Small Victories

When one is suddenly struck with some weird-off-the-wall illness that nary a doctor can figure out, so we have to do all research on our own and figure out how to live a semi-normal life…we tend to learn to depend on small victories.

My Big Handsome had a conference he had to go to a couple counties up (few hours from home) for work. We decided to turn it into a mini-beach vacation, plus we could get in a small family reunion as well with the in-laws and extended (military) family that happened to be visiting the states from Germany.

While Big Handsome was at the conference, I was to take the kids to the local Art Museum. I decided that this is what we would do as I am teaching an Art History class next year, and who doesn’t enjoy an Art Museum (except for those of us who have a hard time driving on our own, driving on our own in a new town, driving on our own in a new town with a bunch of freaking one-way streets, standing for long periods of time, and just plain freaking out when put in new situations)?  This means that I would have to drive, with the kids, on my own, in a town I’ve never driven in, did I mention the freaking one-way streets??!! Mind you, I did do a bit of research beforehand and attempted to commit to memory the satellite map where I’d be going (which can be dangerous for a normal person, much less one with frequent brain farts). And, no, I don’t have one of those fancy phones that one can talk to or get GPS or any of that really cool stuff. Still though, for someone that doesn’t even drive locally, this was definitely going to test my, well, everything.

I began to feel the anxiety earlier in the week. The morning we left I just rode in the car, doubled up on meds of course, and hoped that everything would turn out ok. We arrived at the convention center where we dropped Big Handsome off and our choices were to pull around the block and park for 2+ hours or head off on our own to the museum.

We chose the latter. We made it there safely after a few necessary turn arounds (which under normal circumstances can send me into a complete panic attack). We had a wonderful time at the museum, viewing many art pieces from the artist’s that we will be studying soon. I was so glad we went. I didn’t panic the entire time. We had just enough time to casually walk the entire museum with a bit of time to spare in order to get back to the convention center on time to pick up Big Handsome.

I must say that I was so stoked that I was able to take the kids to the museum and not freak out!

We all need to look forward to, learn to appreciate, and never take for granted the small victories J