Somethin's gotta give....

It's been a tough week.

I woke up Monday morning to the sound of compressors running, too close. Uh oh. I was supposed to clear the patio because they were painting our buildings. I had to get up before I was ready, move all of the patio furniture into the storage closet. Which was full of dirt, because it's a low spot in the concrete, so first I swept out the closet. And I had to lift the 5 gallon planter of aloe up onto the chair, because the closet isn't that big. (I have to remember to let it out, once I'm sure the painters are finished.)

I was on a roll so I also moved some furniture in my office. One piece was on wheels and the other I used those carpet sliders for. I'm happy with the progress, but it's far from done. My back has hurt ever since.

On Wednesday I got together with a new online friend at an Internet cafe, to help her learn to use the site where we met. I had a blast, but I was tired. Late Wednesday I learned that a friend's only child, 20, had died. The funeral was today.

Thursday is my long day. I had my weekly coaching call, which is a positive thing in my life, and the final Cooking for Life class, in the next city.

Also on Thursday members of another site I belong to held a tribute day for a member in hospice care with cancer. She was the driving force behind the "Managing Your Life" forum there, with the goals of decluttering, simplifying, etc., so the tribute day focused not only on prayers for her and her young family, but also on doing those things that were important to her: decluttering, organizing, taking photos, scrapbooking. (It's a scrapbooking site.) I did a few things early, but was out most of the day.

I have not been keeping up at all. I've been tired. My kitchen, which had been in very good shape early in the month, is unusable. I haven't done laundry in weeks. The dresser is bare of clean clothes. I've known I needed to wash underwear.

The lymph node in my neck is even larger. That means my lymphocyte count is up. It was already the highest it had ever been when it was checked in January.

Last night I lay down to listen to Scriptures. When I finished I decided that, rather than getting up again, I would just stay in bed and get an early start today.

I woke up and sorted the laundry. I started the underwear wash. I had two hours before the funeral...

and learned online that my other friend died last night. She leaves two very young children with autism. I spent so long reading the messages that I really cut it close on getting ready for the funeral, and discovered...

that even with clean underwear, I had no clothes clean that were appropriate to wear to a funeral. I generally live in jeans or sweats, with tee shirts. I have two denim jumpers that I love. Denim wouldn't have been my first choice for a funeral, but it didn't matter -- none of the tops I wear under the jumpers were clean.

It's summer here in the desert; the clothes I have that would have been appropriate for the setting would not have been appropriate for the weather. Last summer I gave away virtually all of my church clothes. They really were too big, and unflattering. Then I gained weight.

So here I sit, with the clean laundry still in the dryer, tears running down my face. I missed my friend's son's funeral because of my disorganization. There was no room in my schedule to spare for learning of my other friend's death. And my kitchen is still unusable.

Things will get better. Things will look better. This, too, shall pass.