Moments of Zen

Things did not go well in Michigan with my mother and things continue to spiral out of control in the hospital there leading to an emergency phone calls with subtitles of  "Where is all of mom's money?" and "Does anyone know where the will is?" and "If the oncologist doesn't check her chart this time, punch them." So, in the spirit of putting on my own oxygen mask before helping others, here are some moments from the last two weeks I want to remember.

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My Aunt Sylvia and I working on a puzzle of a fox. The puzzle was fox-shaped and it was hard to figure out the border and the pieces were not traditional jigsaw puzzle piece shaped, so it was super hard. Sylvia, who was on the phone, would point to a piece and where it belonged and she was right almost every time. Puzzle genius. With her help, I did it three times as fast as if I had to sit there fiddling with it by myself.

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We saw a flock of six turkeys on the way to the hospital. Two of them were males with their tail feathers spread out, showing all their glory.

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I stopped to get gas in my car on the way home. My uncles got out of the car and ran into the gas station. When we got home my uncle presented me with a strawberry shortcake ice cream bar and it was delicious and just what I needed at that moment. [We can talk about how I'm eating my feelings in another post.]

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The sun setting as I was going for a couple of  evening runs. There are so many more trees there than in Wisconsin and the vista was lovely. I even saw a few deer on the road with me on one of these runs.

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The nurses in the ICU joking with my mom that she was their easiest patient and that they wanted to come in and hide in her room all day. 

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The time my mom said "I handled your dad's death too well" and everyone in the room laughed.

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When we came back from the hospital to find that the dogs had not handled our absence well and had some accidents I immediately started cleaning it up and I was referred to as "young, competent, and energetic." I'll take it.

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We ordered pizza from the closest pizza place which had an awesome name that I cannot share with you because I don't want to dox my sister, but it turns out that this place is a convenience store with just a couple of pizza ovens in it. This store had more liquor than anyplace I've seen outside of a Hy-Vee and they also had tobacco supplies, bait fish, and a ginormous beer cooler. They had five flavors of KitKats. The pizza was excellent, too. They don't sell liquor in grocery or convenience stores in Pennsylvania, so my uncle walked around in utter befuddlement. It was so much fun. 

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I saw some friends from high school. My high school has an Athletic Hall of Fame and one of my friend's sister was being inducted and he was going to to a little speech for her at the ceremony. One of our classmates who my friend refers to as his "archnemesis" was also being inducted and we enjoyed teasing him about having to talk to his archnemesis. 

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What has been your most recent moment of zen?