So sometimes you just have to dance. And I do. Any and everywhere. My car included. So when I got pulled over recently by a police car with two of Potsdam’s Finest, I didn’t expect the following encounter to happen. 

    Basically I had just turned right from a red light when it had turned green and I knew I had obeyed the traffic laws, but when I was pulled over, I calmly rolled down my window and waited for the officer to approach my window. When he did, he asked me if I knew why he was pulling me over. I stated that I did not as I had just made a turn at the red light and didn’t think I did anything wrong. He smiled and said, “actually my partner and I were just noticing your dance moves and were wondering whether that was actually “The Pony” you were doing there?” I laughed and replied “indeed it was. Is that against the law? I do a pretty mean pony!!” He said, “No Ma’am, we just had a bet going & you just made my day. Keep up those sweet dance moves and drive safely.” I ended the conversation with “you can count on it”. And smiled fiercely at him before driving away. 

    Now my point of this story is not that I got pulled over unnecessarily and left with no further action after that encounter, but if this is the way the local police are trying to improve the relations with the public, I’ll take it, because it truly made my day and I’ve shared this story with so many people and not one person has thought it was a negative thing in the end. 

   I know there are people who will always have a mistrust of law enforcement but after a day like yesterday when two D.C. police officers intentionally put themselves in harms way to stop an armed madman from shooting several congressmen on an open baseball field, I think there is a need to share as many good stories as possible. 

   And that’s why I started this blog in the first place. I was tired of reading about all the negative stuff out there and just wanted to put my little slice of “good” out in to the world. So that’s what it’s all about…”just the good stuff”. 

    Thanks officers. You made this gal’s day. I’ll keep up my sweet moves & you can bet I’ll be car dancing with all I have in me. I’m just that GOOD. 

    When your time is up, it’s up. And when it’s NOT UP, it’s REALLY NOT UP. Sometimes there’s really no rhyme or reason to these things. We all know I had a horrible car accident about 9 years ago where my car rolled twice, the windshield shattered, the driver was driving under the influence of a substance and my car went down an embankment off a freeway into a ditch.    

     Clearly, my time was not up. My two best friends from childhood were driving on their way to a “Dave Matthew’s Band” Concert in 2001 when their VW Jetta collided with a Dodge Ram going 23 miles an hour. Elizabeth was immediately killed on impact and Laura’s injuries were so life threatening she was pronounced brain dead the next day and never woke up again. When it’s your time, it’s your time. But when it’s not, boy it CERTAINLY IS NOT. 

    My Sister Candice had the misfortune of learning this first hand just a little over a week ago when a woman who was high on an illegal substance struck her car on the freeway heading northbound and Candice’s accident was eerily reminiscent of mine. She rolled twice down an embankment and in her case, ended up upside down in a ditch, she had a windshield blown out, and had to crawl out of her car to save her own life. The difference between Candice and My accident was I was nearly mortally wounded, and by the grace of the good lord above, she was not!!! She has but two scrapes on her knees where she had to place them on the glass to climb down after unhooking her seatbelt. To call it a miracle feels cliché but there really is no other adequate word for it all. When it is NOT your time, it is NOT YOUR TIME. And it was NOT Candice’s time!! 

    I can’t say that this experience hasn’t been stressful and brought up a whole bunch of emotions and feelings that I thought I had been able to put to rest, but at the end of the day, my sister needs me. She needs my wisdom, my experience and my input on how to deal with these things as they come and go. She also is brave and strong enough to seek professional help which is something I waited FAR too long to do and would be the one thing I would change if I could. But together, we’ll be better and stronger than before. Because the reason it wasn’t your time then was because of all the fabulous living you still have left to do. And boy…that’s a whole lot of good stuff!! 

     My Dad and I have been through it. I mean through the mud, into the the trenches and back up the mountain again. We have weathered some good times together and some real shit storms, but together we keep going. We started the “Adventures of Poppa & Pooch” (yep, that’s what my family calls me & always has…lol) when I was little but I started documenting them back in 2006 when I needed some heart surgery in San Diego & Dad came out to help take care of me. It sounds a lot darker than it actually was but we always manage to sprinkle some light on these situations. See, we find ways of making these times together enjoyable. 

    On that particular occasion, Dad ended up bartending and being the social butterfly at a Christmas party for one of my best friends and her then boyfriend at their beautiful ocean front condo which we ended up staying at for several weeks after. Don’t get me wrong, he still spent hours in recovery rooms, hospital rooms, doctors offices and friend’s apartments when we were waiting for my SA node to die so I could finally get my pacemaker…(FYI, that sounds a lot scarier than it actually is, but it’s still not super fun). 

    Then the next year was my car accident. Not a whole lot of joyful times came out of that, but a lot of bonding. Test driving cars with an IV in your arm and your Dad in the back seat ready to leap to take the wheel at a moment’s notice was a notable moment. As was our experience with my hyper aggressive reaction to steroids. I’m not a very large woman, but I was able to lift my Dad who is literally twice my size when I was given steroids in the hospital. Needless to say, that course of treatment was quickly discontinued. 

   My favorite moment from that experience was when my sweet Poppa was given the very serious task of flushing my IV and administering my medicine through my PIC line (which is basically a really fancy IV in your upper arm that goes directly into your chest). Dad had the home health nurse come out & show him how to do it & he took notes so he would get it just right. But on our first go at it alone, we both were a little nervous…first he had to flush the IV with heparin. And that has bubbles. I didn’t think you were supposed to have bubbles in your IV. I had read an urban legend that bubbles in your IV can give you an embolism and KILL YOU! So I said, “DAD!! Are you sure this is right??” And he said, “I don’t know!!! I think so!! But if not, know that I’ve loved you!! And he looked me dead in the eyes and pushed the Heparin into the IV. We both held our breath, and when I didn’t drop dead 20 seconds later, I smacked his arm & said, “that’s it?? Know that I’ve loved you??” And we both laughed really hard. Because sometimes laughter is even better medicine than antibiotics!! 

   And with the bad always comes the good and a year after my accident, Dad was able to return back to San Diego where we were able to see the US Open on Father’s Day at The Torrey Pines Golf Course. It was the last time Tiger Woods would win a US Open Championship to date and he did it in a sudden death against Rocco Mediate and Dad and I were there to see it. I worked at the hospital right next to the golf course so it was actually quite fateful that the treatment I was receiving was happening just next door to one of the most INCREDIBLE golf games in history!! 

     Fast Forward to 2015. Dad and I spent about a month together when my pacemaker decided it had had enough & was going to misbehave but through it all, Dad got AMAZINGLY good at picking out sweatshirts & other types of clothing for me that I could wear that I could tuck my external pacemaker wires into. He even became friends with three of my nurses (Luci, Julia & MaKayla) and my Doctor who would end up doing a small procedure on Dad the following summer as it turned out. And when I got sent down to NYC for some specialized care, we made the MOST of it and went to see the most AMAZING production of “An American In Paris” on Broadway and just took in the sites of New York City. 

   I’ve had a recent dental nightmare that has lasted WAY too long and has gotten WAY bigger than anyone had any idea. This time, Dad and I are going to do something really fun…we’re not sure what, but it’s coming and it’s going to be great. And when he finally said to me today “Honey, what I wouldn’t give for your pain. No one deserves this, and I would take it all if I could.” I realized that THAT right there is pure love. And it’s just good stuff.