Let me tell you a story. My son is graduating from College, he has a double major (Psychology/Sociology with a minor in Criminology). He was also accepted to USC where he will do his graduate work this fall. So we are proud of his achievements and we have family coming in from out-of-town that will be staying with us beginning tonight until Monday. This is a busy week, plus I'm working 8 hours per day and taking care of my husband at night. This last weekend, I worked very hard getting the house ready for our guests. I was up until 2:00 a.m., I was exhausted, but the house looked great.
Well, Monday morning when I went to work, my husband ate some ice cream with fresh strawberries but forgot to put the container back in the freezer because he became rigid and couldn't move. Picture a gallon of melted ice cream all over the counter, cabinets and clean floor. When he started to move again, he decided to get the dishes in the dishwasher but the dishwashing gel slipped and it splattered everywhere. So he went to the bathroom to wash up because he was ice cream sticky and had a coating of Cascade gel. While he was taking off his clothes, he knocked his new tube of toothpaste on the floor and accidently ran over it with his wheelchair. Of course, the cap was not on the tube of toothpaste! He attempted to clean this new mess, but the more he cleaned the worse it became. Afterwards, he's rolling down the hallway in his wheelchair, leaving mint flavored skid marks on my clean floor and living room carpet.
Oh, but it doesn't stop there. My husband went into one of the bedrooms that use to be his office. He still has a wall unit in there that contains all his video tapes that he used for his classes when he was still teaching at the University. When I got home, my husband had practically every video tape out (and we are talking about 200 +tapes), he also had books scattered on the bed, carpet, the window sill, the clean curtains were bunched up because he wanted to get more light into the bedroom. He had also pulled some of his clothes out of the closet. When I got home and saw this mess, I became hysterical, I lost my patience, started yelling and then I broke down and started sobbing. He apologized and said he was looking for some tapes that he thought our guests would enjoy, and he wanted to get his clothes ready for the graduation so I wouldn't have to worry about it. He meant well, but I was livid and he promised that he would put everything away. I couldn't take it, I needed to cool down so I jumped in the car and went for a drive. I stopped at a boutique store and I found the perfect thing that made me laugh. It was a sign in the shape of a lily pad and it had a big green frog sitting on the corner and written on it was: "This pad was clean yesterday, sorry you missed it". I purchased it and hanged it up.
I'm not going to stress, it's my son's graduation, I'm exhausted, my house is a mess, my guests arrive tonight, and if they don't want to stay in our landfill, they can check in at the Fairmont and pay $250 a night. My husband is my soulmate, my best friend, my Rock of Gibraltar, and I get no help from family. It's our home, and my husband's only place to be free, feel secure, and do the best he can, and unless you live with Parkinsons, you'll never understand what I'm talkng about.
Thanks for listening!
