Amy Sumida's Blog - Posts Tagged "health"
Feeling guilty for feeling good
So I have this friend who seems to have the worst luck ever. She has all kinds of things wrong with her, from an allergy to pepper to dentures before the age of thirty. Every time I hang out with her I hear about some new trauma and at first, I admit to wondering if she was having me on. Now that we've been friends for awhile, I know that she's been absolutely honest with me. It's hard to fake dentures and Doctor's appointments.
Yet I remain baffled as to how one person can be slammed with so much trouble. How is it even possible? What did she do in a past life to warrant this? Seriously, she asked me to go with her to a doctors appointment the other day because now, on top of everything else, she's been feeling winded and has experienced hearing loss. She had to get blood work done, a CAT scan, a PET scan(something I've never heard of), and an audio test.
Well, we make it to the audiologist late and they won't see her. This is after driving all the way to Tripler Army Hospital(referred to as Cripler by military personnel)and navigating it's maze-like corridors to even find this place. Oh, and here I'd like to just give a shout out to the young mother who I passed in the hall. She was teaching her son about walking nicely on one side of the hallway, taking the time to explain to him why he shouldn't go running down the wrong side. Bravo, I heart you for taking the time to be a good parent. I and the rest of the world will surely benefit. Thank you.
Anyway, we leave and decide to go shopping. I didn't know she didn't have any money to go shopping until I went to pay and she didn't have anything to buy. Why did we go shopping? I don't know. But oh, she had a gift card for Ruby Tuesdays and why don't we go have dinner there? Okay, so off we go. We have dinner at Ruby Tuesdays in Kaneohe and she goes to pay and discovers that her wallet is missing. She still has her gift card, so I didn't have to cover her, not that I would have minded, but she's completely freaked about her wallet.
She looks in the bathroom, under our table, nothing. We go back to my house and look around, nothing. Finally she remembers that she went to the bathroom at TJ MAx, where we were shopping. So she calls the store and they didn't have a wallet turned in. She leaves her number and calls the restaurant, they don't have it either. "What should I do?" She's freaking out because she has a miniature badge in her wallet, a replica of her brother's police badge and now she's going on about how someone could use it and he's going to have to get a new one and that'll get him into trouble. I don't see how someone could use a tiny badge for anything but I didn't want to argue with her. Instead I suggest we go back to the restaurant and the store. I offered to tag along but honestly, I didn't think she'd want me to because it would mean another two trips over the mountain for her.
I was wrong though, she needed the support. So we pile in the car and just as we arrive at the restaurant, her phone rings. It's TJ Max calling to say they have her wallet. Oh joy, yay. Is she happy? No because TJ MAx is about to close and she needs her wallet to check in at work the next day(it has her work card in it). So we jump into the car to race over the mountain to TJ Max(at least 30 minutes away and they're closing in 30 minutes). I'm directing her down the back roads to get us there as fast as possible and she's so distraught that she gets into the lane on the wrong side of the street. Thank goodness I was watching and there weren't any cars. I yelled and told her to get into the right lane. "What the hell was that?" I asked her.
"I'm sorry, I thought it was all one road," she says.
"All four lanes?" I ask.
Well now she's freaking out more because she almost killed us and the whole ride there is spent apologizing to me. To which I reply it's okay, over and over. We get there and the store is closed of course but the nice employees at TJ Max...another shout out to them... answered her knock and gave her the wallet. Then it was back over the mountain for us and home for me, where I crawled into my bed and thanked all the gods that be, that I'm not so unlucky. I swear, I almost feel guilty for having nothing wrong with me when I'm with her. Now what do you all think? Do we make our own luck? Are we just victims of Fate? Is it all just a roll of the dice? Or do you think that certain mental states attract negativity? My friend is obviously not a bad person or I wouldn't be friends with her but she does focus on the negative a lot. In fact, one of the things I said to her that day was "Can you please stop complaining?" Because she bitched about everything from the way other people were driving to her car dinging because it needs window wiper fluid. She actually shouted at her car to shut up...several times. It was constant and what did she say when I asked her to stop? She blamed her husband. It's his fault that she whines so much, she never did that before. By the way it's also his fault that she drives so bad, she was always a good driver. I laughed and told her nuh-uh don't blame him for something you do.
