I was crushed. I was absolutely devastated. It's been a year, and I'm still not completely over it. After I was let go, I asked to go home for the afternoon. I was crying, and feeling like a mess, and couldn't handle sitting at my desk for a few more hours.
I went out to my car, but was crying too hard to drive right away, so I called my mom. I needed to talk to somebody, and she was the perfect somebody. She cried with me, and then she comforted me. I remember she said:
"Well, bad things come in threes, so maybe this is the end of it."
You see, a few weeks earlier, I had been evicted with no notice. And a month prior to that, I had been fired from my part-time job. To me, it felt like my entire life was crashing down around my ears, but maybe my mom was right - if bad things came in threes, surely this was the end of it.
That was, indeed, the end of the worst of it. After a long and terrible year, only a few more bad things happened in the new year, but none so bad as my October-November. And then life carried on, things got better, and the pain and hurt started to fade.
Now, a year later, I'm laying here in bed, at 2 in the morning, thinking about my mom's words - "Bad things come in three."
Two weekends ago, I had an allergic reaction and ended up in the hospital. The meds they gave me messed up my sleep schedule like crazy. And then, this weekend, my puppy got an infection in a small cut, and I had to take her to the vet. She's on antibiotics and is stuck wearing the Cone of Shame for a few days. That same evening that I took my puppy to the vet, I fell down the stairs. This isn't a crazy incident for me, but I did wrench both of my arms really hard, and now my shoulders are in a lot of pain.
So here it is, 2 am, and I can't sleep. The steroids I was on for a few days messed up my sleep schedule. My dog is laying behind me, pressing her plastic cone into the small of my back. My shoulders hurt so bad I can't find a comfortable position to lay.
So perhaps it's true -- bad things do come in threes. Bad things that lead to no sleep for me certainly did come in threes.
But maybe perspective also comes with bad things. Maybe normally I'd be a big baby, and I'd feel oh-so bad for myself, pouting about how hard my life is right now. But compared to last November, this November is a cake walk.
And now I'm smiling, because I'm thinking how grateful I am that I had the time, the money and the capability to go to the hospital after my allergic reaction. And how glad I am to have my puppy in my life, and to be able to care for her. And you know, I'm even glad I fell down the stairs in my home, because I have a home.
A year ago, I didn't. I didn't have the mental capacity to cope with a hospital trip. I didn't have my puppy. I didn't have a home.
Eventually, the pain killers will kick in, and I'll fall asleep. I'll be tired at work tomorrow, but I have a job to go to. My puppy will heal, and the cone will come off in a couple of days. My sleep schedule will get back to normal. Everything is going to be okay.
