Let me assure you, that is not the case.
People email me all the time and preface by saying, "you probably think I'm crazy or overreacting, compared to all you went through," and sometimes, yeah, you might be overreacting, but hey, sometimes I hyperventilate too.
And it doesn't make me a shallow person. It makes me normal.
Yes, five years ago I was fighting for my life, but now I'm living my life. And part of life are the frustrating little bits that can bring me to tears a lot faster than chemo did.
For example, (and if anyone dares to laugh at my misery, I will ban you from reading this blog,) take Sunday.
I was up Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday nights with my baby who is teething (yet again). Motzai Shabbos we were at an all time record where I was up six times between one and four in the morning and then up at six for the day.
At three thirty I ran out with my mother and sister, leaving the husband with both kids so that I could go to my last gown fitting before the brother's wedding.
Guess what. The gown don't fit.
I don't know if it was just made wrong, taken in wrong, or I'm built wrong, but that thing didn't look right no matter what we did.
I am not a picky person when it comes to these things, and spent the next two hours trying on 25 other dresses. Nothing doing.
Everything was too big or too fluffy or too nightgowny-looking, and almost all of them made me look thirteen. In fact, when my mother saw some girl trying on a stunning gown that she thought I'd look nice in, the girl was thirteen.
When after two hours, at closing time,I still had no gown, I threw a temper tantrum in the gown place.
I know, real mature.
I was sobbing all over some huge fluffy dress at how I was up since some unholy hour and now I was going to look ugly at my brother's wedding and no one cared and I just wasn't going to come, and I hated looking like I was still in high school...you get the picture.
So in a last-minute-no-choice-in-the-matter decision, we ran to another bridal shop that rents for DOUBLE the amount I was spending before (and it was NOT cheap to begin with, mind you!) and within fifteen minutes rented another gown.
I still came home and cried all night.
What? I'm entitled to want to feel pretty at the wedding! I never got to wear a gown before! I missed most of my sister's wedding to give birth to JB and I was really looking forward to being pretty next week.
One of the things I learned when I was sick was that no one has it easy. It doesn't matter that I had Hodgkins' and that my friend had a brain tumor, we were both suffering. Who's to say that one of us suffered more? How would you know?
Sure, crying about dresses might have seemed petty to me when I was bald and attached to an IV pole all the time, but hey, I would have given anything to be so innocent. I'd have loved for the most devastating thing in my life to be about a dress.
So I'm going to take this whole gown fiasco as an excuse to be grateful. I'm so happy that I'm at a time in my life where I can cry over a silly gown. I'm healthy, I have two cutie kids, a wonderful husband (who made my daughter a bottle with RICE instead of FORMULA)and in the end, a great gown to dance in at that wedding.
I used to feel awkward around those "shallow" people in my life, but for once, I can appreciate being one of them.
(what JB is wearing to the wedding. Couldn't resist.)
15 comments:
I would be shocked if you said you didn't care that nothing fitted just a week away from wedding.
Daaamn! Mine's teething but fortunately during the day mostly. 4 teeth so far.
Though today was weird, fine in the morning, then wakes in the afternoon, vomits twice, doesn't want to eat, screaming. Though no high fever...
Showing him his fav cartoon so now he's more or less back to being himself.
Hat Dude, yeah, I know. I'm just kinda embarrassed about taking so hard. Five years ago I'd have gone to the wedding bald rather than make a big deal out of a dress.
Moshe, she's not a bad teether kvetch wise. She just has reflux when she teethes. This time around (tooth 5 and 6) she got a virus with a measles-looking rash all over her body. Such fun.
Fun...
Mine's teething is mostly slobbering and chewing on everything. Also bites his grandmas, hard, usually on the neck. Several times bit them on the nose. Never really bites me though. I've got my own little baby vampire!
And it's great to be a man! Fit? Whatever. My wardrobe is jeans and t-shirts. And half the time on shabbat I wear kimono.
Congratulations on becoming one of the masses again ;-)
I do hope JB will be wearing shoes at least part of the time at your brother's chassuna-lol.
JB looks adorable. where did you get that outfit. my sis is looking for something like that for her son.
Thanks Bas-Melech. Get started on my review- should be ready to post it any day now. :-)
Mikimi- Yes, don't worry, he has some nice shoes to wear!
Anonymous- I found this at www.adorablebabyclothing.com. They have nice stuff for good prices. (This suit is called Chocolate Brown Boy's Spring Eaton Suit)
Their two drawbacks are that purchases can take up to ten days to get to you and that returns are a pain because they charge you a restocking fee etc. But the customer service was great when I called and I'm happy with the purchase so it worked out nice for me.
precious pictures! and yeah, nothing fits me either, so i get the feeling...
thanks for the info about the outfit. i felt kinda stupid asking but it's for my sis who's sick so i wanna help her out.
Anonymous- don't feel bad! I'm glad to share my secrets- your sister doesn't have to be sick for me to tell her where I got my son's outfit.
I never got that mentality where people don't want to say where they bought the dress they're wearing etc. Like would it KILL them if some other kid had the same one?
Cute pics! And I like where you had him pose ( standing on top of the counter! I hope he didnt practice dancing on there too :)
Enjoyed the pictures of JB in his simcha outfit. Glad to hear that you now also have a baby girl, although I hope she soon lets you sleep through the entire night. Can't wait to read your new book, as I loved "Miracle Ride." Curious as to what happened to "Michal," the girl from "Miracle Ride" who was hiding her illness and chemo from everyone? Did she win the battle against cancer...or lose?
Rezzno - Michal is 100% well today B"H! She had a baby girl three weeks after I did!
OMG JB is YUM!!!!!!!
and I've been through illness and all sorts of awful stuff like that too and I also freak when I look awful before a wedding... so feel justified... imagine what you would have been like before cancer!
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