Counting Blessings

I know in my heart of hearts that I am so very, very lucky.  There are people in this world who are sick, hungry, lonely, poor and enslaved.  I know this; it is so easy to point out.  But when seemingly miniscule bad things pile up in my world, it can be hard to remember how good I have it.

Thank goodness that I don't have a *serious* tale of woe to write about, but suffice to say that 2013 has started out kinda rough, and since it's MY blog, I choose to vent about the "First World," "White People," or whatever problems that plagued me in the past few weeks.  Writing has always been therapeutic for me, so I'm hoping that getting my thoughts all down will allow my weary brain to process it better...

The same night that I wrote my last blog, I got off work and went to meet Steve in Palo Alto to have dinner, which I did in fact YELP about, thankyouverymuch.  When I went to bed that night, I noticed that my left eye was sore, but didn't think anything of it.  The next morning, I woke up with a bright red, scratchy, SO sore eye.  It hurt to even look certain ways.  I shrugged it off a bit, because I've had something like it before, and it went away with eyedrops and compresses.  Fast forward two weeks later, after two eye doctor appointments, a round of antibiotic eye goop, and added blurry vision to my symptoms listed above, and I was MISERABLE.  I honestly thought I had forgotten what it was like to have two normal eyes that didn't hurt when I blinked or looked down quick.  Finally, the third week, I, on a whim (kinda, my mom had suggested it earlier), took a Clariton for any allergies.  Miraculously, my eye felt a tiny bit better.  This prompted a visit to my internal medicine doctor, who gave me some prescription eye allergy drops, which finally, after a few days, cleared up my infection.  My blurry vision JUST went away almost completely this week.  I promised myself to never take my eye health for granted again.

To set the stage for problem two, which happened one week after I first got my eye infection, I have to back up and if possible, make you feel LESS sympathetic for me than you probably already do.  Steven and I bought our first new car in December.  It's a black, 2012 Passat and it's really, really nice.  I was devastated to sell my beloved Mustang, but the Passat is an excellent consolation prize.  I feel so fortunate that we are in a place where we could make that purchase.  We trust it to be a nice, family car for years to come.  I was so determined to keep it nice and clean, that I had even been parking it in a covered space to keep it out of the sun-- which was a bit further from work than where I usually park.  Almost two months to the day that we bought the Passat, I walked out from my eye appointment and found that someone had scratched and dented the front drivers side.  I concluded that it must have happened while I was at work, and I didn't notice it when I first drove to my appointment.  But oh, I noticed it then.  I was LIVID.  I could not believe that someone could be so thoughtless, reckless and awful.  My new car-- never, ever to be new again.  We got the dent fixed and patched up the paint as best we could-- and it looks fine to the unknowing eye.  But I KNOW, and to be honest, it still makes me a bit sick to think about it.  REALLY, Emeryville, you couldn't have let me have a nice, new car for more than two months??

Problem three involves the company that I work for, but I'm happy to say that it's not my job directly.  I got my W2 in the mail last month and handed it to Steve, who usually takes care of our taxes via Turbo Tax.  Upon looking at it, he noticed that there was an issue.  I won't go into the details here, but suffice to say that it was a BIG issue, and a mistake that should have been fixed long before we noticed it.  This has prompted us to get a professional to do our taxes this year, and for me to pray that I don't incur any INSANE charges on any account.

In other bad news during this lame span of events, the Oregon Ducks basketball team lost to Stanford in their worst game of the year-- Steve and I had bought tickets to the game and went to watch.  I wanted to blame it on bringing my bad luck, but my grounded and logical husband would have NONE of that.  :)  Also, the 49ers lost the Superbowl, but that ranks pretty low compared to the rest!

Although we can never tell what is around the next bend, I am really trying to remind myself to live in the now.  To count my blessings because the are so many.  To trust God to take my worry, show me the path, peace, and show me how I can maneuver through these next challenges that have been thrown my way.  To have patience with the questions and answers.  No doubt I will encounter things much more severe then a dent in metal.  I mean to be strong throughout.

Here's to life-- the good and the bad, the happy and the sad.  May we remember to be so very thankful for all the blessings we've been given.

Quick Resolution Update:
1. Obv, I haven't blogged in a while, I've been....unmotivated.  But I can make time, just like I did tonight.
2. I did a lot of resting during the time that my eye felt bad, and I fell off the wagon this Tuesday again, because it was raining outside and I didn't have my gym clothes.  But-- I did walk today and plan to do so tomorrow too.
3. My eye kept me down for a while, but I've been to bootcamp twice this week, and plan to do something active this weekend.
4. Meh-- I haven't done really well with this one.  When I feel bad, or wronged, I tend to reward myself with junk food a bit.  And I bought four boxes of Girl Scout cookies...which does not help.
5. I have ROCKED the flossing teeth resolution.  We'll see how well it pays off when I have my dentist visit in March.
6. The last Yelp review I wrote was before my eye infection, but I have two more on the docket, including our wonderful Valentines Day spot!
7. Back-blog has been back-burnered, but I'll try SO hard to work on it this weekend.

Love, Love and More Love,

Lindsay