc. She said my lungs were inflamed, took my temp, took some blood and gave me a prescription for some more meds. Got a call the next day, there's a bacterial infection in my lungs.
May 5th, Wednesday: Exhausted and uncomfortable, I rest on the couch hoping the meds will kick in and ease the discomfort. This lasts until about 2pm. Boredom trumps the weariness and discomfort, so I slowly clean, organize and rearrange my very small living room. This turned out to be perfect timing.
Just as I slump down on the couch to rest, I hear rushing water. I'm thinking it's the shower or something upstairs...I've never heard it before. As I am thinking this, I look up and right then, water comes rushing through my ceiling and over my ceiling fan upon my very face. I sit there for what seemed like longer than a couple of seconds, but I'm sure it was not long, before I frantically ran upstairs to bang on my neighbors door and ask her to turn her water off! My neighbor turned it off. I called our landlord. Then my neighbor came down to stand outside my door as we watched the water pour through the ceiling.
A loose connection on her washing machine came off, flooded her closet and then my living room. I was too tired and sick to cry or even cuss.
The landlord got someone to come check it out and then someone to evac the water and it was all good. Nothing ruined but a scrapbook of pics from my trip to London and Paris last spring, but I've got those on disc.
May 6th, Thursday: Thankfully, this day was good. A dear friend stopped by for lunch to bring Schlotzsky's, tea and a gift card. I wasn't feeling good at all, but I needed the company. Then later that afternoon, the PTF president brought by some Subway and a gift card. How awesome is that! The Lord knew...
May 7th, Friday: It was already an uncomfortable day. I think the couple days before had worn me out a bit too much. I slept all day...and then I couldn't sleep. So, I decided to get some work done for school the next week. I was up, so why not. I made my comfort drink, a vanilla chai latte and sat down to work. I had just finished up some work and had forgotten that my chai latte was sitting there on the same little table as my laptop. Oh, yeah, I knocked it over spilling it on to my laptop!! It made a sci-fi like noise before the screen went black.
I still didn't cry. Maybe said a few choice words, but still didn't cry.
May 8th, Saturday: I decided to wash my throw blankets and pillow covers from my living room. The water that had come through my ceiling fan wasn't really clean. I'm kind of excited because I had just gotten the washer/dryer on Monday! First time to use it!
On my second load, my small quilt and small pillow covers are in the washer when I hear the spin cycle getting louder and louder. Then I hear my washer/dryer begin to shake. It calms down a little, so I relax a little. But then, I hear it shaking so violently now that it is banging up against the wall! Just as I get up to run back there, I hear this crash! I get in there to find blue green goo every where! It looks like the blob attacked my bathroom. The stupid washer/dryer knocked my liquid detergent off the top.
I finally lost it. I cried and cussed. In fact, I balled like a baby as I sat in my gooey bathroom/utility room until I started to just laugh.
Then I had a convo with God. He set me straight and then I was calm. There was nothing I could do about it. Although, this convo took the entire hour or so it took me to clean the liquid detergent up before I came to this realization. But I came to it eventually. Everything is in His control. Everything, even this week of small and ridiculous catastrophes, has a purpose.
Anywho, all that happened and no real damage was done. My ceiling fan works fine. The detergent is cleaned up. The washer/dryer still works and my quilt is clean (Apparently it gets a little too heavy when wet). My carpet is shampooed and cleaner than ever! And, believe it or not, I am typing from the very laptop in which I spilled my chai latte upon. Did you know rice really does absorb the liquid from electronics!? Rice is good.
On top of it all, I gained some perspective as God seemed to harangue me with, not words, but humbling events. He is so humorous. But I am thankful to my God for knowing me so well. It takes the extraordinary to get my attention. Or really, just a swift kick in the butt.
Lesson: Things really can work out for the better...we all need to remember that when we are a little down.
