Speaking of chance, I called a Waikiki dive shop to arrange a dive and ended up knowing the divemaster from nine years ago on my first dive.  He told me today he contracts with five different Waikiki shops so I guess it’s not that much of coincidence, but still…

Word travels fast, and I received a phone call from another friend of mine, Wil, from nine years ago.  I knew him pretty well, but haven’t spoken to him in all these years.  We’ve had a couple of brief phone conversations because his friend the divemaster never showed for our dive yesterday.  It was weird to hear his voice after all of this time and it set me to reflecting. 

Nine years ago, my life was a roller coaster.  I made my own fate; I was happy one minute and angst-filled the next.  I had a horrid temper, frequent migraines, and a penchant for being a wench.  I remember (while wincing) how I would snap at people I loved, be it family or a boyfriend or whatever.  I was so busy trying to control everyone that I didn’t have time to control myself.

Now?  Well, I’m not perfect by any stretch, but I am a lot better.  I think nine years ago was a turning point for me where I started to try to be a better person.  It culminated in meeting my husband seven years ago and promising myself I would change my relationship habits.  I don’t engage in a lot of the petty stuff I used to do.  I am so thankful that I started to change nine years ago as a result of my good friend from Hawaii.  If I had not followed his example and changed my demeanor, I would never have been ready to meet my husband and to be the kind of person with whom he’d want to spend the rest of his life. 

People walk in and out of our lives all of the time.  It’s worth taking a moment to see what you can learn from everyone.

Why am I so philosophical these days?  I don’t know.  I think it could be that the relaxation time has given my brain room to stretch itself in different ways.

Wow, two posts in one day!!

I am a big proponent of the theory that life truly is what you make it.  However, there is some chance to it, where prayers or runes or blind luck lead you to where you are.  For instance, I was born into a wonderfully loving family in the United States, not into the poverty and orphaned life of Sudan.  But, as usual, I digress. 

On our layover, my dad told me a story.  I wanted to document what he said so it wouldn’t be lost.

I knew that my parents married on their fourth date and my father stationed in Hawaii right after their second date.  I also knew that Vietnam had become a full-fledged military operation and that my dad was never sent there.  Here’s why, in the long-winded version:

He left for Hawaii after his second date with Mom.  They’d already determined that they would marry (!) in the next few months.  He left his own family as well, my paternal grandparents, to move to a place that was farther from home than he’d ever been.  I can’t imagine how awful it would feel to do that; how lucky he was to be stationed in Hawaii instead of elsewhere!

Dad reported to Fort Shafter after arriving in Hawaii.  He was to be a payroll clerk despite his MBA in finance.  Gotta love the military…

His boss immediately recognized that Dad could do way more than payroll, and he was reassigned to Scofield Base to audit non-appropriated funds, such as movie theaters and officer’s clubs.  My dad was the first non-civilian to do this job for his civilian boss.  As tours of duty in Vietnam were assigned, my dad’s boss knew that operations would come to a screeching halt without Dad and my dad was granted the opportunity to continue to work in Hawaii.  For Round Two of assignment of tours of duty for Vietnam, my dad only had 11 months left of his military service.  Tours were 13 months, so he could not complete a full tour, and once again was passed.  Twice he could have gone to come back scarred for life or worse.

As Vietnam embroiled our country in controversy, Dad said my mom was scared that he’d be called to serve at any moment.  Lucky for me, he escaped that tribulation.  What if he’d been called?  Would he have come back, forever changed from the man I know?  What if (shudder) he hadn’t come back at all?  How many people have parents whose whole personalities changed?  How many people were never born because of Vietnam?  I would not have been…

So I’m feeling pretty damn lucky right now.

Wow, I haven’t blogged in forever.  Now is a great time to restart!  That is, before my laptop dies…

Life has taken me to some interesting places lately.  Currently, I’m sitting … well I’ll get to that: 

First, I love my family.  I have taken many business trips with my sister where she worked all day while I lounged by the pool, ordered room service, had a massage.  Then we would find a fantastic restaurant, club, or both (!) and have a fabulous evening.  I love the mix of alone time an d time with someone that a regular vacation does not afford.  I have taken a couple of trips like this with my dad too.

I would be entirely remiss not to mention that I love to mooch.  Now, I’ll eat six free doughnuts in a conference room, but I don’t just mean free stuff.  I think it stems from my love of someone taking care of me.  From my mom with a wet washcloth during a bad fever- to my sister’s friends scaring the junior high girls being mean to me- to my dad taking me to a scary doctor’s appointment- to my brother giving the bird to my exboyfriend- my family takes care of me.  Sure, we take care of each other, but I’m the baby and we all like it that way.

