Every thing I do nowadays is by my choice.

Now that I’m semi-retired, I’ve earned that. Giving myself a schedule and not having corporate telling me my schedule or how my personal life can fit into that.

This particular situation has been bugging me since mid May…

The crazy cork lady wanted to go out to eat with me somewhere. I knew sometime in May, she was going to Hawaii for her 40th wedding anniversary. I thought she would be too busy to work dinner in so I suggested we’d wait until she got back. Why squeeze one more thing in when under a time crunch?

Well, she worked it in. As I got my cash out to pay my share of the bill, she said she got this because she wanted to know if I could watch their cat while they were gone.

Now, ordinarily, this wouldn’t be an issue. She’s two blocks away, no big deal. But watching the cat, also now involved the litter box, feeding the wild birds, watering outside plants both in the back and front.

I was caught off guard. I had no plan B, couldn’t even think of my choice on how to respond. Maybe I would have ordered something higher in price had I known she was paying for dinner! My share was only $30… but those were my food choices because I thought I was paying. I felt like I was duped… mislead… taken advantage of.

And to top it all off, her sister-in-law comes over every day, too. So why do you need me again? I also have to make plans for my special-needs daughter while I take care of business because the house is not “Marlies-proofed.”

I know cork lady would be okay with me bringing her into the house, but that might just result in me having more work to do. I’d give cork lady 24 hours to keep an eye on Marlies, and maybe, just maybe, she’d understand.

So, I can’t – or, rather don’t want to – house sit anymore. My choice.

It puts me on a temporary schedule that I didn’t ask for, and it’s for 10 whole days… not two days…. Not one day… my choice.

I have a ton of work to keep me busy. Hopefully, with Marlies returning to the day program… she’ll be exhausted and I can nap.

I didn’t have a choice when I lost Steve. That was beyond my control. There are too many things in life that happen without having any say in the matter. So from now on, I’m making as many choices as I can, and I’m going to stand firm in those choices and not back down. Because you only get to make so many choices in life.