I'm sure that sentence sounds familiar to everyone. I've used it from time to time myself. The last little while, that's exactly what I've been thinking. There have been so many bad things that have happened to me lately that I don't even know where to start.
I guess I'll go back to December. My work had a Christmas party at a Country Club in Park City. Derek had a lot of homework he wanted to finish, so he didn't go. My Jeep got about 18 miles to the gallon and I knew I was going to be having a few drinks, so I didn't want to drive. My good friend Ashley offered to drive and a few of us were riding up with her.
We had a couple drinks before we left and headed up. The night, as a whole, was a lot of fun. The servers were horrible though. Every time I'd even get close to finishing my wine, they'd poor me some more. For most people, that's not horrible. For me, on this night, it was.
We left the party and went back to Ashley's. As far as I know (I don't even remember leaving the party), we had a couple more drinks and then I threw a fit saying I needed to get home. I guess they tried to keep me from driving home, but I wasn't having any of it. I took off.
What I do remember is sitting on the curb in handcuffs. Then being in the drunk tank at the jail.
Since then trying to pay all of my court fines and everything else along with all of my normal bills has been really difficult. I did it to myself, I realize that, but it's just been really hard.
A couple of months after this happened, my Jeep's engine died. It would have cost us $4k+ to get it repaired. We decided that since we'd have to get a loan to take care of it anyway, we may as well just set the Jeep aside for the kid to work on and get a loan for a new car for me. I had a 2005 PT Cruiser Convertible shortly thereafter. I love my car. I miss my Jeep.
The Jeep stayed where it was for a time, and then we desperately needed the money, so we sold it (insert crying emoticon here). Didn't get as much for it as we should have, but oh well. The deed is done.
I dropped my work phone in some water and destroyed it. I took it back to work and they told me that since I was back in Tier 1 (never my decision, yet another big thing that has gone wrong for me), that I no longer need a phone with the company. I had to get my number ported to another phone. I got a phone with Boost Mobile.
The things listed above are not the only things that have gone wrong for me lately, but those are the biggest ones, and really the only ones I want to mention in a public forum.
Now, if you've read this far, fantastic. Not everything I have to say is negative, I promise. Hahaha.
Everyone always says that everything happens for a reason, right? Throughout all of these things, I could not have agreed less. I could not see any reason for anything that I had been going through, except for the universe to be making my life a living hell.
However, something really fantastic came from all of this negativity. Well, at least one thing. In the process of dealing with all of my court stuff from my DUI, I was told by the judge that I would need to do 9 more days in jail. I told him that if I did 9 days in jail, I'd lose my job. So he stated that he could take that 9 days jail time and change it to the equivalent in community service. I was much better with this idea (despite it being 216 hours worth) and agreed to it.
I was considering doing my community service time at some place like the Humane Society, where I had volunteered some time before. I told Derek about this idea and he said he worked with someone that actually works at an animal shelter. I got a volunteer application and started volunteering the next week at the West Valley Animal Shelter on 35th south.
I actually really enjoy volunteering there. It sucks getting up early, but the work I do isn't bad and I get to see some really great animals every day that I'm there.
One day, Tyler, the guy that Derek works at Sears with, came in with a puppy and said "Look at my new puppy!" He seemed like he might be planning on adopting the puppy, but I never really knew for sure with him. Anyways. The pup was adorable!
I text Tyler the next day and asked if he was going to adopt the puppy. I honestly had no idea if he was serious about adopting him or not. He wrote back and said he thought so. I told him that if he decided not to, to let me be the first to know because I wanted him. He said that if I wanted him, he would let me have him because he had just gotten kicked out of his house. He then told me he thought the puppy was deaf.
After doing some research, something in the genes for Aussies with this coloring can cause them to be deaf or blind. I told Derek this and he just shrugged and said "That's not a big deal. We'll just teach him sign language." So we brought him home.
This is how he started:
Hahaha! He's growing really fast. The first picture above is from the first night we had him (July 1st, 2013). The second picture was from last night (August 28th, 2013).
At first the cat was not happy at all. He was constantly running away from him and bapping at him, etc. He still runs from him and chases him, and still swats at him, but they seem to get along a lot better now.
We named him Axel Toes. He was approximately 2 months old when we adopted him, so his estimated birth date is around the beginning of May.
He is in fact deaf, or at least mostly deaf. We have started teaching him sign language and he's responding quite well to it. He seems slightly afraid of Derek sometimes (Derek's the enforcer, whereas I'm mostly the cuddle buddy), and he's definitely a mama's boy. When he's in trouble, he hides between my legs, which a lot of the time doesn't do him any good because I'm not going to just let him get away with everything like he seems to think I will. lol!
At any rate, my point of this is that sometimes it seems like there's nothing good happening, when in fact, if given enough time, something good will generally come out of it. If I had not gotten the DUI and dealt with all the crap that came along with it. I would not have had to do community service, and I never would have found this amazing puppy and we would not have had this opportunity to go through such an amazing experience that will likely echo throughout the rest of our lives.
