Thursday, what a day…

We set out for a complicated family day, as Chris had to work for two hours in the afternoon scheduled and for three hours in the evening all in the city, and Carmelle had a specialist appointment at Children’s in the morning, so we had planned a family day in and around the chaos of the day. And that was only the beginning!!
So firstly we set out separately, as to meet in Burnaby and leave Chris’s car until evening.
We first had to stop for something to eat, coffee and gas. So I headed into the McDonald’s drive through, my first mistake of the day, and proceeded to order us some breakfast and coffee, we don’t like the cheese on our egg McMuffin which seemed unfortunately to be to much for the window girl to handle. Chris was meanwhile right next door gasing up his car and waiting to gas up mine. Then when I tried to pay her with a $100, that a dear friend gave us to pay for our family day in the city, then she really didn’t know what to do, so the fast food drive through became not so fast (7-10 minutes) which apparently seemed like an eternity for the “gentleman” behind me as he got out of his vehicle and proceeded to hit my passenger window, yelling and swearing for me to get moving! He was at least 60 an definitely old enough to know better!! The fact that he just did this in front of my children, brought out the worst in me and as I yelled, “Get a life, SIR!”. The poor girl at the window was stunned, (more with him than with me I figure) I got my change and quickly moved on. I informed the next girl that the man behind me was angry and maybe even more so since I told him to get a life, but I told her that anyone who yells at a young mom in a mini van with young children on board, who’s bald and quite obviously fighting cancer, really needs to get a life! I apologized to her that she would now have to deal with him and I drove off!
When I told Chris what happened when I arrived at the Gas pump, he was quite willing to march over to the man’s vehicle and give him a piece of his mind, but I told him I already told the Guy, “to get a life.” So I figured, it was taken care of, besides I told Chris it may not have been the guy right behind me, he may have been two cars behind, I hadn’t really noticed. What I did notice is that quite quickly, I regretted what I’d said. I’d wished I’d said something like, “Go in peace.” I thought, perhaps those minutes in the drive through, were more precious minutes in his life than I realized. Maybe his life circumstances are more pressing, stressful and life-altering than mine. I don’t know what’s going on with him, so perhaps I was wrong to assume that he needed to get a life. It was a big lesson in that I don’t have any control over how other people act or behave, but I have control over how I react and respond. In my life I’ve been doing a lot of work on this with my therapist, on my reactions to things around me. I think it’s working because before, I don’t think I would have been as generous with my response to that man. And now I am at the point I’m even reevaluating telling him what I did and insinuating that he does have a life. Anyway, it was time to move on to my life and make my way with my family to the Children’s Hospital for Carmelle’s appointment with the Orthopedic specialist.
As we arrived Cadence vomited, covering the two foot radius around her, this is when I realized that McDonald’s had been a really bad idea. WE rolled down the window, Chris suggested I put on one of my mask just in case she’s contagious, and we looked for a parking spot that was not to be found. We ended up pulling into a “no parking spot” fairly close to the entrance, we were desperate to get out of the puke ridden vehicle and start cleaning up. Thankfully I came prepared with a package of Lysol disinfectant wipes and baby wipes. Carmelle was placed in the back hatch with a juice box, while we dealt with the situation at hand. Chris didn’t want me to touch anything just in case I were to get sick from it. So he went at it cleaning Cadence, stripping her down and changing her in the parking lot. The blanket beside her caught most of it and not the carpet of the van, thank-goddness. What I sight we were, all the doors open to the van, the smell of puke evident, I’m in a surgical mask and bald, one child is undressed, all the puky stuff is on the pavement and we are in a no Parking space. Chris had to rush Carmelle in for her appointment, so I walked Cadence around in her stroller around the van so we wouldn’t get towed. Sure enough a ground’s keeper comes by and informs me that I have to move our van. So I rattle off to him our circumstances, including that I’m on chemo and that the child that got sick isn’t even the one we were bringing here to the Children’s hospital, he felt sorry for us and told me just to move the van enough to not block the wheelchair ramp. Just as I finished talking to him, Cadence managed to knock her stroller and herself right over on to the pavement and have it collapse on her, I turn to see my 2 year old flealling on the ground and screaming. Thankfully she was fine and recovered well from everything, so we could continue on with our day as planned. (Though at that point we contemplated packing it in for the day and not allowing anything else to happen during the course of our planned day.)
Thankfully the Dr said that Carmelle’s slightly rotated hips/knock knees/pigeon-toes were doing much better. We just have to remain disciplined to have her sit cross-legged more.
Chris had work at a church in Point Grey, working on their sound system. The deal was that I’d get to nap there while he worked and watched the girls. I didn’t think there was anyway this was possible, and I was right, though I did manage a bit of a rest. Every 15 minutes Chris was calling me to handle the girls, they didn’t wreck the place to badly, just spilt a big container of bubble mix all over their carpet (opsie! Chris said It’ll just dry!) and off we went!
The Vancouver Aquarium was next on our list of things to do and just as we arrived, it started to rain. We were hungry and went straight to get something to eat, the food was terribly expensive, we should have known, but quite good at least, the crow thought so that swooped down and got what was left, (while we were still sitting there). Most of the shows got cancelled due to the rain, figures, but we had fun and got our exercise. Chris got a good work-out running after Cadence, who was obviously feeling much better!!
Then we headed off to the church where Chris was to work in the evening, where we’d left his car much earlier in the day. Shortly after dropping him off he called me on my cell to inform me that, they’d cancelled with out informing him so he was on his way home. AAHHHRGGG!!!
What made the entire day worth it, was to hear my two year old, in wide-eyed wonder exclaim over and over again at the aquarium, “OH, WOW!”. We certainly don’t need to “get a life”, we’ve got the best life. I have no regrets and I choose to focus on the blessings that are all around. Thank-you Lord for this day, Thursday June 28th, 2007, and the memories we made together as a family.