As a lot of you know, I've had a houseguest since Monday night: Kath. We met last year through the Denver blogosphere, if you will, and became fast friends.

Kath had a girlie kinda operation scheduled for this past Tuesday, and it worked out that she could stay in our guest room and recover. Aside from taking her to the hospital on Tuesday morning at 5:00 a.m. and picking her up at 11:00 that same MORNING (damn, they worked fast!), I've done nothing but refill her water and hand over a few Pepsi's when the mood struck. She's a trooper, getting this thing without any hitches whatsoever.

And this 'helping a friend' thing reminded me of a time in '95 when I had my tonsils out. I was 19. And ohmygod, I remember wishing I could just have a headectomy - my entire body hurt, but my throat was beyond repair. I couldn't swallow. I couldn't talk. I couldn't think straight. I just HURT.

And to boot, my dad had literally JUST died, so I was a walking mess. The wife of my (former) superintendant offered to have me over for lunch the day before my surgery. And I was feeling kind of bad, because I knew I wasn't going to be able to eat anything she'd made.

I showed up to her house, and she'd made US a lunch I could eat. We had JELLO for an appetizer, soup for a main course, and pudding and ice cream for dessert. We had hot tea to drink. She ate it right along with me. We called it "the last supper". I was being taken care of, and it felt great.

So, of course, I'd be here to help "Kaf" as my son calls her. Life is about paying it forward. Someone helped me, and I'm helping someone else. And if ever I need anything again, I know I've got a bunch of people ready to help me if they could.

It's all good.

Edit: And Kath is home now. The Bug was telling me just now to 'be quiet' because 'Kaf is sweeeeeeping!'. I haven't the heart yet to tell him she's not sweeeeeeping here.

Labels: kath b, life, rest and recovery