The Weekend

I was planning on doing a post yesterday to show what we did this weekend.  Unfortunately, if you showed up yesterday, you noticed that I was no where to be found.  There is a good reason for that.

We were home sick.  Well, not me, but The Boy.  And, since I would never dream of leaving The Boy home alone sick, I got to stay home too.  That left me without the planned post for here though.

Today I am back!  The Boy is feeling much better.  Don't know what the deal was.  He complained of his stomach hurting for about 36 hours and ran a fever for about 12 of those.  Never threw up.  His temp did get up to 101, but it went away without me giving him anything for it.

Now the dog has it though.  Really?!  Yes, really.  Now I don't know that the dog has a temp, but I do know that he has been throwing up with diarrhea since yesterday about 5pm.  Lucky, huh?!

This weekend, in case you didn't know, was Wreaths Across America.  All across the country, wreaths are placed on graves of those buried in military cemeteries.  We did this last year at the closest military cemetery to us.  This is about an hour away from home, but since we heard about it, it has become something we plan to do each year.

We took The Boy last year and again this year.  We feel that it is something that he learn about and understand what it means.  I think he is getting it.  Of course, the worst part is the cold.  And I am certain that if given the opportunity to pass that up, he would.  I do hope that as time goes on that he will do it in spite of the weather though.

My Crazy Man (on the right) and Boyfriend rode their motorcycles.  They are members of the American Legion Riders and said that they were riders, not drivers.  Boyfriend's Wife, The Boy and I were drivers!  It was in the 20s with a hefty wind blowing.

On Sunday, the American Legion Riders placed big wreaths at the entrances of four of our local cemeteries.  Boyfriend saw a cameraman from the local news on Saturday and let him know what we would be doing on Sunday afternoon.  This cameraman told one of the reporters, and they came out to do a story.  It was nice to get a little bit of recognition.  Not for what we do/did, but so that maybe we could get more to join in with us.

I was wrapping some Christmas presents the other night.  If anyone has cats, they know that sometimes getting anything done with them around is a challenge. 

Sinatra was a good kitty.  He decided that it would be better if he stayed out of the way.  After all, I may be wrapping something for him!

Ziggy, on the other hand......

He thinks that he has to be in the middle of everything!  What a helper!

I am nearly done wrapping.  And am waiting on a couple of things to be delivered that I had ordered.  I also have to still figure out something for my grandpa.  Any clues what a 92 year old man would like/need?!

My Friend

I am missing a friend. This post is sad, so don't go any further if you aren't needing sad today.

Several years ago, I met my friend when she was a traveling nurse and came to the Labor and Delivery floor of the hospital I was working in. We hit it off almost immediately and became really close friends. We worked well together at work and away from it.

After working together for a while, she moved on to another state, many removed from me. However, we continued to stay in touch. We never got to meet up again in person though.

One day, I came home and found a message waiting for me on my machine. She asked me to call her when I got in. When I did, she told me that she had been diagnosed with lung cancer a couple of months before, but hadn't told me. She said that she had tried chemo and all that stuff, but it wasn't working. She said that she had told the docs to stop giving her the poison and she would live to be living, instead of living sick.

I, didn't like this at all, but she told me that she was good with it. She was going to spend time being with family and friends and when the end came, she would be able to say that she was ready.

At the end of September, I was told that they were going to celebrate Christmas in a couple of weeks since it would likely be her last one. She had a tree and all the trimmings. She wanted so much for me to bring The Boy to her so that we could have Thanksgiving together and so she could take him to a place that has all sorts of monkeys she said.

Just after she celebrated her final Christmas with family, I decided to send her some balloons so she would know how much she was missed and would be missed. I went to our local place that sends this type of thing and told them what I wanted. That person had to call a shop in the same town my friend was in, several states away.

I told them that I needed a balloon for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Easter, Fourth of July and Birthday. They lady on my end looked at me funny, but when I explained it through my tears, both her and the one on the phone started crying and digging through their stash of balloons. Do you realize how hard it is to find an Easter balloon the first of October?!

They found everything except the Valentine's Day balloon, but happened to have found, stashed in the back of their shop, a monkey holding a heart. How appropriate! I really think they gave me a great price, but it wouldn't have mattered about the cost.

That evening, I called my friend to make sure she got the delivery. She said that she was so glad that I had called her to tell her that The Boy and I made it home safely from visiting her earlier in the day. She said that she was glad that we had gotten to visit and she had been able to give us hugs and laugh with us like we used to do.

I told her that I loved her and she told me the same. Those were the last words we spoke to each other. She died a couple weeks later.

I am glad that we had that last conversation. I wish it could have been face to face though. We didn't get to see her during the last year of her life. We were several states away from each other and by the time I was able to go to her, she was too sick to want us around her.

My friend has been gone for several years, but have you ever seen the guy on tv that says he communicates with those who have died? I watch him sometimes and wonder if my friend would ever try to communicate through him or if she is already communicating if I will just stop and listen.

Maybe when I cover oreos in chocolate because I know that she liked them so much, it is her talking to me. Maybe when I think of making snow angels in the parking lot of the hospital when there was only about 2 inches of snow on the ground, it is her. It probably is her when I laugh about how the security guards stood laughing at us. Or when a certain song comes on that we used to love and sing loudly to even though neither of us could sing.

And I am almost certain that it was her that caused me to have such severe pain in my chest that I almost passed out at my desk at almost the exact minute that she died. (Of course, I didn't know until an hour later that was what the pain meant.)

I just miss my friend and I wish she was here so that I could tell her about my husband. And about how The Boy is learning how to drive. She would be so proud of it all. I miss her.