Will's Baptism

It has taken me a while to get to writing about Will's baptism. January 20 was the date, held at St. Jude's church in Cedar Rapids after the 11 a.m. Mass. Melissa waited until after Mass to dress Will in his white knit outfit. He looks so good in white (no bias there, of course). The godparents were Melissa's good friend Jill King (now Versteeg) and Mark's brother Matt Wehr, the maid of honor and best man from Melissa and Mark's wedding. There were two other babies being baptized also, which disappointed Melissa a little because she wanted this to be a special occasion focused on Will. Of the three babies, Will had the most traditional name, William James. He was fascinated, I think, by most of the ceremony, crying only a very little towards the end--probably because he was getting hungry. Will loves his bath, so having water poured over his head was no problem. The priest got a little heavy-handed with the holy chrism, smearing it all over Will's head. A couple of us joked that maybe it would cure Will's "cradle cap" dry skin problem.

Afterwards, our group went back to the house for a very nice luncheon together. Besides Melissa, Mark, Will, and me, there were Mark's parents Jim and Marna, Melissa's Dad Jim and Peggy, Jill and her husband Todd, Matt, and Mark's sister Michelle. Although my mother and sister would have liked to be there, the weather and my Mom's health were issues. That weekend, Cedar Rapids had actual temperatures below zero and a high on that Sunday of only 4 degrees. Marie had decided well before the date that Cedar Rapids in January was likely to be too cold for her liking and, moreso, too hard on our mother. Having to change planes at O'Hare is always anybody's guess as to whether or not there will be a jetway to and from the planes--and my Mom would never be able to handle those tiny steps of a regional jet nor be able to walk any distance within the airport. Melissa had Todd record the baptism, so Great-Grandma and Great Aunt Marie (she always knew she was a "great" aunt) and family can at least watch a DVD of the event.

Normally, I would have slipped right into the role of hostess at the house and been the clean-up person, but this time, others had to get the food out and do the cleaning afterwards. On Saturday evening while getting up from playing with Will on the floor, I reached to pick him up and twisted the wrong way. I should have immediately put ice on my back and quit doing things for the rest of the night, but there were still things to be done to be ready for the luncheon, so I kept at them. Big mistake. During the night I was in horrendous pain, and I knew I had a severe muscle spasm in the same spot as when I hurt my back taking care of Ed. I was in pain, despite lots of Advil and alternating ice and heat, all day and night Sunday and Monday. On Tuesday, Melissa dropped me off at the airport at 8 a.m., and I suffered my way through the flying. Of course, that happened to be the day that O'Hare shut down for several hours--the weather was cold but sunny and no one could tell me the reason for the shut down. That meant my flight out of Cedar Rapids was cancelled, the next flight I was on sat on the runway for two hours, my connection to Columbus was nowhere to be found on the board at O'Hare, and the next flight I was put on was delayed for 5 hours. I finally pulled into my garage at exactly midnight. Sitting on those planes and having to walk back and forth from B concourse to C concourse at O'Hare a couple of times because of gate changes was not exactly what my back needed, to say the least. Pity the people who had to sit near me; they were treated to the menthol smell of Icy Hot that I was rubbing on my back every hour (yes, it does come in a small enough tube that is permitted to be carried onboard a plane).

My back is partly the reason I haven't written in the blog. Sitting at the computer--in fact sitting anywhere--has not been the most comfortable position for me since I got back home. It has taken over a week to get that muscle spasm worked out. It wasn't as severe as when I hurt myself in May, but it still is giving me a little bit of a problem. Of course, having this happen is one of those triggers that bring back painful memories of what Ed was going through at the time. I haven't exactly been the cheeriest person these days. I haven't had to ask anybody to come help me because of my back, but the prospect looms that something could happen to me when I would need help, and it scares me to think I might be in a situation where I can't get to a phone. Guess I need to pay more attention to those Medic Alert ads.

So I'm having many roller coaster days lately, sometimes finding things to smile about and then not so much. I'm back to grading SAT essays until February 12, so that will keep me occupied for a while. With the cold weather keeping people indoors and my neighbors the Morgans being gone for January and February to a warmer climate, I don't have a whole lot of human, face-to-face contact right now. That really emphasizes the feelings of loneliness and missing Ed so much. Once again, thank goodness for the weekly support group.