Pseudo-semi-regular excretions from Bill's Brain. Professional driver on closed road - do not attempt!

 
Worst. Week. EVER.

Okay, this is going to be sappy and all feel-goody, I’m just warning you from the start. Lots of people hate that sort of thing. Usually, I’m one of them, too. But this is special because it happened to me.

The last week was a pretty lousy one. It started on Sunday when our dog ate something that didn’t agree with her, and crapped all over the house.

On Monday, I was called to a special work meeting late in the day, and got the news that our parent company is filing Chapter 11. Our department is in the middle of being sold, so this will screw things up for us in a big way.

On Monday night, I came home from Aylish’s Brownie meeting to a message from Visa Protection Services. Someone had stolen my debit card number, made a phony card with it, and attempted to buy $2700 worth of clothes at Hip Hop Sports in Brooklyn. I’ve never even been to Brooklyn.

On Tuesday, Aylish developed some kind of bug, and puked all over the house.

On Wednesday, Aylish got worse, so I stayed home with her. More puking. That night, Nolah took a hot dog to my father-in-law’s dog to feed it to her. Then she tried to kiss the dog on top of her head, and the dog bit her on the face. She needed stitches in two places. Her mother brought her back from the emergency room at quarter past 1 in the morning.

On Thursday, Nolah caught Aylish’s bug, and puked one time. This seemed to cause her stitches to bleed more than they had been in the past.

By Friday, I was ready to give up on everything.

When you’re having a great day, it’s often not hard for one bad thing to ruin it all for you. The trick is to not let it happen. The other trick is to make it work in reverse as well – to let one good thing make up for all of the bad.

On Sunday, Aylish’s Brownie troop had a trip to the new ice skating rink at the Harrington Fairgrounds. We went a little later than the others, because we still wanted to go to the Halloween Trail at Brecknock Park earlier in the day. I rushed her into the rink, strapped the skates to her feet, and hurried her to the ice while there was still time.

She seemed nervous, and at times it was almost as if she was just doing this to make me happy. When she found out that there was no railing on the wall to hold onto as she skated, she became even more nervous. Then, we discovered that they have “helpers” at the rink – little metal racks that look like walkers that the kids can push around to help them with their balance as they skate. One of the troop leaders grabbed Aylish and a walker and led her out onto the ice. I watched from the other side of the glass, as I refuse to put anything on the bottoms of my feet that is not flat and of excellent traction.

She did quite well for a little while, and lapped the rink twice when she started to head into the center, as most kids end up doing in skating rinks of either type. She stalled for a bit, then her feet went backwards out from under her. Luckily, she kept her grip on the walker, and was able to recover without a bump and with a little dignity still intact.

Then, a little boy skated by and fell down right next to her. He was smaller than her, but a more experienced skater, so he didn’t have a walker. He had landed on his back, however, and was having trouble getting up. I could see him say something to Aylish and then reach his hand out to her.

Then Aylish wobbled over to him, bent down to take his hand, and helped him up, at an incredible risk of falling down again herself.

I stood there, amazed, like I’d just seen Elvis Presley in a Godzilla suit doing a triple axel somersault or whatever stupid moves those dumb figure skaters do. Yet it was nothing surprising. This was a glimpse of Aylish’s true nature – a nature that I had helped to develop for the last six years.

No matter how screwed up things had gotten, I was still doing something right.

The musician, artist, and philosopher Connor Freff Cochran once said that it’s best to keep something warm in your pocket, and take it out to comfort yourself whenever the world around you grows cold. This will be one of those things, for me.

Nolah’s stitches came out today. The bank has taken care of all of the charges made to our account. Our dog is better, and the kids aren’t throwing up anymore. As for my job, I still don’t know what’s going to happen, but I don’t care too much. All of these things will pass, and become stories. The stories they become will make us smile. Some will make us glad that they’re in the past, and that we don’t have to live through them anymore.

But others will be special stories. Those are the ones that will make us warm when it’s cold outside.


posted by Dr. Awkward at 3:20 PM