I'm A Bad Person

Really I am.

On July 6th, while we headed home early from the beach, my sister had back surgery. A discectomy. She went home that evening and according to my brother in law, she slept a lot the first couple days home. Knowing that day 2 after surgery is usually the worst, I planned to call her on Monday. Little did I know what kind of week I was going to have!

After spending the weekend getting ourselves organized and food in the house plus helping Pat's mom get everything done she needed and visiting Pat's dad in the hospital and taking Aidan to hockey, we were exhausted and ready for another vacation. But, as luck would have it, we had to go back to work.

Now, I know not many people I know work in the Insurance Industry--at least they don't admit it--but suffice it to say, Power Companies are not the only business that gets busy following large and catestrophic storms. Within the first two weeks, we had over 2,000 claims: food spoilage, wind damage, trees down, you name it. When a small company like mine has a large storm of this nature--derecho's, blizzards, nor'easters, hurricanes and even earthquakes--it's all hands on deck. Last week I not only had work to catch up from being out, work to be done that was new and I was helping out with claims: taking calls and notes for the initial contact, talking to people about coverage and telling them when/if a check had been mailed out. It's what we do. Because it was so busy, I was even taking calls during my lunch break. I didn't have a chance to look at my phone much and definitely not my email. Pretty much the only time I talked to Pat was when he would text me to call him and then I usually had to wait until lunch time because I was so busy.

 In the evening on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, Pat went to take his mom to see his dad at the hospital. I went to pick up Aidan and then tried to have a little fun with him, dinner and then we were off to bed, falling asleep almost as soon as well laid down. Pat didn't get home until 10:00 or later each of those nights. His dad did go home on Wednesday, so that was some relief.

On Thursday, Pat picked up Aidan and went to Shepherdstown to pick up his sister, Becky. They came to the house and got there about the time I got home from work and then we all set out to my in-laws to check on them, do things needing to be done and have dinner. I could see that Pat was tired and becoming easily agitated and so I was really worried about him. He was stressed and not getting enough rest.

Friday, we went to my in-laws again but this time picked up Becky and went to dinner and then to the Friday Night Live in Herndon. When we got back from that, I, not so nicely, informed my in-laws Pat wouldn't be there the next day. I feel really bad about how I did that, too. In all honesty, I was really thinking of my husband and trying to think of a way to get him to relax for a bit. I could have done that a better way, I know.

We did relax on Saturday. I had a moratorium of no family business outside of the three of us and I think it worked. We really had a nice quiet day and it seemed Pat was going to be better able to help his parents the next day because of the rest he had gotten.

Sunday we were back over at the in-laws after church and Pat did some things for them and then we all had lunch before taking Aidan to hockey. My sister-in-law and her husband came over after hockey so Pat could try to help them with something and I got us all dinner before which Pat was called in to work.

And then it was Monday again. And I hadn't called my sister even once the entire week.

There is no escaping it. I am a bad person.