EchoBooming in Birmingham

Well, hello everyone! This is my first official post although I’ve been mentioned several times by EchoBoomer. Allow me to introduce myself – I’m “teh wife”, aka “DrWife.”

So, why is this week a contender for worst ever? My favorite aunt died. Joby was more than an aunt – a lot of times, she was almost a mother to me. And, she was just way-cool, especially for 63. In her first 30 years, she had done more living than most of us will in a lifetime. All in all, she served in two wars, was Colonel in the Air Force Reserves, a master’s level nurse, a professor, and did I mention a way-cool person? This was just so unexpected for me, and I haven’t even begun to accept the loss. I’ve been in “doing mode”, helping to make the arrangments, etc – it seems like any moment, she will fly into town to help us solve this latest family crisis…..but wait, the crisis is her. Like Kel said, she was a bad-ass chick, and now she’s gone – the world couldn’t really spare a bad-ass chick either.

In the midst of going to my small hometown to meet family, EB and I find this dog. I’m grief-stricken at the time, but I’m a sucker for animals, and I knew this one was lost and clearly belonged to someone. Since he only had a vet tag and no home tag, we had to wait for the office to open this Monday. So, we loaded him in the car and took him to get the little one, then home. On the way, I’m holding the dog, feeling my loss, feeling very surreal, when suddenly the thing starts heaving! He then proceeds to puke on me – no, not a few grass blades, we’re talking Campbell’s Chunky Soup plus Puppy Chow!!! In a last-ditch effort, I try to catch it in my hand – It runs down my blouse, my jeans, onto my new Wet Akole car seat covers and onto my new car-scented carpet! Linebackers after ten tequila shots have thrown up less than this 8 lb puppy.

EB and I proceed to laugh so raucously that we’re hoarse by the time we pull in the drive, I with my hand still poised in the air, with now cold puke dripping off it, and the dog sitting innocently on my lap. The good news is that the owner was grateful. BTW, the dog was a purebred Jack Russell, and she told me over the phone he answers to “Chet Highlander”. Hm.

Soon after this, my mother has knee surgery and ends up in intensive care. She’s okay now, but it gave me quite a scare. Anyone who knows me would say that I’m organized to a fault and tend to obsess over picayune details. I was so distraught this week that I managed to forget a very important job interview. Don’t know how I’ll recover that one. Then, I go to FINALLY get the “grill” set, and turns out, none of the caps fit my teeth! The dentist said it’s only happened one other time in his ten years of practice. That’s what I get for telling him what I do for a living – it’s Murphy’s Law. If I weren’t in the medical profession, these teeth would have looked better than Angelina Jolie’s, but as it stands, I’m stuck with new temporaries. EB says, “They’re a little much.”

Well, Aunt Joby would have been amused. She would have laughed her cynical, yet somehow still warm, laugh and would have told me stories to top mine ten times over. Thinking of that makes it better.