What A Crazy Week…

Well, it all started last Saturday when the computers would not connect to the internet and it just kept on keeping on from there…

After about an hour working on the phone with our internet provider, it was determined that the wireless router box had stopped working.  It was decided that we would purchase another wireless router to replace the old one.  A family member told us they probably had an extra router and if so, we could have it. Of course, it would not work with our system.  Mind you, this was the day of mom’s 80th birthday party.  Which she did attend after being told that there were folks waiting on her.  She was really surprised to see all the folks that had come together to help her celebrate.  All things concerned, her being sick, the router box and other minor set backs, the party was a huge success.  Mom said she did feel a little better afterwards.

Sunday was spent with my brother and his family, all but one daughter came up with him.  They all came over to our house to fix breakfast.  It was so great to spend time with all of them and the children were so well behaved.  A wonderful visit was had by all.  The rest of the day was spent resting from all the festivities of the weekend.  Oh, I forgot to mention that my computer also died.  Now this is the computer that has ALL the information that I have gathered for making plans for my high school class reunion.  You got it, computer dies before I could copy to a disc, but not before I put all the information in the Dropbox.  If you don’t have it, you need to get one, free.  Dropbox saved my sanity, to say the least.

Now, Monday has arrived and there is business to take care of.  So, mom and I get ready and have a plan for how to get done what is needed…

We are ready to go.  Head out to the car and you guessed it, the car would not start.  Yep, dead as a door nail.  Call was made to our mechanic to come fix the car and to my sister for a ride to take care of what we needed to do in town.  Sis comes to get us and we head to the bank.  Remember I mention that I am working on my class reunion, that was the reason for the trip to the bank, I needed to get an account in order to pay for the reunion.  I had no idea of what information they would need and wouldn't you know it, we did not have everything needed to open an account.  So that was a bust, so we headed back home.

So, when we got home I called and gathered the information needed for the bank and waited on the mechanic to fix the car.  And all I can think of is acceptance, tolerance, and patience.  That appeared to be what my Higher Power was teaching me.  Hard as those three principles are to practice, I had to continue to remind myself throughout the day and this entire week of these principles and to learn from all of them.  See, my week has not been easy to go from one day to the next.

When I was using, things not going my way was in the top of my list of reasons to use and therefore it was always justified.  Now that the ‘drug fog’ has lifted a little, I see that the only reason for my using was because I wanted to.  At first, it started as a way to stop hurting physically.  You see, I had been in a car wreck several years prior to my using and had damage to my body that required the need for very strong pain medication.  Well, the rest is history, as they say and I am moving forward today.

The mechanic had the car fixed by 11:30 that night on Monday that is.  So, Tuesday, we headed out once more to do what we needed to do.  Went by to pay the mechanic, to the bank to open my account and then on to Walmart to purchase a wireless router.  Things were moving along smooth and easy.  Then, once again, I had to call on my Higher Power to help me to have acceptance, tolerance and patience as I was checking out at Walmart.  I always, always try to check out in the ‘self checkout’.  I have nothing against the cashiers, I just prefer the ‘self checkouts’. I just want to say, ‘Walmart, if you want folks to checkout in a certain way in the ‘self checkout’, tell us.  In the course of checking out, a cashier was there to help me before the checkout continued to say ‘Please wait on an attendant.’  It seems for some reason that checkout would not continue if you pickup and move a full bag out of the way to start another bag.  You ‘must’ slide it.  And then when I started to pay, I had to pay with two types of payment.  Again, who knew that there is a specific ‘order’ to pay depending on what type of payment you are using.  I made it through this but only by saying to myself ‘she is just doing her job, but God please let her help someone else cause I don’t know how much longer I can bite my tongue to not say something rude to this women.

As we were leaving the store, mom wanted to know what all that woman was saying to me and I told her that who knew I had been checking out completely incorrectly almost each time I have used the self checkouts at Walmart.  I stated to mom that I am trying to figure out why if their self checkout is suppose to be done a certain way, where are the signs with instructions??  The attendant stood right beside me the whole time I was checking my items.  She continued to tell me, you were suppose to check that out and pay for it before you check your other items.  These machines are very picky to what method of payment you used and the order in which you use your method of payment if you use different methods.  What??? 
For some reason, my checkout machine had no problem with the order of payment that I used.  See, I told you that if something could go wrong it seemed as if it did go wrong.  We left there and went to IHOP to eat.  Unfortunately, it took a while for us to get our food after we ordered.  There were only two servers and one cook, that was the reason for the long wait.  The floor manager was helping the cook get orders out.  Meal was great and after the sever explained to mom the delay, everything else was okay.  The manger even stated he was sorry for it taking a little longer but they had a short staff that evening.

