Living In the Looking Glass

I keep saying, out loud, to no one in particular, in absolute disbelief that this is the weirdest summer on record for me. Since I recognize that I am prone to hyperbole, I scrutinize what I say regularly. It's the good news, bad news concept. The good news is I am a story teller and able to pick up on minute details; the bad news is then, I embellish the truth in order to maintain people's interest. I don't think I lie, but I definitely expound on a story in order to get the feeling across. Bottom line, I really do think this is one weird summer.
We sold our house as planned. Check. We, then, moved to an apartment for temporary housing. Check. Next, we found a house we both love, please don't underestimate the difficulty in this, and are buying it. Check. In theory, on paper all things are falling into place for us. Check. Buckle up, because here is where it all starts to get weird.
The first night in the apartment, the ceiling literally fell in on us. Living here isn't bad, per say, but it is a completely different eco-system. More to the point, we have different bugs, birds, sounds and everything looks a bit beat up. Butterflies with broken wings fly around me. The strangest looking beetles, like something discovered in an archeological dig, crawl around our patio. The birds are dirty and their feathers are always ruffled, as if they just got back from a 3,000 mile cross country flight. It's surreal, looking at these creatures that are somewhat unrecognizable to me. I have seen some of them before, but they are the weathered versions of the pictures in my head. I have seen the oddest looking creatures since we moved and we only live about 3 miles from our old house.
Our previous neighbors here at the apartment, had some difficulty with the folks who run the place and began rebelling. More on that on a later date. My car suddenly had a brake leak where I almost lost my brakes completely. I am not accusing anyone, it is however, part of the weird, I keep referring to. I will also point out that we received an unexpected check that nearly covered all my cars expenses which was an incredible divine intervention.
In a single week, we find out something incredible that makes us want to dance, and then we find out something terrible that causes us to weep. We hear things are going as planned, only to receive a call that some paper work glitch that has nothing to do with anything, that we can tell, has now mucked up the works.
Tragedies have fallen on those we know and love, just as find out information that someone else has had their dreams come true. My family's friends are effected this summer also. Miraculous and tragic is what seems to be this year's theme. None of it completely shocking, though, I will admit. Most things have history behind them, so when things strike, I see where they have come from. There is some logic to all this messiness. However the timing to all of it is striking. Usually it takes years for things to pan out one way or the other, but this year things are happening at such a high volume and speed, I feel a little like we are the drive through lane of emotional highs and lows. We don't have time to process one thing when another thing comes zooming up demanding our immediate attention.
I had to stop watching TV almost entirely, except innocuous stuff, like stand up comedy and sitcoms. Hurricanes, tar balls, unemployment, greed, corruption, well, quite frankly, it pushes me right to the edge. Reality stars, as if that were even a real title, have lowered themselves to the position of fungus to extend their 15 minutes of a fame they shouldn't have had in the first place. Celebrities on probation, walking around with prescriptions of extremely high powered pain medications, normally reserved for our sickest terminally ill patients, while our court system turns a blind eye. A government that is so out of touch with reality and their constituents that they have literally sent me return messages that are incoherent, completely unrelated to the original questions I had about bills they already passed. The good news is everyone I have written has answered back. The bad news is none of their responses made any sense at all.
That has been what I have done on my "summer vacation", watch the good news come in, with the bad news rolling in right behind it. I have to admit that I have a shocked expression on my face lately all the time. I didn't get a brow lift, I really am that surprised most days. I have no enlightened response to all of this right now. Most days I can't wrap my brain around all the stuff I see and hear. When things get really weird and I feel my sense of security start to falter, I merely try and breathe deep a few times and remember that my family is OK. We are OK. Years ago, when the kids and I last went into an apartment, it was when I was separating from their father. That was another very strange time for us. We had lived there for a while and my children had bought me a silver ring. Well,they picked it out for me, at least. It is a ring with Alice In Wonderland characters. They had seen me fall down the rabbit hole, so to speak, and thought the ring was a nice reminder that the story ends well. I just recently ran across the ring, while cleaning out my closet, getting ready for the next move. All this moving is reminiscent of the world's worst chess game, so finding the ring is really quite apropos.
The one thing I know I have to do is, keep track of all the weird things that have happened in the last few weeks. Once I get my thoughts organized and some time has passed, they will make the best stories. Just a month ago I was telling Mike how boring I felt my life was becoming. Be very careful what you wish for...