I think that I have mentioned that random things just seem to happen in my life.  It is not as if I ask for them, look for them or create them.  They are just the situations and circumstances that present themselves on an on-going and regular basis in my life. I had plans of a completely different post for today, but once this happened, I couldn’t pass up the chance to share, and give you a small glimpse of the shit that DOES just happen.

Shawn’s alarm first goes off between 4 and 4:30 depending on the day and where he will be working.  After what seemed to have been a million “snoozes” later (but is probably more like 4 or 5) we got up around 5:00 a.m.  While he was dressing, I headed to the kitchen to start the coffee and see what I could put together for his lunch.  Although I am not here at his house with him every day (I am at my house on the 4 nights that I have my kids) on the nights that they are not with me, I am usually here.  I remember when we were first dating and I began staying the night, I mentioned to a friend of mine that lives on the East coast and at the time was happily married, that I was tired because I had gotten up so early.  When he asked “why the fuck”I had gotten up at 4:30 a.m., I told him that Shawn had had to go in to work a bit early that day.  I remember him saying, “so wait, you actually get UP with him each morning?”  “Why the fuck would you do that?”  I told him that I LIKED getting up with him.  I love that quiet hour we have together as he eats his big ass bowl of sugar-cereal and we have our coffee.  It allowed us to talk about what is on the agenda for each of our days, and as hooky as it sounds, I just enjoy being with someone that WANTS to be there.  My friend’s response to this was, “yea, I give it 2 months and your ass isn’t getting out of bed no more!”  Well, we are drawing close to the three year mark, and I still get up, ALMOST every day.  I remember Shawn making a comment one of those very first mornings together; he had come out from the bedroom and saw that I was making a sandwich.  He asked what I was doing.  When I said, making you lunch, he got quiet and then said, “no one has EVER made me lunch, EVER, not my mom, not Anne, no one.”  That stuck with me.  It is something that I can do, even on the worst of days, and I’ll be damned if I am going to stop doing it.

So this morning was no different, and having seen him to the door, Spanky promptly headed back to the bedroom for his 4 hour early morning “nap” and I hit the office, firing up my computer, to start work (and sneak a few peaks at my blog and visit Twitter a few times.)  It must have been about 8:30 when the doorbell rang. I didn’t even know that Shawn HAD a doorbell.  The few times that someone has come to the door, they have either just knocked, or Spanky’s bark indicated the presence of the visitor before any signal from the outside was needed.  Looking through the peephole in the middle of the butt-ugly wood door that is still on the LONG “to-do” list of home remodeling that needs to be addressed, I saw a young woman, standing at the bottom of the 4 steps that lead to the front door.  As most would do, I then yelled through the door, “who is it?”  (But let’s be honest here….obviously IF I have just looked through the peephole and don’t recognize the person standing there, then I PROBABLY don’t know them and so therefore this is one stupid question!) BUT still “who is it.”  The door remained shut , but as her story began to emerge, I felt comfortable enough to open the door and crack the storm door a bit.

Her story, she was an “in-home-care” nurse, actually with the company that I used  for my steriod infusions when I was still on my EX’s healthcare insurance.  She was looking for a house in the neighborhood, but she was lost.  She had been to a number of houses, but either no one was home, or people, like the woman across the street, refused to open the door and help.  I will grant you that there were a number of things about her and her story that WERE a bit off/odd, but all she was asking was to borrow a phone to call her office and find out if she had the address wrong.  That seemed harmless enough to me, so shutting the screen door firmly in Spanky’s face (he had decided to grace us with his presence once he knew we had a visitor) I joined the gal on Shawn’s front walkway.  After a few awkward and failed attempts of her trying to place a call on my iphone, I offered to dial for her.  Once I had typed in the ten digit number and pressed send, a name from my contacts popped up.  It was in fact the number I had programmed into my phone for the company, left there from the days when I called them pretty frequently to schedule the dreaded “droid” fixes.  SO, I now KNEW for a fact that she was talking with the company that she claimed to work for.

After explaining who she was and the reason for the call, she was put on hold.  While waiting, I learned a bit more about Shirell.  She WAS an “in-home-care” nurse, that had just recently moved here to the Seattle area from Phoenix Arizona.  She actually lives in a town that is about 45 minutes from where Shawn lives, but because the nurse that usually covers the area had been in a bad car accident a few days prior, she had been asked to cover this particular patient’s appointment.  BUT, Shirell doesn’t have a car; doesn’t even have her driver’s license.   She relies on the bus system to get to her appointments.  When dealing with her regular patients, this works just fine, the longest commute being a 15-20 minute bus ride or weather permitting a 20-30 minute walk.  BUT, this morning, although she was expected to arrive at the patients house at 8:00 a.m., because it was in this new (and far away city) she had left her house at 4:30 a.m.!  Four bus transfers later, and a 15 minute walk from where the bus had dropped her off, she did say that forgetting her phone at home was probably the dumbest thing she had ever done.

