Just Sit With It

In honor of the holiday weekend, I am celebrating how the universe works.  It gives and it takes away. It breaks your heart and fills it up. It makes you laugh and it makes you cry.

I have had what you might call a series of unfortunate events over the past couple of months. Nothing awful, but the sum total begins to feel burdensome. Then as the friction builds, you find yourself reacting to smaller annoyances and upsets. Things that you might otherwise brush off or even ignore. Let us call it “Can’t I Catch a Break” syndrome.

While not the actual starting point, on May 13th the next door neighbor’s dog mauled my darling Winchester. The dogs were barking at the shared fence and Winchester’s leg went through the chain link. The next door neighbor dog grabbed on and would not let go.  I though they were just barking at 5:45 a.m. so I went out to stop the chaos to see poor Win hanging against the fence.  In sandals and sleepwear, I managed to kick the fence, get Win’s leg released and race to the vet.  To say it was traumatic for all concerned is a bit of an understatement.

That same morning at 8 a.m. I met the new renter at the condo.  That seemed to go well. At some point it turned as she began contacting me at all hours of the day and night about her concerns. I offered to take care of them, but she refused, then apologized for her behavior, then went back to blowing up my phone.  After many threats and lease breaking conversations, that calmed down in early June.

Then one of the air conditioning units went out. It was expected but not something I was hoping for as I knew it had been expensive when the first one died three years ago. My guys were out by the afternoon and the bad news was, not fixable. While I did the “it’s only money” conversation in my head, I then found out that unlike three years ago when it took two days to get the new unit here, now with the supply chain it would be eight days. It was a Thursday when I found out and we were going into a 114 degree weekend.

It was okay, I told myself. We are lucky enough to have two units and we can live on the north side of the house in guest suite. It is a long time since I have slept in a California King with my husband and two dogs none of whom could figure out why we were in the guest suite. We made it and I thought,” Okay, phew.”

Until the utility bill for that time period arrived and it was a pretty good hit, but again I ran the “it’s only money” scenario.  I had my visit with the Osteopathic doctor for my adjustment and felt that would relieve all the stress, but no, the person who had given me the appointment six weeks earlier had given it to me for a day the doctor is not in the office. That for some reason pushed me over the edge.

Next, I needed an antibiotic. We had gone around and around about which pharmacy to use so I thought it wise to call to be sure it was CVS. I checked as I drove down to pick up Winchester from his last hyperbaric chamber treatment (20 total) and they said CVS was the place.  I dropped Win off and raced over to be informed that they had no prescription for me. I again called the doctor’s office and was told they had sent it to Walgreens. We got that right and I headed home. Thirty minutes later came the text that I had an order in but they were contacting my doctor for a different prescription. Three phone calls and twenty minutes later I was finally speaking to a pharmacist who said that they were calling because my insurance did not cover the ordered medicine.  I said, “Just fill it. I don’t care. I have a coupon from Good Rx.”

“We can apply our Good Rx coupon. That will be $148.”

I knew that my coupon was better, but said, “Fill it.”

Flash forward twenty minutes, I drove over to pick it up. 

“Just try my coupon,” I said

“I can try, but I have used the coupon.” A quick pause as it was inputted, “That will be $48.”

Woohoo, I was up $100. That was good.  As I went to pay, I was asked my birthdate which I said quietly to the pharmacist. The man waiting in line screamed my birth year out loud. Twice. That was followed by “You look fabulous!! Oh my God, I can’t believe it.”

I smiled and walked out.  Evidently the universe felt that after everything, giving me $100 and telling me I looked amazing was enough. 

I have to agree.

And then a week later it gave me two of the chairs in the photo for $25!