Generally, I don't get stressed during the holidays. I enjoy them. And see them as a chance to see people I love to be around. I also like giving and receiving gifts. Particularly with the kids.
This year, Thanksgiving threw me for a loop, bringing stress in its wake.
My husband's grandmother passed away suddenly.
And. She lives in Japan. Which means, my husband is taking off on an impromptu trip to Japan in three days.
This was incredibly stressful for us all today, to enjoy Thanksgiving while having this in the background.
Things that made this stressful:
1) We thought at first that he was going to have to leave tomorrow, the day after Thanksgiving, in order to make the funeral on time. Fortunately, the funeral isn't until Tuesday, so he has some time.
2) We thought the ticket was going to cost us $1000. And since it wasn't really an option not to go, that would mean a big bye bye to Xmas this year. Fortunately, it worked out that we had enough frequent flier miles for my husband to travel under $100.
3) My husband just returned from a week-long trip to England. That just sucks, and nothing we can do about that. This year will end up being a total of about 5 weeks of us being separated.
4) I will have to give up NaNo. When he as away on his London trip, I got so far behind, I was certain that I wouldn't finish. Somehow, after he returned, I managed to get some momentum, and realized that if I diligently wrote everyday while hubby watched the kids, I'd finish. I would need every day left in the month to do it (and get all my other writing done as well). With hubby being gone another 5 days this month, it will be impossible. I have to wave the white flag. Strangely, I feel relieved.
There are other issues like not having a suit for the funeral, and having to go out in Black Friday craziness to get one, not sure how his work will handle this sudden disappearance, and working around some scheduling conflicts.
But in this all, I have to say, that my hubby was incredible. He managed to cook Thanksgiving dinner. (He cooks, I clean.) Deal with his family crisis, and not lose it. Not even once. I was in awe.
Frankly, he kept me together. I said to him early in the day, "It'll all work out." He proved it.
Everything balances out in the end. It'll be OK. It always is.
2 comments:
So sorry about your husband's grandmother. Was he close to her? It's good that he is able to go to her funeral.
Too bad about NaNo, but you have other things more important right now. In the big scheme of things, NaNo is just a little blip.
Take care of you and your family and I'll be sending good thoughts your way.
Thanks Karen. Hubby just left for Japan about 30 min. ago. He has no idea where he's staying, if he'll have cell phone or internet access or whether he needs to buy any Yen. (When he went to England, he used his CC for everything. He never bought any pounds.) I don't envy his limbo position right now.
I'm glad now that I gave up NaNo. Not only is hubby gone for 5 days, but I'm also coming down with the virus the kids have been carrying around for a week. The universe is indeed telling me something.
Thanks for stopping by. And thanks for your continued participation on our NaNo list too. :)
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