Peace....And....Love

I'm with someone who has mom issues. I know this now, after several years of living together.
I remember the first Mother's Day after we'd moved in together, I expected a nice breakfast waiting for me. Nope. Not even a card. Not even a cup of coffee. Not even a "Happy Mother's Day." Nobody in the house said a word. I got a bit irritated by it because really all I wanted was breakfast. Steve pretty much avoided me all day, working out in the garage and doing his own thing. I kept wondering what I did wrong--I went about things as usual and hoped he'd say something.
He ended up getting mad at me because I pushed the subject a little. He never explained himself; he just sent his daughter down to the Rip Off Store (the overpriced clothing store) to get me a gift certificate.
I don't think he spoke to me much the rest of the day.
And since I make a big deal out of Father's Day, no matter WHAT father or grandfather happens to be around, I didn't understand the anticlimatic reaction to Mother's Day that I got. I was extremely close to my father and as of this summer he will have been gone for 20 years. But I don't let that turn every Father's Day into a miserable reminder that he's gone. I just choose to celebrate the good Fathers who are still here.

But then I got to know Steve a little better, and realized that he still misses his mom terribly.
He really respected and looked up to his mom, and she died of cancer after a terrible fight with it in 1996. Honestly, after I heard Steve talk about his mom's last days--it left quite an impression on me. I could hear in his voice the sadness when he described all the different desperate efforts to keep her alive, once her cancer started to really take over. We have a lot of people come and go in our lives but I could see that her loss had still weighed very heavily on him.

So, when I was asked to help with the American Cancer Society, the first thought that came to my mind was Steve's mom. Of course I've lost many to cancer but none of those losses have affected me like hers did with him. I wanted to do something for him. And her.

I don't know when I finally realized that my wishes to have a nice Mother's Day breakfast cooked for me were probably never going to come true--but eventually I came to that conclusion. A card would be nice--but we'll see.

Oh Brandeeeeeee....

As much as I like to be in sandals or barefoot, I found out this weekend that neither are good for my feet. For years, I've had what I now know is called Plantar Fascitis. I don't think that's the right spelling but that's the idea. It's when you go to get up out of bed and your feet feel like pins and needles for about the first 5 minutes of the day.
I try to always wear sandals or shoes that have pretty good support, but Friday I wore some new ones that felt great at first. But then they felt like spikes strapped to my feet. Couldn't do anything about it because we were super busy with the boat regatta and I had no way of leaving until after 11pm. Soooooo.....
Here's me trying to look happy during the Hot Wheels racing:



The next morning I got up and got going at the crack of dawn, and as soon as I got down on the beach to get to work I noticed my feet felt like I was walking on those spikes again. I struggled thru the day, which included running the event at five different venues and coordinating the helicopter photos. I set up the banquet.
I limped around and took ungodly amounts of ibuprofen to help manage. Luckily, I had two staff members who helped with the banquet because I was pretty much done by then. When I changed my clothes into my banquet dress and high heels, suddenly my feet felt a lot better. Not perfect, but manageable. Turns out, it was because the shape of the shoes were stretching out the tendons that were screwed up.

The banquet and awards stuff lasted a few hours, then we broke down all the equipment and loaded up. Sometime after midnight I finally sat down and I couldn't get back up. The high heel remedy had run out.

The next day, the pain was about 3 times worse. I layed around as much as I could, but it's just not logically possible to have a family, and all that, and lay down all day when you've been gone for several days. I looked up the type of pain I was having--thanks Google-- and I found the explanation. The tendons in my arch are inflamed, have been for years, and now this really bad pain is likely an irritation from arthritis or a bone spur. Wearing shoes that aren't supportive and going barefoot are ways to make it worse. When I read that, I first thought of Brandy and her mission to remain barefoot when possible. I wanna be barefoot too!!!!!!

I will be seeing the foot doctor this week, but until then I have to rest and keep the bottoms of my feet on ice. The ice apparently helps with the inflammation. It does feel better when I ice them down, waaay better than what ibuprofen does.

At least I don't have broken feet like I initially thought. I began to dread getting older. "I'm getting so old I break bones by just walking too much!!"
We'll see if the genius doctor can make things better.