Angels, Demons, Fevers, and Glass

This weekend didn't feel like a normal weekend and I can't quite wrap my head around this being Sunday night.

For one thing, Paul and I went on a date tonight (dinner followed by Angels & Demons, both of which were fine - though the movie had some impressive special effects it didn't quite mask all of the flaws in the book). Date night makes it a weekend, right?

Then there's the fact that my mom is supposed to come tomorrow, but she isn't (more on that in a moment). The weekend feeling begins to trickle away.

Thursday night, on the way home from gymnastics, Ada told me that she was "too tired" and wanted to go straight to bed. She woke up three times during the night, hotter each time. Friday and Saturday she was feverish and achy. This morning her fever was barely there and it broke during naptime. Ada was a wonderful sick person. Cheerful, sweet, cuddly. And she had no symptoms I could discern besides fever and related achiness.

Other than a trip to the grocery store on Saturday afternoon, I've been home since Thursday night. That's the longest I've spent at home in . . . years, surely. I even skipped church this morning to be home with Ada. It seems weird not to go out and do stuff on a weekend.

It was kind of fun to stay in, and I'm so glad that Ada didn't get sicker, that she seems to be well now, that Ellie hasn't gotten sick.

We're in better shape than my dad.

On Thursday morning he ate breakfast out on their back porch. As this is a screened in room, it tends to accumulate a little clutter. Like, for instance, an empty old fish tank. Which he tripped over as he carried his cereal bowl back to the kitchen.

Fortunately, he twisted his torso and lifted his arms to save the bowl. Not only did he succeed in rescuing the china, he also avoided serious injury to his hands, arms, and torso. Instead, the deepest gouges, gashes, and slices were all over his right leg. My mother drove him to the emergency room where he got countless (or at least uncounted) stitches both internally and externally. He's on crutches and is expected to heal, but will need some rehab. Scary. Lucky.

So my mom's staying home for a while to take care of my dad, and we'll get along OK here without her, though we'll miss her. It's been a weekend of realizing all over again how things can change in an instant. Your plans seem set in stone until things change and they just aren't any more. Your parent gets hurt, your child gets sick, your younger sister is diagnosed with a brain tumor right before your big annual Christmas party.

Perspective shift: click. The world looks different from over here. It's good to look at the world sideways every now and then. I'm glad it was just a small shift this time.