What was supposed to be a 24-hour stomach bug (that I got two Saturdays ago) turned into vertigo,* but I thought it was just an extended version of the bug for a few days before my parents took me to see a doctor. So for all of last week, when I wasn't rolling onto the floor to evacuate my stomach into my trashcan, I was lying flat on my bed under my fan with my eyes closed and all the lights off. Although it was kind of a depressing way to spend my last full week at home, I knew that I was better off at home than I would have been on my own. It also gave me a lot of time to think about things I am grateful for.
This is a list of seventeen things (in no particular order) I am more grateful for today than I was two Mondays ago; one for each minute of this talk that I listened to last week.
-Plastic grocery bags. When used for evil, they pollute the oceans. When used for good, they protect my trashcan from vomit. So easy to use. So handy. I am so grateful.
-iPhones. Do you realize how many things an iPhone can do? Because I was light and motion sensitive, I couldn't watch any TV, but I could listen to music and even TV shows on my iPhone with the screen faced down. I could call my mom when I barfed. I could search for 24-hour pharmacies. They are basically miraculous.
-My retainer. I'm crazy, I know, but my retainer is one of those things that I love because it has been a part of my life every night for the last nine years. I didn't wear it last week while I was sick, and I missed it dearly. It's back in my bedtime routine now. I'm happy.
-Modern medicine. Holy cow, humans have come so far in the last 100 years!
-Potatoes. I couldn't keep any (any) food or even liquids down last week, but the one thing that I asked for every day was potatoes. My mom would boil and mash them and I would eat them with a little butter. At one point I realized that maybe it was the Irish part of me, to keep turning to potatoes.
-All modern methods of staying cool. Ceiling fans. AC. Ice errywhere. Again, if I was born anytime before now, I wouldn't have made it past age 5.
-My Nurse Mom. Last week was an important week for moving houses, it was also my mom's last week to get all kinds of work done in preparation for the youth camp we are both going to be counselors at next week. So she didn't block out a lot of time to take care of a sickly daughter. But she managed to do it, anyways. She's the best.
-Water. Because my gag reflex was so strong, I had to take very small sips, but water was really important because my body would not always throw it up (ginger ale and Gatorade, on the other hand, were absolutely not going to stay in my body for long). I love a big cup of water, but I don't usually sip it like dying Beth (Little Woman), and I had to do that while I was in bed. I am grateful to be healthy enough to drink whatever I want with however many gulps I want.
-Health. In general. I have all of my limbs. I don't have cancer. I can sit up and even drive. In so many ways, I've hit the physical jackpot.
-Elizabeth Gaskell. Thank you for writing North and South. That was a delicious treat to my ears last week. Still a fave. Always a fave. I could almost hear Mr. Thornton's hotness. Anything that can take me back to jolly old England is a blessing.
-The ability I have to come home to my parents. Not everyone can do that. My parents welcome me with open arms, and they take good care of me.
-Email. For some reason on various nights (because I was in bed 24/7 my sleeping cycles got a little whack), I would find myself uncontrollably missing far away friends. I could send them messages for free, at the click of a button, via email. The messages weren't long or well written (Siri had to help out because I couldn't look at my phone for a long time) but knowing that people know I love them is important to me. And I got responses, which is always happy.
-Thunderstorms. East Texas knows what I like. Not only did the cloud coverage keep my room darker, but the rain lulled me to sleep. So beautiful.
-Hopeful futures. Not only did I know I would recover after I was prescribed with some druggy drugs, but I also started to think about all the things I could do, big and small, once I could open my eyes and walk around again. I have a hopeful future and that is an amazing thing to have.
-Dad. He gave me a priesthood blessing on night #1 and that is always a huge comfort. He hooked me up (in a doctor-patient way) with one of his doctor friends who gave us advice and got me the medicine I needed. When I was sad because I missed food (so basically all the time) he told me he would take me out to wherever I wanted to go when I was better. He patted my feet for encouragement. He's a good lil dad.
-General Conference. Because that is why we have that talk (Dieter F. Uchtdorf's "Grateful in Any Circumstance) that I love so much. I'm not going to lie: Conference is something that is 200% effective at putting me to sleep, and sometimes I don't like all of the talks, but there is always at least one talk, or at least one line, that I needed to hear. The Morm life is a good life.
-Watermelon Jolly Ranchers. Oh, the taste of childhood. I would always get Watermelon Jolly Rancher pops at the merc in Kanosh while I was visiting my grandparents. And at Halloween, or after class parties or at any time that Jolly Ranchers were handed out, I would always trade Mark my apple JRs for his watermelon ones. They come in packs now, and they sell them by the $1 or $3 (what a load of balogna, they totally changed it so that they could sell cool things for $3 and crap things that no one wants for $1) section of Target. I didn't actually eat any last week, but I had a roll in my backpack, and just knowing they were there tasted sweet. If only that worked with everything. Curse you, sweet tooth!
And now I'm going to wash my hair because I get to see a friend later. What a miracle!
*When my mom first told me she thought I might have vertigo, she looked up a definition to explain it to me, and the definition said something about "inner ear crystals." So after that, every time I barfed, I thought:
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