Chapter 7: The big DC adventure.
I do believe this would be the adventure that everyone has been waiting to read!! So, I will try and make it exciting. I think it was right around chapter 2 or 3 that I mentioned that Sara offered to take me on a DC adventure on Friday! Possibly at that point is when my blood pressure started rising— I’m just saying.
I tried to bow out gracefully, by explaining that I am not so adventurous when it comes to driving (or should I say navigating) in a big city, on the freeway, with lots of traffic, and crazy DC drivers, with the potential of a crying baby in the back seat, (cus it is taking too long), and he may just need his mom, and there is no way he can have her, cus we are stuck in a traffic jam!!! (Wow, what a mouthful!) Yes, those are the thoughts that fill my head, which raise my BP, and cause me to hyperventilate! Back to bowing out gracefully?—–S explained that we had to go this week, since the “Washington Post” only holds back papers for x amount of days, and the time was running out. Sara wanted to get a paper from the day that Michael was born, so she could give it to him on his 18th or 21st birthday.
It was all for Michael, so how could I say no!! She promised me that she could get us there most of the way without my help (in other words-I could do my Sudoku while we were on the freeway) and that she would only need my prompting after the exit! So I reluctantly packed up my #’s book, filled my water, found my glasses, and was ready to go, as soon as she got Michael all packed up! We made it as far as the car, before I realized that I forgot my water on the table! Lol (typical!!) OK, got the water, and away we went.
The navigating was going very well. There were not too many turns that needed to be made before arriving at the WP. But it was around lunch time, in DC, and the traffic was more than crazy! We only had a couple of more blocks to go, before we had to turn, and all of a sudden there was a cop directing all the traffic to make a U-turn, cus the street was closed ahead! You would all be soooo proud of me at this time, cus I turned my head to look at the guy driving the SUV in the next lane, and he gave me the sign to go in front of him!! What a nice DC driver—although, I may have given him that desperate look, but whatever it was, it got us a spot in the very congested u-turn traffic! The rest of the drive, went slow, but we actually found an alternate route on our own—woohoo! We just had to re-route once, after a bad move. But I do believe God was with us, because all of a sudden we found ourselves right in front of the Post, facing the right direction to head home, and the bonus was that there was a spot for Sara to wait for me, while I quickly ran in to get the paper! It may have been an illegal spot, but I was only gone a matter of minutes, and like I said—God was with us!
Of course, how could we go to DC without sight seeing! So when I get home, I will show you all my pics of tall pointy buildings and things, and president monuments, and the octagon (oops-Pentagon)! Of course I did take these pics from the car, as we were heading back HOME! What about the babe in the back?? He slept for the entire time! All, in all, it was a great adventure! Thank you Michael / Thank you God.
Chapter 8: The Reward
We were so thrilled that the adventure had gone so well, that we decided to treat ourselves. Guess what we picked up for lunch? Yes, you are right. We headed to the Taco Bell closest to home! I ordered my usual, and Sara ordered 2 of something she likes. Home we went to enjoy our victory lunch. It was, once again, perfect timing, cus just as we got a few blocks from home Michael decided that it was time for his lunch too!
As if T B was not enough of a reward, I decided that Tequila would go very well with my 2 Mexican pizza’s!! As you recall, no “T” yesterday—so, I was way overdue!! Besides, even though the adventure had gone better than I ever imagined it would, I did still get my usual “stress pain” in my left leg, which always happens when I get tense. So, what better cure, than a “T”! Really, it was strictly for medicinal purposes, honest!! But it sure did taste good—yum!!
Well, that is it for the reward. It was short but sweet. I thought I would give you all a break, since the next chapter is of a more serious matter and may be a long and scary one! Don’t worry though, it has a happy (?) ending. Chapter 9: Out of control!
Chapter 9: Out of control
As if my migraine night wasn’t bad enough! I am going to back up a bit, to before I left for Florida. I had a doc appointment, and while I was there, the nurse took my blood pressure. The reading was 145/90. After I was there for a bit, she took it again and found that it had gone down to 136, but still over 90. It was probably high enough to go back on meds, but I was seeing the nurse practitioner, who told me to try to check it a few times while I was gone, and that was all she had to say about that.
I just want to say, I definitely enjoyed both my Florida trip and my VA trip. But unfortunately, my health has not been wonderful during either. I really hate to dwell on aches and pains, but in order to fully share my trip with you all, I have to tell you about my blood pressure.
