Good news/Bad news in 2023

We’ll start with the good:

Alex turned 7 last week. SEVEN. How? Time flies. This is his last week of school and we have no summer plans. No one took us up on babysitting, which seems bizarre. NO college kid wants to babysit a few days a week? Weird.

Craig booked an impulse/impromptu trip to Hershey at the end of the month. Spent an assload of money on it (impulse spender) but whatever. It was his idea and he can take credit for it.

Ryan is making big strides potty training. He’s been quite stubborn this whole time, throwing tantrums and meltdowns when he even walks into the bathroom, let alone sitting on the toilet. But something “clicked” at school and he’s been doing great there. Yesterday was our first accident-free day at home AND he took an enormous shit on the toilet. Wonderful day!

In an effort to reclaim some time to myself, I’ve stopped wearing my Apple Watch on the weekend. Which I know sounds minimal, but I truly feel less accessible to the outside world when it’s not on. I’m not constantly checking messages or my email. And I leave my phone on Do Not Disturb for the most part (during the weekend). It’s helping me recharge and digitally detox a bit.

Work has been good. My case load dropped, I lost a few patients. One I’d had on service for 15 months. I’ll miss him, he was always such a cranky goat. I went to his wake Friday and he looked awful. Like I don’t know what they do in the embalming process or....making the person look presentable process… but Jesus. Yes, he’d lost a lot of weight and his cheeks were sunken in. But they must’ve put fillers or a spacer in or something because is face was all plumped up and it looked nothing like him. It was horrid. That’s why I don’t like going to wakes. The person rarely looks how they did in real life.

While I’m thinking about fillers, I have seen so many BAD lip fillers lately. Like they look ridiculous. Like a plumped up rectum on someone’s face. I shouldn’t judge, you can do what you want with your body. I just don’t think the over-filled lip is a cute look.

Ok, let’s get to the bad, I guess:

I totaled my car last week. I was driving home from a meeting at the office (which could’ve been an online meeting but we opted for in person this month. Hmph). I was driving behind a pickup truck on the highway, going 65mph. Apparently the car in front of the pickup slammed on his brakes bc the car in front of them swerved for no reason. Anyway, the pickup hit the brakes, I didn’t react quickly enough and boom. Airbag went off and everything. Luckily, I pretty much nailed the hitch on the back of the truck. There was a little bit of paint transfer on the pickup’s bumper, but no damage. Thank god.

My car though.... Eek. Over $12,000 worth of damage to a 7 year old car so they totaled it.

Injury-wise, I came out (mercifully) okay. Some bruising on my hips from the seatbelt and a minor bloody nose from the airbag (which smells like ass when it deploys). My teeth hurt and my legs have been sore but that’s the worst of it. The officers that came to the scene were very nice and helpful. It was overall a smooth process to get the car towed and everything taken care of.

Craig was an absolute disaster. He cannot handle things like this. He had to come pick me up at a gas station down the road (which the police officer was kind enough to drop me off at). It’s like 5 miles from our house. Ok, so put the kids in the car and come. Like not a big deal, right?

Well he pulls into the gas station and I get in the truck (still in shock), and he starts going a mile a minute about calling the insurance and renting a car and our insurance rates are gonna go up and how am I gonna get to work tomorrow and on and on and on. Did I know the police report number? Do I know where the car was towed? Is that WHERE the car was towed or was it towed to another yard? Why didn’t I ask?

So finally I said, “First of all, I’m fine, thanks for asking. Secondly, let’s do one thing at a time. We need to get the car seats from my car so we’ll go to the yard the car was towed.” Conveniently, the yard was in our town, so that was easy. We pulled in just as the guy who’d towed it was closing up but he opened the yard up for us to grab our stuff. Craig took pictures of the car and said it looked bad. Thanks. I could tell. I was in it when I crashed, remember?

Meanwhile, the kids are in the back asking “Mommy are you okay? Mommy I’m sorry your car got a boo boo. Mommy I missed you.” Like sweet little muffins of mine! And Craig is yammering on about getting a rental and YES these things are important but can we just STOP for a second and chill out?

At one point I straight up said to him, “It’s funny that I was the one in an accident yet you’re the one that needs to be taken care of because you’re freaking the fuck out.” And Alex yelled at me for cursing but it’s true.

Long story short, I borrowed my mom’s car the following day because we couldn’t get a rental that night. I’m currently in a rental and in the market for a new car. I’m taking suggestions if you have any.

I was driving a Mazda CX 5 which I really liked, though was kind of small for the boys. I’m wondering if I should stick with a Mazda because the car really protected me in the crash, but newer models don’t have as great of a safety rating. My rental is a Nissan Murano and I’m not impressed with it. My mom has a Chevy Equinox which was surprisingly roomy and zippy to drive. Overall, safety needs to come first.

What else is going on? Meh, nothing else really. Been up since 530 with the dog so it’ll be another long day. And it’s Father’s Day. I have nothing planned for Craig. Meh.