A Quarter of a Century

Wow. That's a long time. And if I keep smoking, I figure my life is half-way over. It tends to run in the family. My dad's mother (non-smoker) dies of breast cancer when he was too young to remember her. My mom's father (smoker) had a heart attack around the age of 40. My mom's mother (non-smoker) died of a brain tumor when I was 7. My father-in-law (heavy smoker) died of a heart attack 2 years ago at the age of 53. My own mother was diagnosed with Emphysema about 4 years ago and given 10 years to live if she continued to smoke.

She still smokes, but she's trying as we all are. We all pray for her. On the upside, Dad's quit again for the upteenth time. Maybe this'll be the final. As for myself, I've opted for acupuncture in a couple weeks and if it works, maybe Shawn will go. If any of you out there are the praying type, include us to quit this nasty drug!

I have many, many tried-to-quit stories that quite hilarious (they weren't at the time) but I have other things to talk about now.

Yesterday was officially my birthday. The day went well and I looked forward to the evening. Shawn and I were going to dinner and that's a rare thing. Usually if we go out, it cheapo take-out because I don't want to cook. Even that's pretty rare.

And usually, if we go out to "dinner" it's the lunch special. So I was looking forward to this all day. We never go out, period.

I took my paycheck to the bank drive-thru and for once, I actually got close enough to the tube so that I didn't have to crawl half way out of the car. When I reached for the tube, I dropped it and it rolled under the car.

I swear this kind of thing only happens to me. I recalled the time my Metro died in the drive thru at the bank and a lady from inside helped me push it out of the way. Anyway, the person behind me was pulled up to my bumper so I tried to open my car door and reach for the blasted tube.

No good. I could only open the door a few inches. I started the car and pulled up a bit, opened the door a few inches and squeezed out while trying not to bang the door on the cement post. I knelt to the pavement and half crawled under the car and got the tube.

Finally, I had everything in order and sent the tube flying up the shaft to the teller. She came over the speaker and asked me to sign my slip.

Great.

After I finally got home I was feeling pretty tired. Not sure what happened but I was extremely drowsy. Shawn came home and showered, we got dressed to go out. That means we put on jeans with no tears in them and t-shirts with no stains.

I realized I wasn't hungry at all. I told Shawn I was really looking forward to this but I really needed a nap! I was asleep by 7 pm and slept until 11 pm. Apparently Shawn had tried to wake me up once, and apparently the phone rang at one point.

Even though there's a phone right on my night stand, I never heard it (and I'm a very light sleeper). It was Bro David asking if I would teach Sunday School this week. Shawn left me a note so I emailed David this morning saying I would do it.

Though, when I woke up at 11 pm last night I was very confused. Shawn was sleeping next to me, and I hadn't even take out my contact lenses yet. I still wasn't hungry, anyway.