Those Were The Days, My Friend:

Today was a very good day.

I was pretty much on my own today, and whatever gett'n done that I had to get done? I got'er done! All by my onesies.

Okay, so all I really had to do today was get my nails done, but by gawd I did it. I started getting ready 45 minutes before my appointment - dressed, moon boot, shoe, teeth & hair brushed, essentials like $$/knitting/drivers license . . . all done by me alone :grin:

The Mike chose to brave the Big Box Stores of Commercialism with his out-of-town brother and I am *so* not into that crap. He went his way and I was in charge of my way.

I even drove myself for the first time since breaking my foot. Driving is not hard with an automatic, but getting in & out on the driver's side, with a disabled left foot? Major suckage!

Things I've learned since becoming temporarily disabled:

1) The average able-bodied person really doesn't see a handicapped person. Doesn't see them, does not change their own wants/needs because of them and apparently couldn't care less about them.

2) I was that person above, to some degree. I just really had no understanding of their day-to-day world until now.

3) Some people are nice people not because they have to be nice, but because it's their nature.

4) I want to be # 3 more.

5) Holy Fuckoly I am sore and out of shape. There are muscles I didn't even know existed on my body until this last Tuesday. Today is the first day that my shoulder and stomach muscles are not trying to kill me in their mutiny. Every damn step has been a mini-stomach crunch and my upper arms and shoulders have felt like a horse has pummeled me half to death.

6) Always know the amount of toilet paper left in the bathroom before you use it. Just say'n.

7) "For Better or Worse" and "Do Unto Others". This has been a MAJOR learning experience for me about 'us'. I will do my darnedest to be a more sympathetic wife and let go of my 'deal with it' attitude. It's gotten me through my life so far, but if I want The Mike to be a part of my team, then I certainly have to be on his team too.

8) "I didn't quit 'nicotine' but just the inhalation of the 4,746 horrific chemicals in cigarettes that hinder the healing of bones". Telling myself that again and again and AGAIN has gotten me through 48 hours of not smoking. Seriously. That is so fucking major, y'all don't even know.

9) The sayings "Necessity is the Mother of Invention" and "Where There's a Will There's a Way" ? I've always believed it, but today I lived it. If there is something I have to do? I'll do it, come hell or high water.

10) Something* has been telling me for a while to take stock and slow down and stop goinggoinggoing but I shush that voice while I dododo. I am donedonedone always 'going' and I understand that I have a laundry list of things I need to address.

11) If I had known how to knit 10 or 15 years ago, my life would be so different, in a good way. Well, okay, not knitting necessarily, but Something* that would have channeled my energy so much better than I knew how to back then.

12) Thank the Lord Above I never had kids. Going through this is hard enough. If I was in charge of my offspring? Quaaludes and Merlot for everyone! Honestly, I would deal, but I would so utterly hate everyone and everything because I was living an irreversable wrong choice.

13) Being temporarily crippled gets me out of a bazillion family things. Yay for that!

Part of me wonders why I'm finally starting to look at life from a different angle than usual. About to turn 40? Why, yes. Yes I am. I've always felt that my age isn't representative of my *me* though. When I was 23, I felt older. I don't feel younger than 39 and I don't feel older than 39 either.

I just feel like it's time for a change from where I'm not doing right by myself and my commitments to something different. It's not about an upcoming new year or an upcoming milestone birthday, but about making change because the old way of doing things worked then but they aren't working now. My life has changed and I've changed. It's time to change the old behavior.

Weirdly, The Mike and I shared a moment while in my Ortho doctor's office - we looked at each other and I knew and he knew . . . we needed a change together - before the good Doctor talked about broken bones and smoking and weight and lifestyle changes. We already both knew but we finally, without really talking, agreed to each other that it was time for a change.

Fingers crossed for us. Where there's a will? There's a way, and now finally there's a will.

*Whatever Something means to you. I have several Somethings. Some things are God, and Some things are paradigm shifts and Some things are learning about other ways of doing things from observing. Not a sermon, just a thought.