I Didn't Die
I remember when my husband and I started dating in small town, Louisiana. He was a TV reporter and I was a newspaper reporter. In a small town like where we lived, not only did he get recognized everywhere we went, but all of the media folks knew each other and even hung out and got drunk together. A lot. Well, what else is there to do when you're broke, overworked and bored?
Anyway, one of the best things about working in the media is that we were invited to a lot of awesome parties. A fundraiser in a hangar at the airport. Schmoozing with one of the sales folks who had an open tab at a swanky bar and restaurant in town. Free meals almost everywhere for good publicity on TV. Life was good.
When we moved to a bigger market, it was much of the same. We got to go to grand openings of clubs, casinos, restaurants, bars. You name it, we partook in it. I'm not pointing this out to brag, just letting you know that before kids, my social life was pretty kick ass.
When we had our son, it was just the three of us since my family is in Michigan and my husband's family is in Texas. He worked a lot and I didn't want to spend a bunch of money on babysitters, so that usually meant I was home with the kiddo quite a bit. That also meant my social life dwindled down to the occasional night out of catching up over a few drinks. I made the mistake of getting plastered one night and then had to wake up to a 2-year-old who was "hungwy" while hubby had to work. Let me tell you, there are no greater depths of hell than a hangover with a demanding toddler. Hence why the times I did go out to drink, I literally had one or two. It got to the point I had more fun sitting on the couch enjoying the silence after P went to bed than going out to some thumping night club or a smoky bar. Yuck.
As I mentioned in my previous post, part of my Journey of Yes was to open myself up to people again. So, when a former coworker invited me to attend a birthday soiree for another former coworker, I really had to sit and think about if I wanted to go. I'm the type of person I say yes when I'm in a great mood, but then the day comes and I had a super shitty week at work and all I want to do is veg out while binging on "The First 48" on DVR. But then I remembered my vow, so I clicked "Going" on the Facebook invite and waited for the day to come when I would flake out. You know what happened? I was actually excited to go! I bought a super cute new top, re-did my twists (they were looking haggard anyway, so it's not like I did them just for the party). I cursed myself for having gained so much weight, but other than that, I was ready to go. My good friend dropped her daughter off with my kids and my mom and we rolled out. I must report that I had an absolutely fabulous time! It was great catching up with old coworkers and making some new friends. Delicious sushi and drinks were an added bonus.
Again, I couldn't get too wasted because the next day was my first day volunteering in the nursery at church. I wanted to go to the morning service and then I would already be there for the afternoon when I was needed in the nursery. All day, I just knew it would be a mob of babies and toddlers who would tie us up, draw the blinds so nobody could see the horror going on inside, and then they would taunt us with smelly diapers and shove goldfish up our noses so we couldn't breathe. Never mind that we're supposed to be teaching them about Jesus. He would probably be the only one to save us from those heathens. But you know what? There was no mutiny. The only one injured was one of the kids I nicknamed "Bruiser" because he kept falling off of stuff and into stuff (he's 18 months and an absolutely gorgeous baby, but man he kept us busy). None of the kids had attitudes, which I was expecting from 2 and 3 year olds. Our main issue is that some were in there for the first time and were more scared than I was.
The moral of this story is I didn't die. I had two great days in a row. I'm tired, yes, but I also feel invigorated. I feel like I'm regaining some of my life back. We'll see about that tomorrow, though, because it's my first workout with my trainer...
