Tonight I had my monthly massage. It is truly one of the nicest things I have ever done for myself, this monthly massage. But I digress. My sweet masseuse was a little more chatty tonight. And because I am my mother's child and my mother-in-law's protege, she felt free to dump several pieces of her personal baggage on my front porch.
She told me about her brother who wants to leave his wife of three years. That he's been with for 10 years. He got hooked up with her while he was with the mother of his children. Who he was never married to. Who, as a result of the affair, took the kids and moved to Texas. Did I mention that the "other woman/current wife" was a friend to baby mama? Yep. Awesome.
Then she told me she didn't think he should get a divorce because she just got a divorce. And that if you added up all her marriages, she was married 20 years. Lots of marriages. Same number of divorces. Even more awesome.
Then her daughter, who is 25, just moved back in with her. Wanna know why? Because she got mixed up with a 40 year old man who took her for all her money. She lost her car because she did a title loan on it to give the dirtbag some money. And then she lost her apartment. And you know how she solved this problem? She went on Judge Mathis's show. They flew her up to Chicago and put her up in the Hard Rock Cafe hotel ($188 per night) and she lost the case. But apparently the guy said something really derogatory after the case was heard and the show granted her the money anyway. But it was not in time to save her car. But wait, there's more!
Daughter's next genius idea was to fix her hair really well (she's a hairdresser) and use $500 hair to do this. So mom did draw the line when she said she was going to buy $500 hair. She told her if she came home with $500 hair, she'd be living on the street with it. So, that's some wise financial advice.
And last, but certainly not least, her oldest son was in the military. Served one tour in Iraq. Still has flashbacks about it. Saw a wet, crumpled cardboard box in the street one day and swore up and down it was a dead body. They had to work really hard to convince him it was just a box. Sounds like a party, right?
The massage was great-she really worked several knots out of my neck. But what was even more great was the overwhelming sense of gratitude for my boring little life. My baggage looks carry-on size in comparison with this woman's.
Oh, and did I mention that my masseuse has been on crutches everyday this week except today because she's suffering from gout and plantar fasciatis? So this woman who's on her feet all day at her other job as a medical assistant and then stands up at her other job 3 days a week has a sore foot. Really? How on earth could I ever complain about anything?
Gratitude.
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