It’s the Small Things

As anyone who has “dealt” with me can certainly attest, I have a propensity to be somewhat stubbornly obstinate in the way I would like to have things done.  Perhaps this personality quirk is a leftover remnant from my control-obsessed days in the field of public school education or maybe it’s the product of a lifetime of having serious OCD tendencies.  Whatever the case may be, the bottom line is this:  there is a reason for almost everything that I ask people to do.  And even if it is a seemingly minute detail to the entire population of the United States of America (including Guam and Puerto Rico), it makes a whole world of difference to me.

For example, my feet need to be spread out wide before standing up to transfer me from the recliner to the wheelchair so as to maximize my precarious sense of balance.  When taking my two sets of pills with apple sauce, a pill scoop  should always be followed by a chaser spoonful so as not to leave unswallowed and rapidly dissolving chalky medicine residue in the back of my throat.  As I am sleeping, it is important that when I turn over from my left side and onto my back that I am not feeling suffocated and constricted by excess blankets and sheets that have mysteriously migrated to underneath the right side of my body, which, in turn, effectively renders me utterly immobilized and subsequently wide awake as I futilely struggle to get free from this cotton maiden medieval torture device.

On the other hand, the small things in this life are the things that I most look forward to day after day.  It’s the way that Emma talks to me when everyone is off in some other room doing whatever it is that they’re doing and it’s just me and Emma chatting it up like we are on a television talk show.  It’s sending and receiving texts with Fehmeen and laughing about them when she arrives home from school.  It’s watching Giants and Niner games with my dad, aka the Italian Man Servant.  It’s laughing about old times when pals like Steamy, Berra, and Beusch come over.  It’s connecting with old buddies and former students on facebook.  And it’s receiving comments on this blog from friends, family, and especially complete strangers that seriously make my day and bring an additional grin to my already nearly always smiling face.

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