As the week has progressed, things did get better.  Mom and dad were leaving to go visit my brother and his family over the weekend.  They left out on Thursday and my sister called later that day and invited me out to eat with her.  When we got to the restaurant she had a ‘two for one’ coupon, we could not use.  See, here we go again.  When they scanned the coupon it said ‘used’ meaning that coupon had been use and we could not use it again.  So my sister had to pay for both meals.  The food was great and I had enough left over to eat lunch and supper the next day.  Really liked their food and would like to go back one day.  I know mom would love it.

My days were moving along.  Mom and dad were gone, I was home alone and had the key to the truck if I needed to go somewhere.  Thing is I have two bad knees and the truck is straight drive, no way I can drive that.  Had plans for a friend to pick me up to go to my meeting Friday night.  All ready to go, waiting on my ride when the phone rang.  My ride calling to say there was no way she could make it as her mom had fallen and other things she needed to stay home.  I totally understood and told her thanks for calling.  I immediately called another lady who was just about to turn into the meeting and said she would just keep coming and get me.  Great meeting!

Afterwards as we do on many Friday nights after the meeting several of us headed to Shelby to eat.  You guessed, IHOP here we come.  This experience was okay until we got our food.  One of the lady’s food was under cooked and the manager (the same guy that was there Tuesday night) told our sever that he had other things that were more important that needed his attention and that person with under cooked steak would just have to wait.  I could not believe that he said that, much less loud enough for us to hear him.  And once again, acceptance, tolerance, patience, powerlessness, remember your spiritual principles and live life using them.  When he did make it over, he was, in my opinion very condescending in his tone and things he would said.  He came around the entire table asking how everyone’s meal was, needless to say I did not speak.  Knowing that he ‘really’ did not want to hear my opinion so I continued to eat.  Toward the end of our meal, there were two or three more groups that came in.  One being a motorcycle group that had a very ‘rough’ look about them.

To make this long story short, some person in the ‘biker’ group was rude and cussed the sever, the same sever we had.  I was outside smoking and she came out crying.  I tried to lend her a shoulder to cry on because I have had a job as a sever myself, not easy at all.  She was laughing and smiling when I left so I hope I helped in some small way.

I know that I have not always been the best person, nor have I treated everyone that I had met the way I should have.  This is one of the things that recovery has taught me.  That is that no one, no one, is better than anyone else.  It doesn't mean treat the folks that I want to the same, I and everyone should treat everyone else as they want to be treated.  You know ‘The Golden Rule’???  This is something that I had learned when I was younger but lost in my active addiction.  It doesn't matter if someone is like Hugh Hefner or if they are the bag lady that lives under a bridge, we all should treat each other as ‘human beings’ not like poop on the bottom of your shoe.

Ending this week with a cold rainy weekend and yep, the pilot light of the gas furnace went out and I had no heat Saturday night and part of Sunday.  I read and figured out how to relight the pilot light, so I will not get cold tonight.  I will continue to keep myself on the straight and narrow as best I can.  I will continue to ask God to show me His will and the power to carry it out.  There are a lot of folks that would not be able to keep a cheerful outlook on life if they had to face just one or two of the things I did and they would not be able to go forward with a good outlook on life.  Most folks, not saying that I am perfect for I am no where close, would lash out, try to make others hurt as much or more than they were hurting.  They would give up, go back to using thinking that was the answer.

Again, I so appreciate those of you that support me in this part of my life.  I am only trying to help that next addict, person who is having or has had a bad day, bad week.  That person that someone treats as if they were poop on the bottom of their shoe.  My answer to it all, pray.  Yes, you read that correctly, pray.  With and through prayer, your life can be so much more than you could ask for.  Some of y’all already know that, but there are others like me that it seems hard to stay in the ‘good’ mood all the time.  I am not always in a ‘good’ mood, but I know today that the only one responsible for my mood is me.  And just because I am not in a good mood, that does not give me the right to make others feel bad and take them out of their good mood.

Thanks again for the support and happy reading…