The gal in the office came back on the phone, which we now had on speaker, to verify the address.  Shirell did have the right address, so I plugged it into my GPS.  My phone promptly told me that it was approximately 500 yards from where we were standing.  Hearing that, and faced with the idea of returning to the same street she had been wandering for the past 45 minutes, hefting her huge-ass nurses bag (could have been carrying a body in that thing!) knocking on doors and getting NO WHERE, Shirell looked  dejected.  There was NO WAY that I was going to just take my phone and send her away.  I ran into the house…okay, not RAN, but rather quickly “for me” walked into the house, grabbed my sneakers and joined her back out on the street.  We let my phone B.F.F. Siri guide the way, and walked up the street.   We came to a house that I have walked by dozens of times while out with Spanky, that DID have a wheelchair ramp leading to the front door, along with a handicap accessible van parked in the side yard.  Siri confidently announced that we had arrived at our destination.  Shirell said she had knocked on the door over and over before coming to other houses on the street.   Although there wasn’t an actual address on the house, given the numbers on surrounding homes (and the clues of ramp and van) she had been sure this WAS where the patient lived.  I called Kim, in the office, back and after another 10 minute conversation, Kim apparently decided to take another look at the patient call/appointment log….GUESS WHAT SHE FOUND!  A note that read: patient bed-ridden and home alone, please retrieve key from under front door mat and let yourself in.  GOOD TO KNOW!!!  All I could think was of that patient. I have never seen or met whom ever lives in the house so I don’t know if it is a man or a woman, old or young, nor do I know what their physical issues are; but I kept thinking of that person, sitting in bed, hearing the doorbell and knocking and being helpless to do ANYTHING!!!

I left Shirell as she was letting herself into the house, and as I was walking back to Shawn’s house, my phone rang.  I was more than a bit surprised to see the name on the screen.  It was Shawn’s neighbor.  A woman that we had met and become friends with about 2 years ago, but almost as suddenly as the friendship began, it ended.  Neither Shawn nor I could ever figure out what had happened, but we went from regular calls to stop by for a bit, and long chats when we would pass each other while out walking the dog, to not even acknowledging or waiving when she would drive by.  Another neighbor mentioned something at a holiday party; something to the effect of, not surprising, probably better off, and just be cautious.  Shawn and I are a bit obtuse and we didn’t really get that either, but were perfectly content being in the dark, and weren’t devastated by the end of the brief friendship, more just confused.

Seeing her name pop up on the phone WAS a surprise, followed by more surprise when she started the call with “I meant to call you last night, want to take the dogs for a walk?”  NOT an unusual call from a friend, BUT and unusual call from a friend that had “divorced” me…my EX-FRIEND.  As I got back to the house, and was opening the door, I looked across the street, and there she was, on HER front steps, looking over at me (sorry, but a BIT CREEPY for me…stalkerish.)  Two thoughts went through my mind….1.) I must look PHENOMENAL in my froggie pajamas and the old pair of converse sneakers I had thrown on before joining Shirell….H.O.T.!!!! And  2.) The neighbor had obviously seen me with Shirell, and I wondered if THAT was the reason for the call.

I didn’t have to wonder long, because after a bit of pointless chit-chat, she brought it up herself.  Started with “I noticed that woman came to your door and that you actually talked with her….who was that, what did she want?”  MY GUT REACTION…I wanted to say, if you were so interested why didn’t you open the door, bitch?  BUT I am a nice person that USUALLY has good manners, and so that isn’t what I said.  I explained that she was a nurse, and she just needed help locating the patient she was supposed to see that lives on the street.  Guess what she said….”oh, well, she’s lying…that’s why I told her to fuck off and you just got swindled!”  HHHMMMMM, how is it that I got swindled?  And how is it that she KNOWS that Shirell was lying when she didn’t even open her door or talk with her at all?  This little burst, made my response to the dog-walking excursion a lot easier, I simply declined.  I don’t know WHY Shawn and I were friends one day and NOT the next, and I don’t know what the other neighbor had been eluding to at the holiday party.  BUT I do know that I do NOT need people like that in my life.  People who judge, believe the worst in people, and just seem down right miserable.

What did she get out of the experience?  NOTHING, other that a strong desire to know more about the woman, what I did for her, who she was visiting and what was in the huge bag.  What did I get out of the experience?  First and foremost a good feeling knowing that I had helped someone (actually two people if you count Shirell’s patient, silently laying in his/her bed) and just about 20 minutes ago, while writing this, I got an email from Shirell’s manager (she and I had exchanged contact information.)  It was a really nice thank you letter, acknowledging that I not only helped her, but went out of my way to make sure that the solution worked (meaning, found the house and got in to see the patient.)  He talked about the fact that he completely understands that in this day in age and given all the crime and violence in our society, he didn’t blame any of the neighbors that didn’t answer the door or talk with Shirell (though he did express that he felt the F-Bomb used by one particular neighbor was unnecessary:)  But given that, it made it even more notable that I did.  He thanked me for my “random act of kindness” which made me laugh out loud, because Shawn calls them Random Acts of Meg:)

HAVE A GREAT DAY AND PRACTICE ONE RANDOM ACT OF KINDNESS!

BIOGEN -TECFIDERA UPDATE:

Still going really well,  NO side-effects and truly do NOT have to take it with food, although just because of my medication schedule, I usually do take it just after breakfast and then again right after dinner.  I am still feeling like my “betters” might be a bit better.  We have been having really cool weather, so that has be in my favor.  Next week Shawn and I are heading down to Ocean Shores for the 4th of July, so there will be LOTS of activities, plenty of eating and drinking, warm weather and sun, and not so much rest, so figure that will certainly be a test.  Will let you know!