My Day of Respite

On Sunday, my sister Donna took my mom out for the day. The plan was to go to Bingo at the Catholic Church in Malden.

The day was crazy as far as weather is concerned, it snowed! October 18th and we had white flakes falling out of the sky and sticking to the grass. I never got my geraniums out of the ground. Oh well, is there still time? (yes, they all survived.)

When they arrived at the bingo hall there was NO BINGO. They had parked a distance away and walked up to the doors. A school aged boy greeted them. Donna asked about Bingo and the kid said, "no bingo today, it's open house for the school."

Donna and Ma trudged back to the car in the snow.

I had packed them a lunch using lettuce leaves in place of bread wraps. I tied the little bundles together with green onion. I even packed them some 70% cocoa chocolate bars for desert.

Donna took my mom to a Dunkin Donuts. They went through the drive thru and got a coffee. They sat in the front seat of Donna's pickup truck and ate the lunch that I had packed for them.

Next, Donna took Ma shopping for a hat. She came home with 2 hats, excited to have found a purple one to match her jacket.

My day began with a cheer as Donna and my mom drove off. Brian told me that he'd take me anywhere I wanted to go. My first choice was Mexican but it was snowing. I didn't want to travel that far on a crappy day. Instead, we went to our favorite Chinese Restaurant.

Rick the owner was happy to see us. His favorite line is, "Thank God for bad cooks." Then he laughs and tells me that he knows I'm a good cook.

We learned how to say thank you in Chinese and Goodbye.

After I had 3 Mai Tai's, I was thanking everyone and saying goodbye to everyone. Who knows if I was pronouncing them right, for all I know I could have been telling the wait staffers that they had hairy palms!

I was feeling good. I ate the hot pepper sauce. Oh, I love that hot pepper sauce. As I ate it, I knew it was a bad idea. I haven't been eating out at restaurants or doing take out. I've been making everything fresh and from scratch - the best. Tasty.

It must have been the Mai Tai's. I ate too much hot pepper sauce.

For the next 36 hours, I would suffer stomach pains that were so bad, I thought I needed an emergency room visit.

Last night sucked. I did my best to calm my mom before bed. I gave her Reiki and Hypnosis. The pain in my stomach was intense. It made it difficult to release all thoughts so that I could become a good conduit of healing energy for not only my mom, but me too.

I focused on my hands. I felt the heat. The tingling. The pain was in my fingers. The pain seemed to be draining it out of my mom. I forgot about my belly ache, my fingers were aching.

My mom was up 3 times last night. She had the Ashwagandha drops, 8 of them. I don't know why she got up but every time I walked her back to her bed. She thanked me for helping her to find it.

My day of respite was awesome, even if I did end up with gastrointestinal pains for about 36 hours from the food that I had eaten.

The buzz that I had from the drinks was welcomed. I didn't give my mom any thought, I knew she was with Donna. When we got home, I took a nap. It felt so good to sleep.

I was enjoying my nap when I heard the door open. It was Donna with my Mom. It was time to wake up. I tried to fake sleep, hoping that it was just a dream. But, Brian showed up before me as he said, "Sus-iiiieeee, Josie's home. Time to wake up."