A Car Trip

     You may have noticed that I haven't written in a while.  That's because I haven't been up to much.  It turned out that I was right to be worried that something was wrong with me.  I had a minor infection which hopefully I've almost shaken.  I was feeling pretty miserable for a few days and spent a lot of time during the week of the 27th on Netflix, binge watching Scream: The TV Series and Murder, She Wrote.  That weekend I was feeling a bit better and was able to work on revising my novel, made some silly 4th of July hats, and managed to go on several longer walks.
     The Fourth of July went well.  I was actually feeling pretty good and my anxiety levels were relatively low for the drive down.  It was fun seeing many of my family members all together, including both of my siblings.  We had a cookout, went on a walk to the old rickety bridge, and just hung around and talked for hours.

Brian and me with the whimsical 4th hats I made.

     On Wednesday my little brother moved into his own apartment.  He and his girlfriend have the most adorable little kitten, Beans.  I saw this photo montage of animals with their toys when they were little and when they were all grown up and I thought it would be cute to get him a stuffed animal.  On Friday, Brian had to go check up on his mom's cats and I wanted to tag along with him to stop in at a store to get a toy for Beans.  However, I think my medicine wasn't agreeing so well with me because my stomach did not feel well.
     I'm trying to commit myself fully to a trip before going, so if I don't think I'll be up for it, I just stay home.  After giving it some thought, I told Brian that I was going to stay home.  However, he ended up playing a video game for an hour, and by the time he was ready to go, I changed my mind.  I realized that if I'm ever going to want to travel more than a few miles, such as to Portland, then I'm going to have to get used to riding around when I'm not feeling completely comfortable.  It seemed unlikely that I would get sick in the car and so I went with him.
     The trip down was a bit rocky at times, but when I was feeling off I talked to Brian about his story and sang along to the radio to keep my mind occupied.  The most important part of the trip was feeding the cats because they're not able to feed themselves.  I kept telling myself that if I was feeling miserable by the time we got down there, then it would take two minutes to feed the cats and then we could be on our way.  By the time we got done tending to the cats, I was feeling pretty okay.  We visited with Brian's grandma for a few and then headed over to pick out a stuffed animal.
     Sometimes it just takes time to work through things.  I'm glad Brian ended up waiting an hour and that I toughed it out.  It's a balancing act, deciding whether the benefits are worth the effort and energy drain.  I think it worked out all right this time, but that's not always the case.

Beans with his new friend.