The (Not-So) Ordinary Life and Times...

Learning

There are things in your life that you never imagine you will have to do. One of those things happened to me on Thursday.

My good friend (and former roommate) called me and I missed the call because I was at work. I saw that my phone said she had called, thinking I could return the call later. Fifteen minutes later a text message from her said "please call. emergency." I knew something was up. I called and she is crying and in hysterics. Crying uncontrollably. She says she needs help. Her brother had committed suicide the previous evening. She needed to go to her sister's (our other roommate) workplace and tell her the news, but didn't want to and couldn't go alone. She requested that I come pick her up.

Whoa.

I dont' know what I'm going to do. Of course I leave work right away to go pick her up. The entire car ride there I'm crying and don't know what to do. How can I possibly deliver this bad news to someone? I'm very upset and nervous, but just pray that I can be strong for these two friends and sisters.

When I arrived, all I could do was hold my friend and cry with her. A few minutes later, her sister called and said that she had called their mother and already knew. We went to her workplace to pick her up.

After they were together, they both quickly packed a bag and after a quick prayer together, headed to their hometown, about two hours away.

I felt so helpless, like there was nothing I could do or say to comfort them.

I've never had to deal with suicide so closely before. I had met their brother before and he often came to visit his sisters and stayed at our apartment. He was a talented young man, a fabulous trumpet player and a very compassionate person.

Dan and I are going to his funeral today.

Ben was 18. He graduated from high school in May. He will be remembered and missed by all.

Breathing

So lately I've been running around my life like a crazy person. Work has been busy, decorating the house has been time-consuming, taking care of my husband and dog is an ever-daunting task and for some reason, even though it REALLY bothers me, there are mornings where I just. Can't. Get. Out. The. Door. Time to take a breather.

With two major weeks of work done, and no business travel this week, I can maybe focus on the fact that I have family coming the next three weekends. Even though I know they don't care if my house is spotless, it will be the first time that Dan's family (mom and sisters and then dad and stepmom) has seen our home since we got married. It's important to me that everything look nice. But do I really need to be combining my reading time with my bike time at the gym?!

Bottom line: I need to remember that there are only 24 hours in a day, and that tomorrow there will be 24 more. I should try to enjoy them as much as I can, because life slips away from us. I've been married for two months already!! And I know that this first year will pass so quickly. I don't need to be on my laptop at home WHILE the TV is on. I don't need to have 87 tabs of Firefox open to soak up information faster, because in reality I can only look at one page at a time.

Some exciting things will happen soon; Dan is getting ready to apply to some big PT schools. I originally thought he wanted to stay in the Midwest, but he's told me he's applying to Utah, Nevada at Las Vegas, and Colorado at Denver too. I think it might be kind of fun to go out on our own!!

Life lesson for the day: Take a breather. Your computer will still be there tomorrow. Barring a lightning storm or sometning like that, but even then. You know.

Events and travel

Being in PR means that sometimes you get to do fun things like events! And also travel for some of these events! Last week I was in Madison, Wisconsin (how completely ADORABLE is this city!?) for a client event at the University of Wisconsin. The campus is absolutely precious, right on the lake, and beautiful. I checked and they have a physical therapy program so maybe Dan will look into going there!

This week was huge for my firm, we had three grand opening events for a new restaurant client AND I traveled to Minneapolis, Minnesota for another client event at the University of Minnesota. All this stuff makes for one tired girlie! I have one more event to monitor tomorrow...not much involvement on my part other than wrangling people into where they need to go at the right time. Still, it's right in the middle of the day.

I think Dan is tired too, he's officially completed his second week of work and he's exhausted. I need to get the house in working order this weekend because we're having company the next three weekends!!

Sadly, it might be a pizza and/or takeout weekend...no time for cooking!

I have an addiction...

...and its name is Barnes & Noble. And Half Price Books. Or [enter a bookstore's name here]. Some women are shoe people. And when it comes to apparel and accessories, I'm definitely a handbag person. But my worst money offense is buying books. And lately, it's been cookbooks.

I don't know what it is about a new cookbook that gets me really excited! I'm obsessed with the bargain section at B&N that houses JUST cookbooks. I can't stay away from it!! I've dipped so low as to copy a recipe out of one said cookbooks just so I wouldn't buy it. I. Love. Cookbooks. Maybe I should write a book about loving cookbooks and then recommend some good ones. Hm.

I've gotten much better about not buying so many other books; I love fiction, non-fiction, memoir, biography, etc.But thanks to my new best friend PaperbackSwap, I can easily get books I want for free!! You sign up for free, post some books you're willing to get rid of, and every book you send to someone gives you one credit. You only have to pay for shipping the book (media mail through USPS) to the person who requests it. So it's averaging to about $2.38 per book, depending on weight. But when you request a book from someone else, it only costs you one of your credits! I love this service and have been swapping books for a few months now.

My husband appreciates that I can feed my book obsession without blowing lots and lots of money. I also spend quite a bit of time at our library, and lucky us we live a 4 minute walk away! It's smaller, so sometimes I have to do an inter-library loan to get a book or CD that I want, but all in all it's great. AND the library has some great...you guessed it..COOKBOOKS!

Ok. My one free night this week will probably consist of an easy recipe I know by heart, but that's ok. My other books are wanting some attention. And Glee starts tonight!

I can't blog about what I really want to blog about

I think it's weird that even though this is my personal online space, I can't always blog about the things that I really want to. Like if I want to gripe about work or spout off about something that pissed me off, people can read it and that may not always be good.

I realize that I could make a post "private" but then I feel like I'm cheating. Even though I have no readers. Like I said. It's weird.

Dan got a job! He's working as a Physical Therapy Aide at a PT clinic in Johnston. Basically when he's not at school he'll be working there. It will be nice to have just a little extra cash from his job to help with expenses. And it's in the field he wants to work in. And I think it will look great on his resume and applications for PT school. And he's a pretty cool guy so who wouldn't want to work with him? He was excited because he learned how to do an ultrasound today. You know, science-y stuff I don't really know or care about but he tells me about anyway ;) That's ok, I tell him about the great cookbooks and other reading material I find so I'm sure we're par for the course.

I'm reading Water For Elephants right now. I never thought I'd choose a book about a circus train during the depression but it really is interesting. I've flown through the first half and so far I'd recommend it.

Is it weird I'm already thinking about what I want to do for Christmas cards? We made postcards for our wedding announcements and they turned out great, so I'm thinking we might want to do that again. We can put our own photos on it and stuff so it's kind of fun.

Long day today. PR job 8-5 and retail job 6-10. Yay bills.