Seeing Red

It was 6:45am last Wednesday morning.  I had to be in Bastrop pretty early but first had to drop the kids off at school.  Now, I don’t know about you, but mornings are complete chaos in our house.  Between feeding the animals (and the kids), packing lunches, getting ready, making sure homework has been done, and all of the other stuff that at any other time of the day would not seem like a big deal, mornings are crazy.

I was getting ready to walk out of the bathroom to go downstairs when a brand new bottle of red nail polish fell off of the counter (in slow motion) and exploded all over me and the bathroom.  I had the “Oh Sh*&!” moment and went to pick up the bottle when, you guessed it, the bottom fell out and it dropped again, splattering even more red nail polish.

(This was before I dropped it the second time.  And I can’t believe I’m showing you my toilet!)

I screamed so loud I’m sure the neighbors heard.  My husband ran upstairs to make sure everything was ok and his chin hit the floor.  First, because he thought it was blood.  Next, because I was late and needed him to clean it up.  I don’t know if you’ve ever spilled nail polish, but holy cow, that stuff is a pain to get up and it smears everywhere.

I finally got in the car, nail polish remover and cotton balls in hand, and set out on my way.  By this time, I was completely sweating, I had red nail polish ALL over me, and I hadn’t even had time to put on makeup.  I’ll spare you that picture.

Talk about an exhilarating way to start your day.  I grumbled a bit, but eventually I talked to myself into a good mood and headed to Bastrop.

Then, the day took another turn.  I found out my friend Carol lost her battle with brain cancer and passed away a little after 3pm.  I returned home to find a bathroom with smeared red nail polish everywhere, and my friend was gone.  Needless to say, I had a good cry.

The lessons I took from this?

1.  NEVER leave a bottle of nail polish anywhere it has the ability to fall.   My husband put me on level 1 (a point tracking system we use for Evan…level 1 is not fun), and I was told I couldn’t use nail polish for the foreseeable future 🙂

2.  Life is precious.  Eight months ago, Carol was vibrant, healthy, and full of life.  She was my teacher for the first class I ever took with NAMI and really helped me through some tough times with Evan.  She went to the doctor because she was tired and found out she had stage IV brain cancer.  Carol was 55 years old and has three children still in school.

3. Don’t sweat the small, unimportant stuff.   Little things like a bathroom full of red nail polish may seem like a big deal at the time, but life finds a way to help put things in perspective.  I would clean up nail polish across every inch of my house if it could bring Carol back.

4.  Have fun.  Don’t wait for the right job, house, money, etc.  Having fun is a choice.  Choose it.

(Gotta love my husband)

5.  Tell the people you love that you love them.  NOW!

This post is dedicated to Carol Fagan.  I feel blessed to have called you my friend.  You will be sincerely missed.