I Guess It Beats The Alternative

I feel like I am LEAST this old. When in your mid fifties and sling plates for a living for over thirty five years it takes a toll on your body, especially when the body only weighs ninety nine pounds.

It's weird, sometimes I feel like a spring chicken. Other times my ailments rear their ugly heads. My newest ailment is a bum shoulder. At least it isn't on the same side as my bum knee. My carpal tunnel comes and goes, so does my bum knee (which I got in a speed skate for mothers at the skating rink when the kids were in elementary school. and  yes I won.)

It hurts to even pull a shirt over my head to get undressed. I thought I had just slept on it wrong but day four says different. I guess getting old still beats the alternative.

Hot flashes are no joke either. I wake up at least four times a night literally soaked in sweat. I feel like I may spontaneously burst into flames. It lasts about five minutes, just enough time for me to peel off as many covers and  clothes as I can. Then just as quickly I get cold again and reverse the covers/clothes process. It's exhausting to say the least and's really cutting into my beauty sleep. (see above photo)

I just got home from work and low and behold, my back is killing me. About once a year my back goes out too and can feel it coming on again. For Pete's sake, isn't birthing kids enough pain to suffer for a lifetime? Not to mention you have to feed and raise them after you shoot them out of a tiny hole in your body. Oh yeah, I got me a crick in my hip too that makes me walk like Festus on Gunsmoke.

Right now I feel about as attractive as Cloris Leachman in Young Frankenstein. I suppose it still beats the alternative. On a brighter note I managed to pull off the corn on my pinkie toe when I got out of the shower for work today. There's a bonus! Come to think of it, I haven't even had to shave random gross hairs off my chin lately either. Things are definitely looking up.

So I'm a limping old woman with a bum knee, sore shoulder, carpal tunnel, bad back, crick in my hip and eyes that can't see squat without my peepers...but I'm minus a corn on my pinkie toe and haven't had to shave my face in while. I'm gonna go ahead and call that a win.

We've gotten lots done around the house this week. The garage is totally clean and organized. TJ moved back home with us after returning from Australia and found a job in less than a week. He and Zach are both working at a new restaurant that just opened and both seem to like it. We had to scrap two cars this week but also finally got one out of the shop. Our temporary boarder thinks he has found a house to move into. I actually may miss him, he's Latino and a pretty hard worker around the house. My laundry room has never been so clean or organized and he helped Zach with the garage makeover.

Tim's still looking for a steady job, bless his heart. I've never known a more resilient man. I know it will happen but hope it's sooner than later. We mailed off our mortgage payment yesterday, albeit a week late. The lady at Hells Fargo said that would be okay but wanted us to know it may affect our credit rating. That's a good one! What credit rating? Our credit rating is the least of my concerns. We used to have an excellent rating and maintained it for twenty years. When the financial bomb dropped on our lives a few years back, we were lucky to just survive. Of course our mortgage company was absolutely no help. We tried for two years to modify our loan but they never lifted a crooked finger to help. The main reason was we only had five more years before our house was paid off and they wanted it. We showed them! We went from being almost six months behind to being one week late. They should be sending us a Thank You note. Granted the check wasn't exactly good (yet) but by the time it goes through on Monday should be.

I don't want to jinx myself but the tipping gods have been smiling on me at work. If I can keep it up two more shifts, the house note will clear and we'll keep on keeping on. That's all a person can do.

Fast forward a day...

Last night our PC went bonkers and had to save this blog. I went into work this afternoon and hit the floor running. I clocked in at three thirty and made almost seventy bucks before the night shift even clocked in. It was a mad house. I was the first server to check out and didn't leave til almost eleven. I had a few tables that were so so but had several that made my night. Tim's already asleep but left my tip money on the kitchen counter for him to put in the bank. I open the store tomorrow and if I can kick ass one more time will only have to borrow a hundred bucks from my boss to make the house note check good.

Dang, when I read that last sentence,  it made me sound pitifully sad  but to me sounds like success. I work hard and my bosses know it. They understand our situation and have always helped us out when asked. I have also always paid them back in the matter of a few days. They are probably the only people who we have a good credit rating with and right now is the only credit rating I care about.

Here's what happens to good people when they try their hardest.

My sister and her hubby came over after I left for work and fixed a leak in our master shower upstairs which is above our refrigerator in the kitchen downstairs. We've  had a hole in the ceiling for about four years where we tried to find the leak. I usually keep a piece of printer paper tacked over it. We have another leak above our stove, where we had another hole searching for the OTHER leak. I never even bothered with covering that one. They came and patched both holes with sheet rock.

My sister said she has some spare paint and is coming to paint my entire kitchen for me. She's painted every room in my house and is quite the professional.

Let's take inventory. We've come from being almost foreclosed on to being almost current. We've had our oldest son move back home after a year long stay in Australia and landed in a job in less than a week. We have a temporary Latino boarder who cleans like nobody's business. Zach has a new job he loves and getting a second job this week. My daughter is cozy in a dorm room and doing fantastic in her first year of college. Tim has several leads and may have an excellent opportunity out of state. My brother has helped us out with Massey's student loans and she's set for next semester. My sister and her husband have loaned us a car for so long I have named it. They fixed our kitchen ceiling leaks and my sis is going to paint and tweak my kitchen into a room that will be amazing.

Kinda makes all my aches and pains seem trivial so just going to start calling them battle scars.

Here's the real deal. Work hard, love harder and be glad YOU are loved.

Going to bed, waking up and kicking butt again.

Til next time...a Covered Cotton