So do you all think she's drawing this bad luck to herself? I don't know. I'm totally perplexed but I do know this, I'm so thankful for my health and my love of life. In the future, when I feel a whine coming on, I'm going to remember that day with my friend.
Yet I remain baffled as to how one person can be slammed with so much trouble. How is it even possible? What did she do in a past life to warrant this? Seriously, she asked me to go with her to a doctors appointment the other day because now, on top of everything else, she's been feeling winded and has experienced hearing loss. She had to get blood work done, a CAT scan, a PET scan(something I've never heard of), and an audio test.
Well, we make it to the audiologist late and they won't see her. This is after driving all the way to Tripler Army Hospital(referred to as Cripler by military personnel)and navigating it's maze-like corridors to even find this place. Oh, and here I'd like to just give a shout out to the young mother who I passed in the hall. She was teaching her son about walking nicely on one side of the hallway, taking the time to explain to him why he shouldn't go running down the wrong side. Bravo, I heart you for taking the time to be a good parent. I and the rest of the world will surely benefit. Thank you.
Anyway, we leave and decide to go shopping. I didn't know she didn't have any money to go shopping until I went to pay and she didn't have anything to buy. Why did we go shopping? I don't know. But oh, she had a gift card for Ruby Tuesdays and why don't we go have dinner there? Okay, so off we go. We have dinner at Ruby Tuesdays in Kaneohe and she goes to pay and discovers that her wallet is missing. She still has her gift card, so I didn't have to cover her, not that I would have minded, but she's completely freaked about her wallet.
She looks in the bathroom, under our table, nothing. We go back to my house and look around, nothing. Finally she remembers that she went to the bathroom at TJ MAx, where we were shopping. So she calls the store and they didn't have a wallet turned in. She leaves her number and calls the restaurant, they don't have it either. "What should I do?" She's freaking out because she has a miniature badge in her wallet, a replica of her brother's police badge and now she's going on about how someone could use it and he's going to have to get a new one and that'll get him into trouble. I don't see how someone could use a tiny badge for anything but I didn't want to argue with her. Instead I suggest we go back to the restaurant and the store. I offered to tag along but honestly, I didn't think she'd want me to because it would mean another two trips over the mountain for her.
I was wrong though, she needed the support. So we pile in the car and just as we arrive at the restaurant, her phone rings. It's TJ Max calling to say they have her wallet. Oh joy, yay. Is she happy? No because TJ MAx is about to close and she needs her wallet to check in at work the next day(it has her work card in it). So we jump into the car to race over the mountain to TJ Max(at least 30 minutes away and they're closing in 30 minutes). I'm directing her down the back roads to get us there as fast as possible and she's so distraught that she gets into the lane on the wrong side of the street. Thank goodness I was watching and there weren't any cars. I yelled and told her to get into the right lane. "What the hell was that?" I asked her.
"I'm sorry, I thought it was all one road," she says.
"All four lanes?" I ask.
Well now she's freaking out more because she almost killed us and the whole ride there is spent apologizing to me. To which I reply it's okay, over and over. We get there and the store is closed of course but the nice employees at TJ Max...another shout out to them... answered her knock and gave her the wallet. Then it was back over the mountain for us and home for me, where I crawled into my bed and thanked all the gods that be, that I'm not so unlucky. I swear, I almost feel guilty for having nothing wrong with me when I'm with her. Now what do you all think? Do we make our own luck? Are we just victims of Fate? Is it all just a roll of the dice? Or do you think that certain mental states attract negativity? My friend is obviously not a bad person or I wouldn't be friends with her but she does focus on the negative a lot. In fact, one of the things I said to her that day was "Can you please stop complaining?" Because she bitched about everything from the way other people were driving to her car dinging because it needs window wiper fluid. She actually shouted at her car to shut up...several times. It was constant and what did she say when I asked her to stop? She blamed her husband. It's his fault that she whines so much, she never did that before. By the way it's also his fault that she drives so bad, she was always a good driver. I laughed and told her nuh-uh don't blame him for something you do.
So do you all think she's drawing this bad luck to herself? I don't know. I'm totally perplexed but I do know this, I'm so thankful for my health and my love of life. In the future, when I feel a whine coming on, I'm going to remember that day with my friend.
