CATHOLIC BROAD OVERDOSES

     Never let it be said that Annie is not impulsive. Because I am. Getting engaged at the age of 20; marrying my sweet pea at 21 when I was barely out of diapers; buying a house that needed serious repair and redoing; deciding to build, with Rick, our own house (aka Helen and Scott Nearing) on a rocky ridge in the hills of Western Mass. What were we thinking of? Stone and concrete walls? Please.
    My friends know me as a passionate, funny, intellectual, political, at times crazy Catholic dame, and this disaster illustrates that.  If you have followed my FB posts, you will remember that 2 years ago we went to the dispensary, and I proceeded to buy WAY too much weed for my chemo, 'cause guess who doesn't know the metric system? Aren't ounces and grams interchangeable?

     So I had a stash of stuff I don't use, because I am recovering well, and I prefer sitting on the deck and sipping Chardonnay with my honey than smoking dope. 
   But a week ago I was desperate. I had torn the muscles going over my right rotator cuff in early August lifting 10 lb. weights. Impulsive and stupid. So my shoulder and arm are always painful, without cessation, no matter the time of day or night. Always. Pain is debilitating. It makes you do stupid things.
    As I was painfully chopping veggies for supper, it occurred to me that I had a remedy in my pantry.  Hey, how about that edible I never used?  
    Now edibles are in a class of their own. Once, two years back, I took a 10 mg. edible when chemo was crushing me, and I basically thought I was dying. But did I remember this in my bones?
    I trotted into the pantry, read the label on the edible--50 mg.--knew that was probably way too much but thought its potency had gone down, and damn my arm hurt--and stuffed the whole thing in my foolish mouth.  Fifteen minutes later, at supper, I left the table and crashed onto our couch.  My stomach began an unfortunate drumbeat.  I whispered to Rick,
    "I think I made a mistake."
    By sheer willpower, I managed to stand, stagger, and climb the stairs where I spent the next 4 hours on my knees before the porcelain throne.

    Rick checked in from time to time with great sympathy, but there is nothing to be done when you overdose on an edible.  Finally, after praying the rosary for 4 hours and getting a pill that I was too ill to find before, which mitigated nausea, I crawled into bed fully clothed, with my makeup on.
  It has taken a full week for these damn effects to wear off. And people do this for fun??? From now on I am sticking to Tylenol and Ibuprophen, with the occasional glass of Sauvignon Blanc to ease the pain.  Lesson learned: it just goes to show that you can be as foolish at 72 as you were at 19. And don't tell me; Everything happens for a reason.  Because it ain't true, although it is a marvelous, enlightening, and hilarious book by Kate Bowler.