Picture this: shortly after midnight on a rainy, double-bagging Sunday morning, when we "spring forward" to lose an hour of sleep, when I pull an all-nighter helping my oldest son, Christopher, bag newspapers at a distribution center, the said Christopher stops at a gas station near the center so seventeen year old Daniel can brave the elements to buy him Zebra Cakes.
After complaining that Daniel is taking too long, Christopher launched into a verbal tirade and rained down fire and brimstone upon all the gas stations of the world when he learned that particular establishment no longer sold Zebra Cakes. Did I mention Christopher is nearly thirty-one? Or maybe, we've just had so much bad bluck lately that even the loss of Zebra Cakes is hard to swallow.
For the first time since I started the blog on August 1, 2010, a series of woe-is-me unfortunate incidents over the past week (day, month, year) has kept me from my daily blogging habit. Actually, I was going to wait one more day to return, but the best darn thing happened to me today that I decided, heck with bedtime, this can't wait.
But first, a digression, no big surprise to anyone that's followed this blog for a spell.
Despite writing vampire novels, I keep my own bleeding private. The last couple of years has brought more crises than you'd believe if I told you, so I'll skip the gory details. Suffice to say, it's been back-breaking grueling, and if we, as a family, didn't have a wickedly sarcastic sense of humor, we'd all be darkly muttering into some corner by now.
However, everyone has that proverbial straw that collapses the donkey's back, and mine came at the start of 2013. Yes, I'm standing, on shaky legs, but standing, and because addressing that straw has led to a really cool side project (details are for later), I can't even bemoan the incident. And even THAT one was rapidly followed by several more horrible incidents until you feel like huddling ito a ball, too weary to fight back.
Thursday morning, I signed onto the computer to find out my AVG had captured thirty viruses needing Christopher's attention. That meant working off the laptop (plenty of new nibble marks from curious cat teeth now adorn my power cord, a discovery made when plugging into the cafeteria at the junior college while my youngest two were in math class) until Christopher eradicated them, except the computer retaliated by succombing to the blue screen of death.
So whilst performing Frankenstein feats on my tower, my laptop "caught" the computer illness at a very inconvenient time, so Christopher hastily prepared a traveling loaner (I worked all weekend away from home).
Monday, computers officially restored, I set to work restoring order to my chaotic office, got carried away, and initiated a long overdue spring cleaning. I mean, Sarah's moved twice since I'd given it a thorough dusting, so you can see my point here. Of course, I also lost Monday as a work day, so any headway I'd received over the weekend is long gone.
Oh, and did I mention I'd dropped the coffee pot last week, so, too broke to replace it, I've been trekking to the local gas station with a giant mug to purchase a day's supply of coffee? No? Well, that's where this story picks up, because today slew of small blessings absolutely trumps all the beatings.
Calling it an early night at eight o'clock, while sipping the last of the coffee and falling asleep at the keyboard, I hailed Daniel, and we started off for the gas station. As we walked, I showed him the humorous texts I'd swapped with Timothy, while he was languishing away in his evening gen ed classes.
Timothy: "I have something cool to tell you later."
Me: "Can't wait to hear."
Timothy: "It will definitely make you smile."
Me: "Share, damn it!"
Timothy: "Later."
Me: "Argghh!!!"
(A while later).
Me: "A plate for you is in the fridge. Rebekah made dinner. It was good."
Timothy: "What is it?"
Me: "You're mysterious, I'm mysterious."
Timothy: (Adds smiley face)
Me: (Adds mouth with zipper).
I tell Daniel, "I've always wanted to use that one."
We chat all the way to the gas station. He refills my mug and starts to pay for it when he says, "Wait! I forgot something."
As Daniel turns away, he notices my puzzled look. "Christopher gave me some money for Zebra Cakes."
I laughed out loud, doubled over, still laughing. I told both cashiers, and they started laughing, too. Daniel paid for six Zebra Cakes, and we left, with me laughing into the clear night air.
Daniel smiled and said, "When they kill him (Christopher refuses to address his high blood sugar) I'll lay a Zebra Cake on his grave."
I found that pretty funny, too.
Yes, life sucks sometimes. We often get a grim satisfaction when bad things happen to people just screaming for it, but when good people suffer crushing blow after crushing blow...well, it's all too easy to forget the origins of real joy in this life.
Hint: it's not in the big things, at least, not for me. It's in the little things, like being able to power walk today for the first time in three weeks (more medical stuff, grumble), fantasy pictures a friend texts in the middle of the night because I like them, interviewing people about their passions and writing about them, a family that--while not quite the model for apple pie America--knows how to pull together for survival's sake at least.
And, yes, as I said earlier, our ability to find humor in the craziest stuff.
Of course, I had to tell Christopher about Daniel's "laying a zebra cake on the grave" as he opened his paper sack of treats. He just grinned and said, "And I'd be back to claim it."
I, for one, wouldn't doubt it. And on that note, I'm signing off. Timothy just texted that he's on his way home. That surprise had better live up to its hype! :)
