Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Haven't you ever heard the expression, "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade…

…and then toss it in the face of the person who gave you the lemons until they give you the oranges you asked for in the first place?" –Bill McNeal, WNYX

I had totally planned that my next post would be dedicated to my inner geek. But unfortunately that will have to wait for another day.

Today I found out that my dad—the one of adopted adopted parents—who has been ailing with Parkinson's Disease for several years has now lost the ability to walk, or even just stand up. As hard as it is to face the fact that you yourself are getting older, it's even more difficult to watch it happen to the people who raised you, and to not be close by to be able to help out. Sometimes I feel soul crushing guilt moving away to the Big City out of high school, for not visiting more often, and for not living closer to my folks after I could afford to, especially since my sister's home is just minutes away from them. But then again, I guess I'm kind of the pink sheep in the family, always have been.

So as not to bum everyone out (thinking of you, Lil'B) I'll spare you the two other big life issues I'm struggling with right now. Facing the unescapeable mortality of a father, and hearing the exhaustion and sadness in the voice of my (adopted) mother who is caring for him, was more than a little distracting today. The thought of her trying to move him around the house, to doctors appointments, bathing, etc just kept playing through my mind non-stop. I had to do my best to hold it together at the job site. Thank goodness Betty was able to take my mind off of it with talk of puppies, vodka, and hunky guys in kilts. Props go out to O Man for also being supportive in his own little way. (And that wasn't a crack about your height, O. And it's not like you'll ever read this anyway, so it could have been and you would never know.)

OK. That's enough of that. Seriously, my next post will be something for more interesting (to me at least, remember the BLA) and probably TiVo related. Speaking of which I must go keep my TiVos company now. I've got a couple Colbert Reports to catch up on.

2 comments:

  1. i'm so sorry about your father. i can totally relate to the guilt of being too far from family to help as much as you'd like. (and i'm totally ok with reading the occasional bummer post...life can't always be ice cream and sunshine. i just like to pick on betty)

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  2. When I get home, I am going to give you snuggle sores!
    KISSES!

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