Out of my Head

It's been a busy week, the Sun Times article did not hurt one bit, and tours are heating up and everyone else starts heating up and there are meetings and lunches and tours and yesterday I had 3 tours in one day! It was crazy, considering the last one was a Riverwalk Tour (my first! YAY! I already LOVE this tour) at 9PM!

But two things have happened in the past few days to take me out of my head:

1. Blue Valentine.
Have you all seen this yet? Ryan Gosling was really close to being my Hollywood boyfriend, really close - so I figured I needed to see this. Someone described it as haunting, which it most definitely is. And although it is nothing like my relationship with my husband, as any good movie will do, it has echoes, big ole nasty, cold, mean echos. I saw a lot of myself in that movie and it hurt. Truly did. A big old mirror was held up to my face and honestly, scared me a bit.

2. One of the tours I did yesterday was for a nice woman who called and told me her husband was in a wheelchair and they lived almost on the pedway and were interested in learning it. I know parts of the pedway are wheelchair accessible, but I thought it a good idea to learn if the whole thing really is. So after my regular tour I went to their building and we decided to do some exploring together, not an actual tour, just figuring this thing out.

Well, not only was my tour guest in a wheelchair, but he has MS and is completely paralyzed from his neck down. His wife was patient, smiling, and kind. As we started to move through, I saw so clearly how difficult this life is. Doors are too small, elevators are too small, sure you can get a wheelchair through this door, but it's not automatic, so the wife has to handle the door, the wheelchair, the motorization of the chair and try and thread the needle to get him through the door all on her own.

She was so graceful, still learning a bit it seemed like, but she never once got frustrated with him, the chair, or me. Her husband smiled at her, obviously frustrated at times, her too...but it never came out.

We stopped in Block 37 and she bought me a cream puff and we all 3 sat and watched the world go by.

And when it was time to go, I stood up on my own two feet and walked to the train, pushing doors open with ease, running down stairs to catch the train, walking my dog and talked to my healthy (if not INCREDIBLY tired husband) and watched some TV.

We are lucky folks.

Gratitude, gratitude, gratitude.