The Two Years of Hell ...

I promise to keep this brief ...

As I so often asked my Creative Writing students to do, I am going to take my own advice and simply do a random blog that's not really random, but it's deliberately vague at times.    The other day, after I had a minor breakdown when I was told that I would have to pay 1400 for a new air conditioner unit for the outside of my house, I decided to simply start a list of when my two years from hell started.  (It would be an interesting visual to graph my stress level and sadness during this time ...)  So with that, here is that simplified list:  *the months may be wrong but not the experience ...

*Months of pain, weight gain, and depression (personal and professional)
July 2010:  Surgery
August 2010:  Humiliating Break-up of long-term relationship
February 2011:  Death of Jim (former father-in-law)
April 2011:  Death of Homer (family neighbor for 47 years -- note:  my age)
April 2011:  Death of Beth (25-year-old cousin to my children)
August 2011:  Significant physical pain
September 2011:  Diagnosis of Aunt Phyllis's terminal cancer
September 2011:  Start of major medical testing after being told, "It's not Leukemia" (earlier blog)
October 2011:  Death of Uncle Bill
November 2011:  Replaced roof
December 2011:  Major surgery
December 2011:  Mom's heart attack
January 2012:  Mom's return to hospital
February 2012:  Death of Ky
March 2012:  Mom's triple by-pass surgery and 19+ days in hospital
March 2012:  Professional nightmare concerning another colleague
May 2012:  Replaced sump pump
June 2012:  Replaced air conditioner

*Of course, I could easily add a few details to each of these more vague ones, but for now, I won't.  I'm also choosing not to include all of the trials of my professional stresses, minus the one I included ... so you can infer that the one I included affected more than anything else I've encountered in my teaching career.

At this point my family and I have started joking about how my physical body seems to be connected to my house, and for those of you who know your Poe, I believe you'll understand why I immediately thought of The Fall of the House of Usher.  Rather perfect, don't you think?

The good news ... it's getting better, stronger ...

Thus, I'm still Reviving Krista ...