To Infinity and Beyond: The Recap, Part Four

After returning from the UK I found myself strangely unaccustomed to living at my parent’s house, and set off to seek my own independence. I was eventually presented with an opportunity to move into the basement apartment of my brother Jason’s new house. Vjera and I moved in, and it remained my home (or rather, in my recently busy schedule, the place-where-I-keep-my-things) until just recently, when a ministry opportunity found new, more suitable tenants for the apartment, and sent me and Vjera packing and back to the parent’s house. With the new tenants moving in on Wednesday, I find myself with a few short days to move a few large pieces of furniture.

The other ongoing event of the year has been the frailty of my health. In June, I found myself with some congestion, a headache, and a very swollen throat. The congestion went away, as did the headache and the throat pain, however, the swelling remained. I spent over $300 of my own money (yay independence, yay!) being tested for Strep and Mono and well as being pricked, bled, prodded, and ultimately told that they had no idea what is wrong with me. The swelling has persisted even to this day, and without pain, I have mostly adjusted to it, although I have found I wake up gasping every once in a while, for want of air because I only have about an inch (give or take) of breathing space in the back of my throat. Only recently has it begin to bother me again, as I was first, a couple weeks ago, taken so sick with flu-like symptoms that my work-aholic boss actually sent ME home and I had to use two vacation days making up for missed work. Barely after recovering from that, I find myself currently smitten with a cold of inconvenient proportions, with a terribly sore throat and congestion that I’ve found is quite inconvenient if you can’t breath very well normally anyway.

The other huge event of the year has been the death of my beloved Tercel, Cassidy, who, for over a year, served me faithfully (through at least one car accident) until her poor frail body became so sick that she sputtered and quaked quite terribly until I was forced to find myself, ever the worried parent, waiting impatiently with clenched hands for the news. To quote my lovely mechanic, “That is one sick little Tercel.” And yes, indeed she was. So I emptied my stuff and left her with my parents where she met a fate I can scarce express without choking back bitter tears. It was after the death of my beta fish Carlos (who suffered horribly upon my departure from my parent’s house). He had been sick upon me leaving so I decided to leave him at my parent’s, only feeding him when I was around, which turned out to be infrequent enough that he became so sick I had to, one day, put him out of his misery. It was shortly after his death that I, at my parent’s house, received the fateful news about Cassidy. “Do you know what happened to your car?” My father asked. “No,” I replied, my lower lip trembling, afraid to ask lest I find out the morbid truth. “Well, Hope” my father tactfully replied, “Your car has gone to the same place as your fish.” So farewell, dear Cassidy, you will be ever-so-sorely missed…

After the death of my car I was faced with something I had long put off, shopping for a new car. I had very diligently been saving money to buy myself my very own car. Because of the sudden death of my car, my lovely “mother” Sally loaned me cars until I was able to replace my own. After weeks of shopping and calling and even driving different vehicles, I discovered Buzz. A car I never thought I would be able to own, a black Infinity G20 with a sunroof, power windows, locks, steering, and even air conditions. Purring like a kitten, this luxury car found its way deep into my heart (and pocketbook). And the name Buzz? To quote my favorite Toy Story character (Buzz’s namesake), “To Infinity, and beyond!”