Life of the Lintee Bean

Ever have one of those weeks (or months) where your life is like a bad country song? The past two weeks have been a frustrating time for me. My boyfriend and I broke up. My cat, Jellybean, died. I injured my back/hip. I’m lucky I don’t have a pickup truck as it might have been stolen. As one of my favorite country songs goes, “Sometimes you’re the windshield, sometimes you’re the bug”. The past two weeks I’ve definitely been the bug.

Don’t you hate it when you injure yourself, but don’t know how? I simply woke up Friday morning, went to get out of bed – and couldn’t. I was fine when I went to bed the night before. My back was sore, but it’s always sore. The only explanation I can think of is maybe I woke during the night, stretched/cracked my back as I often do, and hyper-extended some muscle in my right lower back. Eventually I was able to pull myself out of bed and hobble out of the bedroom. However, when the pain didn’t subside, I let the office know I wouldn’t be in. I can’t really afford to take another day off, as I have less then three paid days off remaining for the year, but I saw no way I’d be able to get to the train and from the train to my office.

I sat at home for two days, and felt up to venturing out Sunday morning.  I went to my least favorite grocery store, as it was too early to go to my favorite store, and I didn’t feel like driving across town to visit another.  I only needed a few things, including coffee.  To my dismay, their coffee grinder was obviously out of order.  It was apparent by the coffee beans strewn throughout the aisle and on top of the coffee grinder, but I still tried in vain to make the grinder work.  It didn’t.

The past two weeks weren’t all bad. My friend visited over the holiday weekend and we had a great time. She’s an avid dancer, so we went out dancing (ballroom, west coast swing, hustle, etc.)  Tuesday, I went to my favorite local yarn store. I don’t know if they could tell I’d had a rough day or were just feeling especially generous, but they gave me several cones of yarn at no charge.  (They refer to my free yarn as “homework” and ask that I bring them pictures, or better yet an actual crocheted item, to display at the store). Even my back injury, while I hated telling people the cause was unknown, and I hated crawling up and down the stairs, I did have a great excuse to sit around all day Friday and Saturday doing nothing but crochet.

So, I guess I wasn’t entirely a bug the past two weeks, or at least a bug that attended a really great picnic.

Submitted for publication in the Greeley Citizen