Because of my migraines, and the fact that I was out of headache pills, my doc ordered a script, to be picked up at the local CVS pharmacy. While I was waiting for it, I sat down at the auto BP machine. It was 164/113!! That is probably the highest BP reading I ever had, at least when I was consciously aware. I was so upset about it that I called my Doc office. Since it was a Saturday afternoon, I received a return call within about 10 minutes, from the “on call” doc. He listened to the brief history I told him. His first response was to give me some meds to bring it down, but after a minute, he decided that it would be better to recheck it, and if it goes up at all, I should probably go to an urgent care, where they could get an accurate reading from a live person, and go form there.
Now, anyone reading my book knows that I am the kind of person that goes with the flow, and moves with the grove. So, ordinarily, a high reading doesn’t really faze me that much, but I don’t believe that I ever had a reading with the low number over 100. So perhaps an ever so slight amount of panic set in! Now, if there were no other problems/symptoms, I would have just been pretty cool about the whole thing. But because I have not been exactly right, since I left Milwaukee—–with headaches, inner body jitters, a high fever in Florida, and then that monster migraine a few days ago, I was feeling a bit anxious about the BP.
So, Sara and I (and M) went to do our shopping, and we decided to stop back at the CVS after we were done, for another check. It was the whole good news, bad news thing. The lower # went down to 100—woohoo, but the upper # went up to 170—grrrrrrr. However, since the “on call doc” told me that the panic numbers were 220/120—I was indeed glad that the # that was closest to panic-ville was the one that went down, so I was actually feeling much better after that. Well, MUCH better is a bit strong. I just wasn’t my bubbly self that evening, and in fact, I fell asleep in a curled up ball, much earlier than usual. L
This story does have a happy ending. The next day we went back to the CVS, and my BP was 164/90. That is still high, but getting better. So I was in a much better mood! Then the next day was even better, since the number were 165/84. Woohoo, lets go dancing! (Thank you K for all your concerns-I’ll take care of it when I get home!) J
Chapter 10: Thanks Giving in VA
Tuesday was TG in VA. James had off of work, and I was there, and wouldn’t be on Thursday, so we decided to celebrate this holiday, 2 days early. So maybe it wasn’t a traditional TG dinner, but we did get darn close. (As my sweetie says: “I am always close!”)
Since I have been in VA, I have been getting up at about 6, putting on the coffee, making Deac’s lunch, and then having some nice bonding time with my son-in-law, while mom and babe stayed in bed just a bit longer. Today was different. It was the first day since I have been here, that James had the day off. So, I still woke early, and put on the coffee, but I did have a bit more time alone. It was nice for the kids to be able to sleep in, but M didn’t know that there was anything different about this morning, so of course, he did have his needs!
We had a lazy morning. When we finally decided that we were all hungry and needed to have breakfast, I think it was already after 11! We decided that since it was a holiday, we would have a special breakfast—bacon and pancakes. This is the first time I have ever made pancakes on an electric stove. We were out of oil, so I used butter to cook them. That was a bad idea! The butter sort of burned, and so did the cakes, at least the first batch. Each additional batch got better, as I continued to adjust the temperature. The last 2 pancakes were cooked to perfection! Oh yeah!—–I forgot to tell you the best part of the breakfast!
By that time Deac had put on a second pot of coffee. I remembered that there was a bottle of Amaretto on top of the fridge. (thank you J). Well of course, it isn’t a holiday, unless you have some sort of “gourmet” beverage in the morning. It didn’t really bother me that I was the only one that added the A to my coffee–does that mean I am an A??–or just in the holiday spirit!! (yeah, that’s it). It definitely brought holiday cheer to our (my) breakfast. Yummmy!!!
Our TG continued to be a lazy day, as all TG days should be. Since we didn’t eat breakfast until almost noon, lunch time was actually at about 4!! By that time I had already made my TG bread (nut bread without the nuts, since Deac is allergic!) But the craisin substitute was actually pretty tasty! For lunch, we had a piece of holiday bread with our left over chicken dumpling soup. But what did that late lunch do to cocktail hour and our TG dinner?
Well, we definitely still had it, but just a bit later. Cocktails weren’t poured until 6ish, and then I started to prepare our feast. We had parmesan chicken, rice-a-roni, green bean casserole, holiday bread, and topped off with a glass of red wine. Most items on the menu turned out good, except maybe the rice (I am still blaming the electric stove!!) since a dark crust appeared at the bottom!
Let the Feast begin!