all this brouhaha

Some good, some… well, actually it’s all pretty good. At least the bad is not THAT bad, and it certainly could have been worse. We’ll just start with the bad, then, shall we?

Somebody HIT MY CAR. 

YES, my pretty little adorable Fit that I love so. 

It now has a great big gashy scrape down the drivers side. 

But on the positive side, it happened in our parkinglot, and I didn’t have to WITNESS my darling being smashed. I was walking up to it after work and saw there were a bunch of post-it notes stuck to my window. THEN I looked down and saw the injury. The woman who scraped against it had already called her insurance company and put in a claim, and left me all the information – claim number, phone number, etc. Then while I was standing there reading the notes she appeared, reiterated that it was all taken care of, and apologized profusely and repeatedly. So, it certainly could have been WAY worse. It is not unusual in a university parking lot for people to smash your car up, and then vanish. We do at least park in a lot that’s just faculty and staff. I’ve had to park in a lot with students in the past, and you may as well just embrace the fact that your car will end up beat all to hell and back. Students don’t care — they drive vehicles that cost twice what mine did – or more- and they know their mommies and daddies will pay for their own scrapes so they could not care less what damage they do to everyone else’s. 

ANYHOW. Could have been worse. It could have been my fault. It’s just kind of upsetting to see MY BABY with a big injury. And annoying to have ONE MORE THING to deal with. I don’t know how she managed to do that – it’s scraped all down the side, front to back nearly, so I don’t know if she was trying to back into the space beside me or what. My car is a FIt – it’s TEENY, and there was tons of room on either side of my own parking lines. I didn’t see what she was driving. She’d already moved by the time I arrived, and just kind of appeared out of nowhere.  

Well, these things do happen. And she was honorable and took care of her end of it. 

In other, quite happy news, I am once again a Great Aunt! (That sounded SO shocking, and so very very elderly, the first time I became a Great Aunt. That was ten years ago; I’ve had time to adjust.)

Meet the lovely Lilly Jane!

Who has hands like a ten-year old, apparently. I can’t get over how huge her fingers look. Maybe it’s the angle. I haven’t gotten to meet her yet, but will tomorrow. I’ll be inspecting those hands for sure. My mom’s middle name was Jane, so I am very pleased at their choice. 

What else? Oh, I don’t have bone cancer! Yippie!!!!! 

Yeah. Yes, I AM a little, ummmmmm, paranoid. And can be quite the hypochondriac. Last week I noticed that this big oddly shaped freckle on my shoulder had suddenly become very red and kind of itchy and quite irritated. It looked worse over the weekend, and was kind of swollen looking. Even Baker B thought I’d better go get it looked at soon as I could. I also have been having massive MASSIVE pain in my shoulder and elbow. On the same side. Which is also the same side I had breast cancer. Let me just note that shoulder pain is NOT unusual. My shoulder has hurt off and on for years and years. Way before I ever had breast cancer. But hey, I am nothing but the Queen of Overreactions, so I became convinced that my weird freckle and my shoulder/arm pain were, of course, bone cancer. Never mind that if I have bone cancer, I’ve had it for like 15 years and would certainly be dead by now. 

Of course I was ALSO pretty certain that all I had was a skin issue, shoulder injury problems and an overactive imagination, and I did try very hard to not worry about it. But I am me. And I would catch myself thinking things like, "I won’t get to go to England because …. I’ll be….. DEAD!!! WAAAAAHHHHH!!!"

Long story short, I had an appointment yesterday, and was pronounced to have a non-serious, ummmm, thing on my shoulder. The doctor suggested just freezing it and then in the unlikely event that it DOES come back he can cut it out and send it off for testing. Oh, yeah, it was practically gone by yesterday too, hence his certainty that it is nothing serious. And my shoulder pain is a rotator cuff thing. He showed me some exercises and said do not press anything over my head. I’d actually been doing some weight stuff that involved pressing weights over my head- like a MONTH ago – but apparently that could still be having an effect.  

So I’m really vowing to stop this over-reaction thing. Because I do this a LOT. Which is kind of understandable. It’s certainly not like cancer does not reoccur. But I really would like to, oh, NOT live in fear. And enjoy my life.   And not freak out over things that really are not freak-out worthy. And if down the road I actually DO have a reason to freak out, I can do it THEN.  

On the plus side, I really did need to get my shoulder looked at. It’s always off-and-on painful but lately has been a lot worse. I think partly the wet, chilly weather and partly the way I can’t quit leaning on my arm when I’m writing at work. Which I’ve been doing a lot lately. So, that’s a good thing. 

And now I need to wrap this up, since I also have to go to the dentist in an hour and have a couple of fillings replaced. Tomorrow Baker B and I have to meet the insurance adjuster so we can get our adorable car fixed. Then I’m going down to Asheville to meet the adorable Lilly Jane.