Here’s to good health & independence

Sometime in my 30s I got pneumonia. It started, probably, with a cold that just wouldn’t go away. Nor would I give it a chance to go away because I had to keep going and going. Just like that energizer bunny. I had a small child, a job, a house, and a myriad of tasks to do. Oh, and I also taught a Sunday School class and may have been serving on a church board. That part is lost in the recesses of my aging brain. All I knew, there was no time to be sick.

But I got sick. By the time I went to the doctor, it was bad enough that he threatened to hospitalize me. Now, that would never work. I was a wife, a mother, an employee, a volunteer. Life was too busy for a hospital room to be thrown into the mix.

“Then you must go home, get in bed, and stay there all week. Get up only to use the bathroom,” was his reply to my wail of anguish, “and if you are not better in a couple of days, you will go to the hospital. Pneumonia can kill you.”

Oh.

I guess dying would not be a good thing.

I went home, went to bed, and stayed there. And got well.

Life continued. The child was fed and bathed. The house did not fall down. Someone filled in for me at work. But, the Sunday School class? No one took care of that. I don’t remember what the boys who I taught did during the time period I was away. No one from church called to say they missed me. I felt a bit betrayed by the people who should be caring about what happened to me.

That incident taught me that I should never count on people to take care of important matters. That it was important for me to stay healthy and keep doing the tasks that did matter to me. Unable to count on others makes one very independent. And well.

Who? Me?

In the last two days I have had three people tell me that they see me as this  woman with a busy agenda. Really? For those of you who have been with me since my teaching days, you know what busy looked like. Those days were insanely busy, with n’er a moment to breath. That was one reason I knew I had to get out of education, I couldn’t keep living like that, and keep living.

In my classroom

I was like a cartoon character who just kept going and going. Now, I have time to do things, like relax.

Less tense

I can choose my tasks, like the history project for our church. I can take off, at a moment’s notice, and take care of my grandchildren. I have lunch with my girlfriends. Terry and I can get away for our anniversary. Yesterday I spent three hours on the phone with my sister. Wore out three phones! Life is just not so zany, to me, anyway. Maybe others see me still busy. And, perhaps still zany.

Playing with my granddaughter

I just need more time (and money)

I am running as fast as I can without falling down.  The days are flying by. (I bet you are all saying this and thinking, “does this woman think she’s the only one who has more to do than time allows?”)    I know that many of you are up to your eyebrows (waxed or not) in work and wondering when you will get time to sit and think.

As I was running from office to classroom this morning, I hollered into our secretary’s office, “can you get me another hour?”

“Sure, when I go get another brain,” was her reply which I hardly heard because I was already around the corner.

My marketing students are good, but operating on their own agenda.  My word processing students are probably the best I have ever had.  The multimedia kids are beginning to realize that I move fast and we already have three assignments due by tomorrow.  ”But school just started.”

Then there are the yearbook students.  This class is breaking my heart.  We have sold a mere 52 books and four ads.  There is little hustle and bustle in the students except to tell me how big they want the book and they want a full color book.  We still owe money for last year’s book so this year will probably be smaller if we don’t get some money in the account pretty soon.  Twenty seven hundred students, and we sell 200 yearbooks.  What is up with that?

So, time and money…anyone know where I can get some more?