Life and Death

Yesterday was a particularly difficult day. I woke up in a great mood. I had some great dreams the night before. I proceeded to do what I do just about every morning...check my phone for the news, Twitter, Facebook and my TimeHop. Within seconds my good mood turned to fear, then shock and disbelief. 

A member of my high school forensics team posted a really sad status regarding his daughter and his daughter's mother. After a little digging and news story hunting I learned the gut-wrenching truth: there was a really bad accident and it claimed five lives. I knew two of them. 

Also a member of my high school forensics team as well as student government and many committees is Ebony. She was our valedictorian. She is one of three sisters. Her mother worked at my dentist. Her older sister was always nice when I spoke to her. Her younger sister was on the forensics team. I remember when her younger sister was pregnant with her first child. I enjoyed trolling Facebook and watching this little girl grow up. Then the younger sister was pregnant with her second child. Little did I know, her older sister was also pregnant. 

Ebony's older sister Zarissa, younger sister Regina, Regina's two children...7 year old Jordan and 3 month on Jonathan, and Regina's boyfriend/Jonathan's father were killed in a horrible car accident in the early hours of January 10th on Route 50 in Maryland. They were headed to Zarissa's baby shower in Baltimore when they collided with a tractor trailer. The tractor trailer rolled over top of their car, killing everyone instantly except...according to news reports....Zarissa who was rushed to the hospital. She died there with her unborn daughter, Zoe. 

I spent the day trying to process this loss. I thought about Ebony and her parents losing so many loved ones all at once. I thought about Jordan's dad. I thought about Regina's boyfriend's family. I thought about Jordan's classmates. I thought about all of the people waiting to celebrate the baby shower for Zoe. I couldn't shake the numb and unsettling feeling all day. I felt like I was in a vacuum. I couldn't focus. 

I knew there was nothing I could do but pray for the family and send kind words. One thing I was able to do was correct the spelling of Zarissa's name on NBC10's webpage. I contacted the journalists who wrote up the story (it didn't take long for it to make national news) and told then that Zerissa is the incorrect spelling, regardless what official sources say. They corrected it. I also corrected a blunt comment on an ABC national news site and the poster removed the comment. 

I knew I couldn't spend the day in bed reading and rereading people's reactions to the news, the news stories, and feeling the overall hopelessness that comes when tragedies like this occur. I went out to run errands and go to the gym. On my way to the bank I came across a wedding photo shoot in Rittenhouse Square. It struck me...on a day where five people had died and hundreds were mourning, here was a couple celebrating what may just be one of the happiest day of their lives. What a juxtaposition. 

Many lessons are learned from this. Such as "life is short" and "live fully" and "it can happen in an instant." But most of those lessons are really harsh. They also make you question your life and personal happiness. If something were to happen to you tomorrow and today was your last day on earth, would you feel satisfied? Are you happy right now? 

Until next time...

May the souls of the faithful departed through the mercy of God, Rest in Peace. 

Good Luck Bad Luck Dumb Luck No Luck

On New Year's Day I made black eyed peas and baked fish. While doing the dishes after my "lucky" January 1st meal, I managed to slice open my pinky finger on the black eyed peas can lid. By slice I mean my finger went straight down on it, causing a nice incision on the back of the finger. I bled for quite awhile. My joke was...does this mean I jinxed the black eyed peas luck or do I get extra luck for making a blood pact?

If the first week of 2015 is my answer...I jinxed it. Work has been brutal. We're entering another crazy cycle of move ins and move outs in rapid fashion. I've been getting headaches daily. I have been eating green smoothies on the regular and I made it to the gym three times this week. But I still feel pretty run down. Also everyone in the office is getting hit by this plague. It is an upper respiratory virus. It's been attacking my coworkers one by one. I'm doing what I can to stay healthy but it is only a matter of time before I get hit with it too.

As for my black eyed peas wound? I was babysitting some kids last night while their mothers were at a meeting and a toddler was sitting on my lap. The toddler began to bounce every so slightly and somehow landed on my name badge. My poor pinky was resting under the badge and the metal clip rammed into my almost healed cut. I started bleeding again. 

I wore a band-aid to sleep last night but this morning on the EL when I took off my glove I found my finger covered in blood....again. When I got off at my stop I had to do a little survivalist first aid and clean the wound with hand sanitizer.  I then put a band-aid on it again. It looked like it was healing nicely this week...now we're back to square one. I'm beginning to wonder in much late fashion if I needed stitches....

The weather has been deathly cold. My workload steadily increases as I try to do everything I can to widdle it down. I can't focus on anything except keeping my pinky from getting infecting and keeping my diet and exercise in check. 

Bad luck so far. Or No luck at all. 

Until next time...