Nothing has Changed but Everything is Different

"I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing."
~Agatha Christie

The day began like most do for me - slowly. I spent some time relaxing around the house then went into work for a bit. I had plans to meet friends for dinner and a movie. We grabbed some Mexican and had a blast chatting with drinks, chips, and salsa while we waited for everyone to arrive and the food to come. It was delicious.

Then we went and saw Salt at a theatre close by. I rode to the theatre with a friend as I had said yes to the second tropical sangria. :) The movie was good, for an action film. Predictable, of course, but well done nevertheless. Plus there was buttered popcorn... Oh my heaven! ;)

My friend drove me back to my car and we sat and talked for quite a while. As we were wrapping things up my phone rang. It was my mom's cell, but actually my dad on the line. That's when he told me that my ill relative had been released from the hospital. She's in hospice care now, that's all that's left for her. One of those times you're not glad to be right.

We talked for over an hour, and by that I mean they talked and I listened. There wasn't much I could add to the conversation except for some clarity on things like stage IV kidney failure, creatinine levels, and low hemoglobin levels. As I was driving back to my place, I had my earbud in while I talked. Driving and listening was hard enough. So, my phone and earbud, in sepia. The end of my night: a monochrome, with all the shades of happiness completely muted by the unescapable woe.