Life is never dull (aka "How my time in Vietnam prepared me to live in the U.S.")

I am a flexible person.  I am a busy person.  I am a tolerant person.

I am a person who wants a break.

Life is never dull, that is for sure.  When thinking about what to title this blog post I had several different ideas.  I almost chose Why the Universe does not want me to write academically, but thought that would be too simplistic.  Yet it does seem that way at times.  For the past year and a half or so, every time I work hard so that I can set aside time to complete academic writing by a self-imposed deadline, something happens.  Something major.  Something like an illness, a burglary, a death, a car accident, or some similarly horrific crisis that usually impacts life in a momentous way.  This weekend was like that.

Sometimes I think that my dissertation could have been finished six months or a year earlier if I had been able to devote all of my time and energy to it.  That did not happen.  Our house was burglarized as I was conducting research, my grandmother was diagnosed (and eventually died from) end-stage lung cancer, Bestie #2 was in a bad car accident, and there were numerous illnesses, a major divorce, and several other life-altering events all in the course of about 18 months.  And while the events themselves are distressing, the fact that they keep happening when I am trying to be productive, the fact that I am derailed frequently, is starting to amuse me.  I am sure that there is a lesson in here somewhere, I'm just not sure what it is yet.

I've been working on an article for an academic journal for a while.  A long while.  And each time I get close to the end, something happens and I allow myself to be distracted.  This weekend I hoped to put all of that behind me and finally finish the work so that I could stop thinking about it.  I was close -- so close! -- and then Life struck again.  The pipe that brings water into our house, the one that connects to the water heater, broke underneath the cement in the garage.  At least that's what we think happened.  We'll know for sure in the morning when a plumber comes out and inspects.  And so Life throws another curve ball and we attempt to hit it out of the park.

There are several things for which I am thankful this weekend:
 1) Honey's amazing sense of hearing, which caused the "I wonder why there's water running at midnight" musing that led to the discovery of a garage on its way to being flooded.

2) Bestie #2 living only 1.5 miles away and being willing to have us under her feet for most of the day -- after all, it's really hard to stay in a house when there is no running water.

3) Our trip to Vietnam a few years ago -- and life experiences before that -- that taught us how to shower in a bucket, wash clothes in a bucket, and all that other fun stuff that goes along with no running water.  Thankfully, right now we haven't come to that (see point #2 for the reason why!).

4) A flexible job that allows for me to say "I'm working from home today because I need to wait for the plumber."  I actually do have to run a training in the afternoon, but at least I can be home in the morning and hopefully by the time noon hits (please God, before that!) I'll have an idea of what we're facing.

Now my fingers, toes, legs, and everything else are crossed hoping that insurance will cover this if the plumber needs to rip up the concrete in the garage to replace the broken pipe.  Actually, I keep hoping that somehow we're wrong and it will be an easy fix, but Honey is very handy and sadly pretty sure that all signs point to our initial diagnosis.  And so we wait for the big day, tomorrow.  Don't worry, Life, I can take it.