Saved By A Toga

Today started out a little low for me.

My dog Gracie (14 years old) is a wonderful and delightful little dog.  She's a miniature schnauzer.  She's nearly deaf as a post and her eyesight is greatly diminished by cataracts.  She sleeps alot, can't get up on furniture any more and can only get into bed because I have doggy steps and an antique trunk at the foot of the bed.  She's now having cognitive issues and I've been trying to explain them away due to her eyesight, or thirst in the night, or a gazillion other things.  Sadly, I'm realizing that it's not eyesight related but that she's old and doing things an old lady might.  Oh, how I hate this happening.  And I worry that maybe I should dig her grave now before the earth freezes as hard as concrete.  I don't know that she's going to go this winter but what if she does?  I'm horrified at cremation and can't do that.  Wouldn't just leave her at the vet's office or put out in the trash can at the curb.  Couldn't keep her in the freezer until spring. 

I love this shirt I'm wearing and sorta like the pants, too.  Somehow the shirt is looking a bit too short and I'm feeling peeved at that.  Silly and shallow me is having a bad clothes day.  Good grief.  How can I allow that to color my day?

Christmas is coming and I won't be with my cousins Megan and Todd this year.  It seems unfathomable.  Life changes.  Life situations change.  The characters in life change.  I'm as welcoming of this change in my life as Gracie is when she realizes that the water running in the bathtub is for her and that a bath is imminent.

Buck up.  Gut it up and go. Do it. You have no choice.  Things Mom and Gabby (my maternal grandmother for those who don't know) raised me up saying/preaching/using as a mantra sometimes sternly, other times softly comforting me. I'm good at this.  Really, I am. There are some days where it's just a little harder than usual to buck up.

And today I found a wonderful picture in a FB message.  It came from Steve Merriam and dates to the late 1990's and was taken at a toga party at my old house.  I told everyone to bring a sheet.  They didn't know why....just thought it was a regular party.  When they arrived I ushered them to the bedroom and they had to fashion a toga and wear it the rest of the evening.  Some were creative, some uninspired, some risque!  It was a fun summer night and my neighbors in a very bluecollar, working neighborhood didn't quite know what to make of it!  I lived on a corner lot so we were really visible out cavorting in the yard in our sheets.  Neilson tv ratings in my neighborhood that night were probably rockbottom.  I think most houses had faces pressed to the windows watching the freaky neighbor and her friends!

So, it's amazing when some great little thing shows up in life just when you really need it.  The picture from Steve couldn't have come at a more perfect time.  Sadness and worry over Gracie have been relegated to a pigeon hole in my brain to be brought out and mulled over later.  My short shirt is just getting yanked down a lot.  The difficulty of the upcoming Christmas is lessened a little in knowing that memories--whether of a friend and a long-past party or decades of Christmas trees, presents, laughter, and fun with my cousins--remain.  Those memories are wonderful little gifts I can pull up when I need them most.

Steve--thank you.  You've turned my day around once again, much like the olden days!