Me And JD

I wouldn't go as far as saying I'm a huge Scrubs fan, but I have watched it on and off since it premiered 7 or 8 years ago. One problem I've had like others is that it gets moved around the schedule a bunch and I also tend to be the type that stops watching a show the second the story lines don't go the way I want them to. Still I consider it one of my favorites. This season it made the jump to ABC and the show got more of it's heart back. The plots are better, there are less fantasy sequences, and there's some real emotion being mixed in with the floating heads and visits from the Sesame Street muppets.

I may have brought this up before (and really after 305 posts, what haven't I talked about), but during the first few months Fred was born I borrowed seasons 1 & 2 from a friend. Shortly after Fred was born Lucy broke her toe so I took on night duty. For weeks Fred and I would wake up at 2:00 for some milk and a couple episodes of our favorite sitcom. Most of the time I found myself staying up later than he did.

I've been thinking a lot about those days lately and how nice it would be do it all over again one more time. Fred's officially sleeping in his own bed the whole night through now. He's learned to go potty without us even being in the bathroom. Maybe it's time to see what happens next.....

New Year's Revolution

We each have our superstitions; those things we do a certain way every time in order to avoid some cosmic disaster falling upon us. If you step over somebody, you must step back over them in reverse or face a curse. Honking when going under an overpass to scare of the devil. Holding your breath as you pass a cemetery so the ghosts don't get inside you and take over your body. Sitting down together on New Year's day for hogs jowl, turnip greens (or green beans in my case), and black-eyed peas. Each symbolising something, just don't ask me what.

This year we were interrupted just as we were about to sit down by a call to help a friend who was being sent to the ER. The dinner never happened.....since then Pops had a heart-attack(he is now doing fine of course), we were left without a kitchen until we could find somebody to help install our new dishwasher (which Pops says saved his life), the new dishwasher caused our pipes to break (again leaving us without a kitchen), Fred got a stomach virus (which meant we couldn't visit Pops in the hospital), Lucy got a stomach virus, our dryer has broken, the repair people lost our service claim and never showed up, I went from two freelance jobs to one freelance job to no freelance job.....again all minor problems when considering the great issues we face as country (except for Pop's health problems), but frustrating just the same. We think we have found a way to fix things though.....we are taking doing a do-over. A mulligan. Using our free spin. Cashing in our get out of jail free card. Rewinding and Re-living New Years. In the words of Scott Bakula "we are putting right what once went wrong". We are going back to January 1, 2009.

This February 1st, 2009 as the rest of the world gathers around to watch the Super Bowl, my family will be supporting the Steelers while eating our hogs jowl, our turnip greens and green beans, our black-eye peas, and attempting to turn back time in hopes of taking a second crack at starting the year off on the right foot.

What Goes Around Just Came Around

In my last post I mentioned Fred was sent home with a stomach virus and how we were praying we wouldn't catch it...well we didn't, but Lucy did and boy did she ever. It's now late Tuesday and although the waves of nausea stopped late last night, she is still feeling the effects of one of the worst stomach viruses we've seen in ages. It looks like we aren't the only ones that have felt it's wrath either, our friends Jules-N-Jud also went around with it. Trust me if you see this thing coming run the other way! Oh and speaking of name dropping do yourself a favor and check out my new pal Clayton's blog at Walking The Dog. Dude is writing the kind of stuff I wish I could find time for.

Yes...I'd Like To Schedule Puke For This Saturday

Kind of an odd title I know, but that exact phrase went through my head today as I was picking up Fred early from school. It seems that just about the time Pops got the news that he could go home after his successful heart surgery, Fred started a session of up-chucking that can only mean he's caught the stomach virus that is going around. When you are new at a job, and your the boss, and you only have 5 vacation days compared to the 15 you had at your old job, and you just received 10 days off in which nobody got sick....the last thing you want is to have to burn a day puking your guts out. So what you do is immediately attempt some type of negotiation with the powers that be.

"Dear Lord, please if I must get sick give me the strength to make it to Friday afternoon before the virus hits me. I mean I'm just asking for one day and I promise I will gladly claim my spot next to the toilet bowl."

I'll let you know Monday if he accepted my offer.

Heart, Soul, And Thoughts Of The Unknown

This past weekend Lucy's dad Aka Pops suffered a major heart attack while attempting to help me install our new dishwasher. Lucy and I have both mentioned this on our Facebook pages and before I go any further I want to thank the countless friends who have gone far far out of their way with everything from offers to watch Fred, tons of prayers, and helping us get our kitchen back to something we can function in. Thankfully Pops will be fine with some help and after a quick surgery planned for Wednesday morning, he should be getting close to coming home. That doesn't mean things will return to normal though.

Other than the obvious changes in Pop's lifestyle which will include kicking that cigarette habit and working some exercise into his routine, things may never be the same for any of us who were around him that day. First off there's the guilt. Guilt over fixing him that big breakfast loaded with his favorite country ham. Guilt over asking for his help to install the dishwasher. Guilt for the years spent depending on him to always be there. Obviously this is all silly and in the end does nobody any good, but still the "What If's" have suddenly crept upon us all.

Just that morning we found ourselves under the kitchen sink covered in grime. Men in our natural habitat. I mentioned we were talking about having another baby and asked if he had heard. As it turns out he had and wondered what my thoughts were on the subject.....somehow we got distracted before I could answer, but I now believe that if I'd gotten back to the topic my answer would have been vastly different from my thoughts on the subject later that night. Something about being in that hospital, wondering it's long halls looking for a tucked away coke machine, the uncomfortable chairs, and the smell of sanitizer reminded me of all the great things that took place the last time I spent hours there.

We are all looking at ourselves differently in the mirror. Not to dare say we are overweight, no it's more a look of fear. Fear for what may be going on inside us that we aren't aware of. Every little pop and pain that we have convinced ourselves is nothing more than part of the aging process, is now something we are considering having looked at. Personally I wonder how my heart is holding up under 250lbs of bacon, pork chops, and double quarter pounders with cheese. My ankle has been killing me for months and I swear the second Pops is back home and safe, I'm going to have it looked at. During those hours waiting to get the latest news on how he was progressing, I took a sleep apnea test that was on the back of a well placed brochure...turns out I have all 5 symptoms.

We are severely lacking in the emergency prep department. Lucy took off with Pops in the car leaving her cell phone behind. I struggled to remember what hospital they were going to. Gigi didn't have a clue what Nani's number was so Maynard (Lucy's boss and Fred's new uncle) was asked to watch Fred while Gigi tried to find what happened to her family which had not called in almost an hour.

Over the past couple of days a million thoughts have ran through every one's mind. What if he had not shown up to help us that day? What if he had been by himself? What will we ever do without him. What happens next? I wish I could say I knew, but the only answer I know for sure is the one that follows the question of : Will I ever take life for granted again? No....among my prayers every night is the small request that I never forget how quickly things can change.