Adulting is hard!

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I am NOT cut out for the single life.  

You might not expect that kind of declaration from a homebody introvert with moderate-to-severe social anxiety who would rather sit home and crochet all weekend than go out and see other people.  But I've also been married to the same lucky, lucky man for more than half my life.  I can make all the jokes I want about being a strong, independent woman who don't need no man, but...eh.  

Don't get me wrong - I could be, if I had to be.  But I don't have to be. 

But, if you ever need proof that I really don't like to be pretending to be single, just send my hubby away for a week or two.  Because that's inevitably when the proverbial crap will hit the fan.  

I was thinking maybe this was just a winter occurrence, but then I remembered the one summer not that long ago (OK, maybe like 10 years ago? I don't remember for sure.) that he went to Ann Arbor for the week, for work.  That was the week we got hit with a big storm that blew the roof off the pump house and took out our power for a while (I want to say a day or two?) and left a smattering of tree limbs and branches all over the decks and the yard.  I really don't feel like looking that up on FB right now, because if I do it'll end up taking me three days to get this post published.  😂

A few years ago, he went to work down in Northfield for a few weeks in February.  During that time frame, we got hit with winter storms like every other day.  I'm not even kidding.  It wasn't that long ago, because the boy was in college at the time, and I was literally home alone with the dogs.  I remember driving home from work in a blizzard the one night, and it took like two hours, and I had a full-blown  panic attack afterward and called in sick the next day and then felt bad because I wasn't really "sick" sick, just having a mental breakdown and not wanting to admit it because I was the Responsible Adult and all.  And we got a lot of snow, and I didn't know how to use the tractor and was contemplating hiring someone to plow the driveway. It was awful! This was about the same time that there was the very real possibility that he was going to be sent to work in Las Vegas for a couple of years.  I don't even want to talk about that right now.  Obviously it didn't happen, but still.

So...like I said yesterday, my hubby is working out of town right now.  He comes home on Saturday, yay!!  The first week went well here.  Nothing major happened.  But this week has sucked rocks.  The frozen pipes and non-working drain... still not draining.  It's warmed up to the teens above zero today, and still not draining.  The faucet didn't freeze today and the drain still isn't draining.  

But! I remembered to set the garbage and recycling out on Tuesday (I'd forgotten last week).  And I've remembered to bring in the mail every day (the hubby usually does that), and of course I've been feeding and watering the outside animals, and keeping the house somewhat clean (actually, the boy unknowingly paid me a huge compliment last week when I was complaining about not feeling up to cleaning the house -- he said that the house wasn't not clean, just very slightly unorganized. I wanted to jump up and hug him!!  I've always, always struggled with keeping the house clean. It's not my strong suit. Working from home has definitely helped me stay on top of that, and it's nice that other people notice, too. But I digress!) and keeping us fed and stuff.  

Even though I have a stupid painful annoying ear infection right now.  I think it started with this pimple type thing I got on my ear from where my Bluetooth phone ear piece rubs it.  The Bluetooth phone ear piece that I use when I'm working from home, of course. I only use my phone as a phone when I'm working from home, or to call my parents.  Anyway, me being me and not being able to leave things alone, it maybe got a little more irritated than it would have if I wasn't me and would've been able to just leave it alone.  Last Saturday night, I woke up in the middle of the night with sharp pains in that ear. It kept me awake most of the night, actually.  And also pain in my jaw and neck.  Like I could barely open my mouth.  And my ear was swollen and red.  Fuuuuuuuuuu...dge.  I was pretty miserable that day.  I took some Tylenol and looked up home remedies and when to go to the doctor, and all that stuff.  I felt feverish but didn't have a fever.  

Now, you need to know something here.  People make jokes all the time about the "man cold" and all that, right?  Like how men supposedly turn into big drama queens when they have a cold, or whatever.  Well...that's me.  I can out man-cold any man on earth.  You should also know I have a pretty good pain tolerance.  I've continued to function normally through some of the worst pain on earth, the pain of fibroids and endometriosis.  Alright?  I gave birth to an almost 9-pound baby without any pain medication. And it was a precipitous delivery, which means that labor and delivery happened quickly.  Which means there wasn't a lot of transition time, not a lot of time for my body to adjust to new stages...I don't know how else to say this...not a lot of time for stretching? I called it a natural episiotomy because that sounds nicer than big ol' perineal tear.  I couldn't walk right for six months. My point being, all of that hurt less than fibroid and endo flare-ups.  Not even kidding. 

But, if I should be mildly inconvenienced by body aches or sniffles or sinus congestion, all bets are off.  Life sucks.  No one has ever felt worse than I have at that moment, and I should not be expected to do anything that the normal people do.  I may be dying, and no one cares.  Just go about your lives! Nothing to see here!!  If I survive this round, I'll see you in a few days, I GUESS!!

*ahem*

Alright.  Short story long, I started antibiotic ear drops today.  The pain is mostly gone but my ear is still all stuffed up.  And I feel extra whiney because I'm dealing with all this (the pipes, the cold, the check engine light that I'm not going to have time to write about tonight but will write about tomorrow if I still feel like it even though I really just gave you the overall gist of the story right there, the presentation I had to give to the Executive Committee at work that I was super nervous about because public speaking isn't my thing, even though I knew it'd be fine because I know everyone who was there) while I have an ear infection which makes it all a hundred times worse because it's happening to me.  Pity party of one, now being seated...

On that note, I'm going to sign off for now.  Check out this accomplishment -- starting and finishing a blog post in one sitting! I'm unstoppable.