All I pay is airfare and I’m on my way to a nearly-free vacation with someone whom I love and whose company I enjoy.  I arrange for restaurants, bottles of wine, and other things, but for the most part, someone is taking care of me and I love it.

So back to now: I’m traveling with Dad this time.  He is in first-class and was so excited that I was going that he purchased my ticket with his frequent-flier miles.  On our brief layover, he went to “check on the in-flight meals.”  He returned and with a very dadlike flourish dropped a first-class boarding pass in my lap.  So where are we?  Currently, I’m sitting about 30, 500 feet above Nebraska, moving at 536mph toward Honolulu.  Yeah, that’s right, I’ve managed to mooch not just the hotel like usual but first-class tickets to paradise.

Mom and Dad were married and moved to Hawaii as their first home.  I’m excited to see where they lived, where Dad bought her engagement ring, to see the misty eyes when he thinks of those times.  She preferred to stay home rather than fly and while I’m sorry she’ll miss it, this is a fantastic opportunity for me to spend some time with Dad and hear his stories.  Let the fun begin!

Today is
Where your book begins
The rest is still unwritten

I thought everything was going to be all better, but it wasn't.  Two more trips to the hospital and one surgery later, I'm going to be fine…really.

No, really!

Oh, and hail destroyed my car.  But life is still good and I'm smiling.

Last night we spent the evening with my brother and his wife playing games and chatting. I had so much fun just hanging out with them. They knew I was about to have a rough weekend, so there was a certain air of impending bad. But it didn’t overshadow our fun. I don’t have much opportunity to hang out with my sister-in-law so it was really nice.

Topic switch!

OK, this borders on TMI.

This morning, about 20 minutes ago, I took a cocktail of prescription medications that will make me sick all weekend but are supposed to make me “all better” in the end. Side effects include nausea, stomach pain, and severe headache. Hey, I can give myself a migraine without all these pills!

Anyway, I’m already feeling woozy and weird. Wish me luck.

OK, so if you read my blog at all, you’re wondering where the heck I’ve been. Well, this month has just about kicked my butt.

I’ve been really sick in the past few weeks, becoming worse as time passed. I had several doctors telling me seriously bad news, and now FINALLY it’s going to be better. My family has been really proud of how well I’m handling all this bad stuff, but frankly I’m not handling it as well as I’d like. A couple of times I’ve just collapsed in a crying heap.

But like I said, it’s better now. I’ve been amazed by the strength and kindness of my husband as we dealt with my illness, and I’ve been blessed by friends and family who are thinking of me and praying for me.

Let the movie reviews recommence!

As some of you may know, I’ve been out of circulation lately. First was the dog’s surgery. As she ameliorated post-op, she became more and more difficult to control; she didn’t want to be cooped into her cage all of the time. It was a full-time, hands-on ordeal as she became increasingly petulant.

Well, that all pales in comparison with my weekend. We received a call late Saturday that my brother-in-law was seriously injured and that his injuries were life threatening. From that moment until now, it’s been a whirlwind of totally sleepless nights and multiple 3-hour trips to the hospital.

The one positive in all of the mayhem was the overwhelming sense of family that arose. My parents drove to the interstate in the middle of the night to pick up Sunny and cared for her until today (remember, she’s being whiny and needy). My sister offered her prayers and asked multiple times to help; her husband offered to drive us the three hours to the hospital if we were too tired. My brother- not the person with whom I usually discuss spirituality- prayed for my brother-in-law, a guy he’s met only a handful of times. My husband’s family dropped everything to be with him; his father’s assistant pastor even made the long trip to the trauma center.

With a head full of staples and a piece of his skull detached, my brother-in-law is going to be OK. I helped him walk through the hospital corridors tonight and he was more talkative than I’ve ever heard him. If it weren’t for the stress of it all, I would dare say we had fun! I love him dearly and I haven’t been shy about telling him.

I am not big on petition style prayers. I pray thankful prayers and hopeful prayers, but don’t feel like I deserve to be heard when there are so many other people who need so much more. I broke down and petitioned God this weekend. It felt odd to open that kind of dialogue. But it didn’t feel wrong.

Lots of people live who deserve death, and many die who deserve life. I don’t know if God grants our wishful prayers or if what we pray just happens to coincide with chance, fate, or the master plan, or whatever, but I feel thankful to have my brother-in-law still in my life in this world.

So if you pray, pray thanksgiving that he’s going to be OK, and I’ll be praying that he has a positive outlook on this second chance. Thanks for listening, God.