Taking Things for Granted

I've changed vitamins, and these new ones have to be taken with a meal. Since I eat breakfast at my desk before work, I have to take them to work. So when I grabbed the vitamins, I headed over a couple of aisles to pick up a pill case…and found myself facing an astounding array of gadgets and organizers. All I could do was stare. Some of the cases were huge things, probably 8" by 10", and had four compartments for each day. Four per day.

It made me so grateful! Yes, I have a few health issues: I have scoliosis, rosacea, and keratosis pilaris. I also have sensitive skin. But you know what? I'm healthy. Yes, my vision is so bad that I live in a world of very fuzzy blobs without my contacts.

But I'm healthy.

I do not have an army of medicine bottles populating my bathroom; my days are not regulated by medications. I do not have to plan my life around doctors' appointments.

I'm healthy. And I'm thankful.

Phantasma Relay for Life

This is a repost from my Relay for Life page. I was surprised how hard it was to write it. Anyway, I've joined the Phantasma team for the Gwinnett County, Georgia Relay for Life, a fund raiser for the American Cancer Society. Phastasma is being captained by Ishy, and is being coordinated by TechnoChicks.

Here's why I'm doing Relay for Life. I'm not begging for money here; this is only intended to get people thinking.

Why Relay for Life?

Days before my wedding in 1996, my grandmother's younger sister was diagnosed with breast cancer. Neither she nor my Aunt Odette could be there when I was married. Aunt Dot was a widow: she lost my Uncle Joe to lung cancer a few years earlier. Her cancer did finally go into remission, but returned with a vengeance. We thought she had beaten it, but this time her brain, liver, and breasts were all affected, and she died soon after her initial collapse. I still remember the shock when my sister and brother told me; I was numb for days.

Then, just a few years ago, my grandmother came to visit us for Christmas. The day after Christmas, she said the words you never want to hear: "I have cancer." Grandma Lucy was a strong woman who was healthy her whole life, a woman who went on a mission trip to Romania working with orphans and a pilgrimage to the Holy Land after my grandfather died. How could such a woman have cancer?

She did, though: breast cancer, just like her sister. I thank God that my aunt, uncle, and cousins were able to move her to Pennsylvania and care for her until her death, surrounding her with the love of family and giving my cousins the chance to know her as I did.

I've known so many people who have struggled with cancer; too many of them have lost their fight. As a teenager, I watched my neighbor Betty die of lung cancer. Just a year ago this month, my friend Lisa had breast cancer surgery. Lisa's doing great, but while she was fighting breast cancer, her mom lost her own battle with breast cancer.

And if not for the grace of God and the miracles of medical science, I would never have met Michelle, a wonderful woman and one of my closest friends, a thyroid cancer survivor.

I want to see an end to cancer during my lifetime; I don't want the threat of cancer looming over the next generation. By participating in Relay for Life, I have an opportunity to celebrate the lives of those who have battled cancer, remember loved ones lost, and support the American Cancer Society’s lifesaving mission.

No Gas for You!

You may have heard about the gas shortage in the Southeast following Hurricane Ike. What you may not realize is just how ridiculous it has gotten here in Atlanta. In my part of town, at least, more than ninety percent of the stations I pass are out of gas. You heard me right: nine out of every ten stations simply don't have any gasoline. None. And mid grade or premium gas? Well, if you find stations that have it, it's pure luck.

Dorkelf and I were supposed to go camping at Amicolola Falls over the weekend, with a visit to Dahlonega (site of the first major U.S. gold rush and a beautiful town). Um, that would require enough gas to get us there and back, and half a tank won't do it.

My husband had passed an open station on his way to pick me up, so we headed over there. We wait in a fairly short line (that means there were only five cars in line waiting for each pump) and pull up. No gas. Seriously: while we watch, an employee walks over and removes the prices from the sign. As we learned over the past week, that's the universal symbol for "no gas left." The person before us had gotten the last of the gas!

So we drove around and around, unable to find another station with gas. The only one we found was a QuikTrip up the street from our apartment, and the line was so long that we wouldn't be able to go camping if we waited. It was already 6:45; wait an hour for gas, and it would be 7:45 or 8:00 when we finished. That would put us arriving at the campground at 10:00. Our tent is very easy to set up, but at 10 pm, in the dark, trying not to disturb everyone else? Not my idea of fun. (As we found out the next day, it's just as well we didn't wait. They ran out of gas shortly thereafter; there was also a scenic fistfight in the parking lot…not the usual sort of thing for our neighborhood!)

Friday night we drove the five miles to a very pleasant shopping center and spent my husband's Barnes and Noble gift card on Heroes season Two. To our way of thinking, if our plans were going to be spoiled, we were at least going to have some fun! Saturday, we drove all the way to IHOP, four miles from the house, which allowed us to do our grocery and pet shopping all in the same shopping center.

Sunday we splurged. After church, we drove a few minutes down the road to the Duluth Fall Festival. We met my sister (driving on a nearly empty tank of gas) and had a great lunch. Then I hung around and did birthday and anniversary shopping while Dorkelf ran back to the church for his student's recital.

After he picked me up, I told him about an open gas station a woman from church said had gas that morning. It was only a couple of blocks out of the way, so we took a chance and drove over. Yay gas! We were in line for forty minutes, which isn't bad considering that the line you see in the photo was one of three lines just like it going into the one station. But we got ten gallons of gas, and QuikTrip was only charging $3.89, the lowest I've seen in Northeast Atlanta! Plus, the employees were doing a great job directing traffic. (QuikTrip has handled this better than any other company I've seen.)

Of course, many inconsiderate people are only making it worse. Ridership on public transportation was up last week (according to drivers; I know my bus was more crowded!), but this morning the bus was nearly empty. Many other people aren't cutting back on their driving, especially in upper middle class and upper class areas. People all over the city are topping up the tank every time they pass an open station, instead of waiting until they get to a quarter tank or so. That means the gas runs out faster, and our supply is already low in the wake of Gustav and Ike.

I feel like my husband and I are already acting responsibly on this front. We live fairly close to my husband's job now, so his commute is short, even with a short detour to take me to the bus center. I take public transportation to work every day, and home every day except Wednesday and Thursday. (Wednesday, public transportation would make me late to church; Thursday, I take it to dance class, but get out of class too late for the bus.) On those days, he picks me up.

Anyway, next time you pass two gas stations in a row with gas and no waiting, think about all of us in Atlanta and be thankful!