Life Update

Whew, it has been a rough couple of days. Labor Day weekend certainly didn't go as planned. It was filled with a lot of sadness and worry, but all things considered, we did come out with many blessings. Forever trying to remind myself to come out of situations with as many positives as I can possibly find.

The roller coaster started on Wednesday when I got a call midday at work from Sammy's mom with an update about his grandfather. The outcome didn't look good and all of Sammy's immediate family members started leaving work early so we could congregate at his grandparent's house. I left work right after lunch and we stayed by his grandpa's bedside until after 10 p.m. before we all decided to go home because he seemed stable enough.

Sammy and Maggie (!) his parent's new dog outside his grandparent's house

I decided to stay at my mom's house that night because it's closer to Sammy's grandparents. I figured I would take the train from there to work on Thursday. When I got there that night, she informed me that my dad had wound up in the ER. If you've been reading my blog or know me even a little bit, you'll know my dad is my life. He's my favorite human, so you can imagine how I took this news haha.

We didn't get an update from him until around 5 a.m. which was to let us know he was being admitted. To make a long story short, I ended up spending all day Thursday with him and stayed overnight. He had a pulmonary embolism which was really scary but luckily they seemed to have caught it in time. He was discharged on Friday evening and able to go home which is all he really wanted.

Being in the hospital is never fun, but my dad and I made the best of it: eating a bunch of snacks and watching Johnny Carson reruns

He's still feeling kind of iffy which forever makes me nervous, but I'm trying not to dwell. I'm just happy we have a medical plan in place and he's doing everything the can to treat the existing clots and prevent new clots from developing. After taking him on a few errands that evening, he hung out with us at my mom's house until around 10 p.m.

an early morning view outside the hospital window where I slept on the pullout couch

Sammy woke me up Saturday morning to let me know that we needed to go to his grandparents earlier than we planned so we left around 7:30 a.m., thinking his grandpa would pass away that morning, but we spent the next 36 hrs getting little to no sleep until he passed away on Sunday in the afternoon. It was a draining day. I feel so bad for Sammy's family because they all are so saddened by his passing, as am I, but it's truly remarkable to see the legacy he's left behind. I don't know many families who have the respect and love Sammy's has for this man.

my favorite guy with his favorite guy

We didn't leave his grandparents until around 9:30 that night and I couldn't wait to get home and see my family. While I was so grateful to be with Sammy's family during such an emotional and altering time for them, I was so happy to be with my own in a happy environment. I could only keep my eyes open long enough to watch a few episodes of Seinfeld with my mom and siblings and play with the dogs for a little while before I CRASHED into my bed. I was so happy to sleep, I can't even tell you haha.

Sammy decided to take off work on Monday and we decided it was important to spend the day together. We hadn't been home together in almost a week and hadn't been alone together in about as long, so after we spent the night at our parents (yes, we go to our own parent's houses individually haha we love each other but we really love our space sometimes haha and our childhood beds), we packed up the car and decided to have lunch, do a little shopping, and see a movie. It was kind of an off day for both of us in the beginning, but by the end, we were back to our old selves.

a little lunch in between shopping and seeing a movie -- and yes, I got a salad because I had eaten like total shit for the previous five days, and I wanted popcorn at the movie

We got back to CL around 7 p.m. and got our lives together a little bit. We put away our purchases, did loads of laundry, went through the mail, and even did a little relaxing. Thank God we had yesterday off, seriously, it would have been so hard to regroup after the emotionally draining day Sunday was.

I'm pumped to go home tonight and have nothing to do other than make dinner, and since we don't have much food in the house... it's probably going to be a relatively easy meal made with shit in our freezer haha.

We have a busy week/weekend ahead of us. I only have one more day of work which I'm really thankful for, although the days I have off aren't for good reason. We have the wake and funeral on Thursday and Friday, so those are going to be some rough days. I had Thursday and Friday off anyway because I took them off so we could go pick up Henry, but our plans have obviously changed.

Our new plan is to pick him up on Saturday (luckily Sammy was able to get Saturday off too) and his vet appointment had to be moved to Monday morning, so Sammy will be on deck for that. In between all that we have to get some food in our damn house, I have to get new lenses put in my frames, and we have to get the house ready for Henry (I had to place a rush Amazon order for all his stuff because we won't be able to go shopping for anything this week and we won't be home Thursday and Friday to accept packages that deliver, so I'm hoping a lot arrives tomorrow).

Even though it all feels like a lot, I am blessed that these are things that feel like "problems" or "stressors" because I'm consistently reminded of how much worse things could be. My dad could still be in the hospital, Sammy's grandfather could still be suffering instead of watching over us in peace, there could have been a deeper wedge in our plan of getting Henry. And none of those things are my reality. So, even in hard times, blessings on blessings.

I hope everyone had a wonderful and healthy Labor Day weekend. xo