Embracing the unexpected

Today has turned out a lot different to what we'd expected.

I've spent all week hoping my cold would be better by Saturday so that I wouldn't have to miss going to the wrestling finals. Yesterday afternoon I was in there process of convincing myself that I'd be fine by today when my husband texted me saying that the finals were cancelled. The forecast was for a day-long snow storm. 

Once I got over my initial personal disappointment, I realised how disappointing this would be for the wrestlers, especially the Junior Varsity (JV) ones (the B-team, which our son is a part of). Because this was to be their last meet. The Varsity team (A-team) still have a 3-day meet called "Far East" from Thursday next week, where they'll compete against not just the five other schools around Tokyo-Yokohama area, but other international and US defence schools in Asia.

Not only was it to be the last meet for the JV wrestlers, but I believe it is to the be only event where they get their own competition and awards. That is, they won't be competing against the varsity wrestlers.

A while later we received an email from the coach telling us that the whole meet had been rescheduled for Monday. Thankfully I have nothing on Monday that couldn't be changed or skipped, so I was free to go. David volunteered to drive the bus, and so he's able to go also. Unfortunately our younger two sons will have to rely on our reports and videos to appreciate the event.

Mid-morning just before I walked to
the doctor. Not too bad, if you're dressed
warmly enough and keep moving.

So, today isn't what we expected. It is what the weather bureau expected, though: it's snowing. Not hard, but constantly, enough that it's accumulating slowly on any horizontal surface.


Once the wrestling meet had been rescheduled I realised what a good thing that was. It would give me another couple of days to get better from this persistent cold. Plus, give our boys a quiet, restful weekend. At least two of the boys have been coming home from school very tired this week, like their bodies are fighting off something. A quiet Saturday definitely sounded like a good thing.

I thought I was getting better yesterday afternoon, I had more energy and the symptoms seemed to be slowly abating. But later as I coughed and coughed my way to bed, I realised that today would also be a good opportunity to go and be checked out by the doctor, hopefully getting some more/better medication for my cold-stimulated asthma. 

So this morning I hiked off through the snow to the doctor. Perfect day to go, too. It seems that the snow kept most people home, so I hardly had to wait at all. Turns out I also have a middle ear infection, which explains the deafness in my left ear. Got meds for that, plus permission to use more asthma meds. Hopefully with these aids, my body will overcome this bug and let me get on with important things that are piling up. 

Just when I was feeling, at the end of January, that I was getting ahead with the magazine editing, this cold has smitten me and I've done practically nothing in that line this week. Nothing like illness to help you realise how little control you really have!

But now I have a clear afternoon. It's the perfect afternoon to do some baking for the busy week ahead. My husband cooked up some apples this morning, so I'm going to bake an Apple Pie, and hopefully some apple muffins with any left-over apple. There also has been a request for Snickerdoodles. That will keep me from sitting still and feeling sorry for myself!