Wow, it's a good thing I don't blog for a living. I would be dead broke.
Anyway, since I last wrote, my life has taken all sorts of unexpected turns.
First off, I no longer live in England.
I love living in England and it was perhaps the coolest experience thus far in my life, but, unfortunately, it had to be cut short.
At the beginning of July, I was running late and ended up not eating for most of the day and by mid-day was suffering from cold sweats, shaking and indescribable stomach pain.
This had happened to me once before the previous fall and I was basically incapacitated for a week. It was really bad and happening again, but after I ate something, I felt a bit better.
Now, just a few days prior to this horrible pain, I was stressing. I was struggling big time financially and was finding really hard to get by on part time wages living in perhaps one of the most expensive cities in the world. I had the impression that what needed to be done was that at the end of the summer I was going to go home to get back on my feet financially.
It just became a question "when" rather than "if".
The following day, the doubled-over stomach pain hit.
So I made the decision to at the end of July, I would come home to figure out what was wrong with me since I'd been having stomach problems intermittently since one really stressful semester at BYU-I.
After the decision was made, I started feeling better, but when I was reconsidering a few days prior to my departure, I had perhaps the most vicious stomach pain attack and was thoroughly reassured of my decision. The nine hour flight back was not the most comfortable flight I had. There was a LOT of medication involved.
Anyway, I returned to Canada and after a couple of days recuperating, I went to the doctor to try and get all this figured out. A couple of days and two blood tests later, I was admitted in to the hospital for almost a week as a newly diagnosed Type 2 Diabetic.
Now, I'm pretty sure the diabetes was not the cause of the stomach pain, but it was a contributing factor and I've been working really hard to get that situation under control and so far, so good.
So since my discharge from the hospital, I have been working really hard for my dad. I started out as a delivery driver for his oilfield lubricant company and have since worked my way up to Acting Manager.
Pretty impressive, right?
Well not really, since the promotion to manager came out of desperation since my parents were moving to Hawaii for several months and Dad needed someone to take care of the mean time.
So, pretty much since the beginning of November, I have been running the company and managing Dad's rental properties. I'm also house-sitting for my parents by myself in the big old house I grew up in, that's several miles out of town.
Sometimes I wonder how long it would take someone to find my body should something happen to me, but that has yet to become an actual issue, and, knock on wood, shouldn't be one.
Anyway that's an official update on my life. I do feel like I'm going a bit crazy being by myself in this big old house, but Dad says if I recognized that I might be going crazy, I'm not. So when I stop seeing the crazy, someone come get me :)
I miss England and I really miss my friends, but I've made some good connections here. This is the longest I've lived in Canada since high school, so it's been an adventure but a good one.
And there are many great adventures on